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MSc Management

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Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................ 2
2. How Marks and Spencers motivate employees?.............................................................2
3. Marks and Spencer CEO leadership style (800w)...........................................................7
4. Marks and Spencers new management structure.........................................................10
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................... 15

1.

Introduction

Marks and Spencer the top UKs retailers, with 1,382 stores worldwide (M&S Today), has
experienced some troubles in merchandise sales. The retailers witnessed the lost for 3
consecutive year in this line. The CEO of M&S Marc Bolland has take back and left his top
position in M&S for his successor Steve Lowe. The new CEO with many new important
decisions within early month of taking the new position has created many argument within
high street. He made some changes on the management structure of M&S and give the new
business strategy that is expected would thrive M&S back. This report will discuss about this
change of M&S and the suggested motivation for Rowe and M&S to handle with the usual
resistance of any changes within business. Furthermore, discovering the leadership style of Rowe
and evaluating his change on management structure would be analysed in this report.
2.

How Marks and Spencers motivate employees?

Witnessing the down trend of general merchandise sales, M&S has decided to make an
important decision which is replacing the CEO Marc Bolland with the successor Steve Rowe.
Rowe is claimed as the life saver of M&S who has his name as the manager of the companys
successful food division. While clothing business division had to experience the profit falling in
3 recent years, the food service of the company which is led by Rowe kept growing for 25
consecutive quarters. (Julia Kollewe and Sarah Butler , 2016). Thus, M&S decided to change its
CEO with hope to recover the operating result of retailer clothing business.
Changes and its influences on the entrepreneur (200w)
Changes are necessary for the company to be competitive in the market, (Cohen, 1999). The
business environment has changed at unprecedented speed, with the increasing of globalization,
technology innovation, the shortage of resources, deregulations and privatization (Carnall, 1995).

Changes is the certain that a company need to have to be able to adapt to all those changes of
business environment. That means the company has to change its operating structure, human
resources, or other influencing factors.
Influences of changes to the operation of the company has been researched. From there, there
are many theories, models and approaches have been found to help the company to be able to
implement the changes successfully. According to Desler (2007), there are four basic aspects of
the company could be changed: the strategy, the technology, the structure and the human
resources. Strategic change is defined as the changes of cope and mission of the company.
Structural changes are about reorganizing the chart of personal within the company. In order to
increase the competitiveness and the strength of the company, the innovation in information
technology is considered as very crucial and necessary for the company to implement. And the
last aspect is changes on people. It can be said that the final element is influenced by the other
three changes. As the company has any innovation, the employees would be influences. They
have to be educated or trained about the changes of the companies to ensure that they can adapt
to the transformation of their working environment. In case of M&S, the new movement of the
company is assigning the new CEO for the clothes merchandise division. This is the fourth type
of change mentioned above.
The resistance to change
The changes within the company usually cause the resistant from the people. People often
tend to scare of change, because they would learn to adapt with the new working environment.
The reaction and perceive of the people toward to the change of the company is the measurement
for the importance of changes. (Carr et al 2006). Thus, it is really essential that the manager
should consider to the attitude of employees toward any changes. There are some possible
reactions identified such as: acceptance, indifference, passive resistance and active resistance.
Among those, resistance from the employees is really considerable problem. Resistance is
defined as an action to prevent the change and protect the status quo (Carr et al 2006). This can
be an obstacle for the process of transformation of the organization. People can have negative
behaviour which can harm the implementation of change. For example, they can go on strike,
which can make the company suffer very much from loss in term of both asset and human
resources. Therefore, controlling the reaction from employees toward the changes of the
company is essential for company to be survive through the transforming period (Goetsch and

Davis 2006). The resistant can be shown in very different ways. It can be explicit, implicit,
immediate or postponed (Robbins 1996, Nadler 1998). However, they can be derived from 4
following drives: Psychological, Systems, Institutional and cultural models (Graetz et al 2006).
In case of M&S, the new CEO Rowe would possibly have to face with very large
resistance from the employee. However, the obstacle he may face is the delay of the employees
in transforming. They are too familiar with the old working style (under the leading of Marc
Bolland), with ineffective strategy within the general merchandise. People are likely to support
Rowe because they believe in his success in leading food stores. However, they can doubt that
whether he can have enough understanding and necessary skills in clothing industry. Food and
clothing industry are by far different. Especially, Rowe can change the operating strategy of
Clothing merchandise division, but he should not try to change the corporate culture in this line,
because the culture is the core values and ways of working that connect people with the
organisation (HYMOWITZ, 2007). Some people may want to leave the company because they
can find that they cannot link to the new CEO. The resistance of people in this case is the issue
of Psychological.
Besides, the disagreement between Rowe and some directors lead to their leaves out of
the company. This can cause system effect within the organisation. The leave of these directors
can lead to the leaves of some other people.
Additionally, Rowe is not the expected CEO on the first hand. John Dixon the former
executive director of general merchandise is the man that most people think would be the next
CEO of clothing division. (Neilan, 2016). Surprisingly, Dixon left, and Rowe took this position
as a luck. Because of this, it can make the reputation of Rowe be lowered a little. Some people
may think he got this position partly because he is lucky, not his talent. Therefore, the trust on
him within employee may be lowered a little.
The necessary motivation
Facing with the resistance from the people, it is certain that managers need to motivate
them to accept and adapt to the changes of the company. Acceptance of change experiences
through some stages including: awareness of the change, interest in the change, trial, the decision
to continue or stop, and application of the change into peoples life (Rogers, 2003). According to
that, people can be classified into 4 group in terms of decreasing level of acceptance: innovators,

early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. There are some models related to
management of change discovered by scientist, which illustrated in Illustration 1:

Illustration 1: The change models

These models are also criticised that they simplified the complication of change within
organisations. However, they also help to establish some necessary elements to lead change
successfully. The factors needed to concern in leading changes include:
-

Change implementation techniques including Leadership Skills and Abilities

Coaching
Communicating
Involving others
Motivating
Rewarding
Promoting Teamwork

Among these elements, Motivating is an effective way to persuade the employees to change,
and is the expression of leading skills of managers.
The model of motivating is suggested by Kotter & Schlesinger (1985)

Graph 1: The method of overcoming resistance (Kotter & Schlesinger, 1985)

The first highly recommended method to activate the motivation of people within M&S
is Education and communication. This method is usually used when people lack the
understanding about the changes. It is obvious that in this case people aware of the necessity of
making changes for the clothing merchandise division of M&S. However, the change of CEO
still make them feel worried and uncertain. Therefore, communicating with them and talking to
them about the new strategy of Rowe would possibly effective. According to Green (2004),
Rousseau & Tijoriwala, 1999, the employees need to be provided with full of information about
the changes of the company, rationalised the necessary and appropriateness for change. The
leaders also have to answer all their questions, to make them feel safe and trusted, so increase
their acceptance and participation. Actually, the key solution is to ensure their benefits during
changed implemented (Gilley, 2005). The result of clothing division was worse, so employee of
M&S would have expected the changes from the CEO. The problem here is to reinforce their
trust on Rowe. For example, he can announce the expected amount of sale in 2016 according to
his strategy to the employees.
The second possible approach is facilitation and support to the employees. It is the method to
involve resisters into the change. Thus, some people can feel that they cannot be in harmony with
the new boss. Therefore, holding the training and giving emotional support are very meaningful
in this phase. This approach is very meaningful in case that people fear they cant make the

needed adjustments. Rowe needs to show them that he still ensure the justice between the
employees.
3.

Marks and Spencer CEO leadership style (800w)

Gardner (1993) defined that leadership is the process of persuasion or encourage a person or
a group to follow the idea or objectives given by the leaders or his or her followers. In the book
Primal Leadership, Daniel Goleman, who developed the notion of Emotional Intelligence,
describes six different styles of leadership. A leader can change their leadership style during
his/her time of leading, adopting the style that is appropriate to the requirement of the company.
The styles suggested by Daniel Goleman include:
Visionary: In case the organization need some improvement or innovation for its operation,
this type of leadership is appropriate. It focus on arranging people to be creative under the
common direction Visionary leaders articulate where a group is going, but not how it will get
there setting people free to innovate, experiment, take calculated risks, write Mr. Goleman and
his coauthors.
Coaching. The target of this style is developing individuals, helping them to improve their
performance, and find the way to match their goals to the common goals of the company.
Affiliative. According to This style, the team work and harmonized working environment
are appraised. People are led to connect with each other as best as possible. Mr. Goleman
claimed that this method is really meaningful in case the directors want to heighten team
harmony, increase morale, improve communication or repair broken trust in an organization.
However, it is necessary to applying this method with the consideration of performance
effectiveness of each individual.
Democratic. This style focuses on peoples knowledge and skills. It established a team
pledging to the target goals. It is the most effective approach in case the organization still
manage to find the direction for its operation. The collection of knowledge and skills of a group
of experienced and talent people would be very supportive for the leader. However, this can
waste time and become meaningless if the company need to make quick decision, especially
during the period of crisis, Mr Goleman wrote.
Pacesetting. In this style, the leader sets high standards for performance of the organization.
However this style can create stress for the employees.

Commanding. This is very often used but the least effective. It is the way to use power to
force the employees to work after the command of the leader. This way cannot really help to
increase the effectiveness of organizations.
In case of M&S, At the new position on top, Steve Rowe has made many significant changes
on the operation of M&S. Firstly, it is the transformation of management structure. He simplified
the operating committee to have more effective and focus team making decision. His leadership
style is type 3: democratic leadership. This is the most effective method of leading. It can help to
link people together, then creating the synthesized power. Therefore, it can help to create the
innovative idea. Besides, it also can crease the comfortable and harmonize atmosphere between
members of groups. He also has tendency to simplifies the management mechanism. The proof is
that the executive committee is downed from 20 to only 7 people (MACDONALD, 2016).
However, this style also have some negative consequences. For example, if there is no
common idea possibly given, it is very likely that there would be conflict happening. In case of
M&S, the result of conflict is the leaves of 5 directors out of the company. It can be said that this
is such a loss for M&S. These directors work for M&S for a long time, so they understand many
things about the company. It would be very bad if they work for the rival of M&S. Even Rowe
can change many things related to M&S, but the core value is unchanged. Besides, there are also
many other employees who love to work with these directors. Among of them, there may be
many talents needed for the transformation of the company. Therefore, the loss of human is
really serious loss for the company, especially in the period of restructuring.
Suggested leadership style for Steve Rowe
In case of M&S, the company would have many significant changes in term of both
operating strategy and the new leading style of CEO. It is essential to choose an appropriate
leading style to help the company thrive again.
During changing phase, there are two main leadership styles that researchers mentioned
to: transactional leadership and transformational leadership. In the transactional leadership style,
the leader directly involve in implementing changes into the corporation. He/she will acts like an
agent of change and supports the employees during the procedures of fundamental changes.
Transformational leadership style is, on the contrary, giving the subordinates the power to

assume the organizations vision which reflects into growth of productivity, of employees
motivation, of work satisfaction and of individual performance. (Burns, 1978). The definition of
this leading style is introduced in the book leadership by James McGregor Burns (1978) which
stated that transformational leadership where leaders and their followers raise one another to
higher levels of morality and motivation . This kind of leading bring many advantages such as:
high integrity and fairness, clear goals setting, high expectations, encouraging others, providing
support and recognition, care about the emotions of people, making people to appraise the
common interest rather than their self - benefit (Bernard M. Bass, 1985). However, Bass also
pointed out some negative sides of this method which is that the level of influences of the
leading direction on every organizational layers are different.
In case of M&S and Rowe the second style seems to be more appropriate. This can help
to increase the trust and link between people within M&S. Although the team of board
management are almost Rowes follower. However, the agreement from other subordinates and
employees are also very important.
Bass and Avolio (1990 stated four competency areas that help the transformational
leadership:
Idealized behavior (IB) it makes a leader to be trusted and respected. Rowe should be
consistent with the purpose that he stressed taking the customer to be the centre. Every of
his action should prove for this statement.
Inspirational motivation (IM) the ability to encourage employees to outstrip themselves.
After the significant of management board, people may fell really chaotic. Therefore, Rowe
needs to have some method of motivating them (as mentioned in part 2) to inspire the
employees.
Intellectual stimulation (IS) leaders stimulate the employees to ask questions and to solve
old problems in new ways. This is very meaningful for Rowe and his fellows in the new
position. Rowe can understand about M&S, but hes still new for this position.
Understanding the thought and opinion from the employees can help him to gain their
following and also creating more efficiency in M&Ss operation.
Individual consideration (IC) After understanding the requirements and opinions of
subordinates, it is meaningful to care about these things and consider to achieve some of
them which are reasonable.

4.

Marks and Spencers new management structure

Types of Management Structure
The management structure may be classified into 3 types:
Functional structure: This is one of the most common management structures. The
management of company is structured according to the function. This type of
management structure can help to increase the efficiency of the organization by
specializing the operation of each department. The below graph illustrate one example of
functional structure.
CEO

Corporate
Services

HR

Finance

Manufactur
ing

Marketing

Sales

Quality

Recruitmen
t

Accounts

Plant A

Product
Managers

Region A

Legal

Staff
Manageme
nt

Payroll

Plant B

Advertising

Region B

Procureme
nt

Payroll

Tax

Plant C

PR

Region C

Treasury

Plant D

Illustration 3: The example of Functional Structure

Division Structure: This is the way to organize the company into groups in which
the employee would be responsible for the same of product type or market service.
This way can increase the flexibility in monitoring the operation of the corporation,
but it can make the linkage between the different lines be loosen.

Illustration 4: The example of Division Structure

Matrix Structure: This is the combination between functional structure and division
structure. The former divides departments within a company by the functions performed,
while the latter divides them by products, customers or geographical location. This
structure has advantage that it help to link managers and employees together to work for
the common target.

Illustration 5: The example of Matrix Structure

Evaluation of Mark and Spencers new management structure

Rowe has established a new operation committee having smaller scale but making decision more
quickly. New management committee of M&S include:
-

the Directors of Food (Andy Adcock);

Womenswear, Lingerie & Beauty (Jo Jenkins);

Retail (Sacha Berendji);

International (Paul Friston);

Communications & Investor Relations (Dominic Fry);

Human Resources (Simmone Haywood); and

the Group Secretary & Head of Corporate Governance (Amanda Mellor).

(Source: https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/aboutus/our-leadership-team)

This new management board is smaller to make quicker decision, and more flatter

Illustration 6: Operating Committee of M&S

Thus, M&S apply the model of Functional Structure of management. The new, smaller
and flatter management structure would possibly increase employee empowerment and
responsibility, increasing more of the direct contacts with customers and building new
knowledge. This is an illustration which prove that Rowe has made the core value of his strategy
for the operation of M&S: taking the customer to be the heart. This management organization
style is more horizontal, which could lead the making decision process to be more time saving
and more effective. According to this style of organisation, people who appear at higher levels
would have more authority and responsibilities than the people who have lower position.

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15. MACDONALD, G., 2016. Opinion: A leaner management structure can help M&S revive its
fortunes. [Online]
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PRESENTATION: CRTICIAL DISCUSSION ON TRAIT AND

BEHAVIORAL THEORIES