Abstract

In this assignment, I will first be discussing the structure, background and organization history of the
chosen case study company, “Adidas.”,a German multinational corporation that design and
manufactures sports clothing and accessories.Through this report, we will learn about the
management cycle process as well as how the company delivers what it promises to its customers and
stakeholders.

The second part of the assignment will be focused on the various organization management
philosophies adopted by the company which allows for smooth progression and steady growth.

This will be followed by a segment on the fundamental relationship between management and its
employees and the essential of having such relationship.

And to end the assignment off, I will give a conclusion on the above points and also summarize the
essay with what we have learnt on the principles of management in order understanding the role.

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Table of Summary

1. Introduction
2. Management Philosophies
3. Management Systems& Organizational Culture
4. Organization and its employees
5. Conclusion
6. References

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Introduction

Adidas (stylised as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, headquartered

in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the
largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the world.
It is the holding company for the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, Taylor
Made-Adidas golf company (including Ashworth), 8.33% of Bayern Munich and Runtastic, an Austrian
fitness technology company. Adidas revenue for 2016 was listed at €19.29 billion.[3]
Adidas was registered on 18 August 1949 by Adolf Dassler, following a family feud at the Gebrüder
Dassler Schuhfabrik Company between him and his older brother Rudolf.[1] Rudolf had earlier
established Puma, which quickly became the business rival of Adidas, and is also headquartered in
Herzogenaurach. The company's clothing and shoe designs typically feature three parallel bars, and the
same motif is incorporated into Adidas's current official logo.[6][7] The brand name is uncapitalized and is
stylized with a lower case “a”.

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 Management Philosophies

Management philosophy is the philosophy adopted by a company's executives outlining how

they believe a business should be directed, particularly with regard to the treatment of fellow
workers and employees. As such, management philosophy is less concerned with the day-to-
day mechanics of running a business. Instead, a quality management philosophy helps
develop relationships based on ideal interpersonal practices.
It is a philosophy like any other, management philosophy is frequently abstract and based on
rational principles rather than carefully outlined business models or daily best practices. As
put by Accounting Library, management philosophy is a “belief system that guides how
people will interact with other people. There are no process steps that can be defined and
improved over time.” Instead, the manifestation of management philosophy appears in
statements of corporate culture, or in an organization's mission statement. Such statements
frequently assert the primacy of employees as the most valued element in the business, and
that the philosophy of that business is to guide them towards fulfilling their potential.
Management philosophies organize your business around specific goals and govern all areas
of your company. Different philosophies direct each aspect of your business, including the
overall organization of your company, your methods for motivating your employees, the way
your company prepares for and addresses problems and your company philosophy for
customer relations.

Working Toward Maximum Efficiency

This approach focuses on how a business is organized, the power structure between
management and employees and the division of labor within a company. Organizational
philosophies ask the question, “How should the work of your business be divided for
maximum efficiency?” Organizational philosophies also specify a clear chain of
responsibility. For example, the bureaucratic management style is a tiered system of
management that organizes a company into specific sets of responsibilities. It divides
responsibilities between managers, each with their own division of employees who work as
subordinates under their manager.

Motivating Your Employees

Motivational philosophies focus on methods to inspire employees to improve performance,

accept personal responsibility for their work and work toward the overall success of their
company. Motivational philosophies seek to develop a work environment that promotes
strong employee-driven ideals. As an example, the goal-work philosophy holds that if
employees are given high goals and the knowledge of how to reach those goals, they can
improve their performance and work to achieve those high goals.

Managing a Crisis

Companies use crisis management techniques when something goes wrong in their business.
These philosophies focus on identifying potential dangers, planning for those dangers and
responding to them with a clear goal once the problem occurs. They begin with a careful
assessment of potential dangers by assessing them and suggesting methods for reducing the
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impact of future dangers. They then provide crisis-reaction strategies that respond to
immediate dangers once they have occurred.

Understanding Your Customer Relationships

Consumer philosophies focus on the way your customer relates to your company. These
philosophies include transactional marketing, relationship marketing and mixed-marketing
philosophies. Transactional marketing involves large ticket items, which are expensive
purchases your customers make infrequently. Relationship marketing focuses on less
expensive but regularly purchased items, such as groceries, clothes or household items. As an
example, a relationship-based company model requires a philosophy that considers
merchandise cost, employee presentation and a history between customers and your store.

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Management System
Management system is a systematic framework of policies, procedures and processes used
step-by-step by the organization. It aimed at smooth functioning through achieve its
objectives and promote continual improvement within. It generally included the
organization's operation aspects such as financial success, safe operation, product quality,
client relationships, legislative and regulatory conformance and worker management. In the
other hand, the management system can categories to three different system which
authoritative, consultative, participative.

I) Authoritative system
The leader has a low concern for people and uses such methods as threats and other fear-
based methods to achieve conformance is call exploitative authoritative. In this style,
the communication between superiors and subordinates are almost entirely downwards. The
psychologically distant concerns of people are ignored, employees are supposed to work
more than specified work hours. The lower-level employees allowed in decision and policy
making area but is limited by the framework given to them from upper-level management.

II) Consultative system

This system is related to the human-relation theory. Upper-management control the policies
and general decisions that affect an organization. While the lower-level employees freedom
to make specific decisions that will affect their works. The employee relationship is more
cooperative and the employees are more willing to accept the result because of their
involvement. In short, communication in this system is more freedom and satisfaction
improves as well as productivity.

III) Participative system

This system is different form consultative system. It coincides with human-resources theory.
The organization with this system has set a group participation and all the organizational
goals are accepted by everyone. Manager will avoid the problems go on the lower-level of
organization and motivate employees to produces monetary awards and participation in goal
setting. The production of employees is the higher consideration in this system than
satisfaction. There is a high level of responsibility and accountability of the organizational
goals in all of the employees.

Organizational Culture
Organizational culture encompasses values and behaviors that "contribute to the unique social
and psychological environment of an organization". According to Needle
(2004), organizational culture represents the collective values, beliefs and principles of

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organizational members and is a product of such factors as history, product, market,
technology, strategy, type of employees, management style, and national culture; culture
includes the organization's vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions,
environment, location, beliefs, and habits.

 Feedback is encouraged and the company use open-door philosophy.

The feedbacks are essential to determine how your business operates. If both employees and
the employers are able to provide constructive feedback on what is going on, the organization
and the employees will feel more rewarded. In New Balance, they have a regular system in
place for feedback. The management will have meetings weekly and daily conversations with
employees.

 The organization will take positive action on individual basis through employee
involvement and their ability.

The organization will encourage their employees to take risks and the leaders are seen as
innovators or entrepreneurs. They considers the employees as the most treasured possession
of the organization. Basically, the energy and creativity of employees involve in decision
making to achieve the organizational goal. The organization very particular about the
employees they recruit and they will emphasis on individual ingenuity and freedom. In New
Balance, the individuals are hired as per their specialization, educational qualification and
interests. The employees are the true assets of the organization who have a major role in its
successful functioning. In the same time, the organization are very particular about training
the existing employees. They will conduct various training programs at the workplace to hone
the skills of the employees and upgrade the knowledge of the employees.

 The employee recognition to produce staff satisfaction in additional produce customer

satisfaction.

According the employee satisfaction to the organization, they have a same goal and strive
hard to satisfy their clients to expect maximum business from their side. Customer
satisfaction is the main motive of the employees. In this case, the management will take
decisions in employee recognition. They also will make solutions drive employee
engagement, employee retention and corporate culture. Moreover, the principles and policies
are formulated to address sensitive issues to get the good results in the end.

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 Organization and its employees
Management is the art of knowing what you want to do and then seeing that they do it in the
best and the cheapest may. (Frederick Winslow Taylor, march20, 1856-March 21, 1915)
Management can defined as the administration of the organization. It includes the
organization and coordination of activities in a business to achieve the company's goal or
objectives.
 Planning
It is right to say "well plan is half done". When Adidas want to launch their new product, it is
a plan with preparatory step which determines when, how and who is going to perform the
business activity from start until the end.
 Organizing
The management of Adidas will create the activities such as structuring, integrating,
coordinating task goals, and activities. It also grouping the resources about their consumer
interest in order to attain objectives.
 Leading
In the leading process, the different department of manager in Adidas communicating,
motivating, inspiring, and encouraging employees towards a higher level of productivity.
 Controlling
It is the final phase of management process. The management of Adidas will make correction
as necessary and determine whether the organization is on target toward its goal.
Relationship between Management and its Employees
Maintaining a strong employer and employee relationship can be the key to the ultimate
success of an organization, the results are advantageous. An individual cannot work on his
own, he needs people around. If the organization is all empty, you will not feel like sitting
there and working. An isolated environment demotivates an individual and spreads negativity
around. It is essential that people are comfortable with each other and work together as a single
unit towards a common goal.

Managers including the senior management should make themselves accessible to their co-
workers as much as possible. Individuals must have the liberty to walk up to their immediate
bosses in case of a doubt and clear things. The hierarchical difference should not be overly
emphasized and become an obstacle for clear communications. This might cause
misunderstandings and conflicts at work.

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This is also aligned to the open-door concept that allows for better transparency between the
employees and the employers. Mutual trust helps in maintaining the satisfaction level of both
the parties. Having a whistle-blowing policy is helpful as it provides a confidential channel for
employees to voice out any grievances. Management should take these cases seriously and
attend to such reports immediately.

Leadership style in Adidas with the business objective

In Adidas, they had presented the Responsible Leadership report. They build global brands
that athletes are proud to wear, associates are proud to create and communities are proud to
host. By demonstrating responsible leadership, they moving the environment forward
with them all environmentally sustainable product. They communicate with their
stakeholders and the large world about their accomplishments and progression. They want to
solicit help where they need to improve in addition improve the transparency. In this case, the
management encourage the reader provide feedback as well as they will gain greater insight
into Adidas.
Effectiveness and efficiency
In order to successful organization, the management must balance between the effectiveness
and efficiency. Effective means doing the right thing and success in the end. While efficient
means using the necessary resources without unnecessary waste in the process.
In Adidas, efficiency refer to their operations and sales process. For instance, it defined the
input and output ratio of their products and focused on maximum output with minimum
resources. Besides that, they train their employees and managers complete the task in limit
time with the least amount of resources possible by utilizing time saving strategies.
Efficiency increase productivity and save both time and money.
While the effectiveness refer to doing right things in their operations and sales process. They
will measure if the actual output meet desired output. They keep the long term strategy to be
more adaptable in changing environment. In the other hand, they measure the effectiveness of
employees by conducting performance reviews. Effectiveness employees will make the sales
consistently, which often dictates a company's reputation and customer satisfaction.
Motivation and Communication in Adidas
Motivation is a driving force behind all people action. In a successful organization, they will
not only how to motivate purchasers to buy their products or services, they also motivate their
employees to work diligently and productively. Adidas has their own reward system, often
differing from person to person and from department to department. For example, the
management will identify their most profitable products and services, then increase the
percentage of commission that department and outlet will receive for selling those specific
products and services. In the same time, maintaining lower commission for less profitable
products. As author Michael LeBoeuf says in his book, The Greatest Management Principle
in the World, “What gets rewarded gets done.” If we want more of something in an
organization, simply increase greater rewards for that behavior. If we want less of an activity
in an organization, simply reduce the rewards, or increase the punishment for that behavior.
People respond to incentives.

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 Communication is a link to holds an organization together. With it, a company is a unit with
power far beyond the sum of its parts. Good communications helps employees feel trusted
and connected to each other, which in turn increases productivity. They have the same goal
and understand their job function. The biggest complaints in many companies is a lack of
communication. Why is this? This is because they do not have clear expectations and
explanation for employees and, perhaps surprisingly, for customers as well. In this case, the
manager and employees must see communication as significant part of their role. The actions
and behaviors must be consistent with the messages wishes to covey.
Conclusion

Starting a business is no easy task, sustaining a business however is another ball game
altogether.
A successful business understands and uses the essential of its employees briefly.
Although there are many different approaches of management, all of them essentially are
aligned to a general framework that consists of individuality, structure and system, a clear
vision, strong values as well as organized operations.

Both business owners and workers must work hand in hand to create a sustainable environment
where constant growth is observed. Trust and loyalty is paramount in enabling good teamwork.
Hierarchy aside, everyone should know that they play an equally important part as their fellow
co-workers. Employees should never feel like their opinions are invaluable and employers
should be open to suggestions and even directions from their employees.

In a nutshell, transparency should be consistently practiced as this allow for everyone to be

accountable for their actions.
All in all, working in a thriving organization should be a blessing for both employers and
employees and both parties should constantly strive to improve and reach new heights,
together.

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Reference
1. Principle of Management - Pearson e-learning portal
2. Principle of Management - Camford International College e-learning portal
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adidas
4. http://taylorsadidas.blogspot.my/2013/04/history-of-addidas.html
5. https://www.adidas-group.com/en/group/history/

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