Contemporary Management Issues in the 21st Century: A Case Study of Tesco

This report explores contemporary management issues in the 21st century, with a focus on Tesco. It discusses external factors shaping human capital development, existing policies related to the workforce, and recommendations for new initiatives to survive and thrive in the new normal. The report also provides advice to company leaders on adopting changes to ensure the organization's survival and success.

Contemporary
Management Issues

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
External factors that have been shaping the development of human capital in Tesco. .1
Existing policies of Tesco related to the work force..........................................................2
Recommendations on new initiatives that this organisation should adopt in order to
survive and thrive in the new normal.................................................................................3
Advice to the leaders of company to adopt changes..........................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
References:.......................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Contemporary management refers to the process of planning, guiding, organizing and
controlling business operations in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives. It is
necessary to properly use the available resources and management ensures this. Contemporary
management values being able to operate effectively in a global market, so managing diversity is
vital. A modern management strategy includes setting values that reflect the commitment to a
safe workplace for employees at all levels of the company. Therefore, management training
courses in ethics and compliance are offered. Contemporary management is also characterized
by strong community bonds and ensuring a sustainable environment, so building collaborative
skills is part of it. Events, ideas or opinions that relate to the topic of the present are defined as
present-day topics. Currently, COVID-19 affects the entire economy and the entire corporate
world. As a result, companies have adopted several changes in the workplace. Organization’s
workers are angry with the infection, so management has started offering them work from home
so they can work safely and stay healthy (Chuang, S. and Graham, C.M., 2020). Working
remotely is seen as a major challenge for corporate CEO and HR departments as they need to
develop ways and techniques for employees to work effectively. Tesco is the selected
organization for this report. It is a British multinational general and grocery store, headquartered
in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. This report covers the
theories and models that shape human capital, existing guidelines that play an important role in
the change management process, and the advice and recommendations related to introducing
new initiatives in the workplace.
MAIN BODY
External factors that have been shaping the development of human capital in Tesco
There are numerous factors that affect the operation of the business organization which
involves factors of internal and external. A model (PEST) was used to analyse the external
factors. PEST stands for political, economic, social and technological factors. These factors fall
underneath the external factor as they cannot be controlled by the business organisation. It has its
own meaning in giving shape to human capital development after COVID-19. Below are the
detailed discussions of these factors:
1

 Political factors: It refers to the rules and regulations developed by the government of a
particular country, and it is necessary to follow all the rules of the organizations in order
to get an effective result. During the COVID-19 situation, the government developed
several rules and regulations so that they can stop the spread of the coronavirus (Du
Plessis and et.al., 2018). According to these rules, they restricted the gathering of people
in one place as it leads to the transmission of the infection from one person to another.
Tesco's management has made it possible for most employees to work from home. This
is how Tesco shapes its human capital
 Economic factor: At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy was facing
several problems including higher inflation. As a result, employees were demanding
higher salaries to meet their daily survival needs and demands. As a result, Tesco laid off
several employees for lack of funds in the organization and in the market. Management
draws up the plan to cut costs by laying off employees and shaping human capital.
 Social factors: It refers to the factors that change the tastes and preferences of
customers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, customers stopped shopping. They started
using the online applications and websites to place orders. Many of the customers
switched to other companies offering the best services online. It's also giving shape to
Tesco's human capital as they started reducing their staff who work in the offline stores.
 Technological factors: It is defined as the factors that affect business operations through
technology. During the COVID-19 situation, technological advances provide the
company with strengths to face the challenges (Fatimah, Y.A and et.al., 2020). Using
technology, Tesco has developed a mobile application and worked on various e-
commerce platforms to serve customers at home. In order to give form to tesco's human
capital, management has made home offices available to many employees, as they can
only do their work at home.
The advancement of information and technology implies many innovations like remote
working, automation of business processes and much more. In the context of Tesco, information
technology plays an important role in the development of automated processes in the workplace,
such as: Computer networks interconnect the organization's employees so that they can perform
operations remotely. In this way, the effects of information and communication technology on
management can be analysed.
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Existing policies of Tesco related to the work force
Tesco plc operates in more than 12 countries. For the management of an organization, it
is necessary to develop strategies that lead to an effective and efficient growth and development
of the organization. Tesco's management has developed several talent acquisition strategies to
recruit employees within the company (Green, C., 2018). Employee evaluation scheme is the
best strategy developed by Tesco's management for its employees, where management provides
a higher job profile to their existing employees by increasing their salaries along with their
determination. The annual appraisal refers to the scheme in which employees are promoted to the
higher position with the salary increase based on their annual performance.
Workforce planning is the strategy that Tesco's management follows in relation to the
provision of education and training. It is defined as the process of analysing the needs and
requirements of employees with specific skills and competencies. After determining the
requirements, the management designs the education and training programs for the purpose of
developing the appropriate skills to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. In addition,
Tesco trains the employees who are eligible for the assessment process.
In order to use and create the new opportunities for the future, Tesco adopts the strategies
of change management. It expands and adopts its operational measures in the long run-in order to
achieve the goals and objectives of the organization (Pham, D., 2018).
Recommendations on new initiatives that this organisation should adopt in order to survive
and thrive in the new normal.
The global crises have forced economies to a standstill and offer companies a unique
opportunity to use the massive challenges for meaningful change. It is recommended that Tesco,
to survive and thrive in the new normal of coronavirus, say goodbye as follows:
 Flexibility: Providing flexibility to Tesco employees is the best option. This flexibility
allows the organization's employees to conduct their business at their convenient times.
Having employees performing operations at their convenient times brings effectiveness
to the organization (Robinson, I.M., 2020).
 Make an advantage of digitization: Tesco's management can increase employee
productivity by digitizing functions. The improvement of the digitization of work
implies the efficiency of the work performance of the employees as it makes the task
easier.
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 Driving systematic change through cooperation: COVID-19 develops fear of infection
among employees. They want to conduct business operations by staying home so they
can stay safe. It is recommended that Tesco adopt the changes resulting from the
situation of COVID. Result (Tamplain, P and et.al., 2019).
Advice to the leaders of company to adopt changes
The development of software is considered necessary to bring flexibility to the
workplace. It helps managers to keep track of employees' work progress. The switch to the
digital world is also an important step for managers. As a result, the company will be available
on multiple e-commerce websites. In order to attract the customers, they have to work on their
online presence. Tesco executives need to focus on having a strong online presence as this leads
to customer acquisition and retention. For the same reason, they are challenged to keep their
employees happy by making work from home flexible. It also helps the organization retain
employees over the long term, which leads to the profitability and productivity of the
organization (Torlak, N.G and et.al., 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it was concluded that COVID-19 affects the entire work process of
the business organization. To ensure the survival of the organization, they need to make various
changes so that they can continue to operate in an effective and efficient manner. It also results in
huge losses for the company due to the economic recession and lack of money in the market.
Many companies have laid off their employees for cost reasons. Companies are advised to
increase the use of technology at work as it helps them conduct the same business operations
remotely.
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References:
Books and Journals
Chuang, S. and Graham, C.M., 2020. Contemporary Issues and Performance Improvement of
Mature Workers in Industry 4.0. Performance Improvement, 59(6), pp.21-30.
Du Plessis and et.al., 2018. Principles of contemporary corporate governance. Cambridge
University Press.
Fatimah, Y.A and et.al., 2020. Industry 4.0 based sustainable circular economy approach for
smart waste management system to achieve sustainable development goals: A case
study of Indonesia. Journal of Cleaner Production, 269, p.122263.
Green, C., 2018. Contemporary issues: The pre-licensure nursing student and medication
errors. Nurse education today, 68, pp.23-25.
Pham, D., 2018. Contemporary issues in entrepreneurship research volume 7: Entrepreneurship
education: New perspectives on research, policy & practice. International Journal of
Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.
Robinson, I.M., 2020. New resource towns on Canada’s frontier: Selected contemporary issues.
In Resource communities: A decade of disruption (pp. 1-21). Routledge.
Tamplain, P and et.al., 2019. Assessment of motor development in childhood: Contemporary
issues, considerations, and future directions. Journal of Motor Learning and
Development, 8(2), pp.391-409.
Torlak, N.G and et.al., 2019. Impact of operations management strategies on customer
satisfaction and behavioral intentions at café-restaurants. International Journal of
Productivity and Performance Management.
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