Management and Operations Concept | Assignment

Management and
Operations

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations play a crucial role in the growth of profitability of an
organisation by minimising the cost of production through utilising of resources in an optimum
manner. Operations management is an area of management which is responsible to maintain
quality and quantity of products and services of an organisation through engaging in activities of
designing and production process. For this, managers along with leaders provide adequate
support in achieving organisational goals and objectives. Marks and Spencer (M&S), a UK-
based retailer company which deal in providing wide range of luxurious products such as
clothing, home and expensive food products is selected for the purpose of preparing this report.
The project describes the roles and responsibilities of managers as well as characteristics of
leader, operation management approaches and leadership theories and many other which
explains the importance of managers and leaders in an organisation.
TASK 1
1:
Marks and Spencer (M&S) is UK-based retailer organisation which is operated at
multiple number of nations such as India, US etc. with having wide range of products such as
clothing, food and home product. It was entered in UK market in the year 1884 by Michael
Marks and Thomas Spencer for the very first time and from then to now, the company has
attained more than 979 stores in UK itself out of which 615 stores are exist only to sell food
products to the people. The size of the company is larger due to attaining more than 84,939
employees who are giving maximum efforts in bringing company ahead in the competition
among their rivals. The scope of company is also much wider due to having number of offerings.
The organisational structure of Marks and Spencer is flat in which there are few or no levels of
management between management and staff level management. Thus it allows employees to
share their ideas and issues faced by at workplace by communicated directly to the top
authorities.(Ageron, Gunasekaran and Spalanzani, 2012).
2:
Leader: A leader is the individual who has broad information and who realizes how to
lead individuals in the times of need. Leader is the individual in charge of planning and dealing
with the work structure for achieving the pre-determined objectives and aims of the organization.
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They monitors the work and encourages the low level employees to enhance their performance
level. They have high level of control and basic leadership control. Therefore, it brings more
beneficial outcome to M&S in terms of enhancing performance level of both employees and
company.
Managers: Managers are the people who manages and regulates every one of the
activities and tasks which are performed by workers with the end goal to accomplish pre-
determined objectives and goals. There are an assortment of divisions in M&S coordinated by
different managers like project managers, line managers, departmental managers, and so forth.
They are focusing on giving direction and support to the team individuals for accomplishing the
desired goals (De Roover, 2017).
Role of Leader:
Communication: Communication and coordination is essentially required among
workers and teams in order to achieve desired objectives and goals. The principle role of leader
of M&S is to discuss viably with their team individuals and top authorities in regards to
strategies and polices in order to ensure that employees can work in right direction.
Team Building: A leader always tried to motivate employees to work as a team as
opposed to as person which prompts enhanced profitability. The role of leader in M&S is to
create team and encourage aggregate working. Working in team empowers representatives to
speak with one another effectively and likewise helps in understanding qualities and
shortcomings of different individuals (Gimenez, Sierra and Rodon, 2012)..
Role of Managers:
Implementing policies and plans: Managers is responsible to implement an effective
plans and policies created by top authorities. Managers ought to tell workers about such plans
and systems with the goal that the workers can perform as direction given by the managers.
Therefore, it will easy for M&S to achieve competitive advantage if their manager are much
capable to make an effective plans and policies.
Providing training: Managers are in charge of assessing the performance level and
advancement of the workers in the organization. As per the necessities, managers of M&S create
compelling training programs that helps in creating aptitudes. They additionally enhances the
information and capacities of workers utilizing trainings and other program.
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Monitoring and controlling: Managers control and directs all business tasks and
activities in a powerful manner which leads them in accomplishing the desired objectives and
goals.
Characteristics of leader and managers
Positive attitude: Both leader and managers play equally important function in giving
direction and assistance for accomplishing the pre-determined objectives and targets. These are
the two who manages customers needs for achieving business growth and success in future
period of time. Positive behaviour and relation between leaders and managers of M&S makes
easy for handling issues and managing them viably.
Creative: Both these individuals have creative aptitudes that motivates them in producing
new and innovative thoughts and strategies which assist M&S with achieving achievement and
development in future. They should utilize their creative abilities for pulling in clients to
purchase their quality items and services (Grant, Wong and Trautrims, 2017).
3)
There are various managerial functions which should be performed in order to execute
business activities in such an effective manner that will help M&S to achieve competitive
advantage. According to the Henry Fayol, there are major five functions performed by managers
and leaders which are includes as under:
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Source: Five Functions of Management. 2018
Planning: It is the primary function of manager in which suitable plans has been
formulated after analysing market trends and requirements of employees at workplace. In this,
managers is responsible to make an effective backup plans in case of failure of pre-determined
plans and strategies which required to be communicate to employees as well with the help of
leaders.
Organising: It includes function of organising all business activities through allocating
roles and responsibilities to the employees on the basis of their skills and knowledge. Here,
managers required to take support from leaders in order to identify the capabilities of employees
so that work can allotted accordingly.
Commanding: Under this, managers of M&S should communicate and motivate
employees to perform allotted roles in desired way so that expected outcomes can be gained
within allotted time period. Here leader also required to bring motivation among employees to
follow all plans and policies made by managers while performing allotted task.
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Illustration 1: Five Principles of Management

Coordinating: Under this, managers and leaders encourage employees and departments
to work together through better coordination which indirectly help in maintaining healthy
working environment within an organisation. Leaders should get informed by the managers
about their plans and visions which further be forwarded towards employees so that they can
work mutually towards achievement of desired target.
Controlling: In this, manager of M&S need to monitor and control all activities at
workplace (Karnani, 2011). Under this, leaders communicates to the manager about the
deviations and problems faced by their employees so that it can be controlled as quickly as
possible so as to execute desired activities in more effective way.
4)
Managers and leaders of M&S should act differently according to the different situations
arises due to business environment which will help in dealing with complex situations in more
effective and efficient manner. Following are the some situation which may arises due to which
managers and leader should play their roles and responsibilities:
Working on a new project: The managers should develop its existing strategies and
predetermined plans after analysing the impact of the situations which should be followed by
leaders to guide employees to work in right directions. It assist organisation in achieving
competitive advantage in rivalry market. For example, working on a new project requires
suitable guidance and direction to the employees which should be provided by both leaders and
managers. Managers formulated plans and policies and leaders motivates their employees to
perform according to such plans in more effective and efficient manner.
Induction of team members: The managers of M&S should conduct induction programs
at workplace so as to communicate its employees bout company's mission and vision so that they
can understand their roles and responsibilities more effectively. Here leader also play an
important role through motivating them by conducting training programs at workplace so as to
make employees more capable to perform allotted task in more effective and efficient manner.
5:
There are different speculations and methodologies for leadership which are utilized by
M&S organization. managers as well as leaders of M&S should utilize these different
speculations of leadership depicted beneath in request to accomplish wanted objectives and
goals.
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System leadership: This hypothesis is utilized by managers in request to determine all
problems identified with enterprise activity for obtaining the desired objectives and goals. For
instance If any issue arises in M&S outlets then leader must need to determine that issue in a
methodical and viable manners. In this manner leader should distinguish such components
which impacts the business activities and from that point implement appropriate procedures for
reducing these sorts of issues at the work environment. This is likewise useful in establishing
healthy working environment within an organisation (Kerzner, 2013). For example, if an
employees doesn't know about company's rules and guidelines then the chances of performing in
an ethical way are more. This will create an issue which can be resolve by applying system
leadership approach which directs employees to perform in systematic way following all rules
and guidelines.
Situational theory: This theory implies that a leader ought to embrace distinctive styles
of leadership dependent on the different adaptable issues emerges at work environment. For
example, during inflation the prices of products sold by M&S will be increases due to which the
customers shows less interest to buy. To deal with such situation, situational theory can be
adopted in order to deal with such situation.
Contingency theory: As per this theory the viability of a leader is relies upon their own
leadership style which is adopted by them suitable with the circumstances emerges. In this
hypothesis, the leadership style is either task oriented or people oriented. Task oriented is
identified with attain objectives of an organization where as people oriented identified with
building interpersonal relationship. M&S leaders and managers are viable in using this
hypothesis as they have understanding and abilities for determining the sort of circumstance and
providing solutions for resolving the issue (Pedrycz and Chen, 2015). For example, actual needs
and preferences of customers may fluctuated due to introducing competitive pricing strategies by
its rivals. This will diminishes the loyalty of customers of M&S which can be retained through
application of contingency theory. It directs managers to conduct research in order to analyse
market situations which are fluctuates on frequent basis.
6:
Following are the strengths and weaknesses of these 3 theories and approaches:
Contingency theory of leadership:
Strengths:
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 Enhance fallibility in the task structure It supplies data on leadership styles.
Weaknesses:
 It is reactive not proactive in nature
 It is tangled and also present issues in testing theory percepts.
System theory of leadership: Strengths: This approach establishes a good structure for interpretation and presentation
of realities as well as phenomenon. It facilitates many teams with which the leaders can
be understood.
 Weakness: It is complicated and lengthy in nature as well as high risk is involved.
Situational theory of leadership: Strengths: It is developed in managers over a period of time and widely utilized by firms
for training leaders.
 Weakness: It develops confusion with in groups as situations are interrelated and
interconnected.
7:
From the above information, it has been clearly identified that managers and leaders play
an important and valuable role in the growth of profitability and sustainability. Managers directs
the workforce to perform in better way through formulating an effective policies and strategies
whereas leaders motivates employees to perform in a team and gives maximum output to meet
company’s expectations. It has been recommended to leaders and managers in get involved in
development programs to sharp their skills so that can effectively direct the employees to
contribute more towards future improvements of employees as well as an organisation.
TASK 2
1:
Operation management is an important part of an organisation which assist them in
selling their quality products and services at an affordable prices that can easily attracts large
number of customers. Utilising resources and minimising the wastage will increases their
profitability thus management operation gives maximum support in maintain financial stability
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of company. To perform its more effectively, they are using various approaches which are given
as under:
Total quality management: This methodology considers standard quality of products that
organization serves to the targeted clients for satisfying their demands and necessity. Essentially
focuses of total quality management approach is to produce optimum quality products and
services for meeting client's demands. M&S offers highlighted or alluring products with best
quality to the clients which helps in attracting more clients towards the organization (Rosemann
and vom Brocke, 2015).
Just in time: It alludes to inventory management in which organization is emphasis on
managing or controlling stock in manufacturing process. It results in enhanced effectiveness and
minimising expenses or wastage. So just in time approach assist an organization to produce more
products according to the demands observed by the managers in the market. M&S should keet
their eye on availability of inventory through this methodology.
Lean production-: This methodology is utilized for minimizing the expenses and also
wastage in manufacturing process since it provides support to the production division in getting
best results from available resources. M&S apply this methodology for framing quality products
and less wastage.
Six Sigma: It consists of different techniques and strategies which empowers
representatives to safely arrange items free from any defects by providing sufficient transit
channels from an association. This will causes representatives to expand the fulfilment among
the clients and attaining good brand image by offering standard based products (Tummala and
Schoenherr, 2018).
2:
Managers assume a basic role in managing operational activities of an association to
manage the quality and amount of products by establishing healthy relations with providers and
different divisions. Then again, leader likewise assume a profitable role in managing the
workforce to play out their best in manufacturing process through educating them by training and
learning programs and guides them to work according to the plans and systems confined by the
managers. Here are the few roles and obligations of managers and leaders in operation
management:
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Resource management: The managers of Marks and Spencer constantly give efforts to
deal with the employees and raw materials to reduce its wastage. With the assistance of this, the
manufacturing cost has been diminished and increase quality of products and in addition
productivity of organization.
Financial management: This is another functions performed by managers in order to
meet customer needs and requirements without facing any difficulties, for example, shortage of
funds. For this, they are required to maintain better relations with providers and investors in
request to receive sufficient support on time. For this, leaders likewise supported them to control
representatives to utilise assets in an ideal way. The managers of Marks and Spencer should
utilize cost benefit analysis technique to make enhancement in effectiveness (Vashneya and
Gupta, 2017).
Communication: It is the duty of operation manager to impart and coordinate with the
representatives regarding their apportioned roles and responsibilities. It requires support of leader
to bring motivation among them to work in team to accomplish better outcome.
3:
Operations management is responsible to monitor and control the business operational
activities performed on daily basis. There are some resource which are required to be effectively
utilised such as funds, labour, raw materials etc. that makes huge impact on the profitability of
company. It drives M&S to offer quality products at an effective prices in market. Lean
production should be more beneficial if adopted by company as it help in minimising the
wastage of resources and increases efficiency level. Apart from this, continuous improvement
model is also another effective technique which drives organisation to make continuous changes
in their existing offerings with the purpose of attracting new customers and retain loyal
customers. Therefore, using such key approaches of operation management gives maximum
support to an organisation in increasing sustainability and profitability. Operation management is
responsible to transform raw materials into finished products through designing process and
scheduling each work so that the products are ready at right time and further sell it to the targeted
customers. It increases quality of products as well as minimising the wastage of resources which
enables M&S to sell products and services at an affordable prices. If the operation management
could not be effective then it may brings more disadvantages to company in form of increasing
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cost of production, misuse of resources, lack of support from employees etc. It directly affect
their current market image which brings them backward from their rivals.
4:
Both managers and leaders play a crucial role in managing productivity at workplace
which can be possible through encouraging workers to utilise available resources in a profitable
manner so that desired output can be received by company in future period of time. For this, the
managers and leaders should emphasis on the allocation of activities which can bring valuable
outcome to company. There are the some ways to bring efficacy in operations which are given as
under:
Quality control: The customers always expects and demands quality products from their
company due to which it is important for managers and leaders of M&S to focus on quality
which can be possible through utilising resources in production process in an optimum manner.
Set right efficiency measurement for continuous improvement: There is essential need for M&S
to make continuous improvement in their production process through adopting innovative
techniques which directly support company in achieving huge customer strength.
Document control: It is also the responsibility of managers to maintain the details of
every activities executed in producing and delivering quality products to the targeted people. It
help them in formulation of effective pricing policies after analysing the total cost incurred. It
increases the margin of company and motivate them to minimise the cost in future production
process
5:
M&S is multinational organisation due to which its business operations affects most by
the influencing factors arises in business environment. To analyse their impact, PEST analysis is
suitable method to conduct by the management of M&S.
Political Factors: It alludes to the laws and regulation of a nation which is made by
governmental authorities with the purpose of managing the business functions of an organisation.
It is vital for M&S to pursue such guidelines and regulations in request to sustain their item and
company itself in the other nation as well. M&S should decided to select an appropriate nation
dependent on strength and political state of the government in that specific nation. It gets huge
affected the decisions made by managers and leaders due to having fluctuations in existing
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government systems and regulations such as increase in taxation rate on clothing product will
direct both of them to motivate employees to reduce operation cost(PESTLE Analysis, 2017).
Economic factor: Such factors consists of economic development, inflation or deflation
situations and so forth which indirectly impacts on the business growth. M&S should implement
reasonable cost and product related marketing tools for influencing potential clients where the
clients don't stress over their financial conditions. For example, inflation situation in UK
increases the purchasing power of people due to which the managers can easily slightly increase
their prices which cannot affect their buying power.
Social factors: It is related with the fluctuations in demands, taste and requirements of
clients which can impact the business and in addition on sales of products. M&S managers
should learn about buyer activity and manages information about client's demands before coming
into new market and take decisions appropriately.
Technological factor: In this factor, the company tried to enhance their product and
services through adoption of advanced technology. M&S is attained good financial position due
to which they can afford to upgrade their existing technologies or bringing new digital
technologies to strong their presence ion market. For example, managers and leaders have option
to promote their company's products through using social media platform which requires less
time and efforts instead of spending money on making TV advertisement.
Internal factors:
Corporate social responsibility: It is considered as an effective business approach which
contributes to sustainable development through providing social, environment and economic
benefits for all stakeholders. It includes customers, shareholders, employees, and community as a
whole. For example, providing healthy food items by M&S can maximise the interest of
customers which help in achieving their loyalty for longer duration. Providing maximum return
on shareholders investment increases the financial stability of company but if the interest of
stakeholders goes down then it will bring negative impact on the sustainability and profitability
of company.
Organisational culture and ethics: The management and leaders of M&S should
maintain a positive working environment through establishing good organisational culture. Such
culture of organisation should promote equality among employees and provide equal
opportunities to them to get involve in decision-making process so that an effective decision can
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be made for the betterment of an organisation. It directs employees to perform in an ethical
manner which in results increasing the sustainability of employees as well as an organisation at
market place.
6)
As it can be seen clearly from the above analysis that there are several factors arises in
business environment which can largely affect the sustainability and profitability of an
organisation. It affect those organisation mostly who are operated at global level such as M&S as
their business functions may fluctuated due to political or economical factors. For example,
changes in import-export policies impact M&S to supply its quality products to different outlets
located in various nations. Such influencing factors can be analysed through conducting PEST
which enables operation management to make an effective decisions to grab competitive
opportunities and remove threats.
7)
It has been examined from the above analysis that M&S should mainly emphasis on
enhancing efficiency in production process so as to produce quality products and services and
offered them into market with an effective prices. For this, managers and leaders should adopt
various key approaches of management operations such as TQM, Six sigma etc. which supports
in enhancing quality through minimising wastage under production process. External
environment must also required to analyse through using PEST in order to deal with negative
impacts and grab competitive opportunities.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above project report that operation management play a
significant role in enhancing the sustainability of products and profitability of an organisation
through utilising limited resources in an optimum manner under production process. The
managers and leaders plays an important role in executing all business operational activities with
the help of using various key approaches such as TQM, Continuous improvement model etc. It
also required to analyse influencing factors of business environment through con ducting PEST
analysis.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Online
PESTLE Analysis. 2017. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.mbaskool.com/business-
concepts/marketing-and-strategy-terms/7249-pestle-analysis.html>.
Five Functions of Management. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/11/five-functions-of-management/>.
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