Sainsbury's Leadership and Management

This essay examines Sainsbury's leadership styles, management practices, and business strategies. It analyzes the company's history, vision, and how it implements autocratic, bureaucratic, and cost leadership strategies. The essay also provides recommendations for improving Sainsbury's leadership and management practices to enhance employee motivation and overall performance. Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students.

Context of
Business 2

INTRODUCTION
Leadership style refers to the approach in which leaders give directions to the employees,
implement those plans and also motivate them at each and every level. Organization can
accomplish its objectives by implementing some best management practices in the organizations
like flexible communication within the company, open management system and appropriate
strategic planning etc. In this research the chosen company is Sainsbury which is famous retailer
of London, UK(Alonderiene and Majauskaite 2016). The report contains leadership styles,
management practices and various strategies which the company opted and how they able to
implement along with some recommendation to their organization.
PROJECT 2
1) A brief history and summary of Sainsbury's
Sainbury's is trading from 147 years. Initially it started as a small retail shop on rent in
Drury lane and now the company has 1200 stores in UK. Sainsbury's being popular because of
its quality products and fair prices. The milk only comes directly from cows that grazed in the
countryside and their competitor used water based milk at that time. The company also very
much popular for its fresh butter. It is also found that at morning Mary Ann used to clean and
scrubbing the floor of the shop. Everyone's used to said that “Mrs. Sainsbury's make the shop
popular for its quality of butter and as well as wake up early morning for clean the shop. In 1882,
Sainsbury's introduced its first product to customers. First started with butter and then expanded
to other products as well. In 1903, the company expanded towards groceries and offer chicken,
fresh meat, fruits and vegetables (Bird and Mendenhall 2016).The sainsbury's was famous for
largest chain of grocery in 1922, UK. John James sainsbury's died in 1928, then later taken over
by his son John Benjamin Sainsbury's. In first world war 1939, many of the male workers of
Sainsbury's were forced to work for army of UK then many of the vacant positions are occupied
by females. At the time of second war the organization faced many problems of food rationing
and sourcing. The company struggled to provide quality products due to this turnover of
Sainsbury's fell down at pre-war level. The company became leader in own brand products
during 1950 and 1960.
They pushed themselves from past to present in terms of product, distribution, packaging,
quality and customers. At 1970, the company wholly purchased by the Sainbury's family. The
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business start floated on stock exchange in 1972. During 1973 company became public as J
Sainsbury's plc. The shares sold out within few seconds. Now company replace its street store
into large supermarkets also out of town locations as well. In 1972 first store opened in
Cambridge which out of the town. In 1972, to complete in hypermarket store, the company is
joint venture with BHS also called as SavaCentre. This new business started its training and
development programmes to employees during 1977. Sainsbury's was growing more under the
leadership of Justin King. The company was the first retailer by converting one of its food stores
into bio- methane gas to produce electricity. (Chen and Chen 2014)
The main reason for choosing this company is as it is a multinational company which is
operated at worldwide. The local community get employment through this and many
unemployed earn their livelihood by themselves because of Sainsbury's.
2) The vision, leadership styles, management practices and various strategies of Sainsbury's by
the use of various theories
The company works with the vision of almost trusted retailer, where everyone wants to
work and shop. Customers are the everything for us who shops from our stores and channels to
offer best experiences.
Leadership styles which are followed by the company
The leadership style which is adopt by Sainsbury's strongly influences its employees and
their performance as well. It is also true that maximum use of power by the leaders also decrease
the productivity of the organization. The various type of leadership styles chosen by company
are explained below
Autocratic Style
This leadership style also known as old technique. It is very popular style to instructs
employees and still using around the world. In this, leaders only focuses on the work done and
how it is to be done without considering their employees. In autocratic leadership, leaders wants
that the employees follows their instructions whether right or wrong (Donate and de Pablo 2015).
The leaders only wants to command their employees without make them participative in any of
the decisions which is related to the organization. Same is followed by Sainsbury's as it has
global presence so, the company do not want to take any decisions which is given by their
employees because they believes that it will effect the performance of the company. Thus, the
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company involve board of directors and managers to take any serious decisions as they know
how to grow and develop the business to achieve better productivity at worldwide.
Bureaucratic style:
In this style of leadership, The leader and as well as the employees have to rigorously
follows the rules and regulations of the company. The leaders believes that there should be
appropriate rules and policy which is accurately follows. Sainsbury's involves this leadership
style on their manufacturing plant where heavy machines and equipments are installed to ensure
safety of their employees before starting any work. (Goetsch and Davis 2014).
Management practices which is used by the company
Training and development:
Through proper training and development of employees it provides new opportunities to
develop themselves including behaviour and personality. Productivity increases if employees
best fitted in the organization according to their knowledge and skills. In Sainsbury's a general
overview is given to all of the trainee about the organization and clearly understand them their
roles and responsibilities. Trainee undergo eight week training program cover several aspects
law, customer care, store security etc. Accordingly, their performance dictate and decides they
will be offered permanent job or not.
Reward Effort:
No one in the organization wants that their efforts go unrecognised. The Sainsbury's also
believe in to appreciate the achievement and efforts of their employees. The company follows
this management practices to motivate their employees and make them feel valued.
Various strategies which are followed by Sainsbury's in their organization.
The company focuses on cost leadership strategy, focus strategy and differentiation strategy. The
explanation of business strategy of Sainsbury's is given below with the help of Porter's Generic
strategy model:
Porter's Generic Strategy
It is a tool which company uses to identify their position in the market. The company
analyse their competitive position as compare to their competitors (Donate and de Pablo 2015).
Cost Leadership strategy
Cost leadership refers to produce the products at lower cost with the aim of high margin.
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Sainsbury's using cost leadership by providing summer sales at their superstores at 50%
discounts. This will help them to achieve large market share and increase profit.
Focus strategy
This strategy refers to the in which company offers some products in small market and
afterwards create a big market for this products. Sainsbury's concentrates on to open new stores
to increase customer base. The company offers the products in low prices to increase the sell. So,
the niche market of the company is in profit (Popli and Rizvi 2016).
Differentiation Stategy
This strategy of the business refers to the in which products and services are the superior
or diverse in the market and the company have core- advantage over it. The Sainsbury's using
differentiation strategy by providing superior products on premium prices. Also, it would be
beneficial for the company if they introduce some more product lines in their stores.
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/market-and-company-overview-of-sainsburys-
marketing-essay.php
3) How Sainsbury's achieved or implemented management practices, leadership styles and
business strategies within organization
The different leadership styles and management practices of the company helps in to improve its
performance and operations to accomplish its objectives. Sainsbury's has autocratic and
bureaucratic styles of leadership in their management. In order to achieve and implement these
leadership styles there are several ways which company have to follows such as develop
situational awareness, inspire others in the company, keeps on learning, resolve conflicts,
empower teammates at each and every level, take more projects and practice discipline. All these
steps helps the company to accomplish its overall goal and increase productivity by following the
proper policy and rules of the company (Walker and Aritz 2015)
The management practices are implemented in the company if there is continuous
improvement in overall work processes and take possible actions when problems arises. Give
the power to the people of the company which motivated them a lot towards their roles and
responsibilities in the organization. Respect the employees and as well as the job they do. There
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is adequate and proper training at all level of the management to reduce conflict in the company.
There should be a proper support to the employees when they seriously want from the company
to understand them. So, if company wants to improve their productivity it is necessary for them
to examine their management practices and if, possible then take some useful steps how to make
better these practices day by day to improve the overall functions of the organizations.
Meaningful feedback also plays an important role to increase the effectiveness of the employees .
Feedback and reward helps them to encourage and work with their full potential. It is not
necessary that there should be always positive feedback but also negative as well that is
management who wants that there employees need to be correct themselves at some point (Popli
and Rizvi 2016).
The effective business strategies are implemented when there is full participation of the
entire company. The strategy executed when people of the organization accept all these
strategies. It includes if the employees have right skills, knowledge and competencies which are
required to carry out any activities. So, for this the company organized trainings, seminars,
workshops so that they will be better learn and after that strategies plan put into action.
For example: The Sainsbury's have to share their strategy or decisions with the
employees as well. Accordingly, they will implement or accept in a better way. The only
conducting meetings with their board of directors and mangers without considering the opinion
of their employees which is not acceptable. If company wants to implement management
practices, leadership styles and business strategies effectively in the organization then they have
to involve their employees in decision making process.
Recommendations
The recommendations to Sainsbury's from the above research is that as they follows
autocratic and bureaucratic style in their organization which is not at suitable as today's market
scenario. As everyone in the world wants some type of freedom in their personal life as well as
in working environment. Whereas the company only focuses on the leadership where orders
comes from upper level and subordinates have to follow those orders without arguing. But as
compare to other organizations they are following democratic style of leadership where decisions
opinions are also comes from employees side (Vermeeren and Steijn 2014).They are including
employees in all decision making process and as well as in strategy formulation. So, if this
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company also adapt democratic leadership so, the employees get more motivated and work with
their full potential. The company also achieve its goals by treating their employees as their core-
competency. The flexibility also needs in the organization. (Donate and de Pablo 2015).The
company have to reduce its rules and policies just not to afraid employees through this but need
to make a flexible organization where each and every employees have a right to communicate
within organization. The delegation of authority and responsibility also need to be implement
which reduce the burden of top level employer and let them enjoy their work. The employees
also feel motivated by getting responsibility and enjoy the environment of the company which is
provided by the company to them.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above research is that there are various type of leadership style
which company can choose according to their functionality and organizational structures. The
Sainsbury's have to change its leadership style by seeing today's market trend as employees are
the key of organization with them goals can't be accomplish. In differentiation strategy, the
company have to adopt some new strategy to compete in the market as other competitors already
select this strategy and increasing their market share and customer base (Alonderiene and
Majauskaite 2016). The Sainsbury's have to introduce some other techniques to compete in the
market and implement them in an appropriate way.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alonderiene, R. and Majauskaite, M., 2016. Leadership style and job satisfaction in higher
education institutions. International Journal of Educational Management. 30(1).
pp.140-164.
Bird, A. and Mendenhall, M. E., 2016. From cross-cultural management to global leadership:
Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business. 51(1). pp.115-126.
Chen, C. F. and Chen, S. C., 2014. Measuring the effects of Safety Management System
practices, morality leadership and self-efficacy on pilots’ safety behaviors: Safety
motivation as a mediator. Safety science. 62. pp.376-385.
Donate, M. J. and de Pablo, J. D .S., 2015. The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in
knowledge management practices and innovation. Journal of Business Research. 68(2).
pp.360-370.
Fernández-Muñiz, B., Montes-Peón, J. M. and Vázquez-Ordás, C. J., 2014. Safety leadership,
risk management and safety performance in Spanish firms. Safety science. 70. pp.295-
307.
Goetsch, D. L. and Davis, S. B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Jain, A. K. and Moreno, A., 2015. Organizational learning, knowledge management practices
and firm’s performance: an empirical study of a heavy engineering firm in India. The
Learning Organization. 22(1). pp.14-39.
Popli, S. and Rizvi, I. A., 2016. Drivers of employee engagement: The role of leadership style.
Global Business Review. 17(4). pp.965-979.
Vermeeren, B., Kuipers, B. and Steijn, B., 2014. Does leadership style make a difference?
Linking HRM, job satisfaction, and organizational performance. Review of Public
Personnel Administration. 34(2). pp.174-195.
Walker, R. C. and Aritz, J., 2015. Women doing leadership: Leadership styles and organizational
culture. International Journal of Business Communication. 52(4). pp.452-478.
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