Key Approaches to Operations Management

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATION

Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................3
P1: Role and characteristics of leaders and managers............................................................3
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................5
P2: Role of a leader and the functions of a manager in different situational context.............5
P3: Apply various models and theories including situational leadership...............................6
TASK 3......................................................................................................................................7
P4: Key approaches to operations management and roles of leaders and managers..............7
P5: Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.......8
TASK 4......................................................................................................................................9
P6: Business environmental factors that impact upon operational management...................9
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Operation management is formed in an organisation with an objective of operating
business operation through designing and managing manufacturing process in such as
effective manner that will help in maximising the satisfaction level of targeted customers as
well as earning huge profits. Their main focus is to utilising available resources in an
optimum manner so as to minimise the cost of production due to which the company can able
to increase their profit margin. In this, managers with the help of leaders play an important
role in doing all such operation activities in profitable manner with the help of their skills and
knowledge. The present assignment report is based on the Marks & Spencer (M&S) which
deals in producing clothing, home and luxurious food products across worldwide. The project
includes the role and functions of manager along with the importance of leader in achieving
organisational goals and objectives. Management theories and leadership approaches are also
discussed under this report along with their strengths and weaknesses. All other aspects are
also described under this report with the context of M&S (Barratt, Choi and Li, 2011).
TASK 1
P1: Role and characteristics of leaders and managers
Managers: They are the one which bears all roles and responsibilities regarding
managing and controlling business activities through formulating an effective decisions and
plans with the help of their skills and knowledge.
Leaders: They are the one which are liable to follow all plans and police made by
management and accordingly motivate and allocate members in a team so to help them in
contributing maximum possible result in near future.
Therefore, managers and leaders both plays a vital role in supporting business
organisation to achieve lots desired goals and objectives within pre-determined period of
time. They both an important roles and responsibilities which are briefly described as below:
Role of managers of M&S:
Formulation of plans and policies: The prime responsibility of manager of M&S is
to make an effective decision and better plans so as to give proper direction to their
workforce in order to achieve desired goals within limited period of time (Chen and et. al.,
2010).

Monitoring and controlling: This is the responsibility of manager where it is
compulsorily required by them to monitor and control all business activities so that available
resources can be utilised in an optimum manner.
Provide training programs: The managers are also required to evaluate the
performance of their employees in order to find out the high and low skilled employee due to
which effective training programs shall be conducted. This will help M&S in gaining more
skilled and knowledgeable employees that will bring them more profitable result in near
future.
Role of leaders of M&S:
Motivation: The prime responsibility of leader is to find out the ways through which
they can bring motivation and self confidence among workers with the objective of getting
work done from them in an effective and efficient manner (Galindo and Batta, 2013).
Team Building: Working in a team gives always better result but there is need to tell
employees about the importance of team work. Here, leader plays an important role in
allocating workers in a team so as to give them an opportunity to increase their skills and
build healthy relations with their co-workers.
Communication: It is essential to have good relation among the employees so that
adequate support can get from them in achieving desired target. Here, leader act as an
important role in establishing communication platform where the employees can easily
communicate with each other.
Characteristics of Manager and Leader of M&S:
Positive attitude: Both leaders and managers should required to have positive attitude
which help in creating positive atmosphere at workplace as well. Through giving suitable
direction by manager and motivation by leaders help in increasing the capabilities of
employees working in an organisation.
Creative: They both need to be more creative in driving business ahead than their
rivals. After analysing the rivals’ strategies, the manager needs to bring new and innovative
ideas which help them in competing with their rivals in more effective way where as leader
need to find out creative ideas in bringing out the motivation among their employees so as to
perform well (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus, 2011).