The Importance of Interpersonal Relationships at Casual Togs Inc

At the corporate level, Casual Togs Inc. is involved in the women’s clothing industry. Their business-level strategy comprises selling mix-and-match clothing at affordable prices. Togs believes that their shot at staying ahead of the competition is by using the product differentiation strategy, applying it to the uniqueness of their clothing.

The manager at Casual Togs Inc., Cy Geldmark, fails to perform in the most effective way one would expect from someone at the top of a business. When using the acronym “POLC” to assess Geldmark’s performance, he comes up significantly short in all areas.

Part of planning requires structure and direction for all meetings in order to reach decisions. Under Geldmark’s management, meetings tend to lack a plan of attack, often resulting in the garbage can approach when reaching important business conclusions. There does not seem to be any order or organization to Geldmark’s business decisions.

Meetings are sporadic, and the right personnel is never in attendance, making it extremely hard to get anything accomplished at any level. Leadership is a quality Geldmark fails to exhibit on a daily basis. Being a leader means setting an example for those below you to follow and asserting some authority. Geldmark tolerates employees walking all over him and others, as well as letting family members and past relationships impact current business decisions. He seems to lack control over his employees at every level, constantly letting meetings turn into screaming matches between workers who don’t have business being involved. Geldmark lacks emotional intelligence and fails to work effectively and understand his employees. None of his workers expressed having an interpersonal relationship with their boss, most stating that he remains passive in almost everything he does.

I believe the line of reporting, using a functional structure, is not working for Togs Inc. Under the functional organization style of business, all units report back and work under the CEO. However, due to too much division and self-interest within the company because of their lack of authority, the functional system is detrimental to Togs Inc. I would recommend implementing a matrix organizational structure to hold all employees more accountable. With a matrix style, there are project managers and functional managers who both require reports from employees. This would help to eliminate confusion and the number of unqualified workers at meetings with high-level management. Geldmark would then be able to sit down with the selected appointed supervisors and efficiently create plans for the business’s operations.

The business will continue to plummet if it refuses to make organizational as well as personnel changes. To gain respect from his employees, Geldmark needs to stop supporting all decisions made by his wife. Listening to and employing people with strong leadership skills, along with expertise in functional areas, is where the work needs to begin.

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