marks and spencer- kwasi

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MARKS AND SPENCERKWASI

PROFILE

Marks and Spencer plc (also known as M&S; colloquially known as Marks and Sparks, Markiesor, simply, Marks) is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with

over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries.It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products. M&S was founded in 1884 by

Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds.

In 1998, it became the first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over 1 billion, though a

few years later it plunged into a crisis which lasted for several years. In November 2009, it was

announced that Marc Bolland formerly of Morrisons, would take over as chief executive from

Executive Chairman Stuart Rose in early 2010; Rose remained in the role of non-executiveChairman until he was replaced by Robert Swannell in January 2011.

It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Exe

Marks and Spencer, known colloquially as "Marx and Sparks, or "M&S", made its reputation in

the early 20th century on a policy of only selling British-made goods (a policy eventually

discontinued in 2002). It entered into long term relationships with British manufacturers, and

sold clothes and food under the "St Michael brand, that was introduced 1928). The St Michael

honours Michael Marks. It also accepted the return of unwanted items, giving full cash refund if

the receipt was shown, no matter how long ago the product was purchased, which was unusual

for the time. It adopted a 90-day returns policy in 2005 but on 12 April 2009 the refund policy

changed once again to 35 days.

KEY STRATEGIC HRM ISSUES

Structural changes

In a greater competitive marketplace, speed or response time is critical. How organizationsresponse to customers and other stakeholders or be the first to market may make a significant

difference as time is at a premium. To maximize response time, organizations have been

flattening their hierarchies and structures, in addition to other initiatives such as downsizing andnetworking. Flat organizations make decisions more quickly because each person is closer to theultimate decision-makers. There are fewer levels of management, and workers are empowered to

make decisions. Decision-making becomes decentralized.


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New Business Unit policies

Delegating responsibility, control and decision-making is often a struggle in growing businesses.

Developing new divisions may make the delegation process easier by clearly organizing business

unit heads. Executives may be appointed to head each division. These smaller business units

allow each division head to make decisions based on its needs and goals rather than theorganizational as a whole. Serving customers faster creates a solid foundation for business

growth. Opening a new division may place employees and services closer to customers and help

align customer needs to a new business unit. For example, a new division may be designed to

meet the communication, pricing and support requirements for small-business clients.

Attitudinal and cultural Issues

Today's business world is highly competitive. The way to survive is to reshape to the needs of a

rapidly changing world. Customers are not only demanding excellent service, they are also

demanding more. If you do not supply it, your competitors will. Organizations are reshapingthemselves to change quickly in order to meet the needs of their customers. Poor employee

attitudes can derail your business efforts. This makes the managing of employee attitudes a

critical management function. The organization's top leaders know they cannot throw money at

every problem and that they need highly committed and flexible workers. As a leader, you need

to emphasize action to make the change as quickly and smoothly as possible

Competition

The growing intensity and dynamism of competition across product markets has had profound

implications for the evolution of strategic management thought during the 1980s and 1990s.

Increasing turbulence of the external business environment has focused attention upon resources

and organizational capabilities as the principal source of sustainable competitive advantage and

the foundation for strategy formulation. As the markets for resources have become subject to the

same dynamically-competitive conditions that have afflicted product markets, so knowledge has

emerged as the most strategically-significant resource of the firm

HR CHALLENGES FACING HR PROFESSIONALS AT M&S

Effective strategies

To be effective, strategic HR planning must occur within the context of the organizationsoverall business plan. Business strategies and objectivesboth short- and long-termwill

dictate what human resources will be needed, in what areas, with what job responsibilities andperforming at what level. These strategies and objectives will shape HR decisions on

organizational design, selection, retention, training and development, performance management

and rewards.


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Further, proactive organizations will be looking at fresh ways in 2007 to elicit optimal

performance from employees, integrate new technology to streamline the HR function, leveragenew pension legislation to support HR and organizational goals, control benefit costsand, of

course, communicate effectively with employees about these and other changes

Effective HRM capabilities

Cost of Change

The cost of change comprises both the costs of lost performance and the overall project

execution cost, from planning to retirement. Organizational change managment has been proven

to have a positive long term impact on the achievement of targeted benefits by focusing on

reducing the tangible & intangible costs associated to change. Operational innovation and/or new

technology often result in changes to some or all processes and potentially changes to job roles

and responsibilities, departmental boundaries, and organizational structure. Any initiative, which

requires or brings about change carries with it a risk that the change will not be accepted by the

organization (for a variety of reasons) and as a result will prevent full realization of the targeted

benefits.

Effective management of change

Implementation of internally consistent policies and practices

Managerial leaders must build internal support for change and reduce resistance to it throughwidespread participation in the change process and other means. Students of major

organizational changes typically report that successful leaders understand that change involves a

political process of developing and nurturing support from major stakeholders and organizational

members. Individuals in organizations resist change for a variety of reasons (Kets de Vries andBalazs 1999) for example, some ideas for change are simply ill conceived, unjustifi ed, or

pose harmful consequences for members of the organization. Even assuming a well-justifi ed and

well-planned change initiative, however, leaders must build internal support and overcome

resistance How can they do so? Several researchers have observed that a crisis, shock, or strongexternal challenge to the organization can help reduce resistance to change. Van de

Ven (1993) explains that because individuals are highly adaptable to gradually emerging

conditions, a shock or stimulus of signifi cant magnitude is typically required for them to acceptchange as inevitable. In a similar vein, Kotter warns managers against the risk of playing it too

safe and noted that when the urgency rate is not pumped up enough, the transformation


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process cannot succeed (1995, 60). He even observed that in a few ofthe most successful cases

of organizational change, the leadership manufactured.

HRM STRUCTURES COME BEFORE BUSINESS STRATEGY


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RATIONAL BEHIND PROPOSED CHANGE IN M&S

culture

When people in an organization realize and recognize that their current organizational culture

needs to transform to support the organization's success and progress, change can occur. Butchange is not pretty and change is not easy.

The good news? Organizational culture change is possible. Culture change requiresunderstanding, commitment, and tools.

Mission. Vision and values

Mission, vision, and values: to provide a framework for the assessment and evaluation of the

current organizational culture, your organization needs to develop a picture of its desired future.What does the organization want to create for the future? Mission, vision, and valuesshould be

examined for both the strategic and the value based components of the organization. Your

management team needs to answer questions such as:

What are the five most important values you would like to see represented in yourorganizational culture?

Are these values compatible with your current organizational culture? Do they exist now?If not, why not? If they are so important, why are you not attaining these values?

Structure

Market change
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INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT FACTORS INSTIGATING CHANGE

Change is inevitable in an organization. From time to time, there are forces within and outside

the organization that forces the organization to change in order to adapt to the changing

environment. Organizational change is important since it assists the organization to sustain its

operation despite the changes taking place in the environment. Organizational leaders should be

in the forefront to ensure that the organization adapts to the changing environment in a positive

way

All these factors must be carefully looked into and considered in view of the impending change.For example if the organization is faced with declining market share due to the rising

competition, it may not necessary increase its output without knowing where the products will betaken. Therefore there are important factors that must be considered before implementing a

change.

There are different changes that may happen in an organization. One change can influence isorganizational restructuring. This may include merging different departments to make them more

effective or laying of some staff. This may be implemented due to declining sales leading to

financial constrain. Another change that may occur in an organization may involve changing theculture of the organization. This may include change in management where some managerial

position may need to be dismantled to decrease the level of bureaucracy. There are some

changes that leaders should resist. These are changes which will not have any positive impact tothe organization or are likely to impact negatively on the welfare of the organization. Therefore

leaders should assess changes very well before implementing them to know if they will have a

positive or negative impact on the organization (Green, M. 2009).


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HRM APPROACHES FOR GAINING SUSTAINED CORPORATE PERFORMANCE

AND SUCCESS IN M&S

Effective Recruitment

Management commitment

Team spirit

Communication

Motivation

Good leadership

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