Theories of 4i transformational leadership
LEADING AND MANAGING PEOPLE
GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN MARKS AND SPENSER
Summary
Table of Contents
Theories of 4I transformational leadership 4
Introduction
This paper is regarding the generational difference in the workplace. This paper discusses about the generational difference in leadership of the company Marks and Spencers, Uk. Marks and Spencers is considered as one of the leading retailers in the Uk, which has 21 million customers visiting their store every week. Marks and Spencers provide high quality products, such as, high quality clothes, home products and food. The company sources their products from 2,000 suppliers around the world. There are several branches of the company Marks and Spencers in 41 territories overseas and over 76,000 people work for this company. Marks and Spencers is a growing international business. They were the first to launch school wear that were generally made from recycled plastic bottle. The current operation of the Marks and Spencers Company is that after five years of planning for transformation, the company is now ready to open a new clothing and home distribution centre (Bolman and Deal, 2017). There are a number of competitors of the Marks and Spencers Company, for example, Selfridges, John Lewis, Stitch Fix and more. However, there are a number of issues noticed in the Marks and Spencers Company due to the generational difference in the workplace. Due to this generational difference in the workplace, the productivity of the organization is decreasing and it affects the company in many ways.
It is important to note that, the company Marks and Spencers saw a decrease in the market share of the company over a period of five years. Being the leading retailer in UK with 29.1 percent of the market share in 2007, it decreased to 23.3 percent in 2012, whereas the market share of its competitor John Lewis was 25 percent. This paper mainly sheds light on the issues that are faced in the workplace because of the generational difference in leadership.
Leadership Techniques
Theories of 4I transformational leadership
Inspiration- The transformational leaders have the capability of motivating and inspiring the employees. The combination of individual influence and inspirations are termed as the charisma of the transformational leaders. They leverage the meaning of the tasks they are provided with and the goals of the organization. The employees need inspiration in order to perform efficiently in the workplace. They have the capability to attract the team members in enhancing their performance by communicating with them in a proper way (Antonakis and Day, 2017).
Intellectual stimulation- The leaders train the followers to be creative and innovative. This is explained as the capability to challenge the people of the organization. They mainly question the old ways of doing things, conveying the new perspectives. The transformational leaders make the team members understand that they are all of the same level and transmit success to every individual in the organization. They train their people to be the best as only the best can achieve the goals and the objectives and thus motivating the employees. The leaders are required to identify the challenges in the organization due to the generational difference in their workplace in order to resolve the matter. They even challenge the status-quo (Ward, 2016).
Role taking- After the members joining the team, the leaders assesses their talents and abilities. On the basis of their assessment, the leaders offer them few opportunities in order to demonstrate their capabilities. The key factor is that both the parties, the follower, consider it as the discovery stage and the leader as to how the other party likes to be respected (Engelen et al. 2015).
Role making- This is the second phase. Here, the leaders and the members of the group participate in an informal negotiation and a role is created for the members of the group. Building of trust is a vital factor in this stage and in case of feeling of betrayal, especially when it is from the leader, it can result in such a way that a member from the group will be transferred to the out-group (Susaki and Ueda, 2016).
HR practices
Maintaining health and safety in the workplace- One of the most important HR practice is maintaining health and safety in the workplace. The HR is required to create a safe, healthy and homely atmosphere in the workplace and feels comfortable and happy to stay with an organization for a long period of time. They capture the thoughts of the employees with the help of frequent surveys. They are required to take care of the health of the employees in any case of sickness in the workplace. They need to be treated properly (Dong et al. 2017).
Recruitment and selection- HR are responsible for recruiting and selecting staffs in the organization. The process of recruitment and selection is done by the HR of the company based on the mission, vision and purpose of the company. The practices involved in the recruitment practices such as career fairs at colleges and universities as well, where there are a huge number of students. The process of recruitment and selection involves a number of stages. They need to recruit employees on the basis of their qualification for the job role they are applying (Pourghasemi et al. 2017).
Challenges of Marks and Spencers due to Generational Difference
Challenges
There are a number of challenges faced by the Marks and Spencers Company due to generational difference in the workplace. The major issue they are facing is because of their new chief, Steve Rowe, who is a middle-aged person and unable to understand the new trends and hence lack of productivity in the organization. On the other hand, from customer segmentation it has been found that most of the women customers are millennial and the new chief fails to meet their expectation. According to Marks and Spencers watchers, Steve Rowe requires more help from outside in order to reconnect with the chain’s army of middle-aged and increasingly disenfranchised female shoppers. The Marks and Spencers Company is required to improve their productivity in the workplace.
Conclusion
Recommendations
The leadership in Marks and Spenser also requires modifying their attitudes, which will help to develop the effective criteria for performing the different actions in order to thrive in the supermarkets of UK. There is a mutually constitutive relationship between generations and culture. The challenge is mainly regarding the generational boundaries that people in the workplace face. The innovation will help to gain the competitive advantage for gaining the advantage for performing the different kind of activities, which will help to meet the positive aspects of the Company.
The new changes can flatter the structure of the Company List, which will help to increase the power of employee and the responsibility through the customer satisfaction with the help of the 4I’s theory of leadership in order to maintain the organization properly by following the current trend and enhancing productivity in the organization.
Reference list
Dong, Y., Bartol, K.M., Zhang, Z.X. and Li, C., 2017. Enhancing employee creativity via individual skill development and team knowledge sharing: Influences of dual‐focused transformational leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(3), pp.439-458.
Engelen, A., Gupta, V., Strenger, L. and Brettel, M., 2015. Entrepreneurial orientation, firm performance, and the moderating role of transformational leadership behaviors. Journal of Management, 41(4), pp.1069-1097.
Tourish, D., 2014. Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), pp.79-98.
Ward, J., 2016. Keeping the family business healthy: How to plan for continuing growth, profitability, and family leadership. Springer.
