Analysis of Primark: Leadership, Management, and Business Context

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Primark's business context, leadership styles, and management practices. It begins with a brief history of the company and explores its vision and leadership approaches, including opportunist and bureaucratic styles, as well as the application of Theory X and Y. The report examines how Primark implements these strategies, emphasizing employee motivation, equal opportunities, and the importance of adapting to the needs of customers. It also offers recommendations for improving leadership and management, focusing on the qualities a manager needs for international market success. The report highlights the importance of personality, knowledge, communication, and motivational skills for effective leadership, concluding that these elements are essential for achieving both short-term and long-term goals, particularly in a global business environment.

CONTEXT OF
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1Summary and brief history of Primark.........................................................................................
2 Company's vision, leadership styles and management strategies.................................................
3 Analyse how the above have been achieved or implemented.......................................................
4 Recommendations as an improvement leadership and management practices...........................
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Every business organisation whether big or small requires appropriate leadership and
management styles to work in a coordinated manner. In the absence of these styles organisations
will not be able to achieve their desired and targeted goals. The various leadership styles and
management approaches direclty helps the organisations in increasing the market share . Primark
is one of the biggest fashion retailer located in London, UK(Becker, 2013). This report will
consist of the various leadership styles used by Primark for achieving their long term and short
term goals(Becker, 2013). The various management strategies will also be discussed in this
which the organisation is currently using for the formulation of its future plans and actions. This
will include Theory X and Y, opportunist leadership style, bureaucratic leadership style, etc.
1Summary and brief history of Primark.
Primark is one of the fastest growing fashion retailer in the world. Its first store was
launched in the year 1969 and its headquarter is located in United Kingdom. Arthur Ryan is the
founder of Primark. Company deals in a wide range of products while some of the main products
of the organisation are woman and men's wear, children and new born clothing and footwear's.
There are approx 70, 000 employees working is the organisation with the motive of earning high
profits. Company owns approx 350 stores in various parts of the world and its business is
continuously at the growth stage. Largest store of Primark till date is in Manchester which is
spread in 155,000 square ft. company is currently running its business in eleven developed and
developing countries. The major motive of the organisation is decrease the price of the products
and to increase its standards(Dugan and Komives, 2011). Company has seen rapid growth in
some recent years because the management is able to make products as per the needs and
demands of its valuable customer's.
Company's Rationale
The major objective of choosing Primark is the company focuses on improving their
business by motivating and encouraging its employee's on regular basis. Company also tries to
provide maximum satisfaction to its customer's by maintaining a trust and healthy relationship
with is customer's. Company mainly follows opportunist leadership style. The leader or the
manager of the organisation gives equal opportunities to each and every employee's. Due to this
the satisfaction level of the employee's are continuously increasing . Company also focuses on

introducing new and innovative techniques for the production of their products. As due to this
Primark is able to achieve the competitive advantage in the market for longer period of time. It is
seen that the employees of organisation motivate each other to work in the coordinated and
sequential manner. Since the company is planning to introduced its business in the international
market so the leadership style and management practice will help the organisation in planning
the strategies for international market. It is seen that company not only tasks care of its
employee's and customer's but also does regular CSR activities to satisfy the society in which its
operates. So it will be easy for the organisation to function properly in international as well as
domestic market(Hannah, Lord and Pearce, 2011).
2 Company's vision, leadership styles and management strategies
Vision of Primark is to manage each and every activity in a sequential manner so that
work is not hampered and the goals are achieved effectively. One of the important mision of
Primark is to provide good quality products to its customer's at affordable prices. Organisation is
doing this by using innovative promotional strategies to attract more and more customer's in the
least possible time. This vision was formed with a motive of giving tough competition to its
competitors and gaining a desirable position in the fashion and retail industry. As the company
has a value for its financial resources so the management make appropriate plans before
investing the fund for any new product.
Leadership Style
Leadership styles guides and motivates the employee's of every organisation to carry out
their assigned task in the most desirable manner. So every organisation needs experienced
leaders who knows how to work and convert the complex task into easy one. The leader or
manager must try to know their employee's. So that they can extract best work from them. If
every work is properly managed than their be good working environment in the organisation and
the superior subordinate relationship will also be maintained. There are various leadership styles
some among them include -democratic, autocratic and lasses faire. In Primark the leadership
style is effective because the company uses opportunist leadership style. Organisation uses this
style to maintain its performance in the market and also to increase its market share. By using
this company is able to work in coordinated and planned manner. The employee's of the
organisation is are cooperative and are ready adapt themselves in every situations. Using the
opportunist style the organisational goals and objectives will be easily achieved because every

individual will be getting chance to perform and showcase their talent, knowledge and
skills(Singh, 2016).
Management Practices
Major focus of every organisation is to make appropriate use of leadership and
management techniques for the achievement of individual and organisational goals. But in some
cases many organisations are unable to make the best use of management theories and practices.
This is because the organisations have less knowledge about these theories. The management
practices will help the management of Primark to increase the potential and capabilities of the
employee's working in Primark. Some of the major management practices used by Primark the
company follow regular reward system for the potential employee's. Organisation also believes
in regularly motivating and encouraging the employee's so that they are able to give their best
output. Primark also provides trainings and engage the employee's in the process of decision-
making so that the employee's know how to work. These management practices will directly help
in the achievement of organisational goals because the employee's will be motivated and
encouraged to perform better(Lipman-Blumen, 2014).
Different strategies made by using various theories.
Management is the continuous process of performing the functions and activities in a
desirable manner. These process requires making best use of raw materials, customers, suppliers
and the employee's working in the organisation. These activities can be done by planning,
coordinating, organising and leading the employee's. Primark major focus is to provide rewards,
incentives, bonus and training programmes to its valuable employee's. All these strategies are
important for the productivity and performance of the employee's and organisation. Primark
leader is currently using Theory X and Y for the betterment of its employees. As per this theory
the employee's of Primark can be divided into two categories.
Theory X
Employee's of Primark falling in this category are less dedicated towards their work and
task assigned to them. These employee's are to be regularly motivated by the leaders.
Theory Y
These types of employee's in Primark are hard working and talented. They get motivate
as per their needs and wants and work accordingly.

3 Analyse how the above have been achieved or implemented
If Primark wants proper growth and development of this business than company can
focus on using the above leadership and management styles in the desirable manner. But for
achieving this Primark need to take help of its valuable employee's as they will play a major role
in it. These practices will automatically lead to the achievement of increase in market share and
profitability of the organisation(Lumby and Morrison, 2010). In Primark opportunist leadership
style is being used. This means every employee get equal opportunity for their individual growth
and development. Whereas on the other hand Primark is using Theory X and Y in which
employee's are divided into two categories. These styles and practices are directly helping the
manager to take desirable actions for the future course of action. Employee's needs to be
motivated on the regular basis so that the chances of error and demotivation is reduced. By using
Theory X and Y management of Primark will be able to know the nature and characteristic of its
employee's. This is because with the help of this manager can know how to motivate and
influence the work of employees. Employee's falling in the category of Theory Y are self
motivated so the management can focus on Theory X employee's for motivating them. Most of
the decisions can be made keeping in mind the motivation level of employee's. Since company is
increasing its business at the international level so motivation of employees is very much
necessary. This is because the plans and strategies of domestic market will be very much
different as compared to plans for international market. The working environment will be also be
very much different so for this it is very much necessary that employee's are properly motivated
and encouraged to work in the uncertain business environment. For example if one employee is
hard working and the other employee is less dedicated than management can focus on
demotivated employee's to improve their performance and productivity. Manager can use various
monetary and incentives methods to for the improvement in employee's performance.
Manager of Primark can also involve the employee's for taking the important decisions of
the organisation. As by doing this the employee's will automatically perform better because they
will be given responsibilities at the workplace. As the company is using opportunist leadership
style so demotivated employee's can also be given equal opportunities so that they can work in
appropriate manner. Primark can maintain adequate working environment in the organisation.
This means better relationship can be made between the superior and the subordinate in the
organisation. So that the chances of conflicts is reduced and employee's are satisfied with their

work. If the employee's will be satisfied than they will automatically serve their customer's
better. Primark can improve the internal working structure by taking suggestions from its
employee's and also be keeping in mind the strategies of its competitors. Competitors strategies
must be known so that company can have a idea for the future plans. Various department of
Primark can also be divided into different teams. So the work is properly coordinated and
chances of duplication of work is reduced(Meyers and Van Woerkom, 2014). Use of
management practices and leadership styles will lead to achievement of long term and short term
goals in the effective and efficient manner.
4 Recommendations as an improvement leadership and management practices.
Leadership can be defined as the ability to convince and guide people so that they can
complete the assigned task. A good leader and manager is the one who can handle the problems
in the best possible manner and find probable solutions to the problems. There are some qualities
which the manager of Primark must have if the company wants to successfully introduce its
business in the international market. The major qualities are-
Personality- Manager of Primark must have good personality and must be
understanding. This means the manager must be able to know its subordinates well so that their
success can be achieved in the best possible manner.
Knowledge- Manager must have adequate knowledge about the project so that plans can
be made for the effective functioning. Having adequate knowledge will help in dealing with the
uncertain risk and problems of international market.
Communication skills- The communication skills of manager of Primark must be proper
so that good working environment in the organisation can be maintained. The goals and
objectives of the organisation can also be communicated to the employee's so that they know
what is expected from them at the workplace(Russ, 2011).
Motivational skills- The manager of Primark must be good motivator to his subordinate.
So that they perform well and in case of any problems employee's can be motivated and proper
guidance can be given to them with the help of good motivational skills.
The recommendation for the manager of Primark is to use proper democratic leadership
style. As in this the ideas of subordinates will also be taken into consideration be the
management of the organisation. Company uses Theory X and Y so plans can be made by using

this theory for motivating its employee's(Nohria and Khurana, 2010). Manager can also provide
various incentives and benefits to its employee's to maintain their motivation level.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can stated that leadership style helps in knowing the
characteristics of the individual in the organisation and also helps the organisation to achieve its
desired target and goals in the best possible manner. Company can adopt various management
and leadership styles. Theory X and Y and Vroom expectancy theory can be used by the
organisation to improve the skills, ability, knowledge and talent of the employee's.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Becker, G.K., 2013. The competitive edge of moral leadership. In Dimensions of teaching
business ethics in Asia (pp. 9-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Dugan, J.P. and Komives, S.R., 2011. Leadership theories. The handbook for student leadership
development. pp.35-57.
Hannah, S.T., Lord, R.G. and Pearce, C.L., 2011. Leadership and collective requisite complexity.
Organizational Psychology Review. 1(3). pp.215-238.
Lipman-Blumen, J., 2014. The essentials of leadership: A historical perspective. In Conceptions
of Leadership (pp. 15-37). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Lumby, J. and Morrison, M., 2010. Leadership and diversity: Theory and research. School
Leadership and Management. 30(1). pp.3-17.
Meyers, M.C. and Van Woerkom, M., 2014. The influence of underlying philosophies on talent
management: Theory, implications for practice, and research agenda. Journal of World
Business. 49(2). pp.192-203.
Nohria, N. and Khurana, R. eds., 2010. Handbook of leadership theory and practice. Harvard
Business Press.
Russ, T.L., 2011. Theory X/Y assumptions as predictors of managers' propensity for participative
decision making. Management Decision. 49(5). pp.823-836.
Singh, R., 2016. The impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators on employee engagement in
information organizations. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science.
57(2). pp.197-206.
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