The Social and Cultural Factors Impacting Leaders within Lululemon - Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

It will be a miscarriage of justice to begin to address the social and cultural factors impacting Lululemon without first identifying the founding cultural principles of Lululemon. This will be in accordance with the work conducted by (Simon Sinek 2009) which says always Start with Why question.  According to Wilson CHIP(CHIP), the founder of Lululemon his goal was to only run one store in the Vancouver (Digital 2020). Before long, the business had grown into a multi store specialising in state-of-the-art sporting apparel. On CHIP’s own website he attributes his success to the mantra of people-before-product leadership approach and by creating a unique culture surrounding himself with like-minded individuals who are ; creative, driven, athletic locals enjoying a work-life balance inspired by the West Coast (Digital 2020).Creating such a culture has helped underpin the organisation ‘s success. This ideology is shared in a study conducted on Culture at Work by  (WorldatWork 2015) which supports the notion culture is a vehicle by which leaders use to get employees and key stakeholders actively be involved in the organisation’s success.

As of 2008, Lululemon had 100 stores, including 56 in the United States, and nearly 3000 employees. Its global presence presents a cultural impact for leaders to identify which employees are of high and low context cultures. According to Lululemon’s 2019 Annual Report (Annualreports 2019) this cultural and social factor will continue to impact the organisation as they expand into China and Asia Pacific (APAC) markets. Leadership at Lululemon will need to quickly adjust and adapt to High and Low context cultures. The importance of mastering this factor is summarised in a study conducted by (Croucher et al., 2012).The study revealed High context countries such as India and Thailand prefer avoiding conflict styles more than low context countries such as Ireland and United States. Given conflict resolution plays a critical role in the operational and strategic development of an organisation, this factor will continue to impact the leadership.(Hocker and Wilmot 1991) defined conflict as an “expressed struggle between at least two interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scarce resources, and interference from the other party in achieving their goals”

The argument will be incomplete if the Hofstede's Six Dimensions of Culture is not factored. In 2008 Lululemon experienced the Uncertainty and Avoidance Index (UAI) with the introduction of a new Chief Executive Officer. His Leadership change and sweeping reforms exposed the organisation that it has a strong UAI. The organisation’s response to the new ways of working were summarised in work conducted by (Shah 2012) where due to a strong UAI the resultant effect in some cases will be an organisation and leadership alike not welcoming the new working ideas. (Shah 2012)

Lululemon’s leadership will also face the Power Distance Index cultural factor due to its multi-jurisdictional presence which also gives rise to multi culturalism in individual stores. Meanwhile Lululemon leaderships is strong on decentralising power and allowing Store managers to run and implement changes, the work conducted by Bochner and Hesketh (1994) links this factor to Lululemon due to its multi-cultural employees and its multi-jurisdictional presence .As of February 2, 2020, Lululemon had approximately 19,000 employees, of which approximately 11,000 were employed in the United States, approximately 5,200 were employed in Canada, and approximately 2,800 were employed outside of NorthAmerica. The study found individuals from Anglo-Celt cultural groups scored lower on power distance and responders from non-Anglo-Celt groups reported greater number of discrimination incidents and favoured cultural diversity in the workplace (Karibayeva and Kunanbayeva 2017). 

1. What are the social and cultural factors impacting leaders within Lululemon?  (500 words)

2. What are three recommendations that should be adopted by the leadership at Lululemon in managing people, raising morale, and ensuring improved motivation among staff? (800 words)

3. Using examples from the case what are the challenges confronting leaders/managers in today's contemporary society? (1,200 words)

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