Sports Direct: Business Management, Leadership, and Ethical Challenges

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Sports Direct's business management and leadership strategies. It begins by identifying key leadership theories applicable to the company, including democratic leadership and effective recruitment practices. The report distinguishes between management and leadership, highlighting how both contribute to Sports Direct's growth. It explores the management and leadership styles that have enabled Sports Direct to expand from a single store to a global retailer, emphasizing the importance of human resource management and ethical working conditions. Furthermore, the report examines the team working principles that underpin effective leadership and management, including communication and time management skills. It also discusses the change processes facilitated by Sports Direct, such as the expansion of its store network and adaptations in employee engagement. Finally, the report addresses the ethical and value-based challenges encountered by the company, such as wage issues and market share losses due to unethical practices, and how these were addressed to maintain growth. The report concludes by summarizing the key factors contributing to Sports Direct's success, with a focus on effective leadership and management styles.

Business
Management and
Leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1 Recognise and distinguish key theories ..............................................................................1
2. Management and leadership styles that enable Sports Direct to grow....................................2
3. Team working principles and theory underpin effective leadership and management styles.3
4. Change Process facilitated by Sports Direct...........................................................................5
5. Ethical and value based challenges encountered by Sports Direct.........................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business management is a activities that are associated with operating firm such
as organising, planning, controlling, leading and monitoring. Through this they are able to
achieve set goals and objectives in an effective manner. Leadership is action of leading group of
people. It is a ability of an organisation management to set and achieve critical goals, decision,
task or decisive action. In an organisation, manager as well as leaders both are pay important role
to run whole business task effectively. In this assignment Sport Direct retail firm are select to
know key leadership theories. It is a British retailing group, introduce in the year of 1982 by
Mike Ashley. Sport Direct own large number of brand. They have around 200 store in UK. This
report covers working principles, ethical and value based considerations. It also covers change
process, management and leadership are enabled to grow form a single store to current market
size (Goetsch and Davis, 2014).
P1 Recognise and distinguish key theories
Management is a process of planning, dealing and controlling things or group of people.
It is a act of managing, conducting or supervising whole business activities in an effective
manner. Leadership is a process of manager, directing, controlling team member in to achieve set
goals and objectives in given time frame. Sport Direct is a large retailer of sports goods having
more than 600 stores across the globe. Mike Ashley is owner of this British firm. There are
some key theories that is applicable in Sports Direct which is explained further:
 At the time when association started their work practices they were used to follow
democratic leadership style and according to this equal opportunities are provided to all
staff members in order to attain all goals in coveted time span and leaders inspires their
followers to share their innovative and distinctive thought with their co-workers. Proper
feedback accepting system is established in company so that appropriate alterations could
be made according to requirements (Vaccaro and et. al., 2012).
 Sports Direct has adequate recruitment and selection system in order to hire skilled staff
so that new employee should bring specific talents along with specialisation. This type of
hiring system is score competency of organisation. This is a source which brings success
and makes corporation able in obtaining higher market share and growth.
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 Sports Direct does not focus on applying novel tools and technologies in their business
environment. Rather than this, management pays attention on quality working of
employees and to obtain this purpose, human resource manager hires only those
personnels whom have adequate and required amount of desired capabilities. This
behaviour of company gained much focus of media and developed them from a venture
to brand (Bolden, 2016).
 Another major area of focus is establish ethical working in association and Sports Direct
emphasis ethical working in their company and does not compromise with this.
Distinction between leadership and management systems is explained further:
Management Leadership
Managers play important role in managing all
resources in optimised manner in organisation
and directs all sources towards accomplishing
all goals in profitable manner.
Leaders pay attention on directing people so
that all individual put their efforts in hitting
single target.
It is required from managers that they should
set an objective so that all duties and
responsibilities of employees could be assigned
so that staff member could get a clear path of
their working.
Leaders sketches vision of that provide
guidance to workforce in conducting business
operations according to single direction.
Main focus of managers is on formulating
policies to eliminate risk factor and challenges.
Spearhead accepts challenges and risks
because chieftains are build blocks of success.
Above analysis is summarised as Sports Direct works in setting distinctive and their special
leadership styles and policies. Leadership and management are both elements that have positive
impact in efficient working of employees and association in simpler way. Reason behind success
and growth of corporation is an effective management and leadership style.
2. Management and leadership styles that enable Sports Direct to grow
Styles of management and leadership are important tool of any company that play vital
role in developing image of corporation from a venture to brand. Both efficiencies are helpful in
enhancing qualities of workers functionality and this type of action helps in achieving growth of
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Sports Direct corporate (Drucker, 2012). Association formulated some specific leadership style,
principles, values, ethics that directly leave impact upon obtaining all ventures goal in most
effective pattern. There are some key characteristics which aided Sports Direct in travelling from
single store to current position and this is discusses as further:
 Human resource management department is focused on appointing skilled staff so that
employers could save training and development cost and new employees could start their
working on the very first day of his job and this action is helpful in creation of talented
pool in company.
 Business model of Sports Direct company is quite efficient because leaders of
corporation pays attention of systematic working which allows all staff members to work
with dignity and full respect so that workers could contribute in achievement of vision of
venture.
 Managers of Sports Direct have particular policies and strategies for employing all
employees in their respective duties and responsibilities.
 Sports Direct is running by Mr Ashley as a “Victorian Workhouse” where major attention
was given on selling greater quality good and services which belongs to sports in order to
grab higher satisfaction of customers (Wilton, 2012).
 Leaders formulate efficient and adequate strategies and policies of association and make
this thing key success factor for management. Staff members are considered as most
important property of organisation and management knows value of employees and their
contribution in achievement of corporation's goals and purposes.
Above stated points can be summed up as Sports Direct's management system is flexible and
appropriate that are able in generating results for company in obtaining all aims in limited period
of time. Firm is flourished in establishing more number of stores in market by taking help of
their conventional leadership styles that major attention on hiring highly skilled staff.
3. Team working principles and theory underpin effective leadership and management styles
Sports Direct operate their business operations according to that leadership style which is
adopted by corporation. These styles are explained further:
 leaders as well as managers need to set some sort of visions and missions and
roles and responsibilities of employees should be assigned according to these
goals in order to accomplish all purposes of association (Birasnav, 2014).
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 Management of company has adequate system to delegate authorities among staff
members so that proper unity of command and chain could be accomplished in
corporation.
 Most important thing for an association is that their managerial system should
make satisfy their workers so that all task could get done with maximum
efficiency (Klettner, Clarke and Boersma, 2014).
 There are prominent amount of interest holders present for company. Thus it is
essential for Sports Direct that their employees should be satisfied with their tasks
and assignments. Stakeholders include employees, suppliers, customers, creditors,
debtors etc.
There are some sort of chairmanship that must be possess by leader for accomplishing all goals
and aims and these talents are described below:
1. Communication Skill: This virtue is essential in spreading and conveying accurate
information related to business activities so that connection among all functional
departments could get enhanced. This action is necessary in completing all goals and
actions in limited period of time.
2. Time Management Skills: Efficiency of an organisation is to be checked on the basis of
obtaining all targets in limited period of time very effectively and to hit this purpose,
most important skill is time management capabilities. Employees of Sports Direct is quite
capable in doing their task in most significant manner because they are hired with some
particular sort of skills.
3. Motivation Skills: It is a main duty of a leader that he should bring all his followers on
the same page and get involved them in business operations according to their
capabilities. This type of action can only be done by motivating workforce with taking
help of various tools and techniques.
Sports Direct follows democratic leadership style in which there is equal opportunities are
provided to all staff members in which they are free and presented to express their views and
opinions. These aspects are considered in formulating strategies that have wider perspective.
All these points are directed towards final goals of corporation that have to be completed in
shortest time span with maximum efficiency (Renko, and et. al., 2015).
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4. Change Process facilitated by Sports Direct
Each associations operate their working operations in business environment and go
through with several changes to keep them competitive in marketplace. One out of all major
changes that Sports Direct done in their entire working life is establishing around 600 stores
world wide from a single retail shop. Opening of too many stores in shortest period of time is an
big achievement of company. So, variations are constant element of an environment and all
business house need to do these revulsions in their operations.
Sports Direct management team have made several valuable changes in their activities
and policies like alterations have made in employee engagement because managerial personnel
focuses on hiring skilled staff only in their organisation. Firm is using brand acquisition,
increment in quality of product and services and then they used their higher quality goods and
services in promoting company. To accomplish these sort of goals, owners of company need to
employ change management system for concentrating on development of different departments
(Doh and Quigley, 2014).
Management shifted their focus to hire right candidate on correct place where he/she can
put his/her best efforts and that should be valuable for corporation. To hit this purpose manage rs
ensure that their staffing function could be efficient. When employees of association accurately
work then firm automatically starts succeeding in marketplace and also increases their share in
corporation, higher growth along with fulfilment of necessities of consumers. Therefore, major
revulsions that take place in corporation are expansion of business activities by enhancing
number of stores. There are some tactics which have to be altered so that permutation process
with maximum effectiveness.
5. Ethical and value based challenges encountered by Sports Direct
While conducting business several unfavourable conditions happened. Sports Direct also
faces major and minor risk factors to get a prominent growth rate. These challenges are linked
with values and ethics, that is why proper system should be installed for eliminating
uncertainties. Some are explained further:
 In earlier stages of working, Sports Direct used to pay less amount to their
workers for their working because they followed minimum wages system.
Manpower were not satisfied with this system and refuse to work. Consequently,
management improved their employee engagement policies.
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 Other complex problem faced by association is that they started loosing their
market share because of pesticides that are founded in cotton production
procedure. This can be said as unethical working.
 Management personnel also sentenced them in various court cases which sabotage
their overall growth and market share.
All the above challenges have been faced by management but all critical situations were
handled with full adequacy and owner of business made these opposite conditions, favourable.
To make changes in situations, managers took help of various tools like variation in supply chain
management system in which hour of working had set that are 48 hours. There are several laws
that was made but Govt. to promote ethical working in association. Application of these ethical
steps are helpful in making business successful.
Another solution of problem is appointment of high skilled and talented personnels whom
should be quite efficient in their respective working (Rosemann and vom Brocke, 2015).
CONCLUSION
Above report is summarised as management and leadership are two complementary
aspects that are responsible for making a company succeeding. There are various leadership
styles that were be adopted by ports Direct in order to enhance their business functions and as
resultant, company attained their goal of opening more than 500 stores across the world. Ethical
workings are liable for fascinating prominent media attractions which made firm as brand.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Birasnav, M., 2014. Knowledge management and organizational performance in the service
industry: The role of transformational leadership beyond the effects of transactional
leadership. Journal of Business Research. 67(8). pp.1622-1629.
Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower handbook
of leadership and management development. (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Doh, J. P. and Quigley, N. R., 2014. Responsible leadership and stakeholder management:
Influence pathways and organizational outcomes. The Academy of Management
Perspectives. 28(3). pp.255-274.
Drucker, P., 2012. Management. Routledge.
Goetsch, D. L. and Davis, S. B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Klettner, A., Clarke, T. and Boersma, M., 2014. The governance of corporate sustainability:
Empirical insights into the development, leadership and implementation of responsible
business strategy. Journal of Business Ethics. 122(1). pp.145-165.
Renko, M. and et. al., 2015. Understanding and measuring entrepreneurial leadership
style. Journal of Small Business Management. 53(1). pp.54-74.
Rosemann, M. and vom Brocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process
management. In Handbook on business process management 1. (pp. 105-122). Springer
Berlin Heidelberg.
Vaccaro, I. G. and et. al., 2012. Management innovation and leadership: The moderating role of
organizational size. Journal of Management Studies. 49(1). pp.28-51.
Wilton, N., 2012. The impact of work placements on skills development and career outcomes for
business and management graduates. Studies in Higher Education. 37(5). pp.603-620.
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