The management at Zara International is using some elements of classical management approaches to run their organization. Scholars view classical management approaches on the premise that people are rational. The company combines the three elements of classical management approaches like scientific management approaches of Fredrick Taylor, administrative principles of Henri Fayol, and bureaucratic organization of Max Weber (Schermerhorn and Wright, 2011).
Zara International has a clear division of labor. The company employs more than two hundred designers to help it keep up with high demands and to eliminate delays. This results into the specialization for its workers, which have extremely increased the company’s turnaround time.
The use of principal of order (there is a place for everything and all things should be in their place) is driving Zara International complex system of just-in-time production and inventory reporting that keeps it a head of competitions. The distribution centers can have items across the three continents of America, Asia and Europe between 24 to 48 hours.
There is no single organization which can succeed when there is no discipline. The success of Zara International is only possible through its discipline work force. Zara time management skills allow it workers to coordinate their design, production, distribution, and retail sales to optimize the flow of goods and retain their profit. They make a business sense by coordinating and integrating as many supply chains as possible. Workers take the initiative and do the work with zeal and energy.
Zara International has achieved success because it has adopted the classical management approaches. They have workers with the right ability for the jobs such as the designers and the management team. The organization carefully plans the work and smoothes the way for workers as they implement management decisions. The company also possesses clear hierarchy of authority. People can see the company’s hierarchy of authority from its command of the supply chain.
The company’s management team also uses behavioral management approaches. These approaches assume that people are social and self-actualizing. Zara International is a successful fashion industry. If we take into account the behavioral management approaches, then several factors influence the success of the company (Robbins and Coulter, 2010).
The management runs Zara International as a community. Management team and workers work together to ensure record breaking time in fast fashion industry. The company combines the talent of designers, sales team, production team, distribution team, and top level management to ensure seamless production and distribution. Their supply chain is efficient to enable them save on resources. The management allows various supply chains to cooperate with each other in order to achieve integration of interests (Christiansen, 2000).
Management allows workers to participate in their jobs. They have more job involvements, freedom, and a sense of responsibility. This involvement creates favorable conditions for workers to satisfy their self esteem and self-actualization needs. The company is growing fast and expanding to new regions. This sense of success makes Zara International employees behave as expected with initiative and high performance. The workers have self-fulfillment experiences in their duties.
Competitions have singled out the performance of Zara International. Workers will perform as anticipated because of the expectations created by their competitions. Zara International employees are able to experience high sense of moral due to positive comments from competitions and clients.
In conclusion, Zara International management team does not adopt all the management approaches. However, they exemplify best practices in management. The article does not focus on issues of workers compensation, benefits and rewards. Therefore, this study cannot draw a conclusion of management approaches based on issues of compensations and rewards.
References
Christiansen, J. (2000). Building Innovative Organization: Management Systems That Encourage Innovation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
John, R. S., & Barry, W. (2011). Management, Second Canadian Edition. Toronto, Canada: John Wiley & Sons.
Stephen, P. R., & Mary, C. (2010). Management (11 Edition). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.