Marks and Spencer's and Nestle Strategic Development - Term Paper Example

Strategic Management Introduction The paper has compared and contrasted visions of two companies for strategic development. The companies are: Marks and Spencer's and Nestle. The article has discussed strategy development processes of these two companies. The article has also compared how the two companies exercise motivational aspects, their organizational cultures and their organizational structures. Marks and Spencer's Safe working conditions are provided by Marks and Spencer's that meet all legal law requirements. Job security is provided and the employees know that the better they perform, the safer their long-term future within the organization is going to be. Numerous company benefits are provided by Marks and Spencer's which offer both safety in financial aspects such as pension schemes, paid maternity and paternity leave, employee discount within all of their stores to encourage brand loyalty, and many other motivating factors such as team building exercises, promotion opportunities and investment opportunities such as offers of shares that become available. Social needs are met and encouraged by team building exercises, and teamwork is encouraged throughout the organization. This helps provide a friendly atmosphere throughout the workplace. Esteem needs are met by the recognition of achievements by senior management to ensure that credit is always given where credit is due. This keeps employees motivated and gives them a high level of job satisfaction and gives them incentives to fulfill their potential and achieve great things. The top of the hierarchy is the self-actualization needs. This is about the development and realization of a persons full potential. Marks and Spencer's allows this need to be met by offering career enhancement and promotion opportunities, a challenging role for employees, achievement in work and pushing employees to fulfill their potential. Marks and Spencer's believe that self-actualization is a very important factor and will increase efficiency within the organization. To conclude, Marks and Spencer's main sources of motivation come from offering the employees benefits and incentives and satisfying their needs to ensure that the environment in which they work is perfect in order to gain the best performance from them. Nestle The motivational policy within Nestle is based around a culture that has equal respect for all employees and there is a mutual respect that flows throughout the organization. This capacity to enhance human energy is an essential component to ensure the long-term competitiveness of the company. Nestle have a personal motivation based on a willingness to learn and to question what they are doing and why they are doing it, combined with their longstanding respect for Nestle values, will assure their success. Through open communication and active co-operation, Nestle invites everybody to contribute to improvements enhancing company results and personal development. This links in with self-actualization on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Nestle encourage their employees to become involved with their ideas and contribute to the company. This will lead to increased career prospects. Employee contribution is an important motivating factor because they will fell that they are part of the team and feel that they are more involved. To conclude, the main emphasis of Nestles motivational factors is put on the employees becoming involved and forming a family within the organization where their main motivation is success and making the company better. Nestle try to develop employees so that they have high achievement needs as this will enable the company to achieve the best from its employees. This links in with Goal Theory by Lock who said that goals set by people ultimately affect their behavior. Employees at nestle are driven and motivated by the goals set by the organization and they will do whatever is necessary in order to achieve those goals. Comparing the motivational factors in Marks and Spencer's and Nestle Marks and Spencer's puts a large emphasis on motivating its employees by means of incentives and benefits which aim to satisfy the employees as much as possible so that they are happy within the workplace. This will ensure that they perform at their best which is in the best interests of the organization. Nestle offer incentives such as pension schemes etc., similar to marks and Spencer's but they place a larger emphasis of motivation on working hard for self-actualization in order to meet all of their goals and targets. This gives them the sense of achievement that will be recognized by the organization. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a core of motivation for both organizations and they recognize the importance and the benefits that can be gained from satisfying all of the needs. The motivational aspects used by the two organizations are very similar as they both aim to meet all of the needs of the employees, but they differ in what the top priorities of the motivation are. To conclude, both Marks and Spencer's and Nestle are both very successful in their use of motivational techniques and use very similar techniques. Organizational Structure within Marks and Spencer's Marks and Spencer's operates with a fairly tall hierarchical structure. They have all of the different departments at the bottom (i.e. Human resources department, sales and distribution, administration), with middle managers of each department above them, and then more senior managers above them and so on until you arrive at the top of the hierarchy with the top chief executive of the organization. This type of structure allows greater promotion opportunities and movement up the hierarchy than a flatter structure. If there are many departments at the bottom of the hierarchy, all with a manager above them, this gives greater efficiency as all of the departments can carry out their own functions. A taller hierarchy helps maintain a high level of communication between all of the middle managers reporting on their specific sub-ordinate group. Information is easily able to flow between the 3 or 4 layers in the hierarchy between the different levels of manager. Marks and Spencer's try to keep the levels in the hierarchy minimal but it is in good interests that the layers exist in order to motivate the employees for promotion opportunities. This has proved successful for Marks and Spencer's in the past. Organizational Structure within Nestle Nestle uses a flatter hierarchical structure with fewer layers than Marks and Spencer's. Nestle implements a flat structure in order to create common business purposes in order to speed up the sharing of the know-how and intellectual capital across the organization. Nestle believe that everybody can benefit from the sharing of knowledge and believe that the sharing of knowledge is best achieved via a flat structure. Nestle have a smooth and stretchy organization structure with few levels of management and extensive spans of control, with project teams and task forces. Networking and horizontal communication are encouraged with clear accountability to the managers and the hierarchy. Horizontal communication is characteristic of the respect that Nestle demands from all of its employees and treats everybody the same. This communication between 'equals' is often easier than vertical communication along the hierarchy where people find it hard to communicate with higher levels of authority. Clear levels of responsibility and well-defined objectives are essential to ensure maximum productivity. Nestle believe that their structure assures operational speed and personal responsibility, with strong focus on results and reducing bureaucracy as much as possible. Comparing the organizational structures within Marks and Spencer's and Nestle The two organizations use structures with certain similarities but the main difference between the two is that Nestle uses a much flatter structure. This is all to do with the organization values that Nestle has about treating everybody equally and encouraging teamwork. Fewer layers within the structure means that more of the employees have the same level of responsibilities and are treated the same. Marks and Spencer's offers more promotion and career enhancement opportunities as it has a taller structure with more layers whereas promotion opportunities could be somewhat restricted at Nestle with the structure having fewer layers. The taller structure at Marks and Spencer's allows for effective communication between the different layers where as top managers at Nestle may have difficulty communicating with the workforce as they have a greater span of control. This greater span of control makes it difficult for the top managers to communicate effectively with the workforce as they are in charge of a large number of people. To conclude, both of the organizations structures have proved successful in the past, however Marks and Spencer's would have more effective communication between the different layers of management. Both organizations have their structure in place, as it is most effective for their specific goals and objectives. Marks and Spencer's and Nestle have different aims and expectations and the structures that they have in place allow them to fulfill these aims. Organizational culture within Marks and Spencer's Cultures are often one of the less tangible features of an organization and are carried out in the minds of individuals within the organization. These cultures set a trend and other members of the organization pick up on these cultures and it then becomes a group culture by which the organization goes by. The mission of Marks and Spencer's is to 'Make aspirational quality available to all'. This mission is to be achieved by the culture of Marks and Spencer's which is based around a work ethic of working together productively as a team in order to achieve their mission and goals. Marks and Spencer's culture is productivity through people where by they achieve committed action from their employees because they have established a culture where the employees are motivated and want to achieve success and meet all of their targets. The culture is all about meeting objectives, this is translated through the whole workforce so they all adopt the same culture and all have the same goals. Marks and Spencer's have different values within their culture, their culture will be a major influence in the organization adhering to their values. Their values are; offering products and services of high quality, offering excellent value for money, offering a quality service to customers, innovation and a high level of trust which is a two way value between the organization and the customers. To conclude, the values are all part of the culture, the culture is putting those values into practice and using them to their advantage. Organizational culture within Nestle Nestle operate a culture designed to maximize respect for both the organization and its employees, and respect local and national communities. At the heart of Nestle's culture is a commitment to safety and quality for its employees and customers. The employees of Nestle all follow the same culture and this creates a very positive atmosphere within the workplace. Nestle is committed to a number of cultural values. These values have been developed during the history of the company and they now have a solid set of values that form the culture for everybody within the organization to follow. The culture that is in place in the Nestle organization is based upon the following values. Nestle are committed to a strong work ethic, integrity, honesty and quality. They have personal relationships based on confidence and shared admiration. This implies a sociable approach towards others, combined with an ability to speak openly and frankly. They have a personalized and direct way of dealing with each other. This implies a high level of open-mindedness for other ideas and opinions, as well as a persistent commitment to co-operate pro-actively with others. Nestle have a more pragmatic than dogmatic approach to business. This implies being practical and basing decisions on facts. Frankness and curiosity for active and future trends in technology, changes in consumer habits, new business ideas and opportunities, while maintaining respect for basic human values, attitudes and behavior. This calls especially for nurturing a sense of quality and long-term achievement in the daily work beyond style and shortsighted gain. To conclude, nestle has founded and exercises a culture which aims to satisfy employees and aid the organization in fulfilling its objectives. The culture is the process by which the organization conducts itself in order to meet its goals. Comparing the organizational cultures within Marks and Spencer's and Nestle The cultures of the two organizations are similar as they both give a framework for the conduct of the company and state how the company will conduct itself in its mission to achieve its goals. Both organizations have their own specific values for their type of business. Quality and service is very important to both organizations. Nestle have a more clearly defined culture than Marks and Spencer's and culture appears to be of greater significance to them than Marks and Spencer's. Both organizations highlight the importance of having a team working culture, which increases productivity. The cultures set out by the two organizations are specific to the different goals which the two organizations have so are unique to each other. To conclude, the cultures are very similar, as they are both large successful organizations and they are both aware of the type of culture needed in order to promote success. Conclusion In conclusion, after looking at motivation, organizational structure and organizational culture, Marks and Spencer's and Nestle share many similarities. The cultures used by the organizations are very productive in their mission to achieve their goals quickly and efficiently. The cultures are very similar. They both underline the importance of teamwork, dedication to providing quality goods and a quality service, commitment to a strong work ethic in order to meet objectives and providing a warm, friendly working environment so that the process of meeting objectives is a pleasant and enjoyable one. The cultures do differ slightly in places, but both have the same roots and basic values and have proved to be successful. The organizational structures differ, as Nestles is flatter than that of Marks and Spencer's. Nestle see this approach as more positive, whereas Marks and Spencer's see their taller hierarchy as more positive as it provides more promotion opportunities. 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