FACULTY OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

Human Resource Management

Marks & Spencer

Name: Davis D Parakal SID : 3357394 Module : M22EKM Module Leader : Ray Wood
5/16/2011

Table of Contents Introduction S OT analysis Vision and mission Organizational culture and structures Training and motivation Change management plans Future plans and development Conclusion

Page 3 3 5 6 9 10 13 15

Introduction Mark and Spencer is one of retailer business firm which is much known for its trading and success. Currently holding 700 retailer stores all over United Kingdom and 300 in other countries. Its operations spread over more th e 40 countries all over the world. M& S started the business in Leeds by selling cloths with high quality and moderate price in 1884. Now they have business that deal with food, clothes and retailer products. They are well known for their quality and management model. It was once model for all the retailers in Europe. Mark and Spencer achieved 1bn pre-tax profit in its successful growth. So Mark and Spencer (M&S) was described as a managerial giant of the western world .(Drunker, 1974).

As you can see in the graph and table M&S suffered a huge fall in its profit in the period 1998- 2004. This report is discussing the reason for that and also finding the changes happened to make it back to the success track. The industrial organization indicate that management failing firms are unfortunate victims of external circumstances and not imply management inefficiency (Melawi et al,2002). So we are discussing these factors soon.
Swot ana lysis

Before analysing rise and fall of Marks and Spencer I am doing a S OT analysis of this organization to find out the strength and weakness of it. S OT analysis is a method to study about organization environment and position. When we talk about the strength of mark and Spencer the most important factor is its brand name and reputed business in UK for decades. Along with this name they always prioritise customer satisfaction. Always take back the goods if they are not satisfactory for customers. So apart from any other marketing it creates a Mouth-to-Mouth advertisement among customers and it is meant to be the strongest way to advertise. Also in the recent years Mark and Spencer shows more importance to sustainable products and concept. This is the organizational strategy to keep the social responsibility. This will reflect in the business in two ways, one cost reduction techniques and other in customer satisfaction will increase.

Helpful

Harmful

Strength
y Brand Name y Customer satisfaction Internal y Social responsible Sustainability

Weakness
y Weak return on invested capital coupled with high pension and dept deficits y M&S legacy stores and systems are a competitive disadvantage. y Not attractive for economical valued customers

y Global business Utilize more market

experience

y High competition in food market y Frequent Management change

Opportunity
y Making China and India a centre of attention can lead to expansion in two of the fastest growing markets y Online shopping continues to flourish in the UK and will enable M&S to increase External revenues y Utilize Social media marketing

Threats
y Pension funds deficits will lead to constraint in the availability of money for other operations and expansions y Price increase in clothing and VAT increases will lead to less spending by customers y UK economical issues

Coming to the weakness and threat Marks and Spencer had a great fall in its business due to some of those factors. Some are persisting but some are eliminated in last 4 years. Considering the Human resource division the pension polices always making head a che to M&S. And there was a major impact of frequent management changes in M&S made the problems more badly in that period of fall. The current economical constrains effected M&S and it made then to cut the jobs and it made an impact with the job seekers and made an in security among employees in mark and Spencer. Also the strategic changes implemented by the organization had so many issues with the working force and the deny the acceptance of new changes. When we consider the middle class and just below middle class, they always kept a distance from M&S because of the price affordability. The food materials available in M&S stores were comparably higher price when we compare it with prominent food market like TESCO, Sainsbury s. (Ocr, 2002). Also a new issue is rising up is stock management problems with the

online shopping customers. They got delayed delivery and issues like that in the shopping. Considering the opportunity ahead is lot, one of the main contributions to the business can be provided by expanding the market space into growing countries like India and China. Also the production centres can also be considered in these countries considering the low labour cost and production cost. Utilizing the technological advantage like Social media and M-commerce is the next major opportunity before mark and Spencer. They already have a very good business start with the online platform. Since this system to the more modified and more effective stock management and delivery should be promised to the customers. And apart from online shopping the emerging platform is social media like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc... Mark and Spencer already starting utilizing this platform well. But need to move much forward in this way of marketing. The two main advantage of this platform is fast reach to viewers and it will create an interactive advertisement platform rather than old one side advertisement method. Platform like Twitter and Facebook even create a platform that enable B2C (Business to customer) form of business opportunity. Also it induces a mouth to mouth advertisement among connected customers of M&S. I recommend them to utilize this platform by investing more resources and money to develop company strategies for Social media marketing. Vision & mission statement Mission - To make aspirational quality accessible to all Vision - To be the standard against which others are measured Marks and Spencer s have been known for their quality value, service, innovation and trust .Mission of the company is to build the sustainable business, through consistent, profitable growth and make sure that customers and wider stakeholders can always trust company . Marks and Spencer aim is to do the right thing the right way. Mission of Marks and Spencer emphasizes primarily on quality, making clear to everybody that quality is most important priority of the company. M& S wants to be seen as offering really high quality goods at a very affordable price which in turn leads to the consumer receiving good value for money. Marks and Spencer focuses on quality of their

products. Starting from the first quarter of last century, until today, the quality is the guiding principle of the company, with it, it is first associated the name of Marks & Spencer. Why Marks & Spencer products have as good quality? Because the company creates them based on high quality semi-finished materials and before sale is subjected to numerous researches and testing. Moreover company also pays attention to the persistence of clothes. This is possible because developed by Marks & Spencer Technologies lifting strength of materials. Company spends as much time and energy to prepare and test their food. Important goal on that level of business is to produce healthy food. To achieve it Marks & Spencer is working on eliminating from its food preservatives, harmful fats, excess salt and sugar. To meet customer expectations Marks and Spencer continuously develops new technologies in production of their products and new fabrics. Beyond the quality and development of new technologies, the brand Marks & Spencer are also care about the environment, trade on fair terms , organic products and promoting healthy lifestyles. All these activities shape brand image of the Marks and Spencer. Thanks to this company is known as a company which sell good quality product taking into account good quality, persistence and environmental issues. There are many companies which look up to M&S and measure themselves against them, helping their company to improve and gain more customers. Their primary focus is to understanding and meeting the customers needs consistently, in an increasingly competitive retail environment. Marks and Spencer placed real importance on creating a place to work that inspires and rewards the colleagues properly. They want the workforce to reflect the diversity of the people that shop with Marks and Spencer. The approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (what very important is for Marks and Spencer underpins their commitment to Quality, Value, Service, Innovation and Trust. Organisational Structure & Culture Creating a well defined structure and culture for the organization deliver the objectives and goal of the company more quick and efficient. Structure mainly says the flow of reporting to the senior manager through line mangers and middle level managers. This flow can be arranged in different ways according to size, location, policies and goal of the company. Most of the company didn t create a structure in one implementation. I mainly happen in an evolution process. The team that work for a particular function will come under departments and decision makers form the manager layer and controlling strategies for

senior management. Any sudden change in this structural change will reflect in business a nd it will be denied by employees. Four main factors affect in the formation of organization structure. According to stewart

y y y y

Size of organization Technologies used Access to supplies or row material Location of customer Stewart J & McGoldrick J (1996)

Also these factors decide different type of structures. In the case of mark and Spencer it had an old structure which was very hierarchal and divided the organization into so many sub braches. But after the arrival of leaders like Stuart Rose this system completely changed in to a new form. This is very similar to a bureaucratically form of structure and they call it as a flatter structure. Employees especially mangers posses more responsibilities and decision power in this new form.

Apart from this, we are going to discuss about most common type of organization structures. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Functional Entrepreneurial Divisional Independent Matrix

M&S Structure-The times now (2007) Pilbeam, S. and Corbridge (1998)

(1996) these can be

Functional Functional structure is simplest among these. It divides the organization according to the functions like Human resource, Research and development, marketing, Technical. This can categorise the function as well the skill set of the employees working the in the organization. Main advantage of this organization is categorising activities and avoids duplicate or multiple working among employees. Also the expertise can be shared when all working under the same skills. But some common disadvantages are communication problem and departmental conflicts. Since each act as different departments in the structure there will be a competitive mind and as well as communication gap. This problem creates issues between departments. Entrepreneurial These structure circle around one central point. It can be CEO of the company or single owner of the company. This central point or small team will be the highest power in the organization that takes almost all the decisions. Main advantage in this organization is quick decision making process. And they can respond quicker to market changes. But same as the advantage serve the dependency of this single point in organization. Divisional

This is suitable mainly for large type of organization. This can be divided among regions or different businesses in the organization. For example, Asian region, Europe region, African region etc... But this creates duplicate resource for different divisions. Independent This is a collection of independent business or organization under one large structure. For example subsidiary companies. Matrix organizations Matrix organization behaves as if its name says. There will be two layers of managers, one horizontal way and another vertical. This mainly happen when organization split project team under each division of the organization. This utilizes the resources in its best way. And

also balance the conflict common goal. But disadvantage is increased conflict among project team and confusion and pressure from two different layers of managers Training and Motivation All mangers in M&S possess a well defined career profile. Also they can plan the profile for the next appraisal. This is known as target role in mark and Spencer. They will get support in maintaining this target profile and get desirable training to reach the target. There are mainly two type of training in marks and spencer. On-theJob training and Off-the-job training. One is taking place in the work place with the help of colleagues and next level managers and employees. Other one as name suggests it happen in off job. On-the-job training also involves practical learning. This could mean being involved in a range of projects to improve technical skills and business competencies. The key to this training is to get Marks & Spencer employees to enjoy their work and feel they have all the skills they need to do their job to the best of their ability . An important way of increasin g skills is performance coaching. This is a form of coaching by line managers. They review a person's performance and give feedback on their strengths and any development needs. Together, they agree how to improve and identify the opportunities to demonstrate these skills in their own jobs. The coaching gives the trainees confidence and is a successful element of the training programme. Marks & Spencer uses a range of different methods to help its employees with off-the-job training. For example, within the organisation there is an intranet. Staff can find learning materials on this that enable them to develop their technical skills and business competencies. Other resources for training and learning include workbooks t hat are used by staff, often for open learning. Workshops and other more formal activities provide opportunities for employees to practice their skills with the opportunity for feedback from other staff. Some common training techniques used in industry are mentioned in the below table
Technique Lecture Suitability Suitable when a large amount of information needs to be given to a large number of people at the same time. Role Play A small group acts out real work situation. The role play may not be taken seriously or trainees are too Disadvantages Lack of participation from the audience.

nervous to perform the role.

Group Discussion

Useful when there are varying opinions about issue, or a range of ways in which a situation could be handled.

Trainees may wander too far from the subject.

Video/Film

Used to show a real situation.

Little

involvement

from

the

audience. Project Setting a task to show case trainees The project has to be about something that will interest the trainees. Case Study A case study provides the opportunity to examine a situation in detail yet be removed from the pressure of the real work situation. It may sometimes seem easy & trainees may not fully appreciate that in real -life situation there may be more complex issues to take into account Computerbased Guided reading In-tray Exercise Allows trainee to work at their own pace through a series of exercises using computerized training tool. A series of recommended reading. Trainees are given a series of files, memos &letters similar to real work situation and they need to decide on the appropriate action to take. The tool might not be user friendly. Trainee may not be encouraged to research further. The content of the in-tray may not be realistic.

creativity/initiative.

Change management Plan Change received by human being posses the wave you show in the figure. It has got a positive cycle and negative cycle. This is the basic moods when we react to a change in our life. Its starts with uninformed optimism ,this is a positive phase that people look forward very surprisingly into the coming change and eagerly anticipate the upcoming change. This is a positive happy period in the change cycle.

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Informed pessimism goes under the negative phase and it s the time of agony and stress towards the change. The new change will change the easy relaxed stage he had in the past and will start disturbing his routines in the life. People mainly start denying the change in this stage. This pushes them over into a period of gloom when they realize that perfection, after all, is not that easy to attain. Informed optimism, Before long, however, their original optimism starts to reassert itself, now tinted by a resignation to the reality of the situation. After all, things are not that bad, and a positive sense of potential begins to creep back. As they look around them and talk to other people, they make realistic plans and move forward with an informed sense of optimism. Completion Eventually, things reach a relatively steady platform of realistic and workable action. The person is probably happier than they were before the change started and, with their realistic vision, have the potential to reach giddier heights of happiness as they achieve more of their potential.

1. Establishing a sense of urgency 2. Creating a guiding coalition 3. Developing a vision and strategy 4. Communicating the change vision 5. Empowering a broad base of people to take action 6. Generating short term wins 7. Consolidating gains and producing even more change 8. Anchoring (institutionalizing) the new approaches into the culture (Kotter, 1996)

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(Kotter, 1996)

Key stage in the successful management of change

In mark and Spencer this mainly happened after the great fall of the company. Stuart Rose joined the company with new style of management. He made the proper way to implement the changes in the organization. Rose started the change process with a core team of trusted people he had worked with - and he knew their strengths. Rose brought with him the Executive Director of IT, Supply Chain, and Property, and the Executive Director of Marketing and Store Design. With this core team, Rose was "able to hit the ground running (Ann Rippin, 2005). He used a similar type of change management model suggested by Kotter. In Rose s strategies he implemented the change emphasising these five points. 1. Emphasising the critical need for change 2. Developing a Core Team Store & Design) Executives from (IT, Supply Chain, Property, Marketing

3. Provided a simple, accessible and operational guiding vision for improvement 4. Micromanagement : Top management involved in operational day to day meetings 5. Reduced and changing strategic consultants for making plans simple After the great dip in revenue Stuart rose convinced the team about the urg ency of changing plan and strategies. This understanding of urgency of change itself brought a positive platform for change. One big advantage of this is lower reluctance for change in organization. Till then IT was not a part of core in M&S. He included I T department into the core team and started discussing new plans keeping easiest way use new technological approaches. This was first made internal issues in the organization but later accepted by the company The centralized management system missed the feedback from individual stores some times. So Rose implemented a micromanagement model into the organization where top managers will involve in individual store and day to day operations. Also there were so many analysis procedures in M&S Spencer to determine the trend in the market and planning the upcoming season. This process was mainly based on surveys. He reduced this type of analysis and introduced new methods to analyse the market and trend . He brought a positive wave inside the company avoid the changes he implement. Apart from that below showed table discuss about the common practises to avoid the resistance to change in organizations. Tactics for dealing with resistance to change (Kotter et al 1986)

Tactic

Most appropriate used where

Advantage

Disadvantage

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Education and Resistance is based in the or lack of information or communications inaccurate information and analysis Participation Initiators do not have all the information needed to design the change and where others have considerable power to resist

Facilitation and support

People resist because of adjustment problem that are involved Someone or some group will clearly lose out in a change and where they have considerable power to resist There is specific situation in which other tactics are too expensive or infeasible Other tactics will not work or are too expensive

Negotiate

Once persuaded people will often help with the implementation of the change People who participate are usually more committed to implementing the change. Any relevant information that participant have will be integrated into the change plan No other tactic works as well where there are adjustment problem Sometimes a relatively easy way to avoid major resistance Can help generate support implementing a change but less so than participation Can be relative quick and inexpensive solution to resistance

Can be time consuming if large number of people are involved Can be very time consuming. participants can design in inappropriate change

Cab be time consuming expensive and still fail Cab is too expensive in many cases. Can trigger other group negotiations Can create problems if people recognise the co-operation

Co-operations

Manipulation

Coercion

Speed is essential and change initiators posses considerable power

Speed con sometime overcome a great deal of resistance

Initiators are likely to lose some of their credibility and this can be lead to future problems Risky: can leave people angry with the initiators

Future plans and development IT Plans Implementation of latest process improvement tools is going on in M&S now. For example Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement approach whose goal is to help organizations improve their performance. CMMI can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization

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Also marks and Spencer started utilizing the latest media like mobile and social media into recent B2C obile Commerce -commerce its operations neRetailexample was WAP marketing and m

Consumer
obile ultichannel Shopping

-Commerce

obile Payment

Retailer
2008 artner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. artner is a registered trademark of artner, Inc. or its affiliates.
<docname>_<dat e>_<author>

hey implemented the mobile location searchand product comparison in the WAP sites and got a high response from the users Plan 2010-2013

Pillars of Plan A:

Products People Community

1. Climate change 2. Waste 3. Natural Resources 4. Fair Partneship 5.

6. Involving customers in Plan A 7. Make Plan A how we do business

he issues tackled through Plan A fall into three categories: people its own employees, and those employed in its supply chain; products with an emphasis on producing high quality, value for money goods that have positive environmental and social benef and its;

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he main aim of Marks & Spencer is to be the world s most sustainable major retailer by 2015 o gain this in 2007 Marks and Spencer has introduced a new strategy called Plan A Plan a Strategy is 100-point plan to improve the sustainability of the business

Issues

ealth and wellbeing

obile Shopping

obile Search

obile CR

obile Service

obile Promotions obile Advertising

obile Product Comparison

obile Location Search

 

community recognising the company s role in helping to create and maintain good places within which to work and live. The main objectives of which Marks & Spencer set in the PLAN A and have already realized include: reducing the amount of waste generated by factories and stores of Marks & Spencer, protection of natural resources of the earth (through greater use of recycled materials), promotion of healthy lifestyles, promoting and applying the principles of Fairtrade, greater diversity of organic products, creating new jobs, the use of technology to counteract the adverse climate change and protection of animal rights (withdrawal from the offer of natural furs and cosmetics tested on animals) Plan 2013-2020 Expanding business into other countrie s and raise a sale increase of 30% Conclusion The report studied about human resource management key factors likes organizational structure, culture, and polices. It analysed the case of Mark and Spencer to deliver the practical implication of each topic discussed above. The main learning outcome was the change management objectives and possible models for effective change management. It compared the recent model implemented in Mark and Spencer under Stuart rose s leadership. We compared the implementation to a scientific change model from Kotter. Report also discussed the future plans from Marks and Spencer.
References Janet Turner Parish,Want to, need to, ought to: employee commitment to organizational change, Journal of Organizational Change Management Vol. 21 No. 1, 2008 pp. 32-52 Stewart J & McGoldrick J (1996) Human Resource Development first edition Pearson Professional Limited UK. Ann, R. (2005) Marks and Spencer waiting for the warrior: A case examination of the gendered nature of change management . Journal of Organizational Change Management 18 (6) 578 - 593 Guest, D. E. (1987) Human Resources Management and Industrial Relation . Journal of Management Studies 24(5), 503-521 Hendry, C., Pettigrew, A. (1986) The Practice of Strategic Human Resource Management . Personnel Review 15(5), 3-8 Kotter, J. (1996) Leading Change, Online book availability (http://tinyurl.com/5woxy8m) Marks and Spencer: How we do business Report 2010 [online] available from <http://plana.marksandspencer.com/media/pdf/planA-2010.pdf> [11 March 2011] Gary (1999)

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Gyekye, L. (2010) Marks and Spencer's Plan A makes "good progress . Journal of Material Recycling Week [online] available from <http://www.mrw.co.uk/marks-and-spencers-plan-a-makes-goodprogress-comment-update/3005441.article> [18 March 2011] Grayson, D., Jin, Z., Lemon, M., Rodriquez, M.A., Slaughter, S., and Tay, S. (2008) A new mindset for corporate sustainability [online] available from <http://naomi.typepad.com/1000_cranes_blog/files/a_new_mindset_white_paper.pdf> [17 March 2011] Grundy, T. (2004) Gurus on Business Strategy. London: Thorogood [online] available from <http://up.m-e-c.biz/up/Mohcine/Book/Gurus%20on%20Business%20Strategy.pdf> [18 March 2011] Lan Dayson (2009/10). Group Finance and Operations Director Fully year results [online] available from: http://annualreport.marksandspencer.com/brand-and-marketplace/our-brand.aspx >. [16th March, 2011]. M&S (2009). Quality worth every penny Annual report and financial statements [online] available from <http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/file.axd?pointerid=c25b7670e6e4420abd2403cb7a6149f4 &versionid=c6167e6e5dc44b918eb9a277b921fa23>. [16th March, 2011].

Marks and Spencer (2010) M & S Code of Ethics [online] available from http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/documents/specific/howwedobusiness/our_people/code_o f_ethics [27 March 2011] Mellahi, K., Jackson,P., and Sparks,L. (2002), An Exploratory Study into Failure in Successful Organizations: The Case of Marks Spencer, British Journal of Management Rippin, A. (2005) Marks and Spencer waiting for a warrior ,A case examination of gendered nature of change management, Journal of organizational change management Thetimes100 case study marks http://www.thetime100.co.uk/casestudies and spencer available online :

Marks & Spenser ( 2005) Process improvement at marks & Spenser, IT Publication Pilbeam, S. and Corbridge, M. People Resourcing - HRM in Practice , 4th edition, London: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall. Annual Report [online] available from <http://annualreport.marksandspencer.com/brand -andmarketplace/our-brand.aspx> [24 March 2011] Financial Report [online] available from <http://annualreport.marksandspencer.com/operating -andfinancial-review/default.aspx> [25 March 2011]

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Annual Report and Financial Statement [online] available from <http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/file.axd?pointerid=c25b7670e6e4420abd2403cb7a6149f4 &versionid=c6167e6e5dc44b918eb9a277b921fa23> [25 March 2011

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