Motivating Employees and Leadership at Marks and Spencer: A Case Study

This case study analyzes Marks and Spencer's approach to leadership and employee motivation, particularly during times of change. It delves into Steve Rowe's leadership style, evaluating its appropriateness for the company's current challenges. The study explores various leadership styles, including autocratic, paternalistic, democratic, laissez-faire, transactional, and transformational, assessing their potential impact on M&S. Furthermore, it examines how M&S can motivate its employees using models like Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's two-factor theory, considering factors such as hygiene and motivational elements. The case study also discusses the contribution of the new management structure to the organization's success, highlighting the importance of effective management in achieving company goals and objectives. The analysis emphasizes the significance of organizational structure, particularly the shift from a tall to a flat structure, and its implications for employee performance and overall organizational effectiveness within the retail context.

CASE STUDY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CASE STUDY.................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Critically discussing the way in which Marks and Spencer can motivate its employees
during times of change using models and theories.....................................................................1
2. Steve Rowe’s (new CEO) leadership style. What leadership style is the most appropriate at
this time?.....................................................................................................................................3
3. Marks and Spencer’s new management structure contribute to the success of the
organisation.................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Management plays a significant role in an organization. Without having effective
management, a company cannot survive. It is the most important function in which people make
sincere efforts to achieve the set goals and objectives. Leadership on the other hand is a way of
guiding, directing and controlling people in such a way that individuals would get influenced by
the leader to perform in his desired manner. A company follows different leadership styles to
accomplish the set targets (Cox, Arnold and Tomás, 2010). As per the given case study, Marks
and Spencer is a public limited company in the retail industry of UK. It is a multinational retail
company which deals in clothing as well as in home, luxury and food products. Its
headquartering is in London. Company is having more than 85000 working employees in all its
stores across the world. At present, Marks and Spencer is following the flat organizational in
which middle management is not there.
1. Critically discussing the way in which Marks and Spencer can motivate its employees during
times of change using models and theories
Marks and Spencer is the world's leading food and non-food items retailer. Its main aim
is to provide excellent quality to customers. In recent days, they have faced intense competition
with their competitor firms. The competition is related to the price strategy, latest fashion at
lower price and excellent tools or market (Healy, 2016). Here, the change in management of
Marks and Spencer with its effect on employees and customers are discussed as below:
Now-a-days, companies are focusing to increase the quality product by using effective
marketing tools and techniques like using 4p's. From the recent research, it was found that Marks
and Spencer is facing low level of sales because of the extra expenses on non-food items. There
are many other changes made by the management at M&S. Change is needed in an organization
while it is going down or when its sale is reducing due to different reasons in the market. Change
at M&S is required to overcome from the over spending and to focus on company’s goals and
mission. Through this, employees also get motivated (Gaki, Kontodimopoulos and Niakas,
2013). There are the following models through which employees of M&S get motivated:
There are generally two theories of motivation followed by M&S such as Maslow's
hierarchy of needs and Herzberg' two factor theory. These are discussed as below:
Herzberg's Two Factors Theory:
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According to this theory, there are two factors to motivate and demotivate the employees
of the firm. These factors are hygiene and motivation factor. Hygiene Factor: This factor is also known as maintenance factor. It leads to the
dissatisfaction of employees in relation with company's policy, working conditions,
salary, status and relationship with co-workers and superiors along with security and
personal life (Zámečník, 2014). So, management has to provide the above factors to
avoid dissatisfaction among workforce. It is the responsibility of the management to
provide a good working environment to the employees to perform the work with
effectiveness.
 Motivational Factors: The motivational factors include achievement, recognition,
responsibility, advancement, growth and the work itself. The employees of company need
to be motivated on the basis of these factors. They prove to be very effective for the
growth of M&S. Job satisfaction among workers will increase and lead to the
development of organization. In this theory, three implications are indicated for the
management which are utilizing the ability, responsibility and job design. A job should
be full of challenges so that the ability of employees to take risk and think innovative and
creative to perform job with higher efficiency can be increased (Van Hagen and Bron,
2014). Employees with higher ability should be given with some responsibilities and then
at last, job design should be done.
Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory
This theory is called as the theory of human motivation. This is used by M&S to motivate
its employees. It is such need hierarchy that is very essential to be fulfilled by the management to
create the job satisfaction and stick the employees in the organization (Heckhausen, 2012). This
theory indicates that individuals are motivated on the basis of accomplishing their basic needs
before achieving the advanced needs. There is a five needs hierarchy model of motivation which
is explained as below: Physiological Needs: These needs are the basic human requirements that every person
requires. It is the first and a basic need of a human which he wants to fulfil. These needs
are related to air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sleep, cloths, etc. (Maslow, 2015) This is
the first level of human needs which should be fulfilled as without this, employees cannot
survive and thus, they are unable to perform their jobs. It is a survival needs that every
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person want to fulfil. For example, an employee who is at the lower level required to
fulfil the basic needs related to food, clothing and shelter. It is the first requirement of
that person, after that only he can achieve the future needs. Safety Needs: It includes the needs related to protection, security, order, law, stability,
limits, etc. These needs should be fulfilled to overcome from the fear of insecurity. If
people think that they are not safe then they will not pay attention on their work. The
safety measures can be provided in the form of insurance policy. Continuing the above
example the next requirement of the person after the basic is to be fulfil the security
measures like life insurance (Barney, Ketchen and Wright, 2011). By fulfilling this need,
the employees at Marks and Spencer may be able to work without any fear and feel
secure about their job. Belongingness and love Needs: It is the third level of this model. After achieving basic
and safety needs, employees want to have good relationship with others by working in
the group, family, etc. M&S has to provide such environment at workplace to motivate
the employees. This need will help employees to maintain a good relationship with the
others. Esteem Needs: This level is of self-establishment level. After the fulfilment of basic,
safety and social needs, people want to have achievements, status, dominance, mastery,
prestige, independence, self-esteem and status as that of managers (Krishnan and Dias,
2015). These needs cover the managerial responsibilities which employees desire to have
so as to boost their career. Through this need, living standard of employees working in
M&S will get improved and this will increase their morale as well.
 Self-Actualization: It is the last level of this model that involves personal growth and
fulfilment. These individuals are those who are satisfied with their job. It is such need
where the person actually feels growth and get satisfied with his job (Żywiczyński,
2010). When this need of employees gets fulfilled, they work with higher level of
satisfaction and just want peace in their lives.
2. Steve Rowe’s (new CEO) leadership style. What leadership style is the most appropriate at
this time?
Leadership style is to provide direction, motivate people and implement the plans. There
are various leadership styles which are exhibited by the leaders such as autocratic, laissez-faire,
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paternalistic, participative, transactional and transformational. It is the process of influencing the
individuals through direction and motivation to achieve the set goals and objectives of the
organization. Steve Rowe is a new CEO of Marks and Spencer. He follows autocratic leadership
style and the styles which should be followed at this time at M&S are described as under: Autocratic Leadership: This leadership style allows only managers to make the decisions
about growth and development of organization (Gruman and Saks, 2011). It is the
process where leaders assign roles and responsibilities to the workers without asking that
whether they can do it or not. This style is adopted by the CEO of M&S. In this style,
only the higher authorities have right to take decisions without taking participation of
other employees and workers of firm. The managers possess authority and then imposes
that on their employees. People who require close supervision, this style is beneficial for
them. It has some negative impact on the working of employees because they are not a
part of decision-making process. Paternalistic Leadership: This type of leader is required at the workplace of M&S who
act as the father to their subordinates. In this leadership style, leaders are highly
concerned for their followers. In return, leader receives high loyalty and trust from the
workers (Krishnan and Dias, 2015). In this, workers are highly committed to their work
and towards leaders as well. Leaders in this style pay full attention on the problems of
employees. Democratic leadership: This style is effective for better functioning of enterprise. M&S
should adopt this style to make the employees perform in a better way. In this, workers
are the part of decision-making process. Here, the leader has an ability to share his views
and ideas with his subordinates. Under this, employees come up with different new and
innovative opinions for the development of organization. From this, their motivation
level also increases and they will work with higher motivation as they feel themselves to
be the part of organization (Lashley and Best, 2012). Laissez-faire Leadership: This is such style in which all rights and complete power is
given to the employees to make decisions. This style will help Marks and Spencer to
create a good and healthy environment for working if it will be applied. In this, leaders
provide freedom to all his followers to make their own decisions. It allows the followers
to self-rule and also, to provide guidance whenever required and requested. This style is
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generally used when the followers are highly educated, skilled and have experience about
the work they are assigned with. Transactional Leadership: These type of leaders are those who are motivated through
rewards and punishments. There are two factors of this leadership that is, contingent
rewards and management by exception. The first factor states to giving rewards for the
better performance of employees while the second one allows leaders to maintain their
status quo. Here, the leaders pay attention on increasing the efficiency of established
procedures (Snell, Morris and Bohlander, 2015). It establishes the standardized practices
which help the firm to achieve set goals and objectives.
 Transformational Leadership: These leaders have an aim to satisfy the requirements of
his/her followers by making changing in their needs on which the workers will be agree
willingly. In this leadership style, leaders inspire and challenge followers to perform the
best for gaining higher productivity (Pinder, 2014). This style is very much effective for
the employees of Marks and Spencer. In this, they make their vision and communicate
this to their followers to achieve the goals.
So, all above leadership styles are appropriate for the management of Marks and Spencer
for increasing the productivity and efficiency of employees as well as for company. All these
styles of management have both positive as-well-as negative impact on the organization.
3. Contribution of Marks and Spencer’s new management structure in the success of organisation
Every firm has some goals and objectives to achieve and that can be attained through the
collection of various resources. It includes division of work and combining number of activities
that are being performed in the organization (Schunk and Zimmerman, 2012). The organizational
structure refers to establish the relationship with authority. This structure can be of two types,
that is, horizontal and vertical.
Marks and Spencer previously followed the tall structure where there were so many
layers of management between employees and the top management. But now, it is having flat
organizational structure. In this, firm has few levels of management. In No mediator is present in
between the top level and employees under this structure. Here, employees can directly contact
with their higher authority. This structure increases the responsibilities of individuals. From this,
it becomes easier to take decisions for the management as in this, employees can directly interact
with their superiors, thus, they are free to take and give suggestions about any problem that they
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are facing at the workplace. This structure is useful in the development and success of Marks and
Spencer.
At London head office, Marks and Spencer has approximately 3000 employees. All
individuals working there are specialists in their own fields (Alfes and et.al., 2013). They are
engaged in the work related to manage stock and layouts at the stores and also the accounts of
same. There are around 65000 people working at the stores of Marks and Spencer. Demand of
training of employees has increased through adoption of flat organizational structure. It also
recruits the managers from outside the organization.
Benefits of flat organizational structure in Marks and Spencer
Earlier, traditional organizational structure was followed by all large firms. As Marks and
Spencer is also a large enterprise, previously, it was following traditional structure of
organization to run its business. But now, with the help of flat organizational structure, it has
many benefits related to customers as well as employees. This contributes large number of
benefits to the business. As Marks and Spencer deals in the distribution of quality food products
all over the world, this structure has become highly useful for employees as well as for the
customers (Mok, Sparks and Kadampully, 2013). Less number of layers allows the organization
to work with ease and less resistance. With the help of this structure, budget of organization and
communication barrier has decreased along with increase in productivity.
Flat structure is also known as horizontal organization. It has no level of middle
management between employees and management. Marks and Spencer follows the flat structure
and also, there is no such hierarchy of management. Main aim of adopting this structure is to
provide good training to the workers of enterprise. This will help in better productivity and
efficiency of company (Patrick, 2014). They are involved in the decision making process instead
of supervision by many layers of management. This is useful in the large organizations like
Marks and Spencer. These models promote employees to the firm through a decentralized
decision making process.
There are following factors which are improved due to flat structure adopted by Marks
and Spencer: Decision-making: Through this, decision-making process has been improved (Tarique
and Schuler, 2010). In this, suggestions and innovative ideas are taken from employees
and then implemented by the top management for better development of company.
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 Communication: Interaction between employees and the management becomes easier
under flat organizational structure. Through direct communication, confidence among
employees also gets boosted.
 Performance, Production and Profitability: Flat structure solves all problems related to
the performance of employees, productivity of company and the profits earned by it
(Wong and Musa, 2014). When workforce will perform their best then automatically the
production increases which will in turn provides more profits to the enterprise.
Drawbacks of Flat Structure in M&S
 The chances of promotion decrease in this structure due to the presence of only few
levels of management in the organization.
 Managers have several responsibilities that cannot be performed by them every time.
 Under this, there is a wide span of control that weakens the top management.
 It can harm effective communication at the workplace.
 The relationship between top management and employee may become bad.
 A problem related to coordination may occur as well.
 This type of structure is generally useful for the small organization because there are less
number of people working there. So, it is not very beneficial for the large organizations.
CONCLUSION
This report is articulating about business information of Marks and Spencer which is
categorised in three parts. The first part defines different motivational factors used by M&S to
motivate their employees. Another part discussed about the requirement of leadership in firm. In
M&S, leadership style followed by CEO is critically evaluated along with the requirement of
different leadership styles. Third and the most important part of this is the management structure
of Marks and Spencer. The flat structure is followed by organization which has some benefits
along with the drawbacks. Thus, the report says that with the presence of all these three
elements, company is successfully surviving in the market with sustainability and with earning
higher profits and market share.
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