Question:
Prepare a report on Tesco.
Evaluation of different leadership styles within Tesco
Tesco, the major retail supermarket chain of UK is majorly a customer oriented organization. The company generally adopts the democratic leadership style within the internal organization so that the employees get a chance to voice their opinions. On the contrary autocratic leadership style is seen among the store managers of Tesco. In cases of departmental managers having long experience within Tesco the organization shows a laissez faire leadership style. Hence the use of different leadership styles within Tesco depends upon the task, the team and the type of outcome expected from the task (Hariri, Monypenny & Prideaux, 2014).
The store managers at Tesco adopts the democratic or the participative leadership style in cases when the manager has to take decisions in relation to device better approaches for stock reduction program, introduction of new product line, enhancing of the visual merchandising etc. The creative idea and plans of different team members are useful in this context (Pietersen, 2014).
In emergency cases like product launch, cost reduction, budget preparation the managers at Tesco adopt the authoritarian style. Lambert (2012) opined the authoritarian style is favorable in meeting deadlines of any project however excess use of the same may create a non congenial working environment.
Laissez Faire approach is adopted by the managers with the experienced and old members of the company. They are given the freedom of preparing a project without any prior guidelines since they have the adequate knowledge. This increases the employee loyalty of the old employees and also reduces the pressure of the company (Pietersen, 2014).
Leadership approaches used by Tesco’s competitors
Tesco considered being the largest retail chain of UK adopts three different types of leadership strategies in order to formulate the working environment within the company. However the same is not observed in case of its competitors namely Sainsbury, ASDA, Wal-mart and Morrison. ASDA adopts the coaching leadership style within the organization especially for the retail employees. The retail company focuses on building a developmental relationship, generates a feedback process and formal programs and also encourages various kinds of self developmental activities (Samad & Abdullah, 2012). On the contrary both Sainsbury and Morrison adopt the autocratic leadership style in order to dominate the retail employees and give them orders in terms of project completion, customer handling etc. The adoption of these leadership strategies have contributed to the development of the employees but not development of the organization.
Evaluation of developments in management support underpinning Tesco management today
Saeed et al. (2014) opined that in the present scenario the management system within the organizations have been developed. The major changes have been brought about by the change in the employee development program. As per the reports of Forbes around 80% of the organizations are focused on the promotions of employee training in order to increase the efficiency of the organizational objectives. However Tesco is operated by majorly experienced employees hence the company is not striving to take any options of training and development within the organization. Thiel, Connelly & Griffith (2012) suggested that lack of training leads to lack of new idea generation.
Motivation is a prime factor to develop the productivity of the employees in an organization. Tesco pay prime focus on the monetary needs of the employees. However Xenikou & Furnham (2013) opined that as per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory the basic physiological needs of an individual should be of primary focus for the organizations. Tesco adopts the following strategies namely
Tesco supports work life balance of employees by providing them with flexible working hours, shifting duties for the retail employees, health benefits, Green club card for discounted shopping purposes, staff discounts, shareholder options etc (Hatzakis, 2009). Tesco designs the Employee reward program in the following ways namely
According to Forsyth (2013) the following techniques may be used for motivating the employees within an organization namely employee benefits, congenial working environment, professional enrichment and performance appraisal. The employee benefits concerns motivating the employees with monetary and non monetary benefits. On the contrary the congenial working environment helps to motivate the employee’s psychologically (Hatzakis, 2009). The performance appraisal technique helps in generating a sense of responsibility and accountability within the employees. Finally the professional enrichment helps in creating a job satisfaction within the employees which in turn motivates them to work more effectively.
Group behaviors and dynamics
According to Connors (2012) group dynamics is a system of behavior by the individuals within the group. The group dynamics is useful for understanding decision making pattern of the individuals within the group. Group dynamics describes the way the groups and individuals act and react to changing circumstances. The group dynamics also helps in identifying the productivity of the group members. The group dynamics will be able to help the individuals within the group to understand the behavior of the group members. The decision of group members depends upon the dynamics of the group (Ben-Zur, 2009).
However some of the problems which are faced in terms of group formation are as follows:
Virtual teams are the groups within the organizations which are geographically distributed throughout the different parts of the world. The major communication processes between these teams are the technological sources like Video conferencing, Skype’s, mail chats, webinars and discussion boards. However Allwood & Salo (2012) opined that several challenges may arise in case of managing the virtual teams namely lack of communication, misinterpretation, lack of co ordination and indistinct group roles and responsibilities.
As per the records of the Tele work Research Network around 2.9 million full time virtual workers are found in UK and USA. The virtual teams consist of people who work from home and also people who take part in mobile works. With help of collaboration tools namely Redbooth, Blackboard collaborate, Podio and Campfire and project management tools like Microsoft project, Apollo, Teamwork, Primavera etc and Document storage or file sharing tools and meeting tools the virtual communication process has been improved in the present scenario.
However Armstrong, Cools & Sadler-Smith (2011) opined that the problems like relations ship building, rising of issues and communication problems have made the virtual teams difficult to make the operations.
References list
Allwood, C., & Salo, I. (2012). Decision-making styles and stress. International Journal Of Stress Management, 19(1), 34-47. doi:10.1037/a0027420
Armstrong, S., Cools, E., & Sadler-Smith, E. (2011). Role of Cognitive Styles in Business and Management: Reviewing 40 Years of Research. International Journal Of Management Reviews, 14(3), 238-262. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00315.x
Bell, S., & Morse, S. (2013). An approach to comparing external and internal methods for analyzing group dynamic. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, And Practice, 17(4), 281-298. doi:10.1037/a0034623
Ben-Zur, H. (2009). Coping styles and affect. International Journal Of Stress Management, 16(2), 87-101. doi:10.1037/a0015731
Cameron, K. (2012). Positive Leadership. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Connors, T. (2012). The volunteer management handbook. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley.
Forsyth, D. (2013). Group dynamics. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Hariri, H., Monypenny, R., & Prideaux, M. (2014). Leadership styles and decision-making styles in an Indonesian school context. School Leadership & Management, 34(3), 284-298. doi:10.1080/13632434.2013.849678
Hatzakis, T. (2009). Towards a Framework of Trust Attribution Styles. British Journal Of Management, 20(4), 448-460. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2008.00596.x
Kirby, A. (2009). Management styles. BMJ, 339(sep29 2), a2528-a2528. doi:10.1136/bmj.a2528
Lambert, S. (2012). The perception and implementation of sustainable Leadership strategies in further education colleges. Journal Of Leadership Education, 11(2), 102-120. doi:10.12806/v11/i2/rf6
Pietersen, C. (2014). Interpersonal Conflict Management Styles and Emotion Self-Management Competencies of Public Accountants. Mediterranean Journal Of Social Sciences. doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n7p273
Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., & Niazi, G. (2014). Leadership styles: relationship with conflict management styles. International Journal Of Conflict Management, 25(3), 214-225. doi:10.1108/ijcma-12-2012-0091
Samad, S., & Abdullah, Z. (2012). The Influence of Leadership Styles on Organizational Performance of Logistics Companies. International Business Management, 6(3), 374-383. doi:10.3923/ibm.2012.374.383
Tesco.com,. (2015). Tesco direct : Choose from hundreds of products now on clearance – Tesco.com.
Thiel, C., Connelly, S., & Griffith, J. (2012). Leadership and emotion management for complex tasks: Different emotions, different strategies. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(3), 517-533. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.12.005
Xenikou, A., & Furnham, A. (2013). Group dynamics and organizational culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
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