Management Functions and Advantages of Employee Diversity - Case Study Example

Management Case Study: Luis Vuitton What evidence of the four management functions do you identify here? On the first function, planning, Luis Vuitton decided to capitalize on the success of its Murakami line after canvassing store managers and finding that the customers were most interested in the murakami shoulder bag (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). For the organization function, they assigned the task to a marketing department’s workshop where it was prototyped and sent to the executives for approval. Evidence of the directing function is that they have employee groups of twenty to thirty whom they encourage to suggest improvements. The company also aims to make its employees autonomous and multi-skilled by briefing them on the product’s details. Evidence of the controlling function lies in the decision to keep production in France, where they were more satisfied with quality control. By advising their employees on the product’s requirements, they employees are measured by how well they stick to the requirements. 2. What Diversity issues do you find management focusing on in Luis Vuitton? For a while, Luis Vuitton has focused on its popularity in Japan, which accounts for approximately 55% of its global sales annually (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). Luis Vuitton also focuses on the women’s demographic with their handbags and female shoes lines. Luis Vuitton also targets middle-aged men with their line of Vuitton eyeglass cases, wallets and briefcases. Additionally, Luis Vuitton has been attempting to woo younger clients while retaining their older client base. 3. How does Luis Vuitton cultivate a diverse workforce? Luis Vuitton has opened a new store and manufacturing plant in Japan, which employs mainly Japanese locals rather than expatriate workers who are steeped in the LV tradition. 4. What advantages of employee diversity do you find here? The company has cultivated a brand loyalty within the Japanese market through a staff that comprises of Japanese locals, and thus, increasing access to this lucrative market. As proof of this, almost all grown-up Japanese women possess at least one Luis Vuitton item. 5. What challenges of diversity, if any, do you find in Luis Vuitton? No challenges, since the employees in most of the factories are locals. 6. How would you classify Luis Vuitton based upon observation of its workforce? Luis Vuitton has a monolithic workforce that has little cultural integration. As gleaned from the article, Luis Vuitton decided to keep its major factories in France and employ locals, who cost more because the quality control in France was higher (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). Additionally, their Japanese operations were also staffed with locals in order to tap into what their Japanese customers need. 7. Do you find the strategy of this organization includes building on diversity? No. 8. What leadership behaviors do you observe here that may or may not be identified with management characteristics? Luis Vuitton’s management inspires a shared vision among its employees. The company management encourages its employees to suggest improvements to its manufacturing designs and briefs them on the product details, for example, the product’s retail price, as well as how well the product is selling (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). The management also enables others to work, in this case, its employees as evidenced by the workers who discovered that decorative metal studs were creating bunch-ups in the zipper, which was adding effort and time on the process. By doing this, the management, enabled the employees to reduce time and effort spent on the tasks. 9. How would you characterize the level of participation in decision making in Luis Vuitton? Luis Vuitton has a democratic style of leadership where the employees are encouraged to give their input on minor design changes that will improve either the design or the manufacturing process (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). The head designers solicit for information, for example, with store managers to determine what the customer desires are, and then implementation of these designs with the help of the manufacturing employees. These employees can also suggest alterations and improvements, which can be incorporated into the design if the designers deem it necessary. 10. If you characterize the leader as a transformational leader, what qualities do you identify? Jacobs, the Luis Vuitton head designer, is a transformational leader who generates skills and strategies. His unfussy and fresh aesthetic breathed new life into Luis Vuitton by introducing shoe lines and ready-to-wear that ended up attracting younger customers to Luis Vuitton (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). He also sought the help of Takashi Murakami to add eyes and cherry blossoms to the traditional Luis Vuitton monogram that proved refreshing to the younger generation. 11. What sort of power is causing people to follow the leadership at Luis Vuitton? The employees at Luis Vuitton follow Jacobs as head designer because of his expert power. Jacobs came to Luis Vuitton as a well known streetwise New York designer associated with the grunge look, which Luis Vuitton needed to attract the younger generation of customers. The employees perceive Jacobs as an expert on street-wear with the success of this line. 12. What leadership behavior do you identify here with regard to the path goal theory framework? The leadership behavior at Luis Vuitton is directive and participative. The team members are advised to give suggestions on improvements in manufacturing, as well as give directions on details pertaining to the product’s prices and the way it is retailing at, in order to instill a feeling of the luxurious nature of the products. 13. If leadership can sometimes come from other sources other than the leader of the organization, what do you observe at Luis Vuitton with regard to the dispersed theories of leadership? The management at Luis Vuitton aims to make its employees autonomous and multi-skilled in order to increase responsibility on the factory floor (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). This substitute for leadership has seen has seen the employees take responsibility for the efficiency of the design process and the final products manufactured, which neutralizes the efforts of the managers and leaders. The company also has self-leadership as the managers serve as facilitators with the designs and encourage employees to manage their particular processes to a certain extent. 14. What behavior do you observe the leadership practicing here that makes this leader effective? The managers at Luis Vuitton, including Marc Jacobs, practice task performance behavior by giving succinct details to employees on the requirements needed to ensure that Luis Vuitton reaches its goal of availing only the best quality of products. 15. Where would you place this leadership on the leadership grid? In Luis Vuitton, there is the practice of team management. Most of the Luis Vuitton’s activities are carried out by the team, with Jacobs teaming up with Murakami to design the Boulogne Multicolor, which was then passed on to the marketing department team for prototyping, and finally to the top execs (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). Following this, it was moved on to production. Teamwork enabled the prototype be on its way to the Vuitton factory as fast as possible with little delay and avoid being overtaken by changing preferences. 16. What types of motivation can you identify at Luis Vuitton? Luis Vuitton has intrinsic motivation where the employees are encouraged to ensure that they adhere to quality, which they do in order to achieve the standard expected and make their work easier. They get satisfaction from this since they impact on the future of the company. 17. Do you identify any of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs being satisfied? Self-actualization is satisfied at Luis Vuitton, especially as the employees are allowed to be creative, for example, marc Jacobs and his grunge-inspired designs, which were not a perfect match for Luis Vuitton at the time (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). The team-members are also involved in problem solving as they discovered the problems with the bunching of the zippers during production and the workers themselves solved the problem on the factory floor. Employees like Jacobs are also allowed to be spontaneous, such as when he collaborated with Murakami, a Japanese designer who was not a traditional fit for Luis Vuitton. 18. Do you identify any of McClelland’s theory of needs being satisfied? There is a hint in the need for achievement being satisfied, where the employees are expected to work one task with the results from that task being based on their efforts. They also get feedback from the management, as well as give feedback with the aim of improving their quality of work and efficiency. 19. Do you see any evidence of Basic concepts of expectancy theory? No. 20. Do you identify any of Herzberg’s two-factor theory of needs being satisfied? There are motivators like responsibility whereby the workers are put in charge of improving quality and design. 21. What does Luis Vuitton do to promote by design? Luis Vuitton practices job enrichment by allowing the teams an ability to utilize their wide range of abilities as an attempt to motivate them. The workers are encouraged to use their abilities to suggest improvements while the company’s goal is to make its employees as multi-skilled and as autonomous as they can (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). This involves giving them a range of tasks of varying mental and physical difficulties, encouraging communication and feedback as seen with the alterations of the zippers and diamond studs, as well as giving the workers a complete work unit by allowing them to be involved in almost the entirety of the production process. The employees at Luis Vuitton are given the opportunity to grow, advance and achieve by increasing their skill set by making them multi-skilled. 22. What team activity or a small number of people with complementary skills do you identify with Luis Vuitton? The team at Luis Vuitton is a group with a commitment to a common purpose. The various departments are streamlined to work together towards designs of high quality with the recent Boulogne Multicolor moving from design to marketing, to the executives, and finally to production in record time. 23. What benefits of teamwork does the organization enjoy? The team at Luis Vuitton enjoys taking pleasure in quality improvements, speed and innovation. The workers, through their teamwork, are able to improve the quality by making test production at a faster speed. They are also blessed with innovation because of the teamwork, like when Jacobs and Murakami to come up with the Boulogne Multi-color that was very successful. 24. What types of teams do you find at Luis Vuitton? Luis Vuitton has work teams that manufacture the luxury products from beginning to end on the factory floor. Workers feed leather and canvas into precision machines; others sew while others stitch in the lining, all to come up with one product. 25. How would you describe the stage of team development? The teams at Luis Vuitton are at the performing stage as they have already worked together on previous designs and are able to catch mistakes and correct them. They are already past the Norming stage as there is no evidence of disagreements according to the article. 26. What roles of team members do you identify? Stephan Fallon is a team maintenance specialist as he encourages and supports the team to improve designs and informs them of what the customers want and desire. By this, he facilitates their quality assurance develops the skills of the workers. 27. What role of team leader do you identify? Stephan Fallon, as the team leader, provides feedback to the workers by informing them on the retailing information of the bags they make in order to increase motivation and assure quality. 28. What behavioral dimensions do you observe contributing to building effective teams? The teams at Luis Vuitton are focused on performance as seen with their improved skill sets, as well as motivation of teamwork. The company also has a cohesiveness as seen by the efficiency of their production system from design to production without any major hitches. 29. What high performance norms can be identified? The team at Luis Vuitton has been kept small with a team of 20 to 30 handling the manufacture of slightly over 120 bags (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). Each team also works on one item at a time. They also use challenges from outside to motivate the team, for example, with information on selling prices and the high requirement of standards of the consumer. 30. What threats to effective team performance was identified? From the article, there was no teamwork reward for the team members. While the workers are motivated by enriching their skill sets, teamwork rewards seem to be missing. 31. What components of the model of communication can be found? The message consisting of the quality requirements, as well as feedback on retail specifications, are sent along the communication channel with the receiver giving feedback on quality issues and impediments to quality. 32. Barriers to effective communication There was no barrier to effective communication that could be gotten from the article on Luis Vuitton. 33. Do you identify any particular pattern of organizational communication? There is a downward pattern with the flow of information flowing from the head designers at Luis Vuitton’s marketing department, to the executives at board level, down to the production floor. Luis Vuitton also has an upward pattern of communication whereby the workers give feedback to the higher levels concerning the quality and possible improvements of the products. 34. What lean to rich communication channels can be found at Luis Vuitton? There is face-to-face communication where the managers interact, with their workers on the factory floor to impart on them new skills and make them aware of the requirements at Luis Vuitton stores across the world. 35. What communication skills are practiced here? Luis Vuitton uses language, as communication skills by making sure their employees are up to scratch as pertains to everything that concerns the production and retail of Luis Vuitton products. There is also evidence of listening, whereby the managers at Luis Vuitton are willing to take advice from their workers concerning changes to Luis Vuitton production processes. 36. How would you describe the systems control that Luis Vuitton relies on to measure performance? Luis Vuitton practices market control by comparing the quality of their products with the required quality at Luis Vuitton stores globally, as well as the financial considerations with the products being made to measure up to the price that they are being retailed at in the different stores. 37. What evidence of the control cycle do you find here to control and improve performance? There is evidence of comparing performance with standard as can be seen with the workers striving to keep up the quality of products to measure up to those already in stores. There is also evidence of taking corrective action, such as when the company had to change their zipper specifications after workers caught the problem. 38. Evidence of balance scorecard as a control system The company is concerned with external customer satisfaction as can be seen, by its canvassing of store managers, to discover which products the customers were most interested in from the Murakami line, coming up with the Murakami shoulder bag. They also practice quality and efficiency as a control system by measuring up their designs to what the customer is willing to pay at their stores. Finally, they use employee learning and growth as a means of keeping a scorecard control system by measuring their skill sets. 39. What function of IT do you identify here? The storage function of IT is in evidence with the use of existing templates of earlier designs to be used for the manufacture of new designs. Manipulation of information is also utilized, where the company designers will use the earlier designs to direct the workers on how the new designs should vary from the earlier one while still using the earlier template. 40. What factor does Luis Vuitton use to achieve greatness? Luis Vuitton uses strategy to achieve greatness by being extremely disciplined about their price points and sources of distribution. While most brands in their situation attempt to find new price points, sources of distribution, and outlets, Luis Vuitton differentiates itself by focusing on quality over quantity as a luxury brand. In fact, customers have to put their name on a waiting list for new products, especially since Luis Vuitton, apparently, never goes out of fashion. This is achieved by giving priority to quality. 41. What methods for managing resistance to change do you observe? Luis Vuitton uses education and communication by informing its workers on the changes in market prices to manage any resistance to changes implemented, on quality, to match the needs and desires of the company (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). They also practice facilitation and support, through improving their workers skill sets and autonomy with an aim to reducing conflict if the workers’ duties are rotated, among them, to increase efficiency. Finally, they use participation and involvement, for example, by encouraging their employees into suggesting improvements and instituting some of these improvements. This will manage resistance to change by tying these changes as resulting from the improvements suggested by the employees. 42. What is the leadership doing to lead change? The leadership at Luis Vuitton is consolidating its gains and producing more change. Evidence of this is, in their canvassing of store managers, into finding out the most popular items of the very successful Murakami line and using these to institute change by creating a new line of shoulder bag (Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine 1). They also develop a vision and strategy. The evidence of this is in the activities of Marc Jacobs. When he came in, he brought his grunge-look vision for the company with him, and this was instituted as a strategy with his partnership with Murakami. This strategy has worked as seen by the continued purchase of Luis Vuitton products even as the prices continue to go up. Works Cited Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine. The Vuitton Money Machine. 24 March 2004. Web 11 November 2012. www.businessweek.com/stories/2004-03-21/the-vuitton-money-machine#disqus_thread Read More