HNC Business Module 4: Tesco's Leadership and Management Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the leadership and management structures within Tesco, a leading multinational retail company. It delves into the application of various leadership theories, including situational, systems, and contingency theories, and evaluates their impact on Tesco's operational effectiveness. The report explores how Tesco utilizes these theories to manage its workforce, enhance employee motivation, and maintain its competitive position in the global market. Furthermore, it examines the company's operations management, highlighting key concepts and factors that influence its efficiency and decision-making processes. The analysis covers how Tesco adapts to challenges such as global competition, customer service issues, technological advancements, and social responsibility concerns. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings regarding Tesco's leadership, management, and operational strategies.

Leadership and management
structures of Tesco

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Analysis of leadership theories used in Tesco.............................................................................................3
Evaluation of operations management present in Tesco Company..............................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Tesco Plc. is a multinational retailing company which was founded in 1919 by Jack Kohen.
Tesco is a British multinational general merchandise retailer and groceries company whose
headquarter lies in Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom (Tesco plc,
2019). The company has a hypermarket, supermarket, convenience store and superstore in
various locations of the world that eventually helped them to be one of the leading multinational
companies. Currently, John Allan is the Non-Executive chairman, and Dave Lewis is the Group
CEO of this firm (Tesco plc, 2019). Tesco has about 440,000 colleagues, and they serve millions
of consumers every week through online and also through their stores. As per the code of
conduct of their business, they expect a minimum effort and value from their employees, and this
process enables them to enhance their revenue rate. By following this, the firm became the ninth-
largest retailer company of the world in terms of the revenue and third largest retailer brands in
terms of gross revenues. Being the leading retailer brand the firm has a skilled and experienced
management structure that enables them to maintain their position in the international and
national markets.
As a British multinational company, the firm follows a hierarchical organizational structure. By
following this management structure the firm is able to divide its worker's position as well as
obligations smoothly without facing any difficulty. With the help of this management structure,
the organization divided their essential operational functions into five different committees that
reports to the Tesco PLC Board. Tesco Executive Committee consists of 11 members including
the Group Chief Executives of this firm (Korenova and Cepelova, 2016).
Figure 1: The five committee of Tesco
(Source: Tesco plc, 2019)
The members of these five committees central role are to operate the various functions in terms
of financial, manufacturing and store handling perspectives so that the firm can generate high
profit from the markets. The primary role of the Compliance Manager and People Manager is to
understand the needs of people and thus act according to their demands. In other words, the
Customer Experience Manager wanted to provide the best services to their consumers so that
they can get interested in buying such items (Wiengarten et al., 2016).
The role of the line manager is to manage all the financial aspects and activities related to the
firm. Thus by marinating such management structure, the management team can maintain their

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company’s position in the whole world. The paper will analyze the various leadership theories
used by this firm and evaluate the operation management procedure of the company.
Analysis of leadership theories used in Tesco
The situational leadership theory refers to the leadership style where a leader can act as per the
situation prevailing in the surrounding. According to Kukreja and Gupta, (2016), situational
leadership theory motivates leaders to choose their style that fits their conditions and helps them
to achieve their goals. It is considered to be one of the successful and effective theory in terms of
organizational leaders as it helps them to adapt their best style as well as approaches that should
be suitable for that situation. The theory as stated by Wood, Coe, and Wrigley, (2016), is based
on two basic leadership behaviors such as management and support. With the help of this theory,
the management team of Tesco can focus on the various tasks and thus divide the role of
managers as per the organization’s operations. Hence it helps the management team of the firm
to develop the performance of the leaders, and they become successful in managing all the
business-related functions occurring in their firm. Apart from this, the theory provides a
supportive context to the managers. The supportive behaviors of leaders thus help them to focus
on the team development perspectives, and therefore they can quickly teach the team members
regarding the benefits of working together in a firm.
By following this theory, the leaders become successful in motivating as well as encouraging
their team members which thus enhances the quality of work of each employee related to the
team. In the opinion of López‐Pérez, Melero and Javier Sese, (2017), by following this theory,
the leaders of Tesco develop their maturity level which thus enhances their competence and
knowledge of acting as per the condition. With the enhancement of maturity level among the
leaders, the group members understand their roles and responsibility in work. Thus with the help
of this theory, the leaders become successful in increasing the skills and ability of individual
employee working in Tesco. Hence by following the theory, the leaders able to maintain the
position of the firm as their employees give their full effort in work. Situational leadership theory
as cited by Ivanov, (2018), is generally based on follower maturity, task behavior, relationship,
and leadership behavior. Thus following all these perspectives, the leaders become understand
their employee needs and hence act according to the conditions by which both employees, as
well as the organization, become satisfied. By this way, the leaders of Tesco firm has utilized
this situational leadership theory in their business operation which thus help them to enhance the
employee motivation for completing the work as per the given time.
Many researchers suggested that systems leadership theory help in creating an intermediate field
that enhances the managing aspects of leaders so that they can effectively manage both the
external and internal environment of the organization. In the words of Mishra et al., (2018),
system leadership theory enable a leader to create particular conditions in the organization by
which the employees of all level can give their best efforts for complete the work as per the
stipulated time. Thus with the help of this systems leadership theory, the leaders of this Tesco
firm enable to make a condition where the staff members of each department can work
productively and thus enhances the productivity rate of this business. As proposed by Thompson
and Glasø, (2015), the leaders of this Tesco organization always treat their firm as a system
which thus influences them to follow this systems leadership theory. According to these leaders,
an organization increases their business profit only when they can create good terms with both

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the customers as well as with the suppliers. Therefore, considering the organization as a system,
they can quickly develop the best possible way which encourages them to maintain good
relationships with both the internal and external stakeholders (Walker et al., 2015). Thus by
following this system leadership, they create models of ethical leadership aspect that help them
to predict the behaviors of their team members. After analyzing their behavior, they can make
perfect organizational strategy, design the systems in terms of social context so that no one will
affect for such a step. Hence for managing all these aspects, the leaders of Tesco follow this
leadership theory by which they easily build effective systems that lead to more effective
realization and drive the production procedures of this firm.
The Australian psychologist has proposed this contingency theory of leadership in 1964 which
states that effective leadership depends on the interaction between situations and leader’s
behavior respectively. According to Bosse et al., (2017), the contingency theory of leadership
demonstrates that a leader must depend on the situational contingencies such as the task nature
and employee behavior. With the help of this leadership theory, the leaders match their style of
leadership to the condition prevailing in the workplace. In Tesco, the leaders generally follow
this theory so that they motivate their employees as well as become successful in enhancing their
interpersonal relationships with them. In other words, by following this contingency theory, the
leaders of this organization maintain a positive atmosphere in the workplace. The theory not only
helps them to enhance their leader-employee relationship but it also helps them to increase their
employee's trust, confidence as well as loyalty towards the work. In the words of Iqbal, Anwar,
and Haider, (2015), by following this contingency theory, the leaders of Tesco in current days
develop their relationship with their staff members which thus help the firm to increase their
manufacturing rate as a comparison to the past decades. Apart from this by following this theory,
the leaders can easily divide the task as per the ability of their employees. Hence these
perspectives build each employee confidence, and they become able to complete their work as
per the stipulated time frame. Thus it is quite evident that by following all these theories of
leadership the leaders become able to build Tesco, a successful as well as the leading
organization in the nation.
Evaluation of operations management present in Tesco Company
According to Meuser et al., (2016), three different types of operation management concepts are
present in an organization, and they are supervising, planning and organizing. Thus with the help
of these three different concepts of operational management a firm can easily control their
business operations as well as activates in such a manner that it should be beneficial for that
organization. The management team of Tesco Company has also followed all these factors of
operational management so that they can equally maintain its manufacturing process in various
international markets. As proposed by Arena and Uhl-Bien, (2016), with the help of these
different operational management concepts the management team of Tesco become successful in
transforming the efficient process of material such as labor, machines, good and services into
different forms. By following the concepts, the management team can quickly change the
process into various forms such as physical, exchange, locational, physiological, psychological
and informational means. Hence from this, it is clear that the primary objective of this
operational management on Tesco is to use the available resources productively.
Higher productivity rate increases the business profit and decreases the costs of operational
issues (Walker et al., 2015). Thus by using these operations management concepts the firm able

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to enhance their business performance in various international as well as in their local market
too. Due to these operational management concepts, the managers can able to improve their
working ability on Tesco. Being one of the British multinational company, Tesco has appointed
skilled and experienced manager those who can do the work correctly with their team members.
Presence of such a strategy of management team helps the firm to efficiently maintain all the
operations related to their business (Ronen, Lechler and Stohr, 2017). Due to this perspective,
the procedure of operations management concepts has provided an impact on the decision-
making process of individual managers. If the operations management concept is not able to
make a positive impact on the organization, then it enables the managers to change their decision
regarding the business procedure. Hence this fact demonstrates that the management concepts
have also provided both positive as well as negative impact on their decision-making process.
As evaluated by Rezvani, Dong and Khosravi, (2017), there are various factors which impact on
the operation management procedure of an organization, and for reducing it, many firms have
developed a proper strategy in current days. The factors that affected the operations management
procedure of an organization are global competition rate, customer service issues, quality and
cost challenges, the growth of the service sector, the rapid expansion of various technologies that
are improving day by day. Apart from this, many other factors are present that affect the
operations management of a firm such as social responsibility issues, scarcity of materials,
capital and so on. Hence all these factors have created both positive as well as negative impact
on the operation management procedure of a firm. In the opinion of Cabeza Pulles, LLorens
Montes and Gutierrez-Gutierrrez, (2017), Tesco firm has also faced issues with these factors of
operational management which thus affected their company objectives and also provided a
significant impact on the managerial decision-making prospects. Becoming a leading
multinational retailing company Tesco has faced high competition rate in the global market. Due
to this high rate of competition the firm often changes its product supply strategy as well as
improve their technological aspects so that they can maintain their competitive advantage in the
whole international and national market. For this reason, it possesses a significant impact on the
managerial decision-making process and sometimes it generates a negative aspect of the
manufacturing process of this firm.
In other words, as stated by Lord et al., (2017), the needs of people are changes with time which
causes a significant impact on the retailer company. Tesco has also faced some issues with
coming up with the changing needs of the consumer. However, they improve the quality of
products and services so that they efficiently fulfill their customer needs as well as reduce their
various operational challenges. Due to this reason sometimes the manager has to change their
decision regarding the working prospects so that they can easily handle their selected consumer
base. Hence it eventually affected the objectives and goals of this organization but to overcome it
nowadays the management team of Tesco uses various strategy by which they become able to
manage their selected consumer base. Other factors that can impact on the operations
management of Tesco are the rapid improvement of advanced technology and the service sector
growth. According to Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube, (2015), from the past decade's
technology are improving in the digital marketing sector which provides a huge impact on the
retail industry. Most of the industries try to enhance their technological means while some of
them failed to incorporate it properly. Tesco, in other words, faces issues in advancing their
technical means with changing time.

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The firm objectives are to fulfill their customers' demands, but due to the technological
advancement sometimes the manufacturing process gets effected which creates a negative impact
on fulfilling the needs of people. At that time the managerial decision-making process has also
affected which sometimes influence the managers to take wrong decisions in terms of company
favor. In the opinion of Boehe, (2016), other factors that impact the operations management of
Tesco are social responsibility issues, scarcity of materials and capitals. In today’s environment
retailer firms faces various social responsibility issues such as meeting in legal obligations, act
morally and ethically with the workers and so on. These issues have also been encountered by
the Tesco firm that has to provide a significant impact on the managerial decision-making
process, and sometimes it affected the employees working procedure too. Besides this, lack of
equipment in the manufacturing process causes the delay of work and this process also changed
the operations management procedure of this Tesco firm (Ronen, Lechler and Stohr, 2017). After
reviewing all these prospects, it is quite evident that these factors create both positive as well as
negative impact on the company manufacturing procedure and to diminish it the management
team makes various planning and strategies that are suitable for this firm.

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Conclusion
After analyzing all these leadership theories, it is quite clear that by following the situational
leadership theory then leaders of Tesco can act as per the condition without facing any issues. In
other words, by following the systems leadership theory, the leaders maintain a systematic
approach which thus helps them to create a good relationship with their internal and external
stakeholders. Besides this, by following the contingency theory of leadership, the leaders of
Tesco become successful in developing the trust and confidence of their employees. With the
leadership theory, the firm becomes one of the leading international brands in the world. Also,
the paper concluded that various factors such as global competition rate, technological and
service sector growth, consumer services, social issues and so on create several challenges for
Tesco which thus impact on the company objective and managerial decision-making process too.
To reduce these challenges, the management team of the firm has introduced various strategies
that should be suitable for the firm to manage all these aspects.

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