Understanding organisation and the role of human resource management

Introduction

Organisational activities including the structure, culture and management tactics are playing important role to manage their operations and lead the staff towards achieving the future business aim. In this regard, there are several external factors having crucial impacts on the business activities (Tamzid and Parves, 2017). The study focuses on analysing the organisational structure, functions and culture at Sainsbury’s in order to evaluate their tactics in running the operational activities in long run. Moreover, through this study, it is also possible to analyse the Human resource or HR management strategies and activities to support the management team and staff members for working collaboratively to achieve the company’s goal and objectives. In this regard, the organisational tactics and culture of Sainsbury’s will be evaluated for understanding their planning to run the business sustainably and fulfil its business purpose.

Organisational background

Sainsbury’s is a second largest supermarket chain after Tesco, and this business is successful to gain more than 16% market share in the UK. The organisation has been established at 1869 and it serves across the UK through more than 1428 shop. Hence, there is a great presence of the business in the UK retail market, where the customers are also happy to improve their shopping experience by making effective purchase decision as per their needs and preferences. The company is efficient to provide a huge product portfolio to the customers including hypermarket, supermarket, discounted stores and convenience shop (Sainsbury’s, 2020a). The major products of the business are such as groceries, daily necessities at home, home and kitchen appliances, health and beauty products, clothing and accessories, technology and software and other crafts related products. Hence, the organisation is efficient to cover a huge range of products to serve the consumers successfully. The revenue in the last year was £29.007 billion and there are strong employee base with more than 116400 employees (Sainsbury’s, 2020b).

Purpose and goal of the organisation

The major purpose of Sainsbury’s is to provide the customers a chance to live well for less and in this regard the organisation focuses on creating values for all the customers. They try to give value to the money and time of the customers and in this regard the major strategy of the business is to deliver quality products and services at affordable price. The customers has the scope to choose the products and services according to their needs and preferences like healthy food, quality clothes, stylish home wares, the latest technology and more at affordable price to manage their money (Sainsbury’s, 2020a). The goals of the firm are such as,

• To make the flexible and convenience for their customers
• Providing high return on investment to their stakeholders
• Ensuring digital offers for the stakeholders
• Driving efficacy through day to day operational excellence
• Gaining high competitive advantage in the retail industry

Organisational structure with functions

Organisational structure is important to be developed at the workplace so that the leader of the firm can maintain hierarchy in managing the managers, team leaders and the staff members and it further provides a scope to the business leader to manage the working activities and perform better through a systematic way (Aluko, and Knight, 2017). Sainsbury’s also focuses on developing a suitable organisational structure and in this regard the hierarchical structure is adopted by the business leader at Sainsbury’s (Sainsbury’s, 2020b). According to the business functions, the structure is being developed and the major functions of the business are such as marketing, finance, operations and human resource management. These are the major functions which are effective to develop hierarchical structure at the workplace.

Marketing is one of the major functions, where there are marketing manager, team supervisor, tea, leaders and staff members, who are responsible to promote the business, manage the sales data and firm profitability as well as handle the consumers in the market. These are the major activities, where the marketing and sales managers are able to fulfil the business aim and run the operations efficiently (al Habibi, 2019). On the other hand, finance team is also organised and seniority is being managed well for maintaining the structural hierarchy. In this regard, the financial performance management, organisational data base management, handling the digital entry of the information and data as well as budgetary plan are managed by the finance team (Sainsbury’s, 2020c). Operation is another function and there is another deportment which is responsible to maintain the operational activities, production of the products and services, managing technology, maintaining warehouse and stock of the products through digital data entry and bar code reader, as well as distribution network are also handled efficiently through the operation team (Tamzid and Parves, 2017). Human resource management is also another major function where the HR manager is able to manage the employees of all the departments and lead them efficiently through continuous motivation and providing monetary and non-monetary incentives.

Evaluating the functions for performance maximisation

The above mentioned function is the important activities through which Simsbury’s is able to manage their operations and expand the business sustainably (Pearson, 2016). There is interdependence among the department of the firm, which contributes in the workplace to achieve future success. It is the responsible of the leader to enhance interdependence and improves internal collaboration, so that the employees and managers of different departments can cooperate and perform as a team to maximise the organisational goal. The production and operations are also managed together as well as there is effective contribution of the marketing and sales team members who are responsible to handled the clients and retain the customers successfully for long run. Hence, there is good structure in the firm, where the functions are managed well to meet the business objectives (Sainsbury’s, 2020d). It is also helpful for the organisational leader to develop partnership working practice and encourage them to perform as a team to maximise the purpose of delivering high quality products and services to the customers at affordable price.

Organisational culture

Organisational culture is important for the corporate firms to manage their operations ethically and lead the employees towards achieving the future success. In this regard, Sainsbury’s also focuses on developing good corporate culture and the major cultural values are such as,

• Structured policies and practice
• Transparency and empowerment

Sainsbury’s tries to implement the policies and practice including copyright management, data protection of the organisational data, employee’s information and personal data of the customers as well as the employment rules, managing health and safety at the workplace. These ethical legislative structures are useful for the firm to create values for all the staff, engaged with the business. In addition to this, managing transparency is another strategy to develop organisational culture at Sainsbury’s as well as the leader of the firm also focuses on empowering the staff members in the workplace to discuss the strategic priorities of them in developing creative solutions (Sainsbury’s, 2020c). It further boosts the interest of the employees to participate and contribute efficiently for working productively, so that the business goal can be achieved in near future.

HR activities supporting firm strategy

The major three HR activities at Sainsbury’s are such as,

• Arranging training program
• Providing monetary and non-monetary incentives
• Performance appraisals

These are the major HR activities, through which, the business leader and the HR manager are successful to retain the employees and lead them efficiently towards achieving the future success. Sainsbury’s is able to provide the scope for personal and professional development to all the staff and this further mitigates them to gain in depth skill and knowledge and improve their performance in long run. The HR management team is able to arrange the training program including technical and non-technical and support the staff through learning and developmental activities. On the other hand, performance appraisal must be provided at the workplace and Sainsbury’s is also successful to provide the appraisals to each staff according to their performance (Sainsbury’s, 2020d). There are monetary benefits of performance and job promotion at the workplace which are effective to create good corporate culture with transparency and accountability management (Tamzid and Parves, 2017). Moreover, providing monetary and non-monetary incentives are also another major activity of HR department, where the managers are responsible to create values for the staff by giving them structured salary, incentives and yearly bonus as well as other non-monetary incentives including managing health and safety of the staff, providing accidental insurance coverage, flexibility and freedom to work, good corporate relationship and friendly atmosphere for working with others.

Ways of HR professionals supporting the managers and staff

It is mandatory for the HR professionals to support he line managers and staff in order to maximise the brand objective and in this regard the HR department of Sainsbury’s is efficient to support the staff members through,

• Providing continuous support and sharing the organisational information
• Empowering the staff members in decision making behaviour
• Providing equal opportunity and managing transparency

The HR professionals try to develop strong corporate relationship with all the managers and staff in handling them successfully and in this regard the HR manager provides continuous support and directs them to perform productively (Kanakaratne, Bray and Robson, 2020). Sharing the organisational information, enhancing communication and team working are motivational activities, through which the HR manager aims at handle the line manager and staff (Sainsbury’s, 2020d). Additionally, empowerment of the line manager and staff is also another activity where they can share their opinion and improve their performance. Moreover, providing the equal opportunity to each staff as well as transparency management at the workplace are also effective to support the staff and line manager and lead them efficiently towards organisational success.

Conclusion

Sainsbury’s is hereby efficient to handle their employees and management team in different departments and there is suitable organisational structure as well as culture which are beneficial to operate the firm’s activities in the retail market of the UK. The business leader and HR manager are also efficient to create trust and loyalty among the employees and motivate them to perform so that the business purpose of maximising customer’s values to line well for less can be achieved in future.

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Reference List

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Sainsbury’s, 2020a. Our Purpose. [online] Available at: https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/about-us/our-purpose [Accessed on 20 October 2020].

Sainsbury’s, 2020b. Live well for less. [online] Available at: https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/about-us/live-well-for-less [Accessed on 20 October 2020].

Sainsbury’s, 2020c. Living well index. [online] Available at: https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/about-us/live-well-for-less/living-well-index [Accessed on 20 October 2020].

Sainsbury’s, 2020d. Our business strategy. [online] Available at: https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/about-us/our-business-strategy [Accessed on 20 October 2020].

Tamzid, M. and Parves, M.T., 2017. Human Resource Management Policies and Diversity Management (A Case Study on Sainsbury’s). Human Resource Management, 8(4).