Personal development of employees within marks and spencer

Personal improvement or development involves the actions that enhance personal knowledge and individual’s entity, improve the hidden talent & potential, and develop talents. It improves the individual’s life standards and makes him professional person that can easily convert his dreams into the reality. The word personal development is not only related to the individual’s skills and attitude it also improves the behaviors, attitude and ethics of others. At the end we can say that personal development is also plays a vital role in the improvement of the organization’s structure that can be a organizational strategies, evaluation methods, and provide help to improve the strategies of the organization.

Personal development is vast topic and it provides a good help in the dynamic business environment because of personal development the individual can improve his skills and knowledge that helps to develop the strategical ambitions of the organization. And these improved skills like knowledge, attitude, and behavior are vary important and necessary to achieve the long term goals and ambitions of the organization in a real sense.

The organization that I have chosen for this assignment is Marks & Spencer that is doing business of retail out let in the United Kingdom (UK). Since the 1880s, it is doing business on the strict customs that is spread in all over the United Kingdom (UK). Now the Marks & Spencer is considered as the one of the very famous in the retail outlets. Even in the services of food the Marks & Spencer has created it good name in the eyes of the customer in the whole United Kingdom (U K). Particularly in 1990s there was bid decline in the sales of the Marks & Spencer and as well as overall performance of the organization. But with a lot of changes now the Marks & Spencer is offering the high quality products at very reasonable prices to attract and win the confidence of its customers.

First of all in this assignment I tried to identify and evaluate the individual’s skills and behaviour that is necessary to fulfil the aims and objectives of the Marks & Spencer. And after that I am going to discuss the leadership development and personal development tools and techniques.

“Strategy is direction to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization.”

OR

“Strategy is track through the organization can achieve its long term plans.”

Strategy provides a way to organization through which organization can fulfill its objectives by using its resources in a dynamic environment to congregate the requirements of the market.

The mission statement of the Marks & Spencer is

“Making inspirational quality accessible to all”

And the vision statement of the Marks & Spencer is

“The standard against which all others are measured”

The values of the Marks & Spencer are

“Quality, value, service, innovation and trust”

Marks & Spencer wishes to expend its business all over the world and it can be achieved by the company’s strategies of to understand the global culture, to select the proper target market and by niche market and in a real sense this is the main objective and aims of the Marks & Spencer’s to be achieved.

Evaluate the strategic skills required of the leader to achieve the strategic ambitions

The strategic goals of the Marks & Spencer is to be the number one in United Kingdom (UK) market and as well as to expand it business activities.

Leader plays a vital role in the progress of the organization because the leaders have the future vision and direction for the employees and for the whole organization to achieve its objectives and goals efficiently & effectively. The headship has the ability to bring the change in the organization without the disturbance of the strategies and working of the organization.

So the headship improvement/development is a necessary thing for Marks & Spencer to achieve its objective and goals. This organization must have to render the opportunities for the leaders to enhance their skills by giving the headship training and this training can change the style of doing business of the organization.

It is not necessary that every leader requires a same level of training. The training can be different for different leaders. So the headship development is a necessary tool for the Marks & Spencer to achieve its strategic goal and objectives.

Leadership skills and knowledge is necessary to achieve the ambitions of the organization without the competencies of the leaders it is very difficult for the organization to achieve the organizational objectives. Different skills are required for the leadership to achieve the goals are

Communication skill is very important and plays a vital role fro the improvement of the itself leaders and for the organization as well because if the leaders have not the communication skill they can not make progress and even they are not able to communicate with the other peoples and colleagues as well. Hence the communication skill is necessary.

Problem solving and decision making skills are also necessary for the headship. The leaders must have the problem solving skill and he is able to solve the issues of the currently facing by the organization and the leader must be able to take a good and favorable decision for the betterment of the Marks & Spencer.

The leaders must have the skill to adopt the changes and he will be able to bring a favorable change in the environment of the organization so that the organization can run its business activities efficiently and can make progress.

The leaders must have the honesty and flexibility skill so that they can make the honest and fair decision for the improvement of the organization and to achieve the organizational goals. And the leaders must have the skill of providing direction to its staff and the skill to cover and solve the issues of the employees and organization.

The current skills of the leaders of Marks & Spencer leaders are:

Communication skill, work value skill, skill of honesty & truthfulness, the skill of self-assurance, headship ability and skill of listening

The leaders must have the skill to critically scan the environment by using the PESTL factors. Interpersonal skill so that the leaders can exchange the information with one an other without any hesitation, the time management skill so that the leaders can manage the time between their personal and professional life and the leaders must have the ability to take initiative with out any fear and for the betterment of the organization.

As well as the existing skill concern the leaders of the Marks & Spencer have the communication skill, honesty skill, headship ability and listening skill but they don’t have the skill to take initiative, skill to scan the environment, Time management skill, the skill of adoptive and flexibility skill.

Proper evaluation process and proper training of the leadership will be required in near future to achieve the organizational aims and goals.

2.1 The opportunities those are necessary to support the leadership development.

360 degree response analysis

360 degree feedback is a tool to measure and analyze the leadership improvement. So because of this I choose 360 degree feedback to support the leadership development. This tool is used to exploit the skills and competencies of headship. 360 degree feedback includes the feedback or response from reports, managers, primary and secondary stakeholders and as well as self-response. This tool will provide the improved skills and enhance the attitude of the headship so in this regard it will be very helpful for the headship. This 360 degree provide response/feedback to the leaders on variety of skills like

Decision-making

teamwork

setting up goals

communiqué

and many other categories of headship

The 360 degree feedback analysis wills also help the headship to recognize the strength and the places/areas of loop fall and ultimately provide help to the headship to make and improve the strategic plans of the organization. A strong 360 degree response/feedback identifies the internal behavior and skills of the leaders that how to communicate with others in the critical situation and how to face the challenges.

Another excellent personal assessment tool for employees, managers, and executives is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular and fascinating assessment tool that helps people self-identify:

How they prefer to direct or conserve their energy

How they process and organize information

How they tend to make decisions

How they prefer to interact with people

What “blind spots” they have as a result of these preferences

Another assessment tool is Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

This is one of the best tool to analyze/assess the performance of the leaders/headship, workers etc. This tool helps the leadership to identify their skills like.

How can leaders favor to save their vigor

How can they flow information frequently

How can they make influential decisions for the organization

How can they communicate with others in a good way

Some important opportunities that are helpful to promote the leadership development are as under

Educational opportunities:

Education is very important for the headship development of any organization. Education plays a vital role for development of leadership. So the educational opportunities are the key factor for headship improvement because without getting proper education no body can do any thing properly hence the leadership must have to identify the opportunities that are related to education and that can improve the performance of the organization’s leaders.

Training opportunities:

Another opportunities that is very important for the organization’s leaders that is to explore the training opportunities for the employees. Because of the training the leaders can improve the performance of the staff members and other low level employees.

Development opportunities:

To develop the staff and employees and as well as the leaders is very necessary for the organization and plays a vital role in the betterment and the success of the organization.

Career planning opportunities:

To explore opportunities that are in favor of the headship and as well as for the organization but with the opportunities of career planning this thing is no be neglected that the career of employees is very important so to identify opportunities that will not affect the career of the employees.

2.2 The example of one year personal development plan

Skills are very important for the organization while conducting a kill audit of the Marks & Spencer I as a manager identify the skills that are necessary for the headship development are as under

Skill of communicate, flexibility skill, adoptive skill, work value skill, skill of honesty & truthfulness, the skill of self-assurance, headship ability, skill of listening, the skill to cover the issues, the skill of good writing. These are very important skills for the improvement of headship of the organization

The skills that need to be improved are:

The skill of flexibility, adoptive skill, how to cover the management issues, headship issues, the skill of truthfulness and integrity, ability to watch the forecasted picture, multitask. These are the main parts of the organization where the loop falls are identified.

How to improve the above skills:

The above deficiencies of the skills can be improved by many ways. These skills can be improved through proper channel and by giving the proper training to the staff and the headship as well. By giving the some improvement and enhancement programs through the proper institute these loop falls can be improved and removed. But to remove these loop falls the headship requires the full attention and proper evaluation of the employees.

To permanently remove these loop falls the organization needs the proper financial resources and to manage and allocate these resources is not an easy task. So the leaders needs to proper emphases on the management performance. Hence the leaders identified the financial resources and proper institutes where the employees can take training on the loop falls and can remove that loop falls. So the leaders can allocate the sufficient fund to perform this task efficiently and effectively.

To record the progress I as a manager evaluate the organization by monthly or twice in a month in the initial stages either the employees are working better after getting the training or not. And with the passage of time I as a manager evaluate the performance of the employees and the result are very different from the previous performance. Hence the performance and working of the employees and management of the organization is improved very well.

2.3 Implementation process for the development plan

Goals are very important for the success of the organization because without identifying the goals of the no any organization can make success. Total focus of the Marks & Spencer of the retail outlet of United Kingdom (UK) is on some of the main important and key development goals are as following

100% have possession of Brand:

The organization’s (Marks & Spencer) aim is to sell only own products and items so that the organization can give the guarantee to its consumers to provide the quality, value and after sale services that the organization promise to deliver.

Expand High-Growth Areas of house & magnificence:

House basis business is growing rapidly with house fixtures and gifts are the faster improving sectors. Magnificence, although comparatively small, but it is also increasing day by day.

Improve the Supply Chain:

Marks & Spencer whishes to watch the considerable benefits from the repute of the supply chain management. Marks & Spencer also wishes to achieve the greater improvements in the quality, after sale services and easy accessibility.

Marks & Spencer also want to be the number one in the United Kingdom (UK) and as well as all over the world.

By capturing response and feed back of the headship the Marks & Spencer wants to improve the strategic goals and strategies. Because feedback is very important for the success of the organization and for the management as well so the Marks & Spencer wishes to improve the feedback program of the leadership. And by taking response from the management.

To achieve the organizational goal is the key task for the organization. So to achieve the strategic goals of the organization planning is very important. Marks & Spencer is achieving his organizational goals by evaluating the performance of the employs and by making future strategies and to cut the long term strategic goals of the organization into the short term goals so that the goals can be achieved easily.

Marks & Spencer proper monitor the performance of the employees and staff against the task given to them and take decisions to make this thing possible and effective. The performance monitoring program is very good in Marks & Spencer and this organization takes the possible measurements to achieve the strategic goals and break the long term goals into short term goals hence when the short term goals are achieved it means the long term goals are automatically achieved.

The leadership of this organization is always busy in providing the superior tasks and good training but after that the leader wants the superior result in response.

Assessment of the achievement of outcomes of the plan against original objectives:

Yes all the things have achieved like development need, objectives and outcomes. Development needs of this organization are Decision-making, teamwork, setting up goals and how to communicate with other employees. And all the outcomes of the organization are achieved because the organization increases its profit by the end of this financial year. All the strategic aims and plans of the organization were well defined and organized properly. All these activities were monitored properly by the management so because of this all the goals of this organization achieved very well and according to plan. In next time I as a manger don’t think about the changing of the strategies of the organization because organization is working properly and increases productivity day by day and the performance of the employees is also going good.

The impact of the achievement of objectives on strategic ambitions:

Objectives play a vital role in the success of the organization’s success. The impact of the achievement is positive on the strategic goals o f the organization because if the organization achieves his goals step by step and go forward step by step then obviously it will put the best and positive effect on the aim of organization. The trust of the customers will increased by this thing and the brand equity will also be increased.

Definitely when the performance and turn over ration of the organization will increase and the organization will achieved its defined strategic objectives than i will make a new mission statement of my organization. Now this organization is need to going globally and has to expend its business activities in all over the world.

And after that obviously the Marks & Spencer will make new strategic marketing plans to promote its business activities all over the world. While going globally the organization needs to improve its marketing plans and needs to diversify its recruitment process because work force diversity is very important for any organization to be successful in the global market. And the organization needs to know the culture of the other countries before going globally.

After doing all these things effectively and efficiently the organization achieved its impact that was the organization looking for. The positioning and targeting of the organization was very effective and good and the strategies for going global were also proved that it was in favour of the organization. The vision statement of the organization was very nice and the customers were attracted by this new statement. Because of the new marketing strategies and target marketing the organization achieved the £20K profit in the recent financial year.

3.3

Yes almost all the development needs achieved but this is not enough because the organization wants to be the number one in all over the world. And yes all the development objectives achieved by the organization and all the outcomes that were needed to the organization were achieved by the organization. Yes the achievement impact on strategic ambitions has been evaluated and analysed. Successful strategies and by the proper targeting marketing the strategic ambitions of the organization achieved and evaluated. No there is no need to auction the existing development of the organization. And yes of course the development needs that are required to the organization in future are identified properly that is organization needs to go global and for this it needs more finances are competent skills are required. As well as the concern about the new development objectives that are also be identified that the organization wants to be the number one in all over the world and wishes to expand its business activities globally.

4.1

Employers have a lawful duty to make sure that the work surroundings and work practices are secure and that the fitness of their employees is not damage by the job that they perform.

The managers persistent to contribute in ‘Work Well’ a targeted anxiety management programme.

The Marks & Spencer also contributed in the business Health and recital business study

Marks and Spencer introduced precautions for Fire, Health and Safety performance, based on a Combination of self-assessment and expert inspections every three months.

An improved Asbestos management plan has also been introduced.

So because of health and safety program the marks and Spencer decreases its cost of production in a long run and also minimize the uncertainty of the organization. It reduces the average rate of accidents due to negligence and due to safe environment the attendance of employees is improved.

The marks & Spencer is promoting its health & Safety program by introduces a community investment program that emphasis on four areas employability, education, health and community safety.

Hence because of the efficient health & Safety program the Marks & Spencer is successful in reducing the rate of accidents by 25 percent and adds the 8 percent increase in the profit. All these activities definitely helped the Marks & Spencer to achieve the strategic goals and to expand its business activities into the new markets of the world.

In this assignment I identified the different individual/personal skills of the leaders of the Marks & Spencer to fulfill the objective and aims of the organization. And I also had made effort to explore and evaluate the current and future skills of the leaders to enhance the performance of the management and that can improve the productivity of the organization.

And at the end I tried to make the personal development plan for the Marks & Spencer for one financial year in which I audit the skills of the leaders and identified different skills that need to be improved and that helps the deliberate goals of the organization in the current dynamic business environment. Hence the marks & Spencer is really needed to change in its strategies while going global up to some extant so that it can achieve its global objectives.