Propostes de millora

The previous section illustrates how difficult it can be to define the concept of management and the nature of managerial work. This section firstly examines the key responsibilities of retail managers within large retail formats and the skills they require before reviewing the qualifications held by managers and the difficulties

44 encountered by those in the sector with responsibility for the recruitment and retention of management talent.

According to the Office for National Statistics, (2013) there are around half a million managers in retail, hospitality and leisure services in the UK (ONS, 2013). The Association of Graduate Careers and Advisory Services (AGCAS, accessed 26/04/13) provide a generic outline of the key responsibilities of retail managers. “Retail

managers have responsibility for running stores or departments to meet a company’s targets or policies with the aim being to maximise profit while minimising cost”.

Managers have to meet daily sales targets and customer care standards, merchandise and manage promotions accurately and in accordance to company guidelines. Retail managers may also be required to deal with human resources, marketing logistics, information technology, customer service and finance. However, this will be dependent on the size of store, company structure and the level of control exerted by company headquarters. This can more or less control the tangible work that managers do and the autonomy afforded (Andersson et al, 2011). Price (2011) in his study of supermarket employment practices found that management autonomy in the stores has decreased due to the centralization of control to head office. He found that knowledge intensive work was more likely to be concentrated in the companies head offices, with less knowledge work focused on the shop floor (Wright and Sissons, 2012). Although Andersson et al (2011) found that in Sweden, local store managers generally retained considerable discretion regarding local decisions concerning personnel issues (the hiring and managing of employees). This also appears to be the case in the UK from the comments made by AGCAS. Burt and Sparks (2002) also suggest that demands on retail managers have risen dramatically during the past few years, they argue that

45 the role of the store manager has become more diverse and pressured. A view supported by findings from the Government’s State of the Nation Report that stated “the range of skills and attributes that retail businesses need their managers to

possess continues to expand” (2015: 3). The report comments on the need for

managers to be entrepreneurial and possess good people management skills. It claims that by 2020 the sector will need an additional 60,000 managers. People 1st, a Government quango, acknowledge this is going to be a challenge, “if we don’t think

differently about how we recruit, develop and retain our managers” (Insight Report,

January, 2015:3).

Currently, 18 % of sector managers are under 30 and 5 % under 25. This is in stark contrast to other sectors of the economy where only 9 % are under 30. The sector is generally less qualified at a managerial level in comparison to other sectors across the UK economy. Only 31% of retail managers are qualified at NVQ Level 4 and above, 18% less than the UK average. There are also a higher proportion of managers with no qualifications in the retail industry this stands at 7%, 3% higher than all other sectors across the economy (People 1st_{, 2015). However, there has been surprisingly}

little discussion as to whether many of these jobs actually require higher-level qualifications or, indeed, how far their holders are given opportunities to use the skills they already have (Lloyd and Payne, 2014). Further, retail businesses are finding it difficult to attract the right applicants with the relevant skills, attitude and motivation to fill external vacancies.

The sector has had difficulty shaking off its reputation for being a ‘Cinderella’ industry, characterised by hard work, low wages, with few qualifications on offer and

46 little career opportunity. Although, Huddleston and Hirst (2004:20) posit “the image

fails to capture the diversity of the sector and the pace of change within it”. They

contend that in the UK large retail organisations are investing significant amounts of money into training, yet skills gaps amongst managers remain (People 1st_{, 2015).}

This suggests again that retail comprises low level rather than high-level work. One of the reported reasons for these skills gaps is the impact of poor retention, resulting in managers not remaining in role long enough to complete their training. Strong management and leadership skills are required, without which store and employee productivity will suffer and together with lower staff motivation, ultimately lead to lower profits, yet on the evidence supplied, the retail sector is plagued by issues of low pay, low skills with managers less highly qualified than those in other sectors, high employee turnover and scarce career opportunities. In addition “the sector does

not deal with the underlying challenges facing the sector in terms of its skill shortages and gaps, its perceived image and its need to attain and retain the brightest and best”

(Huddleston, 2011:124). The diverse nature of management and the issues faced by the retail sector in relation to recruiting and retaining management talent are important when considering how managers are developed. Conventional approaches to management development have tended to be universalistic. However, if management is as diverse as the literature suggests, then it follows that the way in which managers are developed needs to take into consideration this variety, with attention re-directed towards different contexts (Storey, 1990:5). This next part of the literature review examines the concept and purpose of management development and contrasts formal and informal methods of development.

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2.3 Management Development

This section commences by reviewing the literature pertaining to management development (MD) before concentrating on workplace learning, which forms the main strand of literature. It is important to consider why organisations invest in MD and the different typologies and methods used to develop managers before narrowing the focus to that of workplace learning, although it is rare for these two strands of literature to feature together in the same text. The field of MD has attracted multiple definitions due to ambiguity surrounding its purpose and application. Cullen and Turnbull (2005) conducted a meta-review of the MD literature and found that the majority of definitions have the following in common; managers are viewed as resources, MD is seen as a deliberate and planned activity driven by functional performance and in the earlier definitions, in particular, MD is focused more on organisational rather than individual needs. Interestingly, only one in five of the definitions surveyed mentioned the word ‘learning’. Many of the most popular types of development retain a universalistic approach (Grugulis, 2007) and feature aspects of functional performance. Functional performance is one of the ten reasons (or faces) presented by Lees (1992) to justify why organisations invest in MD. Other reasons reflect the social, political, emotional, legitimate, psychic or symbolic concerns as well as corporate performance. Cullen and Turnbull (2005) summarize these as resource-based strategies or as tools of ‘ideological control’. The intention is to make the organisation more competitive by improving management capability by focusing on aspects of functional performance. Storey (1990) questioned what this could mean for the individual managers taking these programmes.

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