MN7407 Management in Practice Assignment Sample
Module code and Title: MN7407 Management in Practice Assignment Sample
Introduction
Critics have stated that every business needs to set some strategic priorities at a time to acknowledge internal and external issues. The current market scenario shows a heavy rise in ecological adversities and social disruptions to personal and professional ethics (Floetgen et al., 2021). The concept of corporate social responsibility has risen with the increasing tendency of businesses to acquire faster outputs in profitability. The rapidity has triggered many organisations to resort to such measures, which are likely to minimise the extent of positive outcomes. Sustainable strategies refer to the priorities in actions that positively impact businesses (May et al., 2021).
These are closely linked to organisations’ corporate social responsibilities, making them easy to include and assess using different parameters (May et al., 2021). Given the purpose and priorities of the strategies, critics have also identified that issuing sustainability is not an easy process. Therefore, the essay will decipher the concept of sustainable strategies and their strategic alignment with organisational goals.
These will extend to identify the opportunities and challenges that come with the initiation and implementation of sustainable strategies in businesses. Critical analyses of the pros and cons would help the essay to identify the long-term future of sustainability in businesses, taking retail and non-retail industrial examples.
Critical Discussion of Challenges and Opportunities Organisations face in Developing and Implementing Sustainable Business Strategies
It is vital to note that most leaders identify culture as a winning criterion for organisational success and efficiency. Business strategies ought to be interlinked to organisational missions and core values. For example, the business strategy for Netflix is focused on developing quality content for entertainment and information exchange across communities (González et al., 2020). These resonate with the company’s mission to become a worldwide leading channel for quality streaming services.
It also reflects the core values of delivering standard content in exchange for fair charges. However, in all industries, companies need to identify the cultural links to business practices which also acknowledge social and environmental variables. For the longest time in business history, brands have been opined to have neglected sustainable policies and ideologies. Companies have been conventionally moderated on fast achievements. Therefore, they have been programmed to acquire target profits by any means.
Companies have not been indulging in fair implementation of sustainability goals even when the international statutory bodies like the UN had proclaimed the urgency. However, lately, adversities in ethics and vast ecological disruptions in weather and climates have compelled organisations to reconsider the neglected areas. For this reason, sustainability and practices have gained value across industries in recent times.
One of the core features that businesses implement with sustainable goals is the long-term change agenda. All organisations must examine existing functions (from production to distribution and after-sales) and alter areas with inconsistencies (Goni et al., 2021). For example, retailers worldwide focus on local supplies and supporting local businesses and producers. In addition, it is vital to sustaining communities and the social duties of organisations for welfare (Khokhar et al., 2020).
Again, retail chains must be cautious about the waste generated from inventories, packages, delivery materials, and transport systems. Critics suggest that every aspect mentioned has a potential effect (direct or indirect). The direct concerns include pollution, waste piles, and workplace conflicts, while indirect effects can extend to resource exploitation and consumer health and safety issues.
Therefore, ideally, all businesses have to focus on three core pillars of the sustainability framework, economic, social and environmental. International businesses have invested in these areas to transform gaps Identified using self-analytics.
Furthermore, they should also focus on customers’ growing likeness towards ethical research and sourcing information. Buyers are now invested in preferring brands with minimal complaints on corporate social responsibility charters. It means that all organisations must adopt changes to sustain the competitive environment for the longest time.
A common question that many companies have registered is in terms of implementing sustainable strategies. Jamie Pitcairn, the technical director of sustainability at Ricardo, suggests that sustainability is a layered concept with several complexities (Ricardo. 2022). It often links different areas of a business and industries in a larger vision, eco-friendly practices and ethical business management.
Automatically, the process comes along with several needful actions before implementation. The first process is research, referring to both sustainable goals, actions and capacities of the concerned organisation. Critics opine that these insights also help locate a business’s positioning and the urgent needs that call for changes. James has added the factor of appropriate data collection, meaning that research should be critical to learning and adapting to changes (Ricardo. 2022).
For example, collecting carbon data informs owners about emission levels and carbon footprints. However, it also shows how they can affect societies and environments beyond the immediate surroundings (Ricardo. 2022). Thus, companies should always research and plan actions keeping datasets in mind and refer to them to analyse progress and gaps.
Although sustainable initiatives and missions are urgently mandated across businesses, critics have stated that many problems coexist in implementing sustainable initiatives also. Keeping modern trends in commercial fields, businesses face some prominent challenges and limitations in executing policies robustly. The first and most vital problem for businesses is the developing transparency and clarity trends in businesses for sustainable practices.
Businesses have been losing their holds on markets owing to the loss of trust due to several malpractices. For example, the case of discrimination noted in Starbucks on racial grounds is a vital point on ethnic and cultural disparities and their negligence (Wang and Brewster, 2019). So, companies claiming to uphold a fair and equitable distribution of work privileges now face issues proving their claims.
The Gender Pay Gap Regulations have also been passed recently to highlight the disparity in work conditions and payments for people based on different criteria (colour, gender, ethnicity, and nationality) (Legislation.gov.uk. 2022). Sustainability goes beyond the claims of ecological welfare, implying that businesses have to show what they actually undertake. Even supervisory organisations (both government and non-profit) have become very strict on transparency in taxes, work regulations, conditions and net effects on the environment. Therefore, it has become problematic to change the focus on areas of long-term negligence.
Another critical challenge in executing or developing sustainability is the trust levels across businesses and buyer groups. An annual survey by the Edelman Trust Barometer highlights a drop in businesses in 18 out of 28 economies (Edelman.com. 2022). The 2017 survey also shows that only 52 per cent of respondents claim that they are authentic to the core of the businesses (Edelman.com. 2022).
The cynicism is more noted among global corporations, which, by contrast, should have been the most effective agencies in execution (Edelman.com. 2022). The main problem is the lack of effective control or supervision of the business organisations. A major case example from the automobile industry is Volkswagen’s diesel gate incident. The company had claimed the efficiency of the new engine components in reducing carbon emissions from 2008 to 2015 when a valid test showed failures (Holtbrügge and Conrad, 2020).
However, despite being a global corporation, the brand’s leaders claim to have remained unaware of the test reports since the beginning of the launch. Automatically, buyers do not feel the trust in companies, be it their work ethics or ecological initiatives undertaken.
Critics have also highlighted a lack of equality levels despite the growth in sustainable practices and development. Oxfam, an analytical consultancy, has reported that seven out of ten people live in nations where inequalities have risen over the last three decades (Oxfam.org. 2022). However, it highly contrasts business performance claims in retail and non-retail units. The reduction of inequalities has been the tenth goal of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) given by the United Nations (Oxfam.org. 2022).
However, since the industrial revolution, companies have shown a rise and fall in markets with changing market dominion and political trends. Commonly, larger companies have a major influence on the level of interactions and business operations. For example, Tesla is a popular brand name in the manufacturing industry known for the quality deliveries of sustainable cars and engines (Thomas and Maine, 2019).
However, the performance of Tesla remains incomparable to other brands like Lotus Cars and Cartenham Cars. Comparing the market performances of these brands, one can conceive that Tesla’s funding, skills and technological infrastructure remain incomparable to the latter brands (Thomas and Maine, 2019). However, sustainability is a common goal that every organisation has to undertake.
The problem is furthered by the expenses associated with sustainable transformations. Critics state that sustainable initiatives have a higher expense due to the infrastructure and changes to be undertaken. However, smaller and medium brands lack the finances to accommodate these changes simultaneously, unlike giants like Tesla. Thus, profitability in sales remains limited to global brands while local small and medium companies fail to accommodate similar profits to invest further.
Experts have also distinguished the considerations associated with long-term planning in businesses. Even though every organisation has a long-term vision, issuing actions directly for a long-term outcome is critical. The reason is that short-term wins for business survival drive all employees and employers. For instance, the rapid changes in retail industries of the UK show a robust transformation in business management and sales and services.
Giants like Tesco and ASDA have been issuing several long-term initiatives by dividing them into short-term agendas (removing plastic packages and bottles, using recycled items for transportation, etc.) (Fuschi et al., 2021). However, the success of these processes remains questionable because plastic generation is an estimated 4.9 metric tonnes per year as of 2020 (Statista. 2022).
Reducing this volume at once is impossible, given that some other industries would use plastics for other purposes. However, critics added that sustainable technologies are still unclear due to the ongoing research. Engineers and scientists have not found a suitable approach to minimise the country’s waste levels or production volumes. So, on the one hand, plastic remains in the cycle for regular product sales.
The last and most conceptual problem in developing sustainable missions and practices in industries is the call and idea for change. In case of any transition, critics opine that resistance is a major barrier limiting opportunities from growing further (Corporate Citizenship. 2022). A similar circumstance pervades the case of sustainable planning and management. SDGs have become a global figure with adequate collaborations and partnerships among governmental and nongovernmental bodies worldwide.
Critics have noted that the UN SDGs are now conceptualised as the millennium development goals vital for all organisations to execute as early as possible (Corporate Citizenship. 2022). However, most sectors find it difficult to plan ways to encourage changes in systems or even direct them strategically (Corporate Citizenship. 2022). Even though all industries tend to have a stable position to accommodate sustainable changes, many organisations lack internal support for such changes.
For example, analysing the UK construction industry, many companies cannot identify the risks of change and cost savings expected for expenditures. Moreover, the construction sector has many technological aspects, like heavy engineering vehicles requiring heavy research and development investments. All these hinder the actual implementation of sustainable goals and practices.
Despite the odds addressed in the previous paragraphs, critics have also noted that many opportunities exist to implement a sustainable business initiative. The fact that sustainability is becoming a trending business goal for long-term efficiency requires companies to address these scopes urgently. However, it is also significant to note that these opportunities can only result in expected outcomes when industries’ economic, social, ethical, and ecological development initiates (Biothinking. 2022).
The first scope arises here from the rising recognition standards in community development (Community Development. 2022). A major initiative that covers rights and opportunities for all individuals, community development is focused on building five elementary provisions. It targets the empowerment of all individuals in a community, region or nation.
Additionally, it focuses on protecting the rights and inclusivity of the people in all areas. Rendering social justice with ensured self-determination is the last aspect the government has identified as crucial. For example, after the incident of racial condemnation in Starbucks, the owners have initiated a robust proclamation to figure out ways to control racial or other forms of discrimination and harassment. Inclusive workspaces are already trending and are likely to expand with globalisation at its peak.
Similarly, communal safety and empowerment is a broader topic that can help organisations earn a trustworthy name among buyer groups (Community Development. 2022). Thus, it is natural for retail companies to invest equally in welfare actions and make stores inclusive of cultural values and ethos. Tesco is a leading retailer with a diversified workspace within the United Kingdom and abroad (Sinha, 2022).
It has generated active engagement within teams using value learning and training campaigns for ethical branding. So, other industries should try to blend in inclusivity features in smaller batches of actions.
There is no denying that businesses must adopt sustainable goals and actions in their interests. However, the interests have been criticised for involving all forms of profitabilities. Achieving a sustainable livelihood is the basic right of all people. So, companies participating in human welfare also focus on enhancing the lifestyles of poor people with basic amenities (Biothinking. 2022).
It is expected to have a two-way opportunity for brands, the first being brand recognition for the good work accomplished. Another important step here is the development of lifestyles which leads to upscale the conditions of the poor with some economic and work-based support. Companies like Wipro and Capgemini call for walk-in interviews, especially for non-IT students, to place them in managerial and administrative jobs like reporting and handling office work and client interactions (Aggarwal, 2022).
These opportunities are likely to build the stability of earnings for the families needing financial support direly. Moreover, with time, these are likely to become small or medium buyers of their items, as is noted in retail stores (ALDI and Tesco) offering staff a special discount on product purchases (Fuschi et al., 2021). It is a major advantage in sustaining the sales and acquisitions in new and potential market groups based on value-added services.
Resource management is a major scope generated from pursuing sustainable long-term goals. Many retail and manufacturing companies are shifting from recruiting new staff to analysing internal teams and training eligible candidates for different job positions. The process is highly economical, saving the additional expenses of hiring an external recruit team or paying a new entrant afresh.
Similarly, using existing materials to produce new items is considered a cost-effective approach that food processing units in the UK undertake rapidly. The process can reduce the usage of resources and energy, which are vital concerns in sustainability goals. Critics state that reusing and recycling trends besides rational resource consumption tends to reduce expenses by 4, 10 or even 50 (Biothinking. 2022).
The process is also oriented towards preserving land, water, air and soil, considerably minimising emission levels. The approach is therefore expected to reduce the net operational cost that involves a higher percentage of the production or processing functions only.
Moreover, it is supposed to create a healthier community for brands and factories to thrive in urban locations. The last and very crucial aspect is linked to the edible industry mainly. The opportunity of shifting to sustainable businesses can help to improve organic cultures in industries. For instance, organic agriculture and farming techniques are constantly losing trends due to extensive chemical usage (Organic Farming. 2022).
However, they are very economical, against heavy fertilisers and pesticide usage. They are also very sustainable, with an expected rise in quality food products for buyers. Given modern trends, consumers worldwide prefer organic items over chemically produced ones, furthering the scopes for sales and acquisitions. Therefore, retailers should explore organic farming locally to enhance profits.
Conclusion
The essay is a detailed assessment of the cores of sustainable initiatives in businesses. It identifies the need for issuing sustainability programmes for social, economic, and ecological welfare. Alignment of the goals with strategies is also noted to have valuable imprints on the brand identities in every industry. The essay also points out that sustainable schemes are long-term policies meticulously chosen to accommodate positive changes.
However, execution and delivery of the processes, in reality, seem to be a major concern for many organisations. The essay highlights many challenges like the expenses associated with transformations which tend to be incomprehensible. In addition, the essay highlights how a lack of resources can affect smaller and medium businesses against giants operating in every sector. The example of retail giants versus local shops in the UK is a common instance that helps to discuss the issues.
However, the opportunities associated with successful planning and execution seem endless. It is also stated in the essay that long-term policy-making is supposedly expected to create good impacts on companies. The essay also justifies that sustainable goals will replace conventional business schemes given the rising communal urgencies worldwide.
Assignment B: Individual reflective essay
Topic: Reflecting on a previous experience as a team member
Challenges faced while working in the concerned team environment
I have worked for more than a year in Farfetch, a well-known retailer in the UK. Being an IT professional, I have been recruited as the manager of the existing IT unit. However, despite the brand’s prominence for its internal stability, I have observed some important challenges that my team members have been facing and coping with at Farfetch.
First, teams were heavily underpaid despite the loads of work to handle their online operations. It is a major contradiction that I have noted in comparison to other departmental teams in Farfetch. The lack of proper payment has heavily affected team members’ motivation and engagement. I have noted that IT professionals keep delaying allocated work intentionally due to the behaviour of the management. Moreover, the leading unit of the IT department is not skilled or experienced enough to motivate us.
The mode of engagement between my team members has also been absurd. There have been many severe conflicts with a steady lack of leadership intervention. As a manager, I have handled all-important work from my responsibilities single-handedly. Furthermore, the team ambience is worsened due to the pressure groups within Farfetch stores leading to overtime work.
However, I have tried communicating with the administration about unaddressed appraisals and payment incentives. Apart from these issues, teams are not quite skilled in tackling modern technologies. I have observed many members facing simple coding and programming issues. It leads me to conclude that the management does not properly handle even recruitment processes.
Another consideration that I have observed here is the lack of engagement between departmental teams. The work environment is mostly marked by discriminatory behaviours, which I have faced as an ethnic minority. The first few months have mostly gone in making myself pronounced in the managerial position.
Overcoming challenges
Handling the issues of discrimination and lack of controls have been challenging for me being a foreigner at Farfetch. However, I have retained the assertive style of leadership which assisted me in getting my power controls and attention in a shorter period. I could acquire the attention and acknowledgement as a manager within the first two months.
However, credits also go to my technical skills and soft management tactics which have convinced the IT unit that I am a team player. For example, the most evident case has been when the team could not process the payment errors leading to multiple withdrawals from customer accounts online. I have used my research and ethical hacking tips to find the malwares and sustain Farfetch’s brand reputation among the customers.
Apart from these, I have tried to build an individualistic management within the IT department. Coordination and cooperation are two values I have been training the team to accommodate daily activities. I have also ensured that teams do not feel neglected or undermined regarding their potential.
An advantage I have faced is my interests in the engineering team’s welfare, which has not gone unnoticed. Eventually, the members have come up to me for solutions and advice for any technical or internal problem.
The problem of being underpaid and mismanaged has not been handled fully. However, I have tried to bring the concern to the administration in the monthly meetings on work performance. I have also initiated a project and task-based incentive system for the IT teams. It enables the professionals to receive 10 per cent of their earnings as a bonus for larger projects and problems they handle. It has also helped motivate members to work positively and coordinate.
Aspects to undertake alternatively
Having mentioned the achievements I have acquired, I also believe there are many areas where approaches could be undertaken differently. For example, during my work tenure, the lack of leadership engagement has been a major disadvantage in convincing the administrations. I could not place ideas and issues without the leader’s permission in the hierarchical work culture of Farfetch. So, leadership and extended support of the IT heads could improve the quality of teamwork and culture.
Apart from this, I also believe that workplace behaviours are heavily influenced by how seniors handle their colleagues and juniors. So, the discrimination or problems of cross-cultural values tend to arise mostly from the lack of behavioural training. It results from unclear vision and mission despite the contrasts in-store staffing. I think the management administration should have been more careful to present values and visions to the staff from the beginning.
Instances of negligence on the IT unit also reflect the lack of proper acknowledgement of technologies at Farfetch. So, I think if the management had been more serious about technological aspects, communication and behaviours problems could not have risen. Delays in deadlines and work performance have resulted from Farfetch’s sidelining of the work IT issues against other departments. Moreover, the recruitment system should have been more efficient and value-based.
I believe the human resource department could improve the interactions with me and teams to learn about our problems. Lack of skilled professionals has been a massive issue as I have been training most of the staff outside other functions. So, a separate training and hierarchical division from staff development and other IT functions was equally vital. Lastly, I think internal communication could be redone with participating ideologies to preserve a fair culture.
Behavioural aspects to follow when entering a new team environment further
Given that communication and value identity are prominent issues I have encountered at work in Farfetch, I need to enhance some behavioural aspects. First, I should be able to collaborate and adjust easily in the team dynamics and environment I enter. For this, agility in professional character and researching skills can help me to enhance my learnings on new team cultures. Next, I should invest the researched aspects using reflective learning values from observing seniors.
It will likely help me in anticipating how people seamlessly handle work stresses and crisis factors. Finally, egoism is a highly deteriorating behaviour that I should never bear in new or existing teams. It will likely affect my relationships with other team members and diminish my interaction qualities in workspaces. Additionally, I should rather try to build a group thinking mindset with communal welfare for innovating agreeable propositions.
Another behavioural value that I should follow is the response to criticism. I should be open to all forms of positive and negative criticisms. However, from my end, I must only render positive criticisms and feed-forward advice to any team fellow. I should also adopt the ability to balance my work roles and follow leadership within myself and among junior teams.
In leadership, my focus should exist on participating and transformational styles which are believed to enhance needs for constant development and learning. I must not be overactive; therefore, impulse control and self-assessment are two valuable behaviours to carry forward.
However, I must remain energetic and be motivating towards other team members. That way, I can encourage them towards productivity and innovation which can help to fulfil team purposes. Lastly, integrity is a valuable behaviour that I should incorporate in building professional opinions and dealings with all members.
Ways to act to show that the team is effective and high performing
Some unique features set a high-performing team apart from others in any work or simulated setting. I have to acquire and adapt these elements in real-time practice, which would reflect effective team outputs and outcomes. First, the team goals of effective groups are clear among all members and closely linked to organisations’ priorities.
So, I would need to create goals that resonate with the business’s short, middle and long-term goals. Communication of the goals between every member is equally important to show our mutual understanding and coordination towards achieving the same objectives.
Furthermore, clarity of goals should come along with clarity of effects of performances on team actions and organisations. So, I have to be careful in issuing actions and generate similar principles among others so that they think and act on any mission. The reason is that team members would need to understand every aspect of the consequences in decision-making.
I also believe that individual responsibilities and roles should be stated for everyone to relate and undertake actions. Moreover, high performing teams have minimal conflicts which I must present through value-based cooperation and mutual engagement of members.
Moreover, skills like time management and work assessment based on their urgency is of high value that I should generate among all. So, every deadline should be on point and delivered with quality that would present my team’s awareness towards time and needs.
Trust and respect are two crucial values that high performance teams showcase in daily actions. I believe every member should positively acknowledge cultural differences and innovative opportunities in my group. So, I would train them to be respectful in even positive criticisms for advancing the net outcomes. I also believe in regularly focusing on successes and regularly examining failures based on team accountability.
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