Leadership Styles, Change Management, and Impact at Marks & Spencer

This report examines various leadership styles applicable within organizations, with a specific focus on Marks and Spencer (M&S). It explores leadership concepts, organizational culture, and the impact of different leadership approaches on team dynamics and company performance. The report delves into specific leadership styles, including autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic, laissez-faire, affiliative, and consultative approaches, as seen within M&S. It analyzes how M&S has adapted its leadership strategies, transitioning from traditional family-led models to more distributive forms. Furthermore, the report discusses the importance of change management, highlighting key stages such as unfreeze, transition, and refreeze, and how effective leadership is crucial during these processes. It concludes by assessing the overall impact of leadership on M&S's business, emphasizing the company's customer-driven culture, focus on employee development, and the role of leadership in fostering a positive and productive work environment.

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Leadership
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Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................2
1.1 Leadership.........................................................................................................................2
1.2 Leadership Styles..............................................................................................................3
1.3 Organization culture..........................................................................................................4
2. Leadership and management styles at M&S............................................................................4
3. Discussion................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Leadership and Change Management...............................................................................5
4. Impact of leadership in the business of M&S..........................................................................6
5. Conclusion................................................................................................................................7
6. References................................................................................................................................9
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1. Introduction
This analysis is used to discuss various leadership styles which can be used in any organization.
The focus is to understand various concepts of leadership and how this helps the team members
of the company to work. In this research, Marks and Spencer, a British company and its
leadership styles are discussed. The reason for choosing this company is its global recognition
among customers. Moreover, M&S is also known for the sustainability of its product and ethical
approaches towards its suppliers. The company also has a significant role in contributions to
Corporate Social Responsibility in comparison to the other companies and NGO's. More
complex the infrastructure M&S gives, more simplicity it has within its organization. The
company fulfills the challenge of working as a single entity at both corporate and retail store
level. Thus, in order to manage the success of the organization, it is necessary to understand the
corporate leaders of the company and also review the company’s mission, values and vision
(Silva, 2016).
1.1 Leadership
The act of leading people in an organization is known as leadership. It is the leader who decides
the strategies of the company. They have the power to manipulate people and their way of
working. They play a very critical role in achieving the goals of the organization. Their main aim
is to help employees work in a way which leads to maximizing their profits and outcomes. They
have a strategy to do work which minimizes cost. Every leader has some strategies to do work
within an organization (Rosenbach and W.E., 2018). Based on their strategies and styles, there
exist different leadership theories. There can be many leaders, but there can be only a few good
leaders. It depends on the style of their work that they are classified into different categories.
Few leadership styles are discussed further (Harris et al. 2016).
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A leader is the one who has followers. Leaders have influencing power which helps them to gain
these followers, but in order to achieve it; they need to focus on their integrity. The focus of
leadership lies entirely on the capabilities of the leader (Jimenez et al. 2017).
1.2 Leadership Styles
The approach to providing direction to people in order to motivate them to achieve a common
goal by implementing plans is known as leadership style (Anderson et al. 2017).
1) Autocratic Leadership: this is a classical approach where managers have all the powers to
make decisions and strategies. Managers do not consult staff in this approach and the staff
is bound to follow their strategies and orders without intervention. This approach can be
referred to as a combination of punishments and rewards. In this style, managers force the
employees to do the work transparently and never ask their opinions. In this case, only
managers contribute to making decisions. It became difficult for managers to change their
ways which started with this kind of approach. This kind of leadership has unfortunate
consequences as employees are generally dissatisfied (Foote et al. 2018).
2) Bureaucratic Leadership: This type of leadership policy follows well-defined standards and
rules which has been already set. The focus of this style is to ensure accuracy and safety.
This type of leadership is adopted by companies where the work or work culture is
dangerous, and therefore employees are forced to follow a particular set of rules in order to
ensure safety. The best example of this leadership can be seen in construction companies
where people are bound to follow a particular standard of work every day.
3) Democratic Leadership: This can also be referred to as participative leadership as it
includes its subordinates in the process of making a decision. Although the final decision is
in the hands of the leaders only, this style is effective in increasing the motivation of the
employees and give fruitful results in the organization. Sometimes the leader knows only a
part of the problem and not the whole situation. This style of leadership helps to analyze the
situation with the help of discussion with subordinates and thus lead to a conclusion.
4) Laissez-faire: This is a kind of "hands-off" styles where the entire decision is in the hands
of staff and not the managers. The staff is given full right to determine solutions to
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problems. However, this style is applied only in organizations which have highly skilled
and educated staff. Also, the staff should have a sense of responsibility to handle situations
and should be trustworthy (Ola and B., 2017).
5) Affiliative Leaders: In this style, employees are given a hand in the decision-making
process. This leadership style aims to boost up the morale of the employees and help them
in giving recognition. It is like a democratic style but is more dependent on appreciating
and praising the hard work.
6) Consultative Style in M&S: These managers or leaders are the ones who consult people
before making any decisions. The main aim of these managers is to draw more than one
opinion to find a solution. These managers have excellent listening skills, and they also can
create sources in order to consult people.
1.3 Organization culture
This refers to the set of attitudes and beliefs of both the management and the employees which
influence the behavior and decision making within an organization (Gordon et al. 2017). The
way how things or work is done in business easily explains the culture of the organization. It
focuses on beliefs, values and meanings which is used by the employees and members of the
organization in order to explain how the uniqueness of the company originates and operates
(Arnold et al. 2015).
2. Leadership and management styles at M&S
Based on traditional values, the leadership of M&S was in the hands of their family. It was only
when at late90's M&S faced many troubles which forces them to change their leadership and
strategies. Today, a more distributive form of leadership is welcomed, a leader who creates a
clear vision of a future which possibly allows others to take steps based on personal strengths
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and capacities. Stuart Rose and Luc Vandevelde are examples of these kinds of leaders
(Anderson et al. 2017).
The pattern of behavior which is adopted by a leader to carry out various management roles is
known as management style. Most common styles followed in M&S is consultative. This means
that the leaders at M&S consult before making any decisions. Although the leader makes the
final decision, it is influenced by the group. For instance, the marketing department of M&S and
its leaders would first discuss with the employees about launching new products before rushing
into markets (Page and E.H., 2017).
Business at Marks and Spencer many times uses a mixed style of leadership. It is consultative
sometimes while free the other time. It depends on the hierarchical scale of employees and their
designations, which style to choose. M&S often gives its managing director the choice of
management (Amanchukwu et al. 2015). Managers who do not have educated employees under
them choose an autocratic style to follow. This is so because the people under them do not know
about making decisions. The one in the middle is allowed to adopt a Laissez-faire style and
attitude to management. This is because they are trained and educated enough to make proper
use of styles and make it to the best of their potential ((Arnold et al. 2015).
3. Discussion
3.1 Leadership and Change Management
It is essential to understand the power, ability, skill and knowledge of the leader during any
process of change. A leader needs to manage the whole process. There exist some stages of
changes which are identified by Kurt Lewin as transition, unfreeze and refreeze (Boyd et al.
2017).
 Unfreeze: This refers to the fact of being prepared for the changes. By this, it is meant
that preparing for processed and resources and creating the right kind of environment
which can help in future also. A well-prepared organization is always well prepared to
cope up with the changes. This process can be well handled by a leader who is desired
to make a sensible decision and planning.
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 Transition: This refers to the implementation process. This refers to the period between
the announcement of changes and its successful installation. This is considered to be
the most critical point and is marked by lack of direction, instability and low
motivation of staff. This comes due to their instability in future. An effective leader can
help the employees at this point and help them understand the future direction. They
can also help employees in a way that helps them to understand that the change is
meaningful.
 Refreeze: This is referred to as the conclusion of the process. This is the period
encountered after the initial phases of insecurity and instability. With the help of
leaders, this can be subsided and can help the employees’ top focus on giving new
directions to the company. A good leader will look forward to improving the lives of
employees. They also assure the employees that the changes are positive and for the
betterment of employees as well as organization.
4. Impact of leadership in the business of M&S
The primary strategy followed by Marks and Spencer is that they choose to have the lowest cost
in order to become a market leader. They have differentiated services and products so that the
customers value their services to that extent that they agree to pay premium prices for their
products. M&S consider the development and training of their leaders and employees as a crucial
part of their program. M&S leaders follow the initiative of "Lead to Succeed". This explains the
importance they attach to the training and identification of leaders shortly (Foote et al. 2018).
Marks and Spencer leaders followed the motivation theory in executing their plans. This
motivated the employees as they were involved in making decisions. They also used Maslow and
hierarchy theory to fulfill one person's theory of need. The company offers the customer the best
price and value for money (Silva and A., 2016). Marks and Spencer have faced much trouble in
the '90s. However, with the change in its leadership strategy and plans, the company again
started flourishing. It was able to meet its goal and objectives. Changes in the company can lose
the self-confidence of employees. They start feeling powerless and incompetent. It is
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indispensable for the involvement of employees of the organization in making and executing
plans. Clarity of responsibilities can be altered with changes in an organization. This requires
renegotiating and realigning regular patterns of policies and relationships (Islam et al. 2018).
The impact of the culture of an organization depends on the culture leaders follow in an
organization. Its performance explains whether they have a weak or strong culture. It is an
indisputable fact that a happy employee is more productive in comparison to others and it has a
positive impact on the performance of the organization. An organization like M&S which is
reliable will always look forward to establishing a positive environment which should encourage
people, their productivity and efficiency (Ola and B., 2017).
5. Conclusion
Marks and Spencer have a very tall structure with a considerable number of employees working
together. In order to ensure the smooth running of the company, its responsibility and
communication go in the line of management. The focus of the company is always the customer
and to meet their needs, and so it has a customer-driven culture. Leadership style plays a vital
role in M&S organization because managers consult people before making decisions or
implementing them. It is also seen that depending on the type of team, source and situations,
M&S uses different styles of leadership. They have autocratic style sometimes while popular or
Lassiez-Faire style some other time.
The culture, structure and management followed by M&S are always used to help and improve
the ways the organization works to meet the aims and targets of increasing their sales. The staff
of M&S also can help the company to achieve its sale targets together with the employees.
Marks and Spencer devote much time to nurturing their leaders and their talents. They have spent
time and resources for their leaders. This approach can bring huge profits to the company and
help in witnessing a significant change in the behavior of people. This in turn also helps them to
meet the challenges with trained leaders who are capable of solving problems of the company
Leaders of this company follow able and practical leadership skills, be it in terms of changing the
business environment or dealing with competitors.
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6. References
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principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), pp.6-14.
Anderson, M.H. and Sun, P.Y., 2017. Reviewing leadership styles: Overlaps and the need for a
new ‘full‐range' theory. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(1), pp.76-96.
Arnold, K.A., Connelly, C.E., Walsh, M.M. and Martin Ginis, K.A., 2015. Leadership styles,
emotion regulation, and burnout. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(4), p.481.
Foote, A. and Gaylard, A., 2018. Barbara equally: A 180 change in leadership style part A. Wits
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Harris, A. and DeFlaminis, J., 2016. Distributed leadership in practice: Evidence, misconceptions
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Islam, M.A., Jantan, A.H., Rahman, M.A., Hamid, A.B.A., Mahmud, F.B. and Hoque, A., 2018.
Leadership Styles for Employee Empowerment: Malaysian Retail Industry. Journal of
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Rosenbach, W.E., 2018. Contemporary issues in leadership. Routledge.
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Silva, A., 2016. What is Leadership?. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 8(1), p.1.
Boyd, B., Henning, N., Reyna, E., Wang, D., Welch, M. and Hoffman, A.J., 2017. Hybrid
organizations: New business models for environmental leadership. Routledge.
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Page, E.H., 2017. Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Technology Landscape. In Guide to
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Gordon, S., Oswalt, I. and Cooley, T., 2017. Why Spend One More Dollar for M&S?
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