Morrisons PLC: CEO Leadership, Organizational Structure and Culture

This report analyzes the leadership style of the CEO of Morrisons PLC, a major UK retailer, and its impact on the organization's structure, culture, and performance. It assesses the effectiveness of the CEO's leadership through various theoretical models, examining entrepreneurial strategies, corporate governance policies, and the effects of power, influence, and conflict resolution. The report also explores motivational strategies employed within Morrisons and provides corporate examples to support the analysis. Ultimately, the report offers recommendations aimed at enhancing organizational performance, emphasizing the importance of adapting to market changes and fostering employee engagement. Desklib provides students access to similar solved assignments and past papers.

MORRISONS
ORGANIZATION THEORY
AND PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Effectiveness of leadership style of the Morrison's CEO-...........................................................3
Structure and culture of the organization-...................................................................................4
Entrepreneurial strategy and corporate governance policies-.....................................................6
Effects of power, influence and conflict resolution-....................................................................7
Motivational strategies in Morrison PLC-...................................................................................8
Corporate examples and literature to justifying the research-.....................................................9
Recommendations to increase organizational performance-.....................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Organization theory refers to the relationship between a business and business
environment, how they perform their organizational functions and how it affects the
consequences is known as organization theory (Santos, 2019) In the report leadership style of the
CEO of Morrison PLC would be analysed which is the fourth largest retail sector giant of UK.
The role of the CEO with relation to the organizational structure & culture and how it helps them
to soar performance will be assessed. How in the organization power, influence and conflict
resolution practices adopted by CEO are affecting its operational efficiency and how change
management process is being carried out. Further motivational strategies which are being
implemented for the purpose of influencing the employees and how in reality it is affecting
would also be taken into consideration. At the end of the research some corporate examples to
justify the research and some recommendations for the company in attempt to take their
organizational performance higher shall be extended.
MAIN BODY
Effectiveness of leadership style of the Morrison's CEO-
In Leadership styles the role of the leaders is to provide direction, motivation, forming
the plans to the people, and they are the change makers and innovators. The leadership styles are
categorized according to the leaders personal attribute and it has divided in five ways which are
discussed as follows:
Autocratic leadership
This style is rarely effective and it is opposite from democratic leadership (Cummings
and et.al., 2018). This also known as boss centred approach in which leader has the control over
the whole business activity.
Transactional leadership
These leaders follow very typical progress and satisfy the daily works, it is perfect for the
large business firms. It has give and take situation, and the style can be effective if the
subordinates are provided with the rewards and benefits.
Transformational leadership
The leaders believe in bringing the changes into something better. They provide
opportunities to the members to research for some unique ideas and approaches. This is

beneficial for encouraging the professional and personal growth (Alblooshi, Shamsuzzaman and
Haridy, 2020).
Laissez faire leadership
In this leadership the leaders gives freedom to make decisions to the subordinates how
they perform their work, and manage to set their deadlines (Al Khajeh, 2018). Leader only in
emergency come across to support and advice, otherwise they don't get involved.
Participative leadership
Participative leadership state that leadership where all the members of organization work
with each other in making decisions.
All styles also have its advantages and disadvantages. Morrisons follows their styles
according to their opportunities, it is not fixed and changes with time, and they follow the
effective relationship where the charismatic leadership can be most useful which makes the
employee to follow the leader and get influenced by them. The leaders of Morrisons gives
inspiration to the employees to changes their ideas into reality (Gandolfi and Stone, 2018).
Management and leadership theories emphasis on different qualities which makes the
difference between the leaders and subordinate in the organization. In Morrison's the
management functions starts from the planning and ends with controlling. The management
controls the internal environment in the organization like employees, operation, production and
the system. Whereas it also works with the policies and guidelines of the organization to achieve
the goals or objectives. The leaders will take a risk to promote the product if it is launched by
Morrisons for the various customer division, managers try to control the risk for the same.
Structure and culture of the organization-
Organization structure
There are different types of organization structures, where the Morrisons follow the
hierarchy structure which is the company's chain of command, this type of structure followed by
organization with sole leader and subordinates under them (Shaw, 2019). Morrisons includes
executive directors, executive chairman, joint managing directors and board of management.
Afterwords the board was composed of chairman, five executive directors and five non-
executive directors. Decision making is formal process and it flows from top down level, thus it
creates a tall structure in the organization in which the managements level is clear about the

responsibility and control (Sailer and Hladík, 2021). So with the growth of organization the
number of level builds up and the structure will grow upwards.
Organization is the place where group of individuals come towards to work for achieving
the goal. Each and every organization has some of its values which follows some rules and
regulations which makes it different from others. The organization culture is based upon the way
of interaction of the employees, two organizations cannot have the same culture and it is
necessary for the subordinates to adjust in the culture and enjoy the work (Mewafarosh, Tripathi
and Gupta, 2020).
According to the handy's model there are four types of culture in the organization:
Role culture
This type of cultures are in which employees is delegated roles and responsibility in order to
their specialization, educational qualification and interest to carry out the best (Abdala, Morais
and Rebelatto, 2021). In organization every individual has their roles, and they think what best
they can do and accept the challenges. Individuals are responsible for the work and has to take
the ownership of work which is allotted to them. In such work culture the power comes with the
responsibility.
Power culture
In organization the power remains in the hands of limited people, and they are the decision
makers, and they take the advantage in their workplace (Nasaireh, Abdullah and Obeidat, 2019).
In such culture the instruction is strictly to be followed by the subordinate, and they cannot share
their views and ideas.
Person culture
There are some people in organization who think they are more important in comparison to their
company. This type of culture is known as person culture, the individuals are obsessed about
themselves rather than organization.
Task culture
Organization forms teams to achieve the targets and solving the issues. In Morrison's the
employees with the common interest and specialized skills come together to form a team and to
fulfil the needs of customers, each team consist of four to five members, teamwork is most

important in which every individual work together, and listen to the needs and responding them
through facilities (Năstase and et.al., 2020).
Entrepreneurial strategy and corporate governance policies-
Entrepreneurial strategy-
Entrepreneurial strategies refers to the strategies which enables an organization to make
relationship with the business environment. Morrison is one of the most prominent Retail giant
of the nation so having rigours need of such strong entrepreneurial strategy which can make it
thrive.
The CEO of Morrison is practising a range of entrepreneurial strategies in order to make
the organization competitive in the market. For this purpose the CEO of the organization is
practising “Local Integration and serving the community” strategy (Kissi, 2020) The company
is having their grasp in only the markets of UK. For this purpose their entrepreneurial strategy is
mainly based on serving the local customers and getting them attracted.
Local Integration and serving the community theory is based on localization of the
operations and also giving priority to the local customers. The organization believes that it would
be better to target their own market rather than exploration of global arena. It is helping them to
enhance their grasp and market cap too. In UK the biggest competitor of Morrison is Tesco Ltd.
Which is one of the globally recognized organization and having good command in more than 14
nations so for better performance in the market of UK the CEO decided to follow the strategy.
Corporate governance-
Morrison is an emerging retail giant in the nation and for this sake the CEO is concerned
for the legality of the entity that how it should be controlled and managed legally. So the
organization is Complying with UK corporate Governance code and on the basis of the legal
requirements of the nation it has also formed its own code of conducts so can govern the
business abiding with the legal compliences.
For enhancement of the performance Morrison is having a well articulated corporate
governance Policy. Company has a balanced model of corporate governance in which various
levels are decided to manage the operations and administration of the company. Like CEO who
are the apex level authority and are responsible for making key decisions pertain to the
organization, Morrison is having around 497 stores (Greuning, and Brajovic-Bratanovic, 2022)
where retail products are being offered to the customers. With this regard all the stores are

having their decided governance system like store manager, vice manager etc. All the managers
and other authorities of stores are responsible to report headquarter.
Mechanism also consist board of directors, board committees, and code of conduct to
govern the things as per the laws of the state. It helps organization to practise a strong
mechanism which ensure better management and proper aligning with the corporate laws of the
nation so company not only avoid unnecessary interference of the law but also can perform
better with proper freedom. (Aguilera, Marano and Haxhi, 2019)
Effects of power, influence and conflict resolution-
Effects of power and influence-
For the success of an organization it is essential to examine the effect of power, influence
and conflict resolution since a minute inattentiveness with respect to change management may
cause severe damages to the organization.
With the changing environment the market is getting fluctuation which is kicking off the
need of change management. For complying with the changing market situations CEO is also
aligning with the prevailing circumstances. The power allocation in the entity among employees
and other key position holders is also being revised on regular interval. For influencing the
market the organization is abiding with policy where it has decided priorities for taking into
consideration. Which consists Customer first, Teamwork, Freedom in the framework, Listening
and responding Driving sales.
Change management-
In the companies like Morrison where more than a lac people are working together so
conflict factor can not be eliminated utterly so the CEO incorporated such a strong mechanism to
analyse the effects of power, influence and conflict resolution in the entity. Since in organization
combat for interests is a general phenomenon so the organization is practising different models
as per the requirement and suitability of the case.
Accommodating, avoiding, collaborating, competing and compromising models
(Dzwigol, 2019)These models are being used by the CEO of the organization in order to resolve
the conflicts. All the conflicts among employees are not same in nature and seriousness level so
as per the suitability the models are being practised. If the conflict is not much serious then it is
better to make the employees solve it themself it not only improve their ability to work together

but also helps management to manage them with the least interference. But in come cases where
conflict is very serious then models like compromising, competing and collaboration are being
used so can resolve it effectively. Their this mechanism is paving the way for reducing employee
turn over which is ultimately helping in hiking the productivity and efficiency too.
By better management of power, influence and conflict resolution the organization is also
able to manage the changes appropriately. The CEO of the company David Potts (Ribeiro,
Ellerbroek and Hoekstra, 2020) has installed a well articulated change management strategy in
which Morrison keeps analysing the market and as per the needs it makes changes in its policies,
practices and management too. For instance to meet the marketing change requirement it has
adopted “Sun Media Promotion” (Bögel, 2019) in the year 2009. Timely the organization
provides training and developmental opportunities to its human resources so can get ready for
adaption of market changes.
Motivational strategies in Morrison PLC-
Morrison is having more than a lac employees who are serving in different stores, with
different job designation and set of responsibilities, knowledge etc.
Morrison is practising a hybrid system to get the employees motivated. As the entity has
already clarified in its priority list “Listening and Responding strategy”. The entity gives sufficed
chances to its employees to extend their concerns and suggestion so proper actions can be taken
in order to mitigate their issues.
“Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs” theory (Yun, 2020) is also being practised in the entity.
There are mammoth number of employees in the entity and all of them would not be at same
level of their motivational needs so the theory helps in meeting their personal requirements so
can motivate them. The employees are given better working conditions, proper refreshment and
other facilities so can fulfil their physiological needs, for ensuring safety Morrison offers them
Healthcare cash plan, company pension, so they wipe out their safety concerns.
The HR department of the organization timely conduct such programmes so can make up
deeper bond among the members for instance “Employee Assistance Programme”, “Flexible
benefits” (Bovermann and Bastiaens, 2020.) and other collaborative activities among the
members, so they know each other well and can form good bond and mutual cooperative
relationship which fulfil their needs of love, bond and friendship.

A “well-structured Organizational culture” is being practised, in which good mutual
relationship, respect system and freedom to the “employees, recognition”, (OMAR, 2018)
sufficient opportunities to perform their best and get rewards are included. The organizational
culture is very much suitable for such people who want to do something for the fulfilment of
their self-esteem and external recognition in their life.
The motivational strategies of the organization is influencing the employees since in
modern corporate world an organization can get success only if managing its human resources
efficiently. The employees of Morrison are very much efficient and one of the biggest reason
must be the motivation strategy. Higher efficiency, high productivity, low rate of employee turn
over ratio and well recognition in the labour market of the nation are the testimony of greater
influence on the employees.
Corporate examples and literature to justifying the research-
As the above report assessed key role of CEO in bringing high performance to the
organization by installation of strong organizational culture.
For example- TESCO which is also a retail sector company having its business in more
than 14 countries (Thomas, 2020) Ken Murphy who is CEO of the entity has incorporated a
well-designed organizational culture. TESCO follows Team-Oriented Culture in which the
members of team are considered wealth. This is a set of principles in which the employees are
given more attention. The strategy is brining higher performance and making the employees
being more resilient in nature to abide with the environment.
The research also discussed the role of motivation strategy in hiking the performance.
For instance- Morrison PLC has offered various types of motivational offers to its employees as
a part of its motivation strategy. Like- Colleague discount card was offered to the employees of
the organization, and they were allowed to buy products from the company's retail stores with
15% discount (Miele, Scholer and Fujita, 2020) on the price. Such efforts of the company
brought better to it. Earlier the entity was facing issues like higher employee turn over which is
now under control. That also affects its performance in the market too. If the employees are
motivated and are working with stability then the cost of recruitment, selection and training
would be lower, permanent employees would definitely work better with experience.

From the instances shared above it can be concluded that the higher performance of the
organization hugely depends on the policies of the entity. In the research specifically
organizational culture and motivation strategy were taken into consideration.
Recommendations to increase organizational performance-
With the changing business organization Morrison Plc is also needed to bring changes in
order to make the performance higher, As in the research it is found with the changing
circumstance the CEO of the company uses different models of leadership which is turning out
better to it. But it is suggested to the organization to be more comprehensive with this regard,
rather practising so many styles it is suggested to give attention or priority to Democratic
leadership model. Since in UK and in many other markets where it is operating the business are
moving toward liberalism with the help of the suggested style it would be easier to accomplish
greater and hike the performance.
As the business is following customer policy to make sure better performance of
entrepreneurial strategy but the recommendation is extended to pay more attention on the
customers and their health. Specifically after the hit of CoVID-19 the retail product customers
are ready to pay more if they are assured grantee of better health. So the entity may abide with
health first model to assure better entrepreneurial performance.
Conflict management model of the entity is quite impressive yet it is guided to prevent such
instances. As it is said “prevention is better than cure” so the organization is having need to pay
more attention on their HR practices and should try their best in order to reduce possibilities of
such conflicts among employees. Pertain to this, small teams system, team projects, corporate
games such types of mechanisms can be practised.
The organization can also learn from its current practices for instance by implementation
of Maslow's needs hierarchy theory, it has laid down different strategies so can make the
employees motivated. But it is very much difficult to trace which strategy is motivating which
employee, and as above mentioned in the organization more than one lac employees are working
so evaluation of every and each individual is not practically possible. With this regard the entity
can draw new framework and the task of employee motivation evaluation can be distributed in
small segments. For instance rather than global programme it can go for regional motivational

strategies so for a particular region or area such strategies can be featured so better evaluation
can be done.
So the above extended suggestions would be helping the organization to increase its
performance along with ensuring better position in the competitive market and also go for more
exploration of other markets outside UK.
CONCLUSION
From the report above it can be summarized that the role of a CEO is quint essential in
order to surge the performance of the entity. The report had discussed different leadership styles
in Morrison which were being used by the CEO and how were meeting the criteria of suitability
for the organization. Prevailing structure of organization culture and role of CEO with respect to
that were also evaluated. Entrepreneurial strategy and corporate governance policies of the
organization in order to enhance its effectiveness were also discussed. A few organizational
examples were also shared in order to present justification of the carried out research. At the end
of the report some recommendations were also extended to the management of Morrison Plc so
by inculcation they can make their organizational performance more striking and increasing.

REFERENCES
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