Marks and Spencer's Leadership Challenges

The assignment provides a detailed analysis of Marks and Spencer's leadership challenges, including its recent shop closures and adoption of transactional leadership style. The company has implemented various strategies such as change-orientation, performance management, and employee motivation to address these challenges. The assignment also recommends adopting better ways of motivating employees and employee engagement for achieving organizational objectives effectively.

Context of business
(Project - 2)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. History as well as summary of the business and its rationale.................................................1
2. Discussion on vision, leadership style, management practices and the various strategies by
the use of various theories...........................................................................................................2
3. Analysis of achievement and implementation of vision, strategies, leadership styles and
management practices of Marks and Spencer.............................................................................4
4. Recommendations ..................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business context may be defined as an analysis which helps in understanding various
aspects related to the business; which directly or indirectly have an impact on the working of
business such as business decision making. Marks and Spenser, one of the big and famous
company in the retail sector; has been established 135 years ago that is in the year 1884. The
company runs its business all across the globe with currently more than 80000 employees. This
assignment will include history and summary of business, leadership styles, management
practices and various strategies that are used in various theories. Furthermore, analysis would be
carried out of Marks and Spencer and then recommendations would be given for improvements.
1. History as well as summary of the business and its rationale
History of Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer, one of the largest retailer in UK started its business operations with a
small market stall where they sold items for a penny. The company was founded by Michael
Marks and Thomas Spencer(Toms and Zhang, 2016). The company had very humble beginning.
In the year 1880s due to immigration of Jewish community, Michael marks also emigrated to
England, where he started his wholesale business by selling simple goods such as needles, pins,
cottons, etc. after earning sufficient funds by the year 1884, a market stall as well as penny
bazaar where he sold all the items for a penny.
After two years he got married and then he owned many stalls in the neighbouring towns.
At that time he decided to open permanent stalls rather than temporary and has decided to
capture a wide market share. After few years, Marks decided to expand his business so he took
help of Spencer so that the company could be benefited by his experience. After many years of
successful running of the business; both the partners died and then their sons took up their
businesses.
Summary of Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer is a public limited company in the retail sector. The headquarter of
the company is in London, United Kingdom but the company run its business all across the
world(Ahmed, 2016). The company currently has 950 stores in the entire globe. The company
became the first retailer to make pre- tax profit but soon after that company faced a slump which
has directly or indirectly affected all the stakeholders of the company. With the changing time,
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performance of the company is deteriorating which has created the need to shut town few shops
due to decrease in sales as well as profit.
Rationale for choosing Marks and Spencer
The reason or logic behind choosing Marks and Spencer is that; the company is one of
the largest company in the retail sector. Apart from that, company has faced each and ever phase
such as the company started with a small stall and then it kept on growing and then after few
years the performance of the company deteriorated and now the company is in a position to close
down its few shops. Thus, the background of Marks and Spencer is very thrilling and the detailed
study on the company as well as its history is important.
2. Discussion on vision, leadership style, management practices and the various strategies by the
use of various theories
Vision
Vision of Marks and Spencer is 'to set the standards in order to measure the performance
of others'. They have set this vision in order to act as an aspiration for their competitors so that
they even they produce products of same quality. Furthermore, it acts as a benchmark for other
competitors as well; so that they adopt same business practices as adopted by the Marks and
Spencer.
Leadership styles
There are different kinds of leadership styles that can be adopted by the business
organization such as autocratic leadership style, democratic leadership style, coaching leadership
style, strategic leadership style, transformational leadership style, transactional leadership style ,
laissez-faire leadership style and charismatic leadership style.
Marks and Spencer, has adopted transactional leadership style. At present, transactional
leadership style is quite common(Antonakis and Day, 2017). As per this leadership style,
managers are rewarded on the basis of work done by them. It not only helps in establishing
various roles and responsibilities of the employees but also plays a huge role in determining
minimum work that should be carried out by the employees.
Transactional leadership style plays a vital role in motivating the employees towards the
achievement of the organizational objectives effectively and efficiently. This leadership style is
adopted by the company because it helps in focussing on proper supervision of employees as
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well as organization so that the performance of the employees could be improves by increasing
the productivity(Rosenbach, 2018).
Management practices
There are various management practices that are adopted by the business organizations
such as engaging workers, rewarding, staying committed, clarity seeking, team effort and
holding regular meetings. Even Marks and Spencer uses combination of management practices
in order to run its business smoothly. Management practices adopted by Marks and Spencer are:
Proper commitment and understanding of the management so as to bring desirable
change in the working of the business operations in order to prevent any conflicts that may arise
at the workplace. Apart from that, immense focus is paid on fostering team work so that the
objectives of the business could be achieved effectively and efficiently(Noe and et.al., 2017).
Furthermore, they believe in rewarding the employees on timely basis on the basis of the work
performed by them. This not only helps in motivating the employees but it also plays a major
role in retaining the employees for a longer duration of time.
Thus, all the management practices adopted by the Marks and Spencer played a major
role in smooth running of the business which is the reason behind company being one of the
major retailing company in the world.
Various strategies making use of various theories
There are various strategies that are used by Marks and Spencer in order to achieve its
objectives effectively and efficiently such as performance management, change-oriented and
motivation of employees.
Change-oriented strategy, helps the company to survive in this changing environment. In
today's time, it is essential for every company to adopt this strategy in order to run the business
smoothly(Nankervis and et.al., 2016). This is also very helpful in fostering organizational
transformation which in turn is very essential to fight competition as well as to achieve
competitive advantage over the rivalry firms.
Another important strategy is motivation of employees. This strategy plays a huge role in
improving the productivity of employees because it helps in boosting up the morale of the
employees which ultimately leads to improvement in their performance. Furthermore, it helps in
decreasing the employee turnover rate as the employees would be motivated to retain in the
company for a longer duration of time.
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Performance management also plays a vital role in improving the performance of
organization towards the attainment of the objectives of the company because the efforts of the
employees would directed towards the achievement of objectives in a better manner(Bititci,
Cocca and Ates, 2016).
3. Analysis of achievement and implementation of vision, strategies, leadership styles and
management practices of Marks and Spencer.
Analysis of achievement and implementation of vision
Company was able to achieve its vision because it focussed on manufacturing quality
products which not only helped the company in building up high brand image but also helped the
company in achieving competitive advantage over the rivalry firms. This in turn has also set the
benchmark for the rivalry firms to provide quality products which match their standards
otherwise they would loose their market share in the long run.
Thus, by achieving competitive advantage, company was able to capture a large
proportion of market share by the increase in profits as well as sales because customers usually
prefer those products which are of better quality. Moreover, the vision of the company played a
major role in retaining the customers as well as in attraction of new customers.
Analysis of achievement and implementation of strategies
Marks and Spencer adopted different strategies in order to achieve its objectives
effectively and efficiently. First strategy was change-orientation, the company was able to
implement it by motivating the employees to accept the changes and develop a positive
perspective towards it. They should be motivated by explaining them the importance of bringing
innovation in the company in order to survive in this competitive world(Channon and Jalland,
2016).
This, in turn has helped the company in achieving constant innovation in its business
activities as well as it even played a huge role in retaining the employees for a longer period of
time by reducing the employee turnover rate. Another strategy that is performance management
also helps the company in achieving its objectives efficiently by increasing the productivity of
employees.
Analysis of achievement and implementation of leadership styles
The company has adopted transactional leadership style by assigning specific roles and
responsibilities to each and every employee this in turn has helped the company in achieving the
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objectives of the company smoothly because employees would be given proper direction and
their efforts would be directed in a single direction(Yahaya and Ebrahim, 2016). Furthermore,
the company implemented the transactional leadership style by giving proper supervision to the
employees regarding carrying out their duties which in turn helped the company in improving the
productivity of the employees.
Analysis of achievement and implementation of management practices
Management practices such as conflict resolution was implemented in the Marks and
Spencer by actively listening to the problems of employees and then taking the best decision as
per the situation which is mutually accepted. This in turn helps the company in maintaining
adequate harmony at the workplace which is essential for creation of job satisfaction.
Apart from that, management practice such as team-work also played a huge role in
Marks and Spencer(Eilon, 2018). This practice was implemented in Marks and Spencer by
clearly defining the group goals as well as by building trust and loyalty among the various team
members. This helped the company in achieving creativity which is very necessary in this
competitive world as well as it also helped in bringing in the expertise.
4. Recommendations
As per the research on marks and Spencer, it has been recommended that company
should use better ways of motivating the employees rather that just encouraging them by telling
the benefits of performing better. The company can provide rewards to the employees such as
increment in salary or by providing them various kinds of benefits such as medical insurance and
even by giving them timely incentives. Thus, these motivational factors would give better results
in building up the morale of employees.
Apart from the above, the company can even adopt the strategy of employee engagement
for the purpose of use in various theories. This will help the company in building up a sense of
belongingness in the mind of employees so that they work better towards the attainment of the
objectives of the company. Employee engagement can be increased by empowering the
employees to take part in decision-making process. Thus, both these recommendations would
help the company in achieving its objectives effectively and efficiently.
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CONCLUSION
From the above assignment, it has been summarised that the company the company has
faced various ups and down in its entire journey. But currently the position of the company is not
good and it is evident from the fact that company had to shut down its few shops recently. Apart
from that, company has adopted transactional leadership style for the purpose of leading its
employees. On the other hand, management practices adopted by the company are conflict
resolution and team work. Even the company adopted various strategies for the use in various
theories such as change-orientation, performance management and motivation of employees.
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REFERENCES
Books and journal
Ahmed, U., 2016. Marks & Spencer: A Global Expansion to Acquire Lost Momentum?.
In Market Entry in China (pp. 61-72). Springer, Cham.
Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. eds., 2017. The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Bititci, U., Cocca, P. and Ates, A., 2016. Impact of visual performance management
systems on the performance management practices of organisations. International Journal of
Production Research. 54(6). pp.1571-1593.
Channon, D.F. and Jalland, M., 2016. Multinational strategic planning. Springer.
Eilon, S., 2018. Management practice and mispractice. Routledge.
Nankervis, Alan R. and et.al., 2016. Human resource management: strategy and
practice. Cengage AU.
Noe, R.A. and et.al., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive
advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Rosenbach, W.E., 2018. Contemporary issues in leadership. Routledge.
Toms, S. and Zhang, Q., 2016. Marks & Spencer and the decline of the British textile
industry, 1950–2000. Business history review. 90(1). pp.3-30.
Yahaya, R. and Ebrahim, F., 2016. Leadership styles and organizational commitment:
literature review. Journal of Management Development. 35(2). pp.190-216.
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