Role of Leaders and Managers in Operational Management at M&S Ltd

This report discusses the different roles and characteristics of leaders and managers in operational management at M&S Ltd. It explores the key approaches to operational management and the impact of leaders and managers in achieving business objectives. The report also covers the theories and models of leadership and management, as well as the role of leaders and managers in different situational contexts. Additionally, it highlights the importance of operational management in M&S Ltd and the external factors that impact it.

MANAGEMENET
AND
OPERATIONS

INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
P1. The different role and characteristics of a leader and a manager.................................................3
P2. The role of a leader and the function of a manager in different situational context.....................5
P3. Different theories and models of approaches for manger and leaders..........................................6
P.4. The key approaches to operational management and the role leaders and managers play in
M&S ltd.............................................................................................................................................7
P5. Explaining the importance and value of operations management in achieving Business
objectives of M&S Ltd......................................................................................................................9
P6. The external factors that impact the operational management and the decision of leaders and
manager of M&S Ltd.........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Operational management is a significance part of any organisation, it is an area of
management which is concerned with designing and controlling process of production and
over viewing business operations. It is an act of managing and organising the process of
converting raw material into finished product. Marks & Spencer is a retail outsource
Company, a leading brand in UK deal in clothing, home accessories etc. The present report is
based on the operational management and role played manager and leaders in M&S Ltd. the
report will also discussed the role of manager and leader in different situational changes in
organisation. Theories and models of leadership and management will be discussed in present
report. Present report will anticipated about the approaches of operation management in M&S
Ltd. Different impact of eternal factors on organisation will be discussed in present study.
P1. The different role and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
Leadership and management are two crucial aspects of an organisation. Leadership is
a ability a person to lead his team or company or his subordinates to work for a common goal
of team and company. A leader develops a clear vision of future objectives and goals of
company, communicates it to his followers and motivate them to achieve those objectives
which would lead the company to success.
Management on the other hand is defined as an act of organising and co-ordinating the entire
activities of an organisation to achieve its goals, objectives mission and vision (Buckingham
and Coffman, 2014). It is process to ensures that all the resources of a company is well
manage in profitable ,manner to enhance the productivity and maximize the profitability of
organisation.
Leaders and manager plays a significance role in M&S ltd. Different roles and
characteristics of leaders and manager are as follows:
Leader Manager
Leader in the M&S ltd works to create the Manager of M&S Ltd works for the current

future. process in organisation.
Leaders always works to make changes in
organisation
Managers make decisions to achieve balance
of resources.
Leaders are always ready to take risks Managers try to avoid the risk and tries to
control the activities.
Leaders always see problems as an
opportunity and challenges.
Managers analyse the problems and tries to
resolve it soon.
Leaders in M&S ltd creates a vision for the
future achievement of company.
Manager focus on setting, measuring and
achieving goals of M&SLtd.
Leader’s works innovatively, they are not
bound to do in a process manner.
Managers work in a particular manner and
follows a procedure.
Leaders focuses on motivating their
employees and followers and try to build a
healthy relation with them(Pless, Maak and
Waldman, 2012).
Managers of M&S ltd. took decisions and
communicate it to the employees. They focus
on direction.
Leaders aim for the growth and development
of organisation.
Managers oh M&S Ltd works for the
attainment of the required results.
Leaders in a company will works to promote
changes.
Managers will makes steps to remove the
changes on any activity.
A leaders will work to align the people in
organisation.
Manager will focus on the policies and
procedures.
The various functions of leadership are:
 Setting goals is the primary function of a leader for his team member in orfer to
achieve a task.
 Leadership helps in organising activities of the task and resources for the task and
make it available to the right members.
 Leadership enables a leader is able to take right actions or decisions for task without
depending on anyone.
 The leaders are tend to direct and motivate his subordinates to perform a task.
Whereas, the functions of management in M&S Ltd are as follows:
 Planning is one the fundamental function of management controls all the planning
which are needed for the organisation to achieve its objectives. It includes setting the
mission, goals and strategies of the M&S ltd.
 Organising is the controlling the overall organisational structure of M&S ltd, which is
an integral function of M&S ltd. it includes matching and balancing the resources of
organisation.
 Controlling is the motoring takes place to make sure everything goes as it planned.
The management helps the organisation in checking whether all other functions are
working efficiently and effectively for M&S ltd overall profitability.
P2. The role of a leader and the function of a manager in different situational context.
Situational leadership refers to when the leader or manager of an organisation must
adjust his style to according to the different level of employees as per the different situation
arise. With situational leadership, it is up to the leader to change his style, not the follower to

adapt to the leader’s style, not the follower to adapt the leadership style (Lonsdale and
Obradovic, 2014). In situational leadership, the style may change continually to meet the
needs of others in M&S Ltd based on the different situation.
For example M&S ltd is going to implement digital technology in organisational process. The
approaches of situational leadership in context to this situation changes are as follows:
 Telling and directing:
In telling and directing, the leader of the M&S Ltd makes decisions regarding
new plan and informing others employees in the organization regarding new
technology and decision make according to them. This style of leadership may also be
referred to as micro-management as the leader and manager is very involved and
closely supervises the people who are working. With this style of leadership, it is a
very top-down approach and the employees simply do exactly what they are
instructed to do.
 Selling And Coaching:
With the selling and coaching style of leadership, the leader and manager is
still very involved in the day-to-day activities. The decisions still ultimately lie with
the leader; however, motivation is still required to the employees before the decision
is implemented (Lynch, McCormack and McCance, 2011). With this style of
situational leadership, employees are still supervised but it is in more of a coaching
manner where proper training regarding new plan will be given to them rather than a
management manner where just information will be given.. This style typically works
well with those employees who are inexperienced and still learning. It involves direct
motivation to increase their confidence and self esteem.
 Participating And Supporting
The participating and supporting style of situational leadership gives more
responsibilities more responsibility to the employers or followers. While the leader still
provides some direction, the decisions ultimately lie with the follower. The leader and
manager is there to provide feedback and to increase their confidence and motivation with
praise and feedback for the tasks completed. Those who work well under this style of
situational leadership have the necessary skills but lack the confidence or motivation to
achieve them.
P3. Different theories and models of approaches for manger and leaders.
A leader focuses on long term prospective of organisation while manages follows
follows short term prospective (Lynch, McCance, McCormack and Brown, 2018). There are
different theories and models which will help in understanding the manager styles and
functions of manager in M&S ltd.

1.Contingency theory:
According to this theory, the effectiveness of leadership style is based on how he deals with
different situation. The leader has to find out which style has to adopt while dealing with the
different situation (Sosik and Jung, 2018). This theory states that there is no one best style of
leadership and a leader’s work is effective only when he knows which style has to adopt in
different situation. As M&S ltd is facing a new situation of adapting new digital technology.
The leaders should enable to know how to deal with the situation in according with the
change in employee’s reaction and changes. The theory states that there are three factors that
help leadership effectiveness:
Leader-member relations: it helps in understanding leaders perceptions of his relationship
with his employees. Favourable relation will help a leader to easily deal with changing
situation and with employees problems (Eva and et.al., 2018). Where, unfavourable
relationship will require an effective communication and style to cope up with different
situation.
Task-culture: This factor relates to whether the structure of the work in company is
highly structured. The task has to be well defined or manageable, or the leader will be in
trouble. In situations changes, tasks are not always well defined or prioritized well.
Power culture: This factor relates if leaders or managers level of authority is based on
punishing or rewarding behaviour.
The combination of leader-member relations, task-culture and power create different
situations in which a leader has to fit his style.
2.System Leadership:
It enables the leader in M&S ltd. To create the condition or environment where all employees
at all level in company can work with all their efforts to work productively to their potential.
It uses principles about human behaviours to create theories of good leadership,
organisational strategy, system design and social process (Boylan, 2018). It helps in
providing tools to the leaders that will help leaders to get a tool that will help that will help
leader to predict about people behaviour in the M&S ltd. It also help in building effective
system which help in productive behaviour of employees and lead to more effective
realisation of the organisation’s goals and objectives.
3.Situational leadership:
This theory suggests that no single leadership style is best. It depends on different situations
in organisation and which type of leadership and strategies are best suited with the task.
According to this theory, the most effective leaders are those who are capable to adopt
different style of leadership as according to different situations in M&S Ltd (Kamp, 2018).
Telling, selling, participating and delegating are different approaches of leadership styles.
4.Chaos theory:

This is the management theory that states that every organisation faces different
situations with different management functions. It states to predict the unpredictable in
organisational functions and operations. There are some natural phenomenon of situations
like turbulence, whether, stock market. this theory is based applied on those organisations
where the management wants to keep their employees always ready to face any kind of
critical situation in market without getting de-motivated.
5. Management by Objectives:
It is a model that aims to improve the performance of M&S ltd. By clearly defining
objectives which are agreed to both management and employees. It is a process where the
management and employees of M&S Ltd jointly identify the goals, define each departments
responsibility of employees. It is based on the assumptions that involvement leads to
commitment and with employees taking participating in goal setting of organisation will
leads the enhancement of performance level of employees towards that goal and increase
their motivation also. In that manner it will directly contributes to the achievements of
organisational objectives and goals.
P.4. The key approaches to operational management and the role leaders and managers play
in M&S ltd.
Operation management is a process of planning, organizing and supervising the
process of production, manufacturing in M&S Ltd. It is a system that requires planning,
regulating, executing, controlling and supervising the production and manufacturing function
to maintain speed, cost, quality and flexibility of operational activity (Davies, 2018).
Operation Management is about producing and delivering its product and services that satisfy
market requirements and customer satisfaction. Different approaches of operational
management that can help M&S ltd. are:
 Total Quality Management: it an act of management system for a customer focused
organisation with the involvement all employee in continual improvement. It ensures
that all tasks of employees are to accomplish the goals of M&S ltd. TQM emphasis is
put on fact based decision making, with the proper use of performance metrics to
check the progress.
 Just-in-time inventory:- It is a strategy which increases efficiency and decreases
wastes only by receiving goods when they are needed in the production process
which help in reducing inventory costs. Just in inventory in operations management
helps in organisation to reduce the overstock and under stock of inventory.
 Six- sigma: the approach is statistical based, data- driven and continuous
improvement methodology for eliminating defects in a product and process. It is a
method that provides organisation tools to improve the capability of their business
processes (Hopkin, 2018). This increase in performance and decrease in process
variation lead to defect reduction and improvement in profits, employee morale and
quality of products
The role of operation management is very important for operating activities in
M&S Ltd to ensure that all manufacturing process is efficient to enhance the profitability in

M&S Ltd. An operations manager plays an important role in M&S Ltd. The specific work of
an operation manager depends on the nature and the size of an enterprise, organization or a
company.they required specific skills and ability to deal with any situational changes in
operating activities in organisation.. Meanwhile, an operations leader is someone who sees
how the specific components of an organization fit together and work to create the larger
outcome. Role and responsibilities of operational manager and leaders in M&S Ltd are :
1.An Operations Manager Is Sensible:
An able operations manager comprehends that employees are a valuable resource and can
efficiently communicate with operations staff. That not only includes providing basic facts
and feedback but also listening to the authorized employees of the same team.
2. An Operations Manager Manages Resources:
An operations manager role is to efficiently managing both raw materials and personnel.
Supervision of inventory, purchasing and supplies is the central job for raw materials and
personnel includes determining needs, hiring employees, inspecting assignments of
employees and planning staff development.
3.An Operations Manager Focuses On Quality:
In today’s market, the main focus of an organization is on quality of its product. As getting an
rejection based on the quality by the supplier it is better to get the lower rate of rejection by
ensuring the quality of the product (Holweg and et.al., 2018). And when operations manager
focuses on the quality, it helps to inspire the employees to try to meet leader’s expectations.
4.Operations Leaders Are Productive At Supply Chain Management:
Supply chain management plays a vital role in the success of any company. An
effective operations leader in any organization works to create and execute supply chain
strategies which maximizes productivity, can handle fluctuations in demand and minimizes
risk. For effective supply chain management an operations leader requires knowledge of
manufacturing, transportation, warehouse, logistics as well as customers.
5.Operations Leader Do Not Manage They Lead:
Strong operations leaders work to make sure that goals are met and no further
problem arise. They feel the need to maintain a close eye on certain operations, arranging
periodic meeting with various departments and managers to meet the goals and addressing
sensitive issues. One of the hardest task for an operations leader is finding when a team
member is struggling to meet performance goals (Epstein, 2018). It is important for the
operations leader to identify and inform the management team about employees who are
excelling and those who are falling behind. So as to remedy the situation by encouraging the
top performers to keep performing their best and to find a solution to bring underperformers
to standards.

P5. Explaining the importance and value of operations management in achieving Business
objectives of M&S Ltd.
Operational management is a process that involves planning, organising, managing,
controlling and supervising the production and manufacturing process. The major aim of an
operating manager is to ensure timely delivery of the products of M&S ltd and to ensures the
successfully turning the raw material into finished products and accomplishing the objectives
of M&S Ltd.
The importance and value operations management in M&S Ltd:
 Operational management is important for M&S Ltd. to manage the daily activity
smoothly. It is useful for making good use for its resources like labour, raw material,
money and other resources.
 It is essential to improve the overall productivity of company. The ratio of input to
output is termed as productivity. It gives measures of the efficiency of the manager as
well as to the employees of the M&S Ltd. the approaches of OM focuses on using the
available resources in the best possible way to achieve the organisational goals and
objectives (Mena, Van Hoek and Christopher, 2018).
 OM helps is the optimum utilization of resources leading to enormous profit on
organisation. It helps the employees of organisation to use raw materials more
efficiently utilized and converted into the goods required by the organisation.
P6. The external factors that impact the operational management and the decision of leaders
and manager of M&S Ltd.
An organisational can get affected by a number of external factors which can affect
the operations of the business and also the decision-making part of the M&S Ltd. these
factors can also affect the decisions of manager and leaders of organisational management of
M&S Ltd. some of the external factors are:
 Globalization: it is s process of interaction among the people, companies and
government of different nation on a single platform. Operation managers face
competition from many other companies because of globalisation. So quality
decisions have to be taken by leaders and manager to improve the quality of
production by enhancing the procedure of operations activity of M&S lts.
 Sustainability: it is a method of evaluating weather business can maintain its existing
practices without putting future resources at risk. It depends on the factors of social,
environmental, and economic (What External Factors Can Affect an Operational
Plan?, 2018). Operations manager must concern themselves with the outcomes of
these factors and ensures the works affects safety, and sustainability. Manager and
leaders must implement best practices with all concern of these factors of
sustainability.
 Ethical conducts: it plays an important role in ethics plays in production. M&S ltd
should consider the effects of new technology, business deals have on people, and
environments.

CONCLUSION
By analysing the above report, it can be concluded that the role of leaders and
manager in operational management is integral in M&S Ltd. leaders and manager helps in
improving and increasing the productivity of both employees and operational activities of
M&S ltd. the above report will conclude about the different role of manager and leaders
and how they are different in their performance. The report included different styles and
functions of leaders and manager which they play in different situations in M&S Ltd.
theories of leadership style and management function will be analysed in present report.
The approaches of OM and the role played by leaders and managers in operational
management are concluded in above report. The report has also concluded about different
external factors that impacts operational management of M&S ltd.

REFERENCES
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Kamp, A., 2018. Assembling the actors: exploring the challenges of ‘system leadership’in
education through Actor-Network Theory. Journal of Education Policy. 33(6). pp.778-
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Davies, B., 2018. Exploring chaos: Theory and experiment. CRC Press.
Hopkin, P., 2018. Fundamentals of risk management: understanding, evaluating and
implementing effective risk management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Holweg, M. and et.al., 2018. Process Theory: The Principles of Operations Management.
Oxford University Press.
Epstein, M. J., 2018. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and
measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.
Mena, C., Van Hoek, R. and Christopher, M., 2018. Leading procurement strategy:
driving value through the supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers.

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