Analysis of Sainsbury's Leadership and Management Practices

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Assessment - 2
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
A brief history and summary of the business and the rationality................................................3
Discuss the vision, leadership style, management practices and various strategies....................4
Analyse how the above have been achieved and implemented by the company........................6
Give the Recommendation that can be undertaken by the firm...................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Leadership refers to the activities of the company associated with directing, guiding and
influencing the behaviour and work of others with respect to achievement of goals in a given
situation (Podsakoff and Podsakoff, 2019). It is a set of instructions and inductions given by the
manager to their subordinates to work with confidence and passion. It has been defined that
leadership management is process to influence a group of people towards the accomplishment of
goal and company’s objective, it is the ability to convince others to seek defined objectives
passionately.
The present report is based on the leadership style, management practices and various strategies
of the firm, the selected company to carry out this report is Sainsbury’s. It is the second biggest
chain of supermarket in the UK, headquarter situated in Holborn, London, UK.
Main Body
A brief history and summary of the business and the rationality
The selected company that is Sainsbury supermarket was founded in 1869. It is the partnership
firm operated by John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury in Holborn, London. There are 440
Sainsbury‘s stores in the UK approximately, 23000 products and 170 supermarkets in the north-
eastern United States (Tasi, et al. 2019). It started with the vision of providing its customers with
the best butter in the world at a reasonable rate or price. Sainsbury began as a retailer of fresh
foods and afterwards expanded into packaged groceries such as tea, sugar, milk. Sainsbury
started its business in 1869 which was owned and operated by its family, in 1973 it became
public, and the general organisation held the majority of shares (80%). The subsidiaries of the
Sainsbury are - Sainsbury’s Bank, Sainsbury Supermarket Ltd, Sainsbury local Argos, habitat
and nectar. Sainsbury has started providing financial services through its bank and also began
diversifying its portfolio. The organizational structure of the Sainsbury’s is very much flexible
towards its employees because it always gives preferences to the organizational and their
requirements. Sainsbury deals with the financial services also such as Sainsbury entertainment,
Sainsbury bank, general merchandise, pharmacy and joint venture services as well (Carr-Ruffino,
2019).
The rationale for choosing Sainsbury is; it has a wide range of services and quality food and
grocery products. The management and organizational pattern of the Sainsbury are very flexible
and easily adaptable by its employees. In today business’s world, it is changing quickly because
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of changing in the environment, change in customer demand, increased competition between
industries, rival firms etc. Therefore, Sainsbury follows various strategies to handle the same
such as Change management (internal and external factors); regarding human resource and
managerial behaviour, demographic factors technological advancement, social and economic
issues and market changes. Bureaucracy in Sainsbury’s concerned with efficiency, a rigid chain
of order and division of labour with clear rationality such as job specialisation, rules and
regulation and employment and career. Furthermore, the company uses total quality management
and Kaizen to improve its overall organisational performance which is a fundamental rationale
for choosing this business for the report. In addition to the same, strategies or tactics are followed
by Sainsbury are as follows - advertisement, print media, online marketing, meetings and word
of mouth.
Discuss the vision, leadership style, management practices and various strategies
Figure 1: Vision Statement
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visio
n
products
and
services
at fair
proces
flexible
policies
great
quality
food
custmor
satisfactio
n

The primary vision of Sainsbury is to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction by
delivering products of outstanding quality at the lowest price and try to meet organisational
goals, also providing excellent services at a competitive cost.
Sainsbury is the leading UK food retailer, and leadership style is the way and approach to
providing direction, motivating people and implementing plans. There are four styles of
leadership; these are - autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire and bureaucratic. All leadership style
has an impact on the employee’s overall performance of the Sainsbury. The Autocratic
leadership style is usually regarded as an outdated technique of leadership theory. Under this
style, manager and supervisors give the instructions to their subordinates, it may produce
excellent results in a shorter time, but the extreme authority will decrease the productivity and
performance of employees of the Sainsbury.
Further, Democratic style of leadership is also known as participative or well-managed style
because it encourages people to be a part of the organization. Laissez-faire style of leadership is
also known as hands-off style; under this theory, a decision is based on the capacity of
employees whenever the leader let them. The technique is only used when leaders are positive
towards their workforce. At last Bureaucratic leadership follows the rules and regulation
correctly; everything must be done according to the policy of the organization.
Therefore, the cited company that is Sainsbury follows the Democratic style of leadership, it is
very common and most trended collegial style. Democratic method is required in a dynamic and
vastly changing environment in the company, where a few can be taken as a constant. This style
is encouraging employees to share their idea, facilitating conversation between supervisor and
subordinates and after that synthesising all ideas and information into the best potential outcome
of the mentioned company that is Sainsbury. Having a democratic leadership style in
organization encourages - healthy discussion, focused goal, coordinated employees and managed
operations within the organization of Sainsbury.
The cited organization, i.e. Sainsbury uses following management practices and strategy to
achieve and accomplish organizational goal and objectives and to increase the productivity and
profitability-
Workers participation – Involvement of workers are more essential and enthusiastic nowadays.
So taking part in decision-making process become more productive with respect to a sited firm
that is Sainsbury.
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Create culture cohesiveness- It is a sound management practices to make new hires based on an
alignment with the organization’s core principles and objective.
Focus team effort- Teamwork is focused on ongoing team dynamics and leads to achieve a
targeted goal of the management. More emphasis on group development can lead to higher
attainment towards the goal and become more productive.
Be clear- This is the main problem of Sainsbury; workers may face this situation every day.
Therefore the company’s need to focus on the alignment of core values by following various
principles (Hallinger and Hammad, 2019).
Provide feedback – It is fundamental management skill, the capability to provide general
feedback to workers of Sainsbury in the way to encourages and motivates.
Training and development- To provide appropriate training to employees such as conducting
seminar workshop etc. in the organization.
Provide financial support when it’s genuinely needed- To offer financial support as well as
emotional support to the employees so that employee builds goodwill and loyalty.
Analyse how the above have been achieved and implemented by the company
There are some specific examples through which company can adopt various leadership styles
and achieve the organizational goals. If considering inventory management in Sainsbury in
democratic leadership style, it has been identified that the cited organization follows the
democratic leadership approach in inventory management so it will be result in high employees
morale and motivation (Roughton, et al 2019). In terms of inventory department democratic
leadership style can be used when there is a need to align the resources. Democratic leaders are
usually more facilitator or innovator as compare to others such as autocratic leaders or
bureaucratic leaders. In the inventory management, the supervisor of this department trusts their
employees that subordinates will make the decision and supervise the work that enable the
department to attain aim (Grissom, 2019). This style can lead to high morale and employees feel
a part of the decision making process. Talking about Sainsbury’s inventory management
practices, the democratic leadership style will help to take quick decisions as soon as possible
because under this there is no requirement of asking supervisors for day to day operations
(Kohtamäki, 2019). Also, for managing the inventory operations, democratic leadership
approach is appropriate as it will enable to divide the work load among the team associates so
that the leader or manager does not feel burdened.
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There are some tactics present which can be applied in the mentioned organization that is
Sainsbury to increase productivity and morale of employees. If considering the above
management practices “workers participation” in the cited organization, following factors to be
considered for increasing the same are as follows-
1. High motivation, most of the organization use team to complete the task and projects ,when
the workers of the Sainsbury are participating with others in effective manner high-production
can be seen (Julian, et al.2019).
2. Boost influence and energy, it also boosts energy, coordination, mutual trust, faith, values
and capacity level of employees by focusing workers participation in the organization.
3. Meeting with self-esteem needs, self-actualization need such as reputation, appreciation of
work, status in society. This element plays a more prominent role in motivating behaviour.
4. Use the buddy system- sometimes employees don’t participate in day to day activities
because may be they are too shy to try new deeds alone. So involve them by conducting various
activities.
5 Give clear vision- to introduce or promote the vision of the company. For instance some
organization has a clear vision of to increase performance level of the company by giving
training and development, performance appraisal (Bush, 2019).
6. Encourage staff - to give confidence with respect to achieving organizational goal smoothly
within the cited firm that is Sainsbury.
7. Security and safety needs - the basic psychological need which includes food, water,
breathing, and home. Such needs also include shelter, hospital and clothing.
Give the Recommendation that can be undertaken by the firm
It has been identified that the mentioned company is using democratic leadership style within its
organization which is very effective and supportive for achieving organizational goal and
mission (Lämsä and Savla, 2019). However it has been recommended that the company should
use the Transformational leadership style in which a leader set the goals and has high hope.
Transformational leaders create an environment of no blame where the main aim is on the
problem and techniques to resolve the same. These leaders shape a culture where conversation is
directly take place between key people and line people of organization that is Sainsbury. By
using this policy Sainsbury can easily achieve its task, aim and objective by following advantage
- it gives balanced goals (short term and long term) it create trust within the organization because
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the leaders behave with integrity, calmly and passionate also gives great communication with
clarity.
Transformational leadership style can be used by the Sainsbury when the company has long term
vision and mission.
Furthermore, it has been identified that above management practices used by Sainsbury are very
effective and productive for attaining goals and objectives. However, it has been suggested that
the cited company should follow the management practices that is be specific under which only
effective consideration is taken place rather than being vague (Graves, et al. 2019).
The following suggestions have been provided which can be used by Sainsbury for increasing its
profitability and productivity.
The business should primarily focus on performance rather than personality, it has been
recommended that company should emphasize on performance development not personality
traits; it’s more group oriented rather than individual oriented. There is another management
practice recommended is employees feedback goes both way which means to ensure that
employees of the Sainsbury are frank to speak up in meetings or not. This technique or tactic will
be help to the organization to know the effort has worked or not (Lumby, 2019). The cited
company should follow the above practices to increase in productivity of Sainsbury’s and boost
their employee’s morale and values. The key advantage of having these practices is to employees
understands their responsibility towards the job and highly motivated with respect to efficiency
and effectiveness.
Conclusion
The leadership management practices for the employees in Sainsbury can add significant value
to the operations of the organization. The performance of the employees and consumers of the
mentioned organization states that there is a well-managed relationship between management
and employees. It is all about achieving goals and getting things done by creating a direction for
a business, by attaining long term viability and maintain financial stability in the Sainsbury. This
objective can be threatened if Sainsbury does not adequately respond to opportunities and threats
by identifying a specific business approach. Therefore it can be concluded that a proficient leader
can formulate an appropriate, innovative and adaptive policy that will help the cited business
firm into a prosperous future.
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