Business Individual Report

Introduction

Today’s business world is too much competitive, as a result, a business organization has to do proper plans and strategies to develop their business processes, management practices, to select appropriate leadership style and to maintain both internal and external business environment to get the competitive advantage in the market. As a multinational groceries and merchandise retailer, Tesco has completed proper researches and develop proper operations and strategies to ensure the best management practices, effective leadership and to develop proper organizational culture and business environment for the betterment of the company. In this assignment, the cultural development, management practices and leadership style of Tesco Plc will be discussed.

History and Background

Jack Cohen founded Tesco at Hackney, London, England in 1919 as a group of market stalls. Then, Cohen purchased a tea shipment from T. E. Stockwell and combined those initial two letters of his surname. It is a multinational groceries and a merchandise retailer that is headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England. The first Tesco shop was opened in Burnt Oak, Barnet in 1931 and then the company started to expand its business outside the UK. Originally Tesco has distributed globally with the operations of 11 countries outside the UK in the 1990s.

Current Position

Tesco is a private limited company and is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by growth revenues (Tesco, 2019). Tesco has distributed their business in the United Kingdom, India, Thailand, Ireland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, and Malaysia with 6,800 shops and 450,000 employees and its net income is £1,320 million in 2019 that prove the size of the organization. As a multinational retailer, Tesco has diversified its business with different products and services such as clothing, furniture, electronics, toys, retailing of books, telecoms and internet services, software, petrol, banking, and financial services, etc. Tesco has repositioned itself from low cost “Tesco Value” items to “Tesco Finest” to attract more customers

Mission & Vision

The business vision of Tesco is becoming the most highly valued business by each and every stakeholder related to the business. They are operating their business with the mission to make what matters better together. In order to complete their business mission, they have found out their business goals and objectives (Tesco, 2019). They have made proper researches and surveys to develop effective plans and strategies for the business, to apply the best leadership model and management practices.

Rationale to the selection of the company

I have selected Tesco to discuss the business process, management practices, leadership style and other business functionalities of the company, as the business processes, objectives and goals and others business operations of Tesco are very well designed and organized. I think, the management leadership theories and model Tesco are following would be effective for proper growth and development of the organization. It will help to find out more business functionalities and to get some recommendations for future development of the company.

Literature Analysis

Management practices and leadership styles are very effective to make strategic decisions, to lead the company toward its business vision and to ensure proper growth and development of the employees as well as of the company. The management practices and leadership style of Tesco are discussed below-

Strategic Management

Strategic management is the process with what the management of Tesco comes up with strategic business ideas and operations and make efficient decisions to meet the business objectives and vision. Strategic management helps the organization to plan for their future business activities and also combine their human power to complete all the business tasks –properly (Burrow, 2016).

Contingency Management

Contingency management theory is also applied to manage and handle the business operations and activities of Tesco. The main concept of the theory is that there is no theory that is effective for all kind of business. There are different internal and external factors, culture also impact the selected management practice. The contingency management of Tesco identifies three variables that influence the structure and functionalities of a business organization that is styles of leadership, technologies being used and the size of the organization (CFI, 2018). Here, the leader needs to be flexible to adapt to any kind of changes to the business environment or any cultural influences. This contingency management theory is very effective and useful to achieve all the business objectives and to ensure proper business growth of Tesco.

Systems Management Theory

System management theory is also used to the management of Tesco where the theory offers several alternative approaches to the planning and operation management of the company. The Theory divides the business into several parts that are working harmoniously. That helps the organization to perform larger system optimally. Here, employees are the most important elements of the management and employees must be well organized and determined to their

duties. The interrelationships between the other parts of the business are another important component of the management theory.

Leadership: Leadership is a very effective term for any kind of business organization with what the leader brings together a group of people and empowered and motivated them to achieve a common business goal. Leadership is essential to direct the human power of the company in the right direction. The leadership style of Tesco is discussed below-

Democratic Leadership

Tesco uses the democratic style of leadership as it allows all the employees to provide his personal opinions or decisions that help the company to find out the most effective decision for a particular situation. This type of leadership of Tesco motivates their employees and feels them confident while working (Tracy, 2014). The management of Tesco also has appointed leadership roles to individuals that make everyone clear to his duties and responsibilities and to get effective decisions of his tasks or duties. Because of the democratic leadership style, all the business decisions flow from higher management to the employees that make everyone conscious of the business goals and vision. The leadership style of Tesco also operates customer management to gather customer opinions that are very effective to improve the management of Tesco.

Organizational Culture: Organizational culture is very sensitive issues for any business organization. While running business internationally, Tesco faces different cultural differences from place to place such as education, culture, behavior, and language of the customers, etc. So the company has to develop different plans and strategies to cope with cultural changes or differences. The management of Tesco has different approaches to different aspects (Burrow, 2012). When Tesco opened its first store in China, they had to face different cross-cultural challenges. They have a different culture in team working, in motivation and in decision making. They have developed such a communication system using what they can solve most of the cultural problems. While decision making they are providing opportunities to take their individual decisions that help them to be confident and motivated.

They have developed their website with the language of the place they distributed their business and hired local employees who know the language and culture of the particular places. They always try to provide the best services to their customers and the company is also very loyal to