Management and Operations: Roles and Approaches in Farmfoods Limited

This report discusses the roles and characteristics of managers and leaders in Farmfoods Limited, as well as the application of their functions in different situational contexts. It also explores various operations management approaches and the roles played by managers and leaders in the company.

Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Definition and comparison of various roles and characteristics of manager and leader.......1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P2. Examining application of leader's role and managerial function in distinct situational
contexts........................................................................................................................................3
P3. Application of theories and models.......................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P4. Explanation of operations management approaches and roles played by managers and
leaders .........................................................................................................................................6
P5. Explanation of importance addition to values of operations management to attain
objectives of firm.........................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6. Assessing factors in business environment which impact on managing operations and
decision making by leaders and managers...................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Administration of effective practices of business to attain maximum effectiveness level in
context to using organisational resources is termed as operations management (Kanya, 2020). It
comprises proper management of technology, materials, manpower and machinery for producing
goods and services of high quality which benefits the enterprise. Management and operations
influences proper functional methodologies, technological advances, quality of offerings,
profitability and competitiveness in market. For the report, Farmfoods Limited is selected
organisation which is food supermarket chain having headquarters at Cumbernauld, UK. It
operates throughout UK and have more than three hundred stores. The entire team work hard for
the bringing best values for customers.
The report differentiates among managerial functions and leaders roles in a company. It
also apply functions of managers and leaders role in specific situational context. Further, it
demonstrates operations management approaches and factors that have huge impact on
operational management along with decision making by managers and leaders.
TASK 1
P1. Definition and comparison of various roles and characteristics of manager and leader
Definition of leader and manager
Leader is someone who see the ways to improve things and rallies people to work for
attaining better vision. Organisational leader is defined to the human resource who motivates and
encourages group of people for achieving goals (Akalin, Huang and Willems, 2016). In case with
Farmfoods Limited, leader holds superior and dominant position within its area and have
potentiality to exercise high controlling degree as well as influence over others.
Manager is termed as a person who exercises functions and is responsible for entire
workings of company. With the company, manager have power to recruit, select, retain, appraise
performances, manage discipline, monitor attendance and fire employees. In context to
Farmfoods, manager is the person who controls, direct and manipulates resources who perform
for them.
Comparison of roles and characteristics of organisational leader and manager
Comparison base Leader Manager
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Characteristics or
qualities
The characteristic of leader of
Farmfoods Limited are as
follows:
 Vision: Leader of
Farmfoods Limited
have clear and exciting
ideas about what are
they working for
accomplishments,
where are they
proceeding and are best
in strategic planning.
 Courage: Leader of
Farmfoods Limited
have willing to take
multiple risks to attain
business objectives with
no success assurance.
 Focus: Leader is
focused in life despite
of analysing what of
going on nearby them.
Leader always emphasis
towards requirements of
entity and the
circumstance.
Manager of Farmfoods Limited is
characterised as below:
 Intuition: Manager have
potentials to know and
understand without using
rational process (Burns,
2018). In Farmfoods
Limited , manager sense
others feelings, thinking and
respond perfectly to manage
people and stores.
 Commitment:
Organisational manager is
committed for success of
entire team members and
projects. Managers holds
collective groups and pulls
them forward.
 Accountability: In
Farmfoods Limited, manager
holds responsibility for
failures as well as provides
rewards to employees that
motivates them for fixtures.
Roles or functions Following are the roles played
by leader in Farmfoods
Limited:
 Mentor: Leader plays
role of mentor so to
In Farmfoods Limited, manager
work with following roles:
 Interpersonal roles: In this,
manager undertakes three
roles that are liaison,
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guide employees
towards right direction
that is key for success
(Enyinda, 2017).
 Communicator: Being
effective communicator
is another role of leader.
In Farmfoods Limited,
leader listens incoming
messages from
employees and shares
possible solution and
important information
promptly.
figurehead and leader to
manage employees.
 Informational roles:
Monitor, spokesperson and
disseminator are possible
roles in this category.
 Decisional roles: Manager of
Farmfoods Limited plays
few decisional roles such as
negotiator, disturbance
handler and resource
allocator.
TASK 2
P2. Examining application of leader's role and managerial function in distinct situational contexts
Manager and leader apply their roles and functions in company as per situations.
Farmfoods Limited is large retail supermarket chain in which managers and leaders executes
their roles and functions in proper manner. Managers of Farmfoods Limited follows functions
that are provided by Henry Fayol to manage situations. The five functions are as follows:
Planning: It is looking ahead. Managers of Farmfoods Limited plans for future
situations, develops strategic objectives as well as secure attainment of future objectives.
Organising: It is functions of managers to organise workforce effectively, structure and
align operations of enterprise and train hired people (Fiorentino, 2016).
Commanding: Managers command or supervise subordinates for daily operations and
motivates them through rewards and other benefits to attain company objectives.
Coordinating: In this function, managers harmonise activities, practices and procedures
that are performed by organisation. Managers of Farmfoods Limited galvanise discipline,
motivates dynamic groups and develops positive behaviours among employees.
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Controlling: Herein, all the business activities are controlled through observing
deviations among plans and objectives, along with making initiatives for potential deviations so
that the stores of Farmfoods Limited achieves success.
At same time, following are some of roles of leaders in the supermarket chain:
 Establishing structures along with communication protocols: For achieving success
of stores, leaders plays role of setting clear defined structure and facilitate effective
communication channels (Gillen, Jacquillat and Odoni, 2016).
 Inspiring and motivation: Leaders have role to inspire, encourage and guiding
employees to take part in common efforts. Leaders of Farmfoods Limited uses various
motivation techniques for facilitating actions by their groups. Delegating and empowering: Leaders also apply role of delegating working as per
employees potentials and empowering them with certain accountabilities as well as
powers.
Application of roles and functions in distinct situations
Time delivering services: For an organisation, it is crucial to make timely delivery of
products and services that are demanded by customers. However, in context to Farmfoods
Limited, many of the products are not delivered to customers on specified timings. For making
timely delivery of products, managers are required to apply their functions in desired aspects. For
instance, managers must apply planning function for forecasting circumstance so that schedules
are devised accordingly, resources required are organised, commands to employees are given,
coordination of activities with store supervisors, vendors along with distributors so that ordered
products are provides to clients on exact time (Gupta, Yang and Jain, 2019). Along with this,
leaders can apply role of inspiring and motivating employees to work hard and arranges the
delivery promptly.
Solving grievances and issues: Within an enterprise, conflicts between employees occur
any time. In Farmfoods Limited, huge number of employees work that belong to different
cultures and have different work specification. To solve issues or grievances, leaders can apply
role of establishing structures so that each employee is able to share their issues with their
superiors and gets effective results. Also, leaders must apply role of influencing employees to
coordinate activities with other employees. Moreover, in the situation, managers should execute
functions of proper planning of workplace, arranging all equipment and other resources,
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instructing team to complete activities and controlling variances which resolves issues at
workplace (Leiras and et.al., 2019).
P3. Application of theories and models
For the purpose of managing all the stores and achieving objectives of Farmfoods
Limited, following are some of theories or models of approaches that can be applied in different
situations:
Situational theory: The theory says that leadership styles have possibilities to go through
certain phases as employees develops together with cultivate their knowledge and skills.
According to situational leadership theory, a leader adapt their styles in accordance with
pertaining circumstances and situations that are based on various factors. In case with
Farmfoods Limited, employees are unable to deliver commodities to customer promptly, so in
this situation, leaders apply situational theory through which they diagnose situations and
reasons for the untimely delivery. Accordingly, leaders adapt behaviours to respond,
communicate with peers and manage movements that leads to solutions. Moreover, situational
leaders makes changes in their decisions as behaviours of employees.
Strength: In Farmfoods Limited, application of situational leadership theory can assist in
devising strategies for dealing with challenging situations. Situational leaders perform activities
for creating comfortable environment which is concerned with readiness of employees and their
needs (Lockwood and Euler, 2016).
Weakness: The theory may create confusion among groups of stores of Farmfoods
Limited as when the leader changes their styles, subordinates left questioning the approach.
Systems leadership theory: As per system leadership theory, leaders of enterprise creates
circumstances in system wherein entire staff work to reach specific state by using systematic
orders and practices. The theory is all about the ways leaders lead across boundaries that are
department or organisation. In context to Farmfoods Limited, system theory can be applied by
leaders for solving issues or grievances through building conditions in which staff at al levels
work productively and efficiently to their potential. With this theory, an open system is
developed in which employees shares or interacts with higher authorities with their issues.
Strength: In Farmfoods Limited, application of systems leadership theory can provide
holistic view of company as well as focuses towards their adaptive nature. Wit this, adaptability
of company to changes in i8nternal business environment are increased.
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Weakness: System leadership theory lack inter dependencies of relationship between
organisational parts and accurate relations among internal to that of external environment are not
defined properly.
Contingency theory: The theory states that there is no best aspects for organising an
enterprise, leading institutions and making decisions. Rather, optimal action course depends on
external or internal circumstances (Ravinder and Kollikkathara, 2017). In Farmfoods Limited,
when leaders apply contingency theory they diagnose all the surroundings, adjusts their existing
behaviours as per contingencies and implement changes for bringing effectiveness so that
advance moves are made properly.
Strengths: With contingency theory, leaders of Farmfoods Limited changes policies as
per situations. It also provide options to staff which assist to grow addition to share ideas for
expansion of company.
Weaknesses: Contingency theory suffers from restricted literature and handling
situations becomes complex for leaders. Suggestion and theoretical aspects of the theory is
simple but its application is quite complex.
TASK 3
P4. Explanation of operations management approaches and roles played by managers and leaders
Operations management is important as its helps in controlling the production process
and operations of the company in the efficient manner. The approach helps the companies to
increase efficiency in the production level. The approaches which are followed by the leaders
and managers of Farmfoods Limited are explained under:
Quality Management Approach- This approach is said to the act related to overseeing
entire practices and operations that maintain required excellence level (Roda and Macchi, 2016).
Farmfoods Limited uses this approach to determine the quality policy of the company, creation
and implementation of quality plans and the quality control and improvement of the product. The
role of manager in quality management is assign the resources for quality management, plan
different ideas and strategies to deliver superior quality products. While the role of the leader is
to direct the employees according to the plans and motivate them to work with efficiency to
attain good quality level of the products.
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Six Sigma- Operational management approach that provides tools to enterprises for the
making improvements in capabilities and potentials of processes is six sigma. It is a data-driven
approach which eliminates the defects in any process starting from manufacturing of the product
to the final transactions. In Farmfoods Limited, procedure of processing the frozen products is
too long, for that the managers and the leaders first identify the problems which are being faced
while processing the products. Once they get to know the problem they measure the solutions for
it then they analyse the whole situation and make the list of solutions. One solution is selected
which fits the best and implementation is done of the same. At last the managers and leader
keeps the control over the solution and finds out whether it while work for long time period or
not.
Lean Production- An approach used by operational managers which emphasis more on
cutting wastage at same time ensures quality (Saucedo-Martínez and et.al., 2018). The reason
behind using lean production in Farmfoods Limited is to cut various costs through responding
market requirements and making business effective. In lean production approach, organisational
managers plans to increase values of commodities that are to be delivered to customers for
resolving problems. Similarly, leaders provides equipments and processes to workforce so that
wastage are eliminated within manufacturing stages that results in improving business profits.
P5. Explanation of importance addition to values of operations management to attain objectives
of firm
Operations management is important for planning, controlling and managing processes of
manufacturing, production and delivery of services. It is significant to accomplish objectives as it
assists in effective supervision of commodities and people. In case with Farmfoods Limited,
importance of system of operations management are explained as:
Improving overall productivity: Application of all the approached associated with
operations management results in improving overall productivity of entity. The proportion of
input to output refers to productivity. In Farmfoods Limited, operations management system
focuses towards using existing resources in best manner to that all the identified goals are
achieved properly which results in improvements of entire business productivity.
Waste reduction: It is key component of system of operations management as it
performs all its tasks through devising plans that leads to reducing wastages of resources of
company. In Farmfoods Limited, various approaches of operational management system are
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applied which help in decreasing wastage. Moreover, effective planning aids in managing clear
paths of production and service delivery that contributes widely in reducing level of wastage
while converting unfinished materials into valuable commodities in order to reduce additional
costs and increasing business revenues (De Roover, 2017). So, use of operational management in
supermarket chain is significant for gaining desired results.
In supermarket chain, operations management is valuable because of the followings:
Better product quality: Operations management provides opportunity of enhancing
efficiency of activities in which products are manufactures and delivered. Furthermore, in
Farmfoods Limited, it improves the values of raw materials and finished goods that are stored in
warehouses by maintaining their quality level. It minimises damages that contributes in
minimising looses of business that is aimed by company to attain objectives.
Ability to increase productivity: In the corporation, operations management is valued as
it have ability to enhance level of productivity of organisational offerings systematically. So, use
of approaches helps in controlling operations when products are sold to meet preferences of
customers through conducting practices in proper order for attaining desired level of
productivity. With this, objectives of enterprise for production level are attained properly
(Punyateera and et. al., 2014).
TASK 4
P6. Assessing factors in business environment which impact on managing operations and
decision making by leaders and managers
In a corporation, environment is the surrounding that comprises multiple factors having
potentials to impact or influence operations management and decisions that are devised by
leaders and managers. For managing business in competitive industry, it is crucial to analyse all
types of factors so that al the identified objectives are achieved effectively. In relevance to
Farmfoods Limited, factors of business environment that impacts or influences on decisions of
leaders and managers, operations management and many more are as assessed:
Culture of company: It is described as underlying values, beliefs and aspects of
interacting which creates unique social together with psychological environment of enterprise. It
involves experiences, expectations and philosophies which directs behaviour of manpower and
interactions with external globe. In Farmfoods Limited, leaders and managers devises decisions
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for working of employees as per culture of company. It is analysed that organisational culture
impacts ways in which people and teams interacts with other stakeholders resulting to negative
impacts on determinations that are framed by authorities. At same time, the company practices
its operations via maintaining internal cultural so that expectations and behaviours of employees
do not hamper in any adverse conditions which impacts positively in managing operations.
Social responsibilities: It is mandatory for all companies to perform activities that
provides certain social welfare to local community as well as maintain effective relations with
society (Bromiley and Rau, 2016). It is an initiative of company that benefits society. In context
to Farmfoods Limited, when leaders and managers do not take the business responsibilities
towards society in serious notes then it hampers their decision making to large extent. Moreover,
CSR impacts abilities to attract, hire and retain talents that impacts negatively on decisions that
are framed by leaders and managers. Similarly, operations requires to emphasis towards makings
highest quality commodities at lowest prices without harming environment. When
responsibilities of company for society to produce and deliver products are not met as per
expectations then it impacts widely on managing operations in drastic manner.
Expansion of advancement of technology: Technology refers to devices, methods along
with systems that are outcomes of scientific knowledge which are applied for practical purposes.
It is must for all companies to make manufacturing along with processing of operations in
convenient and easier manner. In Farmfoods Limited, various technological channels are used to
deliver products and information about offerings to customers. In many cases, technological
failures or obsolete of technology impacts operations management and decisions of leaders and
managers. So, it is vital for leaders and managers to devise decisions and manage operations
through using latest technology in multiple activities or tasks (Fiorentino, 2016).
CONCLUSION
The report concludes that management and operations are significant practices of
company. The process plans, coordinates, controls and guides manufacturing, production and
service delivery. Managers have characteristics of intuition, accountability and commitment.
They plays role of monitor, disturbance handler, figurehead and many more. Similarly, courage
vision and focus are characteristic of leaders. In an organisation, managers and leaders plays
roles and functions in situations such as time delivering services, solving grievances and issues.
Quality management, lean production and six sigma are some of operational management
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approaches in which leaders and managers have huge roles to play. Organisational culture, social
responsibilities and technological advancement comprises huge chances to impact management
of operations and decisions of authoritative people.
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REFERENCES
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Burns, M. G., 2018. Port management and operations. CRC press.
De Roover, R., 2017. The Medici Bank: its organization, management, operations, and decline.
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Enyinda, C., 2017. Modeling enterprise risk management in operations and supply chain: A
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Fiorentino, R., 2016. Operations strategy: a firm boundary-based perspective. Business Process
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TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM MANAGEMENT & OPERATIONS WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT. Institute of Transportation Engineers. ITE Journal. 86(7). p.10.
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Online:
Farmfoods Limited. 2020. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.farmfoods.co.uk/>
Kanya. 2020. Operations Management : Definition, Principles and Strategies. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.hashmicro.com/blog/operations-management/>
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