UHRM3009 Understanding Human Resource Management - Marks and Spencer

MAIN BODY

1. Organisational structure of M&S, changes to the structure during history, and the way current structure influences staff motivation

Recently, management has removed number of layers through delayering and so, presently, it is having a flat organisational structure where employees are now having more accountability than before. In the flat structure of organisation, only a few layers of management are there in which there are different department heads and manager who are responsible for leading their units (Bratton and Gold, 2017). However, at the top, executive management is there. There are more than 60,000 employees in company having management roles where they are leading as well as motivating the teams. Earlier, the organisational structure of M&S was tall with having many layers of authority while, currently, it is having flat structure in firm as business was not getting positive results previously. Old structure of company was having a lot of layers that was creating chaos and confusion as each employee was needed to report many authorities (Preuss, 2017). The current structure plays a significant role in motivating the staff as now people are assigned with more responsibilities and accountabilities working in stores and franchising outlets overseas. Further, they are highly involved in the decision making process which increases their morale at workplace. As there are less management levels, communication in between base line employees and higher authorities get improved that results in improving the motivation of staff (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017).

2. Culture that fits best with the company and the way it influences the type of people recruited

Organisational culture can be defined as the way in which things are done at workplace as per unwritten rules by which individual’s and group behaviour gets influenced. According to Charles Handy’s model of organisational culture, there are basically four types of cultures being followed by firm at the workplace which are like:

Figure 1: Charles Handy's Four Classes of Organisational Culture

Power – Under this culture, power remains in the hands of one leader only and concentrated among a few people in firm. This kind of culture is entirely based on the work of employees where the major elements are their performance and success.

Role – In this culture, people at personal positions play their power accordingly and possess a strict control over others (Charles Handy’s model of organizational culture, 2018). This culture makes individuals ready to accept the challenges willingly and try what best they can do to improve the situation.

Task – Structure of task culture is more of like a matrix where power is in the hands of those people who have expertise rather with those having favourable positions at workplace or if they are some strong personalities. However, flexibility and adaptability are the keys of this kind of organisational culture.

Person – Main focus in this culture is given on individuals and there is no specific structure being followed by firm. This culture is all about emphasizing on values and meeting the employee’s needs to utmost level (Elsmore, 2017).

In Marks and Spencer, role culture and person culture are suitable to attain set targets. But, person culture most of the times makes employees feel that they are more important than organisation and thus, business has to suffer sometimes. Therefore, role culture would prove to be the best as by following the same, firm will assign roles to employees as per their specialisation and interest which will make them accountable for same and by taking ownership of work, they will perform with highest level of efficiency (Collings, Wood and Szamosi, 2018). This will lead M&S to attain higher growth and success in market with increased profits and profitability.

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3. The way management style in company influences employee motivation

In Marks and Spencer, democratic management style is being followed which plays a significant role in empowering the employees. Under this, company provides responsibility to teams and individuals to participate in the decision making process. By making others allow to give their thoughts and opinions in important decisions of organisation, management gets successfully in increasing their morale and they feel recognized at workplace (Bailey and et.al., 2018). Thus, democratic style of management proves to be highly influential for increasing the motivation of employees of company which ultimately leads to increased productivity and so as profits of business. In this, when responsibility to make decisions is given to teams, they become responsible for results gained as well and therefore, timely feedback on same is taken by the management. However, it also encourages employees as in case if any deviations are found, they take initiatives to correct the same by making suitable efforts (Analoui, 2017).

4. Importance of training and development as the primary HR function and the way it is used

In Marks and Spencer, training and development plays a crucial role as firm is having its operations in many nations other than UK and so, it is facing diversity issue in teams. For the same, to provide them required training and development is highly important so that they can work with equal understanding and efficiency. It serves as the primary HR function for M&S as to render high customer service to retain them for longer duration, employees are needed to be well trained as well as developed in terms of their current skills, abilities and knowledge (Bell and et.al., 2017). are you worried about teaching assistant level 2 coursework help in the UK from experts? Contact Instant Assignment Help.

The training method which is majorly used by M&S is on-the-job in which mainly coaching is used by company where it a sales advisor or customer assistant if appointed with a department manager who along with running work trains the employees as per improvement required. In M&S, it is given to improve mainly customer services so as to retain them for longer span of time. With this, employees gain practical learning as they get real tasks to perform and a continuous performance review program is conducted simultaneously to measure the actual performance with set standards (Importance of Training & Development in Organisations, 2018). With this, the firm is enjoying timely and effectually attainment of set goals improving the performance of employees through developed proficiencies.

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

It can be concluded from the above report that Marks and Spencer is following flat organisational structure which is providing lots of benefits to it like reduced chances of chaos and confusion among workers as well as smooth flow of operations. It has also been assessed that if company will use role culture in organisation, this will increase the value and recognition among employees as they will be provided with responsibilities and accountabilities under the same. Also, M&S uses on-the-job training method majorly which is a good option but if it will use off-the-job training methods like through e-learning, this will also be advantageous for the business.

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