Management, Leadership, Teamwork, Communication And SWOT For Tesco Plc

Characteristics of Management in Tesco Plc

Management is known as a purposive activity. It is something, which guides group efforts towards the attainment of certain previously determined goals. Management is mainly the process of working together with and through others to successfully achievethe aims and objectives of the organization by constructively using limited resources. Management mainly includes building an internal environment, which mainly focuses to use the different elements of production (Fleming and Spicer 2014). However taking the company Tesco plc that is a global grocery with their headquarters in United Kingdom also follows certain management methods as well as policies, which include their organizational culture and their workforce that has made their successful and has placed themselves in second position in terms of revenues and third in terms of profits (Zhao 2014). Thus, the responsibility of the management of Tesco plc is to build such a condition, which is useful to maximum efforts so that people are able to effectively and efficiently perform their tasks. Therefore, taking this organization good management involves both being effective and efficient. The main characteristics of management in Tesco plc can thus be pointed out as follows-

1. It is mainly the process or sequence of continuing and associated activities.
2. It includes as well as focuses on reaching the goals of the organization.
3. It attains these goals mainly by working with as well as through employees and other resources in the organization.

The fundamental management functions, which create the management process, can be categorized in four sections- planning, organizing, influencing and controlling (Griffin 2013). Thus, in Tesco plc also these four functions are the basic functioning of the management department where planning includes selecting tasks, which must be executed to attain the goals of organizations, structuring how the tasks must be performed and indicating further, when they should be executed. Planning activities of management mainly centers on attaining the goals. Managers figures exactly what companies should do to become successful. Organizing can be defined as delegating the tasks that emerged in the planning stage to different individual or groups in an organization. Organizing in an organization is mainly the mechanism to put the plans in action. Influencing refers to as motivating, leading as well as directing the employees within the organization. It mainly assists the employees in the organization in the direction to help the organization so that it can fulfill its goals. Controlling is mainly an ongoing process in the management and is done by the manager by assembling information, which calculates the performance, differentiate between current and pre-established performance norms and lastly, to establish the succeeding action plan and modifications for reaching the desired performance parameters.

Management includes certain qualities, which include leadership, teamwork as well as communication. These are also reflecting in the management system of Tesco plc. Among the leadership styles, one is the transformational style of leadership, which means that the leader has a vision as well as passion to attain great things for the organization. In 2010, the structure of Tesco was change by their CEO who had adopted this visionary leadership style. However, the leadership style that the management of Tesco follows is democratic style of leadership by which they mainly motivates their employees and appoints leadership roles to the individuals in the organization so that they become clear about their responsibilities. Teamwork on the other hand, is another quality of management in Tesco plc because here employees mainly work in small teams to provide services to their customers. Thus, effective teamwork is important in the retail sector and managers needs to understand the importance of it for it enhances productivity, team that work together mainly perform well in stressful situations moreover, teams that are professional, cohesive and friendly makes customers feel ease and provide best services to the customers. Lastly, communication is an important part of management without which includes advertising, sales promotion, public relations, digital marketing or personal selling of the products to their customers. However, Tesco not only emphasizes on these but also arranges a face-to-face communication with their colleagues for five minutes every week. They not only communicate with their customers but also communicate well with their employees by listening to their problems, providing them feedbacks along with electronic communication through email, text messages and so on (Haerifar 2012).

Qualities of Management: Leadership, Teamwork, and Communication

The reason behind choosing management as the topic is that management operates throughout the organization and plays a central role such as planning, organizing, staffing, guiding, monitoring and motivating their workforce. Therefore, an effective organization is important for attaining group goals, using minimal resources, develops a sound organization and helps in cost reduction by using minimum resources and yielding maximum profits.

Leadership can be defined as an ability of an organization’s management to set as well as attain challenging goals, take rapid and decisive actions, exceed the competition and others motivate others to do well. Therefore, leadership is bringing together a group of employees and guiding them to attain a common goal of the organization. The main leadership styles that organizations mainly follows are Laissez-faire, Autocratic, democratic, transactional and transformational. In Tesco, they follow democratic style of leadership that is known as participative leadership style. In this type of leadership the employee’s voices are heard during the decision making process in the organization. The team leaders of each department who are appointed by the managers mainly copy the leadership style, which is adopted by the management in Tesco that has changed their organizational structure. As Tesco follows, democratic management style of leadership the way they operate is mainly decentralized and therefore, information is passed from their higher to lower hierarchy of members in the organization. The employees are given all the freedom and encouraged to contribute their ideas for the expansion of the organizations (Daft 2014). Tesco under this leadership style empower their employees and are considered an essential asset for their company.  

Democratic leadership style is important because through this the organization can effectively build strong teams, encourage creative work environment and complex problems can be solved successfully. Therefore, the solutions that would be attained democratically are found to last longer (Giltinane 2013). Democratic leadership can be improved through reflection that is taking some time in a day to reflect the achievements under this leadership style. This leadership style can also be improved by setting examples that is the leaders should behave the way they want their employees to behave. Lastly, an open door policy must be administered and the employees should be listened with an open mind. Among the various leadership theories the two that can be related to Tesco are as follows-

1. Transformational leadership theory- This theory of leadership is among the most popular theories. Transformational leadership is found in all levels of an organization be it teams, departments, divisions or the organization as a whole. These types of leaders are mainly visionary, encouraging, daring, thoughtful thinkers as well as well as risk takers (Chemers 2014). Tesco is believed as the most successful retail organization in United Kingdom. However, their success was indicated by the appointment of their CEO Terry Leahy. Leahy is a transformational leader who is visionary and led Tesco into a series of changes in the company which aimed for the organization to become more consumer-focused as well as to expand the workforce of the organization. Leahy was an excellent leader in Tesco and he believed that to become a successful leader it is important to maintain a happy work environment. He further believed that leader must supply four things to his employees and followers to satisfy and encourage them. These are-
2. Interesting jobs
3. Chance to get on in life
4. Respectful treatment
5. Helpful boss
6. Trait theory of leadership- This theory of leadership states that leaders are born not made. Therefore, leadership according to this theory is based on the characteristics of the different leaders who can be successful as well as unsuccessful which is utilized mainly to assume the leadership effectiveness. Moreover, the emerging lists are then differentiated from those of potential leaders to evaluate their likelihood of success or failure. Those leaders who are successful in their leadership definitely have interests, abilities or personality traits that are distinct from those leaders who are less successful. However, the core traits of successful leaders are high achievement drive, a desire to lead others, honesty as well as integrity, self-confidence, understanding of the business, emotional maturity and charisma, flexibility and creativity (Northouse 2015).

Teamwork in general means the willingness of a group of individuals to work altogether to attain a common goal. Teamwork is often thrown around in the business surrounding. The actual term of Teamwork may vary from one business to another or may be from one person to another (West 2012). In a workplace teamwork may be understood from the following aspects-

1. Cooperation- In organization teamwork mainly is cooperation among the employees. Cooperation is needed from the team for a common goal for which they are working together. Teamwork however needs that all workers contribute their equitable share to the workload so that the organization can attain its goals in a convenient and satisfactory manner (Galegher, Kraut and Egido 2014).
2. Relationships- Teamwork is said to be more complicated than cooperation among the employees. The teams can reach their goals if there is cooperative teamwork. However, the readiness to cooperate mainly stems from relationships that establishes among the coworkers or among the employees and the employers. Without relational component, teamwork cannot exist even if there is minimal relationship. Teamwork can never occur if each team member does his/her work distinctively from his work relationship.
3. Learning- In few cases teamwork is more than reaching the goals in an organization. The relationship however, prevails between the team members can helps the team members to know each other deeply. Therefore, a relational learning takes place which contributes in future cooperative attempts as employees learns to understand how each member of the team bestow to the overall process of attaining a goal (Bearman et al.2012).
4. Leadership- Teamwork in the organization also includes leadership development. Along with every task, the teams do not necessarily divide the works equally among the team members; instead, each employee presents their parts.  Moreover, in teamwork surrounding their must also is an establishment of team leaders who will further ensure that works are done on time. Teamwork might also include working altogether under the leadership of one individual who has been selected as the leader so is automatically recognized as such by the team members.

Leadership in Tesco and its Importance

Teamwork plays an important role in every organization to increase performance, employee unity or the organizational culture. Teamwork is important in problem solving because multiple minds who are working to solve one problem can jot various creative ideas. Moreover, in any organization the backbone of successful communication is the teamwork. It provides communication among the employees regarding their tasks and thus it can limit working in opposite directions (Katzenbach and Smith 2015).

Communication can be mainly defined as sending as well as receiving information among two or more individuals. The individual who is sending the message is termed as ‘sender’ while the individual receiving the information is called ‘receiver’. The types of communication may vary, and among them the important ones are as follows-

1. Verbal communication- In this type of communication mainly the message is passing on through spoken language that is understandable to both the sender and the receiver. For instance, face to face talking, listing to a seminar or television program or lecture (Keyton et al. 2013).
2. Written communication- This type of communication is mainly done by the use of symbols that is understandable to both the sender and the receiver.
3. Body language- this is a kind of non-verbal communication, which can be used as a medium to send a message. By looking at a person’s facial expressions, postures as well as gestures it is well understood if the person is angry, happy or sad (Knapp, Hall and Horgan 2013).

Effective communication is important for managers as well in an organization so that they can successfully perform the basic management functions like planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Thus, communication in organizations helps every individual to perform their jobs as well as responsibilities. Communication in organizations mainly builds the basis for planning (Shockley-Zalabak 2014). Important messages must be communicated to the managers from the higher authority and then it is the managers’ responsibility to communicate that information to his/her subordinates. Effective communication therefore, helps the employees to reach their goals. Controlling the organization is all the more impossible without written or oral communication. Managers are found to invest a great part of their time for communication (Dozier, Grunig and Grunig 2013). They spend their time in face-to-face or telephonic communication with their colleagues, customers, suppliers, superiors or subordinates. The managers through letters, memos whenever oral communication is not possible, also use written communication. Therefore, the importance of communication in any organization can be outlined as follows-

1. It promotes motivation by informing as well as clarifying the employees about their work, the way in which they are performing and the ways they can bring improvement in their performance.
2. Communication mainly acts as an important source of information for the employees in decision-making processes because it assists identifying as well as evaluating alternative course of solutions.
3. Communication helps in changing people’s attitudes.
4. Communication also assists in socializing.
5. It further helps in controlling process like controlling the employee’s behavior within the organization.

References 

Bearman, M., O’Brien, R., Anthony, A., Civil, I., Flanagan, B., Jolly, B., Birks, D., Langcake, M., Molloy, E. and Nestel, D., 2012. Learning surgical communication, leadership and teamwork through simulation. Journal of surgical education, 69(2), pp.201-207.

Chemers, M., 2014. An integrative theory of leadership. Psychology Press.

Daft, R.L., 2014. The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.

Dozier, D.M., Grunig, L.A. and Grunig, J.E., 2013. Manager’s guide to excellence in public relations and communication management. Routledge.

Fleming, P. and Spicer, A., 2014. Power in management and organization science. Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.237-298.

Galegher, J., Kraut, R.E. and Egido, C., 2014. Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological foundations of cooperative work. Psychology Press.

Giltinane, C.L., 2013. Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard, 27(41), pp.35-39.

Griffin, R.W., 2013. Fundamentals of management. Cengage Learning.

Haerifar, P., 2012. Knowledge management within Tesco.

Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K., 2015. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.

Keyton, J., Caputo, J.M., Ford, E.A., Fu, R., Leibowitz, S.A., Liu, T., Polasik, S.S., Ghosh, P. and Wu, C., 2013. Investigating verbal workplace communication behaviors. The Journal of Business Communication (1973), 50(2), pp.152-169.

Knapp, M.L., Hall, J.A. and Horgan, T.G., 2013. Nonverbal communication in human interaction. Cengage Learning.

Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Shockley-Zalabak, P., 2014. Fundamentals of organizational communication. Pearson.

West, M.A., 2012. Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons.

Zhao, S., 2014. Analyzing and evaluating critically Tesco’s current operations management. Journal of Management and Sustainability, 4(4), p.184.

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