Leadership Style at Marks and Spencer

CONTEXT OF BUISNESS

INTRODUCTION
Context of business is wide world in its own that consist the different factors of the
business situation like, environment of the business organization. Framework of the business,
settings and situation from the business is being surrounded. This report of the context of the
business is based on the Marks and Spencer plc, which is a British multinational company. That
provide wide range of products to the customers. With the help of this report, brief history of the
Mark and Spencer company. Vision, leadership style and management style will be considered
that are applied by the company. Further more impact of the business by the culture and
management style of the organization. Lastly recommendations will be given to improve the
leadership style, management style of the company.
MAIN BODY
1 Brief history and summary of Business.
Mark and Spencer is a British multinational company. This company works in the retail
industry to fulfil the needs of the customers. Headquarter of mark and Spencer is in London
united Kingdom. Mark and Spencer was founded in the year of 1884 by the Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer. On the basis of founder's last name, company's name was decided, which is
Mark and Spencer. Chairman of Mark and Spencer is Archie Norman and Steve Rowe is its chief
executive. In 1998, Mark and Spencer was the first company of the British retail industry to
make -pre tax profit of over 1£ billion.
Mark and Spencer currently served its services in 1463 number of location as according
to the year 2019 with the help of their 959 stores kin the UK its self and 615 stores in other
countries (Jones and Comfort, 2018). Company has different brand like Per Una, Autograph,
Limited edition, Classic, Mark and Spencer collection, Blue Harbor, Mark and Spencer energy
and Mark and Spencer bank, which is owned by HSBC. With the help of these brans and wide
range of the stores, market and Spencer provide the different products like high quality clothing,
food products and home utilities -product. In which, Mark and Spencer is specialised in selling
high quality clothing. Mark and Spencer is listed in the London stock exchange and also
constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The largest shop of Mark and Spencer in London, which is at Marble arch on Oxford
street. In the year of 2019, revenue of the company is £10,377.3 million. Operating income of the

company was £601.0 million at the year of 2019. and net income of the company is £37.3
million. Company has 80,787 number of employees, that help the mark and Spencer company to
serve their services in number of location. These number of employees also help to fulfil the
target of the company by satisfying the needs of customers. Mark and Spencer also served their
services trough the online services, through customers can directly purchase its products and
products directly reach at their door stop.
2 leadership style, management style and vision of the company.
Vision and Mission of mark and Spencer
Vision of the Mark and Spencer is to provide the standard products that other measured.
Also have the vision by setting the benchmark for other competitors in order to increase their
profit share.
Mission of Mark and Spencer company is to provide high quality products to their
customers in the area of clothing, food and home utility customers. Another mission of the
company is to bring the social revolution by providing the employment in their organisation.
Leadership style
Leadership style that are being applied by the Mark and Spencer is Autocratic leadership
style. As this autocratic leadership style is also known as the authoritative leadership style. In
this all the decision and strategies are being taken by the high authority of the Mark and Spencer
company. In this have the control of an individual over the decision-making process and al;so
have the little or little participation of their employees. But this leadership style have some
disadvantages like, group members or the employees rarely trust on the decision which are made
by their leaders as having the less participation of them. This discourages the group member and
input from the decisions (Basran and et.al., 2018).
Another leadership style is being applied by the Mark and Spencer is that, participative
leadership style. This is very effective leadership style. In this all the decisions are being made
by having full participation of their employees, so that they can willingly accept change in the
organization. This leadership also help the leaders and managers to make decision as they
actively participate in all the activities that are performed by the management and leader of the
Mark and Spencer. With the help of this leadership style, employees have all the freedom to
share their views and opinion and if they have any problem regarding anything, they can share
freely. This will help the Mark and Spencer to make any changes to bring improvement in the

company and its leadership style, in order to increase its productivity in the market. Like, to
increase the sales of its clothing, food and home utility products in the market.
Management practices
Mark and Spencer follow the continues training and development management style. This
helps the company to make improvement in the employees and their skills. This management
style provide to different training and development to their employees as according to need arises
in the company at every level (Bender and et.al., 2018). This helps the employees of the Mark
and Spencer to make enhancement in their skills as according to their position and job role.
These enhance skills help the company that, employees get motivated, turnover get reduced,
employee retention is increased in the company. As more skilled employees are will likely to
able make satisfied their customers need and wants. As Mark and Spencer has number of stores
at number of location globally, so this management practice helps the company to understand the
need of the all kind of customers in the different location. Also make them satisfied with having
better understanding of their customers of different region by gaining the training at every stage
and according to the changing market trend and demand and choice of the customers.
3 Analyses how culture & management styles influence business functions and strategies
Marks & Spencer is a retailer that provides and well-known for its qualitative products
and services. It is analysed that this company is making its strong position in the market. The
main success of this retailer company is management styles and culture. There are several
strategies and management styles are being followed by Marks & Spencer such as:
Management styles
Democratic: It is the best style of management of all resources and processes of the
company. According to this style, manager involve their employees and people in their decision-
making process. It is the best way of motivating them. Manager of Marks & Spencer believes
that employees are key element of their success, so it adopts this style. It is also called
participative style and is employees oriented approach rather than task oriented. When manager
give opportunity to their employees in their decision-making process, then they feel more
motivated and work productively. It is beneficial for both employees and employers as it helps
them in increasing sales (Wronka-Pośpiech, 2016).
Transactional: Transactional management style also called as the best and effective style
of managing. With the help of this style, manager of Marks & Spencers company focus on

providing positive rewards to their employees which includes bonus, incentives etc. It is the way
of motivating employees for increasing performance and productivity of them. This style
believes that a manager can effectively and successfully manage their organization through
extrinsic rewards.
Organizational culture:
In the context of organizational culture, it is analysed that diversity is at the heart of
Marks & Spencer’s. It appreciates their people's differences and it makes their workplace a great
place to work. It is the main characteristic of its organizational culture. It has other various
characteristics as its culture shows that how well an individual fits in an organizational context.
For making more effective its culture it uses Charles Handy model which help them in
understanding behaviours and attitudes of their employees and people and take corrective actions
on the basis of feedbacks.
Power culture: In this type of culture, power of managing and leading is in the hand and
help by just a few individuals. Those people who have power, they are being authorized to take
decisions & enjoy special privilege as compare to others. These people and employees in an
organization delegate responsibilities to other employees and employees have to follow
instructions of their subordinates.
Role culture: In this type of culture all employees are delegated roles and responsibilities
on the basis of their specializations, skills and abilities. In this type of culture people and
members of the company have willingness to work more productively by accepting challenges
(do Carmo Silva and Gomes, 2015).
Task culture: In this type of culture, teams are being made with the main aim of
achieving a common goal and solve any type of problems with collaboration. Each team consists
of 4-5 members & contribute equally in accomplishing given tasks in an innovative manner.
Person culture: There are some organizations who follow this type of culture. In this
type, people feel that they are more important than their organization. It is not an effective
culture because organizations have to suffer because people and employees have more concern
about their own self.
Marks & Spencer company follow and focus on role culture. The main aim of following
this culture is to make their employees able to think critically. People and employees have clear

understanding about their roles and responsibilities within a highly defined structure (Alvesson
and Sveningsson, 2015).
4 Recommendation for leadership styles, management practice & other strategies that need to be
taken by an organization
For the further improvement it can be recommended to the Marks & Spencers on the
basis of above study that it should focus on adopting democratic or consultative style. There are
some disadvantages of autocratic leadership style as it demotivate employees because, leaders of
the company do not involve them in any decision-making process. With the help of democratic
and consultative style it can motivate their employees towards achieving their pre determined
goals.
In addition, it can also be recommended that Marks & Spencer must focus on
management practices as it only uses training and development for their employees. For
encouraging them towards completing work with effectively, they can adopt rewards and
incentives policy. It has mainly 2 types of rewards such as financial and non-financial. By
identifying needs of employees it can provide their different rewards like appreciation for better
performance, bonus, incentives. This management practice is called and proved an effective and
the best practice which can help the manager of the company in accomplishing their goals and
achieving their vision by making their employees effective and more capable.
Marks & Spencers company should use other strategies that can provide urgent products
and services to customers. It provides pre purchasing services to customers. For retaining their
customers for the long run it can provide them post purchasing services like give suggestions
regarding products, consider and solve their complaints etc. When company give post purchasing
services to customers then it increases loyalty among employees towards the company, and they
also help the company by promoting their product via word of mouth.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that leadership style and different
management practices played a vital role in retailer sector company. With the help of different
management practices like rewards, safety at workplace, manager of an organization succeed in

achieving their pre determinants goals. Further it has also shown about importance of
management styles and organizational culture. Handy's model of organizational culture made it
able to understand behaviour, attitudes and nature of their employees for motivating them. Lastly
it described and showed some ways & recommendations of improving processes and styles of
leading and managing in the selected organization. When leaders involve them in any type of
process and give authority to take suggestion then employees feel respected which can decrease
labour turnover and increase profitability.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change
work in progress. Routledge.
Basran and et.al., 2018. Styles of leadership, fears of compassion, and competing to avoid
inferiority. Frontiers in psychology. 9.
Bender and et.al., 2018. Management practices, workforce selection, and productivity. Journal of
Labor Economics. 36(S1). pp.S371-S409.
do Carmo Silva, M. and Gomes, C.F.S., 2015. Practices in project management according to
Charles Handy's organizational culture typologies. Procedia Computer Science. 55.
pp.678-687.
Jones, P. and Comfort, D., 2018. Storytelling and corporate social responsibility reporting: A
case study commentary on UK. food retailers. Journal of Public Affairs, p.e1834.
Wronka-Pośpiech, M., 2016. The identification of skills and competencies for effective
management in social enterprises. A managerial perspective. Management. 20(1).
pp.40-57.