Role of Leadership in Digital Transformation: A Case Study on Marks and Spencer

This report analyzes the role of leadership in digital transformation through a case study on Marks and Spencer. It examines the process of digital transformation, importance of effective leadership, challenges faced by leaders, and digitization barriers. The report also includes project management, research methodology, and timeline.

Project(What is the role of leadership in digital transformation)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Research Aim...................................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives.........................................................................................................................3
Research Questions..........................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................4
Project management...............................................................................................................6
Research methodology...........................................................................................................9
Discussion......................................................................................................................................11
Timeline................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................14
Books and Journals...............................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
The report aims to analyse role of digitalisation in the leadership. In current business
market, digital technology and online platforms are become a crucial asset or an individual
which makes the life easy and simple. A business can be better successful by driving digital
technology in the organization through taking effective growth in the market. Digital
transformation is become vital in order to make employees aware about the key trends and
updates on the modern market. Leadership is an important aspect to bring digital change in the
organization workplace which will impact on the productivity of firm. The report is based on the
case scenario of Marks and Spencer, the company was established in the year 1884 in London,
UK. It is one of the leading brand of clothing, accessories and food products which is served
across different countries at worldwide level (Attaran, Attaran, and Kirkland, 2019). This
research is going to analyze the role of leadership in bringing the digital change. It will be done
through analyzing effective leader’s performance and challenges during digital transformation.
The research will be conducted through using reliable sources and methods by managing time,
cost and scope of the project.
MAIN BODY
TASK
Research Aim
To investigate the role of leadership in digital transformation. A case study on Marks and
Spencer.
Research Objectives
 To understand the process of digital transformation. A case study on Marks and Spencer.
 To evaluate importance of effective leadership on digital transformation. A case study on
Marks and Spencer.
 To examine challenges faced by leaders during digital transformation. A case study on
Marks and Spencer
Research Questions
 What is the process of digital transformation? A case study on Marks and Spencer.

 What is the importance of effective leadership on digital transformation? A case study on
Marks and Spencer.
 What are the challenges faced by leaders during digital transformation? A case study on
Marks and Spencer
Literature Review
Digital transformation in retail
According to the Harteis, Goller, and Caruso, 2020 Retail sector is the most growing in
the market which gives rise to many opportunities to the business. The Coronavirus pandemic
rapidly accelerated the pace of digital transformation; with global spending on digital
transformation up 10.4% in 2020 as a result. There are predictions that digitally transformed
organizations are forecast to contribute to more than half of global GDP by 2023. Digital
transformation practices are become vital for this sector due to having large operations and huge
customer base. The industry has potential to invest in great technology and fulfil demand of the
customers in quick and easiest ways. The business in this sector are giving high tech shopping
experience that leads to offers the versatile services across large platforms. Retailers are taking
rise in the business by selling unique products and using customer centric strategies. Therefore,
digitalisation is one of them which assure that, all the operations are performing with the ease of
digital software and tools. Many industries are only about 40% digitalized, leaving a 60%
opportunity for our partners and customers to ideate together to deliver digital resilience. Retail
industries includes live streaming, videos, fashion show, virtual reality technologies and many
more which can be done through using digital platforms. Therefore, marks and spencer is a
leading form of retail sector that is well known for selling clothing and accessory under a reputed
brand name. The company is utilising the idea of new technologies and business models to
engage employees to take part in the change of digital technology which will impact on the
business functioning.
The M&S taking smooth advantage of online platforms through selling products through
websites, accepting online payments, making collaborating with influencers and communicating
with potential customers. This shows that, the company is giving a unique and quick service to
the customers that will create a competitive landscape in the market. The customers are
expecting more from this sector as they have changing demand and availability of large
substitute products. There is requirement of the selective customer base which makes the retailer

different from others. The extraordinary experience will lead to create high end user engagement
for the marks and spencer. The company could easily generate effective software and technology
like AI, cloud computing, virtual reality and others aspects which will influence the company to
sell better services. This shows that, the digital technology is required in the retail sector by
creating change at workplace situation.
Leadership and digital change
According to Hicks, 2019 Leadership and digital change are two both interconnected
concept for an organisation. In order to bring the necessary change at the workplace. leadership
play crucial role in regulating guidance and orders to the overall staff and management. Digital
changes are quite difficult to accept by the staff who are not familiar with the technological
usage. Therefore, leaders are the one who promote and encourage training, personal sessions and
campaign to enhance the skills of Information technology at workplace which is about to give
10% benefits to the business. The leaders are the one who brings change in the organisation in
terms of digital factors. Every organisation is in serious need to bring change in technology by
using new software and platforms. This creates a better future and customer engagement for the
company across various areas. Leaders will provide great trainings to make all the operations and
activities digitalised that each of the team member will promote great efficiency and better
customer service. Digitalisation requires change in the behaviour, attitude and key skills of the
employees that will be easy for a leader to promote changes. Effective leadership will lead to
bring positive changes at the workplace or else, it might have negative impact on the company. If
the leaders will provide effective guidance and training sessions by creating a collaborative and
creative workplace culture, the employees can easily mould in the competitive workplace. This
will be able to ascertain the employees will have motivated and interested in learning new digital
ways to create better workplace. Apart from this, the digital change may also bring negative
impact on the company. The employees of marks and spencer might feel distracted due to using
excessive technology and do not spend time in making social interactions. This might impact on
their mental health which is no beneficial for the company’s success. When employees get
motivated and self-assessed with their capabilities. They try to indulge in new activities and
dedicatedly learn better changes which are beneficial for the company success.

Digitization barriers
According to Kane, and.et.al, 2021 Digitalisation is a successful key element as well as a
challenging one also for an organisation success. It is not easy to create a new environment for
employees who need to change the whole concept of working. It leads to create emphasize on
bringing new criteria, techniques and areas of working like using software, tools and strategies.
Therefore, challenges create hurdles in creating an effective workplace transformation within the
companies. Some of the main issues which an organisation finds in bringing digital
transformation is lack of vision for creating IT solutions, engaging change management
strategies and lack of employee motivation to learn new business leading changes. The marks
and spencer is also creating an effective platform for the customers though which they can easily
purchase their liked products. In bringing these changes, the company also faced a lot of
challenges. These include lack of experts training, risk of security and privacy which will impact
on the company functioning. There is requirement of taking effective strategies which would
eliminate these barriers and come up with collaborative and creative workplace. The other
barriers include the issue of giving push to the employees to learn new techniques. It shows that,
how an organisation will manage to cope up with these challenges in the competitive world. The
marks and spencer has faced many challenges and one of the major problems occurred in the
organisation is about finding right talent and acquisition that will lead to enhance the capabilities
of using digital technology. The employees could not be able to learn all the things without the

support of leaders and experts. So the company does not have much expertise in IT technology
which become challenging to give effective trainings that boost employee’s skills and abilities.
The process of digitalisation cannot be experimented quickly as it takes time to make everyone
families with it. The people of company would not take participate in learning new things until
and unless there will be motivating factor for them such as appreciation, power and good
incentives. The other barrier could be legacy system due to which, the marks and spencer fails to
maintain the legacy and good It system which will continue to impact on the culture of company.
It has analysed from the data that people are facing digitalisation barriers which includes the role
government and trade policies. The digital sector contributes 150.6 billion pounds to the UK
economy in 2019. Also, the workforce includes the number of 4.6% national workforce which
ensures free and trusted data flows. After this time period, the data also gets double as the
demand of digital services has much risen.
Project management
The project management is a documentation of all the elements which are necessary for
undertaking all the project principles. A project last for some period of time which shows that the
organisation is required to work on the cost, scope, time and resource for conducting an official

research. The project management elements must be taken care in order to achieve the objectives
and make delivery on time (Kim, 2020). Projects needs to be managed for effectiveness and
fulfilling the desired outcome.
Time: Time is one of the key elements which must be manage in the project deliveries.
All the project aims and objectives needs to be deliver as per the set time duration in order to
maintain its accuracy and reliability. The project is required to be completed on the selected date.
this research is going to going within 3 months’ duration to analyse the role of leadership in
digital transformation.
Cost: another important variable is to manage the cost of project in order to research and
conclude the findings effectively. This cost includes all the expenses, site visits and taking
subscriptions of books and articles. The overall estimated cost for this project is $1000 which
will be incurred as per the set budgets
Quality: The project must be focused upon the quality as it must not be compromised. It
means that the data and information utilised in the research must be of good relevance and
accuracy to maintain quality of content (Launer, Çetin, and Paliszkiewicz, 2022). This research
includes great quality standards through monitoring and keeping regular check on the project
formation.
Scope: It defines as the reach and outgoing of the project which needs to be met during
the findings and outcome. By using proper cost and duration, the scope will have decided as per
the set budget and its applicability. This project has overall applicability to the national, local and
international market. To analyse its efficiency, the talented people of organisation are taken into
consideration. Other data will be used through sources like books and articles.
Communication: It is also being the most important part of the project deliveries.
Communication must be effective in order to gain the required data and analyse the information.
Lack of proper communication will discard the objectives of project. It enables feedbacks and
people perspective by involved in talking. The researcher will engage with the employees and
staff of the company to enhance the quality and relevancy of the information.
Risk: The risk is associated with every project deliveries as it is a part of every business.
The main criteria are to interpret the risk before it will impact on the research objectives. This
research involves the risk of data theft, taking back the consent of employees (Marcial, and
Launer, 2019). There must be an alternative plan to perform at the time of risk outburst for

effective performance.
Resources: Every project requires good use of resource for achieving the targets and
makes the incurred cost worthwhile. These are all the materials, equipment which are helpful in
completing the project aim. Resource plan is must to be made for makes its optimum utilisation.
Timeline
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Work break down structure
This is an important project management tools which helps in making the task and
activities simpler. Breaking the work into smaller parts becomes easy to focus on each criteria
and give priority to each task. It makes segmentation among the activities as per the specific
department and nature. This makes the task and activities looks relevant and completed.
Gantt chart:
It is also a vital tool for doing projects and accomplish all the activities in a desired manner
(Marsh, 2021). It creates a timeline for project that assures every task must be set upon a
particular period. This is beneficial for researcher to give time sets as per the requirement of each
task.

Research methodology
This is an important concept for the project success in order to find and collect necessary
data. Research methodology is a combination of strategy, philosophy, methods and approaches
which are used for analyzing the role of digital transformation. These methods will help the
researcher in maintaining the quality and accuracy of the project (Meske, and Junglas, 2021).
This will help in analyzing the concept and data though which the research can be drive
appropriately. It gives various choices to the researcher for meeting the aim of study. The
effective research methods are presorted below:
Research Philosophy: This is all about creating a self-belief and assumption in order to
conduct a study and present a project. Every individual has different opinions and capabilities to
analyse the information and shows it an own way. These philosophies play important role to give
a right path to the research aims and objectives. The whole project study will be carried out on
some particular philosophies between interpretivem and positivism. This research is based on
interpretivism philosophy which do not require experiments and scientific study. The whole
research takes place as per the observation and qualitative data. Whereas, positivism study is not

suitable for this research as it involves experiments and authentic data. Therefore, this research is
not based on statistical information.
Research Approach: The researcher use research approach in order to find the right
methods of data collection and carries out the overall study effectively. The study is mainly
based on the approaches identified for attaining the aims and objectives. Two main approaches
are inductive and deductive which plays vital role in successfully find the relevant data and
present it in a meaningful way (Rossi, Nandhakumar, and Mattila, 2020). This research project is
based on the inductive approach in which the information will be gathered in secondary way.
The data will be theoretical which do not require a new thesis. Whereas, the deductive approach
is not suitable for research as it involves new study on the basis of statistical data, facts and
figures.
Research Choice: The choice of research methods is important for the research to make
the study clearly presentable. A researcher must be sure about choosing the research method
which will helps in gaining the best data and information for the task. The two choices are
quantitative and qualitative which are both effective sources for gathering facts and data.
Quantitative study gives information in factual and statistical way which is a purest form of
collecting information within current market place. The other method is qualitative method that
is based on theoretical aspects that are cost effective. This research is based on the qualitative
method which will focus on gathering number of information through different sources and
present the project in feasible way to achieving its aims and objectives.
Research Strategy: The strategy is required to enhance the deliveries of the project. The
strategies help in completing the project aims In a proper manner. These project is based on the
digital transformation which can be done through the leadership (Schmid, 2019). There is
requirement of best strategy that will helps in gathering, processing and analysing the data
effectively. This research project is based on the strategy of collecting data through theoretical
sources like literature reviews, books and article. It is suitable for the type of method chosen for
this project.
Data Collection: The method of data collection will be applicable to the whole research
study as the information is solely based on the sources of data collection. The method of
collecting data is crucial which helps in finding a correct way to synthesize the information. The
two methods are primary and secondary methods which are a part of quantitative and qualitative

studies respectively. This research is using secondary source of data through collecting facts
through articles, journals, books and literature. Primary method is not effective for this study as it
takes a lot of cost for visiting sites and requires more time and hard work (Vallo Hult, and
Byström, 2021). Whereas, secondary method is much effective as the data can be use through
internet and give diversified opportunities to learn new things.
Discussion
As per the data collected from the literature source, it has analyzed that the digital
transformation is become a crucial need of every organization to be competitive in the market.
This gives the advantage of using wide platforms which assure that the company is working with
the technology and providing best services to the customers. Therefore, the digitalization and
leadership are tow important elements which could not be missed from working. Effective
leaders will use great styles and techniques to guide and motive employees towards learning
digital activities like working with software’s, adopting online channels. In the time of Covid-19,
employees are working remotely which creates many challenges of operating for zoom meetings,
get assistance and communication with the leaders that reduce their productivity level (Zenker,
2021). The other challenges are identified in is about lack of expert’s guidance and training and
financial investment will keep on distracting the company to take digital advantages. The
discussion through secondary sources has analyse that there is requirement of key practices
which can be taken by the organisation. It shows that, technological factors like AI, robotics and
cloud software are rapidly in use which assure that, it is necessary to look for effective leadership
in order to provide them training.
Reflection
It has reflected from the above report that I have privileged of doing research and
understand about the leadership. I have faced some issues in researching about the topic as there
are various areas which lead to emphasize on the development criteria in the company.
Therefore, it has analysed from the overall decision that research is necessary for the appropriate
inclusion of strategies. I have also faced difficulty in gathering data to draw a conclusion on the
basis of information gathered. It is necessary to look for overall changes in the workplace
transformation as per the modern technological requirements.

CONCLUSION
The report has concluded that, leadership and digitalisation are two crucial elements for the
organisation. Without leading and guiding the changes, the employees will not take participate in
learning new environment and culture. Therefore, the research has presented facts and data about
how what are some challenges that may hinders organisation performance and how it could be
overcome.

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Attaran, M., Attaran, S. and Kirkland, D., 2019. The need for digital workplace: increasing workforce
productivity in the information age. International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems
(IJEIS), 15(1), pp.1-23.
Harteis, C., Goller, M. and Caruso, C., 2020, January. Conceptual change in the face of digitalization:
Challenges for workplaces and workplace learning. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 5, p. 1). Frontiers
Media SA.
Hicks, M., 2019. Why the urgency of digital transformation is hurting the digital workplace. Strategic HR
Review.
Kane, G.C., Nanda, R., Phillips, A. and Copulsky, J., 2021. Redesigning the post-pandemic
workplace. MIT Sloan Management Review, 62(3), pp.12-14.
Kim, R.Y., 2020. The impact of COVID-19 on consumers: Preparing for digital sales. IEEE Engineering
Management Review, 48(3), pp.212-218.
Launer, M., Çetin, F. and Paliszkiewicz, J., 2022, March. Digital trust in the workplace: Testing a new
instrument on a multicultural sample. In Forum Scientiae Oeconomia (Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 30-47).
Marcial, D.E. and Launer, M.A., 2019. Towards the measurement of digital trust in the workplace: A
proposed framework. International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Science, 3(12), pp.1-7.
Marsh, E., 2021. Understanding the effect of digital literacy on employees' digital workplace continuance
intentions and individual performance. In Research Anthology on Digital Transformation,
Organizational Change, and the Impact of Remote Work (pp. 1638-1659). IGI Global.
Meske, C. and Junglas, I., 2021. Investigating the elicitation of employees’ support towards digital
workplace transformation. Behaviour & Information Technology, 40(11), pp.1120-1136.
Meske, C., 2019. Digital workplace transformation–on the role of self-determination in the context of
transforming work environments.
Rossi, M., Nandhakumar, J. and Mattila, M., 2020. Balancing fluid and cemented routines in a digital
workplace. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 29(2), p.101616.
Schmid, A.M., 2019. Beyond resistance: Toward a multilevel perspective on socio-technical inertia in
digital transformation. ECIS 2019 proceedings.
Vallo Hult, H. and Byström, K., 2021. Challenges to learning and leading the digital workplace. Studies in
Continuing Education, pp.1-15.
Zenker, S., 2021. Design Principles of Mobile Information Systems in the Digital Transformation of the
Workplace-Utilization of Smartwatch-based Information Systems in the Corporate Context (Doctoral
dissertation, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen).