Marks and Spencer: Leadership Strategy and Business Functions Essay

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership within Marks and Spencer, tracing its strategic evolution over a decade. It begins by defining leadership and exploring its impact on key business functions such as human resource management, marketing operation management, and finance. The essay examines the application of the STEEP model to assess the external environment and its influence on the organization. It also evaluates the roles of human resource management, marketing, and finance in achieving organizational goals, highlighting the importance of leadership theories like the contingency theory. The essay discusses how leadership affects employee productivity and market analysis, and concludes by emphasizing the significance of adapting to environmental changes and choosing the right leadership style for effective organizational performance. The essay emphasizes the importance of organizational culture and the need for leaders to understand and manage internal changes to achieve maximum effectiveness.

Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main body........................................................................................................................................1
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the process in which leaders guide, direct, control and influence the
employees of a firm towards the efficient attainment of organisational goal. Business function
such as human resource management, marketing operation management and finance department
plays an important role in the every industrial establishment towards the accomplishment of
organisational goals. This assignment present the essay about the organisation which traces the
changes of strategy and strategic direction for last ten years. This essay includes the Marks and
Spencer company which was founded in 1884 by Michel marks and Thomas Spencer. It is a
multinational retailer of clothes, home products and luxury food products in London, united
kingdom. In this essay report we define the leadership concept and theories and their influence
on the marks and Spencer company. In this we also applied the Steep model on the leadership of
the company and discuss the organisation structure of the M&S. This essay assignment also
evaluates the role of business function's in the marks and Spencer company.
Main body
Leadership defines as a position of power and responsibility held by an individual in the team
which provides the guidance and direction to their team members towards the accomplishment of
organisational goals(Grint and et.al., 2016). The business function of marks and Spencer such as
human resource management, marketing operation management and finance department, all of
these function plays an important role in the effective achievement of organisational objective.
Leadership an important part of human resource management which helps the organisation as
well as individual to accomplish organisational and increase the efficiency of the employees.
Leadership also affect the productivity of the organisation in terms of high productivity because
it influences employee for encouraging their interest towards maximising the productivity of the
enterprises. Good leadership also has positive impact on the market operation management
function of the Marks and Spencer company because good leader plays an important role in the
market analysis through providing information about products requirement of consumers(Guest,
2017). Leadership skill also identified the market position of the company through market survey
or in terms of their profitability as compared to other enterprises. According to ship model of
leadership it is the duty of every leader to be aware about various factors such as political, legal
and economic trends which put the organisation in risk situation or hamper the polices and
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regulation of the enterprise. The leader also known about the future environment and information
about their competitors at the market place. Changes in internal and external environment has
major impact on the organisation. Organisation and their environment regularly change and
which affect the policies and working methods of the Marks and Spencer which results in
decreasing the productivity of the firm because organisation has to change their policies and
procedures according to the environmental changes and legal changes. Every enterprise takes
time in the effective implement of changes which results in better productivity. Leader is
responsible for initiating and managing the internal changes for making healthy working
environment in the organisation for effective attainment of organisational goals. Organisation
culture is also important part of every organisation which also leader has to understand for
achieving maximum effectiveness(Charter, 2017).
Business functions such as human resource management, marketing operation management and
finance department, all of these functions plays an important role in the achievement of
organisational goal.
Human resource management is the key function of every successful organisation because it is
the function which provides the high skilled and knowledgable employees to the enterprise. It
involves various sources such manpower planning which defines the current requirement of the
man power as well as future requirement of the human resource in the enterprise. It uses the
work force planning and work load analysis approaches of human resource management which
helps the manager to evaluates the future work load of the enterprise and with the help of this it
determines the required work for accomplishing future goals of the company(Guest, 2017). It
also includes the selection and recruitment process which helps the organisation in hiring
appropriate candidates in the organisation. Recruitment process attract the potential candidates
towards the organisation and with the help selection process enterprise can select high skilled
employee for the effective attainment of organisational goal. Human resource management also
provides the training and development activities to the needed employees in the organisation for
their personal development. These process encourage the employees to work efficiently towards
organisational objective. Performance appraisal function of human resource management plays
an important role in the organisation in terms of increased productivity because this function of
human resource management provides the performance based incentives to their employee which
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build the motivational level of the employees towards the objective of Marks and
Spencer(Cascio, 2015).
Marketing operation management function of business also plays an important role in the
Marks and Spencer company. The productivity of this function is based upon the dynamics of
market forces and market analysis. This function helps the Marks and Spencer to build network
with customers and provides the product's information to the customers for promotion through
this network. It uses the market research tool to identify the current as well as future requirement
of customers about products and then accordingly plan for producing products which helps the
enterprise to build better image at the market place known as brand loyalty. Every organisation
encourages the consumers towards their organisation by producing attractive products at
reasonable which ultimately results in the high productivity and profitability of the firm.
Advertisement is the effective tool which sale goods and services of newly established company
and helps to survive in the competitive market(Baker, 2016). It also plays an important role in
the enterprise inn terms of launching new product in the market place through providing
information about new product to customers. In this function of business marketing specialist are
responsible for analysing the market and target customers, monitoring the firms image on social
media and acquiring new consumers through creating advertisement campaigns. The main role
of marketing operational management is to create the strong relationship between customers and
organisation and offering the attractive products in the market place for maintaining healthy
competitive environment at the market place(what are business function's?. 2019).
Finance function of management is the life line of every industrial establishment. In the
traditional view finance manager includes the various activities related to preparing the report's
in terms of enterprise performance and its financial position along with identifying the resources
which meet the financial need of the organisation. In this function finance manager aware about
the total amount of the capital employed in the organisation, resources of funds and measurement
of the results of the business goals(Nielsen, 2017). It also plays an important role in the Marks
and Spencer companies investment decision, dividend decision and assets management and also
responsible for maintaining financial records regarding the performance of the various
determinants of the company. This function of the business also plays an important role in
allocating the funds for the business activities which provide the smooth functioning for
achieving organisation goals. Finance department also evaluate the overall outcome of the
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business in terms of profit or loss. This function also takes decision about the pricing of the
products through the cost analysis process, it is an important process which undertakes by the
financial department in order to control and maintain the cost and value of the inventory. It also
includes the various tools for understanding the behaviour of various element of cost which
enables the finance manager to take quicker and corrective actions for effective control over
cost(Allen, Hurcan, and Queyranne, 2016).
The basic concept behind application of leadership is that it helps in judging the people
and choosing the right person for the team because it is not necessary that a team may comprise
all the talented employees as it may lead to conflict arising at the workplace. Leadership also
help in motivating the employees as when a person is given power and authority, it help in
building their self esteem. Hence, it is necessary to choose the appropriate leader who could lead
the team and maintain harmony at the workplace so as to achieve organisational objectives
effectively and efficiently(Grint and et.al., 2016). Leadership is very complex and in order to
understand this; there are various theories that have been laid down and these theories include
trait theory, behavioural theory, contingency theory and functional theory. Trait theory is
concerned with internal characteristics of a person which differentiate on individual from other
whereas behavioural theory is focusses on the specific behaviour of an individual. On the other
side, contingency theory takes into consideration how a particular leader responds in a particular
situation and functional theory takes into consideration the leaders' contribution towards the
achievement of organisational objectives(Storey, 2016). When it comes to marks and Spenser, it
is found that the company uses contingency theory of leadership in order to choose the person
who could best lead the team and minimise the conflicts arising at the workplace and lead the
company to achieve new heights. It is very essential to select the best leadership style as per the
nature and size of the business, otherwise it will hinder the smooth working of the company.
There are various models that has been established in order to analyse about the various
aspects which may have influence on the working of the company. It is very essential to have a
thorough knowledge about these models, so as to prevent the company against the uncertainties
that may arise while running the company. Hence, for this purpose Marks and Spencer has used
STEEP model to carry out external analysis. STEEP model takes into consideration various
factors such as social, technological, economical, environmental and political factors. Analysis
of all these factors is very essential of smooth running of the business otherwise the company
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would lag far behind its competitors as they have a huge impact on the working of the company
and contribute a lot in decision making process.
Social factors are those factors which are related to society such as lifestyle of people, income
level, taste and preferences, personality, attitude and consumption pattern. They play a huge
impact on the working of the Marks & Spencer as on the basis of lifestyle of people and their
taste and preference they produce or manufacture the product because if the company would not
take into consideration various social factors of the environment that its products wont be
accepted in the society. Apart from this, company would also have to take into consideration the
income level of various segments of society, otherwise it wont we able to clear stock from time
to time. While designing the product company would also focus on factors such as personality
and attitude because people would not purchase the products which does not suit their
personality and would easily shift towards the competitive brands' product.
The next element of this model is technological factor and includes factors such as innovation,
research and development, trends, etc. Marks & Spencer lays emphasis on bring creativity and
innovation in the methods of producing products from time to time so that it does not lag behind
its competitors in the fight towards capturing the majority of the market share. Furthermore, the
company does huge investment in its research and development team so as to know about the
recent trend in the market as well as to bring innovation but it is also a negative point for the
company as it will lead to decrease in their funds.
Another important part of STEEP model is economical which include factors which effect the
economy in some or the other way such as inflation, economic growth, literacy rate, saving,
subsidies and interest rates. Marks and Spencer has to take into consideration all these aspects as
it is a reputed and a big company and contributes a lot towards the growth of the economy. This
factor plays a very important role in the economy as it helps in determining the prices of its
goods on the basis of inflation and interest rates. Hence, this is a factor which the company has to
consider not only to determine their working but also from the point of view of economy.
Apart from this, study of environmental factors such as pollution, energy and environmental
regulations is also necessary so as prevent the business from government restrictions and
regulations. Marks and Spencer in order to protect the company from complexities have to
consider environmental factors such as it should adopt those processes which are environmental
friendly and does not cause pollution as it will not only help in avoiding government regulations
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but also help in improving the image of the company as a company which works towards the
benefit of society is known as a good company. This factors plays a very important role in
building the brand image of the company which in turn will help in boosting up their sales.
Last element of STEEP model is political factors(Akinyele, Belikov and Levron, 2018). Political
factors include political ideologies, political rules and regulation or any element relating to the
shift in power. Shifting of power affect the smooth running of the business as well as rules and
regulations formulated by political parties also affect its working because they may or may not
be in the favour of company. If the rules are in favour of the company than it will assist the
company towards efficient achievement of its objective and if not then it will hinder the working
of the company.
Thus, it is evident that the Marks & Spencer adopted STEEP model which played a very
important role in analysing the external environment so as to make efforts in minimising the
uncertainties and be prepared against any kind of complexities that may arise which will hinder
the smooth running of the business.
Organisation culture may be defined as the value, beliefs and meanings used by its members that
contribute towards unique social and physiological environment(Elsmore, 2017). Organisation
culture at Marks & Spencer is wonderful, it believes to employ highly traditional and bureocratic
structure so as to maintain transparency in work. Apart from this, the company is of the view to
encourage two way communication through proper feedback from time to time or by
encouraging them to interact with them face to face and by assuring that their grievances would
be resolved. The company also focusses on creating job satisfaction in the mind of employees by
motivating them and building the sense of belongingness in the mind of employees(Zhu, 2015).
Furthermore, the company also lays emphasis on bringing flexibility and helping the employees
to adjust with the fast changing world as well as the culture of Marks & Spenser is such that it
contributes towards settlement of disputes that arise at the workplace between executives and
employees, employees and employees and employees and stores. Thus, Marks and Spencer leave
no stone unturned to improve the culture at the workplace.
Organisational structure of every company should be flexible enough that is it should provide
ease in working(Maduenyi and et.al., 2015). There are different kinds of structure and based on
the working of the company the best method is selected which is suitable for the company.
Marks and Spencer has a flatter organisational structure it means number of levels in the
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organisation has been reduced. Mostly people work at the same level, this has even advantages
and disadvantages for employees because now employees do not have to depend upon others for
decision making, they can take their decisions upto a specified limit. Similarly, like every coin
has two sides, there are advantages associated with disadvantages and the disadvantages of a
flatter organisational structure is that it may encourage more responsibility as the employees
have to be answerable for the decisions taken by them as it is clear from the fact that with the
authority come responsibility. Hence, we can say that the company has established such a system
of organisational structure which gives the employees both authority as well as responsibility.
Stakeholders are those people who have some interest in the company and are interested in the
matters of the company .Stakeholders of every company play a major role towards the working
of the company(Ali, 2016). They have both power as well as ability to influence the decisions of
the company. Marks and Spencer has two kinds of stakeholders and those are internal
stakeholders and external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders consist of management , owners of
the company, employees working at the company and the shareholders who are holding shares in
the company. On the other hand, external shareholders consist of customers buying our products,
suppliers providing us with raw material or any finance, media and communities. Hence, it is a
known fact that the company would not be able to operate without its stakeholders.
Conclusion
The above assignment summarised that the business function such as human resource
management, marketing department and finance department plays a significant role in the
accomplishment of organisational because human resource management provides the appropriate
talents to the enterprise for efficient working of the organisation which ultimately results in the
high productivity of the firm and the marketing department provides the information about the
products which are required by the consumers through market analysis tools and also promotes
the organisation by advertisement activities. The finance department provides the resources for
funds and also maintain the smooth functioning of the enterprise by providing proper resources
to the production department. The company has adopted contingency theory of leadership in
order to establish effective system of leadership. Apart from this, it was also found that company
adopted steep model in order to examine various social, economic, environmental, legal and
technology factors associated with the company. Furthermore, it was found that the company has
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flatter organisational structure which means less number of levels in the organisation as well it
was found that the company has good organisational culture which always supports the culture.
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REFERENCES
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stakeholder analysis. Brazilian Journal of Education, Technology and Society. 9(1).
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Allen, R., Hurcan, Y. and Queyranne, M., 2016. The Evolving Functions and Organization of
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Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing?. In The Marketing Book.(pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Cascio, W.F., 2015. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill.
Charter, M., 2017. Greener marketing: A responsible approach to business. Routledge.
Demirtas, O., 2015. Ethical leadership influence at organizations: Evidence from the
field. Journal of Business Ethics. 126(2). pp.273-284.
Elsmore, P., 2017. Organisational Culture: Organisational Change?: Organisational Change?.
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Guest, D.E., 2017. Human resource management and employee well‐being: Towards a new
analytic framework. Human Resource Management Journal. 27(1). pp.22-38.
Gupta, P., 2017. Organisational Structure and Management: In Reference of Banking
Sector. Journal of Management Science, Operations & Strategies (e ISSN 2456-9305).
1(2). pp.29-35.
Maduenyi, S. and et.al., 2015. Impact of organisational structure on organisational performance.
Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership.
Routledge.
Nielsen, H., 2017. The Roles of Finance functions, Management Accounting, and Lean (Doctoral
dissertation, Aalborg Universitetsforlag).
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management.44. pp.194-203.
Storey, J., 2016. Changing theories of leadership and leadership development. In Leadership in
Organizations. (pp. 33-58). Routledge.
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Zhu, C., 2015. Organisational culture and technology-enhanced innovation in higher
education. Technology, Pedagogy and Education. 24(1). pp.65-79.
Online
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