Leadership and Management Style in Tesco

Research report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1) History and summary of the business and the rationale ....................................................3
2) Discuss the vision, leadership style and management practises and the various strategies4
3) Analyse how the above have been achieved or implemented............................................7
4) Recommendations for improvement..................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
For running business in competitive and dynamic environment, it is very important for
organisation to have proper leadership style, management practices and strategies so that goal
and objectives can be achieved (Armstrong and Taylor, S., 2014). The given report is based on
TESCO which was founded in 1919 at England, United Kingdom. It is multinational British
retail business operating in different parts of the world. It is dealing in various products such as
electronic, petrol, clothing, books, financial service and so on. This report highlight about vision,
leadership style, management practices, strategies of respective organisation. Along with it
include some recommendation regarding improving situation for respective company as well as
it also discuss leadership, management, development of people, appropriate policies, strategies
and design of organisation.
MAIN BODY
1) History and summary of the business and the rationale
The name of TESCO first to be appeared in 1924 after Cohen bought shipment of Tea
from T.E stockwell and combine first two letters of surname and in 1931 first shop opened in

Burnt Oak, Barnet. The business has expanded rapidly and by 1939 there were found 100
TESCO shops across country. UK grocer has expanded their business in early 199s by operations
in 11 countries of world. The company was pulled out in 2013 from USA but in 2018 it was seen
to grown up. Since in 1960s, it has diversified into various areas like retailing of books, furniture,
petrol, financial & internet services. In 1990s organisation repositioned itself from down market
high volume low cost retailer to single designed for attracting large group of people by offering
goods that range from low cost items to finest range (Birasnav, 2014). This was seen successful
and chain of organisation grown from 500 shops in mid 1990s to 2500 shops. It is listed on stock
exchange of London and constituent of FTSE 100 Index (A history of Tesco: The rise of Britain's
biggest supermarket, 2019).
The chosen organisation is TESCO which was founded in 1919 at England, United
Kingdom. It is multinational British groceries and retailer business. This is third and ninth
largest retailer in terms of gross revenue and revenues in world. TESCO is running shops in
seven different countries across Ireland, Malaysia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, United
Kingdom, India, Thailand. The founder of TESCO is Jack Cohen as group of market stalls where
John Allan is non executive chairman and Dave Lewis is CEO of firm. There are different
products which are deal by organisation such as supermarket, superstore, hypermarket,
convenience shop that includes books, electronics, toys, software, telecoms, financial services,
internet services, clothing, electronics. According to data of 2018, TESCO is running 6569 shops
in different locations, revenue of £57,491 million, operating income was £1,644 million and net
income of £1,208 million. There are more than 460,000 employees working in various locations
of TESCO. Some of subsidiary of organisation are TESOC store Ltd, TESCO Mobile, TESCO
family Dinning Ltd, TESCO bank, TESCO Ireland, Booker Group, Dunnhumby, Jack's and
Spenhill (A history of Tesco: The rise of Britain's biggest supermarket, 2019).
The main reason for choosing respective organisation is because of large in size and easy
availability of required information along with uses of various strategies and practices which
deals in retail sector. The leadership style followed by administration is also good which is
suitable for all situation. It follows all management practices which is required for business for
achievement of goals and objectives (Donate and 2015). There are different strategies which are
required in business for work performance that are carried out effectively by system. Thus, due
to this reason, TESCO has been chosen for research project.

2) Discuss the vision, leadership style and management practises and the various strategies
The vision of TESCO has five elements that are described below:
 Needed and wanted around the globe
 Innovative, full of ideas and modern
 Inspiring, loyalty and trust from consumers, communities and colleagues.
 Business which is growing with full of opportunities
 Local winners are applying skills globally.
Leadership style is regarded as an approach and manner for implementing plans,
motivating people and providing direction. There are different types of leadership styles which
are used by leaders for their business and areas. TESCO follows democratic leadership style
which is described here. Democratic is also called participative or shared leadership style where
group member participates in decision making process. It can be applied to any organisation,
private business, schools, government. All the employees are free to participate, exchange ideas,
opinions and views and discussion is encouraged. This style provides higher productivity,
increased group morale, better contributions from members of group (What Is Democratic
Leadership, 2019). The employees having creativity are rewarded and encouraged. There are
some characteristics possessed by democratic leaders such as intelligence, competence, fairness,
honesty, courage, creativity. As group members focus on project and achieve the end results.
This democratic style of leadership can help TESCO for achievement of goals and
objectives. It helps in motivating employees who are working in organisation and assist in
providing good services to consumers. Management provide emphasis on appointing leaders on
basis of each department for handling organisational process. In this style of leadership, all
employees are provided equal opportunity in decision making and listen their opinions, ideas and
views regarding benefits of organisation. TESCO has democratic leadership style in which way
of operating is decentralised and passing of information is from higher manager to lower
employees and all are free to speak and contribute effective ideas for organisation growth and
success (Management And Leadership Styles In Tesco, 2019). It provides benefits and rewards to
employees for motivating in terms of paid holiday package, safeguarding future, looking after
health, staff discount cards, providing pensions schemes. In order to improve management
process, TESCO has started customer management where customer's voice are heard for better
providing of services in business. TESCO is consumer oriented and always try their best in

keeping them customers satisfied and producing their requirement. This style has been adopted
because of flat structure which helps staff to be part of success. This can help organisation to
achieve goals and objectives of business in effective and efficient manner.
Management Practices is defined as innovations and working methods which managers
uses for improving effectiveness of work systems. The most common management practices are
empowering staff, introducing schemes for improvement of quality, training staff and
introduction of new technology. There are different theories of management out of which
TESCO has followed human relation theory. It is management system that focus more on human
centred, emphasising capacities of individuals for acting, gearing and creativity of management
towards bringing potential of people (Four Types of Management Theory, 2019). This theory
mainly focusses on aligning needs of workers with needs of company and adoption of various
policies which aimed at mutual benefits.
The management practices adopted by TESCO is strategic Human Resources. Strategic
HRM has advantage of popularity and credibility in organisational performance. With the
introduction of strategic management at TESCO has introduced towards high commitment model
that offers training and development to all employees with help of role of HR within
organisation. This also aid in expanding their business at various places. It is the most important
practices of management as TESCO run their business at competitive market. By expansion of
organisation at different level can help their consumers to purchase goods from different places.
The products of TESCO are available online where customers can buy at any time and places.
This management practices helps in providing training and development for better outcome of
business (Strategic Human Resources Practices At Tesco, 2019). With the change in time and
environment, way of providing training has also changed in order to face challenging world.
Firstly, they analyse their employees and accordingly training should be provided. TESCO is
expanding their business on frequent basis which requires more skilled and capable employees
which can be trained by help of training and development, induction and orientation
programmes. This strategic management helps in discharging board responsibility and helps in
better planning. The better decision can be taken by staff through help of management practices
and working towards organisational perspectives. Thus, all employees, staffs and workers can
know their skills and capability and make improvement for achievement of goals and objectives
of business in effective and efficient manner. In this way, all organisation need to follow

management practices for their business that can helps in expansion, competitive gain and goal
achievement.
Marketing strategy is business overall plan that helps in reaching people and turning them
into consumers of goods and services which business is providing to them. It is forward looking
and long term approach for planning with fundamental goal to achieve sustainable competitive
advantage. There are different types of marketing strategies which are available for organisation
in terms of leadership and management theories. There are various types of leadership theories
such as participative and democratic out of which TESCO has followed democratic strategy. The
respective strategy helps in participating all staff and workers for decision making in business
and can get solution of any problems. Similarly, under management theories there are various
theories such as process and system out of which TESCO has followed system strategy. As this
strategy provide guideline for proper functioning of various activities and running business in
proper structure and format. The business marketing strategy of TESCO can aim to regain trust
of stakeholders (García-Morales, Jiménez-Barrionuevo and Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, 2012). It is
focusing on traditional competitive advantage at market place. The marketing communication
mix strategy used by TESCO are print and media advertising, sales promotions, public relations
for creating awareness (Tesco Marketing Strategy. 2019). In advertising, TESCO has made
extensive use of media and print advertising for communicating messages to their potential and
current consumers. During festival and celebration season they make an attractive advertisement
for their consumers to increase their sales and growth. In order to increase sales they use
promotional tools such as newspaper, radio and other advertisement for the attention of
consumers. The different forms of sales promotion used by TESCO are free gifts, point of sales
materials and clubcard. Thus, in this way marketing strategies are used by TESCO for increasing
sales and creation of awareness. Thus, above are the vision, leadership style, management
practises and various strategies of TESCO are discussed.
3) Analyse how the above have been achieved or implemented
The above vision, leadership style, management practices, theories and marketing
strategies are implemented and achieved by TESCO in various ways. The set vision need to be
implemented and achieved by providing training and development of staffs and workers so that
they focus on achieving it. The leadership style is implemented as each and every members are
participating in business functions and activities and put their views and opinions in front of

manager (Luthans and 2012). The leadership style is used in practical life by organisation so that
goal and objectives can be achieved. Similarly for management practices strategic HR manager
is providing regular training and development to all the employees, staff and workers of
organisation. If an subordinate is unable to conduct training session then offline has made
available to them so that they can learn more. TESOC has implemented system strategy for
management theory and democratic strategy for leadership theories which helps each staff for
proper participation and following of rules and regulation in effective manner. Thus, for creating
awareness and increment of sales, TESCO has implemented advertising marketing for more
attention of consumers and increase in sales and growth.
4) Recommendations for improvement
In order to improve leadership styles, management practices and strategies,
recommendation given to TESCO are as given below:
For leadership styles
It is not possible for organisation to follow single style of leadership. TESCO has
followed democratic leadership style which is not suitable in every situation. Thus, it is
recommended to TESCO to follow other leadership styles such as autocratic, bureaucratic for
achieving goals and objectives.
For management practices
TESCO is using strategic human resource as management practices for their business.
The recommendation provided to TESCO for improving management practices are using of
induction programmes for new employees, taking feedback on regular basis and grievance
handling committee for their workers.
For marketing strategies
In order to improve marketing strategies by TESCO, it is recommended to use internet
and social media for creating awareness in minds of consumers for better outcomes and goal
achievement.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be summarised that organisation should have proper
leadership style, management practices and strategies for achievement of goals and objectives.
The respective organisation has followed democratic leadership style as it helps individuals to

participate and put their opinions, ideas which helps in motivating them. The business is
applying strategic human resource as management practices for providing training and
development to all employees and staffs. Similarly, in order to increase sales and create
awareness, it has used advertising marketing strategies so that business can run in effective and
efficient manner. Thus, improvement should be done in terms of upgrading technology,
strategies and style for working in better manner and goal achievement.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
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Birasnav, M., 2014. Knowledge management and organizational performance in the service
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Donate, M. J. and de Pablo, J. D. S., 2015. The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in
knowledge management practices and innovation. Journal of Business Research. 68(2).
pp.360-370.
García-Morales, V. J., Jiménez-Barrionuevo, M. M. and Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, L., 2012.
Transformational leadership influence on organizational performance through
organizational learning and innovation. Journal of business research. 65(7). pp.1040-
1050.
Luthans, F. and Doh, J. P., 2012. International management: Culture, strategy, and behavior.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
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leadership: The missing link between HR strategy and performance. Human Resource
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Merrill, K. C., 2015. Leadership style and patient safety: implications for nurse
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