Dov Charney is a Canadian businessman known for founding American Apparel in 1989. He served as the CEO of the company for over two decades (1989 – 2014) but was forced out of American Apparel by its board amid allegations of sexual harassment and mismanagement of employees. He later started a vertically-integrated apparel manufacturer in Los Angeles Apparel in 2016.
American Apparel is Textile Company working to manufacturer, design, distribute, market and former retailer based in Los Angeles, California. The company shut down all the physical stores as of April 2017 and only operates as an online-only retailer. American Apparel once had its factory in Los Angeles, California with its manufacturing took place in a seven-story 800,000-square-foot facility where it produces more than 55,000 different products and garments (Wells, 2012).
Dov Charney involved himself in almost every part of the business functioning including task from designing to production to the marketing of the products they manufacture. He had a vision and aspiration to be remembered as one of the greatest CEO and a pioneer in the textile industry. The company once hit its peak and was one of the largest clothing manufacturing company of the USA. However, Charney was unable to maintain his values and ethics and getting accused of sexual harassment and ill treatment of the employees worsen the situation. He was unable to maintain the values and ethics in line with the organizational core values.
Charney was subject to several sexual harassment lawsuits at least five since the mid-2000s, all of which were settled, dismissed, or remanded to private arbitration. In similar case in 2008, the victim was awarded 1.3 million dollars and agreeing to a settlement with a pre-determined result favorable to Charney and American Apparel (Casey, 2008). All those along with other workplace discrimination and misuse of company’s assist started to flood against Dov resulting in the company reputation falling fast and the sales being reduced in the same proportion resulting in Charney being forced out of the business that he himself started.
Charney, founder and former CEO of American Apparel used to be known by the title of Senior Partner instead. He infused his personal values into the company brand by providing factory workers a low-cost, full-family health care option and a generous $13 - 18 USD per hour allowance. He also took a company position on immigration reform. American Apparel’s idea of using vertical integration removed the need of offshore labour and made use of the working in the nation itself. For the same reason, Media Magazine in the year 2006 recognized American Apparel as Top 10 Socially Responsible Companies. Charney claims that all of those that he did was part of a business strategy rather than he being generous and doing it for moral reason. That is why he’s also known as a retail and manufacturing visionary.
No matter how good one does, if the one repeats the mistakes on a regular basis, it often clouds the good one does. And, the same happened with Charney as he was accused with several sexual harassment cases where the company had to pay millions to settle it. Furthermore, disregarding the strong hiring system, the company appeared to have hired more than a thousand of workers who had a fake social security number and actually illegal immigrants. He was also accused of misusing company funds.
The company labelled all their products to have made locally in the United States of America and used extensive marketing to promote it but later on it was discovered that the claim had no grounds to stand as more than 70% of their total manufacturing was done by third party and they had no creative control of where the product were manufactured in. The CEO reputation due to multiple accusation had been very low and so was the company being hit hard by activist and general people causing steep loss.
To be in line for a shared value, Charney had to bring change in himself to stay composed that he once was and not get into any further controversies however, that wasn’t the case and he kept on repeating the wrong that he was doing, failing to set a good positive example to everyone following him. That worsen people’s view towards him and his credibility as a leader. American Apparel desperately needed a change but Charney failed to do so. As a leader, he was leading by a wrong example and passing it forward as a value of himself and the organization. That made the American apparel lose its organizational value. With several accusations, and association with Charney, people stopped using the products manufactured by American Apparel which made the business shut down all its physical store in early 2017.
Shared values are the values that are developed by the leader of the organization in relation to the organizational values. This shared values are then passed on by the leader to the employees or other members related to the organization. These values if properly used benefit the organization and individual in several ways increasing the competitiveness of the company as well (Posner&Kouzes,2012). For example, it helps to reduce the operational cost, educational status and health problem within the organizational stature by identifying and addressing the social problems that are associated with the organization.
If the values of the organization and the person matches, it motivates one to give his/her heart and soul for the organization. For example, as a citizen I always wanted to make a difference in the lives of people positively so I jumped in when I got the opportunity to work with an organization knowing that their values of helping people in need and uplifting their standard is what they value as well. That was a common ground for me and value that me as an individual and the organization shared motivating me to jump into the ship fully motivated to deliver.
References
Casey, N. (2008). Court Criticizes Arbitration Pact in American Apparel Harassment Case . The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 20 March 2018, from wsj.com/articles/SB122575572996695011
Posner, B. Z., & Kouzes, J. M. (2012). The Leadership Challenge (5 ed.) . U.S.A: John Wiley & Sons.
Dov Charney is a Canadian businessman known for founding American Apparel in 1989. He served as the CEO of the company for over two decades (1989 – 2014) but was forced out of American Apparel by its board amid allegations of sexual harassment and mismanagement of employees. He later started a vertically-integrated apparel manufacturer in Los Angeles Apparel in 2016.
American Apparel is Textile Company working to manufacturer, design, distribute, market and former retailer based in Los Angeles, California. The company shut down all the physical stores as of April 2017 and only operates as an online-only retailer. American Apparel once had its factory in Los Angeles, California with its manufacturing took place in a seven-story 800,000-square-foot facility where it produces more than 55,000 different products and garments (Wells, 2012).
Dov Charney involved himself in almost every part of the business functioning including task from designing to production to the marketing of the products they manufacture. He had a vision and aspiration to be remembered as one of the greatest CEO and a pioneer in the textile industry. The company once hit its peak and was one of the largest clothing manufacturing company of the USA. However, Charney was unable to maintain his values and ethics and getting accused of sexual harassment and ill treatment of the employees worsen the situation. He was unable to maintain the values and ethics in line with the organizational core values.
Charney was subject to several sexual harassment lawsuits at least five since the mid-2000s, all of which were settled, dismissed, or remanded to private arbitration. In similar case in 2008, the victim was awarded 1.3 million dollars and agreeing to a settlement with a pre-determined result favorable to Charney and American Apparel (Casey, 2008). All those along with other workplace discrimination and misuse of company’s assist started to flood against Dov resulting in the company reputation falling fast and the sales being reduced in the same proportion resulting in Charney being forced out of the business that he himself started.
Charney, founder and former CEO of American Apparel used to be known by the title of Senior Partner instead. He infused his personal values into the company brand by providing factory workers a low-cost, full-family health care option and a generous $13 - 18 USD per hour allowance. He also took a company position on immigration reform. American Apparel’s idea of using vertical integration removed the need of offshore labour and made use of the working in the nation itself. For the same reason, Media Magazine in the year 2006 recognized American Apparel as Top 10 Socially Responsible Companies. Charney claims that all of those that he did was part of a business strategy rather than he being generous and doing it for moral reason. That is why he’s also known as a retail and manufacturing visionary.
No matter how good one does, if the one repeats the mistakes on a regular basis, it often clouds the good one does. And, the same happened with Charney as he was accused with several sexual harassment cases where the company had to pay millions to settle it. Furthermore, disregarding the strong hiring system, the company appeared to have hired more than a thousand of workers who had a fake social security number and actually illegal immigrants. He was also accused of misusing company funds.
The company labelled all their products to have made locally in the United States of America and used extensive marketing to promote it but later on it was discovered that the claim had no grounds to stand as more than 70% of their total manufacturing was done by third party and they had no creative control of where the product were manufactured in. The CEO reputation due to multiple accusation had been very low and so was the company being hit hard by activist and general people causing steep loss.
To be in line for a shared value, Charney had to bring change in himself to stay composed that he once was and not get into any further controversies however, that wasn’t the case and he kept on repeating the wrong that he was doing, failing to set a good positive example to everyone following him. That worsen people’s view towards him and his credibility as a leader. American Apparel desperately needed a change but Charney failed to do so. As a leader, he was leading by a wrong example and passing it forward as a value of himself and the organization. That made the American apparel lose its organizational value. With several accusations, and association with Charney, people stopped using the products manufactured by American Apparel which made the business shut down all its physical store in early 2017.
Shared values are the values that are developed by the leader of the organization in relation to the organizational values. This shared values are then passed on by the leader to the employees or other members related to the organization. These values if properly used benefit the organization and individual in several ways increasing the competitiveness of the company as well (Posner&Kouzes,2012). For example, it helps to reduce the operational cost, educational status and health problem within the organizational stature by identifying and addressing the social problems that are associated with the organization.
If the values of the organization and the person matches, it motivates one to give his/her heart and soul for the organization. For example, as a citizen I always wanted to make a difference in the lives of people positively so I jumped in when I got the opportunity to work with an organization knowing that their values of helping people in need and uplifting their standard is what they value as well. That was a common ground for me and value that me as an individual and the organization shared motivating me to jump into the ship fully motivated to deliver.
References
Casey, N. (2008). Court Criticizes Arbitration Pact in American Apparel Harassment Case . The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 20 March 2018, from wsj.com/articles/SB122575572996695011
Posner, B. Z., & Kouzes, J. M. (2012). The Leadership Challenge (5 ed.) . U.S.A: John Wiley & Sons.
Wells, J. (2012). American Apparel CEO: Tattered, but Not Torn. CNBC. Retrieved 20 March 2018, from web.archive.org/web/20140120150020...