Managing People: Leadership Development, Strategic Learning, Training and Development, Performance Management

Managing People
Assessment

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................................3
Leadership Development.........................................................................................................................3
Strategic Learning, Training and Development.......................................................................................6
Performance Management.......................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
HRM or Human Resource Management can be referred to as the practice which involves
managing people in order to enhance the overall performance of the organization. HRM is one of
the most important business functions within the company as without it, companies cannot
function effectively and retain the employees effectively. This can affect the overall working
atmosphere within the workplace (Bader, Schuster and Dickmann, 2019). Organization chosen
for this report is Marks and Spencer, which is a leading British retailer of clothing as well as
household products. The company was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in the
year 1884. Effective human resource management helps organizations in attaining their goals as
well as objectives in an effective manner. not only this, it also ensures that the employees are
committed and engaged to their respective jobs. The report includes a discussion on different
areas such as leadership development, strategic learning, training and development as well as
performance management. There is also a critical evaluation of these HRM practices in the
selected organization based on theoretical frameworks.
MAIN BODY
Leadership Development
Leadership can be defined as the practice of motivating a group of people within the
organization to work collectively towards achieving common goals. This can include directing
the workers as well as team members so as to meet the company’s needs. It is an important HRM
practice that helps the managers within the organization to motivate their employees to achieve a
high level of performance. Leadership development refers to activities that improve the skills as
well as confidence of leaders. Marks and Spencer is a leading organization that conducts various
leadership development programs that provide the employees with important leadership skills as
well as attributes they are needed to be an effective leader (Barbosa and et.al., 2018). There are
different types of leadership styles that leaders within an organization can adopt, such as
democratic, autocratic, transformative as well as affiliative leadership style. The leaders at Marks
and Spencer have a democratic style of leadership, which means that they encourage their team
members to share their ideas while making decisions. Democratic leadership is also known as
participative leadership and the managers within the company give equal opportunity to all the
employees to exchange and discuss ideas freely.

Kat’s (1955) Three Skills Approach
There are different leaderships theories that have been proposed and many companies are
implementing the same in their workplace. Katz has suggested that effective leadership is based
on three skills after his field research as well as observations in the workplace. These skills are
technical, human as well as conceptual skills. Technical skill can be referred to as the knowledge
about as well as proficiency in a particular type of work (Chakraborty and Upadhyay, 2018). For
example, in Marks and Spencer, the employees have technical skills relating to the retail sector.
It can be said that technical skills play an important role within a company at the lower as well as
middle levels. Human skill is another type of skill that was suggested by Katz and can be defined
as the knowledge about and having an ability to work with them. Human skill is different from
technical skill as it involves working with people. Not only this, human skills are also referred to
as people skills and assist a leader within a company to work effectively with their subordinates
and peers. Lastly, conceptual skills can be referred to as the ability of the leaders to work with
ideas and concepts in an effective manner. Leaders in Marks and Spencer have effective
conceptual skills which means that they are able to talk comfortably about ideas that shape the
organization.
Effective leadership is all about self-awareness, self-management as well as relationship
management. Leadership development is all about leading through change and removing barriers
within the company. Marks and Spencer is concerned about developing its leaders and helping
them acquire new skills as well as enhance their knowledge about the latest trends within the
industry. Not only this, the company also conducts various leadership development programs in
order to allow the leaders to be aware of the changes that take place within the workplace.
Leadership development helps in creating skilled as well as empowered leaders as they are able
to guide and direct the employees in an effective manner (Cheung and Qi, 2017). Not only this,
they also encourage them to work more productively. As a result, they are able to lead the
employees within the company in an effective manner. Employees are able to come up with
innovative and unique ideas to address a particular situation. Marks and Spencer invests in the
overall development of its leaders to a great extent. As a result, it has been able to attract and
retain the employees to a greater extent. Therefore, it can be said that leadership development is