Farah AlMangour
201000207
Farah AlMangour
201000207
Case Study (TESCO)
OB
Section 201
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Farah AlMangour
201000207
TESCO Case Study
Jack Cohen started Tesco in 1919; when he started selling surplus groceries
from a stall in the East End of London, he made a profit of £1 from sales of £4 on his
first day. The Tesco brand first appeared five years later in 1924 when Jack bought a
shipment of tea from a T.E Stockwell. The initials and letters were combined to form
Tes-co and in 1929 Jack opened the flagship Tesco store in Burnt Oak, North London.
So basically Tesco is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer
headquartered in the United Kingdom.
1. Describe how Henri Fayol explained the management function.
Henri Fayol identified the six tasks that are required from managers in order for
them to achieve organizational objectives. Planning, managers plan for the future
according to their forecasts, where good plans enable managers in achieving the
overall organizational goal. Managers must set goals and targets during the planning
phase, where it must be coordinated on different levels and times. Organizing, when
plans are established managers must ensure that the capital, raw materials, and human
resources are available in order to comply with the presented plan. Commanding,
once plans are out into work managers need to take the lead and start giving orders
and commands to motivate employees and elevate their energy levels. Controlling,
where managers identify weaknesses by checking plans, policies, and instructions.
Coordinating, involves all the other four elements where it’s concerned with unifying
activities and functions to maintain an organizational activity balance. Delegating, a
manager must delegate in order to ensure that all employees do understand the points
required to achieve the goal planned.
2. Explain the differences (and similarities) between leadership and
management.
There is a difference between management and leadership. Management is about
getting things done. Managers organize human and physical resources to achieve
business goals and objectives. Leadership on the other hand, is about influencing,
motivating and inspiring people. It’s about developing and training people with
respect but challenging them. Leaders often seek to create strong teams with people
committed to the organization’s overall goals. The process of managing starts with the
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target or objective to be achieved. A manager must decide on the appropriate
approach for reaching that target. The manager then needs to communicate this
approach clearly to his or her team and to allocate tasks to each team member. Some
managers allow teams to take charge of their own decision-making for many tasks.
Team leaders will set the objectives but empower team members to decide how these
objectives are achieved. Tesco’s leadership framework sets out not just the skills and
competencies but also the personal characteristics and behaviors it expects of its
leaders.
3- Compare examples of management styles to analyse the differences (and
similarities) between leadership and management.
Management is one of the most observed and least understood aspect. It is a
combination of qualities and probably we have read this term in business more than it
is understood. However, there are several different types of management styles when
it comes to managing in the workplace and choosing the right type of style to lead
with could have a big impact in terms of how your staff produces for you. The styles
are explained on a scale ranging from autocratic through democratic and to laissezfaire. First, an autocratic manager makes the decisions without the consultation of the
others in the workplace; managers like to be in control of situations. The problem
with autocratic is that the managers are going to eventually lose the motivation of
their employee. But in Tesco Company, the managers instruct the entire employee to
follow the company’s guidelines during a specific time. For example, Martin uses a
more authoritarian style if something needs achieving in a particular way or in a very
quick timeframe. Sometimes budgets need to be reduced quickly in order to make
cost savings. Martin will tell managers what needs to be done and by when, so that
they can then resubmit their budgets in line with expectations. As for Stephen, even
though he uses autocratic style in some situation such as when he needs to inform his
teams about a new in-store innovation or corporate initiative, Stephen aims to sell the
idea rather than telling. He tries to ensure that the staff understands why it is
necessary and if his people are able to give their opinions, it is more likely that they
will readily support the initiative. Autocratic is more suited for a prison setting or in
the military and not so much for business management. In contrast to the autocratic
style, democratic uses decision-making in many parts of the business. Meaning that
everyone has the chance to contribute to the decision making with his or her ideas.
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It’s more likely to corporate work in a team rather than individually decision-making.
Furthermore, with the democratic style, a manager can suggest ideas on the table and
be jointly discussed which leads to gain power to its managers, it arises an advantages
to empowering the managers. For example, Martin is Tesco’s Programme Manager
for Education and Skills in the UK. Martin has a range of responsibilities associated
with people, processes and standards and he may use a democratic approach when
setting training budgets. Managers can suggest ideas to make cost savings and they
can jointly discuss their proposals with Martin. By empowering his managers, he gets
them to take ownership of the final agreed budget. As for laissez-fair management
style, it is another style along with autocratic and democratic. It is when the team is
given the freedom to complete the job or tasks in any way they deem it should be
done where it allows the employees to take decisions with broad boundaries. It differs
from the other style in that individuals are able to behave independently and make
their own decisions, rather than coming together and discussing to have an agreed
course of action. So basically, it is a hands-off approach at the management level in
terms of direction, but the managers are there to answer questions and provide
guidance as needed. For example, Martin might leave an experienced departmental
manager to develop a budget. This could be because he trusts that the manager has a
good knowledge of the needs of the department and of the business. This is a good
way to help to develop individual contributors into leaders, which is only going to
serve to make your team stronger into the long run.
4- Suggest other situations or decisions when different leadership styles
could be used. Evaluate which style would be appropriate in each case.
Lets imagine a company that sells kids toys, where suddenly the owner decides to
create a new game for teenagers and ask the responsible manager to finish it within 4
months. Here, the manager can use the autocratic leadership style and just give
directions and assign tasks to the team members and ask them to start working on it
without wasting the time because he believe that conditions are dangerous and that
rigid rules can keep people out of harm’s way. Another manager might use the
democratic leadership style, where he encourages his team members to be a part of
the decision-making. The manager here will try to keep his or her team members
informed about everything that may affects their work and shares decision making
and problem solving responsibilities. A different manager can use the laissez-fair
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leadership style, where he put his hands-off and allows the team members to make the
decision-making and only provide them with little or no direction at all. The manager
here, give all authority or power to the team members where they must determine the
task, make decisions and resolve problems on their own. The manager in this situation
has his choice to choose any leadership style among the three of them. Another
example, an accounting manager at Tesco’s should use an autocratic leadership style
to guide his employees in setting up required budgets, where he must be commanding
in order for employees to comply and work according to his forecasted plan.
However, the same manager must also use the laissez-faire leadership style to give
more freedom to his employees in choosing the method in which the budget will be
conducted, adopting such a leadership style will encourage and motivate employees.
Tesco is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and that is
after Wal-Mart and Carrefour. Also it is the second largest measured by profits and
that is after Wal-Mart. It has many stores in 14 countries across Asia, Europe and
North America. Every day all around the world, people choose where they want to
shop. A person can switch his mind so easily. That’s why Tesco constantly work hard
to earn the customers loyalty. Tesco always competes on price, quality, range and
innovation. Tesco is a growth, modern and innovation company. Moreover, Tesco has
established itself as the number one Internet business for grocery.
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