Guest Speakers and Investigation of Lifestyling - Case Study Example

Guest Speakers and Analysis of Lifestyling Contents Part A: Synopsis of Two Guest Speaker Lectures 1 Introduction 1 Capital Insight- February 9, 2015 2 John Lewis Partnership – March 9, 2015 3 Part B: Case Study Report (Analysis of Lifestyling Case Study) 4 Introduction 4 Discussion 5 PESTLE and SWOT Analysis 5 Problems and Challenges 5 Strength and Opportunities 6 Suggested Actions and Contributions of HRM 8 Talent Management and Employee Retention 8 Reward Strategy 9 Assessment and Measuring Proposals 9 Recommendations 10 Conclusion 11 Bibliography 11 Annabel, H &Deanne, N (2008) Ethical and Despotic leadership, relationships with leaders’ social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates’ optimism: A multi method study: The Leadership Quarterly. Vol. 19(3), pp.297 – 311 12 15 Part A: Synopsis of Two Guest Speaker Lectures Introduction This section contains a succinct synopsis of lectures offered by guest speakers from Capital Insight, a HR Consultancy and the John Lewis Partnership. Capital Insight offers services relative to HR consultancy in the public and private sectors on the United Kingdom. The consultancy has a small group of professional HR consultants working as direct employees for the corporation’s clients (Capital Insight, 2015). On the other hand, unlike most partnerships, the John Lewis Partnership has distinctive HR structure and management because it is employee-owned and among the main aims is guaranteeing happiness for all the members (John Lewis Partnership, 2015). Capital Insight- February 9, 2015 Given Capital Insight’s reputation, the consultancy has been the provider of HR solutions for corporations through excellent ideas on retained contracts, interim support, outsourced services, training design and delivery among other significant areas focusing on personnel management. Moreover, Capital Insight advocates for the Soft and Hard Models of HRM. Despite being a well-established company in the UK, Capital Insight has worked even with small firms providing manageable services at low costs (Capital Insight, 2015). I think the experience of more than two decades has made it easy for the company to understand the UK market and corporations hence their strong reputation and credibility. This is the reason why, unlike other consultancy agencies, Capital Insight can provide services to companies and allow on-going monthly payments. Capital Insight’s persistence on speed, quality and expertise as the main values of performance and achievements makes the provision of the HR services very efficient. However, the culture is the key aspect to the professionals guaranteeing their clients interim support despite the limitations of time (Capital Insight, 2015). Helping the HR departments for large corporations such as Virgin, Siemens or Fins-bury Food Group reflects on the powerful reputation of Capital Insight, which shows that the amount of attention given to reputation determines a company’s success and can become an issue too. I believe Capital Insight’s input in developing standard and strong relationships with the clients facilitates their ability to offer specific services most consultancy agencies overlook such as conflict management. This two-way relationship is an attribute of the consultancy’s Soft HRM model depicts the consultancy’s excellence on service ethos, the comprehensive understanding of specific needs and delivery of measurable value (Capital Insight, 2015). Capital Insight has HR experts providing services even in voluntary sectors, mostly because of the consultancy’s size that allows forms a firm foundation for clients to acquire outsourcing services in a wider scope. In addition, I think that this aspect makes it possible for Capital Insight to offer the one-to-one support. Despite, the prestige and quality solutions provided by the consultancy, the HR professionals definitely face adverse challenges, especially with the wide scope of services and the consistency of meeting exact requirements. Among the cons experienced by HR-consultancies are amount of travel, complete accountability and hours. John Lewis Partnership – March 9, 2015 The John Lewis Partnership’s provision of worthwhile and satisfying employment forms a firm basis for achieving this and ensuring all the members focus on adding values to the organization (John Lewis Partnership, 2015). I think the all-members participation in the running of the business policy facilitates the smooth running and influence of the distinctive personnel structure and management. Similar to sharing the profits, all members contribute to the success of the partnership through ideas and exploiting the urge to uphold their ends of the bargaining by taking the predestined responsibility (John Lewis Partnership, 2015). The John Lewis Partnership’s ‘Three Commitments’ are the best reflection of their success in all aspects and exploitation of the Hard model of HRM, but mostly on the influential attribute of the HR structure and management (John Lewis Partnership, 2015). Taking responsibility of the business success, building relationships powered by organizational principles and creating real influence of member’s own working lives covers most of the essential elements significant in personnel management in partnerships and normal running of organizations. Obviously, working with over 90,000 partners requires excellent organization and management hence very few strategies can make such partnerships work (John Lewis Partnership, 2015). However, the John Lewis Partnership insists on practices as a key reflection of their principle with all members maintaining honesty, respect and encouraging each. The most probable element of the success based on a personal perspective, is the equality and elimination of other external attributes used to define members in other platforms. This eases the idea of sharing profits and benefits or even the consideration of every member’s idea or theory as opposed to most partnerships where acquisition or sharing profits and other gains has the amount of capital contributed as the determinant. The casual but excellent approach by the JL Partnership facilitates all the benefits, not only the profits or financial gains but also the outcomes from the standard personnel structure and management such as development and ability to adapt to changes or diversities by the organization. Currently, JL Partnership is the largest department store retailer and third largest private company in the UK because instead of working to outdo each other the partners focus on success and ways they can contribute to the company without breaking any of its principles or commitments. John Lewis made various changes in the personnel management such as encouraging the partners to balance work and life priorities, deliver right experience for customers and use quality, value and style to differentiate them from the competition Conclusion From a personal perspective, both cases have impressive HR management and development standards. Capital Insight’s trust by clients is an outright depiction of their ability to overcome these challenges by tailoring and designing specific services for every client. An element most organizations should adopt. On the other hand, I believe these changes made the JL Partnership to develop as quickly as it did and develop a strong personnel structure and management governing through the proposed leadership behaviors. Contents Part A: Synopsis of Two Guest Speaker Lectures 1 Introduction 1 Capital Insight- February 9, 2015 2 John Lewis Partnership – March 9, 2015 3 Part B: Case Study Report (Analysis of Lifestyling Case Study) 5 Introduction 5 Discussion 5 PESTLE and SWOT Analysis 5 Problems and Challenges 5 Strength and Opportunities 7 Suggested Actions and Contributions of HRM 8 Talent Management and Employee Retention 8 Reward Strategy 9 Assessment and Measuring Proposals 9 Recommendations 11 Conclusion 11 Bibliography 11 Annabel, H &Deanne, N (2008) Ethical and Despotic leadership, relationships with leaders’ social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates’ optimism: A multi method study: The Leadership Quarterly. Vol. 19(3), pp.297 – 311 12 15 Part B: Case Study Report (Analysis of Lifestyling Case Study) Introduction Lifestyling is a successful United Kingdom based corporation dealing with a chain of retail department stores in England and Wales. Currently, the headquarters of Lifestyling are in Cardiff where the founder opened the first store but the company has 19 stores in different cities and towns throughout England and Wales. Lifestyling has been in business for over 15 years managing to make vast developments in terms of reputation and organizational growth. The corporation’s main values are production of high quality products, provision of excellent services and selling at reasonable prices in all retail department stores. However, for the past three years, some of the stores in specific locations have been experiencing a decrease in the profits due to environmental and economic factors such as global and local downturns. This is among the major issues affecting the stature of Lifestyling among other aspects such as pressure from competitors. The corporation’s management is evaluating business strategies as the basis of coming up with excellent solutions for these issues. This first part of this case study report identifies and evaluates the problems, challenges, strengths and opportunities of Lifestyling as summary of the PESTLE and SWOT analysis. The second part contains suggested actions and contributions of the HRM as part of the solutions required to counter the experienced problems and challenges. Discussion PESTLE and SWOT Analysis Problems and Challenges The external business environment often has factors that a business does not have control. Instead, businesses need to adapt to those conditions and devise strategies that can help them perform effectively in their presence (Arthur, 2012). Depending on how the business responds to its external environment, it can be a source of both the threats and opportunities as shown by Lifestyling’s current stature. a) Competitive analysis The retail department stores’ market has been one of the most competitive in the recent past, even other key players in the market such as Selfridges and Mark & Spencer. The company now faces increased competition from related businesses that offer similar products (Fergus, 2010). Lifestyling currently competes in terms of diversity, quality, reputation and price for its products aiming to reach the standards of leading department stores in Britain such as Debenhams or Fenwick of Bond Street that dominate the high street. b) Global changes in customer preferences Globally, customer’s preference with respect to their products has been changing significantly. Most consumers have tended to prefer using products from different retailer. In this case, Lifestyling suffers from a major blow because it has major dwelt in the manufacture and selling of specific products. c) The economic environment The environment has been changing frequently in Britain. This environment is highly unpredictable and affects the company in most of its business operations. Economic recession has affected the company vastly though it has not led to its collapse like other companies (McKitrick, 2011). The economic environment has been a major source of threat to the company, something that it hopes to manage through its research and development processes. d) Technological environment In many businesses, the technological environment is very volatile. This is because; the technologies that people and businesses use become obsolete quite fast because of the developments in science and technology. This has been a great threat for Lifestyling because it has always responded by creating products that are in line with changes and development in consumer technologies. e) The legal and regulatory environment factors The legal environment has been critical in the development of policies and regulations for the use of different technologies in the business environment. The company has had to abide by the regulations stipulated in the two countries over the manufacture and designing of products, which are user friendly. The company makes technologies that are environmental friendly, giving consumers the proper utility from their use and preference. Strength and Opportunities a) Business Strategy With regard to strategy, the company relies on various approaches in its market entry requirements. The company has managed to put up a team that conducts research and development in order realize the changing trends and customer preferences, which are essential in the manufacture of its products. Lifestyling can exploit the practices incorporated in the overall business strategy to understand the economic market better as a tactic of overcoming threats that emanate from the growing demand for diversified products. Based on Dyer and Holder’s (1988) Strategic Human Resource management theory, this can be a chance to mend the company’s reputation in the market and make significant developments relative to the opportunities from global trends (Adeoye, 2012 &Kessler, 2013). b) Leadership Lifestyling has grown tremendously in the past 15 years because of the sound management systems that practice efficiency and responsiveness to the needs of workers (Elkington, 2004). Its human resource managers have had an effective comprehension of the needs of kits workers and have articulated them effectively to reduce staff turnover and enhance their competitiveness (Fullan, 2002). Definitely, intense competition is a threat but Lifestyling can make utilize the opportunity of expanding services and enterprise solutions businesses to make a mark in other markets. c) Culture Lifestyling has managed to put across an organizational culture that enhances innovation and inventions. This way, it has motivated its clients to be creative thinkers and make products that offer solutions to the diverse needs of clients who are widely spread in many parts of the world (Bayonde, 2012). This has made the company sell different types of products that respond to the needs and challenges of their consumers i.e. sports only department store. However, the decline in profit margin of products in certain locations is a threat this initiative and the company production department should minimize it. d) Direct selling model In its marketing services, Lifestyling does not often sell its products through the big-box retail outlets like those of Liberty or House of Fraser. Instead, it sells them directly its consumers and other enterprises. In this approach, they always manage to keep all the thin profit margins to themselves (Paul 2013). Relative to Torrington and Hall’s (1988) Vertical Integration theory, the company management should also consider obtaining more patents through acquisitions; it is an opportunity they should maximize in the area even if there is a lot of contention with the current practices (Kessler, 2013). Suggested Actions and Contributions of HRM Talent Management and Employee Retention Lifestyling management could consider concrete talent management programs form the foundation for talent attraction and retention. Relatively, the control of talent and retaining employees would be essential to the development and triumph of Lifestyling; moreover, the talent initiatives should go hand in hand with engagement and reward strategies, as part of organizational culture (Allen, 2010). Essentially, this is the best way of creating a better understanding of employees and their different traits making it easy to retain and nurture talent; also, it would reduce relentless turnover that affects the performance, self-esteem and general sustainability of an organization (CIPD, 2015). Below is a proposal of a talent development strategy Lifestyling’s management can implement to retain talent in the organization and focus on generic leadership competencies: Firstly, by initiating career triangulation and individual classifying approaches that aim at ensuring the employees involve in the overall organization plan as much as possible (CIPD, 2014). This entails asking the staff quizzes concerning attractive traits of the organization, motivation and engagement factors; resultantly, the results of this questions act as a basis for the development (Lipman, 2014). It will assist in planning, setting concrete objective and definitely, give the necessary support; certainly, it goes hand in hand with Kay’s (1998) HRM theory advocating for the exploitation of distinctive capabilities (Kessler, 2013). Secondly, the management leaders should undergo appraisal to ensure they are conversant with talent retention requirements (Rojas, 2014). Commonly, managers interact with the employees often and their attitudes determine how the staffs perceive the organization as a whole. Employee turnover results from the working conditions created by the management. This creates the urge for the leadership team to ensure that the relationship between the managers and employees is consistent making communication effective (CIPD, 2015). Reward Strategy The next step is on the recognition of worthy performance especially when employees meet the set objectives or surpass everybody’s expectations (Brown, 2014). This creates an atmosphere of appreciation and gratitude unlike when management overlooks efforts and the staffs feel ignored hence demoralization. The form of recognition does not necessarily have to be about financial or monetary rewards, it can entail many rational actions (White, 2014). Different employees have dissimilar interests and knowing personal motivating aspects gives the organization on the best rewards to offer their employees. Generally, this will facilitate the retention of the employees making them feel as essential parts of the organization too (Lawler, 1993). Relatively, through the organization, HR managers should give intrinsic rewards through evocative tasks, including them in decision-making, providing opportunities for employees to utilize their talent and reward themselves. This forms the basis of the reward system through the sense of expression and freedom (Jenkins 2014). The extrinsic form of motivation mostly involves material rewards that the management has utter control over and makes the decision on what to offer and the time. These rewards entail different financial gains such as increased salary, bonuses or paid vacations; additionally, they can also involve acquiring a bigger office, public gratitude, presents or promotions (CIPD, 2015). Assessment and Measuring Proposals Significantly, evaluation of Lifestyling could give a lot of useful information concerning the performance and other aspects that affect it. However, the assessment is only efficient if there are separate evaluations of organizations plans and strategies; naturally, the evaluation systems focus on the organization primarily but dividing it into different units gives more results (Annabel &Deanne, 2008). The idea behind evaluation and measurement is coming up with a system that familiarizes, subsists, executes and empowers, but most organizations have a hard time implementing the best strategy for the culture and other variations (CIPD, 2014). Assertively, the diagnostic model below is the best evaluation system for the talent retention and reward system proposals; essentially, the process revolves around collecting data on performance, classifying the different factors (good and bad) and coming up with better performance strategies (White, 2014). The Donald Kirkpatrick learning and training evaluation model’s last review was in 1994 and the four levels put out would work best for the assessment of different units (Michelle 2011). The levels are: a) Reaction The first part of the evaluation and measurement will base on assessing how the management team reacts to the proposed plans in form of reviews, discussions and personal theories. The reaction aspect is significant being the only way of establishing whether the proposals meet the management’s objectives, fits the organization’s culture and parts left out; moreover, it creates an insight for any improvements or additions. b) Learning The second level involves assessing the knowledge of the management and the employees after implementing the proposal. An increase is the result that most people look for in this step; moreover, the knowledge has to go hand-in-hand with the objectives of the organization in that particular topic (Chapman 2014). c) Behavior This level involves the identification of any behavior changes under the basis of the new implementations. The question is how the proposed strategies are affecting the behavior of the employees and the managers (Watkins, 2012). Changes might mean that they were either effectual or a complete failure. If they are no changes, it means that either the management has challenges or the employees are not in on the implementation (Brown, 2014). d) Results This level does not entail a lot of activity as it involves combining the information gathered from other levels, analyzing it critically and evaluating the effectiveness of the process, relative to the organization’s comprehensive objectives (Wendy 2009). Recommendations Definitely, future research and consistency in implementing such suggestions would facilitate Lifestyling meeting its objectives with a guarantee the strategy is effective as marked by the alterations and developments on awareness, abilities and assertiveness; moreover, a critical assessment would improve the approach of the challenge in the future (Annabel &Deanne, 2008). However, failure to make such adjustments and alterations could result to an increase in the staff turnover, inefficiency of the HR structure and the downfall of Lifestyling, which would begin with the department stores in the most affected locations in Wales and England (Elkington, 2004). Conclusion Lifestyling personnel structure and management stature is sub-standard and inefficient as depicted by recent surveys and evaluations (Yuki, 2012). However, the key aspects Lifestyling needs to observe are performance management and development as the chief factors that express the environmental, social and economic aspects that attain sustainability of a company (Michelson, 2012). In the recent past, failure of some major companies has been because one of these factors i.e. Research in Motion, Blackberry manufacturer, could not keep up with the competition due to the poor quality and diversity of products. On the other hand, leading international companies such as John Lewis Partnership have all the above factors incorporated in their business plans as ways of giving extended attention towards personnel structure and management (John Lewis Partnership, 2015). Bibliography Adeoye, A. 2012, ‘Impacts of External Business Environment on Organizational Performance’: British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, vol. 6, no.2, pp. 194-201 Allen, D. 2010, ‘Retaining Talent- Investing in the Future of HR’: SHRM Foundations, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.shrm.org/about/foundation/research/documents/retaining%20talent-%20final.pdf Annabel, H &Deanne, N (2008) Ethical and Despotic leadership, relationships with leaders’ social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates’ optimism: A multi method study: The Leadership Quarterly. Vol. 19(3), pp.297 – 311 Bayonde, O. 2012, ‘Strategic Environmental Scanning and Organization Performance in a Competitive Business Environment’: College of Management and Social Sciences, Osun State University, vol.64, no.1, pp.24-34 Brown, D. 2014, ‘Successful Employee Reward Systems’: Small Business, Chron, viewed 29 April 2015, http://work.chron.com/successful-employee-reward-systems-12291.html Capital Insight, 2015, ‘Strategic HR Solutions’: HR Services, Capital Insight, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.insight-hr.co.uk/ Capital Insight, 2015, ‘Doing Things in a Different Way’: About Us, Capital Insight, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.insight-hr.co.uk/ Chapman, A. 2014, ‘Kirkpatrick’s Learning and Training Evaluation Theory’: Human Resources, Business Balls, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.businessballs.com/kirkpatricklearningevaluationmodel.htm CIPD, 2014, ‘Strategic Reward and Total Reward’: CIPD, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/strategic-reward-total-reward.aspx CIPD, 2015, ‘Reward Strategy- How to Develop a Reward Strategy’: CIPD, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/practical-tools/reward-strategy.aspx CIPD, 2015, ‘Reward and Diversity- Good Practice Guide to Recognizing Diversity through Reward’: CIPD, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/practical-tools/reward-diversity.aspx Elkington, J (2004) Towards the Sustainable Corporation- Win-Win-Win Business Strategies for Sustainable Development: California Management Review, 36 (2): 90–100 Fergus, M. 2010, ‘Understanding the External Environment’: Certified Public Accountants, vol. 18, pp. 105–106 Fullan, M. 2002, ‘Leadership and Sustainability’: Principal Leadership, vol.3, no.4, pp.1-9, http://www.michaelfullan.ca/media/13396047460.pdf Jenkins, A. 2014, ‘About Employee Motivation and Reward Systems’: Small Business, Chron, viewed 29 April 2015, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/employee-motivation-reward-systems-15978.html John Lewis Partnership, 2015, ‘John Lewis Products and Services’: Home, John Lewis Partnership, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/ John Lewis Partnership, 2015, ‘Partnership Spirit’: About Us, John Lewis Partnership, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/about.html Kessler, J. 2013, ‘Human Resource Management Theories’: University of London, vol.3, no.2, pp.63-180 Lawler, E. 1993, ‘Effective Reward Systems’: Centre of Effective Organizations, viewed 29 April 2015, http://ceo.usc.edu/pdf/G935225.pdf Lipman, V. 2014, ‘How Companies Can Better Engage Critical Skill Talent’: Talent Management, Forbes, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2014/03/28/study-explores-how-companies-can-better-engage-critical-skill-talent/ McKitrick, R. 2011, ‘Economic Analysis of Environmental Policy’, Toronto Ont: U of Toronto Michelle, J. 2011, ‘Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Training Evaluation Model’: Mind Tools, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/kirkpatrick.htm Michelson, B. 2012, ‘HR Leadership and Power Base Development’: Journal of Leadership and Organization Development, vol.3, no.2, pp.193-199, http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au-24/michelson.pdf Paul, W. 2013, ‘Introduction to Business and Its Environments’: Blackwell Bookshop, United Kingdom, viewed on 29 April 2015, from https://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/extracts/9780199203055_wetherly.pdf Rojas, K. 2014, ‘Evaluating the Performance of an Organization’: Better Evaluation, viewed 29 April 2015, http://betterevaluation.org/theme/organizational_performance Wendy, K. 2009, ‘The Kirkpatrick Model’: Kirkpatrick Partners, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.kirkpatrickpartners.com/OurPhilosophy/TheKirkpatrickModel/tabid/302/Default.aspx White, T. 2014, ‘How to Retain Top Talent’: Seattle Business, viewed 29 April 2015, http://www.seattlebusinessmag.com/business-corners/how-retain-top-talent Watkins, M. 2012, ‘How Managers Become Leaders’: Career Planning, Harvard Business Review, viewed 29 April 2015, https://hbr.org/2012/06/how-managers-become-leaders Yuki, G. 2012, ‘Leadership in Organizations’, 8 ed.: Prentice Hall Publishers, Albany. Appendices PESTLE ANALYSIS OF LIFESTYLING Political i National and local government and regulations on the development of technologies (user-friendly) Economic i Recession (Global and Local) ii Increased competition iii Vast changes in local economies Social and Demographic i Changes in customer preferences in different locations Technological i Increased developments and changes in chain store retailing ii Some of the products and ideas i.e. technological become obsolete very fast Legal i. Regulations stipulated in Wales and England Environmental i. Frequent economic alterations ii. Unpredictable local environments SWOT ANALYSIS OF LIFESTYLING Strengths i. Successful Brand name ii. Product customization iii. Environmental record iv. Competency in mergers and acquisitions v. Direct selling business model vi. Effective leadership vii. Strategic capabilities Weaknesses i. Commodity products ii. Poor customer services iii. Low investments in R&D iv. Weak patents portfolio v. Too few retail locations vi. Low differentiation vii. Processes and systems viii. Organizational culture Opportunities i. Expand services and enterprise solutions businesses ii. Obtain more patents through acquisitions iii. Strengthen their presence in emerging markets iv. Diversification v. Innovations vi. Global trends vii. Technological factors Threats i. Growing demand for diversity products and services from department stores retailers ii. Slowing growth rate of the retail market iii. Intense competition iv. Economic environment v. Legal and regulatory factors vi. Environmental factors Read More