When I started at H&M there was a recent management change at the store, the area team management was not very supportive (understandable since there where other stores with new management teams as well) and we ended up reinventing the wheel a few times. This is a specific situation that may not apply to all cases, but I think it indicates the ease with which the perfect ideology of H&M sometimes gets lost. The ideas of support and collaboration where not upheld by our area team, which indicates that it was probably lost somewhere higher up the chain. H&M encourages staff to create their own solutions, which is liberating, but can lead to some ambiguity that makes meeting high expectations difficult. At times, it felt like we without guidance and disconnected from the rest of the company.
Another issue was the challenge to create a pleasing environment for the staff. With a dissatisfied and free-floating management team, it became more difficult to support our staff. The ambiguity of our area team seeped into our management style and we were unclear about expectations and penny-pinching in our rewards. This seemed to be a general issue present in more than just our store.
