Marks and Spencer Leadership and Management Analysis

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Management and Operation
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................. 3
LO1............................................................................................................................. 5
LO2............................................................................................................................. 9
LO3........................................................................................................................... 11
LO4........................................................................................................................... 13
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 15
Reference list............................................................................................................ 16
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Introduction
The managers and leaders are considered the essential individuals in an
organisation and both of them have to play several crucial roles in managing and
developing individuals in the workplace. Marks and Spencer is one of the most
famous retail chains in the world. Thomas Spencer and Michael Marks found M&S in
the year of 1884 and now it has 1463 locations around the world. M&S has revenue
of £10,377 million and an operating income of £601 million and over 80,000
employees work for the betterment of the organisation (Marksandspencer.com.
2019). The study will be depicting a detailed comprehension of the roles and
features of managers and leaders. Several theories and models shall be portrayed in
the study that shall help in understanding the roles of leaders and managers under
certain contexts. In addition to this, the importance of operation management and a
specific crisis scenario shall be depicted in the study along with the function of
managers and leaders to enhance the efficiency of the organisation. Apart from this,
the study shall portray the factors that shape the decision-making of the
management of M&S.
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An introduction to the organisation and management structure
The retail markets experience a sharp fluctuation and therefore, the managers and
leaders have to ensure that the organisation runs smoothly under these specific
circumstances. The manager and leaders of M&S have to ensure that the employees
are provided with proper guidance of the strategies that are developed by them to
cope up with various external as well as internal factors that affect the organisation in
the existing market. Marks and Spencer has huge customer base across the global
platter and they have to ensure that the most valuable assets of the organisation are
catered suitably. The employees of an organisation are regarded as the most
valuable asset as it is their effort and hard work that marks the difference between
the organisations with the competitors.
Figure 1: Flat organisational structure
(Source: Teece, 2018)
Marks and Spencer follows a flat organisational structure that allows the managers
and leaders to deploy suitable communication with the employees and ensure that
their opinions are considered during the decision making process. A flat
organisational structure emphasises on communication between the management
and the employees that not only promote healthy relationships within the workplace
but also elevates the responsibilities of the employees (ELLIS, 2016). The
communication is increased as the layers of management are reduced in this
organisational structure and the overall complexity during the decision-making
procedure is reduced, as there remains a less involvement of the management. The
flat organisational structure emphasises less towards the supervision of the
employees that on the other hand creates several confusion among the employees
and the management. There are certain power struggles in the management and the
employees suffer from the absence of a specific boss to report regarding the
validation of the procedures. However, since M&S is a large-scale organisation, the
flat organisational structure fits the needs of the employees suitably.
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LO1
Differentiate between the role of a leader and the function of a manager.
Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a
manager.
The leaders and associated with the managers have to develop suitable strategies in
order to resolve the impacts that are faced due to several trade barriers. The
characteristics of managers and leaders allow them to ensure that they have total
control over the situation and make it certain that the available resources are used
by the organisation efficiently.
According to Henri Fayol, there are four primary roles of managers in an
organisation:
 Planning: This includes placing objectives and the actions that have to be
undertaken to achieve the objective.
 Organising: This includes the procedure of identifying the tasks and allocating
them.
 Leading: This includes motivating and directing the employees on the
operational procedures and ensures that goals of the organisation are achieved
suitably.
 Controlling: This includes monitoring the performance of the employees and
recognising the deviation between the actual outcome and proposed outcome
and mitigates the negative practices.
However, Jenkins and Williamson (2015) opined that the roles, and responsibilities
of the leaders and manager, are varied in the organisational context. The following
table differentiates the roles of leaders and managers:
Managers Leaders
The primary role of the manager is to
ensure the operational procedures of the
organisation undergoes systematically
The leaders are accountable for guiding
the employees and have to develop
strategies to cope up with the varied
impacts from the trade barriers
The managers avoid risks regarding the
venture
The leaders have to innovate and
introduce new strategies, products
designs as well as services and
therefore, has to take several risks
Managers have to ensure total control
over the employees and therefore has a
formal approach with the employees
Leaders are regarded as the role model
and they have to inspire the employees
and therefore, they maintain a casual
approach towards the employees
The employees work for the managers The employees follow the leader
Table 1: Difference between managers and leaders
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Marks and Spencer receives a fierce competition in the retail markets of the UK, as
there are other large retail organisat8ions such as Tesco, Morrison, Sainsbury, as
well as ASDA. Several leadership styles are applied by the leaders and mangers of
M&S in order to ensure that the employees and provided with a definite direction and
guidance under certain circumstances. The following explains some of the
leadership theories and models:
Transformational leadership
This leadership style allows the leaders of M&S to empower employees and
transform the self-interest of the employees into true indulgence as well as
attachments of the employees towards the aims and objectives of M&S. This
leadership promotes job satisfaction and is highly applicable in flat organisational
structure, which is followed by M&S.
Figure 2: Transformational leadership
(Source: Buch et al., 2016)
Transactional leadership
The transactional leadership is highly applicable for the leaders of M&S as this
leadership style allows the leaders to promote efficiency and precision in the
operational procedures and ensure that the employees are provided with a detailed
comprehension of their roles as well as responsibilities for achieving the aims and
objectives of the organisation (Buch et al., 2016). This leadership style provided
incentives to the organisation based on the performance and several penalties is
associated in case of negligence in the work procedures. This allows the managers
of M&S to regulate a disciplinary environment within the workplace.
Participative leadership style
This leadership style highly promotes the growth of communication between the
employees and the management that validates the operational procedures.
Following this leadership style allows the managers of M&S to ensure that the
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employees are guided with the execution of the operational procedures (Ashikali and
Groeneveld 2015). Leaders following this leadership style allow them to motivate the
employees and increase their emotional attachment towards the organisation.
Mintzberg’s leadership roles
Figure 3: Mintzberg’s leadership roles
(Source: ELLIS 2016)
 Interpersonal roles: This includes being a figurehead and takes the
responsibility of legal responsibilities. The managers have to play the role of
leader and direct the employees to manage their performance. The managers
also have to play the role of a liaison by communicating with both internal as well
as external stakeholders.
 Informational Category: The performances of the employees are monitored by
the managers and direct them to increase productivity. The manager has to
disseminate the potential pieces of information to the employees by
communicating. Managers have to play the role of a spokesperson and
represent the organisation to the third parties.
 Decisional category: Managers have to create and embrace the changes
regulate it within the workplace like an entrepreneur. The managers also have to
handle the unexpected disturbances that can mark as a potential barrier and
therefore, they are also regarded as disturbance handler (ELLIS 2016). The
manager has to play the role of a resource allocator by allocating the available
resources of an organisation suitably, is regarded as a negotiator as they take
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part in essential discussion of the teams, and negotiates the needs of the
employees.
In the words of Otley (2016), a single procedure cannot help an organisation to
achieve success, especially in the current fluctuating market. The contingency
theory allows the managers to analyse the current scenario in which the
organisation is operating and develop the leadership style by it. Whereas, situational
leadership theory involves applying a suitable leadership styles based on the existing
situation. Both the leaders and managers motivate the employees. The managers of
M&S motivate the employees through both tangible as well as intangible incentives
while the leaders mainly motivate the employees through their achievements,
behaviour, approach, and their actions.
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LO2
Apply the role of a leader and the function of manager in given contexts.
Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager
apply in different situational contexts.
Marks and Spencer have to ensure that they develop excellent strategies in order to
embrace the rapid changes of globalisation and provide products as well as services
that satisfied the demands of the customers. Therefore, it is indispensable for the
managers to handle, manage, as well as analyse the loopholes of the workforce and
ensure that they are mitigated with suitable strategies and communication. The
classical management is one of the oldest theories administering a business. This
theory allows managers to motivate the employee through bonuses and incentives.
The output is increased by applying the classical theory that allows M&S to increase
their production rates.
During slow change, the manager and leaders have to ensure that they have a
detailed comprehension of the current condition of the organisation. This shall allow
the management to analyse every detail and analyse the details of the efficiency of
the organisation to develop a small change in a stable system. Marks and Spencer
have to promote employees from one department to another that can be regarded as
a slow change as it does not affect the organisation. In case of slow to the
moderate situation, the management has to analyse the needs of the organisation
in the existing market and make changes accordingly. M&S has to employ staffs and
develop new products and service to meet the demands of the customers. This, on
the other hand, makes M&S open to another competitive rivalry (Teece 2018). In
case of a fast change situation, the management has to take a major decision
regarding the expansion of the organisation in the international markets as per the
needs of the organisation. M&S has expanded in several locations and including,
India, Canada, and America and has used specific market entry strategies for their
international venture. Their international venture has bought several changes in the
organisation.
However, Ramanathan et al. (2017), opined that in retail businesses, the
management had to ensure that the preferences of the customers in the existing
markets are analysed. This shall allow the retail business to develop their products
as well as services as per the needs of the customers.
The retail markets are prone to several vicissitudes due to external factors that affect
the internal ones. The situational leadership theory allows the leaders of M&S to
incorporate various strategies that are developed by the leaders and the managers
of M&S. The Hersey Blanchard situation leadership model suggests that different
leadership styles have to be applied by the leaders in order to cater the needs of the
organisation as per the aims and objectives in the existing market. The four forms in
this leadership style include telling, selling, participating, and delegating (Zigarmi and
Roberts 2017).
Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational
leadership, systems leadership and contingency.
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The work situation changes from time to time and the leaders have to change their
style as well. In the modern generation, there is rapid development in the
technological sectors and the current marketing strategies focuses on social media
as a viable tool to reach the customers. On the other hand, system leadership is a
strategy that allows all sorts of employees to increase their productivity (Senge et al.,
2015). This leadership helps the leaders to regulate an atmosphere within the
workplace where the employees can provide their best for the development of the
organisation. This promotes suitable procedure, healthy relationship, as well as a
good design of the work procedures. The application of chaos theory is, therefore,
regarded to be extremely helpful for leaders as this theory emphasises on open
communication, string beliefs, organisation values. This highly influences the
decision-making procedures of M&S and promotes the growth of high functioning
teams.
The management has to make it certain that the existing strategies, models,
workforce as well as leadership styles propels the organisation towards its proposed
aims and objectives and therefore has to motivate the employees. The charismatic
leadership style highly helps the leaders to motivate as it depends on developing
the employees through their behaviour, attitude, and way of approach that
automatically draws the attention of the employees and build an emotional
attachment of the employees and the organisation (Shamir et al., 2018).
Communication is a key element in this leadership style. The contingency theory
allows the leaders to apply suitable leadership style according to the situation.
Several external factors affect the organisational procedures and therefore, a single
leadership strategy cannot be beneficial for the organisation. Therefore, according to
the contingency theory, leaders have to change the leadership style as per the
existing situation.
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LO3
Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders and managers play in the
operations function of an organisation
Explain the key approaches to operation management and the role that leaders
and managers play
Operation management (OM) guides enterprise to administer best practice in
business, such as converting each raw material to perfect output that creates a
positive effect on brand identity. In case of M&S (Marks and Spencer), leader of this
organization follows six sigma principles so that they can focus on customers’
perceptions and modifies their business objectives in order to meet the objective. As
asserted by Obholzer and Miller (2018), six sigma principles guide the enterprise
to focus on six elements that are as follows:
● Focussing on customer demand
● Manage work issues in order to manage its workflow
● Reduction of variation
● Involve the right equipment in the production section in order to decrease
wastage issues
Lean production is another approach that operation management follows so that
they can raise their product quality and can distribute the right product in the recent
market (Shao et al., 2016). M&S’ managers along with leaders follow five lean
principles that value, flow, pull, Therefore, implementation of JIC management aids
manager and leader to improve their production rate and therefore, it raises brand
identification and recognition of M&S in the current society. Lean production
focuses on value stream, and perfection to mitigate wastage issues and to maintain
its performance quality in current market. Managers of the concerned organization
set different smart objectives in front of employees and leaders provide accurate
guidance and training to employees so that they can meet the objectives in right time
(Wirtenberg et al., 2017).
TQM (total Quality management) is process that aids every member of enterprise
to increase their commitment level and therefore, it serves high standard of work in
front of his or her service users (Teece, 2016). One of the major problems that M&S
faced in the year 2018 was the lack of new fashion clothes due to customers
preferred their competitors’ clothes (Wood and Butler, 2018). It has been observed
that leaders and managers of the enterprise use modern technology in order to
interpret customers demand and competitors strategy to manage M&S business
issues by following the right corporate style.
Accurate training is given to employees based on new clothes design and advanced
technology so that they can collect customers feedback based on their performance
level. As asserted by Wakabi (2016), JIC (Just in Time) management is the
procedure that allows leader to eliminate wastage from their business procedure and
therefore, they maintain accurate cash flow in their business operation. Leaders and
managers of M&S often for their internal area in order to decrease extra cost from
their production areas. Interaction with suppliers and distributors by M&S managers
guides it to collect the right amount of raw materials from them and therefore, it
raises their economic condition.
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Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving
business objectives.
Scientific management plays an essential role in operation management so that
each worker in the organisation can understand their workflow and they try their level
best to improve economic efficiency and productivity (Macdonald et al., 2018). In
case of the concerned enterprise, leaders change their business activities by
following Taylor’s principles in order to study the current scenario of organisation
and to take necessary steps so that they can determine their workflow in the right
direction. Managers administer the current scenario of the enterprise in the current
environment to provide right solutions against their issues. Therefore, it can be easily
determine that operation management allows M&S to improve their overall
productivity and therefore, it guides them to increase their identification in
merchandise market. Moreover, it also brings innovative feature in their business.
Furthermore, it has been observed that this operation management assists the
enterprise to create right vision and right objective so that they can clear all doubts
and queries of each employee in their internal working areas. Bolden (2016) opine
that Operation management also focuses on interactive session between employees
and leaders where senior officials provide adequate suggestion to employees.
Leaders of M&S also perform interactive session in each week where they provide
sufficient suggestions and guidance to employees in order to increase their
employees’ motivational level.
Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne effect deals with modern management methods where
managers deal with each business issue based on their observation instead of
assumptions to increase accuracy of their business purpose (Sparrow, 2017). It has
been observed that leaders of the M&S examine their external situation and internal
resources in order to implement right business strategy against its business issues.
Henceforth, it can be identified that Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne effect guides M&S to
implement right business strategy so that they can get a competitive advantage and
it increases their business sustainability. Managers follow mentoring approach in
order to set different task for employees and they want the task within the right
deadline. However, leaders follow mentoring approach where they prepare right
grooming session so that each worker can meet their deadline perfectly (Mittal and
Dhar, 2015).
It has been found that an intense number of stores in the market makes M&S
resources much more available in front of customers instead of demand due to
which managers have decided to close 300 high street stores in order to increase
their product demand in front of community (Wood and Butler, 2018). Furthermore,
leaders provide training to staffs based on continuous changing trends of customers
in order to decrease the gap between their service and customers demands in
current society (Thorpe and Gold, 2016). Henceforth, it is identified that operation
management allows M&S to convert raw material into the right product with
innovative features in order to maximize profit of the enterprise.
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