Analysing Leadership Impact on Employee Retention at Marks & Spencer

This report explores the impact of leadership on employee retention within Marks & Spencer (M&S) in the retail sector. It begins by introducing the significance of leadership in retaining talented employees and outlines the research aim to analyze leadership's influence on M&S's workforce. The objectives include understanding talent management, identifying factors affecting talented employees in retail, assessing the importance of effective leadership in retention, and recommending strategies for adopting effective leadership styles. Research questions address the concept of talent management, factors influencing talented employees, the extent of leadership's influence on retention at M&S, and recommendations for leadership strategies. The rationale emphasizes the importance of reducing employee turnover through effective leadership. The methodology employs an inductive approach and qualitative research, gathering data through surveys of 20 M&S employees and secondary sources. The report concludes with a timeline and references, highlighting the study's contribution to understanding and improving employee retention through leadership.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Table of Contents
TOPIC..............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background of the study.............................................................................................................1
Research aim and objectives.......................................................................................................1
Research Questions.....................................................................................................................1
Rationale.....................................................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................2
Research approach......................................................................................................................2
Research type..............................................................................................................................2
Data collection............................................................................................................................3
Sampling.....................................................................................................................................3
TIMELINE.......................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

TOPIC
To evaluate key impacts of leadership over retention of talented employees in an
organization in context of retail sector: A study on Marks and Spencers.
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Leadership belongs to the actions that make the employees either stay or leave the
organization. It plays a major role and contribute as one of the most important factor that highly
able to influence talented people retention within the enterprise (Al Harbi, Alarifi and Mosbah,
2019). For the current proposal, mark and Spencers have been selected which offer high quality
products at reasonable prices. This research proposal will elaborate different tools and
techniques that can be help to evaluate the issue.
Research aim and objectives
Aim
The aim behind conducting this study is to analyse the impacts of leadership on retention
of talented workforce of M&S.
Objectives
 To develop an understanding about the concept of talent management.
 To identify factors that impacts talented employees in retail sector.
 To assess the significance of effective leadership over talented employee retention.
 To recommend strategies to adopt effective leadership styles to retain talented people of
M&S.
Research Questions
1. What is the concept of talent management?
2. What factors influence talented employees in context of retail sector?
3. To what extent effective leadership influence retention of talented employees in M&S?
4. What are the recommendations for leadership strategies that affects retention of talented
employees?
1

Rationale
The primary reason behind conducting this study is to analyse ways in which effective
leadership affects retention of talented employees. This is a research issue because in today's era,
companies wants to reduce their employee turnover. It is an issue now as leadership styles
greatly affects the satisfaction level of employees. Thus, it is great;y important to have
appropriate leadership skills to retain the employees.
LITERATURE REVIEW
As per the views of Turner, (2019), talent management refers to attracting, recruiting,
selecting and identification of combination of HR processes all across the employee life cycle. It
is all related to identification of talented people primarily to recruit them and afterwards retain
them for longer span of time. On the other hand, Agarwal and Gupta, (2018) also illustrates that
it involves lots of cost, resources and time in order to provide appropriate training sessions
which limits down the employee turnover rates.
According to Li and et.al., (2021) it has been evaluated that there are a lot of factors
which influence the retention rate which include providing flexibility and other kind of benefits
to their employees. Moreover, it has also been identified that lack of ability among leaders
generates a situation in which employees are unable to consider direction and hence find
motivation from their leaders.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research approach
To analyse the impacts of effective leadership on M&S employees, inductive approach
will be applied in this study.
Research type
Research are basically classified into two types i.e. Qualitative and Quantitative (Naidoo
and Gasparatos, 2018). To analyse the aspects of talented employee retention, qualitative
research approach will be chosen.
2

Data collection
After considering all the objectives, the data will be gathered through primary and
secondary both mediums. For primary, survey will be conducted among 20 employees of M&S.
For secondary, previous studies will be considered.
Sampling
In order to complete this research, 20 employees of M&S will be considered and selected
through random sampling methodology.
TIMELINE
Activi
ties
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Topic
selecti
on
Devel
op aim
and
objecti
ves
Draft
propos
al
Analy
sis of
secon
dary
resear
ch
3

Assess
ment
over
metho
ds
Questi
onnair
e
draftin
g
Provid
ing
conclu
sion
recom
menda
tions
Arran
ging
file
Consu
lting
with
tutor
Modif
y
Final
submi
ssion
4

5

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Agarwal, U.A. and Gupta, V., 2018. Relationships between job characteristics, work
engagement, conscientiousness and managers’ turnover intentions: A moderated-
mediation analysis. Personnel Review.
Al Harbi, J.A., Alarifi, S. and Mosbah, A., 2019. Transformation leadership and creativity:
Effects of employees pyschological empowerment and intrinsic motivation. Personnel
Review.
Li, J.Y. and et.al., 2021. Employee coping with organizational change in the face of a pandemic:
The role of transparent internal communication. Public Relations Review, 47(1),
p.101984.
Naidoo, M. and Gasparatos, A., 2018. Corporate environmental sustainability in the retail sector:
Drivers, strategies and performance measurement. Journal of Cleaner Production, 203,
pp.125-142.
Turner, P., 2019. Employee engagement in contemporary organizations: Maintaining high
productivity and sustained competitiveness. Springer Nature.
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