Organizational Behavior: Remaking Jcp's Organisational Culture

There has been an overall loss in Market Share throughout departments stores. JCPenney is one department store in particular that has a very hard time dealing with this issue and has struggled to retain its market value. JCPenney CEO’s of the past and present have taken very different approaches to solving this problem and that will be discussed throughout this paper. We will start off by introducing you to former CEO, Mike Ullman who managed JCPenney before and after the recession as well as his presence after next CEO Ron Johnson was fired. We will walk through the problems that occurred after Johnson enforced his new turnaround strategies for JCPenney and how it cause disastrous results in sales and in the further decrease of market share. We will then focus on the current CEO, Marvin Ellison, and his plans for JC Penney and if his strategies can fix the overall problem JCPenney is facing.

Together the two heads of JCPenney (JCP) originated from successful corporations and are currently fuelling such achievements into JCPenney. JCP’s restructurment occurred in February 2012 and has changed the assessing arrangement inside the store. The store has been imparted a new style with changes in marketing, rating, store location and administration. All of these variations have been developed to improve the company’s performance.

J.C. Penney is a retail outlet that operates in many locations globally. It deals with product lines such as clothing, footwear, beauty products, electronics, and jewelry. There are several changes that have taken place in the macro environment that promises to increase the fortunes of the company. The advertisement in technology is one single important factor that has increased the performance of the business (Ali, 2007). The company has an elaborate website through which it uses to tap the online market. In fact, thirty percent of the company’s revenue comes from the website.

To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.

CEO Johnson’s time with JC Penney’s was short lived and only lasted 17 months. The three core processes of business that he ignored was People, Strategy, and Operations. From the people aspect, he missed several key details. Johnson just assumed that people thought JC Penney’s prices were too high, so he lowered them and quit having sells (Tuttle, 2013). He also drove customers that had been shopping there for years away. With too many changes happening at one time, loyal customers did not agree with the changes and started shopping elsewhere.

In January 2012, newly appointed CEO, Ron Johnson introduced a plan to rebrand the department store chain into a 21st century retail powerhouse. Launching of the new J. C. Penney brand identity was set to occur over four years and would include a new logo, a new in-store experience featuring new and transformed brands, and most importantly, it would change the way that the company priced merchandise. Unfortunately, J. C. Penney suffered a 25% sales decline in the first year and Johnson was fired after only 17 months.

In 2013, this department store has been celebrating being in business for 110 years. It also once lured its customers in with its famous discount pricing strategy and coupons. The retailer is J.C. Penney, a fixture at shopping malls across the country. In 2012, J.C. Penney rebranded itself by making the announcement that it wanted to become America 's favorite store by creating a specialty department store experience (JCP, 2013). Founder James Cash Penney began the company with a Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated Fair and Square (JCP, n.d.).

In the early Millennium, between 2004-2009 CEO Mike Ullman started J.C. Penney on a trend that would lead to their massive debt and near failure in 2012. Ullman’s leadership started strong, “For three years, Ullman was hailed as the man who was remaking a legendary retail brand. Not rescuing it. Not saving it. Just remaking it. Making it more nimble. More hip. Not your mom’s department store. Not any more. Now it was the department store of the future. Sephora, Mango and Liz Claiborne,” (Guinto, 2011). Ullman was known for reimaging brands and gave J.C. Penney a seemingly bright future with strong brand partnerships they are still known for such as Sephora and Liz Claiborne.

J.C. Penney’s has the desire to become America’s favorite retail destination for apparel, accessories and home fashion. With approximately 1,108 operating stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, they serve half of America’s families every year. They employ nearly 156,000 associates and strive to be number one in customer service. Despite the recent economic downturn, JCP maintained a steady cash flow and has been able to keep their company running strong.

JC Penney in the early 2000s represented a “brick & mortar” retail powerhouse known for its large diverse selection and competed well with similar retailers such as Kmart and Sears. In 2011 JC Penney was exposed by The New York Times in an internet search scandal involving the tampering with rankings on search engine results. Yet, this was not the only shortcoming in the marketing of their stores. JC Penney had also been caught dishonestly pricing their merchandise so that their sales would appear more appealing. Since then JC Penney has undergone many important shifts in focus on how they would attempt to market their products. Now, in 2016 with their new CEO Marvin Ellison they have managed to rebound their sales closer to what they were and have bolstered their stock price for the time being. To understand what had been done to kindle this new fire four key areas should be looked at. These four components are: price, product, place, and promotion. The four P’s allow a segmented view of what changes have been made and how they have been affecting the consumer market.

In this segment, the retailer J.C. Penney will be analyzed against the department store retail industry, with particular emphasis placed upon their competitors, Macy’s and Kohl’s. The major components to be discussed will include the general external environment (i.e. demographics, economics, politics, legal requirements, technologies and global expansion), the industry environment, the competitive environment, the driving forces and the key factors for success within the industry. In terms of the general external environment, the retail industry is a multi-trillion dollar business in the United States alone and maintains operations primarily due to consumer spending. Such purchases rely upon the disposable income of

As one of the major retailers in the United States, JCPenney has 1,104 department stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico as of February 2, 2013. The key success of its business is tremendously depending on the sales performance. However, the retail business is highly competitive, with low barriers to entry and low profit margin. Due to large sales plunge in 2012, the company is in financial trouble. The thorough analysis of JCPenney’s financial statements is vital to judge the future performance of its business.

JC Penney had to undergo and withstand several competitive issues to include changing of brand image, selling strategy and marketing strategy. JC Penney also had to account for Environmental Factors to include: a population that continued to age and also unemployment rates. JC Penney tried to influence customers by portraying an everlasting sale. No matter how hard JC Penney tried to market their products, if people didn’t

Bauer, T. (2012). Motivation Theories. In B. Erdogan, An Introduction to Organizational Behavior (pp. 393-450). New york.

JC Penney is one of only a handful of one hundred year old plus companies in the United States. Founded in 1902 by James Cash Penney, the company has grown into a major retailer, with 1,104 stores and approximately 116,000 employees as of February 2013. The company sells merchandise and services through its department stores and website, jcp.com. Their product mix includes clothing and shoes, accessories, jewelry, home furnishings and beauty products. In addition, they provide services such as styling salons and portrait studios.