Leadership Styles, Organizational Theory, And Group Dynamics In Multi-Channel Retailers

Organizational structure and culture in M&S

Task 1

1.1.    Organizational structure and culture in M&S:

1.2 Relationship between structure and culture in an organization:

1.3 Factors that affect behaviours of workers:

Task 2:

2.1 Different leadership styles

2.2 Organizational theory influences the practical management:

2.3 Management Approach:

Task 3:

3.1 Impact of changing leadership on motivating the employees

3.2 Motivational theories that can be applied within the business scenario of M&S

Task 4:

4.1 Explanation of the different groups within M&S and the differentiating the behaviour

4.2 Factors for promoting the development of the groups within M&S

4.3 Evaluation of the current new technology impacting on the team functioning

The organizational activities depend on the effective leadership styles. The leaders are the ones who motivate the employees in order to achieve the organizational goals. In this case, there is the mentioning of the effective leadership styles of two leading company named Nisa and M&S. M&S is a multi channel retailer based on the international market from the last 130 years. The changing leadership style from Sir Stuart Rose to Marc Bolland is appreciable. On the other hand, Nisa is famous for the entrepreneur grocery shop. The company has been associating with the supermarket chains since 1977. The huge turnovers have made the company in achieving the remarkable position in the retail industries. However, the study will be evaluating the effective leadership style for considering success.

Organizational structure and culture mean the relationships among the authority and formal system of work that govern the interaction between managers and employees in the organization. Marks and Spencer plc follow a pattern that illustrates the idea of hierarchical structure. The main strategy of M&S has been changed due to increasing competition in UK retail market in the past five years. Now their focus is on service quality and innovation of new techniques. They took a strategy of diversifying product ranges store location to reduce the dependence on the UK retail market. In early days the work culture depended on the honesty and hard work of the workers.

NISA, a supermarket Association, attracted many retailers to become a member aimed to protect their independence in the market by providing some benefits to them. NISA, over the years, has ensured prosperity of many retailers and provide greater means to its success. M&S is an international multi-channel retailer whereas NISA is company that operating near around 2600 retail stores by giving them greater means for achieving success (New.edu, 2015).

Relationship between structure and culture in an organization

An organization must have a structure and culture to reach their effective goals. There is a need for a structural framework to implement corporate culture while culture says what should be the structure of a company.

A divisional structure in an organization has the flexibility to make it competitive and make it able to meet customer’s needs and wants. A new organizational structure is matrix structure that redefines the concept of the hierarchy to make effective decisions. For an example, NISA needs to have a structure to achieve their goals, so they share their task among various employees to make them efficient by the distribution of labour method. If they do not use the proper organizational structure then it will affect the productivity of the organization. Organization has to create entire divisions that are dedicated to customer service (Harvard Business Review, 1978).

An organization has many employers who are aimed to achieve their respective goals in an organized way and their behaviour totally depends on some factors. In case of M&S, the behaviour of workers is a very important factor that affects the organizational output. One important factor is radical backgrounds of individuals that play a crucial role in determining their thoughts, values and way of thinking. Another factor is the personality of individual that varies person to person. The key factor is the positions workers hold in their workplace, for an example behaviour of managers is totally different from the behaviour of their subordinates in the workplace. They are from different skill levels, they hold different work powers. So the managers in M&S have different behaviours than the workers works under them as they are from different cultural areas (Csr360gpn.org, 2015). The status of workers within M&S affects the behaviour of workers.

A leader is an effective individual in the organization who guides others workers in the group by providing direction towards their common goal. Leadership is a process of influencing others to make a change for a better future. One important style is authoritarian style, in which leaders tell their employees about the works. Marc Bolland, Chief executive of M&S, has shown excellent leadership skills throughout his business career. Under his leadership, M&S has become a pioneer in facing business challenges. M&S follows the consultative style that means leaders of M&S consults with workers before taking any decision. Another leadership style is the democratic style the business decision is made by the leader by considering the inputs of other members.. The pioneering approach in M&S is useful as it redefined the existing opportunities to embrace sustainability. Whereas NISA appointed Nick Read as a new CEO, who is passionate about providing suitable service for the consumer (Asaecenter.org, 2015).

Factors that affect behaviours of workers

Organizational theory and structure explain the structure and design of an organization, and it can influence the overall performance of an organization whereas management theory helps managers to work in collecting and designing theories and generating ideas. The oldest theory of management is a classical theory. To increase workers efficiency, F. Taylor developed the concept of strategic management theories. The manager of M&S is very effective in taking different styles of management and motivational theories to gain a better result. Managers adopted Participatory decision style to get better performance from the workers. So these theories are necessary for increasing the productivity to achieve operational goals. By using these management theories, M&S develops strategies to face these challenges (Managementhelp.org, 2015). M&S depends on giving equal opportunities to all employees that promotes working environment free from any discrimination.

One of the important management approach developed by Koontz is a decision theory approach that focuses on the persons and process and make the decisions. This approach helps managers to improve communication and to play their roles efficiently. Another important approach is system approach which helps the organization to work as a team but with a single purpose. Three famous management styles are Democratic management, Bureaucratic management and, Autocratic management. M&S has adopted the bureaucratic style to get its goal i.e. members of the organization are purely governed by decision-making rules. Whereas NISA changed its management style and put a transition strategy to search experienced retailer to get the benefit of development in future. The management of NISA would like to launch new store format to enhance their business (Business in the Community, 2015).

It is to be ensured that the effective leadership approaches can enhance the employee motivation of the organization. According to Cummings and Worley (2014), the different leadership style can motivate the employees for retaining them in the changing business scenario. The leadership style can be differentiated in different divisions, such as Autocratic, Democratic or participative, laissez-faire, Transformational, cognitive etc. In case of M&S, the changing leadership style of Sir Stuart Rose to Marc Bolland, has created much impact and has led the company towards achieving the international success. Firstly the company followed the bureaucratic leadership styles for guiding and monitoring the employees. The orders of the higher authority could not motivate the employees much prominently. The bureaucratic leadership style can affect the employees as they are not allowed to take part in any decision-making events. Later the company changed the leadership styles into transformational leadership style. In such style, the employees get the chances to improve their personal and professional development skills and create the remarkable place in the organisation. Therefore, the changing leadership style has created the effective employee engagement and achieved the success over the global business market. When the employees are developing their personal and professional skills with the help of the efficient training session provided by the management of the company, the employees get the motivation for work harder. This is simply derives the future success as well as the profitability for the company.

Different leadership styles

For ensuring the skilled employee engagement, the application of the proper motivational theories is very much significant. The application of two relevant theories is presented below:

This theory is dealing with five major aspects. These are psychological needs, safety needs, social needs, Esteem needs and Self-actualization. The psychological needs are considered as the basic needs, which explain the psychological needs of a person for the survival. Safety needs ensures the safety and security aspect of the person (Sharif and Scandura, 2014). Social needs are indicating the companionship of a person for the survival. Esteem needs are highlighting the social status, which sometimes facilitated as more than the personal relationship maintaining. The self-actualization needs are concerned about the personal growth or skills development.

In concerning the motivational theory, Herzberg has discussed about the two-factor theory. These are Hygiene factor and Motivation factor (Anderson, 2014). The hygiene theory is including of the mandatory aspects of the company, such as implementations of the policy, salary structure, providing the security to the employees, providing comfortable working environment, the transparent relationship building with the subordinates, the proper relationship building with the supervisors and the status maintaining (Hill et al. 2014). On the other aspect, the motivation factor includes the achievement of the employees while working within an organization, maintenance of the responsibilities, recognitions of the skilled performance of the employees, advancements of the equipment, etc.

The application of these two theories would be relevant enough for M&S for motivating the employees and enhancing the skilled leadership styles. The managers can be beneficial with the implication of such leadership styles. It is to be noted that the development of the personal and the professional skills of the employees is effective enough to bring out the skilled performance of the employees. As the changing leadership style is significantly gathering the employees’ supports, it is very much indicative that M&S can reach to the high peak of business success in this global environment.

There are some of the groups residing within M&S. The leadership team is following the effective leadership styles for motivating the employees and retaining them for the future prospects. The operation management team is developing operational activities undertaken for succeeding the Plan-A project.  The Subordinates are developing their professional skills with the help f the proper motivational strategic implementations. The proper amendments of the behavioural approaches will be beneficial for the company in concerning the future sustainability over the global business market. The teamwork has been very much beneficial for the company in order to achieve success. The effective leadership strategy is helpful enough in motivating the employees and engaging them into teamwork for the successful Plan-A project. The engagement of the subordinates thus makes difference in establishing the strong business entity.

Organizational theory influences the practical management

The co-operative feature is extremely needed for ensuring the group development within M&S. the unity among the team members can enhance the work quality, which helps in assuring the business profitability. The advancements of the information technology have enhanced the communication system, which is facilitating the development of the efficient teamwork (Bartelt and Dennis, 2014). Both the organizational and the environmental factors have created much impact on the teamwork. The motivational factors undertaken by the management have contributed the effectiveness for promoting the group development within M&S. The company is thus benefitted by the development of the advanced technicalities. The enhancement of the training sessions has increased the profitability of M&S in these days.

The effective nature of the technological equipment is cohesively related to the organizational tasks. More skilled technologies are influencing the higher groups. The evaluation of such wider use of these advanced technologies is thus significant enough for the operational management. The identification of the relevant cohesive group is very important and the technological advancements are influencing such aspects. The implementation of the technical tools in concerning the development of the business segments is thus beneficial for the future sustainability of M&S.

The information technology is bringing the innovation and improvising the communicational skills, which is significant enough for influencing the cohesive teams (Pinder, 2014). The adaptations of the skilled technicalities are efficiently creating the impact on the team members.

Conclusion

The study is defining the different leadership styles maintained by the management of the company Nisa and M&S. The obtained idea from the study is reflecting that the companies have to adopt several effective leadership styles to motivate the employees. This changing leadership style is justified for bringing out the skilled efficiency of the employees and motivating them for assuring the future sustainability and success. However, some of the situational factor may cause the employee turnover to some extent, but the proper maintaining of the team work would make it significant enough in achieving success.

References:

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