Management and Leadership Style of Marks and Spencer

Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
1. History and summary of company..........................................................................................1
2. Vision, leadership style and management practices and strategies making use of various
theories........................................................................................................................................2
3. How it can be achieved or implement by company................................................................3
4. Recommendation for improvement.........................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFRENCES ..................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Management is essential for an organization in order to conduct work in appropriate and
effective manner for gaining success at a marketplace. Along with this a company can also
solve problems and issues by adopting appropriate management at a workplace. It is also
consider as a art through which employer get things done through other staffs in proper manner
to attain goal (Easterby, Thorpe and Jackson, 2012). This report is based on management and
leadership style of Marks and Spencer, which is founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer
in year 1884. It is a public limited company which operates its business operations and functions
in retail industry. Its headquarter is in London, United Kingdom. They offer their products and
services at worldwide marketplace. Topics include in this report are brief explanation of
respective company, their vision, leadership style and management practices. Along with this
how it can be achieved by company and recommendation in respect of this.
MAIN BODY
1. History and summary of company
Marks and Spencer is one of the famous British retail store which operate their business
operations and functions at multinational level. It is headquartered in Westminster, London,
United Kingdom. The respective company is founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in
year 1884. There are approx 979 stores across the United Kingdom which include nearby 615
stores that majorly sales food products. Form November 2008 respective company began to sell
branded food products like Kellogg's Corn Flakes (Belbin, 2012). Marks and Spencer are
specialises in selling variety of products that include clothing, home products and luxury food
products. It is also get listed on the London Stock Exchange as well as at FTSE 100 Index.
The first international store of Marks and Spencer is in Kabul, Afghanistan in year 1960.
After that they expand at Canada market in year 1973 and they have approx 47 stores at
respective country. Financial year 1997 – 1998 is a peak time when Marks and Spencer gain
peaked profit. In February 2007 respective company announced to open World's largest Store
outside United Kingdom at Dubai Festival City. Respective company opened its first mainlands
china store at Shanghai market in year 2008 (Pines and et.al., 2012). Marks and Spencer has
several overseas offices in different locations such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, India,
Bangladesh, Turkey, China, Italy, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
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This company offering their products through various stores and channels such as core
shop, M & S Food hall, Hospitality, Home Store, outlet store, M & S Simply food and online
sites. There are approx 80, 787 employees working at Marks and Spencer till year 2018. Along
with this their operating is near by £670.6 million in year 2018 and £29.1 million net income in
respective year (Giltinane, 2013). The respective organization sales women wear, lingeries, men
wears, Kids wear, beauty, food and home products through approx 300 full line stores at UK as
well as through online website. There are near by 910 store in respective country in which 220
are owned by Marks and Spencer and approx 350 are franchise simply stores for food.
2. Vision, leadership style and management practices and strategies making use of various
theories
Marks and Spencer is one of the famous British retail organization which provide variety
of products ranges to their potential customers at worldwide market. The vision statement of
respective company is to develop their standard so that other competitive company compare it
self in order to check its products quality (Marks and spencer, 2019). For this managers of Marks
and Spencer develop various standard and appropriate strategies to make their quality of products
superior by which they able to gain competitive advancement and increase in customers base as
well as profitability ratio. Action which are taken by respective company are like developing new
and unique products on regular basis, design clothing which is latest and trendy, manufactures
products according to need and demand of customers. Along with this respective company never
compromise with their quality of products which make them effective and superior at
marketplace at world wide market.
Leadership refers to style of a leader or an individual how they lead or handle other in
order to get work done form them. There are various type of leadership style which can be
adopted by leader such as democratic, autocratic, laissez- faire, strategic, bureaucratic,
transactional, transformational leadership and many more. As per the social blog it can be
evaluate that Marks and Spencer leader adopt bureaucratic leadership style for conducting
operations functions in effective and appropriate manner (Leadership & Management, 2019). In
this leadership style employees conduct their work in routine formate and they are motivated by
providing rewards as well as appraisal. Bureaucratic leadership style is appropriate for those
organization which are operating their business in retail sector.
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Management practices is necessary for an organization because by it they able to conduct
various activities or task such as providing direction to staffs, implementing plans in proper
manner and motivating peoples for attaining goal in effective manner. According to case study of
Marks and Spencer, they adopt appropriate management strategies in order to attain their two
major points i.e. empowering employees and also enable them. So that they conduct work in
proper manner (M&S employee survey case study, 2019). Management practices which is
conducted by respective company are like they conduct appraisal system in every 12 months
which motivate employees and empower them. Along with this they also provide 20% discounts
to their employees at all stores (HR Practices of Marks & Spencer, 2019). Along with this they
also provide training and development employees so that they conduct work in appropriate
manner.
Theory X and Theory Y management theory is adopted by Marks and Spencer in order to
conduct management practices in effective and appropriate manner (Marks and Spencer
Performance Management, 2019). Along with this they also adopt this theory for motivating its
employees so that they accomplish their work in appropriate and best manner. According to this
theory there are two behaviour of employees working at a work place Theory X are those staff
who need close supervision, they avoid work as well as responsibilities when it is possible, they
majorly desire for money. Whereas Theory Y peoples like to conduct work and take
responsibilities. They are self motivated for conducting work in effective and appropriate
manner.
3. How it can be achieved or implement by company
Leadership style which is adopted by Marks and Spencer is bureaucratic leadership style
in which employees conduct their routine work and employer reward them according to work
performance in particular time durations (Myers, 2013). Leadership style is refers to approach or
technique that provide direction, motivation, developing plan, implementing it in appropriate
manner in order to attain goal and objectives in appropriate as well as effective manner.
According to which manager of company conduct appraisal system in every 12 months so that
employees feel motivated and get encourage to work in appropriate manner in same organization
for a long time duration (HR Practices of Marks & Spencer, 2019). But by adopting bureaucratic
leadership style respective company face loss due to too slow and not agile process. Along with
this there is large process of communication, too many divisions of management which take time
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for taking decisions and in this employees are taking less accountability of their work (M&S
looks to unify brand and culture after profits decline, 2019). Now manager of respective
company decide to adopt different strategies and plans so that they can improve their condition at
a marketplace in effective and efficient manner.
Marks and Spencer conduct their operational functions by adopting appropriate and
effective marketing strategies. The main reason behind adopting and developing marketing
strategies is they want to empower as well as enable their staffs in effective manner (Yahaya and
Ebrahim, 2016). For attaining this they conduct various activities and task such as providing 20
% discounts to their employees at store and employees also get 28 days statutory holidays per
annum. Along with this they also provide career development options and training to employees
in various form such as on the job training, store attachment, corporate learning program, role
specific training and development reviews (HR Practices of Marks & Spencer, 2019). Moreover
Marks and Spencer also adopt suitable marketing practices in order to get competitive
advancement by using new and unique technology, adopting changes in proper manner and many
more.
By adopting Theory X and Theory Y Marks and Spencer able to accomplish their work in
effective and appropriate manner in order to attain goal and objective in proper manner (Marks
and Spencer Performance Management, 2019). Along with this manger of respective company
also able to develop strategies, plans and policies according to behaviour of employees in
effective and appropriate manners. By this they also develop suitable relationship between
employers and employees for accomplishing task. When manager develop strategies and plans in
appropriate manner as well as according to employees, they feel motivated and get encouraged to
work in effective and appropriate manner for achieving goal and objective.
4. Recommendation for improvement
By analysing and evaluating all above situation there are several areas in which Marks
and Spencer must conduct changes so that they enhance their productivity in effective and
appropriate manner. Along with this Marks and Spencer also able to increase profitability and
market shares across all over national and international marketplace. Some of the major
recommendation are respective company must change their leadership style so that they didn't
face loss or decline in profit again in future. Along with this in some market this company are not
majorly focus on advertising and promotion activities so they must increase their promotional
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activities in order to increase their presence at a market place. They must also recruit candidate
which are skills, knowledgable, quick learner and flexible so that they adopt changes in proper
manner and in quick basis. This is so because when there is change occur at Marks and Spencer
their employees not able to adopt it in quick manner which directly and indirectly affect their
productivity and profitability ratio. Marks and Spencer must also adopt more marketing strategies
such as conduct small appraisal system after 6 months so that employees make more efforts to
conduct more best work. Along with this they can also engage their workers of all location in
decision making process by asking them advice, idea, suggestion and feedback. The respective
company must interchange their employees from one location to another location so that they
employees enhance their skills and knowledge of culture in proper manner. By adopting these
recommendation Marks and Spencer able to conduct their work in more appropriate formate and
also they able to increase their customers base, employees engagement, profitability ratio and
other.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussed point it can be conclude and evaluate that management is
essential for an organization to attain goal and objective in effective and appropriate manner. By
this they also able to understand issues and problems and then develop suitable strategies in order
to resolve it in effective and efficient manner. For running business operations and function in
proper manner manager develop or adopt leadership style and management strategies as well as
theories in order to conduct work in appropriate way. Along with this they also develop plans,
strategies and policies in respect of situation and recommendation of customers and employees.
In every organization leader adopt leadership style which is appropriate for them in order to
attain goal and objectives. Along with this they also adopt and develop appropriate management
practices by which they able to motivate employees and conduct work in effective manner. They
can also adopt various strategical theories by which they can create proper management
practices.
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REFRENCES
Books and journals
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P.R., 2012. Management research. Sage.
Belbin, R.M., 2012. Management teams. Routledge.
Pines, E.W., and et.al., 2012. Stress resiliency, psychological empowerment and conflict
management styles among baccalaureate nursing students. Journal of Advanced
Nursing. 68(7). pp.1482-1493.
Giltinane, C.L., 2013. Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard. 27(41). pp.1472-1483.
Yahaya, R. and Ebrahim, F., 2016. Leadership styles and organizational commitment: literature
review. Journal of Management Development. 35(2). pp.190-216.
Myers, M.D., 2013. Qualitative research in business and management. Sage.
Online
Marks and spencer. 2019. [Online]. Available
through<https://www.slideshare.net/parakaldavis/marks-and-spencer>.
Leadership & Management. 2019. [Online]. Available
through<https://laetitiastuder.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/leadership-management/>.
M&S employee survey case study. 2019. [Online]. Available
through<https://www.etsplc.com/insight/ms-employee-survey-case-study/>.
HR Practices of Marks & Spencer. 2019. [Online]. Available
through<https://www.academia.edu/19332807/HR_Practices_of_Marks_and_Spencer_S
elfridges_Primark_and_Sainsbury>.
Marks and Spencer Performance Management. 2019. [Online]. Available
through<https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/performance-management-at-
marks-and-spencers.php>.
M&S looks to unify brand and culture after profits decline. 2019. [Online]. Available
through<https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/05/23/ms-unify-brand-culture/>.
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