Leading Change At Simmons (A) Case Analysis

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Leading Change at Simmons (A) Case Analysis 1. What are the challenges faced by Simmons in December 2001? How has Charlie Eitel’s leadership affected the company in his first six months as CEO? The company needs to survive financial crisis in U.S economy. Especially three main customers announced bankruptcy during this period. Moreover, the main supplier’s foam gave off bad smell after being incorporated in Simmons product. Finally, he employees lack team spirit, people skills and communication skills (both at a horizontal as well as vertical level). Since Charlie Eitel was hired as CEO, his goal is to make the company a place where people like to work and with whom customers like to deal with. He made effort on product innovation, reorganized the management, and focused on customers’ needs. As a consideration leader (OSU studies) or Supportive leader, he tried to crosslink different parts of teams, empower people within certain boundaries and make people support on another. He also focused on leadership as team’s obligations and responsibilities to themselves and other constituents. Finally Simmons workforce vision was a statement about associates right and responsibilities. 2. What should be the top management team’s priorities heading into 2002? In my opinion, the culture emphasis should be continued. Organizational cultures affect associates’ behaviors and thus the performance. The core values of an organization serve to attract new associate values that share similar values or at least are comfortable with them. Moreover, organizational culture promotes respect for people, associates are willing to accept changes. (2009 Hitt, M., Miller, C. and Colella, A Organizational Behavio ). Considering the situation where the company has faced a major loss in terms of three of its best
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