Organisational behaviour assessment at Abercrombie & Fitch Assignment

Organisational behaviour assessment at Abercrombie & Fitch - Assignment Example This paper illustrates how the business functions as a multi-national organisation depend on the inter-connections between sales and marketing, in-store sales representatives, and premium pricing policies. Using the McKinsey 7-S model as the appropriate example, A&F centres its entire strategic business strategy on the shared values that drive the organisation, these being youth and beauty, with all other aspects built around the culture of youth, vanity and beauty. Its strategy, structure, systems, skills, staff, and style are built around these core values. The shared values that drive the organisational culture at Abercrombie & Fitch are related to sex appeal and youth lifestyle. All of the store’s branded merchandise is focused on these aspects as well as the visual catalogue marketing depicting young and attractive models in order to gain attention from its desired youth target markets. Offers the CEO of A&F: â€Å"We go after the cool kids. A lot of people don’t belong in our clothes and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely†. This phrase from the executive level indicates the importance of the culture of exclusivity that resides at this youth-oriented business, thus all elements of business development are centred around maintaining this appearance to the general consuming public. The goal of A&F is to reinforce that only certain types of customers belong to its branded merchandise variety and this is apparent in the training provided to its staff as well as how the business markets its brand name across the world. One of its competitors is Victoria’s Secret, a high-volume lingerie company (Talley, 2008), which further reinforces the level of culture that resides at the organisation. â€Å"Great companies rely heavily on their cultures to support development and growth† (Want, 2009, p.10). This is absolutely true with Abercrombie & Fitch as in order to ensure that strategy is linked with the culture, all of the in-store representatives must maintain this air of youth and exclusivity in order to justify its higher-than-average pricing policies and ensure customer loyalty against all other similar retail competition. Its most effective strategy is the development of the store’s sales catalogue which accounts for 45.2 percent of growth in sales (A&F, 2009, p.9). The catalogue, depicting youth actors with fit and svelte bodies provides the strategic sales medium that continues to appeal to individuals who find identity through Abercrombie & Fitch branded merchandise. â€Å"Strategic management is based on the belief that an organisation should constantly monitor internal and external events and trends so that timely changes can be made as needed† (Aluko, Odugbesan, Gbadamosi & Osuagwu, 2004, p.56). Abercrombie faces two dilemmas, however, in identifying appropriate strategy. First, the business receives positive sentiment and higher sales growth from its