Marks & Spencer: Leadership Evaluation and Strategic Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership within Marks & Spencer (M&S), focusing on the application of various leadership theories to address challenges in the company's clothing segment. It begins with an introduction to leadership and its importance, followed by an examination of workforce motivation strategies at M&S, emphasizing both monetary and non-monetary rewards. The report evaluates the leadership style of Steve Rowe, the new CEO, identifying it as directive. It then explores the appropriateness of different leadership styles, including the Path-Goal Theory, and Goleman's leadership styles (visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, commanding, and pacesetting). The report discusses how each style can be implemented to resolve specific issues within M&S. Finally, it analyzes the new management structure, highlighting its potential to enhance sales and competitiveness. The report concludes that the correct leadership style should align with the particular business issue to achieve both short and long-term objectives.

Leading Business Organisations
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Motivation of workforce at M&S................................................................................................3
Evaluating Steve Rowe’s (new CEO) leadership style................................................................3
Appropriate leadership style........................................................................................................3
Path-Goal Theory.........................................................................................................................3
Goleman's leadership styles.........................................................................................................4
Marks and Spencer’s new management structure........................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
2

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the process of providing assistance and direction to employees who are
working under a particular capable person. It assists workforce to get proper guidance for work
they are doing and bring perfection in the same. It consists of clear vision, shared goals and
coordination with team members. Present report is based on Marks & Spencer (M & S) which is
retail of UK. The corporation is having issue in clothing segment and for that purpose it covers
detail discussion of two leadership theory. Furthermore, application of these model will also be
discussed.
Motivation of workforce at M&S
The current scenario reflects that M & S is having issue in its clothing segment and for
this purpose it requires active involvement of personnel. At this juncture, two leadership theories
are applied through which corporation can easily work by taking into account quality aspect-
Employees are provided motivation with the help of monetary and non-monetary reward.
It assists corporation in retaining them for longer time span so they can easily cope up with
changes. However, company uses flexible approach for providing motivation among workforce
through which they can work with integration. However, employee are also provided authority to
handle work in their related areas which aid to enhance their motivation level.
Evaluating Steve Rowe’s (new CEO) leadership style
The leadership style adopted by Steve Rowe’s (new CEO) is directive leadership because
it wants to give new direction to corporation in order to manage its issue related to low sales
turnover. It will be effective for company to get competitive edge and increase sales turnover
with passage of time.
Appropriate leadership style
The appropriate leadership style for corporation selected organization are explained as
follows. It will be effective for employees to get right direction and sort out the other issues
which are being raised in the team. It will be helpful for management to create goodwill of
company in the marketplace.
Path-Goal Theory
This theory was propounded by Robert house in 1971 and the same was refined and
updated in 1996. It depicts that leader of team can get the best way to leader personnel in
3

particular business scenario (David and et. al., 2010). For resolving issues of clothing segment of
M&S three ways can be implemented. First of all assisting personnel to identity and achieve their
goals. At the same time, obstacles must be removed and workforce must be rewarded for their
good performance. In order to follow this practices different styles of leadership can be applied
which are explained as follows- Supporting leadership-This kind of leadership style is adopted for building good
relationship with employees and best suitable when employees are doing repetitive tasks.
Furthermore, interest of team members is considered by management for providing them
higher level of motivation (Northouse, 2012). Directive leadership-This is different kind of leadership style under which employees are
directed for unstructured projects. The given scenario reflects that M&S has issue in
clothing segment. Owing to this, leader can adopt the same kind of leadership with proper
communication of objectives, expectations and clear task (Parker, 2011). Participative leadership-Under this employers and employees work with mutual
participation. For this purpose, leader of group must discuss everything with workforce in
order to gain their ideas and expertise for resolving issues of M&S. However, it depends
upon willingness of workforce that whether they want to give their input or not( Barling,
Slater and Kelloway, 2010).
 Achievement oriented leadership-This kind of leadership is adopted by leaders who
believe and confident enough regarding capabilities of team members (Northouse,
2012). Here, workforce tries to maintain high standard of performance for every
individual associated with. However, employers of M&S can applies this approach to
deal with employees with unmotivated and unchallenged in their work.
Goleman's leadership styles
Goleman proposed different kind of leadership styles which can be used by any team
leader of M&S. Here, following leadership styles are explained through which issues faced by
company can be resolved in an effectual manner. It consists of total six styles such as visionary,
coaching, affiliative and democratic. Along with that, commanding and pacesetting styles are
also included in the same. Here, the first four leadership styles serve as positive outcome where
other two tend to create tension among workforce (Germano and Stretch-Stephenson, 2012). The
4

first one visionary style can be used when corporation like M&S is changing its corporate
strategy. The visionary leader give right direction to all workforce to move towards
organizational objectives (Goleman, 2011).
On the other hand, coaching leader align personal as well as professional goal of
workforce through which their future success can be ensured. The affiliative leadership is
alongside of visionary one where leader focuses upon building good relation of employees by
resolving their issues. Moreover, Democratic leader gives authority to employees and allow them
to take decision in their work related areas (Fox and et. al., 2011). Apart from this, pace setting
leadership style is best applied for motivated and competent team. In addition to this,
commanding team leader give clear direction for their employees and want them to follow the
same (Rowe and Guerrero, 2011). Here, they do not rely upon any kind of mutual agreement.
This kind of leadership styles cater need of workforce in an effectual manner and company can
easily resolve its issues effectively. Therefore, management can use the effective approach in
accordance with situation by providing right guidance to employees associated in a particular
team.
Marks and Spencer’s new management structure
The new management of structure of M&S will be effective because employees will
deliver services in different manner. It will be effective for corporation to increase sales turnover
by creating its competitive edge in the marketplace. However, the scenario reflects that new team
will work upon three priorities such as availability, ranging and design. At the same time
directive leadership style of corporation will make it possible to ensure growth and success of the
firm in the marketplace.
CONCLUSION
The aforementioned report concludes that leadership style must be matched with
particular business issue. It assists employees to achieve long as well as short term objectives of
the corporation. It can also be said that, leader must have detail information related to all
workforce associated in team so as to improve their performance accordingly.
5

REFERENCES
Journals and books
Barling, J., Slater, F. and Kelloway, E., 2010. Transformational leadership and emotional
intelligence:An exploratory study. Leadership and Organisational Development Journal.
21. pp. 157-161.
David and et. al., 2010. Leadership history and impact. London: Perseus, PP. 22-23.
Fox, S. and et. al., 2011. Enabling distributed communication of manual skills. International
Journal of Managing Projects in Business. 4(1). pp.49–63.
Germano, A. M. and Stretch-Stephenson, M. S., 2012. Strategic value planning for libraries.
Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances. 25(2). pp.71–88.
Goleman, G. D., 2011. Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence ; Selected Writings.
More Than Sound.
Northouse, P. G., 2012. Leadership: Theory and Practice. SAGE.
Parker, M., 2011. Team Players and Teamwork: New Strategies for Developing Successful
Collaboration. John Wiley & Sons.
Rowe, W. G. and Guerrero, L., 2011. Cases in Leadership. SAGE.
6