Leadership and Management in Waitrose: A Comprehensive Analysis of Roles, Functions, and Business Environment Impact

This report delves into the intricate relationship between leadership and management within the context of Waitrose, a prominent retail supermarket chain in the UK. It defines and compares the distinct roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, highlighting their differences and complementary nature. The report examines how these roles apply in various situational contexts, including stable, fast-changing, and slow-to-medium change scenarios. It explores key leadership theories and models, such as situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency theory, and analyzes their application within Waitrose. The report further investigates the key approaches to operations management, including Total Quality Management (TQM) and Continuous Improvement (Kaizen), and elucidates the roles of leaders and managers in these functional areas. It emphasizes the importance and value of operations management in achieving Waitrose's business objectives, such as increasing sales, maximizing profits, ensuring customer satisfaction, and achieving consistent growth. Finally, the report assesses the factors within the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers, including corporate social responsibility, stakeholders, sustainability, and intrapreneurship.

Management and operations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction..................................................................................................................................................1
LO1..............................................................................................................................................................2
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of leader and manager...........................2
LO2..............................................................................................................................................................4
P2 Examine how the role of leader and function of manager apply in different situation contexts........4
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency......................................................................................................................6
LO3..............................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play
at functional areas of Waitrose................................................................................................................8
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.......9
LO4............................................................................................................................................................11
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision-making by leaders and managers............................................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................14
References..................................................................................................................................................15

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Production system by applying system theory.............................................................................7
Figure 2: CSR framework..........................................................................................................................11
Figure 3: Types of stakeholders.................................................................................................................12

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Comparison between leaders and managers..................................................................................2
Table 2: Role of leadership in different situational.....................................................................................5
Table 3: Matrix showing accepting of leadership approach in different situations.....................................6

Introduction
Management is the procedure of dealing with managing the individuals. On the other side, operation
means action of functions performed. In the current study, the report will discuss about the case study of
Waitrose which is the leading organisation in retail supermarket chain. It will also define and compare
the role and characteristics of leaders and managers by showing out the differences in leadership and
management. Different types of situations in Waitrose will be reflected and in that case the role of
management functions and leaders will also be discussed. The concepts and approaches shall also be laid
out in the report on growth and sustainable performance. Finally, the report shall conclude about the
impacts of leader and managers along with suggestions for further improvements.
1

LO1
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of leader and manager
Leadership is the ability of influencing the people by attracting towards their skills so that the business
objectives are achieved conveniently using entire potentials. Leadership is one of the elements in the
management operations that mean it has limited scope in comparison to manager. Management is the
fundamental of managing every business operation in the most appropriate manner (Mackenzie et.al.
2018). It is capability to get the work done through the others and it can be identified in all the areas
such as education, supermarkets, hospitals, offices and even in sports.
One of the main differences among the leadership and management is that management relates to
organized and formal group of individual’s only whereas leadership relates to both groups i.e. formal
and informal. To further explain the two concepts, the role and characteristics of leaders and managers
are explained in four points: Comparison chart, definition and conclusions.
Comparison Chart
Table 1: Comparison between leaders and managers
Point of comparison Management Leadership
Meaning Management is the skill of
sequentially organizing and
correlating the things in the most
appropriate manner.
Leadership is the art of leading
others by giving or showing
examples
Focuses on Activities management People inspiration
Emphasis on Carrying out stability Motivating for the change
Basis Control Trust
Perspective Short range perception Good foresightedness
Strategy Reactive Proactive (Bolman and Deal, 2017)
Power Rule Motivate
Formulation of Procedures and policies Guidelines and fundamentals
Definition of leadership and management
2

Leadership: The ability of leading the individuals group and motivate them towards the direction is
called as leadership. It is the interpersonal procedure that includes impacting the group or individual so
as to meet the business purposes effectively.
Moreover, leadership cannot be taught, it is the quality which only few people have in them. The
individual who inbuilt this quality is called leader. A leader is the individual personality who has
responsibility for large group of people following him as their motivation (Johnston et.al. 2016). Few of
the examples that are UK born are Nelson Mandela, Mary Inning, and Winston Churchill etc.
Leadership is the task of guiding and moving the people to work together in order to meet the purposes.
It needs good vision of thinking across the nation boundaries. In Waitrose, there are numerous leaders in
every department who has the duty to carry out the work in teams. For meeting each objective, the
organization employees are categorized into teams and every team has given the task which the team has
to finish it in particular time.
Management
Management is the integration of four words that are man, age, men and t (technique). In this manner,
management means the technique applied by man for managing and supervising men of various age
groups so as to work together for meeting the objectives. The person who has the responsibility of
managing the activities in the organization is called as manager. For decision making, manager has to
use the management process that starts from planning, organizing, staffing, leading and directing and
lastly controlling and coordinating (Certo, 2018).
Moreover, it can be concluded that leadership and management cannot be separated by their
characteristics. Hence, manager’s qualities need leadership skills to motivate the subordinates. In
Waitrose, it is being analyzed that both leadership and management is present. In every department there
is manager and various leaders who direct the team in helping the organization in meeting objectives. At
numerous in Waitrose, manager has to play the role of leader as well at the demand and absenteeism of
leaders. So both complement each other and both are required for sustainability and growth.
3

LO2
P2 Examine how the role of leader and function of manager apply in different situation contexts
In any organization, every manager has four basic management functions and every leader also has four
possible styles or roles. Thus, it is already evaluated that leadership is one of the function of the
manager. Therefore, management and leadership are the two perspectives carried out by one individual
sometime who is acting as the manager in organization (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). Thus, the role of
leader and the function of manager can impact different situation internal as well as externally.
There are different types of situations that are presented in Waitrose which also impacts the leadership
role and manager functions are as follows:-
Stable situation: In this situation, very few or no changes are done anywhere. Further, as the changes
are not made, the leadership role and manager function also did not change until the situations are
addressed greatly.
Fast changing situation: Frequent and fast changes are carried out both internally as well as externally.
In this case, a manager of the Waitrose carried out some huge changes in short time while leaders will
also bring the change in their team management to face the new situations (Bolden, 2016).
Slow to medium change situation: In this, noticeable changes are made inside as well as outside.
Waitrose manager carry out modification in medium or long time period and the leaders will also do the
same.
There are basically four types of management functions in Waitrose that are carried out by managers
which are listed below:-
Planning: It includes determining the aims and setting the suitable course of action to meet the business
objectives. In this manager, should have knowledge about the external environmental conditions that
Waitrose can face. In this manager has to be good decision maker.
Organizing: It includes structure development along with allocation and distribution of resources to
enable the objective accomplishment. Organization chart and chain of command is represented by the
manager in this function (Miner, 2015).
4

Leading: It includes formal and informal sources that motivate to carry out certain activities. In this case,
Waitrose manager has to analyze the subordinates attitudes, perspectives, emotions and personality as
well. If managers are enthusiastic the subordinates will also remain motivated by showing their efforts to
meet the business objectives.
Controlling: It includes three basic steps that are establishing performance status, comparing with the
actual performance and lastly, taking correct actions.
On the management functions listed above, there is different impact on the situations:-
Fast changing situation: In this manager, will make the big changes in short time in all the functions of
management so as to face the dynamic situation (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Slow to moderate changing situation: In this manager will make changes in medium or long time period
in all management functions to fit the new circumstances.
Role of leadership in different situational of Waitrose
Table 2: Role of leadership in different situational
Suitable leadership styles Examples in Different situation in Waitrose
Participative When staffs has big abilities and potentials
When decision making directly impacts the employees
When staffs has big internal control on management
Directive When staffs has low potentials
When staffs has big external control
When staffs have big role doubt
Supportive In situation of boring and monotonous operations
Where stressed is more (Mendenhall et.al. 2017)
Achievement oriented High potentials in employees
Highly motivated for higher achievement in any type of
situation
5

P3 Apply different theories and models of approach including situational leadership, systems leadership
and contingency
The three of the models of approaches are as follows:-
Situational leadership
In this theory, it is said that leaders must use various leadership styles that are based on the follower’s
level of development. In different situation, employee activeness is to be addressed in integration with
commitments and competency levels so as to reach the correct leadership style. This model of leadership
reflects that to be useful leaders in Waitrose must apply right attitude and style at right time in
development of each employee. It is addressed that team members are the main success factor of the
leaders (McCleskey, 2014). The following matrix is required to be prepared for assessing the readiness
level of team member and in that case leadership style chosen in Waitrose.
Table 3: Matrix showing accepting of leadership approach in different situations
Potential (Low) Potential (Low) Potential (Medium
to High)
Potential (High)
Readiness level of
the team member
High commitment
or surety
Low surety Variable surety High surety
Appropriate
leadership styles
suggested to
Waitrose Leaders
in different
situations
Directive approach Coaching approach Supportive approach
(Thompson and
Glasø, 2015)
Delegation approach
Systems theory
In Waitrose, this approach is based on the analyses on the basic structure of the system to solve the
problems. The system basic structure is inputs, processing procedure and outputs. As Waitrose is the big
organization in UK it has a large system that involves small systems as well. Smaller systems are the
separate systems which are recruitment system, marketing system, financial system, production system,
sale system and promotion system (Senge et.al. 2015). The results of these systems are based on the
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inputs quality that includes resources such as money, new technology and staffs and processing
procedure which means procedure of transforming input into resultant output.
Further, management functions in case of this theory, a Waitrose manager should decide for the needed
output and manage the needed resources for the inputs and direct the team in the step of process and
activities controlling using feedback system (Boylan, 2016).
In case of production system the use of system theory is given in the below diagram:-
Figure 1: Production system by applying system theory
(Source: System theory example, 2018)
Contingency theory
This theory has been introduced because of the different views that there is no requirement of one best
approach in the management in every situation. In this managers are accountable for identifying the
approaches that are managerial and likely to very effective. Key contingencies are determined in
different situations by the managers (Fiedler, 2015). As per this theory, external and internal
environment keeps on changing and in this situation role of leader and function of managers are also
changed in Waitrose business operations.
7

For example in case of Waitrose: In organization it was identified that specific style of leader is
influenced due to some technology (Small batch technology, mass production technology and
continuous process technology). The leader identified that financially successful retail enterprise include
different technologies for carrying out the operations and it will contradict in management level number,
management span, worker specialization level (ntonakis and Day, 2017) . The leader also identified that
firm’s performance and recommended that various management forms are suitable for various types of
operational technologies.
8

LO3
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play at
functional areas of Waitrose
Operations management concentrates on process management to generate and allocates the services and
products. Main activities involve development, manufacturing and distribution of products. It is
concerned with transforming the inputs, materials and labor into products to sell the customers to
generate the revenue and profits. Waitrose has to necessarily concern with planning, managing and
supervision in concern with services provisions. A major concentration is on productivity and usefulness
of the procedures (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). Thus, operation management involves significant
measurement and internal procedure analysis. This management scope include purchase management,
control of inventory and quality, logistics, storage and process evaluation. In Waitrose, the key
approaches that can be used in management operations are Total Quality Management (TQM) and
Continuous improvement (Kaizen).
TQM: It is the management systems that are dependent on the principle that each member of the
management needs to manage good standards of operations in each perspective of Waitrose business
operations.
Kaizen: It is the ongoing process improvement of services and products through regular and additional
improvements. Thus, Waitrose carry out continuous improvement by making changes at small scale
instead of executing large scale modifications.
Role of leaders and managers in operation management
Role of leaders in operation management in Waitrose:
 Leader supports the operational activities by motivating the technicians to reduce the work
related complexities and to remain safe at sites.
 Leaders motivates designer to design the most creative services that attracts the consumers for
supermarket (Ingram et.al. 2015).
 The leader in operational department takes and aware about the service quality and motivates the
staffs to conduct the best operational jobs.
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 Creating the staff trust by remaining positive when the organization is not going well.
Role of managers in operation management in Waitrose
 Planning and supervising the activities are the duty of the operational manager in relation to
service provisions.
 On the basis of customer’s needs and wants from the organization; managers gain, create and
pass the products (Hill et.al. 2014).
 Efficiency of the operations is also managed by the managers with effective utilization of
resources and minimizing the wastage in operations.
 Developing the new procedure and coordinating the activities are done by operational manager
along with re-assessing the existing structures.
 Operational manager also have two important duties that includes organizing and productivity
and the working operations also need flexibility from the operation manager (Sekaran and
Bougie, 2016).
 The control of business operations is done by operational manager, so as to have assurance about
the safety and quality of the working operations which is being conducted by the staffs in each
operational procedure.
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
Waitrose main business objectives are to survive in competitive era, to enhance the sales, to have profit
maximization, customer satisfaction and consistent growth. Operation management is very much
important as it includes six important functions such as:-
Controlling and distribution systems: it is important as it supports in setting and running needs
controlling systems. This system ensures quality in the services and products. And for delivering the
goods at customer ends, the Waitrose needs to have efficient distribution systems.
Transferring raw materials into finished services: Without transformation of raw inputs into complete
services, there would not be any existence of product and services. Thus, no transformation procedure
results into no sale, no profit and no business survival (Porter and Kramer, 2019).
Process designing: Different types of processes are needed that includes procurement, recruitment,
distribution and production procedures. In the absence of needed procedures, no objectives can be met.
10

Capacity management: Under production or over production should be carried out in the operations.
This situation is not suitable for the Waitrose as it increases and in long run the organization cannot
survive. Management of capacity is done on the basis of planning and deciding the production needed to
meet the customer satisfaction.
Logistics and inventory management: Logistic is important as it assures that input goods are transported
within the organization and after processing finished goods are transported till the outlet of Waitrose.
Thus, if there is no logistics then no sales for the organization. While on other side inventory
management is also the procedure of reviewing and control of quantities (Pfeffer, 2014).
Scheduling: Proper scheduling will support the operational manager to meet the business objectives on
time. Further, it will also assist in what shall be done, when it is to be done and how shall be done in
every procedure and project.
Operation management and achieving objectives
Increase in sale can be done by generating good quality services with the low cost so that customers can
easily adopt. The next objective is long term sustainability which can be achieved by lowering the cost
and generating good quality products and services that will give maximum customers. By designing the
product as per the customer demand, the objective of customer satisfaction is achieved by operation
management. The profit maximization is also possible by converting labor and materials into finished
goods for selling. The cost function is managed by operational team and department to meet the greatest
net operating revenues. Further, lean production is also useful approach in improving effectiveness and
business profitability (Van Der Aalst et.al. 2016). Consistent growing is also crucial by influencing more
customers to have appropriate product designing at low and reasonable cost with quick production.
11

LO4
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision-making by leaders and managers
Business environment is effected by the variety of elements that includes political, social, economical,
technological and legal. There are basically four factors that create the modern business environment
and their impact of environment on operation management is as follows:-
Corporate social responsibility: In this context, it is the responsibility of the management to work
towards the society welfare by carrying out activities of waste and pollution reduction, funding towards
the educational programs and generating revenue on the resources deployed (Epstein and Buhovac,
2014).
Figure 2: CSR framework
(Source: eNGie, 2018)
In this operational management leaders should take care of the distributors and suppliers as well. Thus,
CSR supports the leaders to be more responsible for the customer’s well being. Managers or leaders will
12

face decision making issues related to CSR due to the fact that Waitrose shareholders may not prefer to
use organization resource on non customers.
Stakeholders: Waitrose stakeholder can impact and also get impacted by the strategy and new projects.
Both internal and external stakeholders are involved of both levels top as well as junior levels.
Figure 3: Types of stakeholders
(Source: Stakeholders types, 2018)
Generally, stakeholders did not majorly impact the operations and manager decisions. The stakeholder’s
effects on the operation management are very complex due to different stakeholder’s expectations. For
instance: The customer visit the Waitrose needs high quality product with reasonable pricing but
shareholder’s will mostly want that customers gives high prices for high quality maintenance of the
organization for cost covering and remain in profits.
Thus, operational leader faces the complex situations for satisfying expectations which are completely
different of every stakeholder.
Sustainability: The business objective is to ensure long term sustenance which is possible by not
harming to the environment which supports in long term environmental balances. Further waste
reduction and no damage to environment is also possible to achieve sustainability.
13

In many cases, leaders are hesitated towards the sustenance as it costly and very completed in business
operation conducting (Grayson and Hodges, 2017). It also requires heavy investments in acquiring new
eco-friendly technology.
Intrapreneurship: It includes introduction of latest ideas for the objective of developing value in which
activity includes developing new self prepared organization within the current organization. It also refers
to act like entrepreneur in big organization like Waitrose.
This supports in faster innovation for managing consistency along with flexibility in experimenting
different growth and operations. Further it also encourages independence and autonomy (Harrison and
Lock, 2017).
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Conclusion
In the current study, the report had discussed about the internal management and business operations to
meet the business objectives of Waitrose. The role of leaders and managers are highlighted that shows
that leadership is one of the part of management functions. Different situations are also discussed that
are low changing situation, low to moderate changing situation and fast changing situation by showing
the impact on leader role and manager functions. Situational leadership, system theory and contingency
concepts are also reviewed in the report. Approaches such as TQM and Kaizen had been explained for
effective operation management and leader and manager roles are reviewed. At the end, the study had
thrown the light on operation management importance and value in Waitrose along with business
environmental factors is also explained in the report.
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