MG411 People Management: Skills, Leadership & Contemporary Issues

This report provides an overview of people management within the context of UK organizations, specifically focusing on Marks & Spencer as a case study. It addresses the knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary for effective people management, including leadership and management theories. The report differentiates between the roles of leaders and managers, analyzes leadership approaches, and discusses contemporary issues faced by line management, such as recruitment, selection, training, and development. Furthermore, it examines performance management systems, appraisal methods, and the use of management by objectives (MBO) to enhance employee performance. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of these elements in achieving organizational success and sustainability. Desklib provides comprehensive study resources, including past papers and solved assignments.

Introduction to People Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report briefly outlines topics such as human resource management, integration of
human resource and nonhuman assets in order to accomplish business success and productivity
at work. The issues faced while managing human resource and performance management
methods and appraisal systems.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
Knowledge Skills and Behaviours needed to be an effective people manager. Give Company
examples for each one along with theories:.....................................................................................4
Contemporary Issues face line management faces when it comes to People Management............7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Employees in a business acts like building blocks, thus, it become crucial to maintain,
develop and manage the workforce of an organisation. Employees in an organisation requires
leadership and management, training and development, appraisals and performance management
so that potentials can be utilized fully with optimum utilization of resources and maximum
results. This report is in the context of Marks & Spencer which is a British multinational brand
that offers variety of products and services to its international customers. Marks & Spencer was
founded in the year 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. This multinational brand is
headquartered in London, UK. Taking Marks & Spencer as a chosen business organisation this
report outlines people management and how HR helps to manage the workforce of an
organisation. This report also reflects skills required for managing people by people manager, the
issues faced while managing the people, the HR process for performance management
(Alagaraja, Cumberland and Choi, 2015).
MAIN BODY
Knowledge Skills and Behaviours needed to be an effective people manager.
Give Company examples for each one along with theories:
Topic One-
Leadership and Management
1.Introduction
The discussion talks about what is leadership, what is management, comparison of characteristics
of manager and the leaders, differentiation between role of leader and functions of manager,
different theories and approaches of leadership.
2.Define what is leadership and give examples of leadership in organisation of your choice.
Leadership is everything for managing human capital it involves delivering appropriate guidance
and assistance to the human capital in the workplace. In Marks & Spencer there are different
functional units such as finance department, sales department, marketing department are being

deployed by different leaders who are delegated with the responsibility of managing and
execution of the organisational objectives (James, 2017).
3.Define what is a management and give examples of leadership in organisation of your choice.
Management can be determined as integration of human capital and non-human resources in
order to accomplish organisational objectives. Marks & Spencer deploys human resource
management team that look after training, development and information technology to integrate
the actions to earn best possible results.
4.Discuss 5 characteristic of a manager and compare these with 5 characteristics of a leader.
Looking at the characteristics of managers:
Transparency
A manager should manage the business activity with utmost transparency and reliability with
true information and knowledge.
Excellent communication
Managers must have excellent communication skills wherein they must be accountable and
answerable for their work (Knies, Leisink and Van De Schoot, 2020).
Listening skills
A manager must ascertain good listening skills that means he/she must rightly manage all the
business activities and address the commands and decision taken by the top-level executives.
Appreciation and encouraging team
A manager must be optimistic wherein he/she should appreciate and encourage teams, deliver
positive feedbacks to the employees and appreciate their efforts.
Consistency and reliability
Manager must be consistent towards work and manage all the business activity with utmost
reliability.
Characteristics of leaders:

Ability to delegate
A leader must ascertain characteristics wherein he/she should be able to delegate work to
subordinates.
Empathy
A leader must be empathetic towards subordinates so that they feel comfortable and stimulated
towards work.
Communication
Communication plays in a very important role wherein the leader must be a good communicator
of organizations objectives and standards to be met.
Courage
A leader must be courageous of taking risk and managing flexible changes in the organisation.
Learning agility
A leader must be a quick learner of unfamiliar circumstances to manage different business
challenges and opportunities with the best of the knowledge and skills.
5.Analyse and differentiate between the role of a leader and functions of a manager by
effectively applying a range of theories and concepts to your organisation.
Marks & Spencer uses contemporary management theory while managing the higher production
cost. Managers in Marks & Spencer optimally utilizes the resources, negotiate with suppliers in
order to minimize the cost incurred in the production activities. Wherein the leaders stimulate
and encourage employees well managing new supplies and stabilizing the consistency in
performance outcomes (Lu and et.al., 2015).
Behavioural theory of management
Leaders in Marks & Spencer uses transformational leadership for managing the operational
activities and scrutinizing the performances of the employees.
(6) Critically analyse and evaluate the different theories and approaches to leadership in given
contexts.

Leaders in Marks & Spencer encourages the employees and supports them for accomplishing
best outcomes with fuller potentials.
On the other side manager in Marks & Spencer have to perform different functions such as
delegating work, designing working with heads and scheduling different targets to be met in the
organisation. Apart from that, manager also have to formulate strategies and decisions for
executing the organisational objectives.
Situation leadership
Leaders in Marks & Spencer follows situation leadership wherein employees are guided to meet
the expectations of the business to different organisational context.
System leadership
System leadership is used by Marks & Spencer in order to manage employee performance and
maintaining the flow of effective communication to different organisational context.
Conclusion
Leaders and manager works in collaboration with each other in order to communicate the vision
and objectives of the business and manage different business activity to accomplish the
organisational success and sustainability. In Marks and Spencer focuses on employee oriented
approaches in order to motivate employees, deliver effective training and development in order
to accomplish better outcome at work (Mazur, 2015).
Contemporary Issues face line management faces when it comes to People
Management.
INTRODUCTION
- Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment and selection is determined by choosing the most desirable candidate and matching
the skills and competencies with the job requirement of the organisation. There are certain
contemporary issues faced by Marks & Spencer for recruiting and selection, these are as:

Lack of qualified candidates
Getting the qualified candidate is the most difficult step as it is very time consuming and incurs
huge cost to identify the most skilled and desirable candidate out of the pool of large number of
individuals.
- Training and Development
Training and management involves brushing up the skills and knowledge and delivering learning
activities to the employees so that they employees are able to manage different business
functions and work as per the working standard set by the organisation. Certain contemporary
issues faced by Marks & Spencer in training in management discussed below:
Dealing with the change
With the increasing globalization and increased technological advancement, there are a large
number of changes that are taking place in the business environment. Where it becomes difficult
to grasp the changes in the business environment (Obedgiu, 2017).
Conclusion
The above discussion talks about recruitment and selection, training and management in the
workplace which is in crucial element in order to manage team and develop the workforce.
Marks & Spencer should stay updated to the changes in the business environment in order to find
out the desirable human resource and develop flexible amendments in the business activities.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND STAFF APPRAISALS-500
WORDS
2.Definition of a Performance Management System.
Performance management is determined by managing the performances of the employees at
work in order to identify the weaknesses and strengths and to ensure that each and every
employee in the organisation works as per the predetermined working standards of the business.
3.Purpose of Performance Management System
The main purpose behind performance management system in the workplaces is to derive the
actual working standards in the workplace by each and every employee. It involves identifying
the strength and working on the grey areas.
4.Uses of Performance Management
Performance management in Marks & Spencer helps the business organisation in order to control
and monitor the performances of the employees. Marks & Spencer uses performance
management in order to establish a relationship with the employees and the company. Marks &
Spencer carries out appraisals in every 12 months. Apart from that, Marks & Spencer formulates
review plan in order to evaluate productivity and ensure that the expectations and the targets are
met on time. The business executives in Marks & Spencer carriers training in development
programs in order to ensure that each and every employee is competent enough to match the
working standards set by the business (Turulja and Bajgoric, 2018).
5.Definition of Performance Standards. Description of Performance Appraisal Process (with
company examples.)
Performance standard can be justified by the expectation and the requirement that a business sets
in order to meet the specific level of working standards. The main purpose behind for
performance standard is to ensure that each and every employee are running on the same page.
Marks & Spencer runs performance appraisal process which involves measuring the
performances of the employees and matching them with the working standards of the business.

Human resource manager in Marks & Spencer delivers feedbacks about the performances of
each employee and directs them about the performance level and the improvements that they
need to address in the performances.
6.Performance Appraisal Methods (Outline only).
Performance appraisal methods are determined by evaluation of the performance of each and
every employee at a point of time. There are different methods of appraisal such as grading, trait
based appraisals, 360 reviews, ranking appraisals, and others.
7.Multisource 360% Performance Appraisal System (Describe and explain its advantages and
disadvantages). Give company examples
360 performance appraisal is a method of performance appraisal involves gathering feedback
about a particular employee from every sources that comes in contact with that employee. These
involves feedbacks from peers, managers, subordinates, customers, suppliers. In Marks &
Spencer before delivering appraisals to the employees, 360-degree feedback is used by the
human resource manager in order to evaluate the performances of the employees at work.
Advantages
360-degree feedback used by Marks & Spencer helps to increase accountability, builds
confidence and reduces leader and employee turnover.
Disadvantages
It might involve biased feedbacks and less reliable information.
8.Management by Objectives (Describe and explain how your organisation uses MBO.)
Management by objectives is determined by a strategic management model that is used by Marks
& Spencer for the primary purpose of enhancing the performances of employees by rightly
addressing the objectives and expectations that are to be completion to both employees and
management. Management of objectives used by Marks & Spencer helps to integrate the efforts
and utilize them into best possible potentials and resources to accomplish better outcomes
(Warner ed., 2020).
Conclusion

The above discussion talks about performance management and appraisal system which is a
crucial part of any business in order to evaluate the overall business performance at a specific
point of time.
CONCLUSION
Thus, at last it can be said that the above report outlined different topics such as
managing people, skills and characteristics ascertained by the managers and leaders at workplace
in order to rightly address organisational objectives different leadership styles that best suits the
business type. Apart from that, the report also reflected about the contemporary issues of
recruitment, training and development. Performance management and staff appraisal,
performance management systems, standard appraisal methods and management by objectives of
briefly discussed.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alagaraja, M., Cumberland, D. M. and Choi, N., 2015. The mediating role of leadership and
people management practices on HRD and organizational performance. Human Resource
Development International. 18(3). pp.220-234.
James, P., 2017. Total quality environmental management and human resource management.
In Greening People (pp. 35-48). Routledge.
Knies, E., Leisink, P. and Van De Schoot, R., 2020. People management: developing and testing
a measurement scale. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 31(6).
pp.705-737.
Lu, C. M. and et.al., 2015. Effect of diversity on human resource management and organizational
performance. Journal of Business Research. 68(4). pp.857-861.
Mazur, B., 2015. Sustainable human resource management. The attempt of holistic
approach. Ekonomia i Zarządzanie. 7(2).
Obedgiu, V., 2017. Human resource management, historical perspectives, evolution and
professional development. Journal of Management Development.
Turulja, L. and Bajgoric, N., 2018. Information technology, knowledge management and human
resource management: Investigating mutual interactions towards better organizational
performance. VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems.
Warner, M. ed., 2020. Human resource management in China revisited. Routledge.