Management and Operations: Roles and Characteristics of Leaders and Managers

This document provides an overview of the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers in the context of management and operations. It discusses the differences between leaders and managers, their functions and roles, and the application of different theories and models in different situational contexts. The document also includes a case study of Caterham Cars and how management and leadership are applied in the company.

Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Definition and comparison of leaders and managers..............................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P2 Examination of examples of the way in which role of a leader and function of a manager
are applied in different situational contexts.................................................................................3
P3 Application of different theories and models of approach including situational, system and
contingency leadership.................................................................................................................5
TASK 3 and TASK 4.......................................................................................................................6
Covered in PPT............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In every business, operation and management plays significant function to create possible
efficiency level and makes efforts for balancing costs with receipts with the objective of gaining
possible operating revenues. Management is process to administer and control organisational
affairs and creating favourable work environment for personnels to coordinate activities for
generating suitable outcomes (Abdel-Baset, Chang and Gamal, 2019). Likewise, Operations is
performing practical work through involving all manpower and allocating them different things.
Caterham Cars Company is selected for gaining information for management and operations. It
manufactures lightweight sports cars since 1973. The report highlights about company along
with its management structure, definitions of managers and leaders, differentiation among roles
and characteristics in context to leaders and managers. Further, managerial functions and leaders
role are applied in provided contexts in the report.
TASK 1
P1 Definition and comparison of leaders and managers
Organisational introduction together with its management structure
Caterham Cars is specialise in manufacturing lightweight sports cars. It was founded in
Susses, England by Graham Nearn in 1973. The entity offers its products in international market.
It also have linkage with range of motor racing, automotive, innovation and technology entities
for manufacturing low cost, successful race cars as well as lightweight sports cars. In context to
management structure, managers of the car manufacturer follows tradition structure which is
effective enough to supervise and guide persons together with business development.
Concept of leader and leadership
Concept of leader can be stated as the person that influences or stimulates group of
people for work completion in effective mode (Andersonand et. al., 2018). So leader is a human
personality in an entity who have roles to motivate and direct workforce to achieve all types of
goals. Likewise, leadership is acknowledged as process to direct entire company in the manner
which makes it organised and stimulate other for carry out actions for reach to common
objectives. For example, Leaders of Caterham Cars posses potentials to create and maintain
relations with all subordinates and guides them towards path of success.
Concept of management along with manager
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Management concept is stated as the multi-purpose organ who manages work, worker
and business (Copacino, 2019). Moreover, it is outlined as process through which person gets
things completed via others by using various activities or functions. On other hand, concept of
manager is said to human being that have art to get work finished by others effectively and
systematically. In case with Caterham Cars, managers performs functions for the purpose of
managing all personnel, operations and entire business.
Identification of role in relevance to leader and manager
Managers and leaders of company have different and multiple role. In association to
Caterham Cars, managers have roles related to dissemination, planner, negotiator, spokesman,
liason, resource organiser, decision maker, coordinator and controller. In context to leaders, they
have roles including executor, representator, mediator, facilitator, influence, team player, listener
and guider (Roles of Leader, 2020). The main of leader in chosen entity performs is to act as
mediator between top authorities and team members to communicate information among them,
influencer for personnels and facilitator to make things easier.
Identification of characteristics or noticeable qualities of manager and that of leader
Managers and leaders have unique qualities that are noticeable and makes them effective
personality. The characteristics which makes a person good leader are their resilience,
empowerment, diplomacy, accountability, humility, honesty, communication and so on. On other
hand, managers have unique characteristics of intuition, knowledge, commitment, versatility,
discipline, policy enforcement, scheduler and so on. In context with Caterham Cars, managers
have qualities to structure entire work, capacity to understand, commitment for project success,
versatility in reacting as per situations and produces outstanding results.
Comparison on the basis of roles and characteristics of managers with that of leader
On the basis of identification, following table shows comparison between leaders and
managers on few aspects.
Comparison aspects Leaders Managers
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Concept Leader is the idiosyncratic
that looks after team,
innovates, emphasis to
make relationships and
takes risks at organisation.
Manager is the who oversees
team, uses what works, focuses
on objectives and mitigates risks
at company.
Roles or purpose The purpose of leadership
at Caterham Cars are to
resolve conflicts, act as
mediator, facilitator for
creating working easy and
communicating all
information.
Managers role at workplace are to
plan future, controlling practices,
coordinating with external bodies
and managing time (Ferreira,
Arruda and Marujo, 2018).
Characteristics or noticeable
qualities.
The key characteristics of
leaders are policy
implementer, versatile,
understandable, passion for
success and humble.
Noticeable qualities that
managers of chosen car company
are commitment to work, time
management, policy enforcement,
scheduler, structuring overall
work and honest.
As per the above comparison table, it is analysed that leaders focuses on their team where
as managers oversees entire workings of company. In context to managers of Caterham Cars,
they have role of setting work standards, strategy creator, overseeing working, organising
activities and forecasting changes. However, leaders of same company have role of guiding
people, stimulating employee motivation, allocating resources, listening others. Considering
noticeable qualities, leaders have characteristics of diplomacy, accountable, empowerment,
resilience and humble. Whereas, managers have characteristics of time management, scheduler,
honesty, commitment and structuring entire work.
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TASK 2
P2 Examination of examples of the way in which role of a leader and function of a manager are
applied in different situational contexts
Leaders and managers are considered as the pilers of an organisation who support the
bottom line and try to attain all the business goals (Filimonau and Delysia, 2019). In order to
execute all the operations in systematic manner it is very important for both of them to play
major roles and perform the functions systematically.
Leaders and their roles: An individuals who is responsible to guide a team of
individuals is known as leader. Main responsibility of leaders is to make sure that all the
subordinates are able to perform their jobs systematically. In Caterham Cars human resource
manager is liable to manage all the staff members properly. The main roles which are played by
a HR are Mentor, Disturbance Handler etc. Leaders are responsible to guide all the employees to
work productively by mentoring them so that possibility of errors in business processes could be
ignored (Gibson and Parkman, 2018). Apart from this they also try to manage the grievances
which are taking place between employees by communicating with them.
Leaders playing their role in situational context: There are various types of situations
in which leaders of Caterham Cars are required to play different roles (Teller and et. al., 2018).
Application of them on situation is as follows:
 Major product launch: For example, if Caterham Cars is planning to launch a new car
in the market then the HR manager will be required to hire skilled staff or place existing
one on different positions. The role which will be played in this situation is mentor
because the HR manager is responsible to guide all the employees to perform their duties
appropriately.
 Conflict management: If there are conflicts among staff members of Caterham Cars due
to various reasons such as lack of engagement of one employee etc. In this situation HR
manager will play the role of disturbance handler because it will be the main liability to
make sure that workforce is performing well without any grievances.
The above discussion shows that leaders of Caterham Cars play different roles for the
purpose of dealing with different types of situations such as major product launch and conflict
management. The roles which are played by them are mentor and disturbance handler.
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Managers and their functions: An individual who is managing all the operational and
executional activities is known as manager (Lee and Tang, 2018). In Caterham Cars various
managers are working and they are liable to make sure that operations are carried out according
to predetermined plans or not. There are various functions of them which are required to be
performed by them in different situations. Some of them are organising, communication etc. If
an organisation is working on a project then it is vital for managers to organise each and every
activity. On the other hand, if there are conflicts among staff and management then it is very
important for managers to resolve them by communicating with them.
Managers performing their functions in situational context: Managers of Caterham
Cars have various functions which are performed by them in different situations. Application of
them could be analysed with the help of following discussion:
 Major product launch: If Caterham Cars is planning to introduce a new vehicle in the
market then in this situation the manager will be responsible to perform organising
function. Main responsibility of managers is to make sure that all the processes of
company are well structured.
 Conflict management: If management and staff members of Caterham Cars are having
conflicts then it is very important for managers to resolve them by performing
communication functions. With the help of it all the grievances could be resolved which
are affecting relationship of management and employees.
The above discussion shows that in Caterham Cars managers make sure that they deal
with all the situations properly. For this purpose they perform different functions which are
organising and communication. With the help of them managers try to ignore problems such as
conflicts among employees.
P3 Application of different theories and models of approach including situational, system and
contingency leadership
There are various types of theories and approaches which could be applied by leaders of
an organisation in different situations (Meredith and Shafer, 2019). All of them which are
focused by leaders in Caterham Cars are described below along with their key elements:
Fiedler's contingency theory: This theory is based upon the personal motivation and
characteristics of leaders which are used by them to interact with the situation which is faced by
the organisation. It says that there is no best way or method to lead an organisation to success. It
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is all dependant upon the prudence and intelligence of the manager of the company on how best
to deal with internal as well as external situations which the firm may face in the future. The
main elements of it are task structure, positioning power, member relation etc. This theory is
used by human resource manager of Caterham Cars to deal with different types of situations such
as conflicts among staff and management (Catherham Cars, 2020). With the help of this theory
HR try to communicate with both the parties and maintain good relationship between them. It is
beneficial for the entity because it helps to operate activities without any grievances.
Hersey and Blanchard situational model: This model describes that leaders are
required to adopt different leadership styles according to the situation which is faced by them
(Prajogo and et.al., 2018). It is highly focused with modification in the behaviour of leaders on
the basis of followers. It says that there is no best way a leader can use to lead in the
organisation. It all ultimately depends upon practical and real-life situations which may be faced
which define the leadership qualities. Thus, It basically states that it is the circumstances which
make a leader. The key elements of it are participating, delegating and interacting. This theory
is used by the leaders of Caterham Cars so that they can work effectively according to behaviour
of staff. For example, if the company is planning to introduce a new car in the market then this
theory guides leaders to adopt democratic leadership style to interact with staff. On the other
hand, in order to formulate policies they use autocratic mode of supervision.
System leadership: This style of leadership is focused with the allocation of such tasks
to the staff members in which they can perform appropriately (yan Zhang and Van Den Bulcke,
2018). It is an inter-disciplinary and complex study of systems which can be either natural or
human-made. Each one of them is bounded by space and time which can be seen through its
functioning. It suggests that concepts and principles must be developed keeping the broad sense
in mind and must not be specific in nature. This theory contains various type of concepts which
can be applied practically. The key elements of it are engage and energise, review and revise,
convene and commit etc. It is applied by the leaders in Caterham Cars while launching a new
product in the market. In order to determine that all the employees are able to meet their
expectations they allocate them tasks according to their capabilities. With the help of it
organisation try to enhance employee engagement.
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From the above discussion it has been determined that management in Caterham Cars use
different types of theories which are beneficial for them to attain business goals and execute all
the operations systematically.
TASK 3 and TASK 4
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
The mentioned discussion concludes that the business practice of management and
operation are key for all business concerns. These makes contributions and supports other
departments towards achieving objectives. Roles of managers includes planner, negotiator,
organiser and spokesman where as leaders role are mediator, executor, team player and listener.
The qualities or characteristics of leaders comprises of diplomacy, communication,
accountability and empowerment. But in contrary. Managers are characterised as versatile,
policy enforcer, discipline and commitment for success. There are various roles and functions
that are implemented by leaders and managers in situational contexts to product launch and
managing conflicts. Moreover, various theories are also applied in these situations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Abdel-Baset, M., Chang, V. and Gamal, A., 2019. Evaluation of the green supply chain
management practices: A novel neutrosophic approach. Computers in Industry. 108.
pp.210-220.
Anderson, D. R. and et. al., 2018. An introduction to management science: quantitative
approach. Cengage learning.
Copacino, W. C., 2019. Supply chain management: The basics and beyond. Routledge.
Ferreira, G. O., Arruda, E. F. and Marujo, L. G., 2018. Inventory management of perishable
items in long-term humanitarian operations using Markov Decision
Processes. International journal of disaster risk reduction. 31. pp.460-469.
Filimonau, V. and Delysia, A., 2019. Food waste management in hospitality operations: A
critical review. Tourism management. 71. pp.234-245.
Gibson, P. and Parkman, R., 2018. Cruise operations management: hospitality perspectives.
Routledge.
Lee, H. L. and Tang, C. S., 2018. Socially and environmentally responsible value chain
innovations: New operations management research opportunities. Management Science.
64(3). pp.983-996.
Meredith, J. R. and Shafer, S. M., 2019. Operations and supply chain management for MBAs.
Wiley.
Prajogo, D. and et.al., 2018. The relationships between information management, process
management and operational performance: Internal and external contexts. International
Journal of Production Economics. 199. pp.95-103.
Teller, C. and et. al., 2018. Retail store operations and food waste. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 185. pp.981-997.
yan Zhang, H. and Van Den Bulcke, D., 2018. International management strategies of Chinese
multinational firms. In Management Issues in China: Volume 2 (pp. 141-164).
Routledge.
Online:
Roles of Leader. 2020. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.budtoboss.com/personal-
professional-development/10-hats-leaders-must-wear/>
Catherham Cars. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<http://int.caterhamcars.com/>
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