Analysis of Leadership, Management, and Strategies at Kingfisher Plc

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Kingfisher Plc's leadership and management practices. It begins with a background of the company, highlighting its global presence and diverse brands like B&Q and Castorama, and explains the rationale for selecting Kingfisher for the study. The report then delves into Kingfisher's vision, identifying its participative leadership style, which encourages employee input, and its democratic management style, which values employee suggestions in decision-making. It explores the various strategies employed to motivate employees, including rewards and incentives (both monetary and non-monetary), and the use of groups and teams to foster collaboration and skill development. The report also examines the importance of effective decision-making within the organization. Furthermore, it discusses the implementation of these styles and strategies within Kingfisher, and concludes with recommendations for further improvements, such as enhancing accountability and increasing employee involvement. The report emphasizes the importance of aligning leadership and management practices with organizational goals to foster employee motivation and drive business success.

Context Of Business

INTRODUCTION
Leadership can be defined as the process of motivating or influencing the behaviour of
another individual in the way in which the leader wants from them to. The following assignment
will focus on various aspects which impacts upon the working of the business. The company
chosen for the completion of this assignment is Kingfisher Plc which is a British Multinational
Company which was founded in the year 1982 and is headquartered in London. The following
company is providing various products and services which are related to home improvement
products such as home appliances, tools, home furnishings, hardware and garden supplies. The
assignment will provide a brief introduction of the company and also reflect upon the reason of
its selection. In this assignment, the leadership style, management style and various strategies
used by the company in order to acquire the best work from their employees will be discussed. In
addition to this, the focus will also be made on the implementation and achievement of results by
making use of those strategies, leadership style and management style. Moreover, the discussion
will also provide some recommendations which could be made by the company in order to get
better results from their employees.
MAIN BODY
Background of The Company
Name of the Company: Kingfisher Plc
Background of The Company: The company was first established in the year 1982 as Paternoster
Stores Ltd. And later the name was changed in the year 1983 as Woolworth Holding Plc. The
company was renamed in the year 1989 again as Kingfisher Plc. and continuing since with this
name. The company is largest home improvement retailer in Europe and is the third largest home
improvement retailer in the world. Across Europe the company is having over 1300 stores in tem
countries. In addition to this, the company is also including various brands such as B&Q,
Castorama, Brico Depot and Screwfix. The company is also the third largest commercial
property developer in the United Kingdom.
Rationale
The reason behind the appropriateness of this business for the completion of this assignment is
because of the company is diverse and operating its business at global level. So it will become
easy to gain complete knowledge about the company and its services which will help in
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providing the readers with better and accurate results. Another reason behind the selectin of this
business is because while making improvement in their houses, people make many modifications
related to the improvement at their own and it is not easy for companies to make things
according to the customers so it also impacts upon their satisfaction level (Bell Bryman and
Harley, 2018). So the results of this assignment will also be based on the feedbacks ad reviews
provided by the customers who had made use of their services.
Vision, Leadership Style, Management Style and Strategies Adopted by Kingfisher Plc.
Vision
To provide our customers unequalled technical solutions and unparalleled operational support
through the best professional services and capabilities possible.
Leadership Style Adopted by Kingfisher Plc.
Looking upon the success achieved by the company and from the operations, it has been clear
the company is making use Participative Leadership Style. Under this leadership style, the
company encourages their employees to provide their contribution in the decision making
process of the company. The company encourages their suggestions regarding the decision made
by the company regarding any issue. The company provides them free working environment and
make innovation in their work so that the employees of the company also be able to produce new
ways of working which will contribute towards the growth and development of the company
(Jazdi, 2014). For example, if the company is implementing any technology in their company to
improve the ways of working and in order to lower down the cost of production of the company
than the company also asks from their employees regarding the change it is going to do in the
processes of the company.
Management Style Adopted by Kingfisher Plc
The management style adopted by Kingfisher in its working is Democratic Leadership Style. In
accordance with this leadership style, the company makes invites the suggestions and also takes
them into consideration the suggestions provided by their employees in the decision making
process. As the company is operating at a large scale and is also operating in various brands so it
is not possible for the company to look over on the working of all the employees of the company.
This is the main reason behind the adoption of this management style by the company (da Cunha
Mattos and et. al., 2014). In addition to this, this management style also provides the company
with several other benefits such as the company delegates authority to their employees and also
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makes them accountable for the results bring by them from their work. This delegation of
authority helps the company in increasing the motivation level of their employees which directly
impacts upon their dedication towards the work in a positive way (Cheng, Yang and Sheu, 2014)
(Sandkuhl, Koç and Stirn, 2014). It creates a feeling in the minds of employees as they are
important for the company and Kingfisher has adopted this as a value in their company as
employees are the core assets of company.
Various Strategies Used by Kingfisher Plc to Improve Motivation Level of their Employees
The strategies to motivate employees are different from company to company. As the need for
every individual are different from each other so it is important for the companies to make
identification of the needs of their employees so that they could make use of strategies which
could best motivate their employees in the right way and right direction. The strategies adopted
by Kingfisher in order to motivate their employees to get the best work from tem are discussed
as under:
Rewards and Incentives:
Reward is an incentive plan to reinforce the desirable behaviour of workers or employees
which are provided to them because of their good performance given by them in the company
(Reward, 2018). These are also of two types as rewards which the company provides to their
employees such as in the form of monetary or non-monetary incentives. Depending upon the
needs of employees the company can provide them with the incentives (Jussila, Kärkkäinen and
Aramo-Immonen 2014). But before this it is important for the company to identify the type of
incentives which can best motivate to their employees. Monetary benefits could be provided by
giving their employees monetary benefits such as incentives, salary, bonus based on their
performance so that they can be motivated to work more efficiently and effectively and
contribute towards the growth and development of the company. Another benefit that could be
provided by the company is non- monetary incentives such as promotion, job rotation to their
employees. It is also an important way to enhance the level of motivation of their employees.
There are various types of rewards an organisation can give to their employees such as
money, grade, performance based incentive or performance pay, increment, gift cards,
recognition or awards, medical coverage, etc. are included in the rewards that could be provided
to the employees of the company. Kingfisher Plc is also applying this strategy to improve the
level of motivation of their employees.
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It is so because motivated employees lead to higher productivity and the organisation as a
whole prospers. On the other hand, if the workers are unmotivated they can lead to the failure of
organisation by disrupting and de motivating other workers as well. Rewards are considered
separate from salary but they could be in the form of monetary or non-monetary but will have a
cost to the company. These are mainly aligned to the organisational goals, when an employee
helps the organisation to achieve any of its organisational goals rewarded.
Groups and Teams
Groups can be defined as the collection of three or more individuals who interact with
each other about some common problem and interdependent goal and can also exert mutual
influence over one another. Teams are broader that groups as they also include coordination
along with the group qualities so that the objectives of the company could be attained in a good
manner (Marlow and McAdam, 2015). They also play an important role in the success of the
organisation as in case of several big projects which could not be easily handled by any single
person so in that case the company forms groups or teams of some members which collectively
lead the project and ensure its successful completion. Further it is also helpful for the companies
as it provides the employees with an opportunity to enhance their skills and knowledge which
will work for them in future. In this way, it can be said that groups ad team plays an essential
role in the success, growth and development of the organisation. Likewise, this strategy is
adopted and followed by the company and is also bringing positive results in the best interest of
the company.
Decision Making
It is another crucial factor which impacts on the working of a organisation and needs to
be taken with due care and responsibility so that the company may avoid future risks and threats
to the company which may arise due to wrong decisions made by the company (Wirtz and et.
al.., 2016).
. It is an important function in the management, since it is related to problem, so it becomes
essential for the company to make it as effective as possible so that better decisions could help
the company in achieving their goals and objectives by solving the problems.
The strategy is not only crucial for the company but is also important and lengthy
process which starts from analysing the situation and ends with selecting the best decision in the
interest of the organisation. In this stage brainstorming may be effective as it is a group approach
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to develop potential solutions to management problems. The company can also make use of
suggestions of their employees to some problems which can severely impact upon the working of
organisation.
Implementing these Leadership Style, Management Style and Strategies in Kingfisher Plc.
The leadership style adopted by the company is suitable looking upon the organisational
structure of the company. The company has implemented Democratic Leadership Style in its
working. It is helpful for the company as it could take suggestions from their employees in case
the company is making some major decisions (Berger and et. al., 2015). For example, Kingfisher
is working on doing appraisal of their employees so it ca consult to their employees to know
about the best way in which the decision could be proceed. In this way, this leadership style is
used in Kingfisher.
The management style adopted by the company is also suitable as it will help the company
as it will become easy for the managers to implement the newly prepared policies in the working
of the organisation. For example, the company is making changes in their production process so
it will become easy for the manager to influence their employees to adopt those strategies.
In rewards systems the company could set targets and on their achievement incentives
could be provided to employees. Group ad Team are also essential for the company (Holsappl,
Lee-Postand and Pakath,2014). For example, the company is leading project of improvement in a
college so this situation cannot be handled by single employee, here team work will prove to be
effective.
Recommendations
Analysing the above data, it is recommended to the company to make improvement in their
leadership style and management style by also making them accountable for the results of their
work, this will increase their care and dedication to their work. Further it is also recommended
the company to provide their employees with their performance based incentives on weekly or
half monthly basis. In addition to this, Kingfisher should increase the active involvement of their
employees in the working of organisation.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it has been concluded that the leadership, management style is
needed to be adopted by the company by properly analysing the nature and behaviour of their
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employees so that their motivation level can be maintained and the best possible work can be
taken from them. In addition to this, it is also concluded that according to the changing
environment, the company should make changes in their strategies and policies also.
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REFERENCES
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processes. Computers in Industry. 65(8). pp.1193-1214.
Cheng, C. C., Yang, C. L. and Sheu, C., 2014. The link between eco-innovation and business
performance: a Taiwanese industry context. Journal of Cleaner Production. 64. pp.81-90.
Sandkuhl, K., Koç, H. and Stirna, J., 2014, May. Context-aware business services: technological
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Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H. and Aramo-Immonen, H., 2014. Social media utilization in
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Marlow, S. and McAdam, M., 2015. Incubation or induction? Gendered identity work in the
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Berger, R. and et. al., 2015. Analyzing business-to-business relationships in an Arab
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Holsapple, C., Lee-Post, A. and Pakath, R., 2014. A unified foundation for business
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Online
Reward. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/human-resources-hr-terms/16854-
reward.html>
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