Leadership and Management Style in Multinational Organisations

The provided report analyzes the importance of adopting a proper leadership and management style in multinational organisations to take effective decisions for organisation. Various leadership styles and motivational theories are discussed, including democratic, autocratic, laissez-faire, consultative types of leadership, as well as Theory X and Y, Contingency Theory, and Vroom's Expectancy Theory.

CONTEXT OF
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
PROJECT 2......................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1. A brief history and summary of the business and the rationale..............................................3
2. According to your research, discuss their vision, leadership style and management practices
and the various strategies making use of various theories you have studied as evidence...........4
3. Analyse how above have been achieved or implemented by this firm giving suitable
examples .....................................................................................................................................6
4. Recommendations as an improvement (the proposed leadership styles, management
practices and the various strategies that can be undertaken by this firm based on this research)
.....................................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
References .......................................................................................................................................9

PROJECT 2
INTRODUCTION
Leadership in the organisation is defined as the ability to influence others to work and
achieve a particular goal. There are various roles of leadership in the company like establishment
of clear vision of goals and objectives of organisation, sharing of this vision with other workers
and staff members, giving information, methods and knowledge to evaluate this vision and
balancing interest of conflicts of all members and stakeholders (Amagoh, 2019). There are
different leadership and management styles adopted by the organisation like autocratic,
bureaucratic, charismatic, task oriented, transformational, laissez-fair leadership, etc. in this
report the company which is considered is Mark & Spencer, a British multinational firm that is
headquartered in London. It deals with the manufacturing of food products, luxury products and
clothings. This was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer.
1. A brief history and summary of the business and the rationale
Marks & Spencer is a retail company of UK that offers clothing, luxury food products
and home products. It is generally known as M&S and it's headquarter are situated in

Westminster, London. This British multinational firm was founded by Thomas Spencer and
Michael Marks in 1884. It has around thousand shops in UK which includes food product shops
and clothing shops.
History
The foundation of company was a partnership between Michael Marks and Thomas
Spencer. M&S was associated with selling British made goods in the early 20th century. The food
and clothes were sold under the brand name of “St Michael” in 1928. The company has a
successful international expansion (Ardichvili, Cardozo and Gasparishvili, 2018). This company
expanded it's business in foreign countries like Afghanistan, Canada, France, Austria, etc.
Summary of business
Mark & Spencer is a multinational retailer that is headquartered in UK. They are
involved in selling of high quality clothes, food and home products in the name of own brand.
The revenue incurred by this company is £10.6 billions. It has around 85000 employees and
1300 stores around the world. This is listed in the London Stock Exchange and it believes that a
successful business should be socially and environmentally sustainable.
Rationale of the study
Mark & Spencer is an international brand that is serving \products in foreign countries
and expanding it's business worldwide. This firm is chosen for the study to know about the
strategies it has used to get success in business in outside countries. The different leadership
styles and management practices of the firm are analysed.
2. According to your research, discuss their vision, leadership style and management practices
and the various strategies making use of various theories you have studied as evidence
Vision of Mark & Spencer
The vision of the company reflects sense of future of business growth and development
of the company (Chen and Lee, 2018). Vision of Mark & Spencer is to become the standard
against other retail companies around the world. It wants to perform better than benchmark of
other companies.
Leadership/Management styles used in Mark & Spencer
Mark & Spencer is a multinational firm and it has several stores to operate around the
world. Thus it is essential for the management to develop effective leadership and management

styles at workplace to motivate employees and function better for the company. There are
basically three types of leadership/management styles followed in management of any company-
autocratic, consultative and democratic. These are discussed below-
Autocratic leadership/management style
In this kind of leadership style, the manager instructs employees to perform the given
task. Subordinates are not allowed to give their opinions and leader has the right to make
decisions for the company. The major disadvantage of this style is that few employees are
dissatisfied by the decisions taken by managers and this causes conflicts and poor motivation in
employees.
Consultative leadership/management style
These managers take opinions of other employees before making any organisational
decisions (Church and Waclawski, 2009). Such leaders have good listening skills and ability to
consult other people to involve in decision making process. Organisations which follow this
leadership style have various mechanisms to know about opinions of others like suggestion
boxes, newsletters and team briefing.
Democratic leadership/management style
In this kind of management style, decisional power is given to individuals and team. The
whole team is responsible for the consequences of the decision and implementing that decision.
A democratic manager has a good understanding of decisions made for the project and proper
feedback is conducted (Hood, 2012).
Marks & Spencer follows the consultative management style in their organisation while
making decisions. The managers of M&S consults other people before making decisions. The
final decision is made by leader but it is influences by other employees. For example if the
marketing head wants to launch a new product in the market, then he will consider other
employees before implementing this decision. On the other hand, sometimes M&S uses
democratic style of leadership for taking decisions. Laissez- faire style of management is used in
this organisation where medium level managers are involved in the decision making as they are
experts in some fields.
Various strategies making use of various theories

Management is termed as the collaboration of people for achieving goals and objectives
of the organisation. The management process utilises resources like knowledge and experience,
capital, raw material, employee skills, suppliers and customers (Sorenson, 2009). The main
functions of the management are planning, organising, leading and controlling. The management
practices in a business environment require various theories to be applied in the organisation.
According to the career policies of M&S, the managers and leaders of this company focuses on
rewards, benefits, incentives and perks given to employees. M&S offers two types of benefits to
it's employees: financial rewards and trainings to increase their capabilities. The motivational
theory adopted by M&S is Theory X and Theory Y which was given by Mc Gregor in the year
1960. According to this theory, the workers are categorised into two groups in context of
motivating them-
Theory X
Such employees are generally not dedicated towards their work and they require money
for motivation. The managers and leaders provide rewards and financial incentives to such
workers for motivating them.
Theory Y
The employees of this category are involved and satisfied in the organisation. Mangers
provide appropriate trainings to such employees for increasing their skills and abilities.
The main objective of both the categories is to increase the performance of employees
and motivate them to work hard towards achieving the goals and objectives of the company in
given time frame.
3. Analyse how above have been achieved or implemented by this firm giving suitable examples
It is essential for a multinational company like Marks & Spencer to apply appropriate
management and leadership style in the organisation to achieve goals and objectives in given
time period (Zhu, Chew and Spangler, 2010). A good and effective management style is
important for sustaining in the market and increase competitive advantage. Marks & Spencer
adopts a bureaucratic style of management to achieve goals and objectives of the project.
Managers of this firm provide a clear vision of accomplishing tasks and jobs assigned to the
employees. The managers and leaders of M&S follows theory X and theory Y in making
organisational decisions. If there are two workers in this firm, one who is dedicated towards
working hard and attaining the goals of the organisation and on the other side there is an

employee who is less dedicated towards work but he wants to earn more money. In such cases
managers of M&S initiate skill trainings to the first category of employees and workers who
need money are given rewards and financial incentives for working better and achieving their
task in given time frame. In both the cases company is benefited as it is able to perform well and
accomplish goals and objectives and profits are maximised. Consultative style of leadership and
management is adopted by managers and leaders of M&S. They consider suggestions and
opinions of other employees in making decisions. Consultative managers have the ability to
consult other people and make effective decisions for the organisation. There are suggestion
boxes and team briefs at M&S workplace to know the opinions of other workers. Sometimes
leaders of M&S uses democratic style of leadership in which members of team or a particular
group have the power to make decisions. Moreover, M&S also experience Laissez-faire
leadership which is also known as delegative leadership. In this kind of leadership, managers and
leaders give power of decision making to a group of members. This leadership style helps the
company for motivating employees with high skills and expertise. This is very effective for the
company if the leader gives information and material at the beginning of the project. For
example a delegative leader of M&S will excel in field of designing products. As members of
team are well trained and creative, management of tasks is easier.
4. Recommendations as an improvement (the proposed leadership styles, management practices
and the various strategies that can be undertaken by this firm based on this research)
The leaders and leadership skills are essential factors for the growth of the company.
Leadership is the process of influencing behaviour of individuals in order to make them achieve
goals and objectives of the organisation (Sorenson, 2009). A leader must have the ability to
maintain healthy interpersonal relationships with employees and subordinates to make them
achieve goals and objectives of the company. It is recommended for the managers and leaders of
M&S to posses various qualities listed below-
Personality- The leader of M&S must have pleasant personality. He must be friendly
with employees as well as he should be authoritative in order to influence others to work hard.
Knowledge- The leaders of M&S should have appropriate knowledge in order to help
their subordinates in doing their job in right manner.

Integrity- A good leader or manager should posses high level of honesty and integrity.
The leaders of M&S must judge on the basis of facts and logics, he should not take biased
decisions.
Communication skills- The leader of M&S should be a good communicator to express
his views, ideas, policies, procedures and thoughts to workers for completing tasks and projects.
Intelligence- The managers and leaders of M&S must be intelligent to evaluate the pros
and cons of different business situations and make decisions accordingly.
Motivational Skills- M&S leaders should be effective motivators so that they can
influence and support other employees to work hard and achieve the organisational goals in
specified time frame.
Social Skills- The manager of M&S must posses a sense of accountability and
responsibility as manager has a higher power to take decision for accomplishing several tasks.
Decisive skills- The manager of M&S must be good at making effective decisions. The
major role a leader plays in the organisation is taking the best decision for the business.
It is recommended for the leaders and managers of M&S to adopt a single leadership or
management style in decision making process. At present scenario, Marks & Spencer follows
three type of leadership styles including laissez-faire, democratic and consultative. The managers
and leaders selects the leadership style to be used on the basis of different business situations. It
is time consuming and decreases productivity of the company (Long and et. al., 2012). It is
necessary for this firm to adopt any one of the leadership style to manage and make
organisational decisions. This will enhance brand image and efficiency of the organisation.
In addition to this it is recommended for M&S to implement other motivational theories
like Vroom's expectancy theory that helps in increasing the efforts of employees in achieving
organisational goals and objectives. This theory maintains a proper balance between offering of
financial incentives and setting of clear performance standards.
CONCLUSION
From the above specified report it is analysed that a proper leadership and management
style is adopted by multinational organisations to take effective decisions for organisation. This
helps in increasing the productivity and efficiency of the company and maximising profits. The
leaders and managers of the organisations adopts various leadership styles like democratic,
autocratic, laissez-faire and consultative type of leadership or management style. There are

different motivational theories and management theories followed in the organisation in order to
take the best decisions for the company and make profits in business. Such theories are theory X
and theory Y, contingency theory, Vroom's expectancy theory, etc. A leader of the company
should posses specific characteristics like decisive skills, knowledge, abilities, motivational
skills, integrity and communication skills.
References
Books and Journals
Amagoh, F., 2019. Leadership development and leadership effectiveness. Management Decision.
47(6). pp.989-999.
Ardichvili, A., Cardozo, R. N. and Gasparishvili, A., 2018. Leadership styles and management
practices of Russian entrepreneurs: Implications for transferability of Western HRD
interventions. Human Resource Development Quarterly. 9(2). pp.145-155.
Chen, C. C. and Lee, Y. T., 2018. Leadership and management in China: Philosophies, theories,
and practices.
Church, A. H. and Waclawski, J., 2009. The Impact of Leadership Style on Global Management
Practices 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 29(7). pp.1416-1443.
Conger, J. A., 2018. Leadership: The art of empowering others. Academy of Management
Perspectives. 3(1). pp.17-24.
Hood, J. N., 2012. The relationship of leadership style and CEO values to ethical practices in
organizations. Journal of Business ethics. 43(4). pp.263-273.
Long, C. S and et. al., 2012. Leadership styles and employees’ turnover intention: Exploratory
study of academic staff in a Malaysian College. World Applied Sciences Journal. 19(4).
pp.575-581.

Sorenson, R. L., 2009. The contribution of leadership style and practices to family and business
success. Family Business Review. 13(3). pp.183-200.
Zhu, W., Chew, I. K. and Spangler, W. D., 2010. CEO transformational leadership and
organizational outcomes: The mediating role of human–capital-enhancing human
resource management. The leadership quarterly. 16(1). pp.39-52.