Belle Beauty Case Study
There are 2 parts which needs to be completed. First part ( 2500 words Report) & Second part (500 words reflective).
Part One
As an Occupational Psychologist who specialises in Consultancy you have been called in by Jean Wallis, the HR Manager at Belle Beauty to help solve their current issues. Your task is to read the following case study, identify the problems and to analyse what solutions you can offer.
This needs to be communicated through a 2500-word report, addressed to the HR Manager. You must draw on the module topics and psychological literature that has been covered throughout the semester and apply it to this case study. Your analysis should demonstrate depth and quality and the ability to synthesise and critique literature in relation to wider issues of Work Psychology.
Case Study – Belle Beauty
Belle Beauty, a small chain of beauty clinics has been going through some difficult times in the last five years. The owner, Candice Fairmont, had always dreamed of being her own boss ever since her under-graduate days in the early 1990s when she was at university reading for a Business Degree. During this time, she worked part-time in her cousin’s beauty clinic and developed a passion for work in this industry. After obtaining a First-class degree in 1995, she worked for a few years as a therapist and trainee manager within the beauty sector. She continued to gain managerial experience, and worked her way up to become an area manager in a leading clinic. When she inherited some money from family and in addition to a well-written and managed business plan, she was able to convince a bank to lend her sufficient money to open her own beauty clinic. This was an exciting time for Candice and due to her high work ethic, contacts in the industry, and being a shrewd business-woman, she was hugely successful building a strong reputation for herself and her brand. Success seemed to build on success. Ten years later, by 2010, she owned no less than 15 Belle Beauty clinics across England.
However, Candice’s success had not lasted and she wondered if her recent difficulties were due to over-expansion too quickly, where maybe she had taken her eye of the ball slightly. Or was it, she thought, because she could only be in one place at a time and maybe 15 clinics was just too many to manage. Surely though, once she had appointed a deputy in the form of an area manager to oversee the clinics as well, then things should have improved. But they didn’t. She started to plot out what the issues were to try to make sense of it all.
There was no mistaking that bookings were certainly spiralling downwards, especially in the last six months. After having built a strong brand this was heart-breaking to Candice. When she entered the different branches she felt a strong sense of discontent amongst the staff. Something seemed to have changed. It was certainly true that customers had less money to spend on luxury items or services than they once had. Competition had also grown ever stronger with her competitors making use of voucher reductions and other similar services. Belle Beauty had never been involved in cut-pricing on that scale as Candice thought it ‘cheapened’ the image and therefore the brand. It was a route she didn’t want to take.
It was more than just that though, there seemed a kind of hostility amongst the staff in some of the branches. As appointments and clients decreased she felt that relationships in the workplace were becoming strained amongst her staff. After a long hard decision, she had decided to let at least one member of staff ‘go’ at each branch so that the others could safely remain in employment. This did nothing to help the atmosphere from those that remained. Some felt guilty thinking that ‘last-in, first-out’ was not a healthy way to make those kind of decisions. Others thought that it might be them next, so why bother?
At the same time, she wondered why there seemed so much absence in her workplace. Her HR manager, Jane Wallis, had pointed out that the figures had doubled in the last three years, largely due to reported stress, and no doubt unreported stress put down to physical symptoms. Yes, it was true that all staff had been asked to do extra hours, in the form of two evening shifts to be more competitive (since rival beauty clinics were also offering such expanded opening hours). Candice was not able to offer extra pay for the additional working hours, but she thought they would understand, since if things did not improve there could be no business in a couple of years.
At one time Candice always organised a monthly get-together, always held at a different branch, so it was fair to everyone regarding travelling. At these events staff were given the opportunity to take-up free treatments if they wished. These fixed events seemed to keep everyone in good communication and not only were relationships build but work tips were shared at these events too. To keep costs down Candice, her senior management team, including her area manager, and her HR manager had advised her to cancel these events, at least for the foreseeable future. Instead they had put in place a competition each month, with the aim of increasing business and also to still keep staff in contact with each. There was a monthly cash bonus of £200 for the member of staff who had made the most profit. This, although to some extent, did work, it also seemed to encourage staff to fight amongst themselves over clients for the quickest most profitable treatments in the hope of winning the bonus.
From customer feedback Candice also knew that staff did not seem to have the friendly rapport they once had with their clients. She reflected that this was probably because they felt time-pressured by having to demonstrate a profit. If they spoke to each client an extra five minutes on arrival or departure, this meant that when added up together this equalled the same amount of time that could have enabled them to see an extra client that day.
The ethos and the values of what Belle Beauty had originally stood for seemed to have vanished and hence the attitudes and the culture of the staff towards each other and the clients too. Her strong brand of friendly, top-quality treatments in luxury surroundings had disappeared. Candice realised the problems were greater than she, or her deputy manager, could deal with as they did not have the expertise in these areas that seemed to go beyond mere business strategy. The issues were clearly in the realm of occupational psychology which HR draws on. She decided to ask her HR manager to seek professional help by commissioning a team of expert Occupational Psychologists specialising in Consultancy to make recommendations on how to solve the difficulties that Belle Beauty was going through.
Part Two
In addition, you must write 500 words on how you have used the feedback you received from CW1 to improve your academic skills on CW2.
My Feedback From Coursework 1:
Theory: Understanding of main theories and concepts, range of theory used, relevance to topic, clear, logical, coherent arguments, breadth of coverage of literature.
Overall good coverage of theory, try to include more theory on job analysis, assessment process, competency approach, reliability, validity, issues with psychometrics, meta analysis, adverse impact, culture fair tests, gender issues, social desirability and remedies in terms of assessment centres. Include aspects of personality testing too.
Analysis: Includes depth and quality of critical evaluation, coherent analysis relevant to theory, clarity of argument, strengths of criticisms with examples.
You should have adopted a critical approach in your work, the essay explores and considers the limitations of models and empirical work. You need to expand on the identification of gaps and problems with current work in the area and indicate how future research could be considered.
Content: Includes relevance to question set, definition of key concepts, clear descriptions, practical examples and case studies to support argument.
The answer is well structured and clearly written. The essay explores the chosen topic and argues logically and with clarity. The essay shows good knowledge of the relevant literature, discussing relevant research and/or discussing relevant models and theory. The answer is well planned, clearly described and analysed. You show good knowledge of the broader context of business and are able to make appropriate use of relevant business examples and cases to illustrate points. However, I would encourage you to include more business a case examples or practical application.
Structure and referencing: Introduction, context, clear structure, written objectively using third person passive voice. Correct use of Harvard referencing.
The essay refers to relevant case material and business examples. Clear conclusions are presented, showing a good grasp of the psychological approach to the study of work issues. Try to include a paragraph, expand on the context of the subject.
