Contemporary Issues in People Management at JD Sports

This report discusses the contemporary issues faced by line managers in people management at JD Sports. It covers the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to be an effective people manager. The report also explores HR processes and support management for effective people management.

CW1 - Individual
Research Portfolio

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Contemporary issues that are faced by line managers when it comes to people management....1
Knowledge, skills along with behaviours required to be an effective people manager...............3
HR processes underpin addition to support management when it comes to effective
performance management............................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Human resource refers to personnels of company which contributes to help managers in
attaining business concerned objectives (Hegewisch, 2017). Similarly, People management is
said to set of activities which engrosses end to end stages associated with acquisition,
optimisation and retention of talents while providing required support for entity as well as
guidance to organisational superiors or employers. It is a practice or task related to organising
employees together with teams with the hope of optimising performances. The report is prepared
on JD Sports which is real life organisation performing operations from its headquarters situated
at Bury in United Kingdom. There are around 56,600 employees working within the organisation
to attain mission that is addressing issues concerned with employee satisfaction.
The report offers insights into contemporary issues that are faced by line management
while managing people. Further, it covers knowledge, behaviours together with skills which are
essential for an effective people manager. It also discusses about HR processes as well as support
management for effective management of people.
MAIN BODY
Contemporary issues that are faced by line managers when it comes to people management
Line management could be described to management of human resources which are
involved in manufacturing, production addition to delivery of organisational offerings
(Cockayne, 2019). It represents lower management level as well as interfaces among front line
workforce and company. For example, line management in JD Sports is responsible to oversee
together with manage people for fulfilling business objectives. Key role played by line manager
in the organisation is recruit and select talent for meeting team positions, to provide coaching
addition to performance feedback to team members and manage staff by overseeing along with
evaluating employee contribution. It is essential for line managers to provide employees with
honest workload as well as realistic with demands. In the real life company, line manager faced
various contemporary issues in multiple areas while managing human resources. Some of them
are discussed below in case with JD Sports:
Area 1: Leadership and management: (Miceski and Tashkov, 2017)Leadership and
management: Leadership is the process which includes convincing people, believe in the vision
which sets for the company, works in order to accomplish objectives etc. it is about management,
1

making sure for the daily activities which runs in the organisation. Leaders are those people who
manages team for day to day activities, for proper management of people. Management includes
various functions which includes planning, organising, analysing, managing, budgeting.
Leadership and management are related to each other. As leaders manages team they use
management skills for managing activities as management is necessary for managing activities
which runs for the organisation. In context to JD sports, companies leaders manages team for
assessing its activities which encourage people for doing efficient works. Leadership are mainly
focuses for directing functions for management. Leaders o0f the company listening, building
relationships, teamwork, motivating, inspiring in order to accomplish business objectives.
Contingency theory for leadership, this theory for leadership are the way for application of
leadership in various situation. In this leaders reacts for influencing people for the various
situations. Leaders taking actions for various situation in various way. In this as per the situation
they changes their style for handling employees.
In context to JD sports, leaders handles employees as per the situation. For example,
some employees are good in their working so leaders motivate them as they need for, some are
less skills for these people leaders encourage more than skill employees. Effective leadership is
about making right balance between needs. The best leaders has skills for handling situation as
per the needs of teammates. In context to JD sports, companies leaders handling situation
according to its employees. In organisation there are various types of employees, as per their
skills leaders has to manage them. Some situation wants fast decisions, in these leaders has to
ability for maintain works, encouraging employees for collaborate for achieving these tasks. The
behavioural theory, this leadership theory are focusing for how the persons environment, not
natural abilities, types for leaders etc. the main key concept for behavioural theory are
conditioning. This states the person who will be deals for style as the environmental response for
the behaviour. It shifts the skills for the leaders for the environmental actions. For example, in
COVID- 19 situation the environmental factors affects the business, in this situation leaders takes
various actions for handling its employees, motivating them for their working. In context to JD
sports, company's leaders manages making decisions as per the environment needs for it. These
leadership theories helps business for handling activities, employees in order to accomplish
organisations objectives.
2

Area 2: Training and development: Training is about educational process for the
employees which includes increasing their skills, concepts, attitude, knowledge, performance.
Training and development is the process for the organisation which includes improvement for
the performance for employees which helps business in order to accomplish its objectives. It
helps business for improving effectiveness for the teams which helps it for effective working. It
mainly focuses for human resource management as its related to humans. In context to JD sports,
the company provides training for its employees, for enhancing their knowledge so that they
perform better in order to accomplish business objectives. For example, in COVID-19 situation,
company making various training programs for their employees as they perform better. In this
situation some employees are working from work from home so that company arranges training
program how they work, complete their tasks efficiently which helps business for higher
profitability. The theory for reinforcement, this theory are about people are motivated for
perform better for avoiding past outcomes which results from those behaviours. There are
positive, negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement helps for the strengthens the behaviour
for the employees. In this employees knows which skills gives success, they will rewarded for
that things they will do again which encourage them for completing tasks. For example, if the
employees know that if they achieve success they achieve foreign trip it will helps them for
accomplish business objectives. Negative reinforcement helps for strengthens behaviour as it
stops unpleasant experience for the employees which helps them for increasing their skills
(Stewart and Brown, 2019). In this employees performs well as they wants to complete training
program. In this they withdraw the positive, negative reinforcement for eliminating employees
behaviour. In context to JD sports, the company's human resource management includes this way
of training for their employees which helps them for efficient working. Positive reinforcement
includes reward system for their employees which helps them for working better. Negative
reinforcement includes punishment system which helps employees for not repeating these things
again, this will helps them for efficient working which leads for higher profitability. Business
uses theory of reinforcement for better performance which gives it higher profitability.
Area 3: Talent Management: It is termed to expectation of required manpower for an
entity addition to the planning to meet those requirements. It is a constant activity which
engrosses attracting as well as retaining high quality people, developing their skills together with
continuing encouraging them for better performances. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, it is a
3

contemporary issue that line managers of JD Sports are facing as various number of employees
have left their occupation and moved to their home town. Moreover, within a workplace, line
managers have role of custodian of talent management as they develops their own framework to
manage talent. Another challenge that is faced by line manager in talent management is higher
compensation demands that creates complex situation for line managers whose role in the
workplace is to keep people satisfied with lower costs (Bowden, 2020). Likewise, when
unappealing organisational culture is another example that gives rise of issue of talent
management as younger employees expect distinct work environment. For instance, work
environment of JD Sports is based on workloads and complicated hierarchy in which line
managers faces problem in area to manage talent. After the COVID-19 situation, employees are
preferring a workplace where they have sitting with gap to another employee, meaningful job
tasks and flexible scheduling. When line managers fails to meet these demands then issue of
talent management is faced by them. They set cultural context, creates transparent situations and
so on. Line managers have abilities for grabbing attention and retaining talents to have efficient
manpower that supports performances of business concern. Strategic talent management guides
enterprises to keep staff motivates that creates variant reasons for them to stay and conduct tasks
as per guidance of line managers. To manage the talent management issue, The QUAD theory is
widely used by line managers of an organisation. The theory states that planning, acquiring,
developing and retaining people guides in managing talent for longer duration. The theory helps
managers to plan talent for involving in improving required capabilities, auditing existing talent
levels and making improvements in opportunities to develop their career. The theory emphasises
over analysing needs of employees and then initiating towards thinking on the kind of talent
potential to focus towards. It helps managers to select right candidate or person for desired
proficiency level, recognising their skills gap required for the position, mitigating risks of gaps in
competences, developing ongoing talent management plan with the aim of succeeding on
effective management of talent at workplace.
Knowledge, skills along with behaviours required to be an effective people manager
People manager is also named as human resource manager who have roles to hire, train,
supervise, retain and manage needs of all staffs within an organisation. In JD Sports, there are
certain knowledge, skills and behaviours needed for becoming effective people manager which
are as follows:
4

Knowledge:
A familiarity, understanding and awareness of something is said to knowledge. It is
similar to a glue which sticks information together with learning together (Phillips and
Moutinho, 2018). For people managers of JD Sports to work effectively, following are required
knowledge:
 Team building knowledge: The knowledge that is used for enhancing motivation of
employees and boosting cooperation is delineated to team building knowledge. In an
effective people manager, knowledge about how to for an effective team is essential. For
example, people manger of JD Sports is aware about various kinds of activities that
improves social relations, defines roles in teams and so on. At same time, managers uses
Tuckman theory to develop team in the company so to have adequate knowledge related
to how team tackle tasks from beginning of team to complete allotted tasks. Leadership knowledge: Within an entity, it is essential for managers to have proper
knowledge about working with others for translating efforts or awareness into initiatives
which provide advantages to the business. For effective manager of JD Sports, it is
crucial to have knowledge related to leadership theories, styles and so on concepts.
Situational leadership theory improves knowledge of people managers as it says that
there is no single style of leadership that is best as leadership styles depends on kind of
strategies that are best suited for individual work or task. It assist people managers to
encourage collaboration with other members, adapt new techniques and provide adequate
socio-emotional support to employees that will make then effective people manager.
Skills:
Skill is an ability to execute actions with determined outcomes in predetermined energy
and time. There are various skills that are necessary to be possessed by a person so to become an
effective people manager (9 people management skills to thrive as a manager, 2020). In context
to JD Sports, skills which makes people manager effective are underneath:
 Problem solving skill: The ability which involves utilisation of generic addition to ad
hoc methods to find solutions or alternatives to problems in orderly manner. Problem
solving is key for effective people manager as it guides them to set schedules at the time
when workforce work or finds the reason of high annual turnover rates which are key
problems to be solved. For instance, JD Sports have effective people manager who works
5

for recognising and overcoming multiple problems prior to reaching bigger issues. People
manager of the company have the ability to spot problems prior they reaches to head as
well as determine roots causes of issues so to minimise pressures on employees which
makes them effective people manager. Communication skill: It is an ability of person to give and receive multiple types of
information. In an organisation, good communication skill comprises all managerial task
associated to presenting ideas, inspiring others with vision, highlighting significance of
tasks, discuss further phases with employees as well as get on those nearby them. For
example, people manager of JD Sports hone communication skills to have greater clarity
for tasks addition to foster better transparency of corporation which leads them to work
with great efficiency to lead higher employee retention rates.
Behaviour:
Behaviour is any action or mannerism that are made by people or organisation in
conjunction to self or external environment (Pendell, 2020). In JD Sports, people managers
requires following behaviours for becoming an effective manager:
 Motivating: It comprises emotional, cognitive, social and biological forces which
activates encouragement of employees towards some work. Within manager, behaviour
of motivation is essential as it helps in initiating, directing and maintaining goal oriented
approaches. For example, people manager of JD Sports have desire to foster workforce
for acting or performing towards organisational goals. Moreover, by application of
Maslow' Motivation Theory can help people managers of JD Sports to emphasis and
meet physiological, safety, social, esteem and self actualisation needs of all employees so
to motivate them for moving upwards in hierarchy.
 Recognition: All managers posses behaviour to acknowledge employees for exemplary
performance. Main purpose behind the behaviour is to reinforce employees to carry out
best practices, activities, etc which shows better performance addition to positive
business results (Megheirkouni, 2016). In JD Sports, people manager posses behaviour of
recognition in which they appreciates employees for their efforts, accomplishments and
contributions in company that makes them effective people manager.
6

HR processes underpin addition to support management when it comes to effective performance
management
HR Process
HR process is termed to a way for bringing consistency together with visibility in
functioning of human resource department. In performance management, processes related to
human resource plays essential role in building, developing, reinforcing together with changing
organisational culture (Alziari, 2017). For example, human resource manager follows effective
process to manage performances of workforce in effective manner. In this context, it is analysed
that managers uses performance management theory through which evaluation of work
performance of all employees is done through effective HR process. The stages of HR process
used by managers of JD Sports for effective performance management are as follows:
Planning: It is first stage of HR process in which groundwork associated to managing
performances of each employee are laid down. For example, in JD Sports, HR works to meet as
well decide goals of company. Further, overall business strategy are defined with personal
objectives for teams and manpower comprising development goals, targets, tasks, behaviours and
actions.
Monitoring: At this stage, all the goals and objectives related to employees and company
are tracked as well as feedbacks are provided for performances. In JD Sports, for the purpose of
managing performances effectively, managers monitors all workings and correct them promptly.
Reviewing: Within the department, managers and employees meets so to review actual
performances and analyse if set objectives are attained or not. For managers of JD Sports,
reviewing stage act as an opportunity to develop collaboration with employees and motivate
them for continuing working in diligent manner for greater performances.
Rewarding: It is last stage of HR process to manage performance. As per reviews,
rewards are provided to each employees whose performances exceed set objectives or targets. In
JD Sports, managers fairly reward manpower as well as give them recognition for great efforts
and contributions which ensures them to manage performances effectively.
Support management
It is concerned with building relationships with stakeholders including employees,
customers, investors and other management teams for effective performance management. In an
organisation, for example, JD Sports, support managers maintain and secure information within
7

the premise. Also, support managers have responsibility for performance of employees. For this,
various methods are used to manage and lead higher performances. One of the method that is
recommended to managers of JD Sports to manage performance effectively is Management By
Objective in which organisational managers and employees together determine, plan, organise,
direct and communicate goals so to emphasis on good performances. Further, superiors and
subordinates will periodically discuss progress that are made so to control as well as debate on
feasibility to attain best performances (Kanwal, 2018).
RECOMMENDATIONS
As line manager of JD Sports faces various contemporary issues in context to people
management, they are recommended to involve top managers or human resource professionals
for managing people at workplace. Key issues that are faced by line managers in a real life
organisation includes talent management, leadership and management, training and development.
In context to solve issue of talent management, it is recommended to line manager of JD Sports
to apply The QUAD theory as it will guide in planning, acquiring, developing and retaining
talent in all pertaining situations including COVID-19 and so on. It have been recommended to
the managers to take benefit of the model and manage available employees through offering
them suitable work environment and flexible schedule to perform allotted tasks with better
performances.
Another area of contemporary issue that line manager of JD Sports faces is training and
development for employees. In this, line manager of the entity is recommended to apply theory
of reinforcement which the help of which managers would motivate staff to perform and avoid
specific behaviours due to past results which have leaded from those behaviours. For instance,
when an employer rewards people for positive behaviours in training and development then
manpower feels encourages to perform high behaviours again and again. Moreover, it will lead
to managing people by providing training programs and development sessions in easier aspects
for executing complex jobs. The theory is one of strong toll that will guide line managers for
analysing controlling mechanisms for people management.
Leadership and management is another area of contemporary issue faced by line
managers of real life company, named as JD Sports. To resolve the complexity, line managers
are recommended to adopt contingency theory and behavioural theory. By using contingency
leadership model, line managers will be able to change the policies as per going situation.
8

Contingency approach will guide manager to improve their leadership along with decision-
making skills. It will provide options to the employees, that helps them to grow and share their
ideas and remain with business. At same time, behavioural management theory will provide
managers the control for each employee at workplace that will make worker feel proud as well as
increasing their their commitment to work.
CONCLUSION
From the discussion, it have been concluded that people management is an important
function of human resource department as it develops, organises, directs, solves problem and
foster growth of employees. Key challenges that organisational managers faces while managing
people are talent management, training and development as well as leadership and management.
Team building knowledge, Leadership knowledge, Problem solving skill, Communication skill,
Motivating and Recognition are some essential knowledge, skills and behaviours which makes a
person effective people manager. For effective management of performance, support managers
are recommended to use performance management review and management by objective
methods.
9

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Alziari, L., 2017. A chief HR officer’s perspective on talent management. Journal of
Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance.
Cockayne, A., 2019. Managing Asperger syndrome in the workplace: considerations for line
managers. In Inequality and Organizational Practice (pp. 189-209). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
Hegewisch, A., 2017. Human resource management in Europe Issues and opportunities. In
Policy and practice in European human resource management (pp. 1-21). Routledge.
Kanwal, S. H. A. Z. I. A., 2018. Impact of performance management system on organisational
performance of higher education institutions: a case study of Pakistan (Doctoral
dissertation, University of Salford).
Megheirkouni, M., 2016. Leadership behaviours and capabilities in Syria: an exploratory
qualitative approach. Journal of Management Development.
Miceski, T. and Tashkov, T., 2017. The manager and his role in developing a successful
transport business. Journal of Economics. 2(1). pp.40-51.
Phillips, P. and Moutinho, L., 2018. Contemporary issues in strategic management. Routledge.
Stewart, G. L. and Brown, K. G., 2019. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.
Online:
9 people management skills to thrive as a manager. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.perkbox.com/uk/platform/recognition/people-management-skills-to-
thrive-as-a-manager>
Bowden. G., 2020. Coronavirus: JD Sports boss Cowgill takes 75% pay cut. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.retail-week.com/sports-and-leisure/coronavirus-jd-sports-boss-
cowgill-takes-75-pay-cut/7034716.article?authent=1>
Pendell. M., 2020. Behaviours of best managers. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.gallup.com/workplace/272681/habits-world-best-managers.aspx>
10