Operations Management Literature Review

This assignment focuses on analyzing a collection of academic articles and publications related to the field of operations management. It requires students to synthesize information from various sources, identify key themes and trends in current research, and potentially evaluate the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. The provided list of references includes books, journal articles, and even patents related to different aspects of operations management, such as supply chain management, service operations, and security operations.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1 Compare the different roles and responsibilities of the leadership and management............1
P2 Give examples and explain the role of leaders and function of a manager that applies in
situational context.......................................................................................................................3
P3 Theories and models of approach that includes situational, systems and contingency
leadership....................................................................................................................................5
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and
mangers play...............................................................................................................................8
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business
objectives...................................................................................................................................10
P6 Various factor which affect the business operation.............................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Management and operation team for the organisation to achieve the organisational
objectives. Management team use various tactics and method to improve the organisational
productivity and profitability. The function of management team is planning, organising,
directing, staffing and controlling. Operation team direct and control the management functions
in organisation. Pharmacy2U is an online mail-order in UK. It serves the services like
prescriptions in UK and retail product in the global market. It was founded by Daniel Lee in
1999. It became the first online Pharmacy in UK. The report highlights the role of leader and
manager in the organisation and the various approaches of management and leadership in the
organisation to improve the performance. It helps to explain the difference between the
management functions and leadership and how they make impact on the organisation
productivity. It also helps to explain the various management approaches like TQM, just in time
approach in the organisation and their role in improving the management relation and
organisational productivity. This report highlights the value and importance of operation
management in achieving the organisational goal and objectives. It explains the various factor
which make an impact on the operational management and the decision making process in the
business environment.
P1 Compare the different roles and responsibilities of the leadership and management.
Management is the continuous process to achieve the organisational goals and objectives
by coordinating and integrating the resources in effectively and efficient manner. Management
performs various function such as planning, organising, directing and controlling to achieve the
goals and objective of the company. The person who perform the function of management is a
manager (Ferguson and et.al., 2017). Manager has to motivate and supervise his employees for
better business ideas and to achieve the goal and objective of the company.
The role and responsibility of the manager is-
11 The manager has to bring out the best business idea from there employees through
motivation.11 Perform directing by supervising the employee.11 Perform the work with effectiveness and efficiency.11 The manager should be proactive and goal oriented to the company.
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Leadership is the combination of research and practical knowledge. Leadership is to cope
with challenges and the changes in the organisation. Leadership develops a vision and
communicate it to the aligning people in the organisation. Through the basic fulfilment of needs
and empowerment they motivate there followers. Through leadership there is change and
uncertainty the organisation (Akalin, Huang and Willems 2016). The person who perform the
leadership is known as leader.
The role and responsibility of the leader are-
 Leader possess the three traits of a friend, a philosopher and mentor.
 Leader integrates and reconcile the organisational goal with the personal goals of the
employees.
 Leaders try to bring change and new approaches in the organisation.
The leaders and the manager are never the synonyms. Leadership is subset of
management as leadership required to perform the various function of the management. They are
the two different and separate identify with different roles and responsibilities. Leadership does
not require the managerial position to perform as the leader but the managers need the traits of
the leader to be successful. Due the virtue of his/her profile the manager has to perform the
leadership whereas the leaders have the independent followers. So managers can be a leader but
the leader cannot be the manager every time (Akalin, Huang and Willems 2016).
John kotter(1990) argued that there are dissimilarities between the function of
management and the leadership. Leadership brings constructive change and uncertain movement
in the organisation whereas the management is there to provide consistency and stability. He
believes that both management and leadership are important aspects of the organisation.
Management Leadership
Management in the organisation is to produce
order and consistency of work in the
organisation.
Leadership used to bring the constructive
change in the organisation with its focused
vision.
The main aim of the management is planning
and budgeting of the organisation. The
manager used to make plans and agenda to
Leadership plays an important role in giving
the direction to the organisation. It gives the
vision and a clarified picture for the futuristic
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accomplish the short term goal and objective of
the organisation.
approach.
Management allocates the resources at the
right time, by the right plans and to right
people.
Leadership look after the formulation of the
strategies and focus on the personal goals of
the followers.
The main function of the management is to
organise and direct the employees. The
managers have to provide the structure to the
organisation by placing the right candidate for
right job.
The leadership will go after aligning the
people by communicating them goals. They
seek commitment and build the team achieve
the objectives.
Establish the rules and procedure to direct the
control to the employees and coordinates
between the different function of the
organisation.
The leader will empower his colleagues and
develop the trust between them and satisfy
there unmeet need.
The manager will use the authority for the
decision making process. Managers will avoid
the conflict and act responsibly to manage the
situation.
The leadership will motivate and inspire its
followers. Leaders will use the conflict to
generate the new business ideas. The leader
will act decisively in a situation.
The management look after the controlling and
problem solving in the company. The manager
compares the planned performance with the
actual performance. If there is deviation in the
performance, the problem solving will be done
by the manager (Schwarz, Hall and Shibli,
2015. ).
The leaders ship is the subset of the
management. Leadership is required in each
and every function of the organisation.
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P2 Give examples and explain the role of leaders and function of a manager that applies in
situational context.
Situational context is the reason that something is being happened at the same appropriate
behaviour and the actions are associated with the situation. As in the industries there are many
situations that is being arise in the companies and in this situation the role of leaders and
managers plays an important role. Situations that is being arise in the Pharmacy2U are
Employee turnover
Employee turnover is the situation that can be arise in any company that means the
number of employees leaving an organisation and they are being replaced by the new employees.
Employee turnover is helpful for the employer of Pharmacy2U that they find out the reason for
the turnover and also do the estimation of cost – to - hire for the purpose of budget (Heizer and
et.al., 2017).
Role of leader
Leader plays an important role in the retention of employees as they always try to satisfy
the employees so that they can retain them in organisation. Leaders of Pharmacy2U needs to
motivate the employees and also take care that employees should learn something new every
day so that they will retain for longer term. In fact leaders always make sure that they find their
job interesting and enjoy their work and also work hard to achieve the organisation goals.
Role of manager
Role of manager is equally important in the retention of employees. Manager needs to
allocate the work equally in the floor and the same time they should not be partial to anyone and
treat the members as one. They must be having the control on their subordinates and make sure
that they do not fight. Managers of Pharmacy2U knows that nothing will come out from the
disputes. Managers should not be the arrogant and did no misuse of their position.
Technological changes
Technological changes is something that is inevitable and it will affect the internal and
external environments of the organisation. Change in technology offers the risks, opportunities
and threats to the business (Heizer and et.al., 2017). In some business technology change
improves the business terms of products and service by that they may expand the market as well
as profits.
Role of Leader
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Technology is changing in the rapid manner. Leaders of the company do not have other
options they have to adopt the new technology and it is very important for the Pharmacy2U to
adopt the advancement of technology to become the leader in the market. Leaders have to
motivate the employees for adopting the new technology by giving them the trainings, providing
online trainings and take the initiatives that every employee of the company will learn the new
technology in ease.
Role of Manager
Manager of the Pharmacy2U must need to understand the problems that is being faced by
the company at the time of advancement in new technology and try to resolve their problems.
They always have to coordinate with the management if the employees need the training or extra
time to learn (Uhl and Gollenia, 2016). Manager need to talk with the subordinates that what are
the problems they are facing and also facilitate all the things that will help them to learn the
things easily and also they will become the friendly from the new technology.
Conflict
Conflict can be arise in any organisation either it is big or small. In resolving the conflicts
leaders and managers plays a crucial leadership role in the company. It is the disagreement
among the employees of the company that it leads to unproductive
Role of Leader
Leader role is very crucial in any organisation as they have to focus on the attaining the
goal of the companies and also need to maintain the harmony in the company due to the conflicts
the employees cannot work efficiently. They always try to prevent the leadership in the company
and try to resolve the disagreements and must be having the potential potential to escalate the
conflicts.
Role of Manager
In resolving the conflict manager has to perform various functions in resolving the
conflicts. Manager of Pharmacy2U has played the job by communicating effectively, respect the
employees, must recognise the tension of office so that they can understand the importance of an
organisation. These are the responsibilities of the manager that help in prevent the great amount
of conflict (Hitt, M.A. and et.al., 2016).
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P3 Theories and models of approach that includes situational, systems and contingency
leadership.
Situational leadership
Situational leadership is that style in which the leader and manager of the organisation
have to adjust their style to fit in the development level of the followers what they are trying to
influence. In this the managers of the company match their behaviour from the performance
needs of an individual as they are attempting to influence.
Situational leadership is being benefited to the organisation pharmacy2u in many ways as
in this leaders creates their common language of performance. In this the leaders and managers
of an organisation will adjust their style to fit the development level of the followers as they try
to influence. In this the leaders and managers change their style according to the situation based
in the particular industry (Radnor, Z.J. 2015).
Telling and directing
in this the leader of the organisation is the making the decisions and informing the others
in the company to follow their decision. This is also called the micro management as the leaders
are involved in all the activity and closely supervise the people who are working there. This is
top down approach and the employees of the company follow the decision what they are told.
Selling and coaching
in this leadership style, leaders are involved in day to day activities. But in this the
ultimately decision will lie in the hands of leaders. Employees are supervised in the coaching
manner.
Delegating to employees
In this the leaders are involved in the least manner from the employees. The employees
are responsible for choosing the tasks and the direction they will take. Although the leaders still
involved for the direction and feedback.
This will help the Pharmacy2U in monitoring the employees closely so that they can improve
their efficiency and productivity.
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Illustration 1: Situational leadership
(Source: SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP, 2019)
System Leadership
system leadership enables the leaders in an organisation to create the condition where all
the people at all the level can work productively to their potential. System leadership often
believes that the success of the organisation is depends upon the working behind the scenes
rather to lead from the front (Ravindran, 2016).
This theory is about how to lead in the organisation and make the organisation more productive
and efficient.
Contingency leadership
It is the theory that is being adopted by the organisation that claims. There is not any best
way to organise the company, or to lead company and to make any decision regarding the
company (Haksever and Render, 2017). This actions are based on the internal and external
situation.
Types of contingency theory are :
Fielders contingency theory
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This theory is general theory that says that there is no any other best way to structure the
organisation and lead the team. In fact it told that the best way to handle the situation is
contingent (Mahadevan, 2015). As it examines best to run the team or organisation in different
situations.
Path goal theory
This theory establishes a clear path in achievement of goal and it can be achieved with
different leadership styles such as:
Achievement-oriented leadership in this they set challenging goals which increase the
performance and ability to achieve tasks.
Directive leadership in that they assign task to individuals for goal achievement.
Supportive leadership maintains good relation between employees and managers so that the
efficiency of completing tasks increases.
This theory helps the Pharmaccy2 in adopting the different theories in different situation so that
they can attain the desired goals and handle the situation..
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and mangers
play.
Operations Management involves control and design of the manufacturing process and
redesigning of the business operations to ensure that resources are utilised in an efficient and
effective manner avoiding any unnecessary wastage. In Pharmacy2U, it involves management of
complete system i.e. the process of manufacturing beginning from collection of raw materials to
the delivery of products and services ordered online.
Leaders and Managers at Pharmacy2U play an important role in ensuring that ultimately
the quality of goods and services provided to the customers is not compromised with; by
ensuring that the various operation management techniques and decisions regarding their
implementation are clearly imparted to the workers.
Total Quality Management (TQM) basically means that at every step in the production
process, quality is never compromised with, ensuring that the end product delivered is of
supreme quality enhancing the customer satisfaction.
Role of leaders and Managers:- Leaders focus on effectiveness of the process and
managers on efficiency. Similarly, at Pharmacy2U, leaders first make the TQM philosophy
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acceptable within various departments making it unambiguous; then this concept of TQM is
applied organisation wide along with the help of senior management at Pharmacy2U. This
quality control ensures that the drugs manufactured meet the GMP and GLP standards and
batches produced are not rejected (Ravinder and Kollikkathara, 2017).
Just In Time (JIT) is an inventory management technique which ensures that the orders
placed for raw materials are aligned directly as per the production schedules. JIT technique helps
in avoiding unnecessary blockage of the funds in inventory thus helping in its cost reduction and
also decreases the waste generation. Along with JIT; Kanban is a scheduling technique used with
it so that overcapacity of work in progress can be avoided.
Role of Leaders and Managers:- Managers of Pharmacy2U, with its online
pharmaceutical business, concentrate on the production cycle time, inventory of finished goods,
inventory of work-in-progress goods, on-time delivery and lead time of customer to avoid
unnecessary fund blockage and wastage of resources. This helps Pharmacy2U in optimization of
the production process and producing more batches thus bringing economies of scale.
Lean Six Sigma (Hybrid of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma) :- This concept has
been developed recently where the basic concept of Lean manufacturing involving waste
elimination and Six Sigma effective in defect reduction is combined together. This becomes an
accelerated process which both increases the efficiency of process and also improves it. This
Lean Six Sigma technique eliminates non value-adding components, improves process flow and
reduces variation in the desired versus actual output (Slack, 2018).
Role of Leaders and Managers:- Pharmacy2U carries out productivity driven tests during
manufacturing process in which the leaders check the quality of the drugs and the managers
focus on achieving efficiency through waste management. Together at Pharmacy2U this controls
the percentage of defective or faulty drugs production and the motivated employees credit the
leaders for the effective management i.e. timely production. This operation management
technique has improved the goodwill of Pharmacy2U in the industry despite being an online
medical store.
Capacity Management :- Capacity Management is the measure which exploits the
maximum limit upto which the production department can produce at a given time. Capacity
Management involves capacity planning which means measuring all the resources of the
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company, various production activities and the time taken and then formulating various levels
which can be produced without any compromise with the quality of the products.
Role of leaders and managers:- Pharmacy2U utilizes three methods for effective capacity
management:11 Adjustment in equipment and processes :- New machineries are brought and the present
machines are sold or leased out at Pharmacy2U whenever the managers find it suitable
i.e. they prefer to change the machines before they go obsolete. This maintains the
efficiency and quality of drugs produced.11 Product re-designing:- Many times Pharmacy2U re-design the components used in the
drug manufacturing so that the chemicals used are not outdated. Many times certain drugs
are banned legally or their sale is restricted. In such cases also, they have to manufacture
a substitute.11 Improvising Methods :- Pharmacy2U regularly improvises its methods and procedures
regularly so that all the latest techniques and technologies developed can be incorporated
in the process so that batches are produced in larger quantities (Kato and et.al 2015).
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.
Operations Management, as described above; plays a key role in Pharmacy2U's
production and operation of any company or business. An effective operation management helps
in improving the process and achieve greater results. Operation Manager has to fulfil the duty by
ensuring that raw materials get converted into finished products efficiently and product delivery
is on time to the customers.
Operation Management is an integral part in stating Business Objectives in Pharmacy2U
i.e. the time frame required for production and the resources which are available as well as the
resources utilised.
Some key importance and values of Operation Management at Pharmacy2U can be
highlighted as follows:-
 Operation Management involves proper Resource Utilization of the resources avoiding
any unnecessary wastage. Leaders at Pharmacy2U emphasise resource utilization by
practising inventory management techniques like Just in Time which avoids the blocking
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of funds and unnecessary bulking up of raw materials which further increases the cost of
holding inventory like warehouse maintenance or storing charges etc.
At Pharmacy2U leaders identify some potential employees from the entire workforce and
guide them to achieve maximum output with minimum utilization of resources. Just in Time
leaves funds to carry out other activities and it also benefits the organisation by raw material
management.
 Operation Management helps Pharmacy2U in Increasing Revenue of the company by
increasing the quality of the drugs manufactured through techniques like TQM and
Capacity Management methods (Hill and Hill 2017). TQM application by leaders and
managers motivates the workers to never compromise with the quality of the drug
manufactured and Capacity Management ensures that the maximum production is carried
out. The quality control helps Pharmacy2U in avoiding any legal trouble which is very
common in the pharmaceutical industry. It also creates a brand value within the customer
base of Pharmacy2U which increases the sales of the company thus enhancing the
revenue generation of the company. Overall, this increases the market share of the
Pharmacy2U and the customer loyalty.
 Pharmacy2U emphasizes on Waste Management through operation management
techniques which minimizes the waste. The techniques used in Lean Management. This
technique focuses on eliminating any such activity which might generate waste at every
step in the production process. Leaders and managers at Pharmacy2U uses various tools
and techniques to apply Lean Management like Value Stream Mapping, Poka – Yoke
(Proofing the batches of drugs produced for mistakes), Ishikawa (cause and effect
strategy) etc. to minimize waste generation.
This lean management technique is linked by the leaders at Pharmacy2U with the Six-
Sigma technique which further minimizes the defects in the drugs manufacturing process
(Nakagawa, 2015).
 Operation Management at Pharmacy2U also increases the Customer Satisfaction Level
which enhances the sales of the drugs. Managers and leaders motivate their work force to
by explaining that increasing sales demands increase in the supply which further initiates
increase in production. But the key factor in increasing sales is not compromising with
the quality of the product. Here comes the Six - Sigma which checks the quality of the
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goods manufactured ensuring that no compromise is done with the quality of drugs
manufactured. This quality check also helps Pharmacy2U in meeting the government
requirements for quality control and norms to be followed.
 Pharmacy2U has seen an Overall Rise In The Productivity. Productivity basically means
the output produced at a given level of input. Leaders and managers at Pharmacy2U
improve the efficiency through inventory management techniques like Just In Time and
Total Quality Management which helps them in achieving their goals through minimum
resource utilization. This increase in the productivity enhances the brand image of
Pharmacy2U by increasing the sales of the drugs manufactured. Reliability along with
durability are the two main factors on which Pharmacy2U focuses. Along with quality
management, productivity increase also requires timely delivery of the drugs to the
customers. Pharmacy2U, being the first online pharmaceutical company focuses very
keenly on the timely delivery of the drugs as per the customer's requirement (Holweg and
et.al., 2018).
 Every company has a basic motive for its existence i.e. Profit Motive. Pharmacy2U also
works with this motive as its basic aim assisted in this objective by the entire work force
guided by their leaders and mangers. At Pharmacy2U, leaders and managers use
techniques like Six Sigma and Capacity Management methods to ensure that quality of
drugs is maintained along with maximum utilisation of its resources. This increases the
output in the drug production which further increases the sales of the drugs. Online
presence of Pharmacy2U has increased its profits as the suppliers of the raw material are
contacted directly without any intermediaries. Also, the opportunity cost of saving
resources which otherwise would have been utilised in set up of the stores etc. This
saving can be invested in the business for further expansion of Pharmacy2U.
P6 Various factor which affect the business operation
The business operation was affected by the various factor like business ethics and
sustainability, corporate social responsibility, culture and value. These factor affect the external
and internal environment of Pharmacy2U company. They are directly related with the
organisation performance. This element are described as:
corporate social responsibility
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CSR are the social activities done by the organisation to provide their services to the
people without any cost. It helps to fulfil their social responsibility toward the environment and
provide the social benefits to the organisation. It creates the reputation and brand recognition in
the mind of consumer by doing CSR activities. It also increases the customer loyalty toward the
organisation. Paharmacy2U company fulfil their social responsibility by organise the blood
camp, free check- ups camp like checking the Blood pressure, sugar level etc. To organise the
Blood camp they encourage the young and healthy generation to donate blood for the needed
person and also help the various hospitals by providing blood in their blood camp. They also
organise some events in their CSR activities to provide the general knowledge about the disease,
their symptoms and the various related issues to aware them (McCrie, 2015).
Culture
The aim of Pharmacy2U company is to provide the high quality service to their customer.
It was the first company who provide the online prescription by mail-order to their customer.
They also provide the non – prescription services like beauty and healthcare product to their
customer. Culture of the organisation influence the behaviour of employees and encourage them
to provide their full potential in the organisation. The culture of the Pharmacy2U company
encourage their staff to provide better services to the customer and address their problems
quickly so they can maintain the loyalty of the customer. If the culture of the organisation was
good then the staff was highly satisfied with the organisation but when culture was not good than
it increase the employee turnover and reduces their performance. Leadership and management
are the two important concept of the organisation who highly affect the culture. The leader and
manager are the main person who maintain the relationship in the organisation.
Value
Value become the important element of the business operation. The value addition in
product and services increases the performance and productivity of the organisation. The
companies are try to improve their value to get the market share. Value highly influence the
business by providing the competitive advantage. The addition in the value of product and
services differentiate the Pharmacy2U company from their competitors. Pharmacy2U company
are the first online prescription and by providing their valuable services it became the benchmark
for the other companies. They bring with innovative idea to provide their service via mail.
Patients prescribe their problems to the Pharmacy2U company and then they provide prescription
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according to their problems on mail. These feature add value in their services and attract more
patient toward them because they can get the solution of their problems any time.
Ethics and sustainability
Pharmacy2U company care the ethical and sustainable aspect in their services. The use of
advance technology in operational work. Ethics means taking the right course of action in the
organisation. Pharmacy2U company get the licence from the government to do their online
business. The online mail-order system reduces the paper work and provide sustainability to the
environment (Heizer, 2016).
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CONCLUSION
The operation management has to balance in internal and external environment for the
organisational growth and improvement. This report summarizes the various role of leader and
manager in the organisation and their importance to improve the organisational performance.
The role of Pharmacy2U leader is to provide the right and accurate online description to their
patients and address their problem with their management staff. The management leader and
manager also address the various problem like conflict, motivation, internal relation and external
environment through their soft and hard skills. The report explains the hard and soft skills of the
leader and their implication in the organisation. It emphasis the various management approaches
used by the organisation and their pros and cons in the organisation.
The report explains the TQM and just in time approach in the organisation to provide the
quality product to their customer and address their problem within the proper time respectively.
The report summarizes the relationship between the management and leadership in the business
environment and the various strategies to improve their relation in the organisation. Pharmacy2U
use various strategies in their organisation to expand their business worldwide and address the
problem of customer through their online prescription.
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Heizer, J. and et.al., 2017. Operations management: sustainability and supply chain
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Heizer, J., 2016. Operations management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
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Holweg, M. and et.al., 2018. Process theory: the principles of operations management. Oxford
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Mahadevan, B., 2015. Operations management: Theory and practice. Pearson Education India.
McCrie, R., 2015. Security operations management. Butterworth-Heinemann.
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Slack, N., 2018. Essentials of operations management. Pearson UK.
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Uhl, A. and Gollenia, L.A. eds., 2016. A handbook of business transformation management
methodology. Routledge.
SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP. 2019. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.situational.com/the-cls-difference/situational-leadership-what-we-do/>
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