Business Management Report: Hermes' Motivation, Leadership Analysis

This report provides an analysis of Hermes, a global fashion retail organization, focusing on two key management aspects: motivation and leadership. The report begins with an introduction outlining the aim to evaluate leadership elements and organizational issues. It then delves into the organizational background, highlighting Hermes' innovative approach. The discussion section examines Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, assessing how Hermes addresses employee needs at various levels, including physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. It also explores the X and Y theory of leadership, discussing how Hermes utilizes the Y factor to enhance employee engagement and retention through economic benefits and recognition programs. The report concludes with recommendations for improvement based on the analysis, emphasizing strategies to address organizational challenges and enhance employee motivation. The report incorporates relevant scholarly theories and frameworks to realize their precision as well as efficacy.

Running Head: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Business Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Aim..............................................................................................................................................3
Organizational Background.........................................................................................................3
Organizational Issues...................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Analysis of the Organization: identified aspects.........................................................................4
Maslow’s Motivation Theory..................................................................................................4
Leadership on the basis of the X and Y theory........................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Recommendation...........................................................................................................................11
Reference List and Bibliography...................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Aim
The goal of this report is the evaluation of the 2 essential elements related to leadership as well
as problems that Hermes has been facing. The report also aims to recognize as well as investigate
several factors that impacts the selected factors of thee desired leadership style as well as
associated them with relevant scholarly theories as well as frameworks so as to realize their
precision as well as efficacy. Hence, he research would be beneficial for the organizations who
would be able to understand various theoretical backgrounds which can help them to solve
various organizational issues. the report will also assist them to discover the best possible
method that will be helpful in addressing as well as solving the issues and thereby achieve better
efficiency in the concerned market.
Organizational Background
Hermes is an organization which is headquartered in France and involved in global online as
well as digital fashion retail operations. The organization is well reputed for its innovation in
technologies as well as shift in fashion trends. This is scope where the organization has
massively embraced innovation and new technology, thus promoting better output of the finished
products.
Organizational Issues
Hermes faced two main problems concerning motivation as well as management. owing
to various factors that have been accountable for the rise of job stress as well as reduction of job
satisfaction, the internal stakeholders are a witnessing are witnessing a reduced level of

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organizational motivation. There is another manageri0a challenge that id being faced by the
organization because of the shift in organizational management and that implementation of new
modes of organizational management.
Discussion
Analysis of the Organization: identified aspects
Maslow’s Motivation Theory
As per the Hierarchy of Need Concept of Maslow, it is important that the organization is able to
address the requirements at various levels incorporating the physical needs, social needs as well
as the security needs and lastly also the self actualization needs so that they are able to address
the requirements of the people. According to reduced red requirements theory, there is
hierarchical structuring of needs so that greater order requirements of the organization can be
met. As per this theory, once the requirements are satisfied at the lower levels of hierarchy, it
will be required to satisfy the demands at the next stage of hierarchy in order to keep the
motivation levels of the individuals intact (Miner 2015a, b). The hierarchy of needs delivers the
idea regarding how to maintain motivation as well as the various factors that influence
motivation.
The emotional needs can be considered as the specific human needs which include the
basic desires like clothing, housing, oxygen, water as well as the other fundamental requirements
of our lives. These are also the needs of survival which are required for human sustenance and
thereby have strong influence on the basics of human behaviors. As per Ruben and Gigliotti (2017),
these are the most basic needs that are needed to be fulfilled before fulfilling the needs of higher

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levels. The next level of needs that are needed to be fulfilled after the accomplishment of this
category of needs is the layer of psychological needs (Jonas 2016).
At the following level of needs as per the Maslow’s theory, there are the security requirements
which are related to security as well as the safety needs and can be witnessed from a perspective
of physical safety requirements at the workplaces as well as the financial security needs. Such
demands can be costlier in comparison to the psychological needs, and are also more effective in
making people in the workspaces to deliver more. However, Johnson and Kruse (2019) argues
that this level of needs also fails to motivate people when they are satisfied.
The social demands are next in order to requirements after the safety needs of the professionals.
this need involve the aspects like interpersonal conditions, sense of belonging as well as
companionship and is therefore a part of the process of socializing as well as harmonizing people
so that they are able to perform better in their work settings. Therefore after the satisfaction of
the safety needs of the individuals, there is an onset of the social needs of the individuals and it is
very important that the social needs are met in order to ensure that the individuals are motivated
for a sustained period (Harrigan and Commons 2015).
The desire for esteem is also associated with an urge for respect and id also essential for a
perception of accomplishment, understanding, autonomy, self confidence as well as skills. After
the satisfaction of the needs of self esteem, it will be essential for the satisfaction of the needs of
creating competency, capacity as well as self confidence in to the employees (Ruben and
Gigliotti 2016). However, in this context, Bratton and Gold (2017) refers that the failure to meet
the demands can become the reason for growth of helplessness, weakness as well as

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worthlessness. Hence, it can be communicated that these are the demands that can urge the
individuals to perform better.
The needs of self actualization imply a combination of lower hierarchical needs which are
needed to be fulfilled, promptly after the fulfillment of the other levels of hierarchy. As such,
inspired from the findings of Storey (2016), it can be stared that after the fulfillment of the other
needs, it is only possible for the actualization needs to be fulfilled. Self-actualization is the
method that leads an individual to transform their perception in to reality and thus after deriving
from the above discussion, it can be easily derived that only after the fulfillment of the
psychological needs, social needs, safety needs as well as esteem needs, any individual can be
easily motivated by means of their self-actualization to urge them to deliver better performance
(Fallatah and Syed 2018).
In the internal base of operations, the organization provides powerful as well as
appropriate wage and compensation packages so as to meet the psychological needs of the
workers in terms of food, housing, apparel as well as the other basic necessities in life. This
policy has helped the organization to empower their staff to develop better lifestyle, living
standard, alongside influencing their staff to achieve better quality of life, healthier lifestyle as
well as influence their attributes in terms of enhancement of allegiance, as well as develop a
sense of wellbeing in the organization (Teles 2015). The safety needs of the employees are also
better addressed as an outcome of the promotion of their financial security as well as the ventures
that have been undertaken by the organization to ensure their physical safety. Therefore because
of the satisfaction of this need, these aspects have been able to satisfactorily comply with the
motivational needs of the staff as they have a perception that they have already secured their
employment. The comprehensive workforce of Hermes, spread globally, incorporates a big as

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well as varied workgroup (Iqbal et al. 2015). This helps in endorsement of a work culture
involving a social relationship incorporating the staff as well as favorable job culture thereby
generating a feeling of companionship as well as belonging thereby helping in the fulfillment of
the social requirements of the staff line of Hermes. It can also be specified here that leading
position, powerful economic compensation, brand equity as well as job stability helps in the
solving the self-esteem needs of the organizational; workers. By means of several rewards as
well as recognition programs, the company strongly emphasizes on rewarding, accomplishments
as well as achievements. This helped Hermes to influence the staff of the organization to conduct
as well as retain the productivity of the company. Hence, it can be concluded that the
organization has the capability of promoting self actualization of their staff by fulfillment of the
four basic human needs. Hence, it can be communicated that in the recent past, fast changes have
occurred in the organization which accounted to rise in stress level having an adverse impact on
the employee motivation (Shih et al. 2019).
There are several drawbacks of the hierarchical structure theories that incorporates the fact the
needs of employees or other stakeholders do not always need the pursuit of a hierarchical
command and it also emphasizes that there are overlapping in between the requirements. For
evidence the social needs might be triggered even if the safety needs are not satisfied properly. In
all the scenarios, the preference structure for the human needs is also not relevant or contextual.
Moreover, as advised by Shapiro and Stefkovich (2016), it has been revealed from various
human behavior surveys that behavior can be at times guided by multiplicity and hence there are
doubts regarding the validity of any statement that professes to address one statement at one time
for motivating people. Another disadvantage of this hypothesis is that some people might find
their motivational levels to be continually smaller, which incorporates people with chronic

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unemployment, their basic necessities like meals, clothing as well as housing and so on
(Bouzenita and Boulanouar 2016).
Leadership on the basis of the X and Y theory
The X and Y theory of encouragement as well as leadership had been developed by Douglas
McGregor and this theory is thoroughly related to the Maslow Theory of requirements Terzi and
Derin (2016). This theory does not simply enables the comprehension of ideas for motivation of
the members of the workforce, but also comprehended the conceptualization of motivation in the
organization alongside comprehending how the individuals can be guided as well as led by
means of motivation and hence it earns a significant place among all the management theories.
This framework of theories comprises of three major concepts which are Theory X, Theory Y as
well as Theory Z (Rudolph et al. 2017). Theory X perceives that a typical employee can be
ascribed by the tiny aspirations as well as duties which are oriented towards the objective.
Thereupon the theory X also suggests that employees are indolent in terms of their habit as well
as preference towards work. they can exhibit very less propensity to work and thus it can be
suggested that they exhibited lack of ambitiousness or they are fearsome against duties,
accepting to take decisions as well as directions from the others and are also self centered and
therefore ignorant towards the requirements as well as goals of the organization. The theory Y on
the other hand, depicts that the individuals are not passive in terms of resisting the achievement
of organizational goals, showing preference towards undertaking of responsibility, thereby
calling the organization to success and are also guiding their own conduct alongside having an
underlying demand for accomplishment (Shih et al. 2019).

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The Z theory was additionally introduced by Urwick who pointed out that people should have
the sense of responsibility to realize the organizational goals of the company where they are
working and should be willing to deliver what they should be contributing for the achievement
of those objectives (Fiaz et al.2017). Therefore it is a combination of these three theories which
should be assisting in the comprehension of the ways in which the different variables might
impact the individual motivation levels in the organization (Tucker et al. 2017).
This organization has made use of the Y factor of motivation in order to develop strategies for
retention as well as employee engagement. There are adequate as well as profitable economic
benefits for the workers who exhibit exemplary efficiency, thus encouraging the others to raise
the standard of their efficiency so as to obtain better economic compensation (Fallatah and Syed
2018). The company has a strong perception that the workers are in possession of abilities as
well as competencies required for promoting an improved performance and might need to be
promote enhanced performance for overall better outcomes. The professional development
probed by workers with tendency of high performance also delivers as a source for motivating
the workers and this is endorsed by the theory Y and this helps the inmates to attain better and
improved outcomes (Nussinov and Van Den Brink 2015). As per the Trait Theory of
Management, there are effective managerial styles as well as characteristics of leadership and
management. These include a sustained vision for guiding individuals, strong choice making as
well as communication abilities, a powerful sense of engagement, potent market knowledge as
well as concentration of the demands of the end users which can help a leader to efficiently guide
as well as guarantee higher level of achievement in the fashion retail sector that is extremely
vibrant as well as unstable (Venkatesh et al. 2016). This theory also relegates that the personality
of the leaders and their impact are some significant features which assists the leaders to

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proficiently direct as well as motivate the employees as well as the peers towards better
outcomes as well as attainment of organizational achievements. This style of management had
been undertaken by Jean Louis, the CEO of Hermes and this is evident in the display of
democratic management as well as its emphasis on distribution of the choice making process
within the workers, in a manner promoting both growth of skills and help for maintaining
engagement of the employees as well as motivating them to become a part of the company (Shih
et al. 2019).
This leadership style helps in to fostering a sense of belonging as well as inclusiveness,
alongside mutual respect between staff and management ad can be suggested as a potential
leadership strategy helping Hermes to keep up with the leadership position as well as the
efficiency of the workers. The choice of the management also emphasizes on the improvement of
customer satisfaction as well as enhancement of the rate of retention as well as employee
engagement. The employee expectations of the organization are also strong and they thereby sets
higher performance standards for ensuring the highest level of customer experience (Healy
2016). However, this policy has resulted in the increase of work pressure and has brought about a
negative impact on the rate of job satisfaction among the various organizational members,
thereby impacting level of motivation of the workers. The mission statement of the organization
provides a proof of the elevated expectations of the organization from their workers which
thereby makes this organization one of the most poignant customer centered businesses on the
globe. Their internet marketplace helps the customers to make any kind of purchase (Güss et al.
2017). This is a vision that is evident in the long term objectives of the company and has been
properly communicated with the inner as well as exterior stakeholders with enhanced frequency
so as to ensure that the management choices are mostly emphasized on the above vision.

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Moreover, the management of the company is highly leaned on their goal of being the most
precious business on the globe by means of solid expansion plans as well as policies as well as
concentrate over compliance alongside having effective techniques for tackling feedback as well
as complaints in a professional manner and ensuring that they are beneficial from the perspective
of the operational procedures (Acevedo 2018). The organizational management Hermes is also
characterized by exclusive market awareness by means of which the business will be able to
comprehend as well as solve their market needs by balancing of their product quality along with
pricing for guaranteeing a competitive benefit and thereby have greatest hold on the relevant
market. The negotiating capacity of the organizational management is another essential factor
that has been backing excellent relations with the providers as well as vendors thereby
maintaining the cost effectiveness of the products offered by the company. The management of
the company exhibits a potential leadership characteristic which enabled Hermes to emphasize
on market success (Bouzenita and Boulanouar 2016).
Conclusion
The analysis on the organizational culture of Hermes develops two essential factor like employee
motivation as well as the Jean Louis’ management process that can be affected. The Maslow’s
theory endorses employee motivation which shows that the human needs are supposed to be
fulfilled hierarchically. There are 4 important hierarchical needs that directs the internals
stakeholders of Hermes. The leadership of Hermes is significantly influenced by the X and Y
theory proposed by McGregor, the Z theory of Urwick as well as the Theory of Democratic
Leadership. The leadership approaches and characteristics exhibited by Hermes within the case
study context, can also be aligned to the Theory of Leadership Traits that associated the
development of favorable traits in order to increase organizational competency and capacity and

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also increase efficiency of the business. However, it is important to note that the development of
the expectations of the employees have also contributed to an increase in job stress and
reduction in job satisfaction. Hence, it is important that the company deals with the issues in
order to guarantee employee motivation and retention.
Recommendation
The following suggestions can be offered with an aim of addressing the issues facing the
company as well as enhancing their standard of performance.
i) Developing greater work-life balance and emphasize this as a strong organizational policy so
that the workers are able to overcome their negative effects in workplaces and also balance their
private and professional lives.
ii) To incentivize changes for better change management. this incentive can lead to incentives to
change to the staff so that they able to embrace the fresh changes in professional context
iii) Training and/or counseling is another suggestion towards the organization which can be
helpful in development of the qualifications as well as the abilities of the employees so that they
are able to decrease their work pressure alongside boosting employee loyalty as well as
workplace satisfaction.

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Reference List and Bibliography
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