Contemporary Management Issues: Leadership and M&S Analysis

This report delves into contemporary management issues in the 21st century, focusing on leadership during organizational crises. It examines Ernest Shackleton's leadership style and the vital lessons derived from his experiences, applying these insights to guide organizations through critical times. A critical analysis of Marks & Spencer, a UK-based company, is presented, evaluating its organizational situation and providing recommendations for enhancing performance and values. The report highlights the importance of adaptability, clear communication, and employee involvement, drawing parallels between Shackleton's leadership principles and strategies for improving Marks & Spencer's leadership structure. It emphasizes the need for flexibility, employee empowerment, and decisive leadership to navigate the challenges of a competitive market.

CONTEMPORARY
MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN
21st CENTURY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Shackleton's leadership style and vital lessons learned in context of contemporary business
organization in crisis....................................................................................................................3
2. Critical analysis of Marks & Spenser's situation:....................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The report of contemporary management issues in 21st century will comprehensively
discuss the leadership in times of crisis in the organization. It will study the theory of Ernest
Shackleton and epic voyage of the endurance, and based on this theory leadership style of
Shackleton and vital lessons understood from the theory in order to lead the organization in
critical times will be depicted.
Further, a critical analysis and evaluation of Marks & Spenser, a UK Based company's
organizational situation and based on above, the recommendation for improving performance
and enhancement of values of the organization will be mentioned.
MAIN BODY
1. Shackleton's leadership style and vital lessons learned in context of contemporary business
organization in crisis.
Shackleton's leadership style: Sir Ernest Shackleton was an amazing leader, with a group of 27
people, he was on journey to be the first one to cross Antarctica. And he failed but the way he led
the team and made sure of everyone's survival in difficult times describes the great leadership
style in difficult times. His leadership can be characterized as an inspiring optimism, as he
believed in his team and his mission. The positivity and optimism was contagious as it ran
through the entire team. He made strong decisions intentionally to inspire his crew (Bragg,
2018). He always had a clear vision and was enthusiastic.
The team of 27 people who joined him on Antarctica expedition, understood the purpose
well. Ernst was a great leader and an individual who would never ask the subordinates to do
anything that he would never do himself. His leadership style can also be characterized as the
flexible goal shifting according to the environment or the situation. When he was on Antarctica
expedition, the goal was to be the first one to cross the Antarctica but when he faced difficult
times, he made everyone's safety and survival the goal. As goals should be realistic and are
achievable but should also be flexible enough to be switched in times of crisis.
Vital lessons learned in context of contemporary business organization in crisis: Looking at
sir Ernst Shackleton's leadership style, there are many important lessons that can be learnt from
his great Antarctica expedition journey. Some important lessons are mentioned as follows.
Creating plans, alternative plans and having flexibility, it is of utmost importance for a
leader to develop structured plans and keeping alternative plans ready in order to deal with bad

or critical circumstances. A leader should be wise enough to understand the importance of
having flexibility in switching goals. Also, goals and plans should be realistic enough for the
employees to achieve (Gupta, 2021). Shackleton modified and changed his plans four times
during his 15 month journey. Such change was because new information appeared, therefore he
adjusted to meet the end goal.
Developing shared purpose, it plays a crucial role in a team's success. The 27 members
who joined the Antarctic expedition comprehended the purpose well. Many times members
understand vague purpose, or they draw a different idea of the purpose, in difficult times such
teams stays divided and can't work towards achievement of the goal. An employees goals should
always be aligned with the enterprises goals for the development of both. And it is the duty of
the leader to make sure of the same. Hence, clarity of goals and having same understanding
towards the purpose is required to achieve goals in the organization (Gutmann, 2018).
Building Commitment and unity in the team, Shackleton valued loyalty and handwork
above everything else. He made team members safely and well-being a priority than his goal to
cross the Antarctica. This made team members committed to the goal. He spent time and
analysed each member's strengths and weaknesses as he knew that without his subordinates he
could never achieve such dynamic goal. In organization each employee should also be
understood in the context of his weakness and strengths to develop unity in the members towards
achievement of the goals.
Making difficult decisions, Shackleton had to make difficult decisions throughout his
expedition. For making decisions continuously he always kept his team members interest in mind
to came up with team oriented decisions. One such example is when he had to fire his cook for
his drunken behaviour, he made sure of getting him another job on other ship and hired another
cook who turned out to be the best. Such important decisions in times of difficulty needs to be
formed by the leader in the organization. Decisions should be aligned with employees goals as
well to have everyone's participation (Koehn, 2019).
2. Critical analysis of Marks & Spenser's situation:
Marks & Spenser is a reputed UK based retailer of home products, apparels and food
items etc. It operates on franchise stores and self network, having 959 stores across the country.
It also has its operations in many counties across the globe. The current leadership style in the
company is mostly consultative, consultative approach is where the leaders or managers consult

with the subordinates before making important decisions. The company's focus is garment based
as it serves wide range of customers including kids, ladies, men etc. due to high competition in
the market, it was forced to create new strategies to survive in the market. And changes in the
strategy made changes in the leadership style too.
The new leadership style is focused on having greater accountability and responsibility
for employees of the company and by reduction the bureaucracy, faster decision-making process
has been achieved. Previously, The fact that there had been fewer links among the top
management allowed for compromised mediated communication between the employees of the
company and the leader (Lewis, 2019). Also, the employees who dealt with clients on direct
basis, it took more time in conducting the entire communication as top management has full
participation in it and there was lack of delegation of authority in the company. The current
leadership style is more towards consultative. Which means having more decentralization and
delegation of responsibilities, here employees can be held accountable for their actions and
employees get a fair chance of participation in the decision-making.
Marks and Spenser lacks the flexibility in plans and goals, the ability to plan according to
situations is missing in the organization, as such power is given to only people at higher level.
Further a disadvantage for the company is to put more efforts and time in training of the
employees, as company at the time of hiring should clear the shared purpose of the organization.
The current leadership style is a democratic, have flatter hierarchy in the company. Having more
inclusive approach towards the working and more involvement of employees at each level has
led to many benefits for the organization. Yet there is room for improvement in the
organization's leadership structure. Company needs to foster the decision-making process in
short term, day to day decision should be taken quickly and this can happen if employees are
understood the shared purpose of the Mark & Spenser. Further the critical analysis of employees
productivity is an important aspect in forecasting the pace of the company's growth (Narasimhan,
2020).
Recommendation: Based on the analysis of Mark & Spenser's leadership style it can be said that
the current style is consultative leadership and has few elements of democratic nature. This
leadership has a dynamic yet structured process of decision-making which takes time in making
daily decisions in times of crisis. Therefore, company needs to adapt Shackleton's idea where
decisions are made by the leader keeping in mind the employee's interest. This way decisions can

be made more reliably yet inclusively. Another such aspect is flexibility at each level of
hierarchy, a plan, an alternative plan along with the flexibility to change or modify the plans is
an essential for the company to survive the tough competition in the market. In the changing
times, where Marks & Spenser majorly deals in clothing segment which is extremely fast trends
oriented, flexibility in plans is really important (Leavy and McKiernan, 2020).
Employees at lower level needs to be given fair chance to put efforts in achieving
organizational goals by modifying plans in times of the need. Employees are the people who are
closest to the customers, they know customer's expectations and service satisfaction better. Also,
the inspiring optimism is an important leadership aspect, it says that it is the responsibility of the
leader to have positivity in their approach which brings the optimism in the employees in the
organization. Employees can perform the best when leaders motivate them and inspire them to
work hard towards the organization. Such learnings from Shackleton's Antarctica expedition
journey derives great leadership style in times of crisis (Grayson, Coulter and Lee, 2018).
CONCLUSION
The above report of contemporary management issues in 21st century stated the
Shackleton's amazing leadership style. It included the important learnings that can be derived
from the leadership style like flexibility, tough decision-making, clarity & shared purpose and
building commitment etc. Further a UK based organization Marks & Spenser is taken for the
critical evaluation of its leadership style. At last various recommendation based on Shackleton's
leadership style for Marks & Spenser has been highlighted.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bragg, M., 2018. The Endurance: Three Lessons in Leadership from Ernest Shackleton. GPSolo.
35. p.7.
Grayson, D., Coulter, C. and Lee, M., 2018. All in: The future of business leadership. Routledge.
Gupta, R., 2021. LEADERSHIP IN PRACTICE-CONTEMPORARY VIEW. Journal of
Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict. 25. pp.1-3.
Gutmann, M. R., 2018. Consulting the Past: Integrating Historians into History‐Based
Leadership Studies. Journal of Leadership Studies. 12(2). pp.35-39.
Koehn, N., 2019. Leadership forged in crisis. Leader to Leader. 2019(91). pp.26-31.
Leavy, B. and McKiernan, P., 2020. Strategic leadership: Governance and renewal. Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Lewis, J. K., 2019. Change Leadership Styles and Behaviors in Academic Libraries. In Advanced
Methodologies and Technologies in Library Science, Information Management, and
Scholarly Inquiry (pp. 439-450). IGI Global.
Narasimhan, A., 2020. Corruption, leader narcissism and the dynamics of board governance: The
case of Marks & Spencer, 1999–2000. In Dynamics at Boardroom Level (pp. 171-176).
Routledge.
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