Leadership and Management Practices at Marks & Spencer

This report analyzes the leadership and management practices of Marks & Spencer, a multinational retailer. It examines the company's vision, leadership styles, and management strategies, drawing on various theories to provide insights into their success. The report also includes recommendations for improvement based on the research findings.

CONTEXT OF
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1. A brief history and summary of the business and the rationale for choice........................3
2. According to your research, discuss their vision, leadership style and management practices
and the various strategies making use of various theories you have studied as evidence......4
3. Analyze how above have been achieved or implemented by this firm giving suitable
examples.................................................................................................................................6
4. Recommendations as an improvement (the proposed leadership styles, management
practices and the various strategies that can be undertaken by this firm based on this research)
................................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is defined as ability of managers in an organization that influence workers to
work together in achieving goals and objectives (Amagoh, 2019). The various functions of
leadership are establishing of clear goals and objectives to subordinates, sharing of vision of
goals with staff people and workers, giving proper guidance to employees in evaluation of this
vision and providing them different ways and methods which helps to achieve targets. The
various kinds of leadership and management styles that are used in the organization are
bureaucratic, autocratic, charismatic, transformational, task oriented and laissez-fair leadership.
In the following report leadership styles and management practices are analyzed in consideration
of a UK based multinational firm naming Mark & Spencer. This is headquartered in London and
was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in the year 1884. This company is involved
in selling of clothes, home products and luxury food products. This report consists of brief
history of company, and summary of business. It also includes leadership and management style,
vision of this firm and different strategies that are used by this company to run a successful
business.
1. A brief history and summary of the business and the rationale for choice
Marks & Spencer is a Multinational company of British that deals in luxury food,
clothing and home products. It has shops across the world. This company is commonly known
as M&S. The headquarter of company are located in Westminster, London. This firm is a
partnership of two people naming Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. This is a successful
firm of retail sector founded in 1884.
History
Marks & Spencer is a successful multinational retail firm that was founded by Thomas
Spencer and Michael Marks in the year 1884. In early 20th century this company was associated
in selling of British made goods. In the year 1928, the company sold it’s clothes and food
products using brand name “St Michael” . It is running a successful international market since
many years (Ardichvili, Cardozo and Gasparishvili, 2018). There are different countries in which
it has expanded business including Canada, Afghanistan, Austria, France, etc.
Summary of the business

Marks and Spencer is a renowned multinational firm of UK. This company
manufactures good quality food, clothes and home products to people around the world. The
company has generated a revenue of £10.6 billions. This firm has more than 1000 stores around
the world. The number of employees working in this company are approximately 85000. The
success of this company is based on social and environmental sustainability. This is also named
in the list of London Stock Exchange.
Rationale of the study
Marks and Spencer is a multinational firm and it has business around the world. It is a
great example of successful expansion of business in foreign countries. This company is chosen
for this study to analyse different strategies and leadership styles that are used in this firm by
managers to handle all operations.
2. According to your research, discuss their vision, leadership style and management practices
and the various strategies making use of various theories you have studied as evidence
Vision of Marks and Spencer
A vision of a company is defined as statement that signifies the future and development
of the company in upcoming years. The vision of Marks and Spencer is that it has to become a
standard for all retail companies of clothing and food segment. It has to become benchmark for
other companies dealing in same sector.
Leadership or management style that are adopted by Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer is a firm that is running business across the world. The reason behind
success of their businesses is that the management of company is very effective. It is necessary
for multinational firms to adopt leadership styles and management practices for better
functioning of the organization (Chen and Lee, 2018). The different kind of leadership or
management styles adopted by companies are given below-
Autocratic leadership or management style
In autocratic leadership or management, decision power is with a single authority i.e. the
manager or leader. The team members or staff people are not involved in the decision making of

the organization. The drawback of adopting this leadership style is that there are some employees
who are demotivated as they are not allowed to suggest their views in decision process. This
creates a scenario of conflicts and poor motivation among employees.
Consultative leadership/management style
In this kind of leadership and management practice the managers consider their
subordinates and team members before making decisions of the company. These managers and
leaders generally have good listening abilities (Church and Waclawski, 2009). The opinions and
suggestions of employees are taken through various ways like newsletters, team briefing or
suggestion boxes.
Democratic leadership or management style
The decisions are taken by whole team in this management style. The decisions made in
organization are responsibility of employees of the firm. The final decision is given by the
manger or leader. These leaders are very understanding and they take feedbacks from employees
in fixed interval of time.
The leadership or management style practiced in Marks and Spencer is the consultative
kind of leadership for making several organizational decisions. In Marks and Spencer, managers
take suggestions of employees and then make decisions. The decision which is given by leader is
collaborative idea of subordinates. This can be explained by an example like if the company
decides to start a business in any other country, then leader will consider all other staff people to
involve in suggesting their opinions in this decision. This company also uses democratic style of
leadership sometimes (Hood, 2012). Moreover, Laissez Faire management style is used when
decisions are to be made by expertise.
Different strategies made by using various theories
Management is defined as process of various operations performed for accomplishing
organizational goals and objectives. The management process requires various resources for
completing tasks like raw material, capital, knowledge and experience, customers, suppliers and
employee skills. There are various functions of management in an organization such as
organizing, planning, controlling and leading. In an organization there are various theories which

are involved in formulation of management practices. It is mentioned in career policy of Marks
and Spencer that it focus on providing perks, rewards, benefits and incentives to its employees.
There are basically two types of benefits given by M & S including financial reward and
development trainings. Both are important for enhancing productivity of the employee. The
managers and leaders of Marks and Spencer are following motivational theory X and theory Y
for supporting their employees. This motivational theory was given by Mc Gregor in the year of
1960. According to this theory employees are divided into two types described below-
Theory X
The employees of this category are lazy and they are not dedicated for completing the
tasks given to them (Sorenson, 2009). These team members are motivated by managers with
offering them great rewards and incentives.
Theory Y
These are the employees who are hard working and dedicated towards working in the
organization. Such staff is given proper career training for overall development and growth of
employees as well as organization.
3. Analyze how above have been achieved or implemented by this firm giving suitable examples
The implementation of different leadership and management practices in the organization
like Marks and Spencer is beneficial for growth and development of the firm. This is a
multinational company therefore managers help their subordinates in achieving goals and
organizations of the company within specified time frame. Leadership style and management
practices are used in organizations for enhancing competitive advantage to sustain in the
marketplace. In Marks and Spencer the kind of leadership style used is bureaucratic. Managers of
the company are involved in assigning roles and responsibilities to their subordinates and giving
them a clear vision of goals and objectives. The theory which is used in Marks and Spencer is
Theory X and Theory Y. These leaders and managers help in supporting and motivating their
employees and working hard to attain goals and objectives. The decisions made in organization
are influenced by this theory of motivation. This can be explained by an example if there are two
employees working in the company. One of them is dedicated towards work and other is lazy in

working in the company. The managers and leaders can motivate this employee to work towards
completing his task by offering financial incentives and benefits to him. For those employees
who already work hard can be trained and given development sessions for growth and
productivity of them. This gave opportunity to managers for establishing a positive environment
and making effective decisions for the business. The leadership style and management practice
followed by managers of Marks and Spencer is consultative leadership style (Zhu, Chew and
Spangler, 2010). The decisions of these managers is affected by suggestions and ideas of
their subordinates. The managers who follow consultative leadership consider suggestions of the
employees before making final organizational decisions. In Marks and Spencer there are various
ways by which suggestions of employees are team briefs, newsletters and suggestion boxes. In
some cases the leaders adopts democratic leadership style. In this team members take
collaborative decisions in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the company. These group
members are responsible for consequence of decisions made for the organization. In addition to
this, the company also use laissez-faire leadership for taking decisions which require high
talent and expertise. This helps in supporting people at workplace to perform better and making
effective decisions.
4. Recommendations as an improvement (the proposed leadership styles, management practices
and the various strategies that can be undertaken by this firm based on this research)
It is important for the company to have effective leaders who can take good decisions for
company in order to initiate growth and development of the company. Leadership is termed as
the ability to convince people to work according to the requirements of leaders. A good manager
has interpersonal skills that helps in building of good relation with employees and influencing
them to work. There are following characteristics of leaders of Marks and Spencer that are
discussed below-
Personality- These leader or manager of any company must be of good personality. A
good manager is one who understands his employees and help them to attain success in their
work.

Knowledge- The leaders are advised to posses good knowledge about projects and tasks
assigned to them. This will help them in explaining goals and objectives to their team members
for effective functioning.
Communication skills- The managers and leaders of Marks and Spencer must have a
good communication skill in order to maintain a positive environment at workplace and make
their subordinates satisfied by communicating goals and objectives.
Motivational Skills- The leaders and managers of the company should be good
motivators for supporting their employees when they are no performing well or if they are facing
any issue in the company.
Decisive Skills- This is an important need of manager or leader of the company
(Sorenson, 2009). It is essential that these leaders must have a power to take effective decisions
for enhancing business.
It is recommended for Marks and Spencer to use democratic leadership in their
organization. In this kind of leadership style, The power for making decisions is with both
managers and team members. All employees contribute in making an effective decision. Marks
and Spencer use Theory X and Theory Y of motivation to support their employees. They should
implement this effectively for motivating subordinated to perform better. Leaders and managers
must provide financial incentives and perks to employees for achieving goals in given time
frame.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that leadership is an essential trait that helps
organisation to work well. Different leadership and management styles helps to take better and
effective decisions in the company. There are various leadership styles which can be adopted by
managers of firms like democratic, autocratic, laissez-faire and consultative. The motivational
theories affects the decision making of the manager or leader. Some of them are theory X and
theory Y, contingency theory, Vroom's expectancy theory, etc. A leader of the company has
some characteristics like decisive skills, knowledge, abilities, motivational skills, integrity and
communication skills.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Amagoh, F., 2019. Leadership development and leadership effectiveness. Management Decision.
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Ardichvili, A., Cardozo, R. N. and Gasparishvili, A., 2018. Leadership styles and management
practices of Russian entrepreneurs: Implications for transferability of Western HRD
interventions. Human Resource Development Quarterly. 9(2). pp.145-155.
Chen, C. C. and Lee, Y. T., 2018. Leadership and management in China: Philosophies, theories,
and practices.
Church, A. H. and Waclawski, J., 2009. The Impact of Leadership Style on Global Management
Practices 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 29(7). pp.1416-1443.
Conger, J. A., 2018. Leadership: The art of empowering others. Academy of Management
Perspectives. 3(1). pp.17-24.
Hood, J. N., 2012. The relationship of leadership style and CEO values to ethical practices in
organizations. Journal of Business ethics. 43(4). pp.263-273.
Long, C. S and et. al., 2012. Leadership styles and employees’ turnover intention: Exploratory
study of academic staff in a Malaysian College. World Applied Sciences Journal. 19(4).
pp.575-581.
Sorenson, R. L., 2009. The contribution of leadership style and practices to family and business
success. Family Business Review. 13(3). pp.183-200.
Zhu, W., Chew, I. K. and Spangler, W. D., 2010. CEO transformational leadership and
organizational outcomes: The mediating role of human–capital-enhancing human
resource management. The leadership quarterly. 16(1). pp.39-52.