BTEC Business Level 3 Unit 6 Principles of Management January 2024 Exam

● Overview of Saxon Fields
○ Family owned for over 50 years, well-established brand
○ Business goals: Top 10 UK attraction, increased customer satisfaction, higher profit
○ Chris retired and left Nina as Managing Director
● Workforce Structure and Characteristics
○ Seasonal operations affects staffing: 20% full-time (management & maintenance), 80% temporary (mostly students, under 25)
○ Previously provided on-site low cost accommodation, subsidy in staff canteen and many social activities
● Nina’s Changes
○ Outsourced training, reduced full-time contracts, introduced zero-hour contracts with lower pay
○ Sold on-site accommodation, removed staff canteen subsidies and social activities
○ Dissatisfaction rising, difficulty retaining staff and safety concerns

It is clear that the management change from Chris to Nina has caused many issues. Was the change in management justified considering Steven and Sam have 25 years of experience whereas Nina has no relevant experience? The next section will compare how the company was run before and after Nina, so we can identify what changes happened (to leadership, motivation, staffing etc) that have caused the challenges that are negatively impacting the business goals.

Before and After Nina:
● Before: Leadership style - Paternalistic
○ When Chris Smith was running Saxon Fields, the leadership style shared aspects of paternalistic, where the manager still makes all of the decisions but incentivises the staff to make them feel empowered. Staff were empowered through low cost accommodation, subsidies in the canteen and many social activities
○ This style has the benefit of high staff empowerment and satisfaction but is often slower in decision making
● After: Leadership style - Autocratic
○ It is clear that Nina is an Autocratic leader as she is the Managing Director, makes changes without consultation, patrols staff with checklists, a sign of micromanagement where staff are controlled and have no autonomy
○ On the leadership continuum she is furthest left at the ‘Tells’ stage
○ The benefit of the Autocratic style is quick decisions, however as Nina has no relevant experience, these decisions are ineffective and have led to major consequences (discussed in the next section)
○ Nina was ‘furious’ after Steven and Sam acted without her permission, this could suggest that they are in the ‘Storming’ phase of Tuckman’s model where conflicts start to arise
○ There is an imbalance in John Adair's Action Centred Leadership Model
which suggests focus should be balanced between Achieving the Task,


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Managing the Team and Managing Individuals. Nina is too heavily focused on ‘Managing Individuals’ as she is described as a micromanager following staff around, which can harm the ‘Achieving the Task’ element
● Before: Workforce structure
○ 20% full-time permanent and 80% temporary
○ This structure was very efficient as the bulk of the workforce was only needed in months March-October
○ Training was also on-site which meant that staff were trained in the environment that they will be working in
● After: Workforce structure
○ Restructured → Some permanent staff (management, maintenance) made
redundant
○ Temporary staff are given zero hour contracts where staff are given no minimum hours, often causes high labour turnover as there is no holiday or sick pay for staff
○ Temporary staff wages were also reduced by 10% which contradicts Taylorism and upset staff which will result in lower productivity and high labour turnover
○ In the staff meeting with Steven and Sam staff reported that they felt
over-stretched because they had to make up for the reduced workforce and some staff had to undertake professional roles which they felt unqualified for (possibly that the temporary staff are covering for permanent staffs redundancy)
○ Staff perks like accommodation, subsidies and activities were all removed,
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs ignored
○ Training is outsourced = higher cost and may not reflect the real working environment
○ Poor human resource planning → case study mentions staff shortages & staff feeling unqualified for their roles
● Before: Motivation - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
○ Clear effort to meet the levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy through low-cost accommodation (physiological), higher maintenance before Nina (safety) and subsidising the staff canteen and providing social activities (social and esteem)