1 Introduction
Organisational culture plays a vital role in building an effective team of workers
who work together to achieve shared objectives. There are multiple theories,
techniques, frameworks, models, and tools available for the development of an effective
team based on excellent personality, traits, skills, and attributes to enhance the
efficiency of the organisation. There are various factors which are required to build an
effective team including leadership skills, motivational skills, excellent communication,
collaboration, and commitment as well as dedication (Johnson, Beyerlein and Michael
Martin Beyerlein, 2000). Similarly, there are key skills required to mange people at the
workplace effectively including interpersonal skills, relationship management, motivating
followers, conflict resolution, meeting needs of people etc. (Andersen, 2006). The
current report discusses multiple attributes and personality skills which must be
possessed and practiced by the leadership of the Mark & Spencer company to manage
their workforce effectively and ensure the success of the company effectively. There are
three major areas including leadership which have a significant importance and impact
on managing people at the workplace including personality of the leadership, the
influence of leadership styles on motivating people, and the organisational culture
developed by the leadership of Mark & Spencer. These three key areas of Mark &
Spencer’s organisational culture and management have been supported by different
models and theories. The report also provides recommendations to the company for the
development of effective personality, motivational leadership style, and effective
organisational culture at the workplace.
2 Personality, Traits & Attributes
Gordon Willard Allport (1937) defined personality as management of a person’s
psychological behaviours which allows him to react and behave according to the
external environment. It is the differences in behaviours of individuals based on their
different psychological attributes such as emotions, reactions, thoughts, and opinions
regarding an activity. The concept of personality has also been researched by Mischel
(1968) and he concluded that an individual’s behavioural patterns, motivational
techniques, and personal attributes are unique and different from others and may vary
in various situations. So, an individual can behave differently depending upon his
external environment and hence, it can be said that the personality of a person is
influenced by others’ behaviours and actions (Larsen and Buss, 2017).
2.1 Evaluation of Personality
According to Social-Cognitive theory by Bandura (1986), there is a huge
influence of social factors and others’ behaviours on an individual’s personality and
behavioural patterns. A persona adapts others’ behaviours after learning through
interaction and social engagement with other people. For example, employees of an
organisation would follow his leaders to analyse and resolve the problem using
cognitive processes and techniques and they will learn and adapt cognitive processes
to develop their personality. Liu et al. (2023) has analysed that an effective relationship
between employees and their leaders influences the cognitive well-being of employees
based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory according to which resources
are conserved protected and maintained to deal with different types of environments.
Cognitive theory evaluates the personality of an individual by treating him separately
and assessing his unique behavioural patterns adapted from social factors and
environments. Cognitive-social theory also analyses interpersonal relationships and
assists in developing the personality of employees (Cervone, Shadel and Jencius,
2001). There are around 65,000 employees in Mark & Spencer who work for the well-
being of the company and achieve organisational objectives. The M&S has
implemented multiple tools and techniques such as skill development initiatives,
diversity & inclusion, and well-being programmes to manage the people effectively
(Mark & Spencer, 2023). M&S has implemented many solutions such as the company
has focused on providing rapid solutions to their customers which ensured the customer
loyalty as well (Douglass, 2021). But there are many issues which still needs and focus
of the management as it is required to assess the personality of employees and develop
personality traits and attributes among employees through effective personality
assessment models and theories such as Big Five Personality Traits.
2.2 Big Five Personality Traits
There are five important personality traits including openness,
conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, and extraversion (Goldberg, 1990).
These attributes have been shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Big Five Model of Personality Traits - Source: (Vital, 2018)
Personality attributes have been explained as follow.
2.2.1 Openness
Openness allows individuals to embrace new experiences and adapt changes by
accepting new ideas and opinions. McCrae and Costa (1997) have elaborated
openness as the ability to learn and adapt new experiences from others. It is considered
as a key attribute of acquiring intellect from surroundings and assists in building
personality traits. Openness is also linked with creativity of an individual which is
developed throughout the age as researched by Theurer, Rogh and Berner (2020).
Whereas the people in the workplace with a relatively low degree of are conservative
and do not adapt changes with respect to their external environment. So, it can also be
said that there is a strong relationship between the conservatism and openness to
experience (Hiel and Mervielde, 2004).
2.2.2 Conscientiousness
An individual’s ability to take responsibility and behave in an organised manner is
termed as conscientiousness which makes a person organised, self-disciplined, and
well maintained towards his roles and responsibilities. Roberts et al. (2014) has
considered conscientiousness as an important personality attribute which makes a
person reliable and hardworking enabling him to achieve desired objectives and goals.
There are multiple methods for the assessment of conscientiousness including self-
reporting which measures personality traits such as emotions, thought, and behaviours
towards a particular situation (Goldberg, 1978). It can also be evaluated through the
degree of employees’ performance. So, an individual with a high degree of
conscientiousness would be more reliable and have an ability to set and achieve goals
and objectives effectively.
2.2.3 Extraversion
A willingness of an individual to explore the social interaction and engage with
people is termed as extraversion. Research shows that the development of personality
depends upon an effective interaction of people among each other, and extraversion
plays an important role in developing the personality through learning and practicing
personality traits. It has been observed that the people who are not engaged with
others, do not learn effectively from their social experiences (Srivastava, Angelo and
Vallereux, 2008).
2.2.4 Agreeableness
A high degree of agreeableness makes a persona dependent on others’ opinions
as an individual would tend to agree with others with kindness reducing his ability to
think critically and make competitive decisions. Agreeableness can be considered
effective while motivating and encouraging ithers and resolving conflicts among
employees through empathy and compromising (van de Vliert and Euwema, 1994).
2.2.5 Neuroticism
Neuroticism is also referred to as emotional stability which is necessary to
understand emotions of others and make effective decisions regarding the output of the
organisation. It enhances the ability of a person to deal with anxiety, depression, and
stress. McCrae and Costa (1987) have discussed the importance of understanding and
dealing with emotions particularly, negative emotions which can reduce the efficiency of
an employee at the workplace.
Based on the Big-Five Model, it can be concluded that employees of the Mark &
Spencer should develop personality traits to deal with consumers more efficiently. For
this purpose, the leadership and staff should have an adaptive behaviour which is
necessary to embrace the change by overcoming the resistance. Furthermore, it is also
necessary to have firm control over self-emotions and feelings to make effective
decisions. Similarly, it would be good for the employees of Mark & Spencer to build
extraversion skills to deal with customers and provide better customer services.
3 Enhance Employee Motivation
Motivation can be defined by Milagro (1954) as the phenomenon of fulfilling
needs of people for their satisfaction and enhance their efficiency and performance. It is
necessary to ensure the well-being of people to motivate and encourage them for an
effective output. If employees are not motivated, they feel discouraged, and their
behavioural patterns can also be influenced as their performance is a reflection of their
motivation (Poláčková, 2016). Therefore, researchers have analysed the impact of
motivation on employees’ performance and developed tools and models for the
evaluation of factors which motivate employees at the workplace. For example,
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs have been developed by the Maslow (1943) which
emphasises on fulfilling needs of employees in an organisation to motivate and
encourage them.
3.1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow (1943) focused on needs of people which must be met to ensure
effective well-being to employees. The hierarchy of needs has been developed in the
form of pyramid shown in Figure 2 which shows the most important needs are present
at the bottom which must be fulfilled.
Figure 2: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - Source: (McLeod, 2023)
To motivate employees at Mark & Spencer, the leadership needs to understand
the importance of employees’ needs and should fulfil their needs. There are several
needs other than just financial needs which are necessary to live happily. The Mark &
Spencer is facing problems regarding customer satisfaction due to the poor managerial
skills of their staff. So, it is recommended to evaluate the needs of their employees
using the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Therefore, the needs of employees which are
being fulfilled by M&S have been evaluated using Hierarchy of needs as follows:
1. Psychological Needs: M&S needs to understand the psychological needs of
employees including the availability of air, food, sleep, clothing, shelter, etc.
which are necessary to live a happy life. According to Webber (2022), M&S is
working to improve the lifestyle and well-being of retail managers to fulfil their
psychological needs.
2. Safety Needs: Mark & Spencer has developed an effective safety policy to meet
the security and safety demands of employees which protects employees at the
workplace and also reduces their health risks (M&S, 2023a).
3. Love & Belonging: Mark and Spencer (2023) have promoted the diversity and
inclusion at the workplace and a supportive culture at the workplace to provide a
sense of family at the workplace. Furthermore, benefits regarding love &
belonging provided by M&S to its employees include maternity leave, flexible
working hours in certain conditions, paid paternity leave, children care vouchers
etc. (Mark & Spencer, 2022).
4. Esteem: It is important for the Mark & Spencer to ensure a culture of respect and
empathy to fulfil personal needs based on mutual respect.
5. Self-Actualization: Employees work hard when they find themselves best and
achieve a higher level of skills. So, training and learning programs should be
provided by the company to meet self-actualization needs.
3.2 Goal Setting Theory
It is important for employees to set a goal and work hard to achieve these goals
and objectives. It was analysed by Locke (1968) that setting hard and specific goals
influenced the performance of employees. So, he presented a Goal Setting Theory
which provides five key principles of setting goals to encourage and motivate
employees.
Figure 3: Goal Setting Theory - Source: (Güzelsevdi, 2021)
Goals should be clear and specific and based on the need of organisation and
skills of employees. For example, Mark & Spencer need to develop a clear goal of
dealing all customers and providing excellent services by giving answers to all customer
queries. The goal should be challenging and complex for employees to make them feel
it a difficult one which can only be achieved through skills and hard work. Mark &
Spencer needs to set goal of facilitate 100% customers through emails and calls using
excellent communication skills to obtain a high satisfaction rating from the customer
based on skills of employees. It is necessary for the Mark & Spencer to create a sense
of commitment through its goal of achieving customer satisfaction. Then there is a key
role of management to give constructive feedback to employees based on their
performance and guide them to improve their skills and knowledge through social
learning theory (Bandura, 1977). The feedback also assists employees in setting
learning goals as well as performance goals based on Goal Achievement Theory
(Elliot and McGregor, 2001). According to “Goal Achievement Theory”, an employee can
evaluate whether the approach of working on a specific goal was mastered by him,
improved by him in terms of his knowledge and experience, or he has performed better
than others (Erdem-Keklik and Keklik, 2013).
3.3 The Expectancy Theory
Vroom (1964) has provided a framework to motivate employees based on
behaviours of employees. There are three key components of the expectancy theory
shown in Figure 4 including expectancy, instrumentality, and valence which are linked
with each other.
Figure 4: The Components of Expectancy Theory - Source: (Joy, 2018)
There is a key influence of expectancy theory on employees’ performance as it
plays a significant role in motivating employees to perform their duties for the
achievement of desired level of performance which leads towards valuable rewards
(Nsofor, 2009). Mark & Spencer values its employees through an excellent rewarding
scheme which offers multiple rewards at office and discounts at its retail stores. There
are multiple career benefits which can be observed from Figure 5.
Figure 5: Career Benefits Provided by M&S - Source: (Mark & Spencer, 2022)
3.4 Job Characteristics Model
Job Characteristics Model focuses on designing jobs of employees effectively
and after critically analysing skills, tasks, and experience of employees to achieve
effective and desired outcomes. Job characteristics model provided by J. Richard
Hackman and Oldham (1974) assists in designing jobs to achieve high motivation,
excellent quality of the work, high job satisfaction, and low absenteeism.
Figure 6: Job Characteristics Model - Source: (Behluli et al., 2020)
Mark & Spencer has always focused on job satisfaction of employees to motivate
them and encourage them to perform their jobs in a better way. Shaheen, Ghayyur and
Yasmeen (2014) has investigated the output of training programmes launched by M&S
in terms of employees’ job performance and job satisfaction and it was analysed that the
pay structure according to the job position and performance of employees was the key
reason behind the motivation of employees.
Therefore, it can be concluded that Mark & Spencer has taken multiple initiatives
including career benefits, training & development programs, and designed jobs
effectively to motivate and encourage its employees. The organisation needs to focus
on fulfilling needs of its employees and make them feel valued to achieve desired
outcomes.
4 Develop Supportive & Ethical Culture
Schein (2016) has defined culture as a phenomenon in which beliefs, values, and
norms are shared among the members of a community or people of an organisation.
Cultures has also been defined as a set of beliefs, values, and norms that are shared a
specific group of individuals and these values distinguish them from other groups
(Hofstede, Minkov and Hofstede, 2010). So, there is a significant role of culture in
engaging people with one another and ensuring their effective involvement in multiple
organisational processes to accomplish organisational objectives. There are several
models and frameworks provided by researchers to evaluate the role of culture in
motivating employees and ensuring the success of the organisation by adapting a
supportive and ethical culture. But it is necessary to evaluate the culture of Mark &
Spencer to find out initiatives taken by the management for the effectiveness of
employees through an excellent organisational culture.
4.1 Denison Organisational Culture Model
Organisational culture is a combination of multiple components and factors which
are helpful in achieving organisational objectives. The Denison Organisational Culture
Model is an effective tool which assess four key cultural dimensions of an organisational
culture which deal with multiple organisational functions as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Denison Organisational Culture Model - Source: (Handari Wahyuningsih
et al., 2019)
According to Denison Culture Model, a corporate culture can be assessed using
following four dimensions.
4.1.1 Mission
Mission of an organisation depends upon its vision, goals and objectives, and its
organisational strategies including its key decisions which are made by the leadership of
the company achieve its objectives. Mark & Spencer has a mission of providing a wide
range of products with excellent quality to everyone. To achieve this mission, the
company has made effective decisions such as quality improvement and diversification
of its products’ portfolio.
4.1.2 Adaptability
An organisation’s strategy to meet its objectives which are dependent upon
external environment such as customer satisfaction, market trends, and customer’s
needs and requirements. According to BBC (2021), in 46 markets, online operations
were launched by the Mark & Spencer indicating that the organisation adapted to
change in the business environment and digitalised its key operations through online
platforms. But it is required to provide excellent customer services through these online
platforms and achieve 100% customer satisfaction.
4.1.3 Involvement
The cultural dimension of involvement refers to the employees’ engagement with
each other in the form of team through which they collaborate and achieve shared
objectives. Mark & Spencer pronates diversity at the workplace and the company also
prefers to develop diversity teams to achieve effective results (M&S, 2023b).
4.1.4 Consistency
Consistency emphasises on organisation’s core values and commitment to its
mission, objectives, and goals. Mark & Spencer has consistently responded to business
changing business environments maintaining a consistency in its core values.
So, there is a stable and flexible culture of Mark & Spencer according to the
Denison cultural model. Mark & Spencer needs to focus more on motivating its
employees to collaborate with each other effectively and behave excellently to respond
to the external factors such as variation in market and customers’ requirements.
4.2 Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory
Hofstede (1980) has developed a model consisting of six cultural dimensions
shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions - Source: (Sridharan and Pal, 2022)
4.2.1 Power Distance
Mark & Spencer has a decentralised organisational structure for decision making
process which reduces its power distance index as the power is decentralised across
the organisation. Decentralised decision-making approach enable an organisation to
motivate and encourage its employees by giving value to them (Panou, 2018).
4.2.2 Individualism vs Collectivism
The culture of collectivism allows the organisation to motivate employees which
also promotes the commitment of employees towards their roles and responsibilities
(Triguero-Sánchez, Peña-Vinces and Ferreira, 2022). Mark & Spence believes on
promoting inclusion and diversity at the workplace and also enhances performance of
teams through effective collaboration and teamwork.
4.2.3 Uncertainty Avoidance
M&S promotes the culture of risk management and also encourages employees
to make effective decisions through teamwork and collaboration. So, the uncertainty
avoidance index is also high in the Mark & Spencer.
4.2.4 Masculinity vs Femininity
The inclusion and diversity programmes of Mark & Spencer has enabled the
company to maintain an equilibrium between the masculinity & femininity. The company
is committed to include 50% females in the workforce to promote a culture of femininity.
4.2.5 Restraint vs Indulgence
Mark & Spencer allows employees of the company to live happily and freely as
the employees are given freedom to live with their own lifestyle with a high index of
indulgence. The retail managers of many stores are allowed to give their opinions freely
and provide ideas to the management promoting indulgence.
4.2.6 Long vs Short-Orientation
Organisational strategies of Marks & Spencer encourage employees to achieve
its long-term mission and vision of providing diversified products to everyone. The
globalisation trends are enforcing the organisation to develop long-term objectives to
target a wider audience.
Hence, it can be concluded that the organisational culture of the Mark & Spencer
is helpful and supportive for the workforce and assist workers to share their ideas and
opinions. Mark & Spencer has an adaptive culture which has the flexibility to react
towards the change in the business environment.
5 Conclusion
It is necessary to motivate employees to enhance their performance and
productivity. There are several personality attributes and skills which have been
evaluated using cognitive theory and big five personality traits and it has been found
that the personality traits of Mark & Spencer’s employees were open and agreeable with
others. But it is also required to empower individuals to critically think about the situation
and make successful decisions. It is necessary for the leadership of Mark & Spencer to
motivate employees implementing motivational theories and frameworks including
hierarchy of needs which emphasises on fulfilling needs and demands of workers for
their well-being. M&S has provided multiple benefits to its employees through different
career benefit programmes. But it is also important to design the job according to the
skills and experience of employees to motivate them. Furthermore, it is necessary to
develop an effective organisational culture to build a supportive and ethical culture at
the workplace. After the evaluation of Mark & Spencer’s culture through Denison’s
cultural model, it can be concluded that the organisational culture of M&S is adaptive
and has flexibility to adapt changes according to the variation in the business
environment. Furthermore, according to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, there is a low
power index due to the decentralisation of decision-making process. But it is
recommended to develop and maintain a balanced power index to ensure that key
decisions of the organisations would only be made by the senior management of the
company. Similarly, it is also recommended to focus on short-term goals as well such as
providing training and skills to employees to deal with customers effectively. Hence, it is
compulsory for the organisation to motivate and encourage employees for the
accomplishment of desired organisational objectives including customer satisfaction,
performance enhancement, and job satisfaction.
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7 Appendices
7.1 Appendix 1: Reflection
It is required to possess good interpersonal skills for effective involvement and
engagement while working in a team. Especially, during academic projects, it is
necessary to have excellent communication skills as well to communicate with the team
effectively and share your opinions. So, it was not easier for me to communicate with
each other efficiently as team members faced many challenges regarding the
communication. During the start of the project, many challenges were faced in terms of
organising the group project’s activities and assessing each other’s knowledge and
skills. But these activities were managed through excellent teamwork and managerial
skills. The activities of the project were assigned to the team members according to
their knowledge and skills and everyone was restricted to focus on the group project to
ensure maximum output. To meet the deadline, it was necessary to manage the time
accordingly.
There are multiple skills required to deal with the planning and management of
the project including the data analytical, creative thinking, strategic management,
decision-making, and problem-solving skills which were practiced during the project. I
was assigned the role of finding and validating the data required to conduct the
research on given perspectives. It helped me in developing my creative thinking and
data analytical skill which allowed me to find appropriate data and eliminate things
which were not required. I also collaborated with my team members and asked for their
help to complete different activities. For example, one of my team members was
working on the presentation so, I decided to provide him the relevant data and learn
how to write down and present the same data in a concise manner. It was a good
experience for me to learn about the presentation skills as I was not able to develop an
effective presentation.
There were multiple areas of improvement highlighted during the project. My
teamwork skills were improved, particularly, I learned about my weakness regarding the
time management. I was not able to manage the time to perform my activities according
to the requirements of the whole group. Furthermore, it was also identified that I did not
have sufficient level of confidence while communicating with my team during the group
meeting. It is compulsory to possess a good level of confidence to share ideas and
opinions and give effective feedback to others. Therefore, I need to improve my
communication skills and build confidence to ensure the effectiveness of my teamwork
skills. I also came to know about the development of the team through Belbin’s Team
Roles theory which allow team leaders to know about the knowledge, experience, and
skills of individuals before assigning them roles and responsibilities as it allows them to
obtain maximum efficiency of the team.