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Unit 6 Principles of Management – Pre release
Stone Stylists Report Activity– Potential Questions and High Grade Answers

Introduction
Add an introduction about the company, its competitors and what you aim to do in this report i
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what main points you will address
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In
2023 she decided to take a more hands-off approach after running the chain for over 30 years and
decided to appoint her son James as Operations manager
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Some decisions have caused some
conflict with staff and lead to some issues identified with the business
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Your report should:
• identify the issues with Management and leadership changes at Stone Stylists Ltd
• recommend ways to improve decision making at Stone Stylists Ltd
Issues with Leadership Style
Employees at Stone Stylists have been satisfied with Lisa’s charismatic style of leadership for many
years, as the focus was on developing individuals
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This shows a positive and trusting culture with the staff who worked to achieve business
goals without the need for excessive monitoring or controlling staff at stone stylists
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However, the appointment of James appears to has unsettled the staff after 30 long years of
charismatic leadership
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This is shown by employee satisfaction reducing from 100% in 2022 to 72% in
2024 with an increase in absenteeism
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Therefore, James has not understood the requirements of the industry leading to
some growing client complaints
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There is no buy-in with staff with James approach

as being the best way to improve its business leading to frustrated staff who appear to care about
the business
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Therefore, it is not likely that with the current leadership with James, Stone Stylists Ltd will simply
not meet their business goals of client retention of 90%
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As a result, they will not be number 1 Salon and Barbers in Sheffield
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His current hands-off approach to the issues with behaviour and
having a poor human resource planning in place will lead to further business-related consequences
with a decline in customer retention and profits, He will simply not achieve the business goals
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The alternative
is to combine the autocratic approach with Management by Objectives (MBO), this would be a more
transactional approach to management and can lead to more support from staff as they become
rewarded for meeting their targets
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Therefore, another alternative solution would be that Lisa, who is capable and is well liked due to
her charismatic nature, to take a more strategic role and embed a set of Company vision and values
to improve how staff behave and contribute to organisational changes
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Also implement more effective IT system to monitor staff resourcing as
this will reduce costs and improve profitability
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The key benefit to this is that Lisa can take an overall strategic role, which
would be hands-off after the initial meetings with staff to implement changes, whilst James then as
Operations Director consolidates the strategy with effective policies and measures that will
ultimately aim to achieve its business goals of being the number ranked hair salon in Sheffield
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Your report should:
• identify the issues with working culture and poor performance at Stone Stylists Ltd
• recommend ways to improve performance planning of human resources at Stone Stylists Ltd

Issues with Human Resources Planning and working culture
The salons have encountered some issues in relation to employee performance, leaving their shifts
early, absent without notice and taking personal phone calls
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Such issues will have a detrimental impact on customer retention, cancelled appointments
which results in damage to the business profits and reputational harm
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Although they would need to be more goal driven
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This will require a set of rules and staff conduct and a clear set of disciplinary systems to
ensure that staff carry out their duties as part of their employment contracts
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However, Mcgregors Y theory on the other hand suggests that such staff appreciate freedom and
autonomy to carry out their roles and are far more motivated these are the Herzberg motivational
factors such as opportunities for promotion and being able to have a say and impact the business
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There is the added issue of holiday leave which has lead to poor planning of staff availability, this has
negative impact because the service levels are not fit for business needs leading to customer
cancellations and this progresses onto reputational harm
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James trip to the
Leeds salon has been beneficial as he was able to see how IT systems has effectively improve the HR
planning processes for the business
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There are further issues of poor Human resource planning within Stone Stylists
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Furthermore, there is frustration among some staff that such behaviour is being ignored with lack of
discipline and could be the reason why that employee satisfaction has declined from 100% in 2022
to 72% in 2024 showing that they are unhappy with current working culture within the salons
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Furthermore, James wishes to introduce a longer flexible opening times to compete with local
competitors
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If customers
are already booking elsewhere due to opening times, then this issue needs addressing urgently
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However, the disadvantage is with the current working practises of the staff who are
resistant to the potential changes to working hours
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Therefore, some
care and understanding needs to be taken when considering such changes to working hours and
some staff would leave
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However, by having a clear HR plan with shift management
systems using modern IT systems, as used by the Leeds Salon, it could work to improve Stone Stylists
flexibility and therefore improve customer retention as its business goal
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Recommendations for HR Planning and working Culture
I would recommend that an IT system to track leave and staff availability is managed more fairly and
in consideration of business needs
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However, a new IT system can be costly and
require training and a person competent to run and manage the system
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Also, staff would be happier and they are more likely to stay
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This is because the business is paying for staff when they
have no work which is wasteful and will reduce profitability
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e
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Alternatively they could also use Zero Hours staff for these busy periods
when there are more bookings
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Also another disadvantage is that Stone Stylists will not
have ready supply of staff during all times but the greater advantage would be reduced staff costs as
this would help grow profits overall if implemented correctly and improve achieving its business
goals
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To improve the culture of Stone Stylists Ltd, James needs to introduce a set of Vision values and
aims for the business, he should enlist the help of Lisa for this as she is far more qualified and
experienced to set the strategic direction of the business
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James experience in retail can benefit
Stone Stylists with bringing in more transactional approaches to getting service out to clients and
driving forward profits as it goals
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The current targets appear to be far
too sales target driven and this has failed to achieved its goals
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Instead the targets should be service related and perhaps a set of
Service Level agreements or KPIs which would help identify targets based upon customer retention
rather than the cross-selling opportunities currently being pushed forward
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Stone Stylist would simply lose many of its customers, therefore this change is not suited
to the business and need reconsidering
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