Management Principles And Strategies For Corporate Success: A Case Study Of Tesco

Definition: Manager, Management, and Organization; Role played by Managers in achieving desired goals

Task 1: Briefly explain: manager, management and organisation. Assess the significance of managers in achieving organisational success for a company of your own choice.

Task2: Analyse how size and strategy of a company can affect its organisational structure? Support your answer with relevant examples.

Task3: a) Discuss Tesco’s current mission, vision and corporate strategy.

b) Suggest and explain the process that can help Tesco to formulate its corporate strategy for the year 2015.

c) What do you understand by the term “organisational culture”? Can Tesco improve its performance by changing its culture? Discuss.

Management principles are referred to as guidelines for managers based on which they take their decisions and plan their actions (Plunkett, et al., 2012). Management principles are derived from analysis and observation of events happening in real life situations within organisations. This report studies different aspects of management principles in relation to Tesco.

Manager is an individual who pans, directs and controls the work to be performed by others and is also responsible for the outcome (Hellriegel & John W. Slocum, 2011). It is manager’s responsibility to ensure order and consistency is maintained in the work of their employees. The key functions in a managers role within an organisation is defined by three key words namely; authority wherein they are empowered to take decisions for their employees, responsibility for ensuring targets are achieved and accountability for accepting both success and failures.

Management refers to the process of organising and coordinating various activities of a business in order to ensure desired objectives are achieved (Ng, 2011). It comprises of activities of planning, organising, directing, and controlling employees in order to achive specified goals. Management is task-oriented and view employees as machines that are used for performing tasks. It helps in creating a disciplined work culture where efficiency and productivity are measures that indicate high performance.

Organisation refers to a social unit of individuals who are structured and managed in a manner that help achieving common goals (Fox, 2007). Organisations have a well-defined management structure that creates a relationship between members and activities by subdividing roles and responsibilities among members based on their skills and expertise. Organisations perform like open systems which have certain effects on environment and are greatly affected by their environment.

Managers play a very vital role in achieving desired organisations goals at Tesco. Managers at Tesco are responsible for ensuring sales targets are meet (Pattanayak, 2005). They define goals and objectives for the team and plans the way work should be carried on in order to achieve specified goals. Mangers are help organising tasks among team members, the work id divided into manageable activities and assigned to team members based on their capabilities. This help ensuring tasks will be completed within specified time frame. Managers at Tesco ensures that the team members are motivated enough to deliver their best performance (Adair, 2009). Through their effective communication they ensure that employees are well informed of their duties and associated rewards and recognitions. Managers are responsible for identify employee needs and ensuring there are satisfied in order to enhance job satisfaction and commitment. Managers at Tesco help ensuring that individual goals are aligned with organisational goals and employees are provided with ample opportunities to realise their full potential (Miner, 2005). Managers are also responsible for evaluation of team performance based on which improvements are planned continuously. Managers at Tesco work towards the development of customer-oriented work culture that help achieving desired goals.

Effect of size and strategy of organization on its organizational structure

Organisational structure refers to the structural framework that defines hierarchical levels within an organisation (Chambley, 2013). It helps defining the ways in which activities such as supervision, task allocation and coordination are carried out within organisations and enable them achieve desired goals and objectives. It can also be defined as architecture of leadership, business competence, functional relationships, talent and management (Fáilte Ireland , 2013). In order to determine the affect of size and strategy of an organisation on its organistaional structure it is important to get a brief understanding of different types of organisational structures. There are six types of organizational structures namely; Divisional structure wherein organisations are divided into divisions mostly based on geographical locations, products, functionality and strategies, Functional Structure wherein employees are assigned to different functional areas depending on their expertise, Geographical structure where groups are founded on the basis of geographical locations, Horizontal Structure wherein people working on similar projects are grouped together, Hybrid Structure which display characteristics of all structure taking advantage of their strengths and avoiding weaknesses and Matrix Structure wherein employees assigned to two reporting heads (Baligh, 2006).

The choice of a specific organisational structure is affected by a number of factors however; organisational size, strategy, life cycle, technology and environment are the five most common factors that have comparatively greater impact (Kortmann, 2012). Size of an organisation greatly affects the choice of its organisational structure, greater the size greater is the complexity involved thus higher is the need for a well defined organizational structures. Small organisational like localised retail shops, restaurants, real-estate firms do not involve too many employees and its operations are simple thus they can do with a simple organizational structure and at times even do not need to define a structure (Mullins, 2011). They involve few tasks and roles thus are performed by employees based on their capabilities instead of following an organisational chart. The case however is different in case of large organisations which are spread across various geographical locations and have complex operations, for example Apple, Samsung, Toyota, Starbucks etc (Murray, et al., 2006). These organisations need well-defined organizational structure in order to define authorities and work allotments. These organisations will not be able to manage their business process and achieve desired goals without a well-defined organisational structure.

Organisations may either choose to adopt a differentiation strategy or a cost-leadership strategy to position their products in market. The structure of the organisation must fit its strategy thus an organisation that aims for differentiation will choose a flexible organizational structure while an organisation that aims for greater efficiency and productivity while opt for a mechanistic organizational structure (Myers, 2009).

Tesco’s mission, vision, and corporate strategy

Founded by Jack Cohen in year 1919, Tesco is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer (Tesco PLC, 2015). Tesco has been raked as world’s third largest retailer in terms of profit and second largest retailer in terms of revenues. Tesco has its presence in 12 countries however 60% of its business is generated from UK. In UK Tesco is recognised as the grocery market leader.

Tesco’s Mission: Mission statement of organisations states its general purpose (Hellriegel & John W. Slocum, 2011). Tesco’s mission statement states “we make what matters better, together” (Tesco PLC, 2015).

Tesco’s Vision: Vision of an organisation defines its long-term goals (Fáilte Ireland , 2013).  Tesco’s vision is to be recognised as the most highly values business by its customers, by communities they operate in, by their valued, loyal and committed employees and by their stakeholders (Tesco PLC, 2015).

Tesco’s Corporate Strategy: Once the vision and mission of an organisation is defined it develops strategies that can help achieving them. Tesco believes that their core values are means by which their can achieve their purpose of existence. Tesco’s core values are; Ensuring that no one tries harder for customers; Ensure they treat everyone in a manner they would like themselves to be treated and Using their scale for good (Tesco PLC, 2015). At Tesco core values are no different from their corporate strategies.

In order to meet the changing demands of today’s dynamic marketplace and retaining their competitive advantage against competitors Tesco will have to formulate new corporate strategy for year 2015. Strategies refer to the actions that an organisation under takes in order to achieve their short term and long term goals and objectives (Fáilte Ireland , 2013). In order to develop effective corporate strategies Tesco will have to use strategy formulation processes which require a series of six steps to be performed in a sequential manner.

Defining organizational objectives: It is essential to identify and define realistic and achievable goals for the organisation that align with their vision (Fáilte Ireland , 2013).

Environmental assessment: Tesco will have to perform a situation analysis, competitor analysis and self evaluation in relation to both internal and external factors at both macro-environmental and micro-environmental level (Fáilte Ireland , 2013). A number of business management tools are available that help organisations in evaluating their external and internal environments such as; SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis, Porter’s five forces model of competitive analysis. Force field analysis and Variant analysis etc.

The process that can help Tesco to formulate its corporate strategy for the year 2015

Defining quantitative targets: Tesco will have to define measurable targets for some of their objectives in order to facilitate evaluation in further steps (Fáilte Ireland , 2013).

Strategic planning for sub units: Depending upon the contribution realised from each department and sub units within the organisation Tesco will have to develop strategic plan for different sub-units (Fáilte Ireland , 2013).

Performance Analysis: This step in strategy formulation process help identifying the gap between existing performance and desired performance. This helps in planning continuous improvements in strategies (Fáilte Ireland , 2013).

Choice of Strategy: After completing all the above steps involved in strategic planning process, based on outcome of each step Tesco will be able to formulate new corporate strategy for year 2015 (Fáilte Ireland , 2013).

Tesco will have to indulge in extensive market research and analysiss in order to identify factors that can help them take advantage of opportunities presented by marketplace as well as create a competitive advantage that cannot be imitated by competitors. Tesco can take steps to implement total quality management, Lean and Six sigma processes that can help eliminating waste processes and planning continuous improvement thus reducing operations cost as a result of which Tesco will be able provide cost advantage to its customers while ensuring high product and service quality.

Organisational culture help defining the behaviour of individuals in an organisation and perceptions individuals attach to these behaviours (Hellriegel & John W. Slocum, 2011). It represents the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, customs, and rules of the organisation that lead to the creation of a unique psychological and social environment within workplace. Organisational culture defines the way organisations treat their employees, customers, community and related partners. Organisational culture plays a very vital role in determining the overall performance of the organisations (Mullins, 2011). Changing Tesco’s organisational culture will surely help Tesco in increasing its performance as it will helping making it a better place to work where employees are treated with respect and integrity and are encourages to openly share their views. Knowledge sharing culture that encourage employees to realise their full potential helps enhancing employee motivation which inspire them to deliver high performance and commitment towards the organisation and customers.

Conclusion

Management principles are the drivers of organizational success. They not only help organisations in effectively carrying out their day to day operations but in carrying out them in a way that maximum benefits are achieved. They help organisations in enhancing their overall effectiveness and efficiency and also in creating and retaining competitive advantage against competitors.

References

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Fáilte Ireland , (2013) Managing Key Business Processes. [Online] Available at: https://www.failteireland.ie/FailteIreland/media/WebsiteStructure/Documents/2_Develop_Your_Business/1_StartGrow_Your_Business/Managing-Key-Business-Processes.pdf Accessed 2014].

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Tesco PLC, (2015) Core Purpose and Values. [Online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=10 [Accessed 2015].