Roles and Characteristics of Leaders and Managers

This document discusses the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers in organizations, with a focus on Sainsbury, a leading supermarket chain in the UK. It explores the different approaches to leadership and management, including situational leadership and system leadership. The document also addresses various situations and how leaders and managers should handle them.

LEADERS AND
MANAGEMENT
CONCEPTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1 ...............................................................................................................................................1
P1 The roles and characteristics of leaders and managers..........................................................1
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
P2) In different situations the role of leaders and managers .....................................................4
P3 Approaches according to leadership model. .........................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Leaders are those person who develops vision for the organization and through
empowerment motivating people to action and through basic needs fulfilment. On the other side,
management includes all the activities in which the managers set the strategy in order to organize
and coordinating the efforts of entire employees (Northouse, 2017). Sainsbury, the second
supermarkets chain in UK. They opened the largest UK shops, extension of their existing shop
in Crayford, South East London, which covers the area more than 100,000 sq. ft.. organization
had been the leader of market in the supermarket sector in U.K. In this study, defining and
comparing the role of leader and manager with their characteristics. With an examining the role
of leader and function of a manager in different situation. Applying different theories and models
of approach, including situational leadership, system leadership and contingency.
LO 1
P1 The roles and characteristics of leaders and managers
Defining leaders: This is an art of providing motivating to a group of people, towards
achievement of common goal. The essentials of leadership is to inspire others . Leadership is
based on the ideas but not applicable unless the actually communicated to others in exact way
which they want to act from others. They are the director of action and inspiration for team
members. They are the person in the group having the combination of leadership skills and
personality which makes others to follow their directions (Hawkins and Edwards, 2015).
Definition of managers: Who manages or is in charge of something. They can control
departments in organization. They provide guidance to the people who work for them. Managers
are taking make decisions about things. Managers able to doing the planning, leading,
organizing, controlling and coordinating the working of organization (Chiu, Balkundi and
Weinberg, 2017). The manager is commanding and leading the group of people. They
responsibly maintain the work systems and planning, preparing policies which enable them to
encourage for optimum performance of group of people and resources.
Comparison of roles and characteristics of a leader and manager.
Sainsbury is the leading food retailer supermarket.
Role of leaders: Leaders of Sainsbury must fulfil 10 roles for the success of the team and
organisation as a whole ;
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 Facilitator: Leader required to make things easier for others. They work as a facilitator
to boost productivity and help in making processes flow better. This improves the
performance of organisation in timely fulfilment of production requirements.
 Strategist: Leaders must think strategically in respect of directions and approaches they
required to follow (Yang, 2016). With the best direction Sainsbury's leader they become
able to achieve goal and objectives more strategically in comparison to competitors.
 Visionary: the role of Sainsbury's leader is visionary, and they think about future.
Vision of leader helps the organization in achieving their current objectives as well as
future objectives for better performance of their team members.
 Decision maker: the leader does not hesitate in taking decisions in any respect . When
leaders are taking decisions actively then they encourage their team for perform actively
towards their tasks.
In comparison to leaders the role of managers is different in Sainsbury:
 Liaison role: The manager of Sainsbury performing the functions of communicating,
motivating and encouraging group of people. This helps in better coordination of
activities all their subordinates. They also interact with the other mangers outside the
organisation for securing the informations and favours.
 Monitor role: They are seeking and receiving the information related to internal and
external events, so they become able to collect the understanding related to issues of
organization and environmental changes (Bolden, 2016). Which helps in solving
problems by understanding all the aspects of related matters.
 Dissemination role: Manger disseminating the information which are collected from
different sources and through different means. This gathered information playing a
major role in dissemination of information to their subordinates.
 Entrepreneurial role: The manager of organization initiating and overseeing the new
products that will improve the organizational performance (Chiu, Balkundi and
Weinberg, 2017). They are seeking for improvement in their department by adopting
the changes of environmental factors related to organization. This creative ideas of
managers helps the organisation to perform better in comparison to competitors of
supermarket industry.
Characteristics of leaders :
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 Clarity: They required be clear and concise all the times. No question arise
among them related to their vision (Morden, 2017). In Sainsbury leader enable to
explain clear the working to their team members. Which makes them clear in
respect of their objectives.
 Decisiveness: Leaders required to show great consistency with their decisions,
not change their minds unless it is necessary. As a Sainsbury's leader a decisive
leader reflect their commitment with a high quality in demand for greater
leadership.
Characteristics of managers:
 Communication: Manager of Sainsbury required to communicate effectively
with their team. They are communicating the expectations and job responsibilities
for listening the team and working with them for proving the better results.
 Time management: Key factors of being a successful manager is the time
management organizational working. (Pardey, 2016). In Sainsbury mangers are
responsible to timely communicate with employees for accomplishment of goals
within the time period.
Characteristics Role of leader Role of manager
Communication As they posses good
communication skills because
they have to present their views
with clarity so that employees will
not confused.
It is essential for the manager of
Sainsbury to have good
communication skills because they
specified the job responsibilities, for
listening the team and working with
them for proving the better results
Open to share new
ways
As leader always provide new
ways to share their views so that
they will easily provide new
opportunities within a business
(Matthews and et.al., 2018).
Manager develop new and
innovative ways that helps to
manage the work in time and
maintain positive working
environment.
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LO 2
P2) In different situations the role of leaders and managers .
Situation 1: When there are rumours at the work place of firing the employees.
Role of manager-
The manager's role is to make decisions in the favour of organization. It is the duty or role of
manager to organize the meeting with the leaders. The meeting must include the solutions for the
leaders about the techniques of handling that situation at the work place of Sainsbury. To manage
the human resource and keep their motivation high is the function of managers of human
resources department (Yang, 2016). The rumour must not be proved as real, if the company is
not going to take such decisions in near future. So managers are expected to make efforts to keep
their personnel with the company.
Role of leader-
The role of leader in this situation is not to break the confidential news of the company
but at the same time leader can't break the trust of its team when they ask any questions related to
such rumours. In this situation the leader of Sainsbury, must keep positive attitude towards the
employees and keep connection with them so that the employees will not leave the company. As
because when there were rumours at their place of work which will misguide the employees and
may result in their resignation as well (Northouse, 2017). That's why the leaders must keep the
environment of workplace healthy and positive at the same time. The leaders are expected to
keep the motivation of the employees, to not to care about the rumours and work with full
dedication as before, because these rumours impose negative impact on the potential of
employees.
Situation 2: Complaints from the customers regarding the quality of the product.
Role of manager-
The role of manager in such situation is that to make strategic planning to improve the quality of
product which can meet the expectations of the ultimate users of Sainsbury. But simultaneously,
the managers need to maintain the decided budget and controls the cost of production along with
improving the quality of the product (Hawkins and Edwards, 2015). Here, manager must convey
the feedback to the leaders and make sure they communicate the same to the employees, so that,
the employees will make the quality product by change the technique of production as suggested
by their supervisors and leaders.
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Role of leaders-
In this situation, the leader must share the decision of the management to its team, must
not hide anything regarding achieving the given target. Leaders may ask the opinion of its team
and ensure their active involvement. It will make the employees to use their optimum potential in
order to achieve the set objectives. Here, the leaders of Sainsbury must engage their team
members and communicate the logic behind the decision taken by the management (Matthews
and et.al., 2018). Leaders must handle the situation of making their team aware about the goals
of the organization, and communicate about the standard which need to attain for improvement
in the quality of the product. The leaders must look out that in the order of improvement in the
quality, there must be no wastage of raw materials and energy as well.
Situation 3: Conflicts between employees at the workplace.
Role of manager-
To handle this situation at the workplace managers must organize some sessions in which
the employees are guided regarding their behaviour with their co-workers (Battista and et.al.,
2019). The managers of Sainsbury must communicate to the leaders of the team, in case the
matter of conflicts come on his desk. Rather, punishing the employees, the managers must seek
the effective solutions to resolve the conflicts between employees of the organization. The
working and the performance of individual employees get affected by these kinds of conflicts,
which further affects the overall productivity of Sainsbury.
Role of leader-
The leaders of Sainsbury must not ignore the issues of the employees at the workplace. It
is the duty of leaders to resolve the conflicts between the employees while working together, at
their own. The serious issues must be communicated to the authority rather than each and every
conflicts of employees (Bolden, 2016). It is not easy to sort out the personal issues but leaders
must make efforts and keep supervising the performance of the employees as the workplace.
Leaders must listen both the employees separately and make them comfortable to share their true
feelings, so that leaders can resolve the conflicts. Leaders must seek the techniques to make the
attitude of employees with their co-workers positive.
P3 Approaches according to leadership model.
Leaders and managers deals with their employees and followers with many models. Sainsbury by
using the models of leadership which effectively limit to the poor decision-making which may
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cause serious problems for the organization. There are different approaches which can be
assembled into a number of categories at different levels.
Situational leadership: This is an adaptive style of leadership . Which encourages leaders for
taking stock of their team members, weighing the variables at their workplace and choosing the
style of leadership which best fits in achievement of goals. (Sadeghi and Rad, 2018). In
Sainsbury situational leadership is flexible. It adopted in the existing working environment and
needs of organization. It is not based on specific skills of the leaders which they can modify the
style of management which suits as per the requirements of the organization.
Leadership and management towards goal accomplishment must deal with changing complexity
related to jobs and changing the abilities of their employees . In this context , the maturity of job
of subordinates are the primary factor of situational leadership which describes the role of
leaders and functions of managers. There are four leadership and management style explained
here:
 Directing: In Sainsbury, leaders and managers providing the direction and guidance to
their employees by explaining them what they have to do and how they do but less
supportive. The management clearly identifying the employees and delegating the work
to the employees .
 Coaching: Leader and managers of Sainsbury reflects intense amount of directive and
supportive behaviour. They describe to their followers what to do but also support them
and encourage them (Kiran, 2016). They provide direction for each and every situation
which helps the employees to understand the working clearly.
 Supporting: In this phase, formation of two-way communication with followers but
providing less direction by leaders and managers. Management of Sainsbury providing
support to the managers when they needed it. They are just supportive in critical
situations.
 Delegating: Leader and managers of Sainsbury provides less support and direction.
Leaders delegating duties which are based on the performance and skills of the
employees. In this style of delegation leaders and managers.
System leadership:
For constant great performance by optimizing all type of organizational entities individual
requires to design strategies for whole system. Leaders, see the system as a whole and act
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accordingly in such a way which reflects the awareness of large picture. They put their best
possible efforts to keep their peers updated as per the multiple layers and levels. Leaders are
committed at all the levels in altering the contexts. This style of leadership maintains the
prospective of both micro and macro. System leadership contains the understanding of patterns at
micro level in the organisation (Edwards and et.al., 2015). It is effective at the macro level
related to the issues of employees. It would be required for Sainsbury to address the issues of
misunderstanding which are related with the lower performance of the organisation. In respect
of internally related operations Sainsbury can compute the output. Leaders measure the
performance of employees and productivity. Management pinpoints the loopholes in the process
chain before occurrence of some problems. Sainsbury's management closely monitor the
production scale, if there is decline observed then resolve immediately with the effective
decision-making. The organisation implementing this model to ensure that the safe future of
organisation.
Contingency leadership:
The theory of leadership is contingent on effectiveness of leadership style which match with the
situation. As there is no best leadership style it becomes effective when the style of leadership
fits according to the situation.
In Sainsbury, the efficiency of leadership is essential in identification of dissatisfaction
of employees in respect of decisions at top-level. This model need leader to wary their leadership
style according to the situation so, the performance of the organization not get affected.
Sainsbury observes that performance of employees is decreasing due to lack of interest of leader
towards the prevailing situation dealing. Leader required to take immediate decision for
strengthen the relationship with their employees (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2016). Which
becomes possible by motivating them and by providing the proper task description to them.
CONCLUSION
From the above study concluded that the in defining the role of leaders and managers
shows the clear differentiation in their working. The explanation of their characteristics shows
clear difference of type of personality they required to follow in organization in respect of their
positions. Situational model of leadership at Sainsbury helps in achievement of targeted goal by
leaders and mangers by performing their roles and function in the organization. In system
leadership, managers and leaders adopt the strategies for effective performance of employees
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according to the system followed by Sainsbury. In the contingency leadership they follow style
which become changeable as per uncertainty occurred in situation.
Recommendation: The managers and leaders should analyse the all aspects of micro and macro.
Which enable them to fully understand the whole work and system for better performance of
their employees which would help them in attaining the goals of Sainsbury.
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REFERENCES
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Paradoxes (pp. 49-70). Routledge.
Edwards, G and et.al., 2015. Exploring power assumptions in the leadership and management
debate. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 36(3). pp.328-343.
Hawkins, B and Edwards, G., 2015. Managing the monsters of doubt: Liminality, threshold
concepts and leadership learning. Management Learning. 46(1). pp.24-43.
Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D and Hoskisson, R. E., 2016. Strategic management: Concepts and
cases: Competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning.
Kiran, D. R., 2016. Total quality management: Key concepts and case studies. Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Morden, T., 2017. Principles of management. Routledge.
Northouse, P. G., 2017. Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Sage Publications.
Pardey, D., 2016. Introducing leadership. Routledge.
Sadeghi, A and Rad, F., 2018. The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in knowledge
management and innovation. Management Science Letters. 8(3). pp.151-160.
Yang, R., 2016, November. Examining the Distinct Concepts of" Leadership" and"
Management" and the Relationship between Them. In 4th International Conference on
Management Science, Education Technology, Arts, Social Science and Economics 2016.
Atlantis Press.
Chiu, C. Y. C., Balkundi, P. and Weinberg, F. J., 2017. When managers become leaders: The
role of manager network centralities, social power, and followers' perception of
leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(2), pp.334-348.
Matthews, M. and et.al., 2018. Determinants of turnover among low wage earners in long term
care: the role of manager-employee relationships. Geriatric Nursing, 39(4), pp.407-413.
Battista, L. and et.al., 2019. The Role of Manager Support in a Workplace Wellness Champion
Program.
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