Analysis of Leadership and Management Styles at Arcadia Group Limited

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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN
ARCADIA GROUP LIMITED
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT INARCADIA GROUP LIMITED
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1. Summary of business and history of the company with the rationale.........................................3
2. Vision, Leadership style and management practice in Arcadia group........................................4
Management theories.......................................................................................................................7
3. Implementing leadership styles and theories in Arcadia Group with examples..........................8
4. Recommendation.........................................................................................................................9
Leadership style...............................................................................................................................9
Management practice.......................................................................................................................9
Other strategies were undertaken by the Arcadia group................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT INARCADIA GROUP LIMITED
Introduction
Management and leadership styles are two synonymous things, which help the managers to act
as a leader in the workplace and ensure that the objectives of the organization are fulfilled. It
tends to cover how a manager plans to organize the work and deal with the employees and the
team members. The key components consist of attitudes and behaviors of the concerned people.
Further, the leadership styles will allow the managers to work as a leader. Based on this, the
research shall shed light on the management and leadership styles. Arcadia group, a leading
retailing is taken as the case study for further reference.
1. Summary of business and history of the company with the rationale
Arcadia group is considered as the major British multinational retailing company who are
conducting business all over the world. The company is headquartered in London, United
Kingdom. Some of the undertakings of the Arcadia group are high street clothing retailer,
Dorothy Perkins, and various brands which tend to sell line from the other groups as well.
Arcadia group owns 2500 outlets in the UK market, various concession markets in various UK
departments, which is helping them to serve several hundreds of franchise in other countries too
(Arcadiagroup.co.uk. 2019). This is happening due to the backing of 22,000 employees who are
working for them and helping them to earn stable revenue.
Arcadia group was founded in the year 1903 by an 18-year-old Lithuanian immigrant Montague
Burton. Initially, the company was focusing on manufacturing men’s clothing only and shifted
mindset of the people from traditional clothing to outfits that are more fashionable. This made
the company shift from Chesterfield to Leeds in1910 (ARCADIA GROUP. 2019). This made a
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT INARCADIA GROUP LIMITED
list them in the London Stock Exchange in 1929 which helped them to open 400 stores, factories,
and mills. Further, in 1990s several and acquisition took place which helped Arcadia group to
prosper in the global retail market.
Rationale
Arcadia group being one of the biggest retailing group in the UK and in the international market,
therefore it will be very much easy o undertake a research on the company. The leadership style
and the management practices can be easily analyzed both in terms of international and in
domestic markets. Further, the business strategies can be easily analyzed with various data.
2. Vision, Leadership style and management practice in Arcadia group
Vision
The “why” behind the Arcadia Difference that is, what makes Arcadia different from other
value-added reseller and managed supply chain solutions providers in the fields of IT/computer
peripherals, aerospace/aircraft components and parts, electronic components, or wiring/cabling,
and positioned to continuously strive closer to its company vision -- is the philosophy, attitude,
and culture of Arcadia. They are encompassed in Arcadia's company vision and values.
Leadership styles
It can be observed that the Arcadia group tends to deliver a powerful solution for increasing and
accelerating the development of the leaders, their talent process, culture and aligning the
organizational objectives in a better manner. They have firm believe that improving the people
helps in improving the company. Peter M. Senge says, “Business and human endeavors are
systems. We tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system ... and wonder why our
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deepest problems never get solved”. This made them develop an approach or the leadership style,
which is known as three-phase development style that is more of a holistic approach for moving
the leaders and the organization towards a better performance level.
The three layers of leadership are:
Layers Explanation
Awareness - Clarifying business-related outcomes
- Assessing knowledge, skills, and
behaviors with the current mindset
- Bridging the gap between the production
and performance mindset
- Development of routine for a sustainable
mindset (Hu et al., 2016)
Mastery - Exercising complete control over the
mindset for judging weakness
- Expanding the ability of the leaders to
influence negotiation power
- Turning the efforts into instincts for
achieving the goals
Transformation - Development of mindset without any
limit for knowing self in the deepest
manner
- Putting all the context for operating the
business functions in the most tactical
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manner
Table 1: Leadership style
Source: Created by the author
Management practice
It can be observed that the management function is being handled by over a thousand employees.
They help in the growth of the company (Anderson and Sun, 2017). The strategy is divided into
various departments, which are explained below:
Finance
This team helps the managers effectively through the preparation of budget, forecasting and
trading reports. Further, they maintain the payroll in the most effective way (Arcadiagroup.co.uk.
2019).
Human resource
The specialist HR team is responsible for bringing out the best from the recruited employees and
placing them at the right place. This team is also responsible for talent acquisition, rewarding
them and helping in organizational development. Further, to get fresh talents, the HR team
conducts career fairs on a regular basis by creating drive over social media.
Technology
The technology is mainly based on London and Leeds. This team apart from supporting the IT
part, they help in handling the big projects, which will help Arcadia group o grow in the near
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future. They are responsible for making changes in the online systems, which is allowing
customers with a flexibility in shopping that takes place in online sites (Arcadiagroup.co.uk.
2019).
Supply chain
The supply chain team tends to handle over 130 million items across the 50 countries they are
operating. 1500 separate employees are employed to control the supply chain with various hubs
at Singapore and the USA. Further, 900 international outlets are being handled by them each
year.
Legal
The legal team helps in providing various legal advices within a broad spectrum. They are
engaged in negotiating commercial contracts and protecting the intellectual property of the
company. Thus, it helps in maintaining and taking care of the various legal activities in the most
effective manner (Waring, 2016).
Management theories
The Arcadia group tends to follow the system management theory, which offers them an
alternative approach to the planning and management of the organization. They have
successfully adopted the theory where the interrelation between the subsystems of the
departments has been raised quite effectively. They are terming the employees as one of the
success factors for the company, which is quite evident in the leadership styles they are
following. This is making the managers to evaluate patterns and events for the company so that
the best management practice can be undertaken. Other crucial things like recruitment, looking
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after the legal aspect is done by putting great efforts and all the departments maintain a healthy
and cordial relationship with other departments too. In this way, they are able to collaborate with
different programs so that the Arcadia group can work in a collaborative way rather than an
isolated unit (Petronio, 2017).
3. Implementing leadership styles and theories in Arcadia Group with examples
As Arcadia Group Limited is a large multinational retail company in UK, its leadership has
naturally implemented a range of theories and different styles in its working procedure. For
instance, the higher management of Arcadia Group utilise the transactional style of leadership, as
it allows them to regulate the activities of the different organizational departments, such as the
retail stores, the warehouses and inventory, the sales and marketing departments and many
others. By coordinating the activities of the departments in a systematic manner with proper
rewards for efficient performance, they managed to achieve an online sales hike of
approximately 11.5% in 2018 (Zaabi, Singh and Ajmal 2017). On the other hand, their lower
level managers, especially their store managers, takes the approach of transformational
leadership, as it allows them to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their subordinate
employees, and provide valuable suggestions to them in order to improve their job expertise in
the retail stores.
Moreover, the management of Arcadia Group utilise various leadership theories in order to
optimize the quality of their leadership. Their store managers implement the path-goal theory in
their leadership activity, so they always take the best-suited approach for a retail store, and this
allows the store managers of Arcadia Group to guide their subordinate employees towards the
short-term sales target set for that store. However,Adogbo, Kolo and Nzekwe (2017) argued that
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these managers also utilise the situational and contingency leadership model, adapting
themselves to the various types of situations arising in a retail store environment, and adjusting
their leadership styles accordingly. This has benefitted Arcadia Group greatly, as the average
sales in their retail outlets has increased by approximately 24% within the years 2012-17, which
is a testament to the success of their leadership (Nienaber and Svensson, 2017). However, the
qualities of their successful leaders are not limited to just these, as they see the existing business
problems as a chance of further improvement. They are very passionate about their job in
Arcadia Group, and they always aim to attain long-term goals by maintaining a culture of trust
and excellence among the employees, and effectively projecting those goals before them. Their
store managers lead their retail stores with a mentality of business owner, which allows their
subordinate employees to enhance their positive points, and produce value in their jobs.
4. Recommendation
Below are some recommendations to improve the leadership and management practices in the
Arcadia group. These are:
Leadership style
The recommendations are:
- The management team needs to have a clear and shared vision for the team. This will
allow them to follow clear paths and understand the goals easily
- The leaders of the Arcadia group should know the strength of the team which will help in
boosting the skills of the employees
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- Leaders should have good morals and values so that actions can be taken easily. This will
increase the success level for the leaders who will further help in developing key
leadership skills
Management practice
The recommendations are:
- The management should design economic incentives, which will allow employees of all
level to benefit and motivate themselves. This shall fulfill the expectation level of the
employees
- The management should provide effective and meaningful feedback on a regular basis so
that problems in production and operational level could be eradicated. These feedbacks
will encourage the employee more and build an atmosphere, which will be more and
more positive in nature.
- The management should respect employees for what they are doing. This acts as a
powerful motivator for the employees to succeed in the near future.
- Lastly, the management should ensure that every employee receives adequate training.
The stress should be given to a middle manager who acts as a link between the leaders
and the employees.
Other strategies were undertaken by the Arcadia group
It can be observed that an organization that is growing will continue to grow and sustain. Below
are some recommendations that the Arcadia group needs to follow:
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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT INARCADIA GROUP LIMITED
- Arcadia group needs to develop in-depth approach so that strategic plans can be
formulated easily. For this action plan is required which will help in the start-up phase
- Information regarding the work progress needs to be gathered in an effective manner
through a narrative description (Arnold et al., 2015). For this, internal analysis can be
carried on
- After gathering the required information, decisions should be made which will help in
determining the current status of the organization
- Lastly, after taking the decision, a draft plan can be prepared which shall outline all the
priorities that the organization needs to follow.
Conclusion
The above report has evaluated the various styles and approaches of leadership and management,
and the development of business strategies. Besides, it identifies the policies that protect the
interests of the stakeholders in a changing business environment of Arcadia Group. Further,
appropriate recommendations have been made for the design and development of Arcadia Group
has been discussed in the context of its leadership and management. It has been seen that they
utilise various leadership and management styles in different stages of their organisation, which
allows Arcadia Group to manage their employees’ performances and organizational efficiency.
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References
Adogbo, K.J., Kolo, B.A. and Nzekwe, K.C.L., 2017. Assessment of organisational leadership
for knowledge management practice in the Nigerian construction industry. Journal of
Construction Project Management and Innovation, 7(Supplement 1), pp.1977-1994.
Anderson, M.H. and Sun, P.Y., 2017. Reviewing leadership styles: Overlaps and the need for a
new ‘full‐range’theory. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(1), pp.76-96.
ARCADIA GROUP. (2019). leader and organizational development — ARCADIA GROUP.
[online] Available at: http://www.arcadiagroupus.com/leadership [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
Arcadiagroup.co.uk. (2019). Group Functions - Arcadia. [online] Available
at: https://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/about-arcadia/group-functions[Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
Arnold, K.A., Connelly, C.E., Walsh, M.M. and Martin Ginis, K.A., 2015. Leadership styles,
emotion regulation, and burnout. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(4), p.481.
Hu, Y.Y., Parker, S.H., Lipsitz, S.R., Arriaga, A.F., Peyre, S.E., Corso, K.A., Roth, E.M., Yule,
S.J. and Greenberg, C.C., 2016. Surgeons' leadership styles and team behavior in the operating
room. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 222(1), pp.41-51.
Nienaber, H. and Svensson, G., 2017. Organisational performance loop through teleological
action-leadership, management and other staff. International Journal of Corporate Strategy and
Social Responsibility, 1(3), pp.266-288.
Petronio, S., 2017. Communication privacy management theory: Understanding families.
In Engaging theories in family communication (pp. 107-117). Routledge.
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