MGT60040 Management Analyses, Problem Solvingy Report

MGT60040 Management Analyses & Problem Solving

Assessment Overview

This individual assessment (1b) requires you to utilize the Four Frame Model to critically evaluate the organization's issues and propose an action plan to solve the problems. The final report should be 2,500 – 3000 words:

• Analyze the selected issue or situation in 600 words (basically part 1a, including any changes you think are needed based on feedback from me or if you uncover things in your subsequent research that helps improve this introduction)

• Apply theoretical concepts/models from the literature on the four frames to explore the issue

• Detail recommendations/options in relation to your developing understanding of your framing of the issue and how they can solve the problem – this discussion could be carried in light of identifying the frame that would be best suited to address the problem based on the analyses conducted in the previous section.

• Be checked for originality using the Turnitin submission link on Canvas before the final draft is submitted

Solution

1. Introduction 

1.1 Objectives of the Report

With rapid growth in globalization, it has become essential for companies to deal with their issues for surviving in the competitive business environment. As per MBA assignment experts overview, In this regard, the purpose of the report is to conduct a critical evaluation of organizational issues persisting in Gap Inc for proposing an action plan to solve those problems. Another objective of the report is to use the Four Frame Model of structural frame, HR frame, political frame and symbolic frame for analysing the organizational issues in Gap Inc.

1.2 Description of Company

Gap was founded in 1969 by Don and Doris in San Francisco with its simple idea of providing a pair of jeans. In the last 50 years, the company has introduced several brands with its initial commitment of ensuring champion equality, sustainability and inclusivity across the world (Gap 2022a). The company focuses on creating products loved by its customers by doing right by them, the community and the planet. It sells various types of apparels for men, women and kids. Thus, it has been successfully taking smart risks for driving people, purpose and profits in the market.

1.3 Description of Problems and Issues

Gap has been facing several issues in the recent year, which have increased with the outbreak of the pandemic. The majority of its stores being shut down resulted in a quarterly loss of US $932 million in 2020 (Partridge 2020). It was unable to pay rents for closed stores, extended its payment terms with the suppliers and delayed its first-quarter dividend for reducing costs and preserving cash. Here, disruptions in its supply chain operations also made it difficult to cater to the demand of customers, thereby leading to its revenue reduction and increased losses (Scott 2021). This was because of the delay caused by port delays, extra spending on air cargo and missing out on sales. Thus, the factory closures and port backlogs significantly disrupted its ability to get the required merchandise in stores timely, thereby leading to loss of around US$ 300 million in sales (Kavilanz 2021). 

One of the biggest problems of Gap was its incapability to adapt and innovate. It remained stagnant despite the fashion market moving towards a faster model and enabling shoppers to shift online (Faull 2021). Little variation was observed in its age-old tried-and-tested model of distribution with the same product across various markets. It could not cope with the competition provided by Primark or H&M who attracted the younger online shoppers with their efficient supply chains. Furthermore, Gap also gave up on its advertising investment beyond its basic operations (Faull 2021). Despite scoring high on dimensions like quality, customer satisfaction and brand reputation, the company has fallen below on value for money, recommendation and brand reputation. Besides, offering too many discounts, failing to stand out and having numerous brick-and-mortar stores have been other problems persisting in Gap (Timmins 2021). Thus, it has not been able to go beyond providing traditional shopping experiences to the customers and failed to compete with various online stores.

2. Four Frame Analyses 

2.1 Exploring the problem through structural frame

This is the first frame of the Four Frame Analysis model that emphasizes on how to initiate change in the organization through its structural transformation. It is a task-oriented frame that focuses on strategy, measurable goals, tasks, responsibilities and reporting lines, deadlines and metrics and systems and procedures (Fruehauf, Al-Khalifa & Coniker 2015). Thus, it mainly refers to the organizational structure of the firm.

Gap primarily follows a hierarchical organizational structure with the chain of command flowing down from the top-level management or CEO to others (Kanter 2019). Here, each employee has a supervisor and works under a team manager with the rest of the members. The company consists of an executive leadership team led by the interim CEO and Chair of the Board Bob L. Martin (Gap 2022b). This organizational structure has been beneficial for the company in defining levels of authority and responsibility, motivating employees and carrying out various projects. It has significantly contributed to the success of Gap until recently when problems started to arise. The company has been unable to innovate or make important changes to its business model by introducing online shopping because of increased bureaucracy (Bedford & Malmi 2015). Furthermore, Gap Inc also follows a departmental structure and strategy for its four-part management approach. The organizational structure enables it to ensure collaboration across various key departments like equality and belonging, product and marketing teams, human resource, legal and gap foundation, supply chain strategy and government affairs (Gap 2022c). Thus, the management approach can focus on key strategies of integrating social and environmental programs in business, setting ambitious goals, measuring progress and forming meaningful partnerships. However, despite this, the excessive departmentalization and bureaucracy have prevented Gap to quickly react to outside forces like supply chain disruptions or shift towards online shopping (Child 2015). Thus, this has further resulted in the company’s failure to adapt and innovate in the market and suffered supply chain mess. 

2.2 Exploring the problem through HR frame

This human resource frame emphasizes on needs of people. It involves power and opportunity given to employees for performing their jobs, addressing their needs and enhancing their personal growth and job satisfaction (Lyon et al 2014). 

Gap Inc has been committed towards providing good treatment to all people associated with it, including employees, customers and communities. It increases transparency, representation of minorities and gender and racial pay equity for the employees (Gap 2022d). The company amplifies black voices, creates dedicated inclusion strategies and provide online and store experiences for the customers. It also focuses on civic engagement and participation for helping local communities (Gap 2022d). 

Furthermore, Gap Inc focuses on three areas for emphasizing on its employees’ needs, like enabling opportunities, talent development and career development. Talent development approach is undertaken for investing in learning and development of employees at all organizational levels (Hedayati Mehdiabadi & Li 2016). This is done through workplace equity and learning and development programs that include retail academy, mid-level manager coaching, rotational management program, LinkedIn Learning, Field to HQ and great bosses (Gap 2022e). Career development is undertaken through developing growth mindset by eliminating traditional performance review, classroom and on-the-job training and representing employees from minority groups. Besides, Gap also focuses on enabling opportunities by not only developing skills but also creating a sense of belongingness amongst employees (Bedarkar & Pandita 2014). This is accomplished through supportive teams for helping employees to recognize their own potential and fostering a workplace culture for meeting both professional and personal needs. Thus, it can be said that Gap has been emphasizing well on its HR frame of the model. However, it can be observed that there remains lack of innovation or creativity programs undertaken in the workplace (Amabile & Pratt 2016). Despite all the talent and career development programs, employees have not received adequate motivation for thinking outside the box. This shows that company’s inability to adapt and innovate in the uncertain business environment.

2.3 Exploring the problem through political frame

This political frame focuses on the problems between various individuals and interest groups with conflicting agendas. This mainly occur at times with limited budgets and organization making difficult choices for the same (Sowell 2014). Here, coalition-building, power-base building and conflict resolution work are generally undertaken for supporting initiatives of the leaders.

With the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, most of the retail stores of Gap remained closed or were shut down because of the lockdown restrictions (Wahba 2020). The global supply chain disruptions further caused more problems for the company. It experienced huge losses and for preventing the outflow of cash, it had to furlough many employees. The threat to the company worsened in the second quarter of 2020, thereby forcing it to furlough around 80,000 store workers (Wahba 2020). Majority of this furloughing had occurred in the US and Canada stores of the company.  These affected workers were decided not to be paid during this furlough period. However, they received other benefits like Employee Resource Centre, applying for temporary roles and others (Carter 2020). While this decision was undertaken for mitigating the financial impact on the company, it had conflicting agendas with the employee groups. This is because these employees were financially impacted from the furloughing decision undertaken by Gap Inc (Stuart et al 2021).  Besides, this also resulted in temporary salary reductions of some staff as well, thereby generating financial difficulties for them. Moreover, the furloughing decisions are also considered negative news for an economy where the retail industry provides support to only one out of four workers (LA Times 2020). This also indicates the fact about the dramatic sign of how retailers like Gap are experiencing their business evaporate being unable to cope with the uncertainties. While this resulted in various issues in the company related to human resources, HR frame cannot explain the other challenges of Gap.

2.4 Exploring the problem through symbolic frame

This symbolic frame helps in addressing needs of people from a sense of purpose and meaning generated from their work. It emphasizes on motivating employees by developing a significant and distinctive organizational direction (Bolman & Deal 2017). It also fosters an encouraging vision by acknowledging employee performances through different company celebrations.

Gap Inc emphasizes on developing programs and partnerships for ensuring equity to underrepresented talent across various race, gender, age and others. It fulfils the symbolic frame by motivating employees to become a force of good through its legacy of community involvement (Gap 2022f). This is accomplished by fostering a culture of both community impact and employee engagement in the organization. The managers in this company encourage and empower employees for learning and connecting with each other alongside their local communities for supporting meaningful causes (Nekhili et al 2021). It involves different company and employee-led activities, opportunities for volunteering and events for raising money and awareness. Furthermore, Gap uses campaigns and educational programs for encouraging employees for thinking broadly about generating a positive impact on the local communities (Gap 2022f). These programs help in delivering social and business benefits, impacting communities and helping employees to connect with different ESG work. 

Besides, store managers show team appreciation to the store workers of Gap Inc in numerous ways (Riley 2018). Handwritten notes are given for acknowledging and appreciating them. Celebrations of holidays happen with the help of company initiatives ranging from simple locker to office decorations. Various personalized experiences and developmental opportunities are provided to the employees (Riley 2018). In addition, an environment of appreciation is cultivated through peer-to-peer appreciation. This shows that Gap Inc has been successful in fulfilling this symbolic frame in the organization. Thus, this cannot be related to the issues persisting in the company related to inability to adapt and innovate to the changing business environment and consumer behaviour. 

3. Recommendations and Discussion 

From the above analysis, it is evident that the structural frame is best suitable for analysing the organizational issues persisting in Gap Inc. The company consists of a bureaucratic structure that is formal and highly organized alongside organizational charts present for every department. The rigid set of rules and regulations reduce flexibility in the organization, which has made it difficult for Gap Inc to respond to uncertainties and challenges brought by the pandemic outbreak (Van der Voet 2014). Instead of handling those challenges, numerous stores were shut down and various employees were furloughed because of increased losses and decreased revenues. Furthermore, this complicated set of rules under the bureaucratic structure also caused long delays in responding to supply chain disruptions, changing consumer behaviour and shift towards online shopping (Van der Voet 2014). Gap failed to identify these emerging trends and was late in adopting them as compared to other competitors in the market. Besides, the excessive rigidity present in this organizational structure further made it difficult for the company to adapt and innovate (Dan-Cohen 2016). Instead of catering to the consumer preference of online shopping, Gap has continued to use its obsolete distribution model and standard products across various markets. It has further been ignorant towards investing in digital marketing and advertising strategies. The company has only been relying on its traditional business model, few product variations, too many discounts and numerous brick-and-mortar stores despite facing several challenges. Moreover, the compartmentalization and departmentalization present in this bureaucratic structure of Gap has reduced collaboration amongst people and departments performing tasks in other categories (Dan-Cohen 2016). Additionally, the decision-making process has also been rigid that focused on opting programmed decisions despite uncertainties strolling in the environment. Despite ensuring collaboration across its various departments, Gap has been facing several issues because of its lack of flexibility in responding to environmental challenges.

Gap Inc should transform its bureaucratic structure to adhocracy organizational design for dealing with the current issues. This structure is highly flexible and amenable to frequent change (Martela 2019). This will enable the employees to become proactive and taking initiatives for generating new ideas and solutions to the problems. It will help in enhancing innovativeness and creativity in the organization, thereby enabling it to undergo change as and when required. Here, decision-making will be a fluid procedure, thereby adapting the procedures and rules to the current requirements (Martela 2019). Here, it will be distributed throughout the organization by giving power to each department rather than making it a centralized process. Thus, Gap will gain benefits of adaptability, faster decision-making, creativity and innovation and sense of ownership for dealing with its issues. The company should also change its traditional business model by introducing digital technologies. Instead of depending only on the brick-and-mortar stores, it should use its website for providing online shopping to the customers. It would also have to use various digital platforms for marketing its products and services and staying relevant amongst the younger group of customers in the market.

4. Conclusion 

The main purpose of the report was to critically evaluate the organizational issues of Gap Inc with the help of Four Frame Model to propose an action plan. It was identified that the company was having various issues like decreasing sales, increasing losses, supply chain disruptions, inability to adapt and innovate and losing value in eyes of the customers. It has been performing worse than its competitors in the recent years because of its obsolete distribution network, business model and same production variations. The structural frame pointed out the bureaucratic organization structure and departmentalization as the reasons for these issues. The political frame helped to understand that there have been conflicting agendas of the company and its employees with the furloughing decision during the pandemic. However, the other two frames, HR and symbolic were not suitable for analysing its issues. The report helped in pointing out that structural frame was the most appropriate one for evaluating Gap’s ongoing issues. Based on this analysis, it suggested an adhocracy structure along with transformation in its business model for solving the problems in the organization.

5. References

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