Patagonia - Yvon Chouinard

After reading up about Yvon Chouinard, I have noticed that he has led a revolutionary change to how he runs his business.  He is the founder of the company Patagonia.  Many may be familiar with the climbing and environmental brand.  He quickly found a way to make higher quality and less damaging climbing equipment over the last 40 years.  His focus has more shifted to empowering his employees in order to become a higher quality company. "Under Chouinard's fearless leadership, Patagonia has been a consistent innovator in coporate practice, giving away a percentage of its gross annual sales to small-scale non-profit work around the world and switching to only organically grown cotton and other recycled materials in its production."  This is an example of how Chouinard is keeping in tact with CSR.  He focuses on leading his company through long-term sustainability and good citizenship.

He has recently wrote a book called "Let My People Go Surfing."  This is a book concentrated on how his company has turned into one of the world's most inspiring companies.  In order to keep sustainability within the company, he takes very good care of his employees.  Not only does he encourage his employees to volunteer their time, emphasize the importance of the environment, and let his people leisure throughout the work day, he only hires people who's goals match up with the company's goals.  He provides surfboards for his employees to enjoy while they are on their lunch and break.  He also has a bicycle rental for employees that need to go somewhere on their breaks, to cut back on putting chemicals into the air by using cars.  The building itself has solar panels in order to create energy for the company to operate.  He blends work, play, and social duty in order for his comany to be successful.

This article shows a great example that Chouinard offers of his leadership through the "Team Leader Management" of the Blake & Mouton Model.  He offers very high concern for his people, and also has very high concern for the product or "task" at hand.  Through the examples I have mentioned above, he has covered both of these aspects.  He treats his employees with very high respect and in return sees the same.  He wants to satisfy relationships and work culture by offering them different opportunities for leisure.  This enhances their liking and caring for the environment, which is a common goal for the company and its employees.  He is agreeable and eager to help his employees.  There is a high degree of dedication and team work because the employees are actively involved in the CSR quality of the company.

I also believe this is an example of the Leader-Member Exchange, and treats all of his members as "in-group" employees.  He offers them a high quality relationship and the employees are more dependable.  They are highly involved and communicative because these leisure activities are offered to them.  They become more involved with the company by doing volunteer work that Patagonia offers for them.  Graen & Uhl-Bien's studdies found that high-quality leader-member exchanges resulted in greater organizational committment.  It is also known that Patagonia's employees stay with the company for extended amounts of time because of this. 

All in all, Yvon Chouinard possesses many leadership qualities and traits that are obviously shown through his work at Patagonia.

http://www.patagonia.com/us/patagonia.go?assetid=4626

-Lauren Mowers