Leadership and Management Development Module Report: Coursework 1 & 2

This report presents an analysis of the leadership and management development (LMD) program at John Lewis and Partners. Coursework 1 introduces John Lewis as an employee-owned organization and examines its current LMD practices, emphasizing the importance of leadership in the competitive retail industry. The report analyzes the existing HR policies, the impact of employee ownership, and the training programs in place. It then delves into a theoretical analysis, applying leadership theories such as trait theory, Fiedler's model, and Kotter's 8-step model. The analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses, highlighting the absence of a formal LMD program. Recommendations are provided, advocating for a structured LMD program, incorporating senior partner mentorship, and establishing an appraisal system to evaluate leadership qualities. Coursework 2 extends the analysis, proposing further enhancements to the LMD program, including improved cooperation, training, and performance evaluations. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for a formal program and a fair appraisal system to align employee returns with performance, ultimately aiming to foster transformational leadership and organizational growth.

Leadership and management development
Coursework 1 & 2
Module Leader: Sonja Newman
Lecturers: Sonja Newman & Kevin Flinn

Leadership and Management Development
Contents
Coursework 1.............................................................................................................................2
Introduction............................................................................................................................2
Leadership and Management Development Program............................................................3
Analysis..................................................................................................................................5
Recommendations..................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................8
Coursework 2.............................................................................................................................9
Introduction............................................................................................................................9
Program description..............................................................................................................11
Program evaluation...............................................................................................................14
Conclusion............................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................17
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Leadership and Management Development
Coursework 1
Introduction
This report analyses the leadership and management development program of John
Lewis and Partners. It is one of the United Kingdom’s largest employee-owned organization
founded by John Spedan Lewis about a century ago with the idea of having a better form of
business in the era of industrialization. The main principle that the organization followed was
to provide satisfying employment to its partners, share responsibilities through co-ownership
and sharing risks and returns out of it. It is a trust-owned organization comprising of 83,900
partners. It also acquired the Waitrose stores chain in and partners in 1937. There are about
50 John Lewis Partners shops and 344 Waitrose and partners shop spread across the United
Kingdom along with their e-commerce websites. The company’s aim is to maximize profits
by increasing operational efficiency. Their aim to impart excellent quality of services and
increasing brand loyalty by imparting customers with personalized services. As per the
annual report of 2019, the organization reported £117.4million of annual profit and yielded a
3% partnership bonus. Under the employee ownership business structure, the employees have
their own shares in the company and their perks and records are directly related to the
performance delivered by them for the company. Thus, the company has succeeded in
implementing and excellent employee engagement program.
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Leadership and Management Development
Leadership and Management Development Program
Leadership is the most crucial aspect that the organization needs to have in order to
implement changes and establish a harmonious work culture. In a dynamic business,
environment leader is expected to plan the change, train the workers and implement the
change so that there is a smooth adaption of change and it works for the organization’s
prosperity. Leadership helps the organization in maintaining its long-term competitiveness
and meet expectations of its stakeholders. An efficient leadership includes involving workers
in decision making, showcasing efficient communication skills, and create an organizational
environment that promotes innovation and learning (Somunoğlu, 2014). Leadership is a very
creative activity and requires high level of interpersonal communication skills in the person
performing it. For a person who acts as a leader, it is essential to have a sense of purpose and
capability to influence opinion of others in an organization. A leader is expected to showcase
great deal of skills and updated knowledge as the followers admire and them and look up to
them in difficult situation. Leadership and management are two different aspects. A manager
is responsible for planning, organizing and controlling affairs of an organization while a
leader imparts vision and sets values, beliefs and motivates the people to work towards
achievement of organizational objectives (Thorpe, 2016).
The prominence of having a good leader requires an organization to produce good
leaders as they are required in chaotic times for resolving complex situations. Thus, it
becomes the responsibility of the human resource department to affect a strong leadership
development program in the organization from time to time. There is an ongoing debate upon
whether people are born leaders or are developed over time. Although some people are born
with excellent leadership skills, still there are people who emerge as a leader with experience
and immense zeal to work towards a certain cause. Every leader needs self-motivation,
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Leadership and Management Development
knowledge, and purpose in order to influence others, thus leadership development emerges as
an important aspect in any organization to survive and grow.
John Lewis and Partners operate in highly competitive and dynamic retail industry.
Due to tough competition and increasing demand for innovations, there is a high requirement
of a sound leadership and management development program so that leaders can not only
facilitate the implementation of the current strategy but also focus on developing a new
strategy in view od current trends and situation of the industry (John Lewis Partneship, 2019).
The retail industry requires a smooth flow of the supply chain and efficient manpower to
handle daily operations. The profitability and survival of the organization depend upon
influence leaders can have on the environment of the organization.
Being an employee-owned company John Lewis and Partner’s policies have a huge
scope to organically have influential leaders working inside the organization. The employees
are usually more committed to the employee-owned organization as their monetary perks are
directly related to the performance of the organization. In such an incredibly effective
ownership model a very little effort for leadership and management development can give
wonderful results (John Lewis Partnership, 2019).
The company currently has few HR policies in place to promote leadership and
management development of its employees. The employee-owned structure gives a room for
making partners. If a partner performs well his monetary share in the gain is given
proportionately. When a partner fulfills his potential, the company gets directly benefited.
The partners in John Lewis drive their career development by taking part in training and
development activities to improve their skills. The partnership gives employees opportunities
to develop their skills while working so that they can progress to higher levels where they can
get higher authority and power. The company has training programs for different sub-
categories of employees such as selling assistant, customer delivery driver, and operations
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Leadership and Management Development
development manager. They are actively encouraged to try out innovative methods to deal
with day to day tasks. Thus, the organization empowers its employees to find and implement
ways that would improve their performance (John Lewis Partnership, 2019).
There are 10 job levels in the organization starting from partner to chairman. Level 5
consists of leadership, specialist and senior specialist. Level 4 consists of departmental or
branch heads. There are constant meetings held between the department heads and the
subordinated where the seniors listen to ideas, and feedback given by the subordinates. There
is a lot of flexibility in the working condition and the way am employee wants to work. The
employees are encouraged to even share criticism. The leveling of partnership lets the
organization identify the performance of each individual and determine their rewards. Thus,
the HR practices in John Lewis let their partners improve their skills by taking risks and
accepting new challenges in the dynamic business environment (John Lewis Partnership,
2019).
Analysis
The current leadership and management development efforts are good enough to
enable the development of leadership traits in the employees/partners of the organization.
However, there is no formal leadership and management program launched in the
organization yet. Following are the key leadership theories, leadership styles and that are
applicable to John Lewis and partners-
 Trait theory can be applied to the behavior of employees in the organization. In a
highly competitive retail industry where John Lewis and Partners operates the trait
theory can help understand how the motivation and employee involvement fluctuates
with the degree of interest attached in the working of the organization (John Lewis
Partnership, 2019).
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 The core traits of the partners/employees that need to be analyzed before framing any
formal leadership and management development program are the effectiveness of
communication, insightfulness, self-confidence of an employee, persistence,
determination, self-assurance, dependability, friendliness, empathy, sensitivity,
courage and integrity. Thus, by understanding trait theory emerging leaders and the
effectiveness of the present level of level 4 and level 5 can be evaluated (Kanodia &
Sacher, 2016).
 Using Fiedler’s model of leadership style can be helpful for the leaders in applying
different approaches to leadership in different situations. The leaders can apply a task-
oriented approach when they need to meet targets using an efficient workforce, or
they can apply a relationship-oriented approach when they want to maintain harmony
in the organization and give employees a sense of security (Cruz, et al., 2011).
 Kotter’s 8 steps model can be used to implement a new leadership and management
development program. This will include the following steps-
1. Creating and urgency
2. Building guiding team
3. Developing a vision
4. Communication to buy-in
5. Empowering of the action
6. Creating short term wins
7. Don’t let up
8. Making a change stick
 According to (O'Boyle & Patel, 2016), the model of employee ownership comes with
its disadvantages. The organization has implemented an employee ownership program
to motivate employees to take the risk and increase returns, but it can also result in a
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negative relationship among the employees. There can be a disproportionate
distribution of income and the employees may not receive fair profits share if the
distribution of profits is done as per the capital brought in. It can also result in risk
aversion among the employees and an increased number of partners may result in
instability in the operations.
Recommendations
Following are the key recommendations for John Lewis and Partners to improve their
leadership and management development program-
 There should be a formal leadership and management program drafted and launched
for different levels of partners in the company. The LMD program should also cater to
the acquisition of personnel that can demonstrate effective leadership. The LMD
program should be focussed in updating knowledge and skills of employees at level 4,
5 and 6. Partners at these levels should be allowed to interact with one another to
share their experiences and findings derived while facing a challenging task. LMD
should increase cooperation among employees. The partners at levels 7, 8 and 9
should be allowed to learn leadership skills from their seniors. This should include
training them through leadership case studies, seminars by seniors and giving them a
task with power to showcase their leadership skills. The LMD program should be
drafted by including senior partners, human resource specialists and staff members
representing different departments. This will ensure that the complexities faced by
each department are taken into consideration while teaching managers to strengthen
their leadership skills. Lastly, the program should be reviewed and updates from time
to time to ensure that it remains relevant and effective in the dynamic business
scenarios. The content of the LMD should be driven by the real business problems
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Leadership and Management Development
faced by leaders in John Lewis and Partners. The main aim of this leadership program
will be to promote transformational leadership among the managers.
 There should an appraisal system in place that would evaluate leadership qualities and
performance of the employees and ensure that the reward they get out of the
partnership is not just limited to their partnership share, but also considers their
performance that contributed towards the growth of the organization. The appraisal
system must provide information to the human resource department about the talent in
the organization, tasks handled by different categories of employees and their
efficiencies in overcoming those complexities. The process of appraisal should be
established in such a way that it improves a higher-level manager’s communication
with subordinates. This will ensure that the subordinates easily follow the managers
when they lead them towards a change. The appraisal system should be able to
identify the instances where leaders have shown superior skills and the instances
where the leaders have fallen weak. The basis of review and updating of leadership
and management development programs should be based on the results of the
appraisal carried out periodically (Ayomikun, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above analysis of leadership and management development program, we can
conclude that there can be a more formal program launched in the organization that would
enable the leaders at various levels to enhance their skills and shares the complexities they
have been facing in various tasks. An appraisal system is required for performance evaluation
and to ensure that the partners' return is not unjust and in line with the performance that they
have delivered.
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Leadership and Management Development
Coursework 2
Introduction
This report is a continuation of Coursework 2 that analyzed James Lewis and
partner’s current efforts to develop leadership and management skills and recommendation
for a formal leadership and management development program. Following are the highlights
of recommendations provided in coursework 1-
 There should be a formal leadership and management program drafted and launched
for different levels of partners in the company.
 The LMD program should also cater to the acquisition of personnel that can
demonstrate effective leadership.
 The LMD program should be focussed in updating knowledge and skills of employees
at level 4, 5 and 6by giving them an opportunity to interact with one another to share
their experiences and findings derived while facing a challenging task.
 The partners at levels 7, 8 and 9 should be given an opportunity to learn leadership
skills from their seniors.
 The LMD program should be drafted by including senior partners, human resource
specialists and staff members representing different departments.
 The program should be reviewed and updates from time to time to ensure that it
remains relevant and effective in the dynamic business scenario.
 There should an appraisal system in place that would evaluate the leadership qualities
and performance of the employees.
 The process of appraisal should be established in such a way that it improves the
higher-level manager’s communication with subordinates.
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Leadership and Management Development
 The appraisal system should be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the
leaders.
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Leadership and Management Development
Program description
Now we will discuss some of the aspects that will give a detailed description of the
planning and implementation of the leadership and management development program.
The idea of having a new development center should be considered after at least three
batched of LMD program goes well. Until then the training should be conducted in banquet
halls and conference rooms in a hotel. During framing of new leadership and management
development program the chairman, directors of levels 2 and 3, Head of each department or a
branch, some of the specialists representing each area from level 5 and level 6 managers. We
will also select some of the staff members below level 6, that are high performers or taken
initiative to solve a complex problem in the past or came up with a constructive solution. All
the influential people at different levels should be selected with consent of other members.
This will ensure that all the present and potential leaders are selected in the leadership and
management development program. After every fixed interval of time more members should
be added in the program from the remaining staff. This will maximize effectiveness of the
leadership and management development program by ensuring that person having leadership
qualities from all the levels has been selected (O'Loughlin, 2013).
The development program should be focussing on the following aspects to achieve the
aim of utilizing it for the organization’s interest-
 Construction of periodic training sessions
 Focussing on the development of motivation and communication skills
 Promote teamwork and collaboration
 Every member of the development program should be treated as a unique individual.
 The practice of hiring and giving promotion to the best performers.
(Holt, 2011)
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