Giorgio Armani: A Leading Fashion House And Its Impact On Values, Beliefs, And Attitudes

Introduction to Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani is an Italian Fashion House which was founded by Giorgio Armani is the year 1975. The fashion house is a leading designer, manufacturer, distributer and retailer of ready to wear, leather goods, shoes, watch, accessories, eyewear, home interiors and haute couture (Potvin, 2017). Giorgio Armani utilizes its brand name and makes products under several labels such as Armani Exchange, Armani Junior, Armani Jeans, Emporio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Giorgio Armani Prive and Giorgio Armani. The company which utilizes its positive brand image in the market in context of High-Fashion earned whopping revenue of over €2.96 billion in the year 2016(Lado et. al., 2016). The brand reached a new high, when it collaborated with Emaar Properties, which is a chain of high end luxury hotels and resorts located in several parts of the world, the company also has interests in Cafes, Bars and Nightclubs (Keller, 2017). The high end product offering of Giorgio Armani includes Makeup, Skincare, Fragrances, Gifts and Armani Prive which are spread across unisex category. Giorgio Armani has an Amazing channel partners, which is one of the major reasons behind company’s product available across the globe.

The company has been good in adopting the recent trends in business enterprise, this is one of the reasons that company has presence in both click and mortar model. The brand has gained huge popularity since its inception, significant amount of credit of which goes to its strategic collaboration with Hollywood stars such as; Jodie Foster, Julia Roberts, Michelle Feiffer, Katie Homes and Tom Cruise(Roux, 2017). Thus, the brand is hugely popular not among the stars, but the brand has driven a good brand awareness amongst the people belonging to other sections of the society(Adiguzel, DeAngelis & Amatulli, 2018).The positioning of the Giorgio Armani products can be seen as premium based, as products are created by handpicked artist, who are marvels in their own field. Another USP of Giorgio Armani, which differentiates it’s from other brands is that it does not tests any of its products on animals, as others do.

The module which is based on developing workplace and critical thinking requires the students to identify and agree on a specific context of the organization in which they can apply critical thinking and evaluate the belief, attitudes, and value system and management theories. Thus the readers from the report will be able to understand the rationale between how emotions, values, beliefs affect the rational discourse, and would also differentiate between inductive and deductive reasoning. A number of theories related to management such as Human relations, contingency theory and Bureaucratic management will be used to develop comprehensive understanding of the management.

Giorgio Armani’s Product Line

Before ascertaining the impact on the belief, value and attitude in relation to the theories of management, it is primarily important to first develop an understanding on these three concepts.

(Source: Kelman, 2017)

This table thus signifies the minute differences between Attitude, values and beliefs; it would help in better understanding the in-depth study regarding the impact of the management theories on values, beliefs and attitude.

This section will identify a management theory which is most relevant to my role of digital marketing executive in the organization and will critically assess its impact of own beliefs, attitude and values.

Human relations theory can be seen as an extension of experiments conducted by Elton Mayo with the Hawthorne studies. The initial work on the theory was started back in 1920s, during the time of industrial revolution. Back in the day, the maximum focus was on Productivity, it was Professor Elton Mayo, who experimented with Hawthorne Studies in order to prove that people are important for productivity in the organization. The human relations management theory is based on the researched brief that the inherent desire of people in an organization is to work with a supportive team which helps in the learning, development and growth of an individual. The simple implication of this theory is that if people are pushed to engage and participate in the work activities, they are given special attention and are being appreciated and rewarded for work, this would result in high quality of work from the employees whilst serving them as motivation factor. In a business organization relationship between the employees and the management are of significant importance, it combines the process of training employees, foster a workplace culture and resolve conflicts between the management and the employees. Thus, the human relations theory is extremely important while assessing the relations between the humans in the organization. I have selected Human relation theory because it gives a significant level of importance to the relationship between the humans in the organization. These human relationships help in creating positive synergies in the workplace, which leads to achievement of the organizational goals and objectives. The theory has good imeplication for the managers, as they are the prime people responsible in building strong relationship with the employees, so much that they can trust them and work alongside. The human relation theory also has impact on values, beliefs and attitude which are relevant in the present times, and also allow for the development of one’s personality. Other theories of management are less specific in their approach, and are little irrelevant in the present context. Human relation theory provides for creating a positive impact in the workplace, and states the implication for the individuals (Burley, 2017).

Giorgio Armani: Collaborations and Revenue

The Human relations theory is certainly an improvement over the classical theory of management, which did not give high importance to the human aspects of the workers. Some of the basic principles of the theory which will further provide a base for the values, culture, belief and attitude of a person are:

• The theory states that it’s not only the financial gains in which the employees in the organization are interested, they draw motivation also from appreciation and recognition. This point implies that the employees need both, financial gain as well as recognition as factors of motivation (Booth & Erskine, 2016).
• The theory advices that workers are humans, and they should be treated like one and not just like machines. The theory also asks managers to understand the human value and emotions of the employees while interacting with them.
• Formal and informal relations are both significant to the organization. While formal relations are created by the managers in the organization, informal relations are created as a virtue of similar taste, likes dislikes, preferences and so on. But, both the types of relations are important for the employees and the business organization (Thompson, 2017).
• Workers have simplest of expectation form their senior, for instance, the workers need good communication flow from Top to Bottom. This will help them in developing better relations at the workplace.
• Nobody likes conflicts, and more so, it is a big distractor for the productivity of the employees. Thus, within the purview of the organization, it is expected that the managers should take efforts to handle the conflicts within the organization effectively.
• Employees like empowerment; once they feel empowered they contribute towards the productivity of the organization. Thus, it is advised that the management involves the employees in the decision making and empower the employees (Kagitcibasi, 2017).

In order to summarize, it can be said that the human relations theory illustrates that the employees in an organization wants to have and develop a sense of belonging towards the organization, and wants to be treated with dignity, value and respect. All these factors in a combination will organically push the productivity of the employees by leaps and bounds. It can be said that human relations theory in the present organizational day is the most relevant and has some great insights for the managers to improve the productivity of the organization. Human relations theory has a significant role to play in creating the values, beliefs and attitudes in the organization.

This section will ascertain the impact of the Human relations theory on one’s own beliefs, values and attitudes. Each section will be studied separately for better understanding of the impact of the theory:

Belief can be understood as the state of mind of a person in which he thinks of something to be true without having an empirical evidence to prove the claim with factual certainty. Belief of an individual is a culmination of what he observes and feels about a certain thing or an object. Belief can be both positive and negative at the same time, and a person can still belief negative while still having positive belief about the topic (Kagitcibasi, 2017).

For instance, I am a firm believer of the human relations theory and resonate with the assumptions made with the theory. As the theory says that workers are to be treated as human and managers should give a considerable thought about their feelings and emotions. I strongly agree with the theory as it signifies the importance of human touch, and it does feel welcoming in the organization. My belief here is that if the managers are able to understand the epiphany and the concerns of the employees, it will most certainly help in increasing their productivity and efficiency (Rahim, 2017).

Another belief of mine which resonates with the human relation theory is the concept which states that the employees are not only satisfied with the financial gains, and they need more than such monetary gains. I strongly believe that the assumption holds true as without appreciation and recognition, the employees does not feel completely motivated. Providing recognition and appreciation will positively help in finding the missing puzzle of motivation, which is an implication that in order to motivate the employees one has to motivate him in a comprehensive manner, and not just satisfy his financial needs. Moreover, according to the Maslow’s theory of motivation, ones the physiological needs of the human are satisfied, he graduates to reach another level, thus self-esteem and self-actualization needs comes to play their role. Thus, beliefs can be both rational and irrational, but the individual should definitely stick to one’s belief system in order to stay upbeat in his life (Mackelprang, Salsgiver & Salsgiver, 2016).

Understanding Attitude, Values, and Beliefs

The behaviour of a person at a workplace is a reflection of how does one feel while working at the organization and his attitudes towards his work and the workplace. An attitude can thus be understood as the opinion, beliefs and feelings about the aspects of the environment. A person generally has an attitude towards everything, for instance towards the clothes they wear, food they eat, the way they talk and many other things. At workplace also, attitude has a great influence on the work culture and the work done by the employees. For instance, if the employees have an attitude of procrastination, he will also keep on pushing his deadlines even at work, which would gradually impact his productivity (Zajonc, 2017).

Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction is another attribute which is a reflection of attitude of an employee towards his work, if the employee is satisfied with the work environment and feels that the organization has more motivation factors than hygiene factors, he would work with enhanced productivity in the organization. The Human relations theory is highly contextual in ascertaining the attitude of a human being. For instance, if the human being believes that it is important to be treated with utmost dignity, respect and care, and their attitude towards the work will be a combination of all these factors. My personal attitude towards work is that I respect everyone and treat them equally, despite any cultural or any other differences, thus, my attitude towards people can be seen as practicing inclusion at the workplace (Triandis, 2018).

In general, my attitude in general life is a reflection of how closely I observe things, believe in people and have an understanding of things. My upbringing has an important role to play in my attitude. For instance, my attitude towards conflict is extremely negative; I see conflicts as the biggest roadblock in the sustainability of the organization, which is similar to the human relation theory. Thus, in personal life also, I try to refrain from having unnecessary conflicts in my life, as a lot of time gets wasted, without any positive outcome. Thus, my attitude towards the human elation theory is positive, and I am certain that human relation theory is contextual and contemporary in its existence (Petty, 2018).

Just like organization, every individual has certain values which guides the action of the human and also influences his behaviour in personal and professional life. Values have an important role to play in the life of a human being. Important and the lasting beliefs of the ideal shared by the members of a culture about what is good, bad, desirable or undesirable. Values have a major role and influence in the behaviour of a person and attitude and also serve as broad guidelines for all the situations. Some of the values which are close to my heart and guide me towards leading a better and a well-balanced life are: Integrity, Perseverance, integrity, discipline, open-mindedness and respect. My values not only shield me from wrong doing in business organization, but also help me in taking the right call and make right decision in my life (Tonnies & Loomis, 2017).

Human Relations Theory and its Relevance Today

My intention always is to follow integrity in my personal and professional life, I believe that integrity helps the individual in going farther in his life, and other people start respecting the individual because of his values. Thus, values are extremely integral to a human, and serve as defining factor of one’s personality (Bratton & Gold, 2017). For instance, in accordance to the human relations theory, it has been said that it is advised to treat every person working in the organization with equal respect, love, care and fairness, now this can only happen, if the managers working in the organization have values of love and care and respect. It is only then, they can contribute towards the growth of the organization. Thus, strong values of an individual, not only define him as a better person, but also play an important role in creating roles for the future (Hargreaves, 2017).

Thus, human relations theory is contextual in business organization and has a significant role to play in one’s own life and the life of others.

A contingency theory is an organizational theory which states that there is no best way to lead, organize a business corporation and take decision. On the other hand, the best strategy here should be to identify the optimal course of action depending upon the external and internal factors in the organization. The main concepts as proposed by Fred Fiedler, who is the founder of the theory are:

• The theory states that there is no best way to manage an organization.
• It is the onus upon the leader to identify the best practise of management and leadership which will help in achievement of the organizational goals and objectives.
• One of the most pivotal components of the contingency theory is the LPC (Least preferred co-worker) scale which helps in measuring the orientation of the leadership (Otley, 2016).

Contingency theory is picked as another theory for analysing its impact on values, belief and attitude, because of the underlying fact that this theory promotes flexibility in the approach of management and does not approve of one single theory. Contingency theory is vast in nature, and talks about how businesses should be in the present day in order to achieve the goals of sustainability. This is further inflicted in a positive manner while ascertaining the impact on the beliefs, values and attitude (Tedeschi, 2017).

The three variables of the contingency theory are; Acceptance of the leadership by the employees, the extent of description of the employee JD and the authority which the leader holds in the business organization. The contingency theory also states that a leader will be in a position to exert greater influence in the organization, provided he has a good rapport and relationship with the employees. At the same time, organizations where the job description is explained at length and employees have a great understanding of their job roles; leaders in such organization have more influence over the employees (Petty, 2018).

Impact on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Values

The contingency theory states that there is plethora of internal and external factors which have an impact over the structure of the organization. Factors such as leadership, usage of technology, leadership style and how does the leadership adopt to changing strategy are important factors in the theory.

The last point in the contingency theory is based on the LPC scale, which helps in identifying if the leadership is task oriented or relationship oriented. In this approach, each manager has to rate his co-worker or the employees on the basis of their working experience in the past or in present.  This allows for managers to spend a lot of time in knowing them, thus strengthening their relationship with the employees (Axelrod, 2015).

Thus, the key takeaways from the contingency theory can be summarized by saying that, organization and leadership have to be extremely dynamic in the nature. The leadership has to ensure dynamics in the organization and the leadership by staying committed towards their goals, also to add flexibility to their leadership (Ajzen, 2015).

The section here will focus on assessing the impact on the values, beliefs and attitudes in the workplace in sync with the contingency and the human relation theory. The section will provide a comprehensive understanding of the behaviour in the organization.

The contingency theory states that one has to rely on the leadership and that the leadership has to be flexible in order to achieve the goals of the organization. My belief system totally concurs with the hypothesis here, as if the leadership is flexible, it will allow for more flexibility in the system, and would give the employees space to breathe. For instance in Giorgio Armani, the leadership is extremely flexible, I can say that because I have seen the management using plenty of management tools to analyse the situation and they do not shy away from the change in strategy. The strategic change is seen as a positive sign in the organization, as it reflects that the management is not rigid and always allows scope for change (Chen, 2014).

My belief of the leadership in relation to the contingency theory here is right on point, as I also belief that more the leadership involvement in the engagement with the employees, more they will be committed towards their work. In my personal experience I have seen that when my manager engages me in some work, other than the project I have been working on, I am definitely more energetic and try to contribute as much as possible.

Conclusion

My belief in relation to the Human relation theory at workplace is that, if a behave well with a fellow co-worker; he would do the same with me and vice versa. Only, this will lead to creation of a positive work environment at the workplace. Every person needs to be respected for his work, appreciated for his good work and treated fairly in the organization. I tend to do the same, because I am a firm believer in the fact that relationship building leads to creation of positive synergies at the workplace.

As mentioned earlier, a person attitude is a culmination of his belief and the value system which he accumulates from different walks in his life and on the basis of his upbringing. Contingency theory has created a strong impact on my attitude; it has basically provided justified arguments to my attitude in the workplace. For instance, I too believe that there is no best style of leadership and also there is no best way to manage an organization, the more flexible a person or the leader, the better it is for the growth of the organization. I am highly flexible, and before dealing with any organizational problem, my attitude is to unlearn everything which I have learnt so far. I analyse the entire possible ramification and take a decision on the basis of what would have a greater benefit for the general people. My attitude is guided by the logic that, every problem in the organization or the workplace is unique, thus following one way or one particular method would not be enough to stem away the problem from the roots. Hence, it is always advised to stay as flexible as possible in one’s approach in the organization (Bem, 2017).

In the similar manner, leadership concept of contingency theory has impacted my attitude. I used to be baffled at times, seeing my manager or the leadership reacting to situations differently. For instance, sometimes I saw them working in a close chamber with zero involvement of the employees, and at other time I see them discussing a situation in an open forum. This makes me ponder that how the leaders can so quickly adapt to the changing situation. I myself have adopted this practice in my work, and I look at challenges in a holistic scenario and find out the best possible solution for the challenge. All this has been possible by brining flexibility in my attitude.

Values are an integral part of an individual which shapes and defines one’s personality. Values of a person are a culmination of his beliefs, attitude and cultural upbringing. One learns and adopts from his culture, his surrounding, his peers and his families, based on all this acquired learning a person creates value for himself. My value system consist of discipline, integrity, perseverance, open-mindedness and honesty, all these values have helped me thrive in my organization.

Ethics as well are important in defining the values, and helps in making the right ethical call, which will be beneficial to the entire society or the community. At the workplace, ethics play an important role, as the people working in the organization have to sometime make the decision which might hurt the interests of the business, while being ethical. Thus, one’s value helps him in making the right ethical decision, thinking in mind the concept of utilitarianism theory (Vogel & Wanke, 2016).

My value of open-mindedness helped me immensely at my workplace as I was able to easily deal with the changes at the workplace and was also comfortable around culturally diverse people. I learnt how to adapt to cultural diversity and still make the most out of the existing situation. I adopted two new values in the process which are; adaptability and flexibility, these values were in sync with the contingency theory and helped me learn a lot about the high performing best practices at work.

Conclusion

Business management encompasses the activities in creating the strategies for the organization which helps in accomplishing the goals and objectives in the organization. A lot of expert and theorist in the past have given certain management theories which are relevant in the present times. One such theory is Human relations theory, which states that in the organization it is important to emphasize on relations in the organization in order to achieve the goals of the organization. This theory has positive impact on the belief, values and attitude of a person in the workplace and also in one’s personal lives. Values are integral part of a human, and dictate the way he behaves in the organization. In the similar manner, attitude of a person helps in building bonds between individual on the basis of likes and dislikes. Beliefs on the other hand are the concept which one holds true without having empirical evidence.  Management theories create a lot of positive and negative impact on the value system of an individual, his beliefs and attitudes.

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