In October 1929, after the long economic and stock market boom of the 1920s, in October 1929, shares on Wall Street dropped sharply. This led to a prolonged fall in share. Among the other causes of the stock market crash were the proliferation of debt, a struggling agricultural sector and an excess of large bank loans that couldn’t be liquidated. Unemployment rose to 25% in US with output and trade falling around the world. The widespread poverty and sense of alienation led to the growth of political extremes across the world. Japan and Germany both turned to far-right nationalist movements, which led to military expansionism and the Second World War. In America, the Great Depression led to the election of FDR and a great expansion in the size of the Federal government as people wanted the government to intervene in dealing with the depression.
paid between 9% and 22% of annual bonus; JLP believes that the better performance of their partner should be rewarded through annual bonus, pension scheme and other partnership discount and bonuses (JLP, 2016). This profit share (annual bonus) also influences the motivational level of their partners as we have already seen in partnership survey 2016 as explained by expectancy theory of motivation (Vroom, 1964).
CONCLUSION
JLP is a unique organisation based on shared partnership values and governed by their constitution’s principal and rules which dictate the behaviour of their partners and leaders. The prevalence of different leadership styles in John Lewis may seem contradictory but all of them are elegantly align with overall organisational culture and business strategy to support HRM practices to achieve core purpose of the organization i.e. Principal 1. “The Partnership’s ultimate purpose is the happiness of all its members, through their worthwhile and satisfying employment in a successful business. Because the Partnership is owned in trust for its members, they share the responsibilities of ownership as well as its rewards –profit, knowledge and power”.
The need to fulfil the relational and transactional psychological contract of partners is well recognised, however, this is because all partners share the business and have a voice within decision-making process, yet, the sustainability of the psychological contract mainly transactional depends on the financial stability and profitability of the JLP, and this could be further tested in the time of downswing.
The constitution does provide them guiding principle, but JLP has the flexibility to adapt different approaches to create human capital advantage through various strategies. However, there is overly emphasise to filter through candidates who can fit with their partnership behaviour (spirit) and then can lose out a huge chunk of the talent pool. The total reward model has been crafted carefully with partner’s involvement which plays a substantive role in escalating the motivation and commitment of their partners to their job and organisation.
REFLECTION
The contextual scope of the society (power distance, individualism/collectivism and masculinity) enact a significant role in shaping the leadership style, in addition, the organizational culture (values, beliefs, customer, and practices) further provide refinement to it, yet, with self-awareness and training, one can allow himself to adapt/change different leadership styles.
Having worked in medium-scale insurance company for more than 8 years (in UK),
