J. C. Penny Case Analysis
J.C. Penny is a company committed to the highest level of corporate citizenship as outlined by (JC. Penney Company News, 2017). The company commits itself to a diverse workforce and as of 2016, more than half of the J.C. Penney associate populations were minorities, adding that CEO Ellison is one of only five African-American CEO's in the Fortune 500. J.C. Penney has also logged more than 67,700 volunteer hours in community relations by donating their time and skills to benefit local non-profit organizations, and the company is making efforts to significantly reduce waste by recycling 85% of the Company's annual domestic waste by 2020. According to Hickman (2010), trust is the foundation of a relationship between and among leaders and members
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Penny it is important to note the aspects that have changed within the company. For one, two leadership styles are presented that are involved with the decline and rebirth of the company, respectively the authority-compliance style used by Johnson and the transformational style administered by Ellison. While both styles have strengths and weaknesses it is important to note that one cannot force a leadership style onto any given situation, when in fact a good leader knows when to apply certain styles at the right time. Ellison, for example, demonstrates this by the way that he has prospered between using transformational and transactional leadership styles to help rebuild the company’s consumer base and credibility. Another aspect that has changed comes from the three stages of unfreezing, changing, and refreezing that Kurt Lewin’s developed in 1951 that the company has undergone (Hickman 2010, p. 85). With the implementation of those three stages the company has successfully allowed resistance to thaw out, hear out the consumer and employees, developing a strategy that is both cost effective and consumer friendly by reintroducing brands and focusing on a target market , and then come together to develop a better plan for how to move forward by not only looking at diversification, but also by creating a better relationship with the community. The last aspect in terms of the change over the past few years is that of the inclusion of the organizations history. A good quote for what happened in the life-cycle of J.C. Penny is “Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it” (George Santayana). This can be applied to Johnson and how he neglected to account for the company’s history when making decisions for it’s new business model, which can be traced back to the fact that the other two companies he helped had only just started to break hard into the market with very little history compared to J.C.
Penny it is important to note the aspects that have changed within the company. For one, two leadership styles are presented that are involved with the decline and rebirth of the company, respectively the authority-compliance style used by Johnson and the transformational style administered by Ellison. While both styles have strengths and weaknesses it is important to note that one cannot force a leadership style onto any given situation, when in fact a good leader knows when to apply certain styles at the right time. Ellison, for example, demonstrates this by the way that he has prospered between using transformational and transactional leadership styles to help rebuild the company’s consumer base and credibility. Another aspect that has changed comes from the three stages of unfreezing, changing, and refreezing that Kurt Lewin’s developed in 1951 that the company has undergone (Hickman 2010, p. 85). With the implementation of those three stages the company has successfully allowed resistance to thaw out, hear out the consumer and employees, developing a strategy that is both cost effective and consumer friendly by reintroducing brands and focusing on a target market , and then come together to develop a better plan for how to move forward by not only looking at diversification, but also by creating a better relationship with the community. The last aspect in terms of the change over the past few years is that of the inclusion of the organizations history. A good quote for what happened in the life-cycle of J.C. Penny is “Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it” (George Santayana). This can be applied to Johnson and how he neglected to account for the company’s history when making decisions for it’s new business model, which can be traced back to the fact that the other two companies he helped had only just started to break hard into the market with very little history compared to J.C.