Sports Direct: Leadership, Management, and Ethical Challenges Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Sports Direct's management and leadership practices. It begins by examining key leadership theories and their application within the company, including the democratic leadership style. The report then explores how management and leadership styles contribute to Sports Direct's growth, emphasizing the importance of selecting educated and competent employees. It delves into team working principles and their impact on management and leadership, highlighting the significance of ethical values and effective communication. Furthermore, the report discusses the company's change processes, including the expansion of brands and stores, while also addressing ethical and value-based considerations and the challenges faced, such as issues related to workers' rights and supply chain ethics. The report concludes with a summary of how Sports Direct has addressed these challenges through policy implementation and ethical practices.

Business Management and
Leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................1
Key theories and application in Sports direct.............................................................................1
Management and leadership styles that enable sports direct to grow.........................................2
Application of team working principles which impacts management and leadership styles.....3
Methods through which Sport direct facilitate their change process and changes they had gone
through .......................................................................................................................................4
Ethical and value based considerations,challenges and solution to overcome challenges..........5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Management and leadership is very important in every organization. Through this firm
can carry out their operations effectively and efficiently. Thus it can achieve success in the
future. Report discusses about the Sports direct company (Reiche, and et. al., 2016). It was
founded in 1982. It is a retail firm which sells items related to sports such as shoes etc. Project
explains about key theories and perspectives, their application and methods through which
management and leadership enable company to grow in future. Assignment discusses about ways
through which team working principles and theory can create effective leadership and
management styles. It also explains about ways through which firm can bring change in their
processes and the ethical considerations and challenges they have faced and ways through which
they have overcome these to achieve their objectives.
TASK
Key theories and application in Sports direct
There are various theories of leadership which are followed by firm. Styles applied in
Sports direct are-
Sports direct has a different leadership style. Firstly they follow democratic style in
which manager give equal opportunities to all employee so that they can take all decisions. They
can take suggestions from all staff members and then implement their ideas in firm. Secondly,
they followed recruitment style in which they hire professional people who are educated and
competent. Firm mainly focuses on hiring qualified and talented staff members. They do not
emphasize on efficient technologies and other processes. By hiring right people in firm they can
build good management team. They also follow all ethical practices in firm so that no unfair
practices are applied in the firm (Swanson, and Frederick, 2016). When efficient employees are
selected they can reduce the harassment complaints from public.
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(Source: Management and Leadership In-house Training Courses, 2017)
Difference between leadership and management-
Leadership Management
Leadership is a process in which leader
influences and motivates other people so that
they can achieve the desired objectives and
goals.
Management is a process in which manager
managers the people and resources so that they
can accomplish their goals.
Leaders create a vision and give direction to all
employee so that they can move in right
direction. Hence all staff members can perform
well in firm.
Managers sets objectives and targets and then
delegates responsibilities so that they can
achieve set aims.
Leaders take risks as they believe that failures
are stepping stone to success.
Manager tries to reduce the risk in all situations
so that there can be no issues regarding any
matter in the firm.
Leaders mainly emphasize on creating
necessary guidelines and principle which helps
in providing motivation and guidance to all
Managers generally creates the polices and
strategies for all employees so that all can
easily accomplish their objectives. They do not
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Illustration 1: Management and Leadership In-house Training Courses

employees. This is important so that it can they
can increase the enthusiasm level and energy
of all staff members.
focuses on providing motivation and guidance
to all employees.
So it is important for Sports direct to follow all leadership styles and management norms
so that all employees can easily accomplish their objectives. Leadership and management are
two different terms but both are important for sports direct to motivate,guide and supervise the
employees. Hence all staff members can easily accomplish the objectives and goals.
Management and leadership styles that enable sports direct to grow
Management and leadership styles are very important so that firm can increase the image
and goodwill in market. Both factors are important so that company can grow their efficiency.
Company has create many leadership styles,principles,ethics and values so that firm can achieve
the objectives (Thomas, 2015). Characteristics of leadership,management styles so that Sports
direct can build and grow from a store to current size-
 Leaders generally focuses on selecting the educated and competent employees so that
they can deliver good results. It helps in building good management team so that firm can
compete with others in a better manner.
 Company follows business model in which all staff members work together with full
esteem and respect. Thus they can give their best efforts so that organization can achieve
their goals.
 Managers have set policy and strategies so that all staff members can give their ideas in
firm and they implements their views. It helps in increasing motivation level of all
employees. This leads to long term growth of firm.
 Mr Ashley has started Sports direct as “Victoria Workhouse” in which company is selling
high and superior quality of products to the customers so that it can fulfil all requirement
of customers.
 Leaders perform their work according to set plans and policies which leads to their
growth and success in long run (Doppelt, 2017).. They treat employees as a important
asset and staff members have knowledge that their efforts are important in their firm.
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 Company have treated a website in which here are different documents which consists of
many clauses regarding discrimination,child labour and living wages. It also tell staff
members cannot work for more than 48 hours. They have also created plans and policies
which contains rules and norms fir they products. There is evaluation of different
factories and other places so that unethical practices can be evaluated.
It can be concluded that there organization can achieve their objectives through proper
leadership and management styles. They follow conventional style in which they select educated
and qualified workforce. Through this they can deliver good quality of products to customers and
firm can accomplish their goals in less time. It results in long run success and growth in future.
Application of team working principles which impacts management and leadership styles
There are various leadership styles,principle and skills followed by firm. Leadership
principles followed by Sports direct are-
Leadership principles:
 Leaders have set a vision for all the employees so that they can easily achieve the
objectives and goals. They can delegate responsibility to all staff members so that they
can perform effectively and efficiently.
 Leaders tries to create ethical values and norms in firm. They motivate and guide all
employees and follow ethical practices and rules in their processes and methods so that
activities can run successfully (Xi, and et. al., 2015) .
 As leaders follow all ethics and practices in firm so thus they can produce good quality
of products. Hence it can easily satisfy the customers.
Leadership skills
 Leaders tries to communicate properly with all employees so that they can perform well.
Sports Direct mainly focus on human resource so hence leader explain responsibility to
all staff members and tries to solve their problems and issues hence they can achieve their
objectives.
 Leaders motivates and guides all employees so that they can perform well. It is done so
that their enthusiasm level and energy increase and they can give better results. It leads to
achieving of organizational objectives and they can offer good quality products to users.
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 Leaders timely take feedback from their employees by receiving their suggestions. They
implement their ideas in firm so that they can get motivated and perform better. Through
this, employees give better results and thus organization can achieve their objectives.
Hence they can provide good quality of products to customers.
Leadership style- Sports direct company follows democratic leadership style in which
all employees can give suggestions regarding nay matter. Their views are taken while creating
plans and policies for firm. Hence this motivates all employees and they perform better in firm.
As a result it helps in achieving the organization's objectives. So it increases satisfaction of users
as they get superior quality of goods.
Methods through which Sport direct facilitate their change process and changes they had gone
through
There are various changes that Sports direct multinational plc had gone through. They
had brought 600 stores in minimum time. Thy had also started the different brands such as
Everlast ,Kangol and Londale,Karrimore and Londale,Slanzenger,Firetrap etc. (Gattorna, 2017).
There are many changes in Sports direct international plc and had also changes in their
employees. It helps them in earning mote profits and can expand their business in less time. It is
essential so that it can increases the effectiveness and efficiency level of the company. It can also
give strong competition to other firms.
Change is brought by leaders and manager so that firm can bring changes in the process
and activities. They put emphasis is on the workforce as they can perform well. They can also
leads to widening of the business. Managers recruit and select right and qualified candidate so
that they can perform well. It also increase the happiness and satisfaction level of all customers.
Hence organization can earn more profits and it results in growth ,development widening of the
firm. It can also capture many customers and they can increase the revenues and can increase the
market share in less time (Hammer, 2015). Many plans and polices are created by firm so that it
can increase the products and can expand the business. They have also opened many stores in
various countries.
They are not focusing on internal factors such as employees,managers,workers and the
external factors such as customers,government and suppliers.
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Revolt: Shareholders have said that they are against the corporate governance failures
that is occurred in firm. Workers have said that the Sports director chairman Keith Heellawal
have said that employees are happy with working conditions and ethical rules. They are playing
with emotions and feelings of all staff members. All workers cannot raise voice as hey has fear
of job security (Küpers, 2016) . So a association is required so that all can have equal say in the
meeting. Val Graham have told after meeting that there can be unite among all staff members so
that they can raise their voice against corporate governance practices. This small change can
modify the processes in firm. But then also nothing have been changed. Many campaigns gave
been organized. Unite member Tom Kirkhan very small changes are there. But the firm have not
changed much. There is no proper management. Many employees are facing issues that they are
not getting leaves and they have problems with many facilities. Company can lay of the
employees at any time and they have no security off the job. Thus it can be concluded that firm
have not changed much.
Ethical and value based considerations,challenges and solution to overcome challenges
Organization follows the ethical and value challenges and finds their solution.
Challenges faced by Sports Direct company are (Sports Direct International Plc - Workers'
Rights, 2018)-
 There is a challenge that company have lost market share as there in pesticides in cotton
production. Hence it have lost the ranking in the ethical consumer lists. They also loose
mark under the pollution and Toxic category (Ingram, and et. al., 2015). This has a
negative impact on the company.
 They have faced that the migrants are move to many agencies and court had gave a
decision that they these members are convicted that they had supplies materials to
company.
Solution: Supply chain policy was created by Sports Direct that employees cannot work
above 48 hours (Johnson, 2016). There is a site in which they had shown branded goods, product
supply base in which it consists of suppliers and factories. They had shown that they are
following all ethical practices . Through this they can easily overcome challenges.
Main leadership style is convention style in which they can recruit qualified and talented
employees so that they can perform well and follows all ethical practices. Leader is answerable
for the activities in firm. They supervise,motivate and gives clear direction to all staff members.
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They evaluate that all staff members perform their work properly and efficiently. Thus firm
achieve their objectives and increase the satisfaction level of all consumers. Hence the firm can
earn more profits and leads to growth in future.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that management and leadership is very
important for every company (Koryak, and et. al., 2015). Theories of leadership and their
application in Sports Direct firm. Various methods of management and leadership through which
firm can grow itself. Team working principles leads to effective leadership and management
styles. Ways through which firm can make changes and ethical and value based challenges and
their solutions so that company can run smoothly and successfully.
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REFERENCES
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Gattorna, J., 2017. Introduction. In Strategic supply chain alignment (pp. 15-21). Routledge.
Hammer, M., 2015. What is business process management?. In Handbook on Business Process
Management 1 (pp. 3-16). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Ingram, T. N. and et. al., 2015. Sales management: Analysis and decision making. Routledge.
Johnson, G., 2016. Exploring strategy: text and cases. Pearson Education.
Koryak, O.,and et. al., 2015. Entrepreneurial leadership, capabilities and firm
growth. International Small Business Journal. 33(1). pp.89-105.
Küpers, W., 2016. A handbook of practical wisdom: Leadership, organization and integral
business practice. Routledge.
Reiche, B. S.,and et. al., 2016. Readings and cases in international human resource
management. Taylor & Francis.
Swanson, D. L. and Frederick, W. C., 2016. Denial and leadership in business ethics
education. Business ethics: New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders.
pp.222-240.
Thomas, T., 2015. Management and leadership for nurse administrators. Jones & Bartlett
Publishers.
Xi, J. M.,and et. al., 2015. Mapping the field of family business research: past trends and future
directions. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. 11(1). pp.113-
132.
Online
Sports Direct International Plc - Workers' Rights. 2018. [Online]. Available.
<http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/companystories.aspx?CompanyId=523386&CategoryId=421>
Management and Leadership In-house Training Courses.2017. [Online]. Available.
<http://www.aikaizen.com/customised-in-house-training/management-and-
leadership-in-house-training-courses/>
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