Chapter 2   Understanding Management’s Context: Constraints and Challenges

The components of an organization’s culture are as complex as the different aspects of an individual’s personality. Today’s managers must understand how the force of an organization’s internal and external environments may influence, and sometimes constrain, its productivity.

LEARNING OUTCOMES 

2.1 Contrast the actions of managers according to the omnipotent and symbolic views.
2.2 Describe the constraints and challenges facing managers in today’s external environment.
2.3 Discuss the characteristics and importance of organizational culture.
2.4 Describe current issues in organizational culture.

A MANAGER’S DILEMMA 

As students read “A Manager’s Dilemma” at the beginning of Chapter 23, we begin to see how organizational culture can be. JetBlue suffered from 2007 Valentine’s Day ice and snowstorm that let passengers stranded and some 1,000 flights canceled. According to CEO Dave Barger, the tangible assets of a company can be replaced, but “it’s the culture that can’t be replicated.”  The challenge for JetBlue will be the ability to retain the human side of the organization as it continues to grow.

Will JetBlue accomplish their goal?  Can an organization with strict rules regarding security and safety create a culture that also focuses on employee and customer respect? Ask students to put themselves in Dave Barger’s position.  As JetBlue continues to grow and add employees how would your students maintain the employee-friendly atmosphere of the company? Why would an understanding of organizational culture and the external environment be essential to JetBlue’s continued success?

CHAPTER  OUTLINE 

INTRODUCTION
 Managers must realize that organizational culture and organizational environment have important implications for the way an organization is managed. Both organizational culture and external forces that can shape an organization are explored in order to gain a better under¬standing of the complexities presented by internal and external environments.

2.1 THE MANAGER:  OMNIPOTENT OR SYMBOLIC?
 Two perspectives concerning the role that managers play in an organization’s success or failure have been proposed.
A. The Omnipotent View. This maintains that managers are directly responsi¬ble for the success or failure of an organization.
1. This view of managers as being omnipotent is consistent with the stereotypical pic¬ture of the “take-charge” executive who can overcome any obstacle in carrying out the organization’s objectives.
2. When organizations perform poorly, someone must be held accountable. Ac¬cording to the omnipotent view, that “someone” is the manager.

B. The Symbolic View.  This view of management upholds the view that much of an organization’s success or failure is due to external forces outside managers’ control.
1. The influence that managers do have is seen mainly as a
symbolic outcome.
2. Organizational results are influenced by factors outside of the control of manag¬ers, including the economy, customers, governmental policies, competitors’ actions, the state of the particular industry, the control of proprietary technology, and decisions made by previous managers in the organization.
3. The manager’s role is to create meaning out of randomness, confu¬sion, and ambiguity.
4. According to the symbolic view, the actual part that management plays in the success or failure of an organization is minimal.

C. Reality suggests a synthesis. Managers are neither helpless nor all powerful. Instead, the more logical approach is to see the manager as operating within constraints imposed by the organization’s culture and environment (see Exhibit 2-1).

2.2 THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
 The impact of the external environment on a manager’s actions and behaviors cannot be overemphasized. Forces in the external environment play a major role in shaping man¬agers’ endeavors.
A. Defining the External Environment. The external environment consists of those factors and forces outside the organization that affect the organization’s performance (See Exhibit 2-2). The external environment includes these broad external conditions that may affect the organization: economic, political/legal, sociocultural, demographic, technological, and global conditions. Political/legal conditions include the general political stability of countries in which an organization does business and the specific atti¬tudes that elected officials have toward business. Federal, state, and local governments can influence what organizations can and cannot do. Sociocultural conditions include the changing expectations of society. Societal values, customs, and tastes can change, and managers must be aware of these changes. Technological conditions, which have changed more rapidly than any other element of the general environment. Global factors include global competitors and global consumer mar¬kets.
a. Economic conditions include interest rates, inflation rates, changes in disposable income, stock market fluctuations, and the general busi¬ness cycle.
b. Demographic conditions, including physical characteristics of a population (e.g., gender, age, level of education, geographic loca¬tion, income, composition of family) can change, and managers must adapt to these changes.

B. How the External Environment Affects Managers

1. One of the important organizational factors affected by changes in the external environment is jobs and employment.  For example, economic downturns result in higher unemployment and place constraints on staffing and production quotas for managers.  Not only does the external environment affect the number of jobs available, but it also impacts how jobs are managed and created.  Changing conditions can create demands for more temporary work and alternative work arrangements
2. Environments differ in their amount of environmental uncertainty, which relates to (1) the degree of change in an organization’s environment and (2) the degree of complexity in that environment (see Exhibit 2-3).
a. Degree of change is characterized as being dynamic or stable.
b. In a dynamic environment, components of the environment change frequently. If change is minimal, the environment is called a stable environment.
c. The degree of environmental complexity is the number of components in an organiza¬tion’s environment and the extent of an organization’s knowledge about those components.
d. If the number of components and the need for sophisticated knowledge is minimal, the environment is classified as simple. If a number of dissimilar components and a high need for so¬phisticated knowledge exist, the environment is complex.
e. Because uncertainty is a threat to organizational effectiveness, managers try to minimize environmental uncertainty.

2. The more obvious and secure an organization’s relationships are with external stakeholders, the more influence managers have over organizational controls.
a. Stakeholders are any constituencies in the organization’s external environ¬ment that are affected by the organization’s de¬cisions and actions. (See Exhibit 2-4 for an identification of some of the most common stakeholders.)
b. Stakeholder relationship management is important for two reasons:
1) It can lead to improved predictability of environmental changes, more successful innovation, greater degrees of trust among stakeholders, and greater or¬ganizational flexibility to reduce the impact of change.
2) It is the “right” thing to do, because organizations are dependent on external stakeholders as sources of inputs and outlets for outputs and the interest of these stakeholders should be considered when making and implementing decisions.
3. Stakeholder relationships are managed using four steps:
a. Identify external stakeholders.
b. Determine the specific interests of each stakeholder group.
c. Decide how critical these interests are to the organization.
d. Determine what specific approach managers should use to manage each relationship, based on environ¬mental uncertainty and importance of the external stakeholder to the organization.

2.3 THE ORGANIZATION’S CULTURE: CONSTRAINTS AND CHALLENGES
 Just as individuals have a personality, so, too, do organizations. We refer to an organiza¬tion’s personality as its culture.
A. What is Organizational Culture? Organizational culture is the shared values, principles, traditions, and ways of doing things that influence the way organizational members act. This definition im¬plies:
1. Individuals perceive organizational culture based on what they see, hear, or experience within the organization.
2. Organizational culture is shared by individuals within the organization.
3. Organizational culture is a descriptive term. It describes, rather than evaluates.
4. Seven dimensions of an organization’s culture have been proposed (see Ex¬hibit 2-5):
a. Innovation and risk taking (the degree to which employees are en¬couraged to be innovative and take risks)
b. Attention to detail (the degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to detail)
c. Outcome orientation (the degree to which managers focus on results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve those outcomes)
d. People orientation (the degree to which management decisions take into consideration the effect on people within the organization)
e. Team orientation (the degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals)
f. Aggressiveness (the degree to which employees are aggressive and com¬petitive rather than cooperative)
g. Stability (the degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth)
5. Exhibit 2-6 describes how the cultural dimensions can be combined to create organizations that are significantly different.
B. Strong Cultures
1. Strong cultures are found in organizations where key val¬ues are intensely held and widely shared.
2. Whether a company’s culture is strong, weak, or somewhere in between depends on organizational factors such as size, age, employee turnover rate, and intensity of original culture.
3. A culture has increasing impact on what managers do as the culture becomes stronger.
4. Most organizations have moderate-to-strong cultures. In these organizations, high agreement exists about what is important and what defines “good” employee behavior, for example.
5. Studies of organizational culture have yielded various results. One study found that employees in firms with strong cultures were more committed to their firm than were employees in firms with weak cultures. Organizations with strong cul¬tures also used their recruitment efforts and socialization practices to build employee commitment. An increasing body of research suggests that strong cultures are associated with high organizational performance.
C. Where Culture Comes From and How it Continues.
1. The original source of an organization’s culture is usually a reflection of the vision or mission of the organization’s founders. The culture is a result of the interaction between the founders’ biases and assumptions and what the first employees subsequently learned from their own experiences.
2. An organization’s culture continues when:
a. When a culture is in place, practices help to maintain it.
b. Hiring practices reflect the culture in terms of “fit.”
c. Actions of top executives help to maintain the culture.
d. New employees learn the organization’s way of doing things through socialization—the process that helps employees adapt to the organization’s culture.
D. How Employees Learn Culture
1. Culture is transmitted principally through stories, rituals, material symbols, and language.
2. Organizational stories are one way that employees learn the culture. These stories typically involve a narrative of significant events or people.
3. Rituals are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization, which goals are most important, and which people are important or expendable.
4. The use of material symbols and artifacts is another way in which employees learn the culture, learn the degree of equality desired by top management, discover which employees are most important, and learn the kinds of behavior that are expected and appro¬priate.
5. Language is often used to identify members of a culture. Learning this language indicates members’ willingness to accept and preserve the culture. This special lingo acts as a common denominator to unite members of a particular culture.

E. How Culture Affects Managers. An organization’s culture is important because it establishes constraints on what managers can do.
1. The link between corporate values and managerial behavior is fairly straightforward.
2. The culture conveys to managers what is appropriate behavior.
3. An organization’s culture, particularly a strong one, constrains a manager’s decision-making options in all managerial functions (see Exhibit 2-9).

2.4 CULTURE ISSUES IN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Four current cultural issues managers should consider:
A. Creating an Innovative Culture
 1. What does an innovative culture look like?  Swedish researcher Goran Ekvall provides these characteristics:
• Challenge and involvement
• Freedom
• Trust and openness
• Idea time
• Playfulness/humor
• Conflict resolution
• Debates
• Risk taking

B. Creating a Customer-Responsive Culture
1. What does a customer-responsive culture look like? Research shows the following six characteristics routinely present in a customer-responsive culture. (See Exhibit 2-10 for actions managers can take to make their cultures more customer responsive.)
• Type of employee
• Type of job environment
• Widespread use of empowerment
• Role clarity
• Employees who are conscientious in desire to please customers
C. Spirituality and Organizational
1. Workplace Spirituality is a culture in which organizational values promote a sense of purpose through meaningful work taking place in the context of community.
2. This movement is important for several reasons: employees are looking for ways to cope with the stresses of a turbulent pace of life, contemporary life styles have shown the lack of community many employees feel, and baby boomers are looking for something meaningful beyond their work. 
3. Research shows that spiritual organizations tend to have five cultural characteristics:
a. Strong sense of purpose
b. Focus on spiritual development
c. Trust and openness
d. Employee empowerment
e. Toleration of employee expression
4. Critics of spiritual workplaces focus on its legitimacy and economics.
5. Another criticism surrounds the misinterpretation that spiritualism denotes religion.  However, as long as the search for spiritualism focuses on finding meaning at work and not a company endorsed religion, there is value in having employees pursue a greater purpose for their work and a sense of community.

Answers to Review and Discussion Questions 

1.  Describe the two perspectives on how much impact managers have on an organization’s success or failure.

In section 1 of chapter 2, the omnipotent and symbolic views of management are presented.  The omnipotent view supports the idea that a manager is directly responsible for the success and failure of the organization.  Top CEO’s (and head football coaches) would be more likely to be held accountable for the entire organization’s outcomes while lower level managers would be held responsible for the outcomes in their respective departments.  This view adopts the premise that managers set the priorities/goals of the organization and are responsible for making major success oriented decisions.  If the goals and decisions managers choose are correct, then the organization should thrive. The symbolic view is a counterpart to the omnipotent view and asserts that much of an organization’s success or failure can be attributed to factors in the external environment, such as competition, economic conditions, or governmental influences.  According to this view, management decisions are often flawed and poorly implemented due to factors beyond their direct control.  Considering the random and ambiguous situations manager’s face, they should not be held responsible for organizational performance.

2.  Why is it important for managers to understand the external environment components?
 The external environment consists of numerous factors that have an impact on the organization. Political and legal factors (such as government regulations), demographics that affect labor supply, and technological developments directly affect the management of an organization, including planning and decision-making.

3. Describe an effective culture for (a) a relatively stable environment and (b) a dynamic envi¬ronment. Explain your choices.
 An effective culture for a relatively stable environment would likely emphasize outcomes such as quality and productivity and would give significant attention to detail. It would not require high levels of innovation, risk taking, or aggressiveness.

 Conversely, an effective culture for a dynamic environment would likely em-phasize aggressiveness, innovation, risk taking, and team orientation. To stay on top of continual environmental changes, this organization would have a culture that celebrates productive work behaviors.
  
4. “Businesses are built on relationships.” What do you think this statement means? What are implications for managing the external environment?
 Organizations depend on their environment and their stakeholders as a source of inputs and a recipient of outputs. Good relationships can lead to organizational outcomes such as im¬proved predictability of environmental changes, more successful innovations, greater degrees of trust among stakeholders, and greater flexibility in acting to reduce the impact of change. In addition, relationship management and maintaining good relationships have been proven by many researchers to have an effect on organizational performance. High-performing companies tend to consider the interests of all major stakeholder groups as they make decisions.

5. Refer to Exhibit 3-3. How would a first-line manager’s job differ in these two organizations? How about a top-level manager’s job?
 In Organization A, strong attention would be given to detail, with little innovation and risk taking. Teamwork would not be encouraged, and employees would be viewed as a means to an end. Strict controls would be placed on workers, and task achievement would be most im¬portant. The supervisor would have little latitude and would do things “by the book.”

 In Organization B, innovation and risk taking would be highly encouraged. The supervisor would have more autonomy in how to achieve goals. Employees would be given the oppor¬tunity to provide input, and a team approach would be used. People would be viewed as important con¬tributors. The supervisor’s job would be more like that of a coach, encourager, and facilitator.

6. Classrooms have cultures. Describe your class culture using the seven dimensions of organ¬izational culture. Does the culture constrain your instructor? How?
 Answers to this question will vary. Have students look at the seven dimensions of organiza¬tional culture described in the text and rate them from high to low for the class. One point you might want to explore:  What role does your instructor play in establishing the culture of the classroom? Ask students to relate this information to the role a manager might play in establishing the culture of a business organization.

7. Can culture be a liability to an organization?  Explain.
In some cases, organizational culture could be a liability.  In the global environment, a society that discriminates on the basis of ethnicity or gender or in the exploitation of workers could experience a backlash from the reactions of consumers in other nations. (See, for example, Reebok’s and Nike’s problems regarding manufacturing in emerging nations.)

8.  Discuss the impact of a strong culture on organizations and managers.
At one time, researchers supported a direct connection between the strength of an organizations culture and its performance.  Today, we know that the strength of an organization’s culture is more closely tied to acceptance of an organization’s values.  Exhibit 2-7, gives five employee related outcomes of strong vs. weak cultures.  In the end, strong cultures aid a manager in fulfilling their functions: planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

9.  Using Exhibit 2-8, explain how a culture is formed and maintained.
Culture is established and maintained through the transmission and adoption of values.  Following the figure from left to right, we see that the founder, through the values they choose for the organization, is the person most responsible for setting the organizational culture.  The strength of founder values is then reinforced by the employees chosen for the organization.  Employees who are selected for their fit with the founder’s values will carry on the culture better than those who do not adopt his/her values.  As the time increases from the start of the organization by the founder, top management values become important.  Top management may attempt to modify or significantly change the values of the company. Socialization is the process by which employees learn the culture. They do this from learning the company’s philosophy, artifacts, ceremonies, and language.

10.  Explain why workplace spirituality seems to be an important concern.
This movement is important for several reasons.  First, as work becomes more hectic and jobs uncertain, employees are looking for ways to cope with the stresses of a turbulent pace of life.  Second, contemporary life styles have shown the lack of community many employees feel, and baby boomers are looking for something meaningful beyond their work. 

Ethics Dilemma 

The field of sports has seen many technological advancements – new training methods, food supplements, equipment, clothing.  In this case, students are asked to give their opinion on the ethical use of technology in sporting events.  Have students discuss the concept of fairness with regard to the use of this new technology.  Does it take away from the competition where it becomes a game of who has the most money to buy the technology?  Encourage students to think about a point where it the use of technology crosses the line in competition.

Skills Exercise 

Environmental scanning is an important managerial skill.  In this exercise, students are asked to practice this skill using five suggestions:
• Decide which type of environmental information is important to your work.
• Regularly read and monitor pertinent information.
• Incorporate the information that you get from your environmental scanning into your decisions and actions.
• Regularly review your environmental scanning activities.
• Encourage your subordinates to be alert to information that is important.
Students are then given two scenarios to these skills into action.

Team Exercise 

Have students work in teams of three or four. Students may want to refer to the following sites for help in selecting two companies:

Aerospace
• Boeing—www.boeing.com
• Lockheed Martin—www.lockheedmartin.com/
Automotive
• Ford—www.ford.com
• General Motors—www.gm.com
Athletic Wear
• Nike—www.nike.com
• Reebok—www.reebok.com
Beverages
• Coca-Cola—www.cocacola.com
• PepsiCo—www.pepsico.com
Electronics
• Panasonic—www.panasonic.com
• Sony—www.sony.com
Golf Equipment
• Maxfli—www.maxfli.com
• Titleist—www.titleist.com
Mail, Package, and Freight Delivery
• Federal Express—www.fedex.com
• United Parcel Service—www.ups.com
• United States Postal Service—www.usps.com

Have students use the form below to identify the environmental factors for the            two companies they have selected. How are these components similar and different for each company?  Using the same two companies, get students to think about who are the important stakeholders for each company.

  
General Environmental
Force/Factor 
Company 1 
Company 2
  
Economic Conditions

  
Political/Legal Conditions

  
Sociocultural

  
Global

  
Technological Conditions

Your Turn to be a Manager 

• Find two current examples in any of the popular business periodicals of the omnipotent and symbolic views of management. Write a paper describing what you found and how the two examples you found represent the views of management.

• Choose an organization with which you’re familiar or one that you would like to know more about. Create a table identifying potential stakeholders of this organization. Then, indicate what particular interests or concerns these stakeholders might have.

• Pick two organizations that you interact with frequently (as an employee or as a customer) and assess their culture by looking at the following aspects:
Physical design (buildings, furnishings, parking lot, office or store design)—Where are they located and why? Where do customers and employees park? What does the office/store layout look like? What activities are encouraged or discouraged by the physical layout? What do these things say about what the organization values?
Symbols (logos, dress codes, slogans, philosophy statements)—What values are highlighted? Where are logos displayed? Whose needs are emphasized? What concepts are emphasized? What actions are prohibited? What actions are encouraged? Are any artifacts prominently displayed? What do those artifacts symbolize? What do these things say about what the organization values?
Words (stories, language, job titles)—What stories are repeated? How are employees addressed? What do job titles say about the organization? Are jokes/anecdotes used in conversation? What do these things say about what the organization values?
Policies and activities (rituals, ceremonies, financial rewards, policies for how customers or employees are treated)—(Note: You may be able to assess this one only if you’re an employee or know the organization well.) What activities are rewarded? Ignored? What kinds of people succeed? Fail? What rituals are important? Why? What events get commemorated? Why? What do these things say about what the organization values?

• If you belong to a student organization, evaluate its culture. How would you describe the culture? How do new members learn the culture? How is the culture maintained? If you don’t belong to a student organization, talk to another student who does and evaluate it using the same questions.

• Steve’s and Mary’s suggested readings: Terrence E. Deal and Allan A. Kennedy, Corporate Culture: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life (Perseus Books Group, 2000); Edgar H. Schein, The Corporate Culture Survival Guide (Jossey-Bass, 1999); and Kim S. Cameron and Robert E. Quinn, Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture (Jossey-Bass, 2005).

• Find one example of a company that represents each of the current issues in organizational culture. Describe what the company is doing that reflects its commitment to this culture.

• In your own words, write down three things you learned in this chapter about being a good manager.

• Self-knowledge can be a powerful learning tool. Go to mymanagementlab and complete any of these self-assessment exercises: What’s the Right Organizational Culture for Me? How Well Do I Respond to Turbulent Change? and Am I Experiencing Work/Family Conflict? Using the results of our assessments, identify personal strengths and weaknesses. What will you do to reinforce your strengths and improve your weaknesses?

Answers to Case Application Questions 

Out of Control

1. Using Exhibit 2-5 and the information from the case, describe the culture at Toyota Motor Corporation. Why do you think this type of culture might be important to a car maker?

For students, the first dimension of culture that should come to mind is “attention to detail.”  A class discussion could begin on how this quality has created a long standing image of the Toyota and how this value aided its growth and place in the market.  However, while attention to detail is important, it was also necessary to think about the outcome orientation that lead to Toyota’s programs that emphasized growth.  For Toyota, this “combination of high-speed global growth and ambitious cost cuts led to the quality lapses that tarnished the once-mighty brand.”   Address with students how the growth orientation may also limit customer service and what impact, positive or negative the new approach may be for employees.

2. How do you think a long-standing culture that had such a strong commitment to quality lost its ability to influence employee behaviors and actions? What lesson can be learned about organizational culture from this?

Students should be encouraged to think about whether or not top management lost the ability to influence employees.  Is it possible that employees were actually following top management values when attention to detail began to slip?  The case mentions several initiatives that show Toyota’s emphasis on cutting costs and rapid expansion.   It is easy to see how these goals could result in production policies that are contradictory to improved quality.

Employees that work in a strong culture are more likely to accept the values and programs espoused by top management.  In this case, the argument can be made that top management’s shift in values to expansion and growth was adopted by employees while attention to detail was neglected.

3. Do you think it was important for Mr. Toyoda to apologize for the company’s decisions? Why? (Think in terms of the company’s stakeholders.)

As president, Mr. Toyoda is responsible the establishing the vision and values of Toyota.  He fulfills the figurehead role addressed in Chapter 1, roles of management.  By making a public announcement, Toyoda was able to address a large group of organizational stakeholders including customers, advocacy groups, suppliers, and employees.

4. What could other organizations learn from Toyota’s experiences about the importance of organizational culture?

Companies are many times a victim of their own success.  The Toyota of the 70’s was not perceived as a manufacturer of high quality cars.  It took decades to change the organizational culture to establish the image they have today and then more time to become the world’s leading automaker.   After this success, Toyota took for granted that new employees would hold to the values of quality.  The important values that drive a strong culture must be continually reinforced, not only for new employees, but existing employees as well.

Dressing Up

1. According to the case, what external trends did managers at Kohl’s have to deal with?
In addition to these, what other external components might be important to these managers? (See Exhibit 2-2.) How might they keep track of changes in these components?

Kohl’s appears to have done well weathering through the nation’s poor economic conditions.  Customers with less disposable income have been attracted to their modestly priced clothing and house wares lines.  Kohl’s has also tried to stay focused on the demographics of customers and place their stores in “soccer mom country.”  To keep track of changes in the external environment, companies engage in environmental scanning to forecast future economic trends and capitalize on current market conditions.  To predict demographics, companies often utilize population data from the U.S. census.  Other research methods include customer and market surveys.

 
2. If you were a manager at Kohl’s headquarters, what types of external information might you want? What if you were a manager of a local Kohl’s store? What types of external information might you want?

At the national level, Kohl’s management would want as much information as they can to prepare themselves for changes in the external environment.  This includes everything from government changes to employee health care or pension plans, consumer confidence data, and global changes that could change the price of products produced overseas and sold in US markets.  Local managers are more concerned with demographic changes in their area, such as population change (people moving in/out of the target area), local ordinances passed by the city in which they do business, local economic conditions that may influence wage and employment of their workforce.

3. Look at Exhibit 2-3. In what cell of the environmental uncertainty matrix would you place Kohl’s? Why? How might Kohl’s managers “manage” the environmental uncertainty?

As stated in the introduction of this case, “Even when times are good, the department store industry is one of the toughest industries to compete in.”  Evaluating Kohl’s on the dimension of change, Kohl’s operates in a dynamic environment with changing customer demands and an intense level of competition.  With regard to environmental complexity, Kohl’s would rate high in complexity due to the number of customers, competitors, and suppliers.  Putting these two factors together, students should see that Kohl’s falls into Cell 4 of the Environmental Uncertainty Matrix.   Organizations in this classification manage uncertainty by utilizing efficient technological information systems.  These systems help forecast changes in the environment, reduce and reduce environmental uncertainty. Another key to reducing uncertainty is to manage relationships with key stakeholders.

4. What stakeholders do you think might be important to a company like Kohl’s? What
issues/concerns might be important to those stakeholders? Explain your choices.

Students could potentially make a case for all of the eleven stakeholders listed in Exhibit 2-4.  However, the groups that are the most influential to their immediate situation are customers, suppliers, and competitors.  With regard to customers, Kohl’s has done a good deal of research on the desires of “soccer moms” and has based their strategy of store placement on a model that appeals to this demographic.  Suppliers are also important as Kohl’s has sought to attract their customers with product lines that are both traditional (i.e. Sag Harbor and Jockey) and store brands (i.e. Casa Cristina and their own line from the Food Network). Finally, competitors are a major concern for Kohl’s as they seek to go against both the discount retailers and higher end retail chains.