Management and Operation Report

This report examines the management and operations of Marks and Spencer, a leading retail company. It analyzes the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, explores different leadership theories and models, and investigates key approaches to operations management. The report also analyzes factors impacting the business environment and decision-making, providing recommendations for future improvement.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction of the company..............................................................................................1
2. Roles and characteristics of leaders and managers.............................................................1
3. Different theories and models of approaches.....................................................................3
4. Roles of the leaders and functions of the managers in different situations........................4
5. Analysis and evaluation of different approaches and theories...........................................4
6. Strengths and Weaknesses of Leadership models of approaches and theories..................5
7. Recommendations for future improvement .......................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
1. Key approaches to operations management and ...............................................................6
2. The role that leaders and managers play............................................................................7
3. Importance and value of key approaches of operations management................................7
4. Analyse different factors affect the business environment and meet business objectives. 8
5. Factors that impact upon operational management and decision-making..........................8
6. Evaluation of application and factors that impact on wider business environment...........9
7. Conclusion and suggestion for future recommendations...................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations are the instrument that helps to run a business smoothly. It
also helps the management to take various decisions and to lead the organisation toward success.
Managers are liable to manage the work and keep a record of the operational activities. This
project reports are mainly based on Marks and Spencer.
This reports consist various topics that are characteristics, roles and functions of
managers and leaders, leadership theories, key approaches in operation management and also
focuses on the importance and values of business management and business environment that
influence the decision making power of managers and leaders (Drucker, 2012).
TASK 1
1. Introduction of the company
Marks and Spencer is a company that deals in products and services. Its headquarter is in
the city of Westminster, London. It was established by Sir Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer
in 1884. It provides various kind of products and services such as clothing, home décor,
furniture, food and wine, energy M&S bank and online services. Flat management structure is
followed within the organisation. In flat organizational structure there are no barriers for the
employees and they do not have to follow a hierarchy of communication. In such type of
structure the managers and leaders take advice from their workers and involve them in decisions
making process so that they may work with full efforts and get highly engaged in their liabilities.
2. Roles and characteristics of leaders and managers
A leader is a person who is leading a team or a group of people. A leader give command
to the team members and they are liable to follow the leader. Leadership is a skill that helps a
leader to lead a team. It also helps the leader to create vision for future, motivate and inspire the
team (Burns, 2014). Manager is responsible to manage the activities an operations of the
company. Managers follow the management concepts that are planning, organising, directing and
controlling. Management functions direct managers to set a proper work environment.
A manager is the person who is liable to manage the operational as well as functional
activities of the organisation and to organise and train a support team for every activity.
Management is a process of planning, controlling, dealing and executing organisational activities
to achieve predetermined goals (Hooshmand, Asghari and Sharma, 2014). Leaders are liable to
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lead and motive group of employees. Leaders follow various leadership theory such as great man
theory, trait theory and behavioural theory. According to great man theory a leader is born, he is
not made, and trait theory says that individuals have few qualities that helps them to be a
successful leader. Behavioural theory divide leaders in to two categories, first who are involved
in the tasks and second who are involved in the people.
Comparison of roles and characteristics of leaders and managers
Basis Leader Manager
Meaning A leader is a person who leads and
motivate a group of people. A leader
should have sound quality of
commitments toward mission of the
organisation. Marks and Spencer
consider to develop worldwide leaders
by providing them outstanding training
and opportunities.
A manager is responsible to manage the
organisation and a manager should be
able to control various departments of the
company. Marks and Spencer provide
various benefits to the managers to
motivate them to improvise their work
quality.
Role  Supporter: A leader should
support and cooperate with the
team members of his team.
 Guide: Leader guide his team
for every activity. Leaders in
Marks and Spencer provide
guidance to their subordinates
so that they can perform with
their full efficiency.
 Motivator: A leader motivate
his team to work hard it helps to
improve work quality of the
employees.
 Controller: A manager is liable
to take control over the operation
of the company. This is the main
role of Marks and Spencer's
managers.
 Analyser: Main responsibility of
a manager to analyse activities of
the company so that it can
facilitate the work.
 Negotiator: A managers
represents the company at major
negotiations (Ahuja, R. K., 2017).
Characteri
stics
 Honesty: Leader in Marks and
Spencer are honest with the
 Delegation: Managers of Marks
and Spencer are delegated with
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employees and this help to
interact with them easily and
lead the organisation toward
massive success.
 Decision making capabilities:
A leader should be able to take
right decision that is in favour
of employees as well as the
organisation.
 Empathy: Leaders should show
empathy toward their followers.
If a leader fails to develop
empathy, then it will affect the
relation with the employees.
their work, it helps them to work
together with employees and
reduce work load.
 Confident: A manager should be
confident in his abilities,
experiences and decisions.
 Positive attitude: Managers in
large organisations like Marks and
Spencer should have positive
attitude. It helps them to keep
their morale high. A manager can
motivate employees by keeping a
good attitude while dealing with
them.
3. Different theories and models of approaches
To achieve business objectives and goals, handle execution process of business, it is
important for the leaders of Marks and Spencer to follow various leadership theories. The
theories are discussed as below:
Situational leadership: It is developed by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey. It is
mainly based on the relationship of leaders and their followers. It is used by the leaders of Marks
and Spencer to analyse the performance of employees in various tasks. It refers to the situation
where leaders have to adjust their work style or behaviour according to the employees. In this
theory it is defined that the employees are not liable to change their behaviour but the leaders
have to change their working behaviour (Marchington, and et. al., 2016). Marks and Spencer use
situational theory of leadership that helps the leaders to analyse the performance of the
employees. Leaders can determine the performances by distributing them various tasks, for
example if Marks and Spencer get a huge order from a client, in this situation leaders have an
opportunity to determine the performance. They can distribute tasks to the employees and
determine their performance according to their work quality.
System leadership: This style of leadership is developed by Dr. Ian Mcdonald. It is used
by the leaders of Marks and Spencer to create opportunities where employees can work fruitfully
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to their potential. The leaders can predict behaviour of the employees with the help of this style
of leadership. It also helps to form impressive systems which can create productive behaviour
and lead to a more effective way to achieve organisational goals. When leaders provide various
opportunities to the employees where they can work productively it will help in organisational
growth and improved performance.
Contingency leadership: This theory is developed by Fiedler. It defines that
effectiveness of leadership is dependent on meeting a leader's behaviour to the right situation. It
expects that styles or behaviours of employees and leaders cannot be modified or changed. It
helps to determine leader's ability to deal with the sudden situation and his respond to the
situation (Mateo, and et. al., 2014). When leaders perform good in various contingencies, it will
result in better execution of activities by the leaders and their teams and will contribute in
organisational growth and improved performance.
4. Roles of the leaders and functions of the managers in different situations
There are various situations when a leader has to perform different roles. The roles are
defined below:
Decision making: It is a situation where leaders and managers have to take various
decisions related to different actions. Managers have to make decisions related to organisational
and managerial activities. They make decision to administrate operational as well as execution
tasks. When there is any problem in organisation's operations managers have to make quick and
appropriate decisions to resolve the same. Leaders make decision to inspire, motive and control
their team. When there is any issue among employee, leaders have to make decision to remove
the issues and control the team. They also have to inspire their team by making decisions that can
help to motivate their team and improve their work quality.
Risk taking: Risk taking is a situation where managers and leaders have to take various
risks to attain organisational goals, improve performance and to maintain a good environment at
work place. Managers take various risks such as financial, ethical and other to increase profits of
the organisation. Leaders take risk of forgiveness, integrity and support that may create risks for
them. They take risks to improve the work quality of the employees so that it can help to achieve
organisational as well as individual goals(Majidi, and et. al., 2017).
Both the roles of the managers and leaders help them to be more effective while they are
performing their responsibilities and liabilities. If they are not able to perform effectively at the
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time of difficulties than it is to be successful in life. Managers and leaders of the company are
liable to make effective decisions and take risks so that the organisation can attain huge success.
5. Analysis and evaluation of different approaches and theories
Leaders and managers of Marks and Spencer always put full efforts to attain
organisational goals and lead the organisation toward success. Managers have various functions
such as planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling. That helps them to hire eligible
staff, and keep a track record of organisational activities. Leaders use various leadership theories
such as situational, system and contingency that helps them to deal with unfavourable events,
analyse behaviour of the employees. These theories also help leaders to provide various
situations to the employees to improve their effectiveness of performing their duties. In
situational leadership the leader try to find solution for the problems according to the situations
and they perform effectively in all the situations. This type of leadership may help to find
effective ways to deal with the issues that may occur in future. System leadership is mainly
concerned with multiple attributes and help to attain organisational as well as individual goals.it
helps the managers to identify the nature of employees so that they may deal with them
accordingly. Contingency leadership is a type of leadership in which it is required that leaders
should deal with all the contingencies effectively. It results positively for the company only in
that situation when leaders appropriately deal with their subordinates.
6. Strengths and Weaknesses of Leadership models of approaches and theories
Theory Strengths Weaknesses
Situational
Leadership
 It allows leaders to effectively
drive behaviour change.
 It helps to create a democratic
language of performance.
 It can divert attentions away
from long term strategies.
 It is a time taking process, takes
too much time to give accurate
results.
System
Leadership
 It focuses on multiple attributes
of management in the company.
 It helps to achieve individual as
well as organisational goals.
 It may not be applied in small
organisations.
 It may lead to delay in decision
making process of leaders.
Contingency  It is useful for the organisation  It is very complex for the
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Leadership to develop leadership profiles.
 Leaders give importance to the
employee’s opinion.
employees and untrained leaders
to understand.
 It only suggests that what should
be done in gives situation.
7. Recommendations for future improvement
The mangers and leaders of the organisation recommend that company should properly
analyse the performance of the employees, to attain organisational objectives. For this purpose,
they can use leadership approaches in various departments to analyse the performance of each
individual and may record their efficiency of performing tasks. It is also suggested to the
managers and leaders of M & S to be more cooperative with workforce of the company so that
they may perform all the activities effectively and that may help to achieve all the organisational
as well as personal goals of employees. Managers should fulfil all their responsibility toward
company and the employees so that they may get motivated and work appropriately.
TASK 2
1. Key approaches to operations management and
Operation management refers to designing and controlling process of production and
redesigning business execution process in the production of goods and services. It helps the
managers to create the highest level of efficiency possible to maximize sales and profits of the
company (Operation Management, 2016). Marks and Spencer use operation management system
to manage a record of operational activities. Various types of techniques used in operation
management are explained below:
Six sigma methodology: It is a method which is used to improve the quality of operation
management by reducing cost and losses. Cost reduction is possible when the managers analyse
the experts in the organisation which help to save cost of hiring different people for different
departments. It ensures the quality of products of Marks and Spencer by removing defects from
distribution process which is possible when managers and leaders assures quality and check the
products before buying it from manufacturer. It also helps to improve overall process by
identifying fields for improvement (Witt, Brooke and Buckley, 2013). In Marks and Spencer six
sigma methodology is used to improve performance of the company. Six sigma tools are
explained below:
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 DMAIC approach (define, measure, analyse, improve and control): It is the most
focused tools that is used by Marks and Spencer. This tool includes five steps that are
explained below:
First: The first step is to define business problems, organisational goals, and potential
resources.
Second: Next step is to measure the performance of running business to identify the areas
where improvement is required.
Third: Analyse the performance and create a list of prioritize actual reasons of problems.
Forth: Improve the production process by implementing and identifying the solutions.
Fifth: Control the whole organisation and sustain the profits by monitoring the
improvements to ensure success in coming period (Nakamura, and Abe, 2014).
 Just in time: It is mainly used in manufacturing process to reduce the time involve in
manufacturing process. It is used by Marks and Spencer to increase efficiency and
improve execution level of business activities. It helps the management of the company
by providing the actual status of inventory, and they can order the goods when they need
it by analysing the inventory in warehouses. This method requires accurate forecasted
demand to result in favour of the company.
Lean principles: It is mainly related to the maximisation of profits and sales, and
minimisation of the waste of inventory by maintaining supply chain in a proper manner. It will
reduce the time and cost and help to increase profits. It helps Marks and Spencer to achieve
business objectives. Five important lean principles that are value, value stream, flow, pull and
perfection help the company evaluate customer's perception and their needs and fulfil their needs
faster.
2. The role that leaders and managers play
Roles of leaders and managers: Marks and Spencer always try to improve its
productivity by analysing operational activities
 Managers of Marks and Spencer always try to improve its productivity by analysing
operational activities.
 Leaders try to set a unique brand image in the mind of customers by analysing
performance of the company (O'Fallon and Rutherford, 2011).
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 Managers administrate the operation and execution activities of the company and tries to
increase the profit level of the company.
 Leaders motivate the employees to improve their work quality and plan to face frequent
market changes. Leaders in Marks and Spencer always try to improve performance level
of employees by providing proper guidance to the employees.
 Managers are responsible to manage all the workforces in effective manner so that they
may perform all their responsibilities effectively.
 Managers keep record of all the operations of the company and than make effective
decisions that are required to enhance organisational performance.
 Leaders try to cooperate with their employees so that their work quality can be enhanced
that may result in increased productivity of the whole organisation.
 Leaders are liable to lead their team so that all the tasks can be handled and completed
effectively and their team may get success in the whole project.
3. Importance and value of key approaches of operations management
Operation management is the process of administrating business practices that are aimed
to improve efficiency level of the business. In Marks and Spencer operation management is used
to monitor and control the capabilities of the individuals to improve the performance of the
business (Pavasson, and et. al., 2014). Here are discussed the basic significance of operation
management approaches to function the operations on Marks and Spencer adequately:
Utilization of available resources: It refers to the proper use of available resources. In
Marks and Spencer utilization of resources is done properly, that's why it is continuously
growing and acquiring more and more customers. It adequately uses available resources that
helps to reduce the waste and increase profitability (Pavlineri, Skoulikidis and Tsihrintzis, 2017).
Just in time approach helps to analyse available resources by providing actual information of
supply chain and inventory.
Improve productivity: Marks and Spencer use various tools to measure the performance
of the company it helps to identify the areas where improvement is required. When the areas are
identified the managers plan for the improvement and apply them. It helps to set a positive
market image because of good productivity. Six sigma approach help to improve productivity of
the organisation by analysing the fields where improvement is required (Alderton and Saieva,
2013).
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4. Analyse different factors affect the business environment and meet business objectives
Marks and Spencer analysis several external factors which impact on its business
environment. Management adopt PEST analysis for operation management and decision making.
Manager identify modification in government policies under political factors which affect in
expansion of business. In economic factors manager evaluate rise in price of product because of
inflation. Company focus on customer's choices and preferences under social factor for
increasing its product sales. Technological factor assists in enhancing its business production and
sales with updated technology. Leaders and managers of Marks and Spencer should adopt six
sigma and lean principle methodology of operation management. Just in time and DMAIC tools
of six sigmas to identify problems and reduce cost and waste in production. Leaders use lean
principles to effectively meet customer's demand on time. Leaders also contribute to improve
market image by improving productivity.
There are various internal and external factors that are affecting organisational
performance as they directly affect it. If the organisation is not able to analyse these factors than
they may result negatively. It is very important to resolve all the issues that are related to those
factors. If the managers and leaders are working effectively than it will become easy to resolve
problems.
Internal factors are related to the production process, employees and other members and
external factors are related to customers, competitors, government, suppliers, shareholders etc.
All of them are the factors that can affect the business and its operations. They also help to attain
organisational objectives because if the competitors are having effective strategies than managers
also try to implement appropriate strategies so that predetermined goals can be achieved.
Customers also help to attain organisational objectives as they get attracted toward the company
by analysing its performance in the market which helps to increase profits and sales which is the
main goal of private companies like M & S.
5. Factors that impact upon operational management and decision-making
Operation management is the administration of business activities to create the higher
level of efficiency of the products of the organisation (Weske, 2012). In Marks and Spencer use
operation management to properly organise business execution activities. It can be affected by
the various external factors because managers and leaders both have to face various challenges
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that are related to external factors. The external factors are explained below, known as PEST
analysis:
Factors details
Political: These factors are mainly related with government laws that keep on
changing. If a law is changed it will affect the decision making of leaders
and managers because they have to change various strategies according
to law and of Marks and Spencer. Because the managers have to form
strategies according to law (Demirguc-Kunt, Klapper and Randall,
2013).
Economical: These factors include interest rate and economic growth. These factors
affect the decision making of Marks and Spencer because interest rate
affect cost of capital and if it is affected then managers have to changes
decision related to it.
Social: These factors are related to cultural aspects, customers taste and
preferences. It affects the decision making of Marks and Spencer's
managers in various aspects for example if customer's demand changes
then managers have to change the manufacturing process related
decisions and make products according to the demand.
Technological:
It include the technological factors that affect the decision making of the
managers. It includes technology changes, research and development. If
technology changes then customers of Marks and Spencer will demand
higher quality services and this affect the decisions that are related to
those services that are provided to the customers (Wild, 2017).
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6. Evaluation of application and factors that impact on wider business environment
Marks and Spencer follows operation management techniques for maintaining its product
quality which lead to future improvements and effectiveness in business working. Company use
Just in time and DMAIC approach for enhancing its product efficiencies. Leaders and managers
are important part of company which focus on creating brand image and effective decision-
making by adequate utilisation of resources. Its economic factors affect in cost of capital because
of change in interest rate. Company supply product according to customer's demand under social
factor and it provide high quality service with the use of updated technology. There are various
factors that are currently affecting business operations. All the factors can be analysed with the
help of PESTLE analysis as it is based on external environment of the business. A PESTEL
analysis is a combination of six different types of factors these factors are political, economic,
social, technological, legal and environmental. It is very important for the managers to keep idea
of such type of factors so that all the business issues can be dealt effectively.
7. Conclusion and suggestion for future recommendations
As analysed from above mentioned points, it is recommended to Marks and Spencer that
it should focus on external environments that may affect its business operations. PESTLE
analysis is a tool that help to determine the risk of these factors, so the management of the
company should conduct a PESTLE analysis which helps to control the factors that may affect
the business. It is essential for M & S to analyze its business environment so that all the
operations can be performed with higher accuracy. If the organization is not able to gather
information of external factors than it may result negatively for the company. It is suggested to
the management of the organization to take immediate actions when marketing issues take place
and affect organizational performance.
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that, leaders is a person who lead a
team and managers are liable to administer the operational activities of Marks and Spencer, both
have to play various roles in various situations. Leaders have to follow leadership theories such
as situational, systematic and contingency leadership styles. Managers have various functions to
follow that are planning, organising, controlling etc. In operation management leaders can use
six sigma and lean principles to reduce waste and meet customers demand on time. There are
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various factors that affect the operation management and decision making process. These factors
are political, economic, social and technology.
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Operation Management. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<https://managementmania.com/en/operations-management>
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