Brief history of Sainsbury (pdf)

REPORT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report has been focusing on the fact that adoption of proper leadership style is of
much importance and is very necessary for the successfulness of business. The leadership style
refers to a set of framework or a set standard which the leader follows while leading a group of
employees or company. Good management style and maintenance of good organizational culture
is very crucial because of the reason that if culture is good than employees will enjoy working
within company.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN DISCUSSION......................................................................................................................4
Brief history of Sainsbury...........................................................................................................4
Vision, leadership style, management practices and organizational culture of Sainsbury.........4
Influence of culture and management style on functions and strategies of company.................6
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Leadership refers to a process or and activity through which a person called leader directs
and guides a group of people in carrying out their work so that the ultimate goal or objective of
them is accomplished. Management refers to a process through which the work is being done
from others efficiently and effectively to achieve their organizational objective. On the other
hand, organizational culture refers to the different types of beliefs, assumptions, attitude that the
employees of the company follows and also includes their behaviour and way of working. All
these three aspects are very necessary and crucial part of company and the success of company is
dependant on these three aspects only (Shamir and Eilam - Shamir, 2018).
The present report is based on the company Sainsbury. It is a company founded by John
James Sainsbury in the year 1869 around 150 years ago. It is a type of retail firm. The report will
start by outlining the history of the company Sainsbury. Further it will outline the vision and
leadership style used by Sainsbury. Along with the management practices and organizational
culture of the company. Further it will highlight the influence of management style and culture of
the company on its functions and different strategies followed by company.
MAIN DISCUSSION
Brief history of Sainsbury
Sainsbury is one of the largest retail chain of supermarket operators in United Kingdom.
The company is a public limited company founded in 1869 approximately 150 years ago in
Holborn, London in United Kingdom. The company was founded by John James Sainsbury and
company is named after his name only that is 'J Sainsbury'. This company deals in a wide range
of products including ready to eat meals, organic foods, clothing and fashion segment, home
collection range, furnishings, kitchen products and many more variety of products (J Sainsbury
plc, 2019). It has around 598 supermarkets and 714 convenience stores serving all over the
world. The company employs around 148,000 number of employees who serves around 16
million consumers per week. Other than the above services Sainsbury also has a large variety of
petrol stations, coffee shops, delicatessen, fish and meat counters, pharmacies, restaurants and
many more variety of services (Sainsbury Marketing Mix, 2019).
Vision, leadership style, management practices and organizational culture of Sainsbury
The vision for a company can be defined as the position where company wants to reach
in near future. It can be the long term objective which the company wants to achieve. These are

the end result that is end point where company wants to reach. The vision of Sainsbury is to
become the most trusted and largest retailer all over the globe and a place where people love to
work and the consumers love to do shopping.
Leadership style
The leadership style refers to a set of framework or a set standard which the leader
follows while leading a group of employees or company (Grint, Jones and Holt, 2016). The
leadership style used by Sainsbury is situational leadership. Under this technique or style of
leadership Sainsbury adopts the leadership style based on current prevailing situation. With the
employment of this type of leadership leaders uses those leadership style which best suits the
given situation or circumstances. Like for example democratic leadership is suitable, on the other
hand, in some situations it may be possible that participative style is used to lead the employees.
Management style
These are different types of styles or methods which manager can use in order to manage
the whole company. It is very necessary for Sainsbury to adopt to an efficient and effective
management style in order to properly manage the business so it can successfully run and can
accomplish its objectives and goal. For managing business successfully, Sainsbury uses
autocratic style of management within its company. In this style of management, the manager
takes all the decision by himself only (Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube, 2015). He does not
ask anyone or takes any suggestion or any help form employees or subordinates. This style of
management is not mush good as employees are not asked for any suggestion. And if they are
not asked then they does not get the feeling of belongingness with company. Also here
communication is only one way because only what the manager has planned is carried down to
employees. When the decision making power rest in hands of manager only then employees
then employees are not satisfied with their jobs as they are not being consulted before taking
decision.
Organizational culture
The culture refers to as customs, beliefs, attitude, assumptions followed by people.
Organizational culture may be defined as the customs, beliefs, attitude, assumptions and
behaviour and way of working of employees within company. For maintaining he culture in
company, Sainsbury uses hierarchy culture within the company (Bernheim and Bodoh - Creed,
2017). By using this culture, company forms a chain of command which specifies who will

report to whom and who will get direction from which superior. This type of culture creates a
structured and formal working environment. This type of structure follows strict rules and
regulations which needs to be followed by all employees. In this type of culture, leader follows
the role of organizer, as a monitor to check that the work is in accordance with the hierarchy and
set standards (Shamir, Arthur and House, 2018). This type of culture increases the efficiency,
uniformity and on time completion of work.
Influence of culture and management style on functions and strategies of company
The business works in the ever changing and dynamic business environment. So always
there is some or the other changes going on in the business which impacts culture and
management of business and its working and operations.
Influence of culture on strategy and function of company
The culture refers to as the beliefs, attitudes, thinking, perception of people. Similarly the
culture of organization refers to as beliefs, attitudes, thinking, perception of employees working
in the company. The culture influences very much the strategies and functions used by company.
For example Sainsbury uses the some strategy to increase the employee satisfaction and to
decrease employee turnover (Bortolotti, Boscari and Danese, 2015). Then this strategy will be
influenced by culture used by Sainsbury. As seen above Sainsbury uses hierarchical structure
wherein the employees just have to do what manager or senior asks them to do. So in such a
culture the strategy to increase employee's satisfaction and to reduce labour turnover will be
influenced because if the employees are not free to share their views and ideas then they will not
be satisfied while working with Sainsbury. If the employees are not satisfied then obviously it
will result into increase in employees turnover.
On the other hand sometimes, culture also influences the working of organization in
positive way. Like for example. Company decides to implement discipline and timeliness then
the culture followed by Sainsbury is perfect (Naranjo - Valencia, Jiménez - Jiménez and Sanz -
Valle, 2016). This is because of the reason that hierarchical culture defines who has to report to
whom so it makes it clear that how employees have to work so it reduces the time to complete
work as every employee beforehand knows that who have to report to whom.
With culture, the management style adopted by company also sometimes influences the
functions and strategies followed by company (Alvesson, Blom and Sveningsson, 2016).
Management style also influences the working of business in both positive and negative sense.

For example if the aim of of company is to promote coordination and if it uses autocratic style of
management then it is not at all possible that coordination is increased in company. This is
because of the reason that in autocratic style the decisions are taken by top management only
(Zhang, Chen and Sun, 2015). With this style the employees develops a feeling that if
management is not asking for our help then why should we cooperate and coordinate with each
other.
The positive influence of management style on the functions and strategies is the
successful accomplishment of business objectives and goals. This is because of the reason that
top management is fully experienced and knowledgeable and if they takes all the decisions of
business then it will take less time as they will speedily take decisions as compared to if decision
taking power is given to middle or lower level. So in this case autocratic style of management
helps Sainsbury in fostering the speed of work in direction of fulfilment of goals and objectives
of business.
Other than these both factors also there is an influence of leadership style also on the
functions and strategies of company. For example the leader plays the crucial role in
implementing any strategy within Sainsbury. Adopting a new strategy may be sometimes hard,
confusing and cumbersome for employees. So in this case comes the role of leader in which
leader acts as a mentor and explains the benefits and advantages of adopting to new strategy and
motivate employees in adopting to new strategies. This is a positive influence on the functions
and strategies of company. The negative influence can be that if leader exercises too much power
on the employees then this might demotivate employees that they are being monitored every time
so they loses interest in their jobs and starts getting demotivated from job and thinks of living the
job and move away (Paris, Sоrbu and Tomescu, 2015).
RECOMMENDATION
By studying the whole report it can be recommended to Sainsbury that it must use sound
and efficient system of leadership style so that it can manage all the employees efficiently and
effectively. For leading the group of employees leader of Sainsbury must use the participative
system of leadership as suggested by Rensis Likert. Under this leadership style, management of
company has full confidence and trust on employees of company that they have ability to take
decisions. This type of leadership is beneficial for Sainsbury because it focuses on improving
teamwork and encourages subordinates to share their ideas and viewpoints.

For improving the management style Sainsbury must use delegative style of management.
Under this style of management all the employees are delegated with some or the other
responsibility and not only the work. Here the employees just not have to finish work but are also
responsible for fulfilment of work successfully. For improving organizational structure
Sainsbury should use Clan culture. Adoption of this culture is beneficial because it promotes a
friendly environment in company. This culture promotes friendliness and cooperation among all
employees and seniors. Here the manager does not instructs employees rather they treat them as
their students and guides them as their mentor. Implementation of this type of culture promotes
better communication, improved coordination, team development and many more another
benefits.
CONCLUSION
With the in depth study of the whole report it can be summarized that for a successful
business it is very necessary for company to have a good leadership style implied in company.
The leadership style needs to be very effective and efficient because the style adopted by leader
only guides the way of working of employees. With the study of report it can also be analysed
that adoption of good management style and maintenance of good organizational culture is very
crucial. This is because of the reason that if culture is good than employees will enjoy working
within company.
The report started by discussing about the company Sainsbury in brief. Further it
discussed about the vision and management style used by company to manage the employees of
organization. Also it outlined leadership styles adopted by company and also discussed a little
about organizational culture adopted by it. Further it highlighted the impact and influence of
culture and management style adopted by company on the functions and strategies used by
organization. At last the report will end up by suggesting some recommendations to Sainsbury
for improving its leadership styles, management styles and organizational culture.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Shamir, B. and Eilam - Shamir, G., 2018. “What’s your story?” A life-stories approach to
authentic leadership development. In Leadership Now: Reflections on the Legacy of
Boas Shamir(pp. 51-76). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Grint, K., Jones, O.S. and Holt, C., 2016. What is Leadership. The Routledge Companion to
Leadership, p.3.
Bernheim, B.D. and Bodoh - Creed, A., 2017. A theory of decisive leadership. Available at SSRN
3012726.
Shamir, B., Arthur, M.B. and House, R.J., 2018. The rhetoric of charismatic leadership: A
theoretical extension, a case study, and implications for research. In Leadership Now:
Reflections on the Legacy of Boas Shamir (pp. 31-49). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Alvesson, M., Blom, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2016. Reflexive leadership: Organising in an
imperfect world. Sage.
Zhang, S.J., Chen, Y.Q. and Sun, H., 2015. Emotional intelligence, conflict management styles,
and innovation performance: An empirical study of Chinese employees. International
Journal of Conflict Management. 26(4). pp.450-478.
Paris, S., Sоrbu, R. and Tomescu, A., 2015. LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT STYLES.
Amanchukwu, R.N., Stanley, G.J. and Ololube, N.P., 2015. A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational
management. Management. 5(1). pp.6-14.
Bortolotti, T., Boscari, S. and Danese, P., 2015. Successful lean implementation: Organizational
culture and soft lean practices. International Journal of Production Economics. 160.
pp.182-201.
Naranjo - Valencia, J.C., Jiménez - Jiménez, D. and Sanz - Valle, R., 2016. Studying the links
between organizational culture, innovation, and performance in Spanish
companies. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología. 48(1). pp.30-41.
Online
J Sainsbury plc. 2019. [ONLINE]. Available
through:<https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/88/J-Sainsbury-plc.html>
Sainsbury Marketing Mix. 2019. [ONLINE]. Available
through:<https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/16809-sainsburys.html>