Analysis of Arcadia Group's Business Model and Leadership Styles

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Context of Business
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Assignment 2..............................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Reference List..........................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Organisations require effective management practices and leadership styles to gain successful
business outcomes. Leadership is a crucial function of every organisation that inspires
employees to achieve goals. A leader supervises subordinates and plays as guiding roles of
them. Management practices include activities that set strategies for a business and
coordinate employee efforts to attain key goals. The study on the context of business shall be
performed by considering Arcadia Group, UK. It shall provide the rationale of selecting this
business along with its summary and history. It shall discuss the management practices,
vision and leadership style of Arcadia Group using various leadership and management
theories.
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Assignment 2
1. A brief history and summary of the business you have selected and the rationale for
your choice
History and Summary
Arcadia Group is a multinational retailing firm located in the United Kingdom. It is the owner
of high street retailers such as Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, and others
(arcadiagroupus.com, 2019). It was established in 2002. Arcadia deals with products
including shoes, clothing and other accessories. It has more than 2,500 outlets operating in
the country. More than 22,000 employees are working under the Arcadia Group. The firm has
carried out a strategy in 2000 namely “BrandMax”. It closed the underperforming brands
under this strategy. Taveta Investment has bought this firm in 2002. The firm became a
private company in 2002. As of 2018, it has become one of the best-loved fashion brands in
the UK. It has succeeded in expanding its retail business in the national and international
level. Recently, it has opened branches in Las Vegas, Los Angles, New York, Chicago and
others. It has started a franchise business in many countries.
Rationale
Arcadia Group has achieved success within the fashion industry in a less period. It attracts
customers by managing personalisation in all brands. Its managerial practices and leadership
development have made it a successful fashion retailer. It uses a common set of KPIs for
attaining highest performance. Arcadia Group manages supply chain complexities with
effective managerial practice. The study has chosen this retail firm, as great examples of
leadership development and management practices can be cited as examples. The firm
delivers powerful solutions to accelerate or increase value by developing a great culture,
talent process, and leadership practice in alignment with integral business outcomes. The
employees of Arcadia Group actively engage across all platforms in order to promote fashion
footprint programs, which show its long-held tradition of close engagement with community
and charity people. Employees, managers and supervisors of Arcadia Group are committed to
the long-term success of the firm. The study can be supported with sufficient examples of
Arcadia’s business and management practice.
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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.
The vision of Arcadia Group reflects its value and help employees to build new abilities and
skills to drive future business growth. The firm aims to develop a passion for understanding
of consumers that makes great products. It loves to incorporate creativity and innovation in
business activities. The future focus of the Arcadia Group is to grow the business and stay
competitive. It encourages employees to build confidence to serve customers, which help in
carrying out the organisational vision. Arcadia’s vision is reflected in dimensions such as
quality, customers, availability, passion, team and integrity (arcadiagroupus.com, 2019).
Early management theory has been followed within Arcadia Group, which indicates that
individuals are responsible for managing, leading and controlling tasks of their own.
Scientific management practice advocates principles such as work-study, standardisation to
tools, scientific selection and training and others (Hill et al., 2014). The firm practices a
work-study principle that ensures possible and best uses of material and human resources in
carrying out specific projects. It believes that the quality and efficiency of work is linked with
the kind of individuals selected for different jobs. Workers are selected by considering the
attitude, experience and education towards work. As a part of General Administrative
Theory, Arcadia Group adopts following managerial practices.
Meaningful feedback: Employee feedback is the foundation of good managerial practice.
Arcadia Group provides regular and helpful feedback to employees in such a manner that
they get encouragement to learn from their mistakes.
Division of work: Employees are specialised in different areas of skills and knowledge.
Distinguishing different levels of expertise within knowledge areas is easy. Arcadia Group
allocates tasks to employees as per the area in which they have specialised knowledge.
Personal and professional development options support in determining the specialised
knowledge area of employees.
Remuneration: Productivity and motivation are close to each other, and both are essential for
the smooth running of business (Waring, 2016). Arcadia believes in keeping employees
motivated by giving two types of remuneration namely monetary and non-monetary.
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Equity: The practice of equity is the core value of Arcadia Group. Team members are treated
equally and kindly. Managers treat employees impartially and fairly while supervising them.
Initiative: The Company allows employees to express ideas. This encourages employee
involvement and interest that creates extra value for it (Hayes, 2018). Employee initiative is a
great strength and competitive advantage for the firm.
Transformational and transactional leadership styles are being used within the Arcadia
Group. Transformational leaders coach followers and empower them for future workplace
challenges and uncertainties (McCleskey, 2014). They motivate followers to work for the
success and reputation of the firm by ignoring self-interest. They ensure positive
development among employees and encourage them to grab opportunity given through on-
going professional development options. Transformational leaders are responsible for
exemplifying moral standard within Arcadia and encourage others to follow those standards.
The leadership style fosters a work environment full of standards, core values and ethical
practices. The Company culture encourages employees to shift from an attitude of self-
interest to develop an attitude of working for common interest. Cooperation, authenticity and
open communication are the core of transformational leadership that is followed within
Arcadia Group.
Leaders of Arcadia Group practice transactional leadership style, when the business requires
short-term planning. The style aims to motivate employees through appealing self-interest of
employees. Leaders used to apply systems of recognition or punishment to motivate
employees (Odumeru and Ogbonna, 2013). The exchange between leaders and followers take
place to fulfil routine performance. If followers do as per leaders’ wish, they get the reward
that motivates them for further achievement. If they do not do as per leaders’ wish, they have
to follow the punishment. The exchanges between leaders and followers involve four
dimensions such as active management, passive management, contingent rewards and others.
Leaders using transactional leadership style link goals to clarify expectations and set rewards.
They set SMART goals to enable employees to understand their role in different projects.
Such leaders are strict in their actions and intervene only when employees do not meet the
standards. They use punishment in response to the unacceptable performance.
With the application of transactional leadership for short-term goals, the firm has achieved
productivity. For example, Arcadia Group wants to launch a marketing campaign
successfully on its new fashion brands. Transactional leadership behaviour works well in
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such cases, as the firm develops a system of incentives and rewards to motivate employees to
demonstrate their ideas for a new campaign.
3. Analyse how the above has been achieved or implemented by your selected company
with specific examples
Arcadia Group is able to implement a structured administrative setting with application of
classical management theory. It is strict about the standard, quality and excellence of
services. It develops familiarity and practice among the team members. In Arcadia, each is
assigned with an equal amount of tasks and responsibilities. This does not put pressure on a
single individual or team. It limits the authority and discipline up to a certain level for which
staff are motivated to take initiatives to add extra value to the fashion brands. The firm set the
performance indicator high and challenging to enable employees to attain the best as per
industry standard.
The firm has a clear organisational structure that demonstrates three different management
levels. Each level has clear responsibilities and objectives. Employees know who to report
concerning their work. The top management is board executives, who identify the long-term
needs of the business and develop strategies. They convey the same to middle-level
management, who develop a plan for strategy execution (Waring, 2016). Employees execute
the strategies with proper guidance from their supervisors and managers.
Transformational leadership has created a vision achieving quality and excellence. The
leaders are clear about the guiding principle and encourage employees to acquire an in-depth
understanding of the individual role (Odumeru and Ogbonna, 2013). They give voice to
organisational values authentically and clearly. They try to change things and create
something that has not created great value before. For example, Arcadia developed a strategy
to close the sale of underperforming brands in 2002. Employees have succeeded in executing
this practice by working under transformational leaders. They were inspired and motivated to
execute the strategy without hampering image of well-performed brands.
Richard DeVaughn, the CEO of Arcadia Group, has a transformational leadership style. He
aligns technology and product strategies with corporate strategies for which employees do not
confuse while executing these strategies. Strategic change management and organisational
transformation are two major principles of his leadership style that embraces innovation in
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technology, products and process (Arcadiagroupintl.com, 2019). He emphasises on diversity
training that encourages employees to adapt with people from different cultures.
Transactional leadership is successfully implemented within the Arcadia Group based on
punishment and rewards. For example, the firm offers genuine career development, staff
discounts and plenty of rewards to motivate employees so that they can contribute towards
organisational growth and success (Arcadiagroup.co.uk, 2019). Leaders monitor followers in
order to enforce rewards, rules and punishment. They act as the catalysts for change and
growth within Arcadia Group. They tend to provide employees with constructive and regular
feedback concerning followers’ performance. This allows team members to improve output
to acquire better reinforcement and feedback.
4. What could be your recommendations as an improvement?
Arcadia Group should adopt situational leadership as an improved leadership style. The
recommended style identifies the requirement for organisational flexibility. Every individual
has different perspectives, experiences and views that create workplace diversity. Withthe
implementation of situational leadership, people learn to become flexible as per situational
demands (Thompson and Glasø, 2015). A comfortable work environment can be created
through adoption of situational leadership that makes employees happy and motivated.
Situational leaders aim to fulfil short-term needs, which allow them to identify the
development needs of employees.
Arcadia Group should set benchmarks for employees against their performance. It would be
easy to compare individual performance with others. Monitoring employee performance shall
enable Arcadia Group to understand the performance gaps of employees and design work-
specific training for them. Communication is the key to every managerial practice. The firm
should establish an open communication system, where employees can discuss their problems
and needs with senior executives. This shall promote the culture of trust, honesty and
openness within the firm. The firm should incorporate emotional intelligence in the
workplace to develop self-management, self-awareness, and empathy behaviour within
employees. Employees shall develop the ability to get motivated through personal reasons or
goals and control their emotions to tackle challenges without getting disturbed.
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Conclusion
With the progression of the report, it is found that Arcadia Group has earned success in the
retail fashion industry due to the adoption of effective managerial strategies, leadership
practice and management theory. Transactional and transformational leadership styles are
implemented while the firm requires a change and aims to execute short-term plans. The firm
implements certain principles of classical management theory to ensure equality, diversity, a
division of work and scientific training and selection in the workplace. The study has
recommended Arcadia to adopt situational leadership that accounts for different
developmental phases as per situational requirements. The firm may incorporate emotional
intelligence to make employees independent for dealing with workplace issues.
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Reference List
Arcadiagroup.co.uk. (2019). Life at Arcadia - Arcadia . [online] Available at:
https://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/careers/head-office [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].
Arcadiagroupintl.com. 2019. The Arcadia Group International LLC. [online] Available at:
http://www.arcadiagroupintl.com/leadership.php [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].
arcadiagroupus.com. 2019. Arcadia | Vision & Values. [online] Available at:
https://www.arcadiacomp.com/vision-values [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].
arcadiagroupus.com. 2019. leader and organizational development — ARCADIA GROUP.
[online] Available at: http://www.arcadiagroupus.com/leadership [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].
Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: Theory & cases:
An integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and
leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
Odumeru, J.A. and Ogbonna, I.G., 2013. Transformational vs. transactional leadership
theories: Evidence in literature. International Review of Management and Business
Research, 2(2), p.355.
Thompson, G. and Glasø, L., 2015. Situational leadership theory: a test from three
perspectives. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(5), pp.527-544.
Waring, S.P., 2016. Taylorism transformed: Scientific management theory since 1945. UNC
Press Books.
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