Leadership and Management in Contemporary Business Environment

This article discusses the factors that impact operational management and decision-making for the leaders and managers of Marks and Spencer. It also explores the relationship between leadership and management in the wider context of corporate social responsibility, ethics, culture, values, and sustainability.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................3
P6: Leadership and management in contemporary business environment..................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Leadership and management play a very significant role in the organisations whether large
or small. The managers where are responsible for developing the strategies and policies for
achieving the goals of the organisation, the leaders takes the responsibility for motivating and
encouraging the employees to strive hard to achieve the organisational goals. Marks and Spencer
is headquartered in London and is one of the well-known retailer companies in UK which sells
clothes, home and food products along with having a label on its every product. The section
below describes the factors which impacts the operational management as well as the decision-
making of the leaders and managers in the company Marks & Spencer. It will also highlight the
relationship between the leadership and management in the wider context.
LO 4
P6: Leadership and management in contemporary business environment
Factors that impact operational management and decision-making for the leaders and
managers of Marks and Spencer:
Organisational issues: Factors in context of Marks & Spencer that can affect the decision-
making of leaders and managers are resources of the organisation, various policies and
organisational procedures, organisational hierarchy and politics within the organisation. Policies
and procedures of M&S are formalised and documented which guide managers to take
appropriate decisions, follow guidelines for business operations, solving conflicts and common
problems (Aithal, 2017). Organisations have various levels of management and authority is set
accordingly. The degree of authority directly impacts on the operational management. For
example, a sales manager in Marks and Spencer cannot decide marketing objectives, which is the
authority of Senior managers of marketing department. Organisations consists of managers and
leaders with different interests, beliefs and values and are driving forces behind organisational
politics. For example, resource allocation can be influenced using politics and decisions of senior
leaders (Dźwigoł, 2017).
External environment factors: The major environmental factors that effect operations of Marks &
Spencer are the market of Marks and Spencer, the economic conditions, government legislation,
political climate and consumer behaviour. Other factors include, market trends, stakeholders and
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technological changes. Political factors like the impact of Brexit may change the ways in which
marketing heads devise their pricing policies due to disruption in supply chain. Social factors
like the response to marketing strategies may lead to a change in allocation of budgets in the
company etc. Technological factors like decisions regarding upgradation of automation or RFID
technology in the outlets of M&S. Legalities such as change in the standards of sustainability,
endorsements, outsourcing or labour laws can impact the operations of the retail company
(Zinovieva and et.al., 2016).
Market trends are dynamic in nature and managers have to continuously change and upgrade
their operations to be in sync with the latest fashion trends which have to analysed and
requirement s of customers have to be evaluated. Stakeholders which consist of employees,
customers, investors, suppliers and government institutions affect the decisions of the
organisation as whole.
Relationship between leadership and management in wider context
In contemporary business environment, relationship between leadership and management
affect the organisation in wider communities and business environment in context of corporate
social responsibility, ethics, culture, values and sustainability as well as stakeholders.
Leaders and mangers are dependent upon each other and have their own job roles and
responsibilities and decision-making practices. The leaders take strategic decisions, predict
future trends, set objectives and policies and devise corporate strategies. Managers are
responsible for taking care of resources, managing the workforce and implementing the
strategies by taking care of each and every activity. The powers of the managers in Marks &
Spencer are decentralised so that mangers can fulfilling the goals and organisational objectives.
In context of CSR, leaders and mangers must adopt business approaches that are sustainable in
nature as CSR activities impact local community. Culture is an important part of management
operations which impact decisions of various levels like production and marketing as well as
workforce management. Ethics, values and sustainability have to be in line with the management
operations and should fulfil the sustainability goals of Marks & Spencer (Engelbrecht, Heine and
Mahembe, 2017).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aithal, P.S., 2017. Impact of Domestic, Foreign, and Global Environments on International
Business Decisions of Multinational Firms: A Systematic Study. International Journal of
Management, Technology, and Social Sciences (IJMTS), 2(2), pp.93-104.
Dźwigoł, H., 2017. Organisational structure within the process of or-ganisation
management. Adres redakcji 00-099 Warszawa, ul. Canaletta 4, p. 301 tel.[phone],
w. 314 faks (22) 827 55 67 e-mail: mir@ pwe. com. pl, (7), p.172.
Engelbrecht, A.S., Heine, G. and Mahembe, B., 2017. Integrity, ethical leadership, trust and
work engagement. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Zinovieva, C.G., and et.al., 2016. Study of external and internal factors affecting enterprise’s
stability. Advances in Systems Science and Applications, 16(1), pp.62-71.
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