Introduction:
Marks and Spencer (M&S) is a retailer companies in United Kingdom dealing with great quality and stylish clothing and excellent food products .They have over 600 stores in the UK and employs over 75,000 qualified personnel (Grayson, 2011). Organization culture is how a company organizes its rule beliefs and procedures. Usually, culture takes years to achieve and become dominant in the company’s profile. Achievement of the organization goal is through combining various resources in the organization. For the company to achieve the best modification of the firm's structure should in place; cut the operating cost and give competitive advantage to the potential competitor
Organization structure
Flat organization structure minimizes the levels of top management and lower management. Junior managers are left to make their decision. Structure does not only benefit the company in the reducing operating cost, but also makes the lower management to increase their expertise by making precise decision making. For the fast response in the problem, the flat organization is appropriate due to less bureaucracy between senior and lower management level. Marks and Spencer have flat organization structure make the organization employees to explain, justify and be accountable for every decision they make. M&S have overs 3,000 specialist employees in the different field to manage stocks (Francis, 2014). Moreover, over 65,000 workforce works at M&S stores while other are in management roles and in outlets oversee (Francis, 2014). A Minimal level between the top and low management level makes less decision making process and resistance which will translate to high productivity. New Marks and Spencer structure increase the demand for the employees to gain extra training. Marks and spencer has a program that picks graduate fresh from university and trains them for 12 months, trains new managers for 24 months and experienced manager from other companies get three mouths training (Grayson, 2011). The structure reduces the operation cost and also the channel of communication is useful.
Charles handy model and corporate culture
Organization culture also referred to as corporate structure relates to the general rules and policies in the organization. Charles Handy model comprises four types body structure; power, task, person and role culture (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2010). Power culture means the organization decisions rest to a particular and few people. Task culture states that the work can be done as group or team. Person culture says that the employees are more important than the organization and hence they value their customers. Role culture means that the functions and responsibilities of companies are given according to the education, experience, and specialization one hold (Bae, Rowley, & Sohn, 2012). The uniform and logo the company workers wears, shows they work as a team; identity that makes them stands out from the rest companies. Mark and Spencer have adopted a high culture that makes their employees take labor and responsibility with minimal supervision. Marks and Spencer have a good communication channel with their customers and therefore becomes easy to generate new ideas and increase their performance (Francis, 2014). Being a successful company, it attracts qualified staff and then gives extra training with competitive benefits and salary. So having the skilled personnel enables competition with close competitors and more so achievement of higher goals in the long term.
Management style
Autocratic leadership is where managers give the clear guideline. Authoritarian style offers instruction and rules on how to do the task without considering their worker’s opinion (Crisp & Turner, 2014). This style makes manager to be the decision-maker in a company. Laissez-faire style leaves the manager to perform what they feel is right for the enterprise. The top management assumes that the manager is knowledgeable and is expertise in the area of operation. Democratic leadership style allows the principle of the empowerment to the staff. Team or group is to account for the decision they make (Cummings & Worley, 2014). Marketing style at Marks and Spencer is consultative one. Management style at Mark and Spencer depend on the hierarchy level in management. That on top management uses autocratic leadership style; this means they dictate what lower staff should do. The managers at the lower management level use authoritarian leadership because the staffs they are dealing with have minimal knowledge and expertise (Grayson, 2011). Middle managers can use laissez-faire management since they have the knowledge to perform their work. However, top management is always on watch on what decision they make which has to follow democratic leadership style to reach a conclusion. Therefore the management style in the Marks and Spencer is consultative one.
Human resource management
Performance, training and development
Performance management includes setting a clear expectation and providing accurate informal or formal feedback. Performance management is where managers work closely to plan, monitor, and review employees overall contribution to the organization (Colquitt, Lepine, & Wesson, 2011). Hence, it includes setting, assessing, providing coach and feedback to check if the employee reaches expectation. Training is one fundamental aspect of the human resource management (Campbell & Tawadey, 2016). Due to the change in technology, there is needed to allocate some hours for training. When creating the training program, managers should make sure both the employee and company benefit. Similarly, program natures the value and ideas for the future growth. M&S improves the confidence in working place through comprehensive coaching program. Additionally, there is induction program at M&S lasting for one to two weeks. To motivate the employees, M&S provides rewards and benefits for their good performance. Consequently, this will attract the qualified workforce, motivate and retain an employee with significant expertise. M&S encourages saving for the workers; contributes pension of 6% while the employee contributes 3%.apart from that the company offers a bonus for the excellent performance of the employees and life insurance (Grayson, 2011). .After performance appraisal, the employer can reward workers in terms of commission and promotion to the next management level
Conclusion and recommendations
M&S follow flat body structure so as to cut down the cost which in turn increases profit margin. However, big business can fail to maintain the flat structure due to the loss of control on the senior level of management. M&S flat organization structure is suitable since it is a large body which can make it have significant market share globally. High culture correlates with the people’s values and belief that have the impact on the organization. M&S have a strong culture that helps in serving in a competitive market and offers a lot of resources and time to nature the talent of their employee.
References:
Bae, J., Rowley, C., & Sohn, T. (2012). Managing Korean business: Organization, culture, human resources and change. Routledge.
Campbell, A., & Tawadey, K. (2016). Mission and business philosophy. Elsevier.
Colquitt, J., Lepine, J., & Wesson, M. (2011). Organizational behavior: Improving performance and commitment in the workplace. McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Crisp, R., & Turner, R. (2014). Essential social psychology. Sage.
Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.
Francis, M. (2014). Herbert Spencer and the invention of modern life. Routledge.
Grayson, D. (2011). Embedding corporate responsibility and sustainability: Marks & Spencer. Grayson, D. (2011). Embedding corporate responsib Journal of Management Development, 30(10),, 1017-1026.
Huczynski, A., & Buchanan, D. (2010). Organizational behaviour. Financial Times Prentice Hall.
