Organisational Theory and Practice: Boohoo.com Case Study

This report analyzes the managerial styles, organizational structure, leadership, power, influence, conflict, and motivation strategies of Boohoo.com, a British retailer. It includes a case study and appropriate corporate examples and literature to justify the stand.

Organisational Theory and Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Determine the managerial style of the CEO using Henry Mintzberg’s managerial roles...........3
Determine measures taken by the CEO to bring about a change in organizational structure to
achieve high performance and analyse the organisation culture brought about by the CEO of
that firm and its influence on the employees...............................................................................5
Determine the leadership style of the CEO of that firm to enhance the organisational
effectiveness................................................................................................................................5
Evaluate the effects of power, influence and conflict at the chosen firm....................................7
Explain the various types of motivation strategies used at chosen firm......................................7
Discuss appropriate corporate examples and literature to justify your stand..............................8
Based on the discussion and debate what recommendations would you make to increase
organizational performance?.......................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Business practices involve managing different functional activities including human
capital and non-human resources in order to utilize them in the best possible manner and derive
business success and growth through effectively managing the business assets. Boohoo.com is a
British retailer. This retail business company was founded in the year 2006 by Mahmud Kamani
and Carol Kane. It is a public limited company operating in the fashion industry, headquartered
in Manchester, United Kingdom. The company is specialized in owning its self-made branded
clothes. With the growing market share of the business, the company has successfully been able
to sustain its e-commerce retail business. This report talks about the managerial styles of the
CEO using Henry Mintzberg managerial roles, measures taken by the CEO in order to bring
amendments to accomplish high-performance, the leadership styles of CEO, Examine the effects
of power, influence and conflict at the chosen firm, types of motivation strategies used by the
way, corporate example, recommendations to increase organisational performances (Anderson
and Ronteau, 2017).
MAIN BODY
Determine the managerial style of the CEO using Henry Mintzberg’s managerial roles
Mintzberg on management defined 10 management roles, including Figurehead, Leader,
Liaison, Monitor, Disseminator, Spokesperson, Entrepreneur, Disturbance Handler, Resource
Allocator, Negotiator. CEO in Boohoo.com uses Henry Mintzberg’s managerial roles for rightly
managing different managerial roles and other functions of the business. The CEO of
Boohoo.com follows these management roles that define all-important roles a leader must
perform in order to ensure that the business meets the expectations. Further, these roles as per the
Henry Mintzberg’s managerial are discussed as:
Figurehead: The CEO of the association is accountable for the work and shoulders different
legal and ethical responsibilities in order to rightly manage the organisational objectives.
Leader: The CEO of the association is the leader of the entire organisation. Being a leader a
CEO have shoulder different responsibilities for leading the business in a specific direction. The

CEO of the association guides the subordinates about the standards and the expectation that the
business needs in a period (Dupont, Whelan and Manning eds., 2020).
Liaison: The CEO of Boohoo.com maintains networking relationships with different
stakeholders both outside and within the business organisation.
Monitor: An leader has to monitor the developments in the business process and identify all the
grey areas of the business and support them with effective decision making and strategies to
rightly manage different business activities.
Disseminator: The CEO utilizes the gathered information and exchange them into the internal
stakeholders so that timely decision can be made. Exchanging information within the business
organisation becomes an integral role of the CEO in order to deliver the real motive, the business
performances, decision making and other relevant information of the business (Falola and et.al.,
2018).
Spokesperson: The CEO of Boohoo.com acts as a spokesperson of the business, wherein the
leader of the association has effectively communicated the organizational objectives to the
employees and exchange important business information with the stakeholders.
Entrepreneur: The CEO of Bohoo.com works like an entrepreneur by delivering innovative
business amendments, problem solving, risk taker, maintaining employee relationships and other
characteristics of an entrepreneur.
Disturbance Handler: The CEO of Boohoo.com manages the business uncertainties and
unexpected issues by taking charge of handling and managing the issues of the business.
Resource Allocator: The CEO in Boohoo.com follows the other role as per the Henry
Mintzberg’s managerial roles that defines that a CEO must be a resource allocator. The CEO in
Bohho.com allocates the human and non-human resources in a way that incurs optimum
utilization of the resources with minimum cost incurred and maximum outcomes. The CEO of
the association delegates the right employees to the right job for the right job position with
available human and non-human resources (Galea ed., 2017).
Negotiator: The CEO of Boohoo.com negotiates with different team, departments and other
organizations to manage business activities.

Determine measures taken by the CEO to bring about a change in organizational structure to
achieve high performance and analyse the organisation culture brought about by the CEO of that
firm and its influence on the employees.
In order to bring changes in the existing business structure process, Boohoo.com has
adopted the flat organizational structure for managing the business in order to eliminate the
complexities for managing the work and reducing the bureaucracy. The business has introduced
the changes to eliminate the traditional methods of forming big hierarchies at work. The flat
organizational structure adopted by the business supports in different other ways in order to
hasten communication at work, improved decision, bringing productivity in the business
functioning and so on. The flat organizational structure adopted by the business helps to value
every employee by addressing their views and concerns and involving them in the business
decisions making. It brings ways to faster communication as the executives can communicate
with the employees directly and delegate their roles and responsibilities without any delays.
Further, it facilities the accountability and answerability among the employees at work that
overall positively impacts the business performances by creating a positive working
environment. The manages and leaders can closely guide and scrutinize the performances of the
employees at work which can further help to analyze the effectiveness of the overall business
performances. It also positively impacts the employee growth as they are able to work on
establishing both soft skills and technical ones by getting close interactions and guidance with
the managers and leaders. Thus, a flat organizational structure adopted by the business help to
reflect positive impacts on the overall business functioning and managing activities (Ladegaard
and Jenks, 2015).
Determine the leadership style of the CEO of that firm to enhance the organisational
effectiveness
There are different types of leadership styles for managing business activities. The kind
of leadership to be used in the business highly depends upon the business types and the
objectivity. There are different types of leadership such as Democratic Leadership, Autocratic
Leadership, Laissez-Faire Leadership, Strategic Leadership, Transformational Leadership,
Transactional Leadership, Coach-Style Leadership, Bureaucratic Leadership. Bohoo.com used a
combination of leadership styles depending on the basis of different level of hierarchy (Lindon
and Trodd, 2016). The top executives of the business on the upper most level of the hierarchy

uses autocratic leadership styles, wherein the leaders and managers in the middle level of the
hierarchy uses the democratic leadership styles.
The autocratic leadership style used by the top level executives on the top most level of the
hierarchy includes individuals who are highly competent and experienced about different
business functionalities. They have fuller knowledge pertaining to different job role thus they use
autocratic leadership wherein they assign or directly orders the managers in the lower level of the
hierarchy. These lower level subordinates have to follow the commands of the top level
executives and meet the delegated job. The lower level managers are always accountable to the
top level executives of the business. The top level executive and the board of directors makes the
decisions by themselves they do not include the lower-level managers for the decision making.
Apart from that, the middle level manages in the association have to report to the top level
executives so that they can scrutinize the business insights within and can make supported
decision making (Mahon and et.al., 2017).
Democratic leadership is also followed in the business organisation by the middle level
managers wherein they practice collective decision and valuing the efforts of every individual at
work. Democratic leadership styles support delivering equal rights to each and every employee at
work. It more focusses on employee orientation by best utilizing the potentials so the employees
in a way to accomplish better business outcomes. The managers in Boohoo.com also delivers
training and development to the employees at work in order to ensure that the best of efforts and
skills are been utilized into the business activities.
Transactional leadership, apart from the above two stated leadership styles used by the business
association, transactional leadership is also a leadership style used in the business which involves
using the approaches of rewarding and punishing the employees at work. the middle level
managers use the transactional leadership as feel burdened by the responsibilities delegated by
the top lev executives, thus, in order to meet the targets and being answerable to the top level
executives, the middle level managers expects productivity from the lower level working staff,
wherein these middle level managers in Boohoo.com offers rewards and punishments to the
employees at work, wherein employees are perform high productivity for delivered rewards,
these includes both financial and non-financial rewards with the sole motive of motivating and
appreciating their efforts but on the other end, the employee who are not able to match the

working standards of the business are punished so next time they can meet the quality working
standards of the business (Maylor and Turner, 2017).
Evaluate the effects of power, influence and conflict at the chosen firm
The effect of power, influence and conflicts can be seen both positively and negatively
depending upon the business context and other factors.
Power
In Boohoo.com the power is being distributed in a way wherein the top level executives enjoy
more power and the lower level employees are bonded with limited power. The positive effects
of power can be seen as it facilitates social interactions and coordination of employee
relationships at work, on the other hand, the negative outcomes of power at workplace can be
seen as biased results, misuse of the position and executive enjoying the higher autonomy of
power and do not pay attention to the lower subordinates and neglects their concerns.
Influence
Influence can be determined as the power to control something at work. The effects of influence
in Boohoo.com can be addressed in both positive and negative manner, wherein the executives in
the business can make their alternation in the decision making that could positively affect the
business as more knowledge driven and experienced decision can be made by the top level
executives, on the other hand the negative outcomes can be seen wherein the employees might
not feel valued and flexible to changes in the business (Nielsen and et.al., 2021).
Conflicts
Organizational conflicts often lead inefficacies in the business activities. Wherein there are
certain positive impacts of conflicts as well, conflicts help to formulate decision as different
people would deliver their own opinions and views wherein the best alternatives and views helps
the business to make relevant decisions. The negative impact of conflicts might involve clashes
of opinion, delays in decision making and managing other functional activities, bring inefficacies
in the business functioning and others.

Explain the various types of motivation strategies used at chosen firm
There are number of motivation strategies adopted by businesses with a sole purpose of
encouraging and stimulating the actions of the employees to drive productivity and efficacies in
the business functions. The types of motivational strategies adopted by Boohoo.com is discussed
below:
Individual development: Boohoo.com emphasis on individual development by the way of
delivering appropriate training and development activities to every employee at work that
benefits both business and the employees. Wherein the business can be benefited by the way of
getting better outcomes by using fuller knowledge and potentials, on the other hand, the
individual development will motivate the employees as they would feel valued and individual
growth at work.
Provide feedbacks: Delivering feedbacks to the employees also works to motivate the employees
at work. The employer in Boohoo.com delivers feedbacks on the basis of the performances of the
employees, wherein the performances of the employees are being judged by the performance
metrics tool, which helps to evaluate the effectiveness of the performances of each employees at
work (Pizzo, 2015).
Recognize and reward: Recognition and rewards are the best motivational tools that are given to
the best performing employees. Before delivering the right motivational tool, need of different
individual are been accessed with the help of Maslow need hierarchy model which is useful to
determine the needs and preferences of different individuals at work. Maslow’s need hierarchy
model includes different needs such as safety needs, social needs, self-actualization, self-esteem,
safety needs. Boohoo.com uses this model in order to rightly address the needs of the individuals
and deliver them effective rewards and recognition at work.
Discuss appropriate corporate examples and literature to justify your stand
In order to supports the report with corporate examples, here are list of some of the
businesses:
Zara
Zara is a British global brand famously known for delivering its quality offerings to the end
prospects. Zara uses democratic leadership style in order to deliver each and every employee

equal rights and opportunities, wherein all the employees at work access equal powers and
opportunities for taking part in different business activities. The democratic leadership followed
by the association helps to create a positive working environment and business growth by
stabling a competent workforce (Riratanaphong and van der Voordt, 2015).
Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer is a multinational brand based out of UK operating the business in clothing
retail business. in order to manage the business activities, the business association follows flat
organisational structure in order to reduce the different levs of hierarchy and making hriarchiacl
levels shorter in order to promote communication within the business.
Tesco
Tesco is a British multinational retailer service based out of UK. In order to manage the
employee performance in the business, the employees are given financial and non-financial
benefits such as rewards, recognition and other benefits. These acts as motivational factors for
engaging employee’s efforts in the business association. The motivational strategies should be
shaped in a way that not only encourages the employees for work better but also focus on
individual growth by proper training and development at work.
Based on the discussion and debate what recommendations would you make to increase
organizational performance?
Boohoo.com should add recommendations in order to enhance the overall business
functioning’s of the business, recommendations are discussed as:
Democratic leadership style
Boohoo.com should adopt democratic leadership styles in the overall business levels as human
errors are very normal be it top level executives, lower subordinates, human errors are common
to both. In order to eliminate such human errors, Boohho.com should adopt democratic
leadership which involves making collective decisions. As different minds would render
different views and opinions on the basis of their experience and knowledge, apart from that,
democratic leadership styles would facilitate employee relationship and engagement among the
different individuals at work. Complying with the democratic leadership styles will eliminate the

negative impact of increasing conflicts and misuse of power in the workplace. Democratic
leadership style will focus on delivering fair rights and opportunities to all individuals, develop
an environment that leads more positive influences and control of other functional activities
(Rojot, 2016).
Employee accountability
The business should focus on improving employee accountability, wherein employee must be
asked frequently about the developments of the job in process and measure their performances
via performance metric tools further would help the business in order to deliver motivational
tools such rewards and recognition. Employee accountability is important as in employees must
be able to effective communication about their job performed and facilities organizational
productivity. In order to save the time, the business can use also digital platforms in order to
maintain effective communication channels to promote communication among the workforce.
Creative scoring system
Formulation of a scoring system would help the business association in order to make effective
decision making. The business should list out the pros and cons involved with different
alternatives and thus, choose the best option from the available choices to formulate effective
decision making.
Decision making
Boohoo.com must go through the formulation of subjective decision-making. Analyze the impact
of the decision taken on previously, how the business has been impacted by it and what all things
do the business needs to ensure in order to reduce uncertainties and effectiveness (Schmidt and
Austin, 2016).
Business strategies
The Association should formulate business strategies in a way that not only focus over a specific
geographical area but looks into a bigger picture of even facilitating exports and imports to
foreign land. Apart from that, the business strategies formulated by the business should be in a
way that satisfies the environmental and social factors to sustain in the external marketplace.
To deliver motivation to the employees

In order to deliver motivational tools to the employees, Boohoo.com can make use of digital data
storage platforms such employee informational system that draws a complete performance
analysis of each employee at work which are in terms more convenient and economical to
analyze the overall business performances and deliver favorable motivational tools to the
employees at work (Stahl and et.al., 2017).
Change management
The business can adopt digital technologies and innovation such as artificial intelligence and
cloud based computing and other technological tools in order to enhance the efficiencies of the
business and innovation that drives corporate goodwill and internal productivity at work.
CONCLUSION
The business success and growth is not solely dependent upon the IT infrastructure or
funds required but it involves integration of overall human resource and nonhuman resources and
manage them rightly by formulation of different strategies and objectives in order to make the
business a success. The report clearly discussed how different functionalities of the business
including managing styles, leadership styles, motivational strategies and others impacts a
business in different way.

REFERENCES
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