Leadership & Management Theories and Styles: Tesco plc Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership and management theories and their application within Tesco plc. It explores various leadership styles, including transformational and situational leadership, and management approaches such as scientific and contingency management. The report compares Tesco's leadership and management strategies with those of competitors like Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's, evaluating the effectiveness of different approaches. It further discusses the importance of leadership and management in achieving organizational goals, improving employee motivation, and fostering a positive work environment. The analysis highlights the significance of adapting leadership styles to different situations and the role of effective communication, problem-solving, and teamwork in organizational success. The report concludes by emphasizing the ongoing need for Tesco to refine its leadership and management practices to maintain its competitive edge in the retail market. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and past papers for comprehensive study resources.

Leadership and management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1. Presenting leadership and management theories and analyse the effectiveness of
management................................................................................................................................3
2. Comparing range of leadership styles and management approaches of different firms.........5
3. Different leadership and management approaches taken to evaluate their effectiveness.......6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
Covered in PPT...........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Leadership and management plays a vital role in the success of business, so it is
important for company to focus on leadership styles and approaches. Leadership is all about the
ability of person and group of people to motivate and provide guidance to followers. An effective
leaders and managers of the firm can motivate their employees to act towards achieving a
common goals or objectives. The present report is based upon multinational company Tesco plc,
it is a retail company providing various products or services to customers such as groceries, food
items, clothing, furniture and others.
The case study will provide detailed information about leadership and management, types
of leadership and management, its importance and theories applicable to it. Furthermore, it will
highlight the impact on effectiveness of an organisation. Along with this, the study will show the
importance of motivational strategies to encourage the employees of Tesco plc. The major
benefit of using motivational techniques is to optimise organisational performance. By adopting
various types of techniques and methods company can achieve success in the competitive
market.
TASK 1
1. Presenting leadership and management theories and analyse the effectiveness of management.
Leader is the person that is responsible for commanding and leading group of people that
are of diverse nature. However, manager in any firm is responsible for administering and
monitoring diverse human resources. Also, the manager is accountable for establishing proper
control within all the activities within the departments (Golensky and Hager, 2020). Further, to
become the best leader it is important that there is presence of hard and soft skills such as
analytical skills, marketing skills, presentation skills, project management skills, better
communication, teamwork, problem solving, interpersonal skills and much more so that faster
decision-making could be done in times of any complex situations and also large number of
workers at the organizations could be managed in most effective manners.
The chosen organization is Tesco that is large retail organization in UK and is selling
variety of goods to various customers. Moreover, Tesco managers are very much concern in
managing the activities of the firm in the best manner so that organization resources could be
utilized in the best manner. Furthermore, there are various types of leadership theories that are

followed by organization like this so that work could be carried out systematically. The one
theory that is the best suitable for firm like Tesco is transformational theory of leadership that
believes that effective leaders are ones that inspires the employees through passion and
enthusiasm so that certain tasks could be completed in effective manner (Bush, Bell and
Middlewood, 2019). Moreover, such type of leaders gives more rewards and incentives to
employees so that continuous support and motivation could be established. Also, this type of
leadership helps the quoted firm in developing sense of commitment and teamwork among the
workers so that changes in the business environment could be made effectively. Another
leadership theory that is used by Tesco to manage large workforce is situational theory of
leadership where the leader acts according to the given situation and hence there is no single
style that could be adopted by the leaders every-time. Also, this theory believes that most
effective leaders are those that analyse the situations and nature of group closely so that bets
decisions could then be made (Cole, 2018). This style is adopted by most of Tesco managers as
working on very large scale it is not possible to adopt leadership style in the same manner in all
situations.
Moreover, in context of management theories it can be said that Tesco followed the
scientific management theory developed by Taylor that suggests that forcing the employees to
deliver certain tasks is not the solution instead of it managers should simplify each tasks so that
productivity could be increased in systematic manner. Moreover, based on this theory Tesco
gives good amount of wages to all its employees for carrying out daily activities' so that better
teamwork could be ensured (Gupta, Kulkarni and Khatri, 2018). For instance: Proper division or
work and responsibilities among the employees has also allowed Tesco to grow on large level.
Also, the firm follows the contingency management theory that suggests that there is no one
specific kind of management approach that could be adopted by organizations for long period.
Moreover, based on this theory there are various kind of internal and external factors that need to
be taken into consideration for managing the organization. For example: If any employee is
arriving late for the organization and is very (productive) than either the management would give
written protocol or give last warning based on the current business circumstances. Hence, this
theory works very well for the organization like Tesco that has overcome certain legal problems
in past in the best manner.

Thus, through following the best of management and leadership practices Tesco has been
able to develop better growth strategies for overall development of the firm. Moreover, it is also
able to deliver the best quality services in terms of other competitors that are operating in the UK
market (Prasojo and Holidin, 2018). Further, it has been putting many efforts in growth and
development of the employees through creating reward and incentives programmes as human
resource is most important success and efficiency factor in any organization.
2. Comparing range of leadership styles and management approaches of different firms.
Though Tesco is the biggest market leader in terms of sales and revenues but there are
several other competitors that are giving tough competition to Tesco. Also, every firm adopts the
leadership style based on certain goals and objectives it wants to achieve in the future.
Furthermore, in context of management approach that is followed by Marks and Spencer is
consultative that means leaders of the firm take suggestions from others before making any kind
of decisions so that bests decisions could be chosen for any problem. On the other hand, Tesco
follows the democratic approach where all the decisions are made by the top management
through taking collective opinions and asked to be followed same by all other members that are
working in the firm (Porfírio and et.al., 2021). Also, on the other side one that is followed by
Sainsbury is autocratic approach where all control is established by one person and very little
input is taken from the other group members. However, such type of approach might be difficult
especially in times when business environment is changing rapidly.
Thus, based on the above situations it can be said that through adopting the democratic style
Tesco has been able to value the employees on great level and has also resulted in growth and
better productivity of the organization. Also, this leadership style is very good in better planning,
controlling and organizing various departmental functions of Tesco (Amtu, Siahaya and Taliak,
2019). However, in case of Marks and Spencer it also has the good management approach but
too much dependency on this approach has led to creation of poor market entry strategy for the
firm. Moreover, due to this organization has also lost lot of revenues. In spite of following this
management approach, it has been proved effective for the firm as through this it has been able
to sell variety of goods and become the most recognized brand among the list of most famous
brands in various regions.
Moreover, in case of Sainsbury, the management was more focused in following the
policy that focus on slow growth and major risk avoidance in the target market. Hence, such

strategy was failure as it only lead to customer dissatisfaction and loss of market share. However,
with the good management practices in the past the company has been able to increase the
goodwill in the UK market and also became active online segment in retailing market (Harris
and Jones, 2021). Also, the firm is always looking for new opportunities through upgrading
technologies that will help Sainsbury to respond to certain future challenges in the effective
manner. Moreover, firm through focusing the quality as part of management approach has been
able to stand apart from other big retailers in the UK market. Hence, it can be said that though all
firms in UK has adopted different leadership style to operate in various markets but above all
three have been systematically able to achieve the set goals and objectives through proper
delegation of work among the employees and building the brand image in the target market.
Also, the impact of various decisions has been both positive and negative on the three firms but
later certain changes in management practices have been made by all of them accordingly.
3. Different leadership and management approaches taken to evaluate their effectiveness
Leadership and management- leadership is important for company because it is helpful to do
the things in a right way. Leaders in the firm set direction for people and build an inspiring goal
for them in order to create something extra innovative (Golensky and Hager, 2020). On the other
hand, management is all about managing things effectively such as business operations,
employees work and maintaining the business practices. An effective leaders tackle the
competition, solve the problems in the company, create bond between team members and they
have capacity to influence others towards the realization of objectives and target.
Importance of leadership and management
 Leadership and management play an important role in the firm as it helps to direct the
employees and workers to improve efficiency and achieve goals.
 An effective leaders provide clear information to people so that real and accurate
information or details can be exchange between employees to complete the task.
 An effective leadership style provide clarity about business practices, the main purpose of
leadership and management is to motivate and guide the employees of the firm to
accomplish its mission.
 There are several functions of leadership and management which is important to the
success of the firm. One of the most important function is to provide a guidance and clear
vision to staff members of the company.

 The managers and leaders explains the goals and set the target for staff members. An
effective leadership motivate and encourage them to work as a team. Working together is
beneficial for company’s performance and individual performance of employees.
 An effective leaders and managers should have communication skills, active listening
skills, problem solving skills, and overall knowledge of business. If the leaders and
managers are not having skills and knowledge, then they cannot achieve targets and not
able to guide people around them.
 An effective leadership style helps the employees to achieve personal and professional
skills and every aspect of life by expressing self confidence in their abilities. For
example- Tesco plc leaders and managers listen to staff members of the company, ensure
to solve the issues about their work. They provide feedback to employees so that they can
improve themselves and improve their knowledge and skills.
 Managers ensure the positive atmosphere in the company brings out the best in staff
members. Successful leadership and management guide the company about ethics and
values to staff members. They guide them about truthfulness, honesty, integrity and core
values which is beneficial for the success.
Types of leadership and management approaches
Leadership styles
Transactional leadership- leaders of the firm sets proper goals and objectives for the
employees so that they can achieve success. This style use transaction between an employees and
leader- punishments, reward system and other things to get the best job done for the benefit of
the firm. In this method, leaders create time bound, specific and measurable goals which is
known as SMART goals that are achievable for staff members (Raju, 2018). With the help of this
style leaders can reduce confusion in the chain of command as it is helpful to motivate
employees in order to increase the productivity.
Transformational leadership style- the major focus of leaders in this style is to inspire
employees with a successful completion of vision and motivate them to achieve with skills and
knowledge. In this style high motivation is often experienced because leaders create relationship
between team members which is good for team work. Leaders uses inspiration to gain the
employees support which is helpful to achieve company’s target.

Scientific management- This method can be used by company in order to analyse the
objectives of increasing and improving the productivity of labour. According to Taylor, it is
important for Tesco plc to follow principles of efficiency from the business operations and
experiments in the techniques of production and business work. It is important to follow
discipline in the company to achieve goals and objectives. The major concept of this method is
standardization of management, time and motion studies and piece rate system. Supporting
Taylor, (Sy and van Knippenberg, 2021) stated that it is important to select the right candidates
for the right job, on the basis of experience, abilities, skills and knowledge they must get roles.
Therefore, proper job can be done effectively and which is beneficial for productivity of
company.
Importance of organisational culture
A positive organisational culture motivates and encourage staff members to be more engaged in
their task or project, roles and responsibility. It creates bond between people working in the same
department, which leads to high levels of workforce engagement. It increases overall profitability
and productivity of the company and individual performance of staff.
Role of leadership and management on organisational culture and performance
Every company need leaders and managers to handle and tackle the management of the
workplace. Mostly company choose a team leader to direct the employees for more effectiveness
which is beneficial for overall productivity.
Leaders of the company help to communicated effectively with the team members so that
they can achieve vision and mission of the company (Chen, 2018). With the help of
communication skills, employees can identify the roles and responsibilities that best fill
experiences. Through clear and proper communication leaders motivate their staff members to
accomplish objectives. On the top of that, encouraged staff create positive environment in the
office. It is important to have safe and positive environment in the company, so a good leader
create relationship between people which reduce the conflict between team members. When the
leader is not fully involving and invested in their employees and staff members, it creates
ineffective leadership. Poor leadership style fails to focus on the most important projects which
is not beneficial for company’s performance and hence they can lose productivity and market
position.

An effective leaders have skills such as taking important decisions, because it is really
good to have best decision regarding performance of employees (Heyler and Martin, 2018).
Successful and effective leadership takes the best decision for the firm in every critical situation.
For example- On the basis of previous data and information leaders take right decisions and
provide expert suggestions to Tesco plc.
Critical reflection on the impact of leadership and management
By evaluating the study, I have learned that an effective leaders and managers is
beneficial for the company, as they boost the employee’s morale by winning their trust. They
develop self-confidence which is mandatory to accomplish personal and professional goals.
During the module, I have developed my skills and understand the importance in everyone’s life,
because they provide high morale among people which is good for personal and professional life.
TASK 2
Covered in PPT

REFERENCES
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