Strategic Resource Managment of the Department Store - Case Study Example

Scenario One College: Introduction In this essay, the researcher investigates the current situation of this department store and subsequently help the Chief Executive Officer to design the best policies that if adopted will help revamp and reinforce this daunting challenge. The policies, to be designed, will focus on how effective the workforce and the other stakeholders will positively react to and adopt the change. Such policies will be counteractive to the noted reluctance to change with time, as well as the complacency towards the ever rising fierce competition both in the domestic and global perspective. In order to advise the CEO, the researcher has consequently decided to use leadership and change management as the theoretical frameworks. With the increased competitive environment, only firms, that can properly manage change and has effective leadership, can stand the test (Kotter & Dan 2002, p. 46). The primary focus of this essay will undertake the SWOT analysis in order to gauge the current strengths, opportunity, weakness and threats of the firm to help formulate the mentioned policies. SWOT analysis (Weakness) Based on the analysis of the current situation of the firm, the company is weak compared to other industry players in the growing competition in the apparel division. The group is noted to have negated the fierce competitive environment and hence finds difficult to change and remain relevant in this saturated industry thus accounting for the decline in sales and subsequent reduction in profits realized. Besides, there is a weak domestic supply chain that falls short of the competitors foreign suppliers and hence the competitors better fashion design, high quality products sold at lower prices hence maximizing in their market share and power at the expense of this firm. The weakness of the company is on the management of stores and employee time based on the application of non-value adding strategies in store practices. Most of the employees time is, therefore, consumed making them less productive. The weak leadership also culminates in failure to motivate employees and lack of evaluating performance of stores and workforce. The organization also suffers from a lack of experienced workers and hence less innovative besides weak leadership that does not recognize the principle of triangulation. In a snapshot, the analysis of weakness (internal factor) reveals the vulnerability of the firm to its competitors. It is therefore upon this findings that researcher will emphasize on in order to develop the counteractive measures that will help weed out such weakness as the company has a number of opportunities that if well nurtured and explored will help revamp it. How this situation impacts upon the workforce? Reluctance to change The SWOT analysis reveals weakness as the primary derailing factor for the company’s expansion and increased profits. Change management is very critical for success-oriented firms. Employees may reject the proposed change when they are not proactively engaged in the formulation of the proposed change. Employee’s productivity is firmly embedded in the ability of a firm to keep pace with its competitors and by ensuring that they are provided with the efficiency and adequate facilities that add value to their work and hence becomes highly productive at minimal time duration (Gold, Thorpe and Mumford 2010, p. 83). In recent past, the competitive environment has become so fierce and only firms that value the input of their employees can thrive. Employees feel motivated and become initiative and innovative when a company adopts an effective framework to manage change that keep pace with other players in the industry (Kotter & Dan 2002, p. 56). A motivated employee feels part and parcel of the company and thus would always give his best to achieve his task that culminates into increased labor productivity. The new CEO should thus start by proactively engaging the workforce and outline the need to actually design effective change management frameworks since doing so leads to less resistance to change as employees feel part of the team that designs and formulate such policies. Lack of motivation The SWOT analysis of the Company also reveals the lack of motivation as a weakness of the firm. Employee’s productivity and wellbeing is firmly embedded on both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Where employees are motivated, the productivity of the firm rises and this leads to the production of efficient and high-quality product that attracts more sales. Consequently, the company makes more profits and expands due to economies of scale (Ghemawat and Nueno 2006, p. 53). Employees would thus benefit from the sales as they will be rewarded fir better performance, and their wages will also rise (Daniels 2006, p. 60). Such employees will also benefit from promotions as the firm expands that further attracts more pay besides increased self-esteem as an individual always feel better if rewarded based on promotion. However, due to absence of motivation, the employees cannot benefit from these lucrative packages as the firm lacks an efficient system of evaluating staff performance that would otherwise lead to recognition and appreciation of hardworking and high productive staff. Poor leadership Poor leadership is also a weakness that affects the workforce in this firm. It is noted that employees’ viewpoints and inputs are never appreciated. Therefore, there are no frameworks of promotion and reward for better performance. Besides, the firm only leads from “head office knows all.” Such systems demoralize employees as thy feel a cog in a big machine. The employees are thus the reluctance to put more efforts in their task and hence less productive. Poor leadership affects that employees as human feel better when their inputs are recognized and appreciated. The welfare of such employees are not considered and thus attract leads to poor standards of living besides poor working conditions that are hazardous (Harrison and Kessels 2004, p. 67). The incoming CEO should start by appreciating the need to recognize and appreciate the significance of teamwork in an organization. The CEO should uproot the system of the ‘head office knows all’ and accommodates every stakeholder in the formulation of policies and strategies to revamp the company. The CEO should adopt both transformational and transactional leadership style to help thwart this vice. How you would lead change within the organization and appropriateness of Management Style Based on the theoretical framework of leadership, the new CEO can lead change within the organization by employing effective leadership theories such as transformational and transaction leadership. Transformational leadership theory involves a process by which an individual interacts with others and is capable of creating a substantial relationship that culminates into a high percentage of trust resulting from an increased intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in both leaders and followers (Northouse 2010, p. 78). Transformational leaders thus transform their followers via their inspirational features and charismatic personalities. Such leaders design flexible rules and regulation guided by group norms, and such attributes provide a sense of belonging to the followers who identifies with and associate with their leaders and its purpose. Transformational leadership will help the CEO make friends with the staff, and this will help him design effective policies that help his advice and improve the productivity of the workforce. In so doing, the overall productivity of the firm will not only rise but quality and innovative products will be produced. With increased production of quality products, the firm will be able to compete effectively with the other players. Employees will further be motivated to work more since their inputs are appreciated and rewarded. In addition, the CEO should adopt transactional leadership style (Bowen and Ostroff 2004, p. 39). Transactional entails the exchange theories of leadership driven by a transaction between the leader and the followers based on positive and mutually beneficial relationship. It is useful only with efficient framework to punish or reward for performing leader-assigned tasks (Boselie, Dietz and Boon 2005, p. 176). Such leadership is effective as they culminate into a reinforced environment where individual and organization goal is in sync. Transactional leadership advocates individual’s maximization of pleasurable experience and to diminish unpleasurable experience hence followers associate to leaders that add to their strengths. With the transactional leadership, the value of the staff will be increased as employee will always thrive to associate with such leaders (Kumar 2004, p. 34). Therefore, as both the employees and the new CEO mutually benefit from this leadership framework the firm benefits as well indicated by revamping its threatening status and hence regaining its lost market share. Such leadership theories are relevant for strategic managers as they will able to create harmonious teamwork as their members will be motivated to carry out the assigned task in order to be rewarded and avoid punishments (Schyns & Meindl 2005, p. 66). Besides, creation of the sense of belonging amongst the followers make them act effortlessly towards the realization of the set goals. Boselie et al. (2005) identified the existence of two kinds of skills an individual need to possess in order to support a particular business success that are relevant for the incoming CEO. The CEO needs to evaluate his management skills In order to ascertain whether he possess both personal skills and professional skill in order to perform an assigned job (Megginson D and Whitaker V Continuing Professional Development CIPD 2007, p. 63). For strategic managers, it is important to possess a higher degree of leadership skills within him in order to support the team members in efforts to achieve the set strategic goals and drive change in this organization). The New CEO should have a team structured firm where managers are driven by the need to achieve the team target through motivating the team members (Ryan 2000, p. 56). This can only be achieved when the incoming CEO understands and recognizes the significance of necessary knowledge endowment besides being experience so that a strategic manager can find ease in guiding the team (MTD Training 2012, p. 78). In addition to this, time management skills should always be encompassed in any task and managers must possess such skills so as to ensure that task are performed based on the timeframes given to meet the deadlines as outlined in the strategic plans (Schyns & Meindl 2005, p. 89). Managing time is relevant to this organization as the analysis revealed that use of non-valued added systems wastes time for the workforce and thus making them less productive. Analysis of the firm reveals several methods and technique applicable to time management. The new CEO should employ the use of IT knowledge to manage the time based on time framework applied to its all targets in full support to manage time effectively. Bowen and Ostroff (2005:32) views leaders as people who must showcase higher levels of effective listening ability extended to team members as listening help a manager to listen to other viewpoints and support these people. The CEO must ensure the existence of a sound motivational framework based on the performance through rewarding people based on the creation of an enabling and friendly environment at workplace (Apex Leadership Ltd 2013, p. 38). Motivation is only workable once there are a higher levels of transparency between managers and other staff members to enhance levels of motivation that is reflected in the increased firm productivity within limited time (Allen and Adair 2003, p. 43). Managers should through practice and experience develop personal skills hence developing a personality that is beneficial to working with others. Casco (2006:21) attaches confidence to originate from personality and, therefore, those with good personalities show confident in their duties. Confidence is key personal skills required by managers to take risks hence able to face daunting situations like the one confidently in this context (Gelade and Ivery 2003, p. 43). The incoming CEO should recognize the role of corporate culture in improving organizations. Corporate culture defines employees and others perception of organizational workplace which further determines the success of a firm. Success-oriented firms have to pay much attention to developing a better culture which demonstrates a firm’s values. Corporate culture has rapidly changed, and firms have to remain updated in order to survive stiffer competitions (Greenwald, 2008, p.123). Workers’ productivities are embedded in harmonious culture where employees feel motivated and being part of decision making process making the workforce to put more efforts on their assigned tasks which further translate into a firm’s growth (Armstrong 2001, p. 143). Firms are encouraged to develop a collaborative culture both internally and externally in order to fully benefit from the shared common global resources (Chanlat, Eduardo and Dupuis 2013, p. 73). The Future of organizational design in this firm should be a collaborative community organizational design where firms collectively undertake opportunities in a global perspective and address challenges facing them in a collaborative way (Kotter, 2006, p. 90). Firms start implementing collaborative community design by first internally coming up with internal collaboration before expanding externally (Jones, 2013, p.166). IBM remains a typical example of a firm that has adopted this design upon its realization of common global interest to its partner firms in the global markets as global resources have universally kept nations and societies harmoniously and their subsequent application of communities values, as well as collaborative capabilities, have led to maximum exploration of such benefits (Elberse and Dye 2012, p. 31). Where the new CEO adopts such collaborative organizational design as showcased by IBM, he will ensure internal collaboration with the staff and this is beneficial to the knowledge sharing and conveyance of the intended change to the firm with less resistance from the staff and other stakeholders. Conclusion In a conclusion, the incoming CEO is required fully to understand the firms goals and objective of its team in fulfilling these laid goals and objective (Daniel 2006, p. 41). Guiding others to change is fully embedded on the degree to which a leader understands and distinguishes between team’s target and the company’s goal (Griffin & Moorhead 2010, p. 52). A manager should understand that within the organization, there exist different types of teams associated with particular objectives and thus the manager should look for better ways to harmoniously sum up all the goals from each group to effectively achieve the firm’s target as these various team goals revolves around the set policies of whatever a firm wants to achieve (Gupta and Sharma 2004, p. 63). Understanding the idea about the direction of a firm is an integral skill a leader must own towards guiding other team members. Implementation of the future and current and development plans a manager must showcase a higher level of leadership skills. The incoming CEO should ensure that the policies and the strategies he intends to drive the change are communicated to every stakeholder prior to their implementation. The staff tend to resist changes if they feel a cog in a big machine and, therefore, the CEO should use the collaboration organizational culture design where each staff viewpoint is considered and incorporated into the operations of the firm. In so doing, the new CEO stands to develop effective trust with his staff and thus benefit from talents and skills from such motivated workers. Reference Allen M and Adair J. (2003). The Concise Time Management and Personal Development (Thorogood, 2003) ISBN1854182234. Alsop, A. (2008). Continuing Professional Development: A Guide for Therapists. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Apex Leadership Ltd. (2013). High Impact interpersonal Skills: How to be a persuasive leader. 1 Edition. Bookboon.com. Armstrong, M. 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