The Galleria Shopping Mall: International Business

The Galleria is an international business: this is a retail shopping facility owned by Simon Property Group, capable of receiving over 30 million visitors each year. Opened in 1970, Galleria accommodates indoor shopping, the idea for which was formed by Gerald D. Hines. The shopping mall offers a world-class shopping experience with over 378 stores, 2 hotels, 30 restaurants, and a full-sized ice rink. The architecture of Galleria is outstanding, which makes it an attraction to international tourists. The restaurants cater meals of quality and satisfy every taste. The Highland Village, which is also a retail shopping center, is a direct competitor to Galleria, is thought to be a high-class center that also provides shopping activities. It is owned by Haidar Barbouti and it is located near the Galleria. It also has a taste of prestige with specialty stores and attractive features. Its foundation is traced back to 1940s when it was opened by N.S. Adams. The aim of its establishment was to serve the surrounding high-class neighborhoods. The shopping center is attractively lined with palm trees and serves the most distinctive dining with variety tastes.

Purpose of Research

The objective of this research paper is to comparatively analyze the organizational behavior of the Galleria and The Highland Village retail shopping centers. This will involve an analysis at the individual level, group level, and organizational level. The analysis process will help in drawing conclusions on which organization is more effective in operation.

Individual Behavior Analysis

Personality

Personality comprises of ways in which an organizational individuals interact with each other and it forms a critical aspect of customer care procedures. Personality incorporates how well a company manages the problems facing customers within the shortest period of time and attention given to them. Comparing Galleria and the Highland Village shopping centers, we notice some differences in their personality traits. On the aspect of emotional stability, Galleria has training processes which focus on making the employees more emotionally stable and self-confident. The high number of visitors who come to Galleria have made the management team to train its employees in an effort to provide better services to them. At Highland Village, the training processes focus on more on performance work rather than stability as it is with Galleria. Basing on extraversion personality, Galleria shopping center puts more emphasis on team-oriented activities and thus its workers have become more assertive, gregarious, and sociable. Highland Village shopping center is more group oriented and therefore the outcomes of its strategies are more self-fulfilling. On the personality issue of experience and openness, both shopping centers strive at providing creativity, sensitivity, and imagination in their working procedures. The environment provided by the two retail shopping centers is suitable for nurturing, cooperation and building of trust among the employees and the management.

Values

Values relate to the way an organization views its employees and the position they take in the organization. Values in an organization lay the foundation for understanding the employee's attitudes and motivation, values have an influence on the people's perception in the two retail centers. They both hire individuals into their workforce who have mixture of values and are able to handle the wide variety of activities carried out at the shopping centers. Galleria has emerged strongly in its innovation processes and greatly added to the organizational job satisfaction and performance. Galleria, particularly, is related to more job satisfaction compared to Highland Village. The strategies obtained by Galleria such as hiring objectives, salary definition, and working conditions are magnificent making it a giant in Houston’s retail shopping.

Motivation

This is a primary factor in employee job satisfaction. Motivation could be through better salary offer, performance bonus, or through rewards recognition. Galleria offers appealing salaries and thus the shopping center has managed to recruit most highly skilled workers and attracted more expertise in the shopping experience. It has also managed to keep the highly skilled personnel and productive workforce. The Highland Village, on the other hand, offers competitive salaries and focuses on developing a more skilled and motivated team. However, the Highland’s Village salary offer is quite lower compared to that of Galleria. Nevertheless, both shopping centers provide safe, inclusive and respectful working environment which motivates its workers.

Perception and Individual Decision Making

Perception is about how employees organize and interpret sensory impressions and give a meaning to the organizational environment. In an interview with the workers of the two shopping centers, positive attitude towards their organization was indicated. They also reported that the retail shopping centers strive to improve creativity in their decision-making through the cultivation of creative skills, expertise, and task motivation. With their close location to one another, they have grown to be tough competitors which make decisions aimed at outsmarting one another. In reference to expertise, Galleria hires HR managers who have greater experience in carrying out the job operations. The better working conditions, salary, and scope for a career development have formed the basis of expertise attraction at Galleria shopping center. The hiring process cultivated by the shopping centers aim at picking on a workforce that drives at bringing expert personnel with the abilities to utilize analogies while at the same time execute talents which reflect and encourage creativity.

Group Behavior Analysis

Communication

Communication processes employed in both are well developed. Communication process at Galleria evaluates the extent of functional integration into its operation activities and value chain to fully realize organizational visions and missions. In Highland Village, it aims at aligning the process of shopping with communication being highly technologically developed comprising of events and facilitations, news and routine tracking. The communication channels in the shopping centers emphasize on the customer-organization relationship. Channels of communication between the two companies involve the use of memos, newsletters, annual reports, and advertisement on television, billboards, newspaper, and the internet.

Leadership

The Galleria shopping center has the Galleria Chamber of Commerce (GCOC) leadership which has successfully served the organization for a period of 28 years. Fred Stumpf is the chairman of the board. The chamber employs of leadership programs that are directed at the betterment of the organization. Forces have been joined between the Houston West Chamber of Commerce (HWCOC) and the Galleria’s Board of directors in an effort of expanding its services to members and the society. Stumpf stated that “In these times of growth and prosperity in Houston, there are many opportunities for any organization to expand its horizons. That is most economically and quickly accomplished through affiliations and consolidations with like-minded and successful competitors or colleagues” (Houston West Chamber of Commerce, 2013). The move thus provides a promising future for the Galleria shopping center. The management team of the Highland Village is composed of the CEO and the central relationship manager. Haidar Barbouti is the CEO of the company (Kaplan, 2013).

Power

The power of the two organizations could be analyzed in terms of market share, market capitalization, and annual profits. Both companies share customers who majorly comprise of retail shopping and thus the two fight over dominance of the market. However, Galleria is the leading retail shopping owing to the huge operating activities carried in it and the many annual visitors. It enjoys market domination in retail shopping in Houston. The market capitalization and profitability level of Galleria are higher compared to that of Highland Village.

Organizational Behavior Analysis

Organizational Culture

Organization culture analysis of the two revealed some similarities and differences. They have both built an innovative and risk-taking culture in their organization. Galleria does encourage innovative ideas and employee participation and opinions. Galleria is driven by an immense passion and a culture that constantly seeks challenges and identifies new opportunities of satisfying its visitors. Its culture also works towards connecting with customers to earn their loyalty and at the same time make everyone feel valued through recognizing and acknowledging bold contributions. The culture has translated into the creation of shopping experience that responds to the needs of the customers.

At Highland Village, the organizational culture does influence the company’s driver towards higher performance in its effort of attaining the stated vision of becoming a retail leader and addressing its stipulated organizational goals. It defines its values, traditions, and customs which affect the individual and group behaviors. The culture exemplifies the mission and vision statements with more emphasis being put on teamwork and excellence. The management team aims at achieving synergy and consistency through fostering of functional and technical excellence and delivery of results.

Organizational Structure

The organizational structure of Galleria is well developed and fosters commitment and teamwork. Its tasks are well coordinated and supervised and direct towards the achievement of the organizational strategies. The organizational structure of Highland Village is based on the business requirements in the variety market conditions on global perspectives. The international scope of the two operational activities defines the key organizational structure effectiveness in support of the organization to keep its performance and growth strategies.

Change

Major changes have been noticed in the two retail shopping centers in terms renovations and expansion along with of the products services since their establishment. There are internal and external forces of competition influence the change in the two companies. The Galleria underwent the first expansion in 1976 where 360,000 ft2 space was added onto the already established 600, 000 ft2. Huge renovations in the retail began in 2014 which aimed at luring high-end retail shoppers to its complexity. The second expansion of the retail happened in 1986 where the new wing was opened in the Marshall grounds anchored by Macy bringing the shopping mall close to 1.6 million ft2. The Highland Village has also undergone changes and currently sits on 15 acres after expansion since its establishment. They continually come up with new changes in technologies and innovations for changes. The changes made in the two companies direct at cutting costs and ensuring high profitability levels.

Galleria is an Effective Organization

Through the analysis and comparison of Galleria and Highland Village organizational behavior, important similarities and differences are noted though more emphasis was driven at analytical comparison involving the differences. The outcomes of the research conclude that Galleria is more dynamic, versatile and flexible in its retail working processes. It aims at improving shopping experiences and maximizing the income together with improving the society oriented services. It offers handsome salaries which have attracted more employees and expertise. Besides, the company’s personality, values, and motivational strategies are well defined. The excellent communication and leadership strategies such as forming of alliance with HWCOC have also directed the better performance and job satisfaction. Furthermore, its organizational culture does value its employees and customers.

Conclusion

Individual, group and organizational behavior analysis are significant aspects in understanding the strength and weak points of an organization. The interaction between the two key players in the retail industry reveals rivalry. They have attractive structural designs and quality products. The management abilities have also played a critical role in value and sustainability in the market. The retail shopping centers take decisions that overcome any challenges facing them. All the organizational behavior strategies have worked towards ensuring that the retail shopping centers realize their strategic focus and maintain a healthy competition.

References

Houston West Chamber of Commerce. (2013). Welcome Aboard, Galleria Chamber of Commerce! Retrieved on 23, Feb, 2017 from https://www.hwcoc.org/general/gcoc

Kaplan, David. (2013). The rise and the rise of Highland Village. Retrieved on 23, Feb, 2017 from http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/The-rise-and-the-rise-of-Highland-Village-4468286.php