Understanding HRM at Marks & Spencer: Structure, Culture, and Training

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Marks & Spencer (M&S). It begins by examining M&S's organizational structure, highlighting the shift from a tall to a flat structure and its influence on employee motivation. The report then delves into the organizational culture that best suits the company, focusing on the role culture and how it impacts recruitment. Furthermore, it explores how the democratic management style at M&S enhances employee motivation and productivity. The report emphasizes the significance of training and development as a core HR function, particularly the use of on-the-job training methods. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and offers recommendations for improving HRM practices at M&S. The report is well-researched and includes references to relevant academic sources and online resources.

Understanding Human
Resource Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
1. Organisational structure of M&S, changes to the structure during history and the way
current structure influences staff motivation...............................................................................1
2. Culture that fits best with company and the way it influences type of people recruited.........1
3. The way management style in company influences employee motivation.............................3
4. Importance of training and development as the primary HR function and the way it is used.3
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS..................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
In today’s era, to have effective human resource management (HRM) in firm is of utmost
importance. Without proper management of people, firms cannot survive with sustainability as to
keep employees happy and satisfied is the key to success (Brewster, 2017). In today’s business
environment where there is intense rivalry among firms, to focus on HRM is crucial for
organisations to remain in competition. In the present report, Marks and Spencer (M&S) is the
chosen firm with reference to which several concepts associated with HRM will be discussed
that is one of leading fashion retail companies in the UK.
MAIN BODY
1. Organisational structure of M&S, changes to the structure during history and the way current
structure influences staff motivation
Recently, management has removed number of layers through delayering and so,
presently, it is having a flat organisational structure where employees are now having more
accountability than before. In the flat structure of organisation, only a few layers of management
are there in which there are different department heads and manager who are responsible for
leading their units (Bratton and Gold, 2017). However, at the top, executive management is
there. There are more than 60,000 employees in company having management roles where they
are leading as well as motivating the teams. Earlier, the organisational structure of M&S was tall
with having many layers of authority while, currently, it is having flat structure in firm as
business was not getting positive results previously. Old structure of company was having a lot
of layers that was creating chaos and confusion as each employee was needed to report many
authorities (Preuss, 2017). The current structure plays a significant role in motivating the staff as
now people are assigned with more responsibilities and accountabilities working in stores and
franchising outlets overseas. Further, they are highly involved in the decision making process
which increases their morale at workplace. As there are less management levels, communication
in between base line employees and higher authorities get improved that results in improving the
motivation of staff (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017).
2. Culture that fits best with company and the way it influences type of people recruited
Organisational culture can be defined as the way in which things are done at workplace
as per unwritten rules by which individual’s and group behaviour gets influenced. According to
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Charles Handy’s model of organisational culture, there are basically four types of cultures being
followed by firm at the workplace which are like:
Figure 1: Charles Handy's Four Classes of Organisational Culture
 Power – Under this culture, power remains in the hands of one leader only and
concentrated among a few people in firm. This kind of culture is entirely based on the
work of employees where the major elements are their performance and success.
 Role – In this culture, people at personal positions play their power accordingly and
possess a strict control over others (Charles Handy’s model of organizational culture,
2018). This culture makes individuals ready to accept the challenges willingly and try
what best they can do to improve the situation.
 Task – Structure of task culture is more of like a matrix where power is in the hands of
those people who have expertise rather with those having favourable positions at
workplace or if they are some strong personalities. However, flexibility and adaptability
are the keys of this kind of organisational culture.
 Person – Main focus in this culture is given on individuals and there is no specific
structure being followed by firm. This culture is all about emphasizing on values and
meeting the employee’s needs to utmost level (Elsmore, 2017).
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Charles
Handy's
Organisational
Culture
Power
Roles
Person
Task

In Marks and Spencer, role culture and person culture are suitable to attain set targets.
But, person culture most of the times makes employees feel that they are more important than
organisation and thus, business has to suffer sometimes. Therefore, role culture would prove to
be the best as by following the same, firm will assign roles to employees as per their
specialisation and interest which will make them accountable for same and by taking ownership
of work, they will perform with highest level of efficiency (Collings, Wood and Szamosi, 2018).
This will lead M&S to attain higher growth and success in market with increased profits and
profitability.
3. The way management style in company influences employee motivation
In Marks and Spencer, democratic management style is being followed which plays a
significant role in empowering the employees. Under this, company provides responsibility to
teams and individuals to participate in the decision making process. By making others allow to
give their thoughts and opinions in important decisions of organisation, management gets
successfully in increasing their morale and they feel recognized at workplace (Bailey and et.al.,
2018). Thus, democratic style of management proves to be highly influential for increasing the
motivation of employees of company which ultimately leads to increased productivity and so as
profits of business. In this, when responsibility to make decisions is given to teams, they become
responsible for results gained as well and therefore, timely feedback on same is taken by the
management. However, it also encourages employees as in case if any deviations are found, they
take initiatives to correct the same by making suitable efforts (Analoui, 2017).
4. Importance of training and development as the primary HR function and the way it is used
In Marks and Spencer, training and development plays a crucial role as firm is having its
operations in many nations other than UK and so, it is facing diversity issue in teams. For the
same, to provide them required training and development is highly important so that they can
work with equal understanding and efficiency. It serves as the primary HR function for M&S as
to render high customer service to retain them for longer duration, employees are needed to be
well trained as well as developed in terms of their current skills, abilities and knowledge (Bell
and et.al., 2017).
The training method which is majorly used by M&S is on-the-job in which mainly
coaching is used by company where it a sales advisor or customer assistant if appointed with a
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department manager who along with running work trains the employees as per improvement
required. In M&S, it is given to improve mainly customer services so as to retain them for longer
span of time. With this, employees gain practical learning as they get real tasks to perform and a
continuous performance review program is conducted simultaneously to measure the actual
performance with set standards (Importance of Training & Development in Organisations,
2018). With this, the firm is enjoying timely and effectually attainment of set goals improving
the performance of employees through developed proficiencies.
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS
It can be concluded from the above report that Marks and Spencer is following flat
organisational structure which is providing lots of benefits to it like reduced chances of chaos
and confusion among workers as well as smooth flow of operations. It has also been assessed
that if company will use role culture in organisation, this will increase the value and recognition
among employees as they will be provided with responsibilities and accountabilities under the
same. Also, M&S uses on-the-job training method majorly which is a good option but if it will
use off-the-job training methods like through e-learning, this will also be advantageous for the
business.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Analoui, F., 2017. The changing patterns of human resource management. Routledge.
Bailey, C. and et.al., 2018. Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.
Bell, B.S. and et.al., 2017. 100 years of training and development research: What we know and
where we should go. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), p.305.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C. and Hegewisch, A. eds., 2017. Policy and practice in European human resource
management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield survey. Taylor & Francis.
Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and corporate strategy.
In Policy and practice in European human resource management (pp. 22-35). Routledge.
Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. Human resource management: A critical
approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.
Elsmore, P., 2017. Organisational Culture: Organisational Change?: Organisational Change?.
Routledge.
Moore, K., McDonald, P. and Bartlett, J., 2017. The social legitimacy of disability inclusive
human resource practices: the case of a large retail organisation. Human Resource
Management Journal, 27(4), pp.514-529.
Preuss, L., 2017. Barriers to innovative CSR: the impacts of organisational learning,
organisational structure and the social embeddedness of the firm. In Innovative CSR (pp.
331-351). Routledge.
Online
Charles Handy’s model of organizational culture. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.jgypk.hu/tamop13e/tananyag_html/sportkultura_eng/charles_handys_model
_of_organisational_culture.html>.
Importance of Training & Development in Organisations. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://husys.com/blogs/importance-of-training-development-in-organizations/>.
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