Sainsbury's: Leadership, Management, and Business Strategies Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Sainsbury's, a major supermarket chain in the UK. It begins with an introduction to the company, its market position, and historical context. The main body delves into Sainsbury's vision, leadership style (primarily democratic), and management practices, including employee engagement and rewards systems. The report explores the trait theory of leadership and its application within Sainsbury. It then examines the company culture and various management styles (autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire), discussing their impact on business functions and strategies. Recommendations are made for improving leadership and management, including the potential adoption of transformational leadership and the use of employee surveys. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of leadership and management practices for future growth and success.

Context of Business-2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction of Sainsbury........................................................................................................1
2. Vision, leadership style and management practices ...............................................................2
3. Culture and its management style............................................................................................3
4. Recommendation.....................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business refers to the process of buying and selling of goods and services for the purpose
of earning profit. It deals with number of transactions for continuing its operations for future
course of action (Hammer, 2015). It consists of risks and uncertainties.
Present study will be based on Sainsbury. It is the third largest chain of supermarket in
the United Kingdom.
Report will include brief history of the Sainsbury. It will also include vision, leadership
style and management practices. Furthermore, it will include influence of management style and
business functions and recommendations for the improvement in leadership style, management
practices and various strategies.
MAIN BODY
1. Introduction of Sainsbury
Sainsbury is the third largest chain of supermarkets in United Kingdom with a share of
16.9% in supermarket sector. It is the largest retailer of groceries. After sometime Tesco
takeover Sainsbury to become the market leader and in addition to it Asda came in the second
position by demotivating it and came into third place. It started firstly with fresh foods and then
it expanded its market into packed grocery item such as tea and sugar (Storey, 2016). It was
combined in a private company as J. Sainsbury Limited when it is the largest retailer of
groceries. It provides quality product and lower price to its customers. It's each shop consist of
different departments that are dairy, hams, poultry and fresh meats. It is also provided home
delivery services although there were few cars in that time. At that time products are displayed in
front of coolers during summers as there is no availability of refrigerator. It has over 128 shops
in the United Kingdom. After his death the shop is run by his eldest son. Product offerings and
leadership is also maintained in absence of John James Sainsbury.
It is developing its own brand goods with the aim of offering the best quality and cheap
products in the market. It became public in 1973 and it was wholly owned by family. For the
purpose of entering into this sector Sainsbury gone into joint venture that will be known as
Savacentre. Its first shop was opened in Washington. It's rivalry firms are Asda and Tesco who
has expanded their market into United Kingdom for becoming leader in the marketplace. It also
expanded its business operations in Scotland (Yahaya and Ebrahim, 2016). It relaunched its
brand and named as M&C Saatchi
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that includes the logo of company in orange colour. Slogan that is being framed is “Making life
taste better” that will be replaced from old slogan of Sainsbury.
2. Vision, leadership style and management practices
Vision of Sainsbury is to become most trusted retailer for the customers and people love
to buy things from shops. They give customers first priority and investing in stores so that
customers will have best shopping experience.
Leadership style that is being used in Sainsbury is Democratic leadership style. It is also
known as participative leadership style. It is a type of style that involve followers of the leader to
participate in decision making process. In this every employee is getting an opportunity to get
involved in the activities of the company (Rawat and et.al., 2019). In Sainsbury employees are
involved in decision making process that will facilitate in bringing new ideas and thoughts that
can be implemented for growth of the company. This helps in improving efficiency of doing
work in Sainsbury. If employees are involved in organizational activities they cannot feel alone
and contribute more towards their work. It is beneficial when the problem is not getting solved
then employees will involve in giving solutions that may help in solving.
As different people is having different minds so there are possibilities in finding solution
to the problem. In addition to it this leadership style respect the ideas of employees that will
serve for the betterment for future course of action. In Sainsbury, employees are treated equally
such as they are also having right to take decision for the company. This will lead to increase
profitability and productivity of Sainsbury as different ideas are gathered and then solution will
be made by it (Arnold and et. Al., 2015). Values and moral of employee is also maintained in
Sainsbury. This style helps in sharing ideas and information that is available with particular
employee of the company. Hence, this leadership style helps in motivating employees for doing
work for future course of action.
Management practices followed in Sainsbury is employee engagement it helps in
improving productivity as well as profitability of the company. It will create job satisfaction
among employees as they are more involving in the activities that will help in growth of it. There
is less absenteeism of workers as they are not taking leave and more engaged in the work. They
feel safe and secure at the workplace that will improve their productivity. This management
practice also decrease employee turnover and employees will stay for longer duration of time in
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Sainsbury. This practice also bring happiness among employees as they are engaged more in
their work and interacting with other employees.
Another management practice used is providing rewards and incentives for their work
done in Sainsbury (Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube, 2015). If employees are doing good
work then they will be given extra benefits and rewards. This practice helps in motivating
employees to do work effectively and efficiently. This will help in growth and profitability for
the company.
Theory of leadership
Trait theory of leadership
This theory states that different people is having different qualities and characteristics
that will help in defining nature of that person. These traits will help in differentiating people
based on their characteristics and quality. There are some traits that will help in differentiating
effective leader and non effective leader such as confidence, intelligence, honesty and
knowledge. This theory helps in identifying different traits of an employee. In Sainsbury
different employee is having different traits so they will do work accordingly in the company.
This will help in getting knowledge about traits of employees who are working (Asrar-ul-Haq
and Kuchinke, 2016). These traits will have an impact on behaviour of employees in Sainsbury.
3. Culture and its management style
There are different types of management style that is being used in companies such as
autocratic, democratic and Laissez faire.
Autocratic style of management refers to the process in which leader is having power to
control the decision for the company. In this leader not involve its subordinates to participate in
decision making process or other activities of business. They take decision on their own and did
not involve its subordinates into decision making. This style will affect culture in the company as
there is no involvement of subordinates so they will feel alone and cannot indulge in activities of
business. This will influence working of the company as there is no involvement of employees in
Sainsbury. This will also impact functions as if employee are not known to each other then this
will create differences among them. This will influence working as well as operations of the
company (Noe and et. Al., 2017). As in this style there is less involvement of subordinates in the
business. All the decision is being taken by leader. This will influence strategies of business as
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leader and member are not much involved with each other. Therefore, this style will influence
strategies of Sainsbury company.
Democratic style of management in which leader involve its subordinate in decision
making process. In this style business function will be influenced as planning may sometimes
lead to create problem for the future course of action. There are internal factors that affect culture
as different employee is coming from different culture so there is cultural diversification in the
company that will influence culture of Sainsbury. In this style subordinates is involving in
decision making process so that it will benefit company as diverse ideas are getting from
different employees (Gutierrez-Gutierrez, Barrales-Molina and Kaynak, 2018). This will
influence functioning as well as working environment that will lead by the company.
Lassiez-faire style of management also known as delegative leadership in this leader and
subordinates are not depended on each other for making decision. Leader allow its subordinate to
do whatever it want to do and then inform to leader what is their planning in achieving
organizational objectives. This will lead to lower down productivity of employees in Sainsbury.
This will also influence culture as well as business function as there are employees who are
coming from different geographical location so it will affect working of it.
For example: In Sainsbury there are different employees working they all are from
different culture and follow their own culture (Albrecht and et. Al., 2015).This will become
diversification in the company as everyone is having their values and ethics regarding their
culture so it will influence business function as employees are only following their culture and
avoid others so it will sometimes bring conflict among them.
Due to different culture and strategies that is being used in the company will divide
employees according to their culture and that will have greater impact on operations of business.
Leaders will have greater impact on the operations of business. There are so many cultures that
will affect strategies. Business function will be affected through various strategies that is being
developed in the country. There are so many other factors such as suppliers that will affect
business function as they are not providing raw material in adequate quantity. Different functions
that will have affect on the various strategies will impact on various forms of business. As there
are different management style that is being followed in Sainsbury.
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4. Recommendation
From the above study it can be recommended that leadership style and management
practice can be improved as democratic style of leadership is being followed by Sainsbury. It can
use transformational style of leadership that will enhance in bringing changes in the company.
As transformational leadership style helps in growth as well as brings more opportunities in
Sainsbury in future course of action. Bringing changes will lead to transform policies and
procedures that will enhance growth for future. This will lead to bring new opportunity through
use of various strategies in the business. These can be achieved by adopting new technology in
the business. This will create more growth in future. As survey can be done in the company for
analyzing which leadership style best suited for Sainsbury (Rostamzadeh and et. Al., 2015).
Questionnaire is to be given to employees for completing it by giving their views in it. Then on
the basis of survey it will be decided that which style is being followed for achieving success in
the company.
The decision will be made based on results that are being found from the survey that is
being conducted in the company. As employee engagement can be emphasized by organizing
various recreational activities in Sainsbury. These activities help in improving communication
between employees that will lead to engage workers in work for their growth. There are so many
practices that can be done to improve these practices. As if employees are motivated then they
will perform better in the company. These practices may enhance various opportunities for
employees. If employees are happy they will participate in activities of organization. This will
bring more opportunities and will help in bringing many ways into evaluate performance of
them. This will affect functioning of various strategies that will create development of employees
(Autocratic leadership style, 2018). Rewards and incentives are based upon work that is being
done by employee. Therefore, leadership style and management practice will enhance growth
and bringing more opportunities in future course of action.
CONCLUSION
As per the above study it can be said that vision, leadership style and management
practice plays a crucial role in the company. Without vision company cannot achieve success and
achieve its goals and objectives for future course. Leadership style will bring changes in the
business policies and procedures that will lead to growth and bring more opportunities for
employees. It can be interpreted that transformational style of leadership will help in bringing
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changes and that will lead to transform operations of business. Management practices will also
influence employee to do work better for achieving success in the future course of action.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Albrecht, S.L and et. Al., 2015. Employee engagement, human resource management practices
and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational
Effectiveness: People and Performance. 2(1).pp.7-35.
Amanchukwu, R.N., Stanley, G.J. and Ololube, N.P., 2015. A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1),
pp.6-14.
Arnold, K.A and et. Al., 2015. Leadership styles, emotion regulation, and burnout. Journal of
Occupational Health Psychology. 20(4).p.481.
Asrar-ul-Haq, M. and Kuchinke, K.P., 2016. Impact of leadership styles on employees’ attitude
towards their leader and performance: Empirical evidence from Pakistani banks. Future
Business Journal, 2(1), pp.54-64.
Gutierrez-Gutierrez, L.J., Barrales-Molina, V. and Kaynak, H., 2018. The role of human
resource-related quality management practices in new product development: A dynamic
capability perspective. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management. 38(1). pp.43-66.
Hammer, M., 2015. What is business process management?. In Handbook on business process
management 1 (pp. 3-16). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Noe, R.A and et. Al., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Rawat, P.S and et.al., 2019. Women Organization Commitment: Role of the Second Career &
Their Leadership Styles. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 54(3).
Rostamzadeh, R and et. Al., 2015. Application of fuzzy VIKOR for evaluation of green supply
chain management practices. Ecological Indicators. 49.pp.188-203.
Storey, D.J., 2016. Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.
Yahaya, R. and Ebrahim, F., 2016. Leadership styles and organizational commitment: literature
review. Journal of Management Development.35(2). pp.190-216.
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autocratic-leadership-style-examples>
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