A Critical Analysis Of The Effect Of Leadership Style On Sainsbury’s: A UK Essay.

Effectiveness of leadership Style of the CEO of Sainsbury’s

Title: A Critical Analysis of the Effect of Leadership Style on Organisations: A Case of Sainsbury’s in the UK

The aim of this paper is to create a critical evaluation of the effect of the leadership style adopted by the CEO of Sainsbury’s. The effect of the leadership of the CEO of the company on the operations, environment and growth will also be presented in this report. The importance of leadership style and its effect on maintaining the organisational culture will also be significantly present dint his report. Moreover, the increased employee performance due to the environment of organisations maintained by the CEO with their strategies will also be presented in this report. Moreover, this specific report will also fundamentally present the recent culture and organisational structure of Sainsbury’s in the UK, which is being maintained by the CEO. The corporate governance strategy of the company will also be fundamentally evaluated in this report to understand its influence on organisational performance. On the other hand, different types of motivational strategies, which has been implemented by the CEO in the organisation, will also be duly presented in this particular report. Recommendations will also be presented in this report for the company to improve the organisational environment and performance.

The leadership style followed by the CEO of Sainsbury’s, Simon Roberts, is different from all the previous leaders of the company, which has brought different changes in the organisational environment in Sainsbury’s. The leadership style followed by the CEO of Sainsbury’s is helping others to follow him in an appropriate manner (Bako, 2018). Individuals working in Sainsbury’s are able to follow Simon due to the creation of positive energy in teams. His knowledge and experience as a sales and International Business Development professional is enabling the employees of the company to learn by following him. His highly entrepreneurial and creative managing style influences the employees of the company, which enables them in following their CEO. The decision-making strategies of Robert has made him a pragmatic leader, which has evaluated his excellent leadership skills. The pragmatic leadership style enables individuals to focus on realism, which is essential for the development of strategic goals. The vision of pragmatic leaders allows in focusing on the long-term goals and organisational capabilities. The goals developed by pragmatic leaders are enabling in improving the capabilities of organisations with the development of improved goals. Moreover, the pragmatic leadership style also enables the leaders to help all the employees to improve their performance and meet the organisational goals.

Current Culture and Structure of the Organisation

The implementation of the pragmatic leadership style by Simon Robert is helping him in gaining advantages by helping employees to increase their performance and knowledge. These are increasing the overall performance and growth of Sainsbury’s (Anderson and Sun, 2017). The experience of Robert of business development in the international domain, such as China, Korea, Europe, India, Russia and North America, is increasing the overall productivity and growth of Sainsbury’s. His experience in building teams, business turnarounds and others are the reasons behind the increased growth of Sainsbury’s in the international domain (Fiaz et al.., 2017). Furthermore, the experience of Robert in the management and development of product cost of helping in managing the price of products of Sainsbury’s. The pragmatic style is vital to develop modern and collaborative leadership skills. The collaborative and modern style followed by Robert is improving the productivity of employees, which is essential to increase the sales of Sainsbury’s. The collaborative nature of Robert is also enabling the employees of Sainsbury’s to improve the overall performance of the company.

The organisational structure of Sainsbury consists of different levels, which have several responsibilities. All the levels are being taken care of by the individuals above level. The senior managers are managing the line managers of Sainsbury’s. The sales assistants are being managed by the line managers of the company, which maintains the structure of the organisation in an appropriate manner (Esfahani et al., 2021). The company is focused on gaining opportunities to increase the space in different markets. It is also operating online to attract a large population from the global domain. The online sales of the company are increasing, which is improving the growth of the firm. The click and collect service of the company allows the customers to pick different items as per their preference. The online services provided by the company is increasing the popularity among customers in the international arena. Sainsbury’s is determined as the first UK based supermarket to open a bank, which delivers insurances, credit cards, savings and loans (Zhu, 2015). The combination of the shopping experiences of customers with banking enables the customers to have improved products at an appropriate price. The launch of Sainsbury’s energy has increased the value of the firm among its customers.

Organisational culture is one of the effective aspects for the increased growth and perforce of companies. The uniforms that the staff of Sainsbury’s are wearing, display of shelves, the colour of store walls, the layout of the stores, employees of different cultural backgrounds, and others have a massive role in the evaluation of the organisational culture (Serpa, 2016). The maintenance of an improved culture in Sainsbury’s is helping the firm to increase the satisfaction of employees and customers. These aspects are determined as the visible cultural values that influence the customers and increase the growth of Sainsbury’s in the international domain. On the other hand, the CSR activities carried out by Sainsbury’s are determined as the culture of the firm. It enables the company to engage its employees, which is essential for the improved performance of staff (Mkoba and Marnewick, 2022). The CSR activities are also influencing the customers, stakeholders, communities, and the employees of the company in the global arena. Less water consumption, respect for the environment, equality of rights are evaluating the culture of the company. In addition, the inclusion of employees from different locations of the international arena is also evaluating the maintenance of the culture in the company.

Entrepreneurial Strategy and Corporate Governance Policies in Sainsbury’s

The commitment of Sainsbury’s is on high standards of corporate governance, which is possible by the company due to the application of the supporting and primary principles of the UK Corporate Governance Code. The code primarily evaluates the need for effective boards, risk management, alignment of remuneration policies with the interests of shareholders, relations with shareholders, effective boards and others. The board of the company is responsible for the long-term success of the organisation in the global market (Harvey, Maclean and Price, 2020). The creation and delivery of sustainable shareholder value is another aspect that is influencing the strategy of the group to monitor its financial performance. The board is also able to ensure the financial growth and risk management system of the company. The chairman of the firm is responsible for leading and monitoring the board. Moreover, the Audit Committee of the company manages the financial information oversees the system of internal control. Another operation of the Audit Committee is determined as the management of risks, along with approving the external and internal process of audit. In-depth reviews of particular risks are being carried out by the audit committee of the company.

Furthermore, the remuneration policy is being reviewed by the remuneration committee, which ensures the alignment of the long-term success of the company. The remuneration committee of Sainsbury’s has the responsibility to approve the benefits of the executive board directors. On the other hand, the nomination committee of Sainsbury’s is also another part of the board, which is reviewing the knowledge, balance skills, independence, diversity and experience of the board, along with its committees (Sainsbury, 2020). The succession planning of the board on its management levels is also being maintained by the nomination committee of the company. The company has also developed a corporate responsibility and sustainable development committee, which is allowing in improving the effect of CSR activities on the growth and profitability of the firm. This particular committee is primarily managing the sustainability strategy of the company in the international domain, along with the UK (Rohwer and Topi?, 2019). In addition, the board is maintaining the internal control and risk management strategies in the firm. The effectiveness of the risk management strategies adopted by the leaders of Sainsbury’s is being managed and monitored by the board. The development of corporate governance is able to improve the processes of the company in all the markets.

The transformation of business is one of the effective aspects that influences the change management strategies adopted by the leaders of companies. The changes are being adopted in Sainsbury’s between the years 2004 to 2009. The developmental changes in the organisation were implemented in the year 2004, which has developed the stores, IT equipment, and distribution (Hornstein, 2015). It has brought several changes in the operations of the firm and helped the organisation to expand its business with a new innovation strategy. The lack of appropriate estimation of the budget during the change has drastically affected the transformation and resulted in failure. The recovery strategy for the failure was duly adopted in 2007 with a budget of 12 million pounds to increase the sales growth of the company. It has also included the removal of the failed automated systems (Cameron and Green, 2019). It was identified by the company that there are five areas that require its focus for recovery. These five areas are determined as good quality of food at a low and fair price, growth of non-food ranges, interaction with more customers with the use of different channels, expanding the supermarket pace with the development of new stores, and active property management.

Different challenges have been faced by the company while adopting the changes in its operations. The lack of proper objectives by the management of the organisation has increased challenges concerning the implementation of changes (Jayatilleke and Lai, 2018). The system followed by the administration was unable to support the growth of the company in the international domain, which has increased challenges for the company. The employees, stakeholders, management, along with customers that were unable to adopt the challenges in the organisation, which has affected the growth of the firm in the UK, along with the global arena. One of the primary changes made by CEO Simon Roberts is that the employees need to listen to the customers. It has helped the employees to interact with customers and understand their needs, which is essential to provide appropriate services and increase satisfaction (Cummings, Bridgman and Brown, 2016). Listening to the customers and understanding their needs is one of the effective changes that have been brought by the CEO of Sainsbury’s, Simon Roberts. Another change made by the CEO is determined as the development of a combination of both the digital and traditional teams to ensure an improved customer experience.

Rewards and incentives

Incentives and rewards provided by the management of Sainsbury’s are effective strategies to motivate the employees. The rewards and the incentives are also helping the management of Sainsbury’s to increase their productivity (Anwaar, Nadeem and Hassan, 2016). The direct business team of the company is managing the rewards for the employees of the company to increase the benefits for the employees. The gift cards and vouchers provided by the company to the employees is also helping in improving the level of motivation among the employees. The vouchers provided to the employees is to say “thank you” to them for their services and operations in the company, which is also motivating them. Moreover, a discount of 1000 pounds is also being provided to all the employees of the company.

Communication

Communication is determined as a primary aspect for the increased motivation of employees. It is essential for the management of Sainsbury’s to identify the needs of employees, which is possible with increased communication (Almaaitah et al., 2017). Moreover, increased communication is helping the management of the firm to gain advantages by identifying the challenges faced by employees in the company. It is also helping the management of the company to understand the challenges of employees and providing support to reduce them. It is increasing the interaction between the employees and management (Daramola, 2019). On the other hand, the leaders of the organisation are also able to identify the needs and requirements of employees, which is essential to increase their motivation through increased communication.

Managing the Working Environment

The management of the environment of the workplace is enabling the management of Sainsbury’s to motivate the employees. The workplace environment is able to increase the performance of employees, which influences the overall productivity of the company. An appropriate workplace environment is able to help the management in influencing the productivity of employees and their ability to meet the organisational goals. In addition, it is also able to increase the teamwork among the employees of the firm, which also increases motivation among them (Naidoo and Gasparatos, 2018). On the contrary, the safety of employees is also increasing the motivating level among the staff. The maintenance of safety in the workplace by Sainsbury’s management is improving the environment in the company and increasing the trust of staff in the management, which is also a reason for increased performance of the employees.

Employee Motivation Strategy in Disney

Disney is encouraging the leaders to engage themselves in motivating the employees in an effective manner. The company is operating by gathering feedback from the employees and cast members (De Kok, Lubbers and Helms, 2015). The front line workers are vital for the company, which is enabling the leaders to take their feedback to increase communication with them. Moreover, the leaders of the company are also being encouraged to work with the employees to understand them in an appropriate manner, which is essential to increase their motivation level.

Google Employee Motivation Strategy

Google is famous for having the most satisfied employees, which enables the company to improve its working culture. The maintenance of employee satisfaction is helping Google to manage the job satisfaction of employees is influencing the positive environment in the workplace, which is increasing the motivation of employees (Lenka, 2021). The work culture in Google has been maintained by providing benefits and perks, which motivates the team members.

Apple Employee Motivation Strategy

The employees of Apple are gaining several incentives and benefits from the management, which are computer programs, employee stock purchase plans, onsite fitness centres and tuition assistance (Freeman, 2015). The motivational strategies adopted by Apple includes the compensation for reaching goals. The leaders of the company are also sharing their meals with the employees, which is increasing the trust of staff in the management and increasing motivation among them. The increased satisfaction among the staff of Apple is increasing the retention rate in the company.

Improving Communication with Employees

Communication between the employees and management of companies is essential for increased satisfaction among the employees. The satisfaction level of employees is also able to increase their productivity and trust in the management. Thus, it is recommended to the management of Sainsbury’s that they need to increase communication with the employees for the improvement in the satisfaction level of employees towards their job (Lakin et al., 016). Increased communication with the employees of Sainsbury’s is able to help in managing the feedback of employees. Moreover, the communication between the employees and management of Sainsbury’s will help the firm to gain improved advantages, as the satisfied and motivated employees are able to increase loyalty (Hersch et al., 2017). Furthermore, the management of Sainsbury’s is also being recommended to increase communication with the employees to improve the services of employees. The communication between the employees will help the management in gaining advantages by understanding the needs of employees, which will enable in improving the satisfaction with the management of communication.

Training Employees to Improve their Skills and Knowledge

The employees of different companies are unable to improve their skills due to the lack of knowledge about the usage of new technologies, appropriate strategies and others. It is also being faced by the employees of Sainsbury’s in the UK, along with the international domain. Thus, it is recommended to Sainsbury’s that it should influence the leaders to train their employees for better services (Eby et al., 2019). The training for the employees of the company will help them in understanding the organisational goals, which are essential for the increased services of the organisation. The training will also help the employees of Sainsbury’s to gain advantages by influencing the consumers in an appropriate manner (Dhar, 2015). Furthermore, the training for the employees will help the management of the company to increase their ability to manage the communication with the customers. On the other hand, the training will increase the satisfaction of employees by increasing their ability to meet the demand of consumers.

Conclusion

It was concluded from the report that employee motivation is one of the essential aspects for the increased growth and performance of firms. The services provided by the employees are able to increase the performance and growth of companies in the international domain. It was also concluded that Sainsbury’s is able to increase its performance in the international domain by the satisfaction of employees, which is increasing the growth of the firm. The strategies adopted by the company are helping in increasing the productivity of employees, which has a massive impact on the skills and knowledge of individuals working as employees in Sainsbury’s. The benefits that the employees are gaining from the management are allowing in improving the overall productivity and sales of the company in the global arena. Recommendations have also been provided to the company to improve its performance by increasing the satisfaction of employees.  

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