MARKS AND SPENCER KWASI

PROFILE Marks and Spencer plc (also known as M&S; colloquially known as Marks and Sparks, Markies or, 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-executive Chairman 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 organizations response 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 and networking. Flat organizations make decisions more quickly because each person is closer to the ultimate decision-makers. There are fewer levels of management, and workers are empowered to make decisions. Decision-making becomes decentralized.

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 the organizational 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 reshaping themselves 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 organizations overall business plan. Business strategies and objectives both short- and long-term will dictate what human resources will be needed, in what areas, with what job responsibilities and performing 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, leverage new pension legislation to support HR and organizational goals, control benefit costs and, 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 through widespread 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 and Balazs 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 strong external 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 accept change 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

process cannot succeed (1995, 60). He even observed that in a few of the most successful cases of organizational change, the leadership manufactured.

HRM STRUCTURES COME BEFORE BUSINESS STRATEGY

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. But change is not pretty and change is not easy. The good news? Organizational culture change is possible. Culture change requires understanding, 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 values should 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 your organizational 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 be taken. 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 is organizational 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 the culture 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 to the 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).

HRM APPROACHES FOR GAINING SUSTAINED CORPORATE PERFORMANCE AND SUCCESS IN M&S

Effective Recruitment Management commitment Team spirit Communication Motivation Good leadership