Difference between Leaders and Managers

This assignment explores the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers in an organization. It discusses the importance and value of operations management and the theories and models of approach used in management. The assignment also highlights the difference between leaders and managers in terms of nature and their roles in an organization.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

Table of Content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager...................3
Role of a Leader and the function of a Manager.............................................................................4
Theories and Models of Approach..................................................................................................5
Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role of leaders and managers......6
Explain the importance and value of operations management........................................................7
Impact upon operational management and decision-making by Leaders and managers.................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference List................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
In the current project report managers and leaders relative analysis is done in terms of features.
This assignment will also help to understand the role of a leader and manager. There are different
theories and models of approach related to management and operations. This assignment will
also describe what situational leadership is. This would also talk about system leadership and
contingency. In the current research report detailed analysis of facts and figures is done in order
to do more in-depth analysis. Thus, it can be said that in the present research study with full
granularity topics are analyzed in proper manner.
Difference between leaders and managers in terms of nature
A leader is someone who leads a group of people or a team. A leader also motivates their team
members and leads them towards the goal. There are different roles of a leader but mainly the
role of a leader in an organization is to integrate and reconcile the personal goals with the goals
of the organization. There are different traits which are commonly found in any leader around the
world. It is the role of the leader to influence the employees to achieve the organizational goals.
Needs to motivate the employees and guide them. The leader teaches the employees the entire
work process and helps to build morale. A leader needs to be honest and delegate. There should
be clear communication between the employees and the leader so that there is no communication
gap in the organization (Ferguson, et al, 2017). A leader needs to be creative in order to bring in
new ideas which can be beneficial for the organization. The leader should have enough
confidence so that he can lead an entire team or group of people. There should be positive
attitude inside a leader so that in the time of emergency the leader can handle the situation easily
without thinking negative and go on with the work in the organization (Alderton and Saieva,
2013). Leadership is responsibility and not power so one must not get confused between the two
things. A good leader is always important for business which can be in any sector. It is also
important to have new ideas.
A person who is responsible for taking charge of the administration of any business or is
responsible for controlling any organization is known as a manager. The manager takes all the
responsibilities of the employees and looks after them and guides them (Jacobs and Chase,
2017). There are different roles and responsibilities which the manager has and it is being given
to them so that they can take care of the employees and carry on the work without stopping it.
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The role of the manager is to coordinate and interact with the employees to know them better.
The managers help the organization by helping it to achieve the objectives and goals of the
organization (Heizer, 2016). A good manager must have positive attitude and warmth so that no
employees get affected by the attitude of the manager. The manager must be honest as well as
have patience in order to work with its team and help to complete the objectives of the
organization. There different other responsibilities of a manager but the main responsibilities are
to guide the employees and show the path to achieve success (Chiarini and Vagnoni, 2015). A
manager must be focused on one place as well as creative in order to possess the place of the
leader. The manager must also motivate its employees to perform at their highest capabilities.
Every manager must have empathy and the ability to delegate as well as be flexible in
workplace. All these characteristics make the perfect manager in any organization. It is important
for any organization to have good manager and leaders in order to reach the organizational goals
and objectives because mostly organization tends to achieve their goals with the help of them.
Manager and leader roles
There are different functions and roles of managers and leaders which helps the organization to
achieve the goals and objectives. There are many functions of the managers which can be very
useful for any organization. There are certain traits and styles of leader which attracts
organization and which also draws them towards those candidates because they are the only
people who actually understand the work which is to be done in order to achieve success. There
are several theories regarding management skills which can be used in order to achieve all the
leadership skills which are required to be the manager or leader of any organization. Every
organization requires managers and leaders in order to deal with problems and so that they can
create new strategies which can be very helpful for any organization (Slack, 2015). There are
different theories which are related to leadership theories which can be utilized in order to get
greater outputs from a leader so that the person can use them in order to doing his duties. There
are other theories as well which are very effective for any manager or leader working in some
organization. There is a theory called behavioral theory which states the behavior of the
employees working in an organization (Chevalier, et al, 2015). The entire topic of function of
manager can be explained easily with the different theories which are there to support those
theories. There are few things which an organization does not understand and so does most of the
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employees and this is the reason why the presence of leader or manager is important for M&S
Ltd. The managers at M&S Ltd are somewhat experienced and have all the ideas to express their
thoughts on the issues and challenges faced by the organization. These policies and models
helped M&S Ltd to reach their objectives and goals. There are different challenges which are
faced by the organization every year but M&S Ltd has used proper theories and models to face
those challenges. There have been situations where the prices of materials increased and the
equipment received from the suppliers where not up to the mark. These types of situations are
being handled by the managers to equalize the situation and resolve issues which are related to
the organization (Song and Parola, 2015). There are different policies which affect the work of
the employees and the rules are being by the managers so they have to be very alert while
dealing with other employees and keep them satisfied otherwise none will work for them. This is
the reason why always leaders and managers are busy with their work and while working they
tend to concentrate fully without listening to anything else (Omansky, et al, 2014). There are
different situations which the managers face everyday which helps them to gain some experience
from the day to day work. Due to all these reasons managers and leaders are being given respect
because of their ability to work in immense pressure and the experience they have. Thus it can be
said that there are many ways that the role of leaders and managers can be defined.
Theories and Models of Approach
There are different theories related to situational leadership as which also includes different
models of approach, system leadership as well as contingency. System leadership is the type of
leadership system where all the employees have to work while maintaining the system which the
organization has chosen. M&S Ltd has taken steps in order to follow the theory of system
leadership which can be very useful for the organization as it tends to put the entire organization
in a proper system which has to be followed in order to finish the given task. These tasks have to
be carried out in a systematic manner in order to end the project (Cucoranu, 2016). M&S Ltd has
taken steps to insert the system of system leadership inside the organization which has helped the
organization to carry forward the entire task in a systematic manner. The other theory which is
being applied in order to carry on the organization work is situational leadership. Situational
leadership is something which can apply on any organization in order to complete the task. There
are situation where the managers are absent ad the work has to be finished there the organization
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seeks for people with such capabilities who can complete the task easily (Burns, 2014). This is
where the organization finds with such potentials and this helps the employee to gain some
experience and the organization to finish the project. Situational leadership is some which is
required in any emergency position and in absence of any leader or manager. M&S Ltd has
applied this theory in order to deal with its emergency problems (Wu, 2016). These reasons help
to state that these theories are actually helpful and can be used to in order to solve issues. The
idea of situational leadership is something which can be beneficial for any organization and this
is the reason why situational leaderships help an employee to understand many things. This also
helps the employee to understand their skills which could be applied in order to elevate
knowledge level and capacity of the workforce to work in different situation and also helps the
organization to grow (Wang, 2015). The management of objectives plays an important role in
dealing with the operational issues. There are different approaches related to the topic. These
models of approaches can be very much useful in order to complete the tasks.
Methods used in OM
In OM varied methods are used by managers and those approaches can be applied for making the
task easy for the employees working in that organization. There are different things which have
to be kept in mind while dealing with different circumstances. It all depends on the size of the
organization and the wide range of business and also interpersonal skills to succeed. There
should be proper managerial resources in order to keep up the task. Resources are very important
it is the key to complete the task given. M&S Ltd concentrates on bringing up resources which
can be used to complete tasks. It is very important to manage the resources which are available
and for this managers and leaders has to be active in order to manage the resources. The next
thing which is also important is financial management which actually is one of the major things
which every organization wants in order to safeguard its financial part which is actually one of
the most important thing to be remembered (Parsanezhad and Dimyadi, 2013.). It is important to
set goals which are required for any organization because those goals help to drive the entire
organization. There can be different organizations which do not have proper goal setting ideas
which are very much required for any organization to do. M&S Ltd has set different goal setting
ideas which are actually helpful. Communication is the other part of the story. There is much
organization which progress on the basis of proper communication. Every operation managers
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requires good communication skills which help them to interact with their employees and this is
how the entire cycles go on. Salary is something which is very important for any organization
because without having proper salary no employee will work for any organization. Operational
leaders and managers are very important for the organization as they play a key role in
interacting with the employees understanding their problems as well as the issues which are and
needs to be solved (Baxley, et al, 2016.). This is the reason why they are being paid high amount
of salary so that they can do their work in peace. M&S Ltd has all the leaders and managers
which are being required to work out in all paths and this is the reason why the organization is
developing the organization in the number one position. The organization has used the key
approaches in order to complete their tasks and solve the issues faced by them.
Explain the importance and value of OM
OM is the domain that is mostly associated with production process or manufacturing activities.
Under operation management varied methods comes like linear programing and LIFO as well as
FIFO approaches. It is concerned with the event to manage the production system which is the
right way to deal with the varied resources that are used in the production process in order to
manufacture goods at the workplace. The operations function requires not only day-to-day
production of goods and services but also strategic management also. Operation management is
an integral part of business objectives of any company like M&S Ltd. In a word, through
operation management operations a firm produce products, maintenance and enhancement of
quality and create service (Gopalakrishna, et al, 2013). Production is a conversion function by
which goods and services are produced. Through Operation management the system of
production can be easily developed. On the basis of market report it would be clear about the
demand of some certain product. Then there would be certain change can be occurred in quality
of product. The quality of service should be maintained for the finished product. It is urgent for
the goodwill of the company. The two key terms of logistic for operation management are supply
chain management and logistics (Stadtler, 2015). It is urgent to know the proper need of the
client to ensure generating supplies. The careful and considered use of resources depends on
logistics. Employee must be able to realize this series of process and the relation between these
two. The productive resource of company depends on-
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Price: Price of the product is determined by considering number of factors like production cost
and desired margin percentage.
Quality: being specific and unique.
Availability: Availability of stocks.
Terry Hill explains all the objectives related to order winner and order qualifiers in a very
different approach which is far better than the theories which has been put out by different other
scholars. It may be assume that order winners are those variables that allow firm to differentiate
itself from rivals. On other hand, order qualifiers are those on which attention is given for
performing transactions.
Finally, the effectiveness of operations management depends on productivity. Through
productivity efficiency of production can be measured. To evaluate Production system,
productivity is a standard efficiency metric. It is a ratio between outputs and inputs, and can
assume many specific forms. The idea of operating system regarding achieving business
objectives is developed M&S limited is able to develop by using this concept of business study.
Successfulness of the said company depends on concerned planning, organizing and supervising
in the contexts of manufacturing products and turns input to output in an efficient manner.
Leaders and managers influence on OM
There are different elements which in business environment is affecting OM. At varied levels
managers and at top level leaders perform their operations in order to manage changes that
happened in business conditions. There are several factors which will explain why this helps the
business environment. Operation management is one of the most important factors which need to
be done in order to keep the entire process running in a smooth manner. The entire process of
decision making is very important as wrong decision can lead to a lot of trouble which can lead
to certain disadvantages to the organization (Dotson, et al, 2015). Certain things are not done
without the lead of any manager or leader here is where managers and leaders takes the
advantages which is equally important as there can certain things which might be missing can be
covered by the support and guidance of the managers. There are different factors which are very
important to be noted because those points help to evaluate the main reason for the impact on
operation management. The entire assignment concentrates operation management of M&S Ltd
which is a very important point which has to be noted in order to finish the task (Wei, et al,
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2016). The organization has done a lot to understand the entire concept of operation
management. Operation management is very much important because it helps the control all
situations where the organization can be in trouble. This helps the organization in understanding
its traits and problems which needs to be solved and thus the entire thing could be done with the
help of the operation management. The concept of operation management deals with different
things which can be put into any organization to help it deal with different challenges which the
entire things help to cover up all the challenges. There can be many reasons for the growth which
some organization but mostly occurs due to operation management (Fu, et al, 2015). There are
certain factors which have been explained as it is very easy to consider those points as very
important as those helps the organization to boost out and stand in order to safeguard the interest
of the organization and the goals of the organization. There are many points which have to
consider developing the idea that it is one of the most important points. The leaders and
managers in organization create new way outs in order to develop certain ideas. Each
organization has different ways outs which help them to conduct different techniques in order to
dismiss the issues which are there in the scenario.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that the assignment has helped to understand the definition and varied
roles that managers and those working above them play in OM. The different theories
approaches to leadership have been critically analyzed. There is huge importance of operation
management for the firm because by it assist firm in controlling cost in its business. The
assignment also explains different models and theories of approach which includes situational
leadership, system leadership and contingency. It also explains the major methods to operation
management and also the role of the leaders and managers of M&S Ltd. This assignment also
explains the importance and value of operation management.
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