Analysis of Marks & Spencer's CSR, Leadership Style, and Response to Brexit and Covid-19

This report analyzes Marks & Spencer's corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, leadership style, and response to Brexit and Covid-19. It includes a PESTLE analysis of the external environment, discussion of leadership styles, and the impact of CSR on the company. It also examines the effects of Brexit and Covid-19 on the company and the measures taken in response.

Context Of Business

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The key factor for the success of business is its competitive advantages. Corporate social
responsibilities is form of self-regulation which aims to contribute towards societal goals.
Analysis on CSR activities undertaken by Marks & Spencer and its impact on the success of the
business. The factors that are affecting external environment of M&S is explained using
PESTEL analysis tool. A detailed discussion regarding the leadership style followed by the
company and its advantages to company. Detailed analysis on the effect and impact of Brexit and
covid 19 pandemic on the company and the measures taken by M&S in response to these effects.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
PESTLE Analysis........................................................................................................................4
Leadership styles..........................................................................................................................6
Corporate social responsibility (CSR).........................................................................................8
Effects of Brexit and covid-19 pandemic..................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marks and Spencer also known as M&S is one of the most well- established
multinational retailers with headquarters in Paddington, London, England. The company is
specialized in selling clothes, beauty, home products and food products. The founder of M&S are
Micheal Marks and Thomas Spencer. The company markets the products through its own
network, franchise and e-commerce sites. M&S also offers banking services through its M&S
bank and provides renewable energy services through M&S Energy. The project is going to
highlight PESTLE analysis of company which impacts the external environment of company.
There would be a detailed discussion about the leadership styles and the style followed by
company which will help them to achieve business objectives. The project will also give
information about Corporate social responsibility of company and its impact on company.
Further it would analyse the effects and impacts of Brexit and covid-19 pandemic on the
company and measures taken by company in response to these pandemics.
MAIN BODY
PESTLE Analysis
PESTLE analysis of M&S examine the various factors i.e. political, economic, social,
technological, legal and environmental that affect the external environment of company.
Political
Free trade policies have given a great benefit to M&S as it allows M&S to import foreign
products for sale at cheaper price which helps them to maintain a healthy profit margin. The
factors that are affecting the company are political stability and taxes, if tax rate are increased by
government then it may affect the price of products which might negatively impact the sale of
products (Sigcha and et.al., 2020). The implementation of Brexit by UK government have highly
impacted the operations of M&S as there will be loss of numerous free trade policies with
European suppliers resulting in higher product cost to consumers.
Economic
A rise in inflation rate may affect the economy price of the products and services. UK is
one of the largest economies in the world and fiscal and monetary policies of UK are properly
managed by government. Financial crises in the country have impacted the demand for high

quality products because of low disposable income of consumers. This also affected the
company's ability to give discount.
Sociocultural
M&S has become a household name but due to its long-standing existence and arrival of
new and trendy retail chain every year the company has become less trendy for youth. This has
resulted into loss of majority of customers from current generation (Çitilci and Akbalık, 2020).
People of UK have become more attracted toward ready meals M&S has become dominating
company in ready meal industry. There has been a sharp rise in the consumption of ready meal in
UK and other countries M&S has become top provider of ready meals within UK.
Technological
In this modern era, introduction of self check out system has been trending in retail store.
This system has reduced the cost for retailers which might be spent on cashiers and
simultaneously this offers customers faster check out experience. M&S has already implemented
this system in its retail stores. Along with this they have established e-commerce stores where all
their goods can be found on website which will save time of people by shopping at M&S. The
use of these advance technology may help the company to leave a long-lasting impact on its
customers.
Legal
M&S is a multinational company which needs to comply with the rules, regulations and
policies of every country in which it is having its business. Policies of every country may be
different and may keep changing. The company needs to be updated about all the policies of
every country to avoid any non-compliance (Kairuz and et.al., 2020). The non-compliance may
lead to legal disputes and this may affect the reputation of the company.
Environmental
The company is focused on providing luxurious products due to which they are highly
concerned about the environmental effects that they may leave behind. They have promoted
themselves as sustainable retail industry so are careful about their production processes. They
also sell fair trade products which allows smaller businesses to incur less production cost and
enable environmental friendly production methods.

Leadership styles
Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence and guide others in an organization.
There are five types of leadership styles:
Autocratic
It is a centralized power of making decisions in hands of leader who orders, assigns
duties without consulting employees. Autocratic leadership is based on close supervision,
direction and commanding order of superior. It facilitates quick decisions and depends on lesser
degree of delegation. Autocratic leadership is negative based on commands given by superiors
who don't care about the opinions of subordinates. This style may lead to strikes and industrial
disputes and also produce frustration among employees and affect the growth of employees. This
kind of leadership is less effective because:
 the new generation are more independent and resist the control upon them
 revolution of rising expectations changed the attitude of people
 people look for job where their ego gets satisfied
This approach may be effective in the situation where urgent and effective decision is to be
taken. This kind of style may make employees dependent on their superiors for direction and
make them incapable of taking any decision on their own.
Democratic
Democratic leadership also known as participative leadership is a decentralized
leadership style. In this, plans and policies are made with the involvement and consultation of
subordinates (Gandolfi and Stone, 2018). Superior leads the subordinate by setting examples not
by fear and force. The style indicates the need of participation of employees and favours sharing
responsibilities with employees. This will boost their morals and employees will feel that
management is interested in them as well as their ideas and suggestions. There are many
advantages of democratic leadership style:
 higher motivation and improved morale
 Increased co-operation with management
 improved job performance
 Reduction in employees turnover
This leadership style may not be effective where there are unskilled employees and sometime
employees may feel left out when their ideas or solutions are not chosen.

Laissez faire
This leadership style is also known as free rein leadership that avoids power and
responsibility. There is a minimum involvement of superior as they pass responsibility of taking
decisions to the subordinates (Al Khajeh, 2018). There is no interference of leaders as they give
no direction and allows the group to establish their own goals and solve the problems
themselves. The leaders are on the opinion that each member of the group when given the right
to take decisions on their own then they might put their best effort and maximum result can be
achieved. As there is no direction or control over the subordinates, many problems may arise and
goals of the organization may not be met effectively. In this style the decisions making would be
faster as employees don't need to ask their superiors. This style mainly work in the organization
where the employees are skilled and trained and are fully competent who doesn't require and
supervision.
Consultative
Consultative leaders give opportunity to employees to share their ideas and suggestions
but the final decision is taken by leaders. While there is a flow of communication in both the
directions but leaders tightly control the way things are to be done. This increases employee
engagement as they feel respected and motivates them to work effectively. In this quality of
decision improves as it considers input from many team members. This type of style is time-
consuming and may not be effective for urgent tasks (Alheet and et.al., 2021). As there may be
different kinds of ideas that may result into conflicts and create dissatisfaction in employees
whose ideas are not considered.
Transactional
In this leadership style, leaders set targets for employees outline rewards and penalties
associated with those targets. This style encourages high compliance within teams and extreme
degree of control which may give reliable outputs. This style motivates employees which
increases the productivity. Transactional leadership minimizes confusion in chain of command as
it is easy to be implemented by leaders and followed by employees. This style may minimize the
innovation and creativity of employees. This style creates more followers than leaders among
employees.
M&S focuses on more effective collaboration among employees of different levels so
that business objectives can be effectively and efficiently achieved. The managers and leaders of

the company follows consultative leadership style (Leadership styles, 2022). In this the final
decision is taken by managers and leaders of M&S who first consult with the employees in order
to consider issue better. In M&S the leaders of the company usually consult with employees of
lower levels before implementing any strategy or making any crucial decisions.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Corporate social responsibility is a self-regulating business model by which company
makes a concrete effort to operate in ways that will help them to be socially accountable to itself,
stakeholders and environment. CSR helps the society and enables the company to build a good
brand image (Fatima and Elbanna, 2022). The success of M&S is because of effective
management and employees, customer care management and having effective integrated
management system. M&S has always taken responsibilities towards customers, employees,
suppliers and local communities. The CSR activities of M&S are as follows:
Economic CSR activities
M&S ensures that the projects that they decide to do can improve the lives of people
targeted. M&S conducts programs such as skill development, economic empowerment that
would empower the particular groups in the community. The company ensures that it work
according to law and in morally acceptable manner. These programs didn't give direct benefits to
the company but it increased the sales (Ramesh and et.al., 2019). The company upholds high
respect for its code of ethics which helped to maintain internal and external relationship with its
stakeholders. M&S is operating in an environment where it is affected by prevailing conditions
and on the other hand it also affects those prevailing conditions.
Social CSR activities
Social CSR practices refer to the impact that an organization have on the social prosperity
on entire nation and individual stakeholders. This means that responsibilities of social effects that
company have on people directly and indirectly. M&S donates the returned clothes and business
surplus to charitable institutes which supports the homeless. The company donates its date
expired food to charitable organizations who further distributes them to vulnerable people in the
society. M&S gives its full support to major disaster areas by donating food, clothes and medical
needs but before giving support it ensures that there is real need and whether the disaster has
occurred. The company has organization a program it which it aimed to help customers and

employees to choose healthier life style. The company has a major responsibility towards its
employees. To attract and retain the best talents in the company, M&S has to demonstrate each
day that it is a good employer which is committed to give respect and value to all its employees
and provide them career opportunities and quality training.
Environmental CSR activities
Environmental practices are undertaken by organization to reduce the impact of its
activities on the environment. The company implement environmental practices to build a
competitive advantage through better management of natural resources and to maintain positive
reputation among stakeholders (Sughra, 2019). A plan was launched that aimed to reduce the use
of energy consumption and increase the use of renewable electricity. M&S had committed to
ensure that the waste from clothing and packaging do not end up in landfill. This is done by
reducing the use of packaging and carrier bags and improving recycling. M&S has very high
standards for animal welfare, sustainable fishing and farming. It uses wood which are recycled
and recycled plastics are used to make ranges of polyester clothing and home products.
Giving back to society is necessary for the company to ensure effective relationship with
stakeholders and for sustainable growth. One of the reason for the growth of M&S is the CSR
activities that are done by company.
Loyal customers
CSR activities have helped M&S to attract and retain customers, which is essential to
company's long success. Due to CSR company had built a strong image in the society which has
dragged the attention of consumers towards the company and the products it deals with.
Increased employee motivation
M&S have taken many steps to ensure the well-being of its employees. Health and safety
measures were taken which increased the feeling of security in employees. The company
provided a friendly work culture with constant training and development programs to increase
the skills in employees which resulted in providing career opportunities. M&S is a multinational
company with diverse employees and had managed effectively these employees by ensuring no
conflict among them (Corporate social responsibility, 2022). These measures have attracted and
retained talented employees within the company and motivated them to increase their
productivity.
Community support

The CSR activities have worked as a platform of M&S to make a positive impact on local
and global community. Community- oriented companies often enjoys competitive advantage as
they built a positive and ever lasting image. CSR activities have reduced the cost of marketing of
M&S as customers have already attracted towards the company and its products as it has built
strong image.
Effects of Brexit and covid-19 pandemic
Brexit means Britain exit which refers to withdrawal process of United Kingdom (UK)
from European Union (EU). There was positive and negative impact of this exit on businesses in
UK and EU. There was free trade policies between EU and UK prior to Brexit which allowed
UK to import products at lower price. This had given great benefits to M&S as this helped
company to gain good profit margin. Due to Brexit company couldn't import goods at cheaper
price which had pressurized the company to increase the price of product resulting into decrease
in demand for product. Due to end of freedom of movement between UK and EU, there was a
shortage in labour and M&S had to invest more on existing employees. There were logistical
problems in supply chain which has made it difficult for M&S to keep pace with consumer
demand for products (Korus and Celebi, 2019). Brexit has affected the operations of M&S
leading to loss of customers and decrease in profit margin.
Brexit has raised the problem of food price inflation in M&S as there was decline in rate
of pound which resulted to pay more for import of food items. This had impacted the economic
environment of the company as the cost of food product increased leading to decrease in profit
margin. The company has to face a situation where it had its stores. There was an impact on
social environment too as there was decrease in customers due to shortage of labour and
problems in supply chain. M&S had to invest more on training the existing employees to meet
the demand of customers for product variety. With the adverse effect of Brexit there was another
problem which impacted the business of M&S was covid-19 (Shen and et.al., 2020). This
pandemic has affected the business on a large scale as its impact was all over world. Mark &
Spencer's clothing, home and food businesses were hit hard by lock down restrictions. Already
there was shortage in labour but due to this pandemic the production and sales of business came
down. The existing labours were concerned about their health and this made them not to join the
company. The pandemic period had impacted the sales of the company resulting into decrease in

profits. Marks & Spencer had to shut down its many stores due to lack of operations. This has
impacted the market share of company and share price of company came down.
The company had taken effective measures to cope up with the effect of Brexit and
covid- 19 pandemic on the operations and growth of company. The company had expanded its
international online businesses through its website selling homewares, food items and clothings.
This shift from offline to online business had opened a wide scope for the company for
expanding its business worldwide (Almeida Santos and Monteiro, 2020). Due to pandemic sale
of food items reduced company started focusing more on grocery items to compensate the losses
of reduction in sale of ready to eat products. M&S board was intent on continue the retention of
its employees by motivating them. The company organized awareness programs for its
employees to make them aware about the impact of covid- 19 and the measures taken by
company for the safety of employees. This helped to increase the feeling of safety in employees
and helped the company to retain its talented employees. The company organized training and
development programs to develop the skills of its employees so that they can work effectively
because company was suffering from lack of labour supply due to Brexit and covid-19. M&S
launched more variety of products to take competitive advantages to attract customers and give
them options to choose.
The pandemic has presented M&S with the opportunity to remodel and reshape its
business to be fit for post pandemic environment. This had given opportunity to the company to
transform itself into far more digital, leaner and agile business. The company had an effective
business model of operating parallel clothing and food businesses and strategy of switching
online which included Ocado joint venture for providing online food services had opened a wide
scope for the company to increase its profit and substantially grow in the industry. As M&S is a
multinational company the need to comply with rules and regulations of every country during
pandemic was essential (Knowles and et.al., 2020). To ensure the effective compliance with all
the pandemic rules and regulations company established a communication strategy and channels
to effectively engage with local and national authorities.
CONCLUSION
Marks & Spencer is a Britain company that had faced many problems during the Brexit
and covid-19 pandemics but it has also used the opportunity to reshape its business to gain more
profit. In order to achieve success and overcome the losses the company needed to renovate its

business strategy and this could be done only by effective management and leadership. The
company identifies the needs of the customers and supply products as per their demands which
helps it to give customer satisfaction. The project had highlighted that the company is
continuously engaged in CSR activities that had helped the company to build a strong image
among its stakeholders. A detailed PESTEL analysis was done which had given a complete view
of factors that are impacting the external environment of M&S. For the effective management of
employees in company consultative leadership style is being followed by the company so that
company can welcome innovative ideas which would help management to take effective
decisions.

REFERENCES
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responsibility/>
Leadership styles, 2022. [Online]. Available through: <https://studycorgi.com/marks-and-amp-
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