Leadership and its Impact on Marks & Spencer's Culture and Performance

This research report investigates the role of leadership on organizational culture and employee performance within Marks & Spencer, a major British multinational retailer. It aims to analyze different leadership concepts and their application in the UK retail industry, assess the impact of leadership on Marks & Spencer's organizational culture and employee performance, and explore the challenges arising from ineffective leadership styles within the company. The research employs a deductive approach with a quantitative survey method, utilizing questionnaires for data collection and analysis. The findings contribute to understanding the importance of effective leadership in enhancing employee productivity and achieving organizational goals, while also addressing issues related to conflict and policy implementation resulting from leadership deficiencies. Desklib offers a variety of study tools, including solved assignments and past papers, to aid students in their academic pursuits.

Research Report

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Overview of the topic..................................................................................................................1
Background of the organisation...................................................................................................1
Research aim and objective.........................................................................................................1
Research question............................................................................................................................2
Research rational.........................................................................................................................2
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................2
Concept and types of leadership..................................................................................................2
To assess the role of leadership on organisational culture and employee performance within
Marks & Spencer.........................................................................................................................3
Challenges faced by marks and spencers due to ineffective leadership......................................4
Chapter 3: Research methodology...................................................................................................4
Chapter 4: Research findings...........................................................................................................7
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation.................................................................................12
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................12
RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

Chapter 1: Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Overview of the topic
In recent time leadership plays a very crucial role as it helps the organisation to increase
the performance of their employee. Leadership is the quality of the leaders to influence the
individual or group of individual to work in that direction that helps the business to improve their
performance (Guthrie and Jenkins, 2018). Leadership also plays a crucial part as it also aids in
managing and mitigating the challenges which an employee faces while executing their job. The
overall growth and success of the company depends upon the type of leadership prevailing in an
organisation. One of the major role of leadership is to attain the set goal within the time duration
as well as encouraging employee to work with more productivity (Vito and Sethi, 2020.
Background of the organisation
To carry the present investigation, the chosen business organisation is Marks and Spencer.
It is the major British multinational organisation that was founded in the year 1884 by Michael
Marks and Thomas Spencer. The headquarter of the company is in Paddington, London. The
company is specialised in selling cloth, home product, beauty product and food product (Smith
and Green, 2018). Some of the brands which comes under Marks and Spencer are Rosie,
Autograph, Jager and many more. In recent time there are more than 78,000 employee working
in an organisation. So to see the impact of leadership on these employees the company is chosen.
Research aim and objective
Research aim
To examine the role of leadership on cultural management and employee performance of the
UK retail industry: A study on Marks & Spencer
Research objective
 To analyse the concepts and types of leadership used within UK retail industry
 To assess the role of leadership on organisational culture and employee performance
within Marks & Spencer
 To investigate the challenges faced by Marks & Spencer due to ineffective leadership
style in their organisation
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Research question
 What are the concepts and types of leadership used within UK retail industry?
 What is the role of leadership on cultural management and employee performance within
Marks & Spencer?
 What are the challenges faced by Marks & Spencer due to ineffective leadership style in
their organisation?
Research rational
The main rational for executing the current investigation is to determine the importance of
leadership within an organisation. With the help of the pre4sent investigation the major role play
by the leaders to increase the performance and productivity of the employee will be known.
Apart from the current investigation also helps in attaining dual perspective that are personal and
professional (Agustriyana and Pringgabayu, 2019). In the respect of the personal objective the
present investigation would develop various research skill that helps in completing the
investigation in systematic manner. With due respect, the professional objective would be
attained as researcher will get to know about various role of leadership that will be used by them
when they will be working in an organisation as a leader. Thus, the present research helps in
fulfilling dual perspective in significant manner.
Chapter 2: Literature review
Concept and types of leadership
Concept of the leadership has been analysed as visible in various areas such as politics,
military operations, & management. In organization, leadership is considered as no longer
exclusively spontaneous. Leadership is a part of requirement of the exclusive jobs of people,
group or it can be also a part of expectations which members of a role set have from the
individual teams. Leadership has been considered as a managerial function that is no longer
limited to top officers. In order to become a great leader, individuals need to check out the
business speaker (Printy and Liu, 2021).There are various kinds of leadership which exist within
work environments & benefits & limitations exist in each leadership style. Few organisations
offer same leadership style whereas others follow different types of the leadership
styles depending upon task to perform.
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Types of leadership
Authentic leadership
It seems to have an evolved in lights of the major scandals & scams, a blind race with the
motive to earn profit and other personal gains, & short term, perspective, including ceos of the
top organisation. It mainly with the charter of a leader as driver of the positive interrelationships
(Rosari, 2019).
Autocratic Leadership
It allows the leaders to take ultimate control of taking any decision without consulting
others. These leader possesses high level of the power & authority & imposes its will on its
subordinates. This leadership proves to be helpful where there is a close level of the supervision
is required. In this, creative employees’ morale get lowered as their output is not given
significance & is often detest by workers (Rudolph, Murphy and Zacher, 2020).
Laissez-Faire Leadership
In this, leaders not exercise any control over its subordinates directly. Since workers are
extremely experienced & need little supervision, a laissez-faire leader could not get success to
provide constant feedback to subordinates under her or his supervision.
To assess the role of leadership on organisational culture and employee performance within
Marks & Spencer
According to the author Yafang Tsai the term organisational leadership refers to the
shared values, beliefs, and and perceptions of the employees within an organisation and
organisation unit. Values, beliefs, and behaviour are reflected by organisational culture that are
used by employees in an organisation to give meaning to the situation that are prevail in the
organisation. Organisational culture involve functionalist perspective and impressive evidence of
the organisational cultural role. The organisation consist of the staff, with the behaviour of its
individual affecting member outcome. According to Berson & Linton administrative
environment, behaviour of leadership is closely related to work satisfaction of employees (Sow
and Aborbie, 2018). As per the view point of Casida & Pinto-Zipp the development of
organisational is related to the behaviour of its employees, which directly effect the performance
of the overall organisation. Organisational culture express shared assumptions, values, beliefs,
and norms and is the social glue holding an organisation together. A strong culture system of
rules
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Challenges faced by marks and spencers due to ineffective leadership
Effective leadership is most important in organisation because effective style of leader
can help to achieve the goals of the organisation. In marks and spencers company company is
facing the issue of ineffective leadership due to which company is facing many issues,conflict is
arising between the team members due to which work productivity of the employees will reduce
and employees won't able to do use all their skills and abilities which cause loss to the company.
Due to lack of leadership work is not divided properly between the employees according to their
knowledge and would not able to perform tasks effectively (Podsakoff and Podsakoff, 2019).
Along with that policies of the organisation is not implemented correctly because leaders will not
able to perform their duty to make understand other team members about the policies of the
organisation. Leaders are responsible for development pf employees and use their knowledgable
on effective way .
Chapter 3: Research methodology
Research Philosophies: Knowledge development in a particular field of study is known
as philosophies of research. It is a system of researcher's thought in which new, authentic and
genuine knowledge about the particular object of research is obtained. It involves collection of
data, formulation of the problem, research strategy choice, analysis of the study and processing.
Research philosophies are used to have perception of reason and opinions. Basically it deals with
source of data, and knowledge development.
There are four types of research philosophies:
Pragmatism, Positivism, Realism and Interpretivism
In this research project positivism is used to define the philosophies of the research.
Factual knowledge through observation is gained in positivism. Quantitative observation is
included in positivism, that's why positivism philosophy is applied here (Park and Kim, 2018).
1.2 Research Approach: Research approaches refers to the plans and procedures that are
required to carried out research, it has series of steps from different assumptions to elaborate the
methods of collection of data. It is relay on the nature of problem of the research which is carried
to be addressed. There are two types of research approach inductive and deductive. In this
research deductive method of research approach is used. Critical thinking, leadership,
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interpersonal skills are developed which help to improve the abilities of problem solving.
Relationship between concepts and variables is included in deductive research.
1.3 Research Strategy: Research strategy refers to provide direction to the research and
how it is to be carried down. Research strategies examples are survey, ethnography, grounded
theory, experiment, action research and case study. It provides direction to efforts and thoughts
and allows to systematically conduct of research and produce quality result and maintain detail
of the report. Research strategies provide general direction to the research. Quantitative survey
method is used in this research strategy. Large amount of data can be collected by survey, it is
the less expensive and quick technique of data collection. When survey include questionnaire
with scalable answers then it is known as quantitative survey (Maak, Pless and Wohlgezogen,
2021).
1.4 Research Method: Research methods refers to the process, technique and techniques
which are used for the collection of data and verification for the analysis to have better
understanding of topic and to uncover new information. In simple words research methods are
tools that are used to collect the information and data. The ways of collection of data to carried
down the research is known as research method. There are three types of research method
Mono, Multi and Mixed. Quantitative method is used in this project because it involves data in
numerical form.
1.5 Research choices: Research choice refers to the focus, technique, analysis, approach
and purpose of studies of research. Correct choice of study helps in getting the success and
increase the quality of overall research. Quantitative method is chooses in this research report, to
have clear idea of facts and figures of the report (Jacobsen and et.al., 2022).
1.6 Research time horizons: Time frame of the research is known as time horizon. The
researcher is studying and showing interest in different field of particular research topic. There
are two types of research in time horizons are longitudinal research and cross-sectional research.
When researcher gathers data from sample samples at varied intervals is known as longitudinal
research. To examine changes in attitude, behaviour, phenomenon and process are the
longitudinal study purpose. Cross sectional refers to have clear picture of two sides of studies.
Data is not repeated in samples of cross sectional research due to collection of data is done only
one time.
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1.7 Data collection and analysis: The term data collection and analysis is used to define
the series of charts, diagrams are designed to gather, interpret and present the classified data for
the users of data. Data collection analysis can be done in five steps first define the goals, then
decide measurement of decided goals, then collect the data, next step is to analyse the collected
data and at the end interpreted results are visualized (Kiker, Callahan and Kiker, 2019).
Questionnaire: It refers to the series of questions which are used to collect data from
respondents to know about their opinion and experiences. It can be use to collect both qualitative
and quantitative data and mostly used in research of the market.
Questionnaire
Q1) Do you having any understanding about the concept of the leadership?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) What are the concepts and types of leadership used within UK retail industry?
a) Democratic
b) Autocratic
c) Transformational
d) Transactional
Q3) as per your view point, What is the role of leadership on cultural management and employee
performance within Marks & Spencer?
a) Positive
b) Negative
c) No role `
Q4) What are the challenges faced by Marks & Spencer due to ineffective leadership style in
their organisation?
a) Higher chances of chaos
b) Reduction in productivity
c) Ineffective management
Q5) What possible recommendation can be made for Marks and spencer to have better effective
leadership?
a) Ensure two way communication
b) Higher involvement of employees
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c) Taking regular feedback
Sample size: selection of sample size of 20 participants has been made from the
employees of marks and spencer with the help of random sampling method.
Chapter 4: Research findings
Q1) Do you having any understanding about the concept of the
leadership?
Frequency table
c) Yes 18
d) No 2
Q2) What are the concepts and types of leadership used within UK retail
industry?
Frequency table
e) Democratic 11
f) Autocratic 2
g) Transformational 4
h) Transactional 3
Q3) as per your view point, What is the role of leadership on cultural
management and employee performance within Marks & Spencer?
Frequency table
d) Positive 10
e) Negative 3
f) No role ` 7
Q4) What are the challenges faced by Marks & Spencer due to
ineffective leadership style in their organisation?
Frequency table
d) Higher chances of chaos 8
e) Reduction in productivity 5
f) Ineffective management 7
Q5) What possible recommendation can be made for Marks and spencer
to have better effective leadership?
Frequency table
d) Ensure two way communication 7
e) Higher involvement of employees 6
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f) Taking regular feedback 7
Interpretation of facts
Q1) Do you having any understanding about the concept of the
leadership?
Frequency table
a) Yes 18
b) No 2
Interpretation
On the basis of the above pie chart, it has been find out that the 18 participants were
having the understanding about the concept of the leadership whereas 2 respondents tend to be
unaware about this.
Q2) What are the concepts and types of leadership used within UK retail
industry?
Frequency table
a) Democratic 11
b) Autocratic 2
c) Transformational 4
d) Transactional 3
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Interpretation
The above diagram is reflecting that the 11 participants believed that democratic is types
of leadership used within UK retail industry whereas 2 favoured for the autocratic. On the other
hand, it has been also seen that the transactional leadership is also been used types of leadership
used within UK retail industry while 3 opted for transactional.
Q3) as per your view point, What is the role of leadership on cultural
management and employee performance within Marks & Spencer?
Frequency table
a) Positive 10
b) Negative 3
c) No role ` 7
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Interpretation
According to 10 respondent, leadership play a crucial and positive role on cultural
management & workers performance as it inspire to work hard. Whereas 3 participant has said
that there is negative impact of the role of leadership in organisational cultural management and
it may impact the employee performance adversely. At last it has been analysed that as per the
perspective of 7 respondent leadership has no much significance role in the company's change
management as according to their viewpoint organisation can perform well in the absence of
leadership.
Q4) What are the challenges faced by Marks & Spencer due to
ineffective leadership style in their organisation?
Frequency table
a) Higher chances of chaos 8
b) Reduction in productivity 5
c) Ineffective management 7
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Interpretation
It is interpreted that there are 8 employees think that ineffective leadership leads to chaos
among employees due to which they are unable to reach their aimed goals. Also, five employees
of M&S observe that ineffective leadership leads to fall in productivity as leaders are not able to
guide and direct the employees about their role and job. Lastly, seven employees has been find
that ineffective leaders are not able to manage the employees and do not look out their
performance as well.
Q5) What possible recommendation can be made for Marks and spencer
to have better effective leadership?
Frequency table
a) Ensure two way communication 7
b) Higher involvement of employees 6
c) Taking regular feedback 7
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Interpretation
It is interpreted that seven employees suggest that the issue of ineffective leaders can be
resolved in the organisation by ensuring that there will be two way communication among
employees and leaders so that less confusion has been occurred. Six employees think that
ineffective leadership can be enhanced if employees participation has been increased and
improved which leads to effective reach of goals as well. also, other seven employees think that
regular feedback addressed by leaders could resolve major issues in organisation.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation
Conclusion
From the above presented information, it has been concluded that leadership is considered as
a capacity of leaders whereby they encourage, inspire and motivate their team member for
attaining organisational objectives in an effective manner. Leadership helps employees in
organising resources as well as enhance their efficiency and productivity in a strategic manner.
This dissertation is consists of qualitative data whereby primary as well as secondary resources
are used for this. It encompasses of a questionnaire as well as literature review. This report clears
the concept as well as importance of leadership in context to business parlance in an effective
manner. It is imperative for leaders to engage their team members in making critical decisions in
order to provide them a sense of belonging. They should also be encouraged to take important
decisions regarding organisational activities in an effective manner. Leadership is considered as
vital aspect of management as leaders set the vision for the organisation as well as formulate the
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ways for reaching them in a strategic manner. It is the responsibility of leaders to manage their
team members in an effective manner for attaining organisational objectives. It has been found
from this report that with good leadership skills, managers can formulate effective
communication channels which helps them to interact and provide directions to their
subordinates in an exponential manner. Through this, a balance can also be created among
stakeholders as well as subordinates in an effective manner. It is also considered as important as
it helps in identifying differential identities, building relationships among team as well as
accomplishing organisational goals. A leader should have effective problem-solving,
communication and many more skills in order to be successful.
RECOMMENDATION
As per the above research, it has been analysed that leader ship plays a very important
role in improving culture management and employee management. If there is improper
leadership in the organisation, company may faced many difficulties to manage their employees
in better manner. There are some ways which is recommended to the leaders of Marks and
Spencer to enhance their employee performance so, they manage, influence and motivate their
employees in effective manner. The first ways is to ensure clarity and visibility of goals. It is
important because if the goals are more clear and visible to all the employees, it will help
employees to understand and perform their job accordingly in order to achieve it. Another ways
it that the manager should facilitate accountability and responsibility with their workplace. The
company need to encourage their leaders to become more accountable and responsible for their
actions. Another way that help Marks and Spencer to improve their leadership is to create a
culture of feedback. Offering feedback to employees for their performance will help them to
improve and grow accordingly. The leaders also be open to take feedback from their employees
too which helps to understand the gaps in their leadership style that may help in improving their
performance within the workspace.
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