Operations Management and Supply Chain

This assignment covers various topics in operations management and supply chain, including water management in shale gas production, MILFP model and algorithms for the water-energy nexus, essentials of supply chain management, corporate governance, management strategies, and social responsiveness. It also includes references to research papers and articles on big data, business process management, servitization, and design science research.

MANAGEMENT
AND OPERATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
P1. Definitions with comparison between roles and responsibilities of leader and manager......3
P2. Examining roles of a leader and functions of a manager in different situations ..................5
P3. Applying different management and leadership theories to M&S for support growth and
sustainable performance ..............................................................................................................6
D1. Impact of theories on the quality of leadership ..................................................................10
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................10
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................10
Introduction of operation management of M&S .......................................................................10
P4. Explain key approaches to operations management and role of M&S leaders and managers
in it ............................................................................................................................................11
P5. Importance and value of operations management in successful meeting of business
objectives ..................................................................................................................................13
P6. Assessment of the impact of external business environment factors on operational
management decisions by leaders and managers ......................................................................14
M4. Analyze how these factors affect the business environment and wider community..........15
D2. Critical evaluation on managing factors that impact on the wider business environment .15
Conclusion and recommendations for future improvements ....................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15

REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Management in an organisation is considered as amalgamation of business strategies with
application of its functions. Leaders and managers play pivotal roles in execution of such
implementation of smooth running of policies and objectives. This report is based on
management and operations of Marks and Spencer (M&S). A comparative evaluation between
roles and responsibilities manager and leader by applying different theories will be included.
Significance of key approaches and its impact on the cited company will also be done. Overall, it
will lay an insight on the inter-relationship between employers, suppliers, workforce and
shareholders and their work culture at M&S.
TASK 1
Introduction
M&S has become a brand name in the retail sector, headquartered in Westminster city,
London. Currently, it deals in apparel selling, along with home products and luxury food
products. It follows a flat structure where this simple and efficient arrangement will bring an
intact operative execution of decision-making that result in day-to-day accountability of running
of business.
P1. Definitions with comparison between roles and responsibilities of leader and manager
Roles Leader Manager
DEFINITION
Leader can be refereed as the
one who follows a consistent
pattern to influence group of
people in several ways for
finding out solutions for
overall effectiveness.
Manager is the one who can
accelerate initiation with
foresightedness, and self-
confidence with a touch of
personal integrity.

Information role
Leader sets a clear vision for
making employees
understandable and motivated
for participating in
organizational activities.
Manager acts as the
spokesperson for M&S and
must monitor as well as
disseminate all their
employees.

Decision-making
Leader must integrate by
linking M&S goals with
personal growth of an
employee by applying proper
execution (Arruda, 2016).
Can be considered as a
negotiator with an ability to
utilize and allocate M&S
resources in appropriate
manner.
Interpersonal role
Good communication skills
with passionate commitment
towards M&S vision will
help in inspiring and creating
innovative ideas among their
employees.
Directing and influencing sub-
ordinates by conceiving goals
and organizing training for the
same. Along with,
maintaining discipline and
establishing contacts is done
by M&S manager.
Characteristics Leader Manager
Confidence
M&S leaders are confident
and liable for all the
decisions made for earning
profits. They concentrate
on people, especially
stakeholders through trust,
consistency and loyalty by
delivering their promise on
time.
Manager must be confident
as dealing with the entire
management as they
emphasis on analytical
structure for fulfilment of
objectives and goals.
Guidance
Leader influences
employees by making
them realise about
competency and resisting
any temptations.
Leader assigns tasks in
various M&S departments
like designing, manufacturing,
retailing etc. by directing and
managing all the operational
activities (Gao and You,
2015).
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Risk-taking
They are known of initiating
designing of new ventures
that sometimes lead to failure
(McArthur, 2015).They work
regularly to remain
optimistic.
They control the
occurrence or minimising
of risks; mostly, avoidance
is the key. Their aim is
based on shorter-term
goals.
SIMILARITIES
 They both are responsible for building a functional structure of an organization.
 They both are goal oriented.
 Both deals with people, especially employees and stakeholders.
 They have an ability to mold the structure of company’s environment to achieve
objectives.
There has been significant effects of modern and classical concepts and theories of
management on M&S. Fayol and Taylor gave complementary perspectives. As per Fayol,
hierarchical structure from MD towards bottom-line should be followed whereas Taylor laid
prominence on operative level which works on bottom to top managerial order
Functions of Manager: They can lay attention on Fayol’s universal theory of
administration for development of organisational structure. Managers actually command,
coordinate and control.
Role of Leadership: In this aspect, leaders can use Taylor concept so that overall
productivity gets enhanced and minimize wastages. Along with, engineering thinking from
classical management theorists saw leaders to plan and organize.
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P2. Examining roles of a leader and functions of a manager in different situations
M&S is one of the major leading organizations but sometimes, there is confusion and
negativity amongst people, which makes it difficult to maintain harmony and discipline at
workplace.
Cultural workforce indifferences: There is always a struggle faced by companies like M&S to
blend multiple personalities in a united and organized team due to its expansion in many
countries like Singapore, India, USA etc.
Role of a leader: He must organize weekly meetings, outings and conduct various
activities to engage their employees by giving them a chance to interact with each other. This
will create a healthy engagement and also awareness might be improved regarding policies and
regulation of M&S.
Function of a manager: He must lay a plan to make them work in a controlled
atmosphere where coordination and support will be needed to enhance team work.
Strengths:They both together bring a holistic viewpoint to gain insights and maintain the
ambiance of the business environment in effective manner. This would accelerate the growth of
M&S in leaps and bounds.
Weaknesses:Sometimes, manager's orientation of work approaches do not get aligned with
leader's styles and this act as a hindrance. The approaches used by both of them are different but
deals with the same purpose of profitability.
To sum up, leaders have inherited capabilities whereas manager with time, gains the
important traits for sustainable components. Thus, they must together work for establishment of
success, profitability and increased productivity.
Poor communication and feedback: A transparent and clear message delivery is a must work
in an amiable and productive environment which includes interaction between manager and team
leaders, leader and its group members, store manager and customers etc.
Role of a leader: He can bring changes by encouraging innovation in communication
channels at M&S to gain more customers. An honest and constructive feedback will assist in
improvements (Cook and Billig, 2017). Along with, employees might get confused initially so an
open dialogue with the top management about team mates will avoid performance gaps and raise
their productivity.
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Function of a manager: Training is essential for continuous improvement in terms of
personal growth of M&S employees so that execution of tasks can be done smoothly and without
any hindrances. Any sort of retaliation, misbehavior or mis-happening can be avoided by
formulating strategies to effectively launch product or service with the help of tools and
techniques for marketing.
Strengths:Both manager and leader must be good at the interpersonal skills. Moreover, they
should know how to influence people and mould them with employing any manipulative moves
or tactics to make the employees' work in appropriate manner with adoption and practice of good
negotiation skills.
Weaknesses:The operational approaches followed by both of them for the completion of
assignments, jobs and tasks can sometimes pave the path of miscommunication, opaqueness and
lack of understanding. Henceforth, this creates an atmosphere of unfriendly ambiance that also
have adverse effects on the working practices and is not good for the professional setup which
stands on discipline and code of conduct.
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P3. Applying different management and leadership theories to M&S for support growth and
sustainable performance
Situational Leadership Theory
It defines as that style where the leader or manager adjust their own personality and
ethics to fit into the company’s structure so that they are able to influence employees. This model
includes four basic behaviors such as S-1 Telling, S-2 Selling, S-3 Participating and S-4
Delegating
M&S can accomplish their objectives by quantifying the above specified scales. Telling
infers unidirectional flow of information from M&S leader to members of group for proper
channel to sustain their performance. Selling of emotional support and cooperation must be
propagated amongst team members for maintaining an amiable environment. Participating leads
to provision of decision making in a team that result in a democratic system, giving an
opportunity to work in desired way. Lastly, delegating reflects on distributing responsibilities
amongst group members to complete tasks on time with viability.
Figure 1: Situational theory
(Source: Halpern, 2016)
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Contingency Leadership Theory
It defined as effectiveness of leadership depends on situational factors like personality,
nature of the task and others. Here, the leader should be able to demarcate between use of style
with respect to occurrence of situation.
M&S can implement this in the following manner:
Positional Power: It is an index of how much authority is needed to impact the M&S
sub-ordinates working environment for their sustainability of performance; if they report directly
to their leaders, then this positional power will be strong enough to lead a reward matrix at
M&S’s to withstand the hardships for better work culture.
Relationship of Leader-members: This is the measurement of acceptance between
organizational leaders and employees of M&S (Maylor and et.al., 2018). They have international
sourcing offices in different countries and in need of strict policies with flexible working culture
for overall enhancement in presentation and success rate.
Structure of task: This gives transparency regarding tasks and its overall execution while
opening a new M&S outlet or section in its old stores. Overall, progress of a project can be
amplified on the basis of provided guidelines for sustainability at M&S office.
Systems Leadership Theory
This is defined as that style of leadership where people will be encouraged to work to
their full potential by building suitable conditions at all levels. This approach gives an insight on
the dynamism of the environment with complicated framework in creating such concepts.
M&S uses this theory for improving their employees’ sustainability in terms of
performance. They can impart training and development programs with respect to different
departmental requirements and generalized form of basic corporate cultural mannerisms. This
company generates higher revenue and increase productivity that might amplify complexity,
intricacies and uncontrollable events in the entire managerial structural formation so a suitable
methodology or approach must be employed at M&S. This company is based on creative aspects
but for this, an understanding of paradox with ambiguity would be needed; so M&S could bring
rapid alternations for an objectivity while dealing with their consumers’ mind-set.
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Strengths Weaknesses
Situational
Leadership Theory
 Simple and easy to
implement.
 Focuses on
competency and
maturity of all
members in a team,
which sometimes
might get overlooked.
 Time consuming and
complexity in
structure formation of
assignment/tasks.
 Not applicable to
administration or
management as they
have limited role
access.
Contingency
Leadership Theory
 Application has been
tested with extensive
empirical studies.
 Well defined and
predictive model to
analyze on both
situations and LPC.
 It could not provide
reasons for
effectiveness in
various situations.
 LPC is contentious as
assessment done on
employees failed to
justify the leadership
style.
System Leadership
Theory
 Emphasis on
individual as well as
organizational goals
 Support employees to
get accustomed with
the work culture at
M&S.
 Time consuming
process
 Low effectiveness
while conducting
operations and making
decisions difficult for
leaders and managers
of M&S.
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Managers and leaders both are significant for enterprise’s overall development and
progression. They act as two faces of same coin. They adopt a circle of complex attributes like
communication skills, teaching ability, decision-making etc. This is situational and they must
show a tendency to fit any situation to their particular style.
Without their interventions, M&S cannot achieve their targeted markets and set
objectives as they not only motivate employees but also set goals, aim and objectives on short
term or long term basis.
When any company want to launch a product or expand into new arenas then there is
necessity of inclusion of various stages for successful implementation of the plan. Thus, a leader
and a manager comes into the picture for the entire execution.
TASK 2
Introduction of operation management of M&S
An operation can be defined as transformation of intangible material or idea into
prospective product for consumption with quality and measurement of customers’ contentment.
Here, M&S service operations will be discussed by understanding constituents of a service.
Mainly, ‘5 I’s of services’ approach is used, i.e. intangibility, inventory, inseparability,
inconsistency and involvement.
Figure 3: Blueprint for a commercial operations management solution
(Source: Introduction to Operations management, 2017)
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P4. Explain key approaches to operations management and role of M&S leaders and
managers in it
KAIZEN
This scientific approach is used for continuous improvement. (Smith, Maull and CL Ng,
2014). It is a cycle of PDCA and largely beneficial for the entire process of manufacturing a
product at all operational levels.
 Plan: Here, developing goals by giving necessary background is a must for M&S profits
and revenue generation. Both leader and manager of M&S should be engrossed in
development stage for maintaining inventory, budgeting etc. to limit choices by managers
and turning raw ideas into tangible concepts by leaders
 Do: This includes reviewing of present state and based on it, M&S can run few
experiments for improving the performance of work culture. Communication plays
pivotal role here, a leader can convey the anticipated outcomes to his group members
conveniently and manager can manipulate and sometimes send ambiguous signals to
complete tasks at hand.
 Check: It comprises of evaluating and fixing what needs to be enhanced at M&S. Here,
the leader may develop fresh approaches and manager can negotiate and coerce them to
achieve all goals and objectives of M&S efficiently.
 Act: Outcomes must be reported to determine follow-up items. (Matthias and et.al.,
2017). Leader are self-aware and authentic with their team members at M&S. Whereas,
manager adopt the leadership style, irrespective of his own personality to define changes
or assignments as per requirements. This will lead M&S to achieve their targeted markets
and assist in expansion in new locations.
SIX SIGMA APPROACH
This methodology is composed of 5 sections, i.e. DMAIC, and is primarily used in
streamlining of existing business processes.
 Defining the project’s problems and its goals: M&S leader and manager, both must
understand their roles for executing operational activities smoothly. As already
discussed, the manager is task oriented, whereas leader is people oriented and will
achieve vision by devising new solutions. This must be done to ensure that M&S lead
the implementation of project in an appropriate manner.
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 Measuring the details of various aspects with respect to current process: The
manager is autocratic and transactional, leading to make employees of M&S in
perfecting their existing skills as well as adopting proven behavior, that affect their
business environment. A M&S leader must be charismatic so that participation from
employees are encouraged to finish tasks in transformational manner to enhance their
work culture by budgeting and scheduling.
 Analyzing data to find root weaknesses of a process: M&S manager has
empowered people, which is based on their values, culture and diversity and also
building strategies and policies to support the rectification of issues faced at
workplace. A leader, on other side tries to find creative solutions to existing problems
by motivating and coordinating with employees to make the office surrounding
optimistic.
 Improving process: M&S has a big name and therefore to maintain it, a continuous
assessment must be done to maintain the running of operational activities. Leaders
can embrace change as they are risk takers and know if things are working then there
will be a way forward (Cachon and Terwiesch, 2017). Whereas, managers
concentrate on refining system or structure to make processing better for minimizing
resources at M&S.
 Controlling on how process must be done for future: M&S manager not only takes
care of financial management but also guide and provide assignments to accomplish
goals, and leader mainly is concerned with potentiality of workforce to fetch optimum
competency for the establishment of M&S departments successfully.
P5. Importance and value of operations management in successful meeting of business objectives
Importance and value of operations management for attaining the objectives of business
in successful manner can be understood with the following factors:
Maintenance of Supply chain management: It consists of activities like forecasting,
designing, targeting customer or market, logistics, location etc. and by inter-linking each aspect
with other would establish foundation for proper balance in planning as well as execution at
M&S (Bartlett and Beamish, 2018). Here, Kaizen approach can be applied for reducing wastage,
leading to cost-effectiveness so that it will be valuable and simpler for attaining all objectives
and goals of M&S.
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Management of operational process: This deals with the entire management of
manufacturing process that leads to minimum expenditure and optimization of resources for
generation of profit and overall success of M&S (Khan, 2017). There must be an outline on the
basis of six-sigma for defining M&S project aim with proper analysis of resources, time, capital
etc. It also includes improving the procedure to utilize the timeline effectively as well as
controlling must be done to avoid deviations from objectives.
Quality Assurance and Delivery of services: Due to variations in inputs such as capital,
equipment, raw materials etc. and occurrence of it away from customers would allow less
exposure to mistakes (Ali and Nakade, 2015). It can be sometimes challenging for the workers to
perform their tasks competently so M&S must use different approaches like lean, six-sigma so
that timeline can be achieved with proper execution of all the specifications and purposes of a
project. Delivery includes variables like monitoring suppliers’ quality, flexibility; on-time
delivery, purchasing power parity, location and outsourcing can be considered. If these elements
are managed by M&S suitably then it will lead to generation of revenue.
As already described about characteristics and roles of manager and leader above, it can
be clearly indicated that they are inter-dependent to achieve the operational activities of M&S
proficiently. Without helping each other, any process will not be able to get accomplished (Van
Aken, Chandrasekaran and Halman, 2016). They constantly put efforts that help and lead the
administration for appropriate accomplishment of business practices to be multi-disciplinary and
emphasis on quality product and successful interaction of teams. However, sometimes due to
diversity and economic instability, the multi-disciplinary effects can get deviated and there might
be compromises on product’s quality.
P6. Assessment of the impact of external business environment factors on operational
management decisions by leaders and managers
PEST Analysis is a measurement tool of micro-environmental factors for overall
assessment of M&S markets for a specific product or service.
Political factor: M&S’s organizational set-up might get affected due to government
regulations and law system. Any formation of new rule or regulatory shift has a substantial effect
on the political stability, where M&S leader and manager together can act as catalysts to
innovate and create policies for better decision making. This aspect includes taxation rules,
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import-export duty, corruption level or that country’s relationship with other countries which
definitely can assist their decision making with respect to all operational processes.
Economic factor: Sustainability on basis of demand-supply is an important element to
consider here by maintaining M&S allocated resources efficiently (Ketokivi and McIntosh,
2017). Thus, M&S manager and leader must implement policies as per fluctuations in labor
costs, taxes or interest rates of market and can also employed initiatives so that current and
expected future value of M&S can be calculated.
Socio-cultural factor: Demographics of a location influences the entire working culture
of M&S as it has been expanded in various countries, which might lead to alternations in
structure of departments or project’s guidelines by both manager and leader. Diversity at
workplace can bring different perspectives and ideas but can also result in racial discrimination
and a leader must be held responsible to discouraged it to give a positive set-up for conducting
tasks. Customers also has a part in this factor by adding their choices with respect to M&S
product or service, depending on the societal norms and culture of that country. Thus, decision
making must be done to fulfill their expectations with maximum satisfaction
Technological factor: Competitive pressures led to increased demand for customization,
shorter development cycle and innovation for M&S leader as well as manager decision making
(Mijumbi and et.al., 2016). Due to this, M&S has upgraded its technology to avoid inaccurate
forecasts, sub-standard quality, equipment breakdown etc. so that leader can influence employees
to work ethically and manager can plan and organize all tasks accordingly.
Moreover, this PEST analysis give a framework for M&S to work as per the guidelines
to follow when opening a new store or office in new location or country or making any shifts in
departments for developing work ethics (Rosemann and vom Brocke, 2015). When knowledge
about business environment is known in terms of office, employees, products or customers then
the societal norms or government policies and laws will be easily followed to fulfil their
project’s criteria as per the requirements and legalities.
The above mentioned factors had a larger impact on M&S’s business environment and
operations management.
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Pros: Employment generation by recruiting local people, increment in GDP of a country leading
to economic rise, inclusion of technology will enhance competency of M&S departments
(Hugos, 2018).
Cons: Communication gap between suppliers and consumers on basis of demand-supply can act
as a hindrance, lack of training and induction programs can demotivate employees to perform the
processes, ethical considerations like bribery, discrimination cannot be removed immediately
from M&S workplace.
Conclusion and recommendations for future improvements
To sum up, operations management is held responsible for producing goods as well as
providing services. M&S must implement a transparent channel to bridge all the disparities
between its upper-management and workforce for continuous evolution of its core functions and
decision-making. They must implement flexible work hours for increased productivity among
employees.
CONCLUSION
This report clearly indicated about M&S operations and management and their
connectivity for effective execution and development of all the operative activities. This
company has adopted simpler organisational structure by embracing a sequential system to
complete a project and following it on basis of capacity planning, scheduling, project
management and quality assurance to exhibit interdependency on the cited company’s
departments. Along with, roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in an organisational
context is imperative and can be referred as circumstantial with respect to behaviour. Overall, an
organisation must be flexible to any alternations required to gain reputation and create an image
in market.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ali, S.M. and Nakade, K., 2015. A mathematical optimization approach to supply chain
disruptions management considering disruptions to suppliers and distribution
centers. operations and supply chain management. 8(2). pp.57-66.
Bartlett, C.A. and Beamish, P.W., 2018. Transnational Management: Text and Cases in Cross-
border Management. Cambridge University Press.
Cachon, G. and Terwiesch, C., 2017. Operations management. McGraw-Hill.
Cook, G.N. and Billig, B., 2017. Airline Operations and Management: A Management Textbook.
Routledge.
Gao, J. and You, F., 2015. Optimal design and operations of supply chain networks for water
management in shale gas production: MILFP model and algorithms for the water‐energy
nexus. AIChE Journal. 61(4). pp.1184-1208.
Hugos, M.H., 2018. Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.
Ketokivi, M. and McIntosh, C.N., 2017. Addressing the endogeneity dilemma in operations
management research: Theoretical, empirical, and pragmatic considerations. Journal of
Operations Management. 52. pp.1-14.
Khan, C., 2017. Corporate Governance, Management Strategies and Social
Responsiveness. Journal of Management Science, Operations & Strategies (e ISSN 2456-
9305). 1(2). pp.1-6.
Matthias, O. and et.al., 2017. Making sense of Big Data–can it transform operations
management? International Journal of Operations & Production Management. 37(1),
pp.37-55.
Maylor, H. and et.al., 2018. Old theories, new contexts: extending operations management
theories to projects. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management. 38(6). pp.1274-1288.
McArthur, J.J., 2015. A building information management (BIM) framework and supporting
case study for existing building operations, maintenance and sustainability. Procedia
engineering. 118. pp.1104-1111.
Mijumbi, R. and et.al., 2016. Management and orchestration challenges in network functions
virtualization. IEEE Communications Magazine. 54(1). pp.98-105.
Rosemann, M. and Vom Brocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process
management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer,
Berlin, Heidelberg.
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