Analysis of Organisational Structure, Culture, and Leadership at M&S

This report provides a detailed analysis of the organisational structure and culture of Marks & Spencer. It begins by examining the company's flat organizational structure, outlining its advantages such as improved communication and quick decision-making, and disadvantages like potential confusion regarding reporting lines. The report then delves into M&S's organizational culture, highlighting its emphasis on smart working, employee freedom, and collaborative practices, along with its pros and cons. Comparative models of organizational structure, including the individualized corporation and the federal organization, are researched, with their respective merits and demerits evaluated. Arguments are presented in favor of the individualized corporation model, emphasizing its employee-centric approach. The report concludes by discussing the influence of organizational structure on organizational culture and offers recommendations for restructuring. The analysis covers key aspects such as leadership, employee motivation, and their impact on productivity.

Managing People in
Organisations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A...........................................................................................................................................1
Organisational structure along with its advantage and disadvantages........................................1
Organisational culture of Marks & Spencer with advantage and disadvantage..........................2
Researching comparative model of organisational structure......................................................3
Merits and demerits of model.....................................................................................................4
Arguments in favour of proposed model....................................................................................5
Organisational structure influence culture of organisation.........................................................5
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................6
PART: B...........................................................................................................................................6
Summary Report on Leadership and Employee Motivation in Increase Productivity as an
Individual Reflection...................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Proper management of people in an organisation is important as with the help of
employees working in an organisation, its efficient working is made sure. The company chosen
for the completion of this assignment is Marks & Spencer which was formed in the year 1884
and is headquartered in London. The company provides their customers with many products and
services such men wears, women wears and many more. The assignment will make its focus on
the organisational structure including benefits and drawbacks along with organisational culture
of Marks and Spencer including their benefits and drawbacks as well. In addition to this, the
focus will also be made on comparative model of organisational structure, merits and demerits
and the impact of organisational structure on organisational culture of Marks and Spencer will
also be discussed.
PART A
Organisational structure along with its advantage and disadvantages
Organisational structure is defined as a system which state the manner in which certain
activities performed within an organisation will be directed in order to accomplish particular
goals and objective. Marks & Spencer is one of the well-known retailer which operates its
operations throughout the world and to maintain these chain of retail store in effective manner it
uses flat organisational structure. The main reason behind adoption of this organisational
structure is that there is very few levels of management between the staff level employees and
management. The major advantage and drawback of this organisational structure is mentioned
below:
Advantage:-
 It support in removing the excessive layer of management which in turn improves the
coordination and communication among employees. This support the employees of
Marks & Spencer in taking quick decision as per the situation present in front of them
(Malik and Rowley, 2015).
 The flat organisational structure also ensures the involvement of employees within
decision making process which minimises the chances of error or wrong decision
making. This is because the floor staff within the retail store of M&S are the one who
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have a direct interaction with customers, hence effectively understood the need and
expectation of customer which results into better decision making.
Disadvantages
 The flat organisational structure doesn't involve specific boss that creates confusion
among employees regarding to whom reporting must be provided regarding a particular
issues. This may affect the performance of Marks & Spencer.
 This may affect employee retention as people also expect for higher rank along with hike
in salary which is not possible in Flat organisational structure. Hence, this may also affect
the competent workforce of Marks & Spencer.
Organisational culture of Marks & Spencer with advantage and disadvantage
Organisational culture refers to the underlying assumptions, beliefs, way of interaction
and values that contribute toward the unique psychological and social environment of an
organisation. It simply support in developing a particular system through which organisational
activities get performed (Kamoche and et. al., 2015). Marks & Spencer develop a culture of
smart working which means it adopts different approach to collaboration, management and team
work. In addition to this it regular focuses on bringing latest tools and techniques in order to
improve development process which help in enhancing the collaboration practices of the
company. In addition to this employees have freedom to choose their job role, i.e. work that suits
them, customers and team as well. Hence, employees are free to choose work of their choice as
per their ability this option is provided with an aim to perform efficiently. In addition to this
employees are also being offered by an option given by Marks & Spencer regarding the choice of
working i.e. employees are free to choose wither work as solo person or collaborative space
which support in getting more productive. But despite of this, the current culture of Marks &
Spencer also have some advantages and disadvantage which are mentioned below:
Advantages:-
 The culture follower by Marks & Spencer support employees in performing their work I
more relaxing manner which in turn help in enhancing the productivity and efficiency of
work (Hopkins and Markham, 2018).
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 This cultural practices of Marks & Spencer support them in keeping customers happy as
well as retain them for longer period of time which not only saves the cost of company
but also ensure maintenance of high skilled and experienced staff.
Disadvantage:-
 The major drawback of this culture it provide more comfort to employees while working
which may leads to delay in work.
 The culture of Marks & Spencer provides employees with the benefit of choosing their
work as per their choice which sometimes leads to delegation of responsibility to wrong
person which affect working outcome.
Researching comparative model of organisational structure
The organisational structure plays a crucial role within the functioning of organisation as
it decide the flow of work and flow of order. Hence it support in formulating effective base over
which the proper operational efficiency depends (Mayo, 2016). But as per the changing
environment and up-gradation of technological environment it become crucial for Marks &
Spencer to change its organisational structure that help in dealing with changing business
environment. In order to bring structural changes within organisation comparative models are
basically used and these are explained below:
 The individualized corporation:- This model was given by Ghoshal and Bartlett, in
today's emerging knowledge based and service intensive environment in which company
operates requires management to supplement traditional tools with perspective along with
more dynamic models in order to define the people, process, purpose and philosophy.
This model state that organisational structure and culture must be formulated as per the
employees working within the organisation as the front line people within organisation
have more information about the company as compare with the CEO. Hence the
individualized corporation model suggest that an organisational structure must consists
with the factors like discipline, stretch, trust and support.
 The Federal organisation:- This comparative model was given by Charles Handy, who
perform an investigation over the management structure and proposed a model that
present information about four power structure that an organisation can follow in order to
operate its functions in effective manner (Harris, 2016). These power structures are Task
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culture, Power culture, Role Culture and Person Culture. Among them Power Culture is
mainly defined as a structure where the power is handled by few individuals i.e. have
centralised structure and pass orders to others. On the other side, organisation having role
culture are usually based on rules. These are highly controlled by everyone within the
organisation by keeping them inform regarding their roles and responsibilities. The power
within this role culture structure is identified by the position of person within
organisational structure. Task culture is one where teams within an organisation is
basically formed in order to address particular problem or progress of a project. In this
task or project are the main thing which make it depend on formulating a team of mix of
people belong to different functional unit. Person culture is a kind of organisation which
is exists for the people to work. It basically consists of people who happen to be working
within organisation as this structure focuses on individual and working over meeting
individual employees' self actualization need.
Merits and demerits of model
The comparative models are the one which support an organisation to change or improve
their organisational structure with an aim to improve the operational efficiency and be able to
compete with the market situation. In order to restructuring its business, Marks & Spencer can
consider The individualized corporation and the Federal organisation which provides appropriate
guidelines to form up an effective organisational structure (Harris, 2016). But these models have
both merits and demerit which also be consider by organisation. These are mentioned below:
The individualized corporation:-
 Merits:- The major benefit of this model is that it suggest that the organisational structure
must be formulated as per the employees as they have much understanding about the
business and market. This will support in keeping the employees retained for longer
period of time and keeping them satisfied with their work (THIS IS NOT JUST ANY
CAREER. THIS IS A DELICIOUSLY SURPRISING, FUTURE DEFINING M&S FOOD
CAREER, 2018).
 Demerit:- The major drawback of this model is that it suggest to ensure more
involvement of employees within decision making which sometimes creates more
conflicts among employees and also leads to the inappropriate decision making which
results into loss of company (Moxen and Strachan, 2017).
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The Federal organisation:-
 Merits:- The main benefit of adopting this model to Marks & Spencer is that it provide
the choice of four type of power culture structure which can be evaluated by the company
as per their features in order to adopt best over available power culture (Goffee and
Scase, 2015).
 Demerits:- Sometimes this model creates conflicts among the individuals working at top
level management while the implementation of this model regarding the selection
performed over the particular structure defined within the Handy's power model.
Arguments in favour of proposed model
The organisational structure is consider to be the foundation of a company as it defines
the process and system an organisation follow to perform its operations in effective manner. For
restructuring of organisational structure two models are considered i.e. individualized
corporation and The Federal organisation (French and Rees, 2016). By comparing it on the basis
of orientation it has been found that as per the information provided by the Ghoshal and Bartlett,
1997 over the model of individualized corporation it has been identified that the model put more
emphasise over the employee oriented structuring of organisation. As according to them
employees or front line people are the one who have complete information about the market and
customer taste, hence decision their involvement is must within decision making process. On the
other side, the model presented by the Charles Handy put more emphasizes toward formation of
organisational structure which is more management oriented. Hence, it has been identified that
majority of power culture decision are made that are more favourable to the management or
higher authority instead of employees working at lower level. Therefore, it can be said that the
individualized corporation model is more effective in term of its implementation as it is based on
employees which in turn support in easy acceptance of organisational structure by the
employees.
Organisational structure influence culture of organisation
Organisational structure is refers to the flow of role and responsibility within an
organisation among employees which is directly linked with the formation of a particular
working culture (Cheese, 2016). This is because when a structure of organisation is properly
managed and their remains a proper flow of information within the organisation then it support
in creating a positive and collaborative working culture. But on the other side when there is not
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appropriate flow of information and management then their remains a culture of delay work,
dissatisfaction etc. For instance, Marks and Spencer follows flat organisational structure in
order to reduces the layer of management this created a culture of quick decision making, less
duplication of work, more communicational practices and performance of work on timely
manner. On the other side if Marks & Spencer follows centralised organisational structure then
the culture would involves systematic flow of operations, less freedom of decision making etc.
Hence, it can be said that the organisational structure plays an essential role in forming up the
organisational culture as it is responsible for formation of policies and plan over which
employees work.
Recommendation
As per the above gathered information about restructuring of organisational structure
following recommendations are provided to Marks & Spencer
 In order to restructuring the organisational culture, Marks & Spencer must focuses
toward bringing changes within the policies and procedures as per employee's basis. This
support in keeping them formulating effective marketing strategies as employees are the
one who directly interact with customer and market expectations.
 For improving the efficiency and performance of employees Marks & Spencer must
focuses toward reducing the level of power to employees at lower level in order to ensure
less error in decision formation.
PART: B
Summary Report on Leadership and Employee Motivation in Increase Productivity as an
Individual Reflection
As the CEO of the Marks and Spencer is has changed who is changing the structure of
the organisation. Being a HR managers I have analyse the issues that arises before the
organisation due to existing structure which also had impact on the organisational culture. M&S
follows a flat structure which has few levels between management and staff. Because of this flat
structure they faces various issues such as they does not have specific boss which creates
confusion, chaos and delays, also employees get command from more then one person which
affects their performance. The other issue they faces is of employee retention due to the cost of
procuring and training new people increased for them. Marks and Spencer also suffered with
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various issues which was because of organisational culture. They has liberal culture in which
their focus was on the collaboration, team work. Also the employees had the freedom to choose
their role as per their efficiency and capability.
Due to such culture they faced various issues such as the employee became more
comfortable which affected their performance and delays the work. Choosing the work on their
own leads to inappropriate delegation of the authority to inefficient person which leads to
unnecessary cost, wastage of resources and efforts. To overcome with the issues new CEO has
planned to restructure the organisation and their culture. The two new model which the Marks
and Spencer can follow is individual corporation, which states that the organisation should use
traditional approaches with new models in order to define the job, process, roles and
responsibilities of the employees, also they should add various level so that appropriate decision
and monitoring can be done. The other model that they can follow is federal organisation, this
model suggest that four power structure that can be chosen by the organisation as per their needs
that should be followed which are managed by few person as per their positions and capabilities.
The recommendations that are made to Marks and Spencer are on the basis of analysis of both
the models.
The focus of the company should be on bringing the changes in the policies and the
procedure which can make their employees comfortable as well as improves their performance.
They should change their marketing strategies which will help them to directly interact with the
customers so that they can identify their needs and wants. To improve the performance of the
employees they have to minimise the power they have been given so that decision are taken
appropriately as they will haver lesser responsibilities. The leaders in the company has to take
initiative to make the comfortable with the change by convincing them with the benefits and
opportunities that they will have from such change. Various training and seminars should be
conducted which will help the employees to understand the various policies and procedure with
their complexities that are to be implemented in the organisation with change I structure and
culture.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment, it has been concluded that organisational structure is an
important aspect which needs to be considered and must be evaluated at specific period of time
with the help of which it could be known that about how much time period changes are to be
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made in the processes. In addition to this, with the help of knowing advantages and
disadvantages, negative impacts could be reduced and positive could be availed. Lastly, the
importance of influences should be considered in the organisations for the betterment and growth
of the organisation to manage people working in an organisation in an ethical way.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cheese, P., 2016. Managing risk and building resilient organisations in a riskier world. Journal
of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance. 3(3). pp.323-331.
French, R. and Rees, G. eds., 2016. Leading, managing and developing people. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Goffee, R. and Scase, R., 2015. Corporate Realities (Routledge Revivals): The Dynamics of
Large and Small Organisations. Routledge.
Harris, H., 2016. Managing Business Performance: The Science and the Art (pp. 241-244).
Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons', The Contribution of Love, and Hate, to
Organizational Ethics (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Volume 16).
Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Harris, R., 2016. New organisations and new workplaces: Implications for workplace design and
management. Journal of Corporate Real Estate. 18(1). pp.4-16.
Hopkins, B. and Markham, J., 2018. E-HR: using intranets to improve the effectiveness of your
people. Routledge.
Kamoche, K. and et. al., 2015. The dynamics of managing people in the diverse cultural and
institutional context of Africa. Personnel Review. 44(3). pp.330-345.
Malik, A. and Rowley, C. eds., 2015. Business models and people management in the Indian IT
industry: From people to profits. Routledge.
Mayo, A., 2016. Human resources or human capital?: Managing people as assets. Routledge.
Moxen, J. and Strachan, P., 2017. Managing green teams: environmental change in
organisations and networks. Routledge.
Sawalha, I. H. S., 2015. Managing adversity: understanding some dimensions of organizational
resilience. Management research review. 38(4). pp.346-366.
Taylor, T., Doherty, A. and McGraw, P., 2015. Managing people in sport organizations: A
strategic human resource management perspective. Routledge.
Thomas, P., 2017. Integrating Primary Healthcare: leading, managing, facilitating. CRC Press.
Online
THIS IS NOT JUST ANY CAREER. THIS IS A DELICIOUSLY SURPRISING, FUTURE
DEFINING M&S FOOD CAREER. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://careers.marksandspencer.com/taxonomy/term/41>
ORGANISING THE FUTURE: THE INDIVIDUALIZED CORPORATION. 2019. [Online].
Available Through: <http://www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com/2005/06/30/organising-the-
future-the-individualized-corporation/>
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