Leadership and Management in BMW: A Case Study on Operational Efficiency

This case study examines the roles of leaders and managers in the operational efficiency of BMW, a leading automobile manufacturer. It explores the application of various management theories, including situational leadership, systems, and contingency, and analyzes their impact on BMW's growth and sustainable performance. The study also investigates the relationship between leadership and management in a contemporary business environment, highlighting the challenges faced by BMW and its operational decision-making processes.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION
NAME OF THE STUDENT:
NAME OF THE UNIVERSITY:
STUDENT’S ID:
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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................................3
(LO1). Differentiate between the role of a leader and the function of a manager............................3
(LO2). Apply the role of a leader and the function of a manager in given contexts.........................3
P1 Outline the organisation background and management structure of your organisation and
define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a manager and a leader.................3
P2 and P3 Application of different theories such as situational leadership, systems, and
contingency. To what extent these theories and/or approaches have supported its growth and
sustainable performance. Should leadership change when the work situation changes?..............5
(LO3). Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders and managers play in the operations
function of an organization......................................................................................................................8
LO4 Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between leadership and management in
a contemporary business environment..................................................................................................8
P4 Explain the key approaches BMW has used in its operations management and the role that
leaders and managers play to meet efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness.......................8
P5 Identify BMW’s business objectives and explain the importance and value of operations
management in achieving such objectives............................................................................................9
P6 The contemporary business environment has new challenges and your role is to assess
them within BMW to judge the impact these had on its operational management and decision-
making......................................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................13
Reference................................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
The assignment is being carried out in the context of leaders and managers’ organizational
roles that helps products efficiency improvement of the organization and developing quality of
products. The assignment involves the case study on BMW, an automobile company with its
headquarters in Germany at Munich. The assignment involves roles played by leaders and
manager’s functions for yielding productivity through effective enforcement of employees. The
importance of leadership patterns and styles and management theories are being explained in
the operational management of BMW context.
The management functions aligned with the leadership patterns of the organization, on
implementation on BMW, can bring about changes in operational policies and strategies for the
improvement of the organizational processes and also a reduction in the manufacturing cost of
the organization. In this assignment, the leadership roles are explained considering the
management functions to the operational department context of BMW. The research involves
the description of several leadership patterns applied in the organization. The aggregation of
theories of management (classical as well as contemporary theories) and the leadership
patterns can result in achieving much of an organizational efficiency.
(LO1). Differentiate between the role of a leader and the function of a manager
(LO2). Apply the role of a leader and the function of a manager in given contexts
P1 Outline the organisation background and management structure of your organisation
and define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a manager and a leader.
Manager: Managers can be defined as the people in an organization who manages and designs
the organizational work for the achievement of goals and objective that are pre-determined. For
successfully accomplishing the aims and objectives, the managers are responsible for
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development and establishment of the relevant policies and strategies and the planning of the
working procedures of the employees and the staff with the purpose of performing assigned
tasks according to the organizational objectives (Lee et al., 2018). The managers are diversified
in every institutional department of the organization for efficient tasks management in all the
distinguished departments. The managers also additionally are responsible for the assessment
of the employee performances and their appraisals in a timely basis.
Leaders: leaders are the group of people concerned with the completion of works assigned to
the employees for the attainment of organizational goals. The leaders play a crucial part in
providing the employees with motivation through communication and leadership skills and
inference of the organizational vision. They help in the achievement of organizational objectives
by making the employees work in a proper manner (Kamiyama et al., 2018). The leaders' main
aim is inspiring and influencing the employees for effective performances through productivity
and efficiency.
Differences between the leaders and managers:
The roles of leaders and members are often considered to be similar, but there are
distinguishing factors between them that are to be performed by the leader and the managers
for obtaining an effective work process of the employees of the associated organization.
Managers of an organization typically performs the task of structuring the organizational
objectives and goals in accordance to the mission and vision of the organization concerned
whereas, the leader's task is to communicate the mission and vision to the employees further
and thus inspiring them in a way that the organizational vision becomes their employee's vision
too and hence they follow the planning and procedures provided to them by the leaders (Chan
et al., 2018).
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Managers are responsible for setting up the organizational objectives while Leaders are
responsible for persuading the organizational objectives formulated by the managers.
Managers are responsible for communicating the strategies and policies to the organizational
leaders while, leaders influences and communicates to the employees regarding their assigned
work in accordance with the policies.
Managers provide direction to the employee groups whereas; the leaders give direction to its
team members.
Managers come up with the idea for the organizational betterment while, the leaders play the
part of the implementation of those ideas driven to reality (Mays, 2018).
Managers are responsible for focusing on things while the leaders of the people.
The key role of the managers is organizational planning, whereas, the leaders play the role
of inspiring the employees to work more efficiently.
Managers direct work towards the employees, while the leaders influence and motivate the
company's employees to work with supreme efficiency.
P2 & P3 Application of different theories such as situational leadership, systems, and
contingency. To what extent these theories and/or approaches have supported its growth
and sustainable performance. Should leadership change when the work situation
changes?
The roles of the leaders and functions of managers take the organizational work towards the
desired direction for fulfillment of the organizational objectives and aims. There are several
management functions and guides of leadership to help limit the chance and the proper
functioning of the present administration. BMW faces a situation where the fuel prices,
equipment, and materials are rising rapidly and in such a situation, the functions of
management were effectively implemented and the leadership skills for planning and
implementing the strategies that can handle the manufacturing cost for increasing sales and
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revenues of the organization (Ando et al., 2018). Various management theories along with skills
of the leader's can effect on growing organizational operations. The operating department of
management of BMW mainly sets an eye on the combined and aggregated efforts of the
management teams and leadership efforts for cutting down the manufacturing costs. The
management contemporary theory as applied by BMW helps in dealing with the present
situation of the increasing cost of production and purchases. The managers are responsible for
strategizing the selection procedures of the suppliers that may provide the raw materials at a
base price (Hugos, 2018). The BMW leaders use different tactics and traits for motivating
employees for the adoption of technological advancement for lowering the manufacturing cost
and resistance elimination for bringing a change in the trust environment through effective skills
of communications. The objectives of the management theories mainly focus on the aggregated
efforts of the employees and managers for accomplishing organizational objectives and goals.
The employees and the managers work hand in hand for setting benchmarks regarding
performances and the delegation of the leaders associated to the duties performed by the
workers as a means of motivation for performing their tasks in the best possible way
(Baumgarth, 2018). BMW employs a classical theory of management where the management
team and the managers introduce productivity enhancement policies. Again, BMW also employs
the management theories of behavior that allows the managers to formulate certain policies that
take into account the employee abilities and skills and the leadership taken into account is of
transformational type which means there is an establishment of a communicative relationship
between the leaders and the employees and thus they effectively defines the policies to the
employees. The contingency management theory focuses mainly on the changes brought about
in the strategies in accordance with the situational changes. Hence the leaders play a crucial
part in influencing the changes brought about by the employees mainly in their operational
effectiveness for mitigating the prevailing market challenges (Dai et al., 2018). The BMW
managers considered the causes of increases in manufacturing costs and introduced and
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applied certain theories that may implement various changes in the activities of operations for
reducing the materialistic high prices of the equipment which are received through the suppliers
and accordingly the policies are also rendered for the achievement of organizational goals and
objectives.
The type of leadership where the leadership pattern entirely depends on the employee
capabilities and skills for whom leadership influences are necessary for task completion is often
termed as situational leadership. The BMW operational management can be impacted upon by
this type of leadership depending on distinguished situations (Lin and Lin, 2018). The
organizational current situation is that the organization is facing certain cost increasing issues,
in this context, situational leadership plays a crucial role in overcoming the issues. Leadership in
the organization of BMW applied in a systematic manner helps the leaders to control the
employees working procedures and they can communicate regarding the organizational
situations and assigns the employees with responsibilities in accordance with the organizational
requirements, for instance, BMW needs to bring certain changes in the organizational
operations and implementation of several strategies are to be done for effective marketing of the
organization and the organization also requires to improve the manufacturing department
activities and operations for manufacturing the cars in a much lower cost (Pierce and Wolchyn,
2018). The objectives management plays a crucial part in sorting out the issues related to the
organizational operations through sharing of decision-making procedures with the employees
and the associated expertise is the aggregation of the employees along with the managers for
the task fulfilment. The management team can make way to motivation within the employees
and individuals with the feeling of being important to the organization and this can result in
achieving efficiency through an object approach. While the theory of chaos mainly sets an eye
on the prevailing changes in the market and the responsive trends of the managers and leaders
in accordance to the changes and resultant organizational operations conducted in focusing that
direction.
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(LO3). Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders and managers play in the
operations function of an organization.
LO4 Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between leadership and
management in a contemporary business environment.
P4 Explain the key approaches BMW has used in its operations management and the role
that leaders and managers play to meet efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness.
Managers of the BMW company are the recruited employees those who are employed in the
company to manage and design the task of the BMW corporate directing towards the goals that
were pre-determined and also the objectives of the company. In order to enjoy a successful
accomplishment, the managers of the task needs to achieve their objectives in order to
establish and develop the strategies accordingly and policies and also needs to set up a plan of
the working employees and the staffs aiming at the performance of their individual tasks
accordingly around their objectives (Shyamal and Swartz, 2018). BMW has their managers
distributed to various levels into their company in the requirement of managing the tasks in
various departments. BMW has their managers well concerned for the appraisal of their
employee’s performances and they start these tasks through the implementation of the
appraisal system during the regular intervals. Leaders of the BMW car company are the staffs
those gets the employees work done according to the goals pre-determined by the organization
(Hitka et al., 2018). These leaders play a vital role in uplifting the morals of the employees by
their communication and leadership skills and make them inherit the vision of the BMW
corporate. The employees work in such a manner that they achieve their objectives easily. The
main propaganda of the leaders is influencing and inspiring the employees so that they perform
well and as the result, there is an increase in the productivity and the efficiency of the company.
Variations between the leaders and the managers are not very observable and often roles of the
leaders and the managers are taken to be interchangeable, undoubtedly still there lies a small
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difference among the functions that are performed by leaders and managers of BMW corporate
so that they get the employees working for the company (Peak and Giacomazzi, 2018). The
managers in the corporate performing the task of setting the goals according to the mission and
vision of the corporate and the job of BMW corporate leaders is to communicate further to the
vision of the employees, hence inspiring them to such a manner so that the organization’s vision
becomes their vision, therefore following those steps their leaders provided.
P5 Identify BMW’s business objectives and explain the importance and value of
operations management in achieving such objectives.
The term operational management describes the culmination and coordination of the primary
business and the undertakings those helps to achieve the BMW’s objectives and goals.
Operational management shows interest in lining operations according to BMW’s objectives,
and thus helping the business to grow in the long run though this might look too arching over
and include workaday regular tasks, though there are many par excellence of how good
operational management could improve the effectiveness of the operational business.
The mechanism that governs- Seeing operational management such as the centralizing
governing mechanism to a company as BMW that translates their roles in operational business.
Such as, operational management describes, implements and designs official interrelated
communications that are being utilized every consecutive day, for example, financial and
business forms (Bailey, 2018). They also designate tasks to subordinates, departments, and
supervisors. Operational management can handle projects for example personnel training and
management and audits or personal evaluations. Keeping updates with documentation
efficiently consequential and procedural personnel issues could be mainline regular tasks.
Control over Inventory- Inventories are the most complex and tough part of any business. The
system calculates when to have it, a what to have and whether the investments and funds are
just non-functional in the system and keeps monitoring whether it is just dust collecting or it’s in
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working order. Operational management effectively monitors the inventory systems that
determine how effective the inventory process is managed. The inventory controlling dictates
how the flow of inventory works (Obrycki and Karlen, 2018). It directs and commands how an
employee should handle a product and on hand the customers those are forced for waiting on
ordering back items.
Controlling quality- Quality describes the efficiency of having simply dependable and good
product that always pleases the customers. Therefore it is bigger than assuring to the
customers that BMW will always meet the expectations. Quality can handle the overall
performance of all policies and operations of the BMW Company totally such as, it can describe
how the employees’ perception towards the BMW company’s ability to provide protection for
their staff so that they can focus solely on the satisfaction of the clients (Kindaichi and Nishina,
2018). Historically taking care towards such a reputed organization as BMW and always
enabling fewer distractions and smoother workflow.
Management of supply chain- Management of supply chain is an entire system of how to start
and finish, and details about how the customer the BMW’s services. This always includes
procurement and purchasing, delivery storage and transportation. Management of the supply
chain also includes how to implement technology while assisting staffs in the procedure
including sustaining a professional and developmental relationship with suppliers and persisting
extra collaborations in the process that could show a significant glitch to the operational
business without sustained and careful coordination (Thomas et al., 2018).
P6 The contemporary business environment has new challenges and your role is to
assess them within BMW to judge the impact these had on its operational management
and decision-making.
According to the factors into the BMW corporate environment that impacts on the operations
management and making decisions by managers and leaders. Therefore BMW corporate
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focuses on the urgency of maintaining the sustainability, values, and ethics in the company to
improve their relationship with their customers and provide proper satisfaction with their services
by the company following their ethical standards of the operations management of the BMW
corporate. BMW corporate operates its environment for business with full of competitiveness in
respect to gain more comparative advantage into the market, for establishing a better position
into the company by the competitors, and it also adopts the basis of the sustainable developing
business. The leadership and management in BMW corporate plays a vital role in the company
with their respective social responsibility (Douberley et al., 2018). The relation between the
management of functions and the leadership style influences the company socially to become
more responsible for the corporate. The managers idealize the policies to prepare the best
strategies keeping in consideration the factors which can impact those social responsibilities of
the BMW corporate and also the society. These policies are relating to the satisfaction of the
customers, environment protection, and also supplying high-quality products at a very affordable
price, etc. BMW corporate’s manager's role is communicating with the policy maker of the
company completely takes as a whole and also it’s their job to make sure the employees are
working accordingly following their respective job roles. BMW corporate leaders have their
duties to make sure whether their employees are working according to their policies and the
plans so that it is easier to have a communication with their employees clearly so that then they
can influence and inspire the employees to perform accordingly to their pre-determined
strategies. The corporate leaders have their roles to allocate and define the work process to
their employees and also providing them with required training such that they can be more
efficient in their works and more flexible while attaining the objectives and the goals of the BMW
corporate and be more socially responsible (Wang et al., 2018). The factorials of a business
ambience of the BMW corporate are so efficient that can affect the operation management and
the process of making any decision by the leaders and the managers such that they can judge
the efficiency of their employees, by which they can make proper decisions about the style of
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leading the leaders and managers and it applicably depends upon the performing activities of
the employees/staffs and these are those major factors of the success in the management of
operational systems which consists of many different managements, out of those few are-
management of the total quality and sigma of six approaches. There are even some different
factors which can affect the management of operational systems are sometimes due to the
resources/materials available in the BMW corporate. Therefore the operational management
plays a very vital role in almost every corporate to make it grow in the long run process where
the leaders and managers should be aware of their job roles so that they can lead their teams
properly directing towards the growth of the company (Kishor et al., 2018).
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Conclusion
The observation concludes that specifically the theory of operations management and
leadership styles according to those theories getting applied to any organization then better
consequences can be drawn. The chart prepared focuses on the management theories, for
example, the theory of contemporary roles that only focuses on response of the ongoing
changes into the centers that the leaders put in efforts for eliminating the conditions of
resistance so that it can be changed, therefore the other theories that are being explained in the
reports are the behavioral and classical theories and the leadership styles those relate to this
kind of theories. Therefore the decisions of when and where to situate a facility, also how much
quantity is needed while making it critical to success. When almost every business whether it’s
a service operation or manufacturing. To this efforts, the results, showing planning and analysis
is always required to make sure that a perfect location is chosen and hence it will properly
support in the long-term process and also in the objectives of the firm. In addition, making a
decision of where to situate few new facilities is hard and it involves both quantitative and
qualitative factors.
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