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- Research the different leadership styles within the Tesco’s organization. Identify 3 different styles and compare their effectiveness at achieving the organization’s goals. (2.1)
Tesco managers have been given different areas of responsibilities while they face their customer and deliver the needed services, at the same time, provide instructions and guidance among their assigned employees. In this organization, managers apply different leadership styles as the situation calls for including democratic approach, autocratic and laissez-faire. A democratic approach of leadership allows reassigning of responsibilities, authority and decision-making power among various managers and employees to decide and produce the necessary deliverables. This approach promotes sense of participation and accountability while encouraging manager and subordinates to think beyond their responsibilities and control. Furthermore, this kind of leadership style empowers the employees and motivates them to perform better as there are sets of expectations assigned to them . On the other hand, autocratic style of leadership is an approach where the leader controls every decision needed in a given situation. In this kind of style, leaders seek very little to no input from the members of his subordinates. The leader dictates all the needed work and decisions in order to produce the services. This kind of leadership style is advantageous when there are new employees that need guidance and instructions to learn the process of an organization . Laissez-faire leadership style is a total opposite of the autocratic approach as leaders freely delegate responsibilities among its subordinates and managers. With this kind of approach, guidance is very minimal as the leader expects his or her employees to have knowledge and skills on what they need to do. The laissez-faire leaders provide resources and tools needed for his subordinates to find solutions to problems and perform as needed. Such kind of leadership applies to skilled workers and knowledgeable managers to work independently .
- Evaluate the different approaches used by Tesco’s competitors and compare their effectiveness against Tesco. (2.3)
One of Tesco’s competitors, Redrow, commits its company to deliver and boost customer satisfaction by acquiring effective employees through committed training and career development. Redrow believes that in order for its company to deliver its best to all of its customers is through empowering the skills of its employees and provide a better workforce planning. It aims to attracted young, talented and skill workers and offer them competitive benefits and perks, while working on improving and developing their careers. On the other hand, Nestle, another competitor of Tesco, believed that for them to truly serve the satisfaction of their customers is to serve and develop value and importance to its society. Nestle became committed to caring and nourishing its society through water, nutrition and rural development. Similarly, Tesco takes responsibility to become a decent retailer through promoting a 0 (zero) carbon business when it reaches 2050. Initiatives to promote such program are through opening a supermarket that is zero carbon in Cambridgeshire.
- Explain how the developments in management support and underpin Tesco management today.(2.2)
Tesco management employs variety of on-the-job and off-the-job training support to its management to boost the morale of the employees, while they improve their skills and hone their talents. Up to this day, this kind of support from the management of Tesco led the employees and the members of the company to develop their sense of possession and ownership of the organization. These training allow the employees to become more effective and efficient in performing the role. In the long run, the development of these staff adheres to the requirements of Tesco of selecting and hiring employees who are flexible and easily adapt to new learning and change.
Tesco Company employs various motivation techniques to encourage and give back to its employees for the hard work and commitment they provide to the company. Employee Reward Programme is a motivation technique in Tesco that intends to inspire employees to deliver more and become financially rewarded. Such kind of reward system, adopted from Taylor’s motivation theory, provides salary increase, at the same time, customized to sustain the employee’s lifestyles through achievable and realistic targets. Viewpoint, a staff satisfaction measuring survey, is another inspiration technique where Tesco employees participate in surveys that permit them to express their thoughts and views about their work, the company and how it delivers its products and services to its staff. Based on the result of this survey, Tesco provides different staff benefits including pension system, breaks from career as well as promotion of lifestyle breaks. Tesco also employs the Mayo effect in encouraging its employees while they work for the company through teamwork, communication, involvement in decision-making process and making the work progressive and non-repetitive.
- Compare and contrast four different motivation techniques and using one of the motivation techniques, evaluate the benefits to both the employees and Tesco. (3.3)
Tesco employed the Personal Development Plan, Employee Reward Programme, Viewpoint and the Mayo effect. The Personal Development Plan permits the managers to provide feedback to their subordinates through a tool called 360 degree. The Employee Reward Programme financially rewards every employee for substantial services and product that they produce. The Viewpoint is a technique that allows the staff to partake in a survey that measures the staff satisfaction, while the Mayo Effect motivates the employees through constant communication, improving work progress and participation in decision making process. Among these motivational techniques, the Personal Development Plan is beneficial to both employees and their managers and the company as it provides an avenue to discover the full potential of the employees and using it for his or her advancement and contribute more in the company.
- Explain the differing behaviors and dynamics of groups.(4.1)
There are different types of groups and their respective behaviors in an organization. Organizations establish formal groups in order to achieve its goals and objects. These groups include command, task and affinity group. Command group are permanent within the organization and has employees that reports back to the command. In an organization, this command group is part of the organizational charts. A task group, on the other hand, addresses specific task or activities and considered temporary within an organization. Moreover, an affinity group is group of employees within a company that impart information, find resolutions to issues and capture and brainstorm on upcoming opportunities .
Beyond merely delegation of tasks and responsibilities, forming a group requires extensive planning and designing of efficient approach. Prior to building a group, I must understand the purpose of the team that I will form as this will be the critical basis of scouting for members of my team. The members of my group must have skills, knowledge and potential that I need to address the goal of my team. I need them to understand the vision and where and what we intend to accomplish. One of the main problems of a team when dealing with a work is a misunderstood goal and objective. With my team, I will make sure that they understand thoroughly and will focus on what we need to do to move forward. I will also make sure that the roles and responsibilities of each member are clear. This action will identify who is accountable for which task, whether is individual or a collective effort. It is also essential that we identify the leader who has the influence and motivation to get the group going. Methods for communication, managing conflicts, progress and results reporting, planning and problem-solving methods are also going to be part of my strategies .
- Evaluate the use of technology to meet the needs of the diverse geographical workforce or virtual team. (4.3)
Different technologies have been introduced to manage and improve diverse geographical workforce or virtual team. Primarily, the introduction of communication technology plays a huge role to sustain the continuity of work among team members in a company. Transmission of information and data as well as resolving of issues and challenges is possible even with remote set-up and thousand miles of distance. Skype meetings and Google Hangouts are among popular online communication tool that organizations can utilize to manage work from different places. Collaboration tools to manage project, project schedules and deliverables are also available so that an organization can keep track of the progress and monitor reports from various groups within a company. Online storage and cloud technologies are available to allow accessibility and mobility of required documents and information anytime and anywhere .
Works Cited
Bunton, W., 2014. Best Practices in Achieving Workforce Diversity, s.l.: US Department of Commerce.
Gastil, J., 1994. A Definition and Illustration of Democratic Leadership. Human Relation, 47(8), pp. 953-975.
Goodnight, R., 2011. Laissez-Faire Leadership. s.l.:Sage Publication.
Griffin, R. & Moorhead, G., 2014. Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. 11th ed. ed. OH: Cengage Learning.
Jayasingam, S., 2009. Leadership Style and Perception of Effectiveness. Asian Social Science, 5(2), pp. 54-65.
Nazzaro, A. & Strazzabosco, J., 2009. Group Dynamics and Team Building. Hemophilia Organization Development, Issue 4, p. 1018.
