Understanding Organisation and the Role of Human Resources

This report explores the understanding of organization and the role of human resources, focusing on M&S. It discusses the products and services offered by M&S, identifies its main customers, and examines the external factors impacting its activities. It also analyzes the structure of M&S, the functioning of different departments, and the HR activities that support the organization's strategy. Additionally, it explores the ways in which HR professionals support line managers and their staff.

Understanding Organisation
and the Role of human
resources

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
M&S Products and service offer's to its customers.....................................................................3
Identification of main customer's for M&S.................................................................................3
Purpose and goal..........................................................................................................................4
External factors impacts on M&S activity...................................................................................4
Structure of Marks and Spencer...................................................................................................5
Together functioning of different departments to optimize performance in M&S......................6
Culture identification of M&S and 2 ways to affect operations of the organization...................6
3 HR activities which support the organization's strategy...........................................................7
3 ways HR professionals support line managers and their staff..................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Understanding organization and role of human resource is a process to know the
organization more effectively. As human resource of any organization is the asset as they are
continuously working to achieve goals and objectives of organization. The human resource
focuses on different functions in the business. M&S is a international retailer of clothes, food and
home products having its headquarter in London (Zhang and et.al., 2018). This report will
evaluate the production commodities and services that are offered by M&S to its buyers. Then it
will identify the main customers, purpose and goal of M&S. Further it will determine the
external factors affecting the business activities, structure of its organization with its functions.
The work of different department to work together for better result , culture of M&S with ways
affecting operation than it will evaluate the human resources activities which support the
organization strategy and ways of human resource professional which are supporting line
management and employees.
MAIN BODY
M&S Products and service offer's to its customers
Marks and Spencer is a multinational company of Britain and dealing in retail sector. The
company is producing products are basically of clothing, footwear's, food products and product
used at home are sale by M&S in the international market. Majorly company is more emphasis
on quality of product which are distributed by the company (Teolis, and et.al., 2017). The
company have also tried to offer the products at most affordable price to its potential customers.
M&S make use of synthetic fibre in 1957, company again came with variety in systematic fibre
called courtelle which is launched in 1960 (Fields, and et.al., 2017). The brand also started
selling its own like aluminium foil and washing powder in 1972 the products are sold under the
hand of sub-branding of house-care. M&S is having limited collection of in the clothing of kids,
posh clothes, Party wear, shoes collection, designer clothings in the unisex category. The food
and home product are highly safe and packed in very safe manner.
Identification of main customer's for M&S
The company is mainly producing the clothing and food products in the international market, so
they prefer those buyers who are having comparatively high buying power in the market. The
core and focused customers are under the age group of 33 to 55 yr in both women and men. The

company is trying to measure the range of customer's before their production process. M&S is
regularly in the practise to identify the customer in the global market. They are checking the
prefers of buyer's so that they can produce the goods and services according to that. After the
analysis of market and identification of their age group to produce the goods so the company
produce its goods on the basis of that study.
Purpose and goal
The main purpose of M&S is to provide a affordable product and services at affordable price and
maximize its profit in the international market. The company trying to rank on top in retail
sector.
External factors impacts on M&S activity
M&S is a multinational firm that is in retail sector and the company have to face various
extrinsic issues that will affect the activities of Marks and Spencer.
Political factor: As the M&S is having its vital presence in different countries with a big number
of stores all over globe. The company earlier using advantage of large European market as the
import and exports are being easy there are fewer duties and expense to export the products but
as the Britain Exit from EU market is has totally affected the entire market. After the Brexit rules
and regulations have changed totally government have posed different import duties on UK to
export their product with this practise of United Kingdom the country and its companies are
facing number of issues to sale it product in EU market. Mainly the Taxes and stability of
political parties are affecting the activities of M&S and its profit.
Economic Factors : The economic elements are also affecting the activities and style in M&S. If
the country is facing inflation rate it will affect the style of operation of M&S and its prices of
goods and services. If the economy is not well and having issues like interest rate in the economy
is high and economic growth is not in a good flow then it will ultimately affect the performance
and way of activities in the economy (Håkansson and Östberg, 2017). In such situations the
company try to give the employment opportunities and follow the CSR so that more people are
attracted towards the company and its value will increase in the mind of its customer's.
Social Factors : Marks and Spenser activities can be affected by society because if the taste and
preference of society is not in positive towards the company then they will shift to competitive
brands as the M&S is not changing its product according to preference of customer. As if the
Asda one of competitive of M&S have cheaper price and better quality in its products then they

the customer's of M&S will shift to Asda because of this reason. The buyer aim to get a better
quality at a affordable price, so they are trying the same.
Technology Factors : the technology is the main component these days because the company
will gain a comparative benefits and disadvantages accordingly. M&S is proclaimed technology
transformation to modified to digital technique. The company will reach more customers with
this enhancement (Masri and Abdulla, 2018).
Structure of Marks and Spencer
The structure followed by the Marks and Spencer, a multinational retailer company
enlarge the concept of hierarchical structure and their effectiveness in the organization. In the
past previous years, the company's main strategy has been redefined to focus more on the
innovation and customer service quality due to high level of competition within the market
space. Due to these new objectives, the institution has redefined its tall structure. Because of
different management levels involved in decision-making process of the organization, a tall
structure within the organization does not meet the goals and objectives with regard to its
competitors. Moreover, it hampers the innovation part of the business as only the top
management levels participates in decision-making processes. As a result, the company had to
reconstruct its organizational structure (Barham, 2016).
Now, company follows flatter structure which majorly includes the company secretary,
marketing managers, finance department managers, Human resource managers, IT directors and
non-executive directors. Due to this structure the contact among the employees become more
direct which helps in developing their knowledge and resolve concerns of customer's needs and
behaviour. After the reconstruction of structure of the Marks and Spencer, the company hires
various employees and offered them specific roles which is declared inside the flat pyramid. In
the new structure the levels of management are limited in order to assist the decision-making and
troubleshooting process (Bizzi, 2020). Following this particular structure, the company is able to
provide quick responses to innovations without taking risk towards the image of the organization
and due to which it highly fits to achieve goals and objectives of the institution. The recent
challenge of the company is to maintain the motivational spirit of the employees that generated
after the structure reconstruction.

Together functioning of different departments to optimize performance in M&S
There are four main business functions in any organization on which the whole business
activities depends (Castillo, 2017). The functions are marketing, financial management,
personnel management and operational management. To achieve maximum targets of sales and
profits by the managers of M&S, they have to market its products and services. For running
effective business, company should take care of its employees as they are the key resource of
running the business. Personnel managers or human resource managers deals with the employees
training, recruitment, compensation and rewards for their performances. Operational department
make sure the company about the efficient and effective usage of resources and the financial
department deals with the distribution of funds within the company.
The interrelationship among the departments of M&S are, when the company wants to
expand to a new market space, then the marketing manager of M&S do marketing research. For
the marketing research the manager requires more human resources to complete its task
efficiently and to promote its strategies. For such activity they will ask the human resource
department to provide support. After that, the action of human resource department of Mark and
Spencer occurs in which they recruit new employees in order to complete marketing department
tasks. For recruiting new employees the human resource managers of M&S involves the
financial departments to discuss the cost incurred. At last, the finance department involves the
operations team to make sure that the funds are efficiently used by both the teams.
Culture identification of M&S and 2 ways to affect operations of the organization
As the company incorporate flat pyramid structure in its organization, the company
adopts the role culture which depicts that each and every employee has a clear role towards the
achievement of goals and objectives of the administration. This culture helps the employees to
feel more motivated and important to the organization as the roles are defined individually. The
chosen structure effects the organizational culture. Friendly environment and open
communication kind of culture adopts by the M&S due to which the employees feel free to share
their views with each other and these kinds of culture also helps in reducing conflicts within the
system. The openness in sharing views results in more satisfied employees in Mark and Spencer.
The overall culture of the organization creates the kind of environment which influences the long

term vision of the institution and dictates the policies and procedures which helps in achieving
goals and objectives by the employees of M&S (Wang , 2018).
3 HR activities which support the organization's strategy
The Mark and Spencer HR managers helps in achieving organizational strategies
and long term objectives. The marketing strategy of M&S has been achieved by using print
media, mobile ads and social media. The role of HR managers to achieve this strategy is the
learning and development function of the organization due to which they trained the employees
regarding the innovations and technological changes adopted by the company with regard to
maintain its position in the market space.
Recruitment and selection process helps the M&S in recruiting the right kind of
employees at right position which effects the cost leadership strategy of M&S. Due to this
particular strategy the company is able to achieve its long term and short term goals and
objectives of the company with optimum and effective utilization of resources.
With the help of industrial relations, the M&S is able to achieve its innovative product
and service strategies. Industrial relations helps in building and maintaining healthy relationship
among employees of team-mates or even different teams in order to fulfil the common goals of
the Mark and Spencer.
3 ways HR professionals support line managers and their staff
HR managers provide guidance in development of policies and procedures within the
organization that are concerned with effective employee management. This includes the
development of employee involvement policies which helps in formulation of flexible working
patterns which satisfies the employees of Mark and Spencer. HR managers provide technical
advice regarding regulation in the field of employment laws helps the recruitment process
management of employees in order to avoid discrimination and maintaining transparency in the
recruitment process. Another way is that the HR managers of M&S help their line managers and
staff in order to manage practical issues with the help of training and development programs.
Lastly, with the help of career development opportunities the HR professionals provide help to
the line managers and the staff employees in order to feel the employees more motivated and
work towards the completion of goals and objectives of the company (Mauro , 2018).

CONCLUSION
This report concludes that the human resource play a great role in M&S organisation.
They are asset for the company and try to achieve the objectives effectively. The company is
producing its products according to the study of market men, women and kid are basically the
market target. The company focused on aged group of 35 to 55 as main customer's. The purpose
and goal of company is to maximize the profit with provide quality of product. The external
factor are affective M&S with different aspects. Human resource have a various activities to
support the approach of company.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Barham, and et.al., 2016. The roles of risk and ambiguity in technology adoption. Journal of
Economic Behavior & Organization. 97. pp.204-218.
Bizzi, L., 2020. Should HR managers allow employees to use social media at work? Behavioral
and motivational outcomes of employee blogging. The International Journal of Human
Resource Management. 31(10). pp.1285-1312.
Castillo, J., 2017. The relationship between big five personality traits, customer empowerment
and customer satisfaction in the retail industry. Journal of Business and Retail
Management Research (JBRMR). 11(2).
Chan, H.K., He, H. and Wang, W.Y., 2018. Green marketing and its impact on supply chain
management in industrial markets. Industrial Marketing Management. 41(4). pp.557-
562.
De Mauro, and et.al., 2018. Human resources for Big Data professions: A systematic
classification of job roles and required skill sets. Information Processing &
Management. 54(5). pp.807-817.
Fields, and et.al., 2017. Structural changes in cartilage and collagen studied by high temperature
R aman spectroscopy. Biopolymers. 107(6). p.e23017.
Håkansson, H. and Östberg, C., 2017. Industrial marketing: an organizational problem?.
Industrial marketing management. 4(2-3). pp.113-123.Barham, and et.al., 2014. The
roles of risk and ambiguity in technology adoption. Journal of Economic Behavior &
Organization. 97. pp.204-218.
Masri, H. and Abdulla, Y., 2018. A multiple objective stochastic programming model for
working capital management. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 131.
pp.141-146.
Teolis, and et.al., 2017. Enceladus plume structure and time variability: comparison of Cassini
observations. Astrobiology. 17(9). pp.926-940.
Zhang, and et.al., 2018. Eco-labeling and retailer pricing strategies: The UK haddock market.
Sustainability. 10(5). p.1522.
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