Leadership and Management Approaches

The provided text discusses the significance of leadership and management approaches in company operations. It highlights how these approaches help in utilizing human resources effectively, reducing waste, and maximizing profits through just-in-time production and total quality management. The document also touches upon external business environmental factors that affect company activities and decision-making processes.

Management and operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristic of leaders and managers........3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
P2 Roles of a leader and function of manager in different situation by examples.................5
P3 Different theories and models of approach that include system, situational and contingency
theory......................................................................................................................................6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Key approaches to operation management and the roles which leaders and managers play.7
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives......10
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................11
P6 Factors within business environment which impact upon operational management and
decision-making process .....................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Management refers the style and methods which used in managing and controlling people
within an organisation. Operation management is an area of management which is concerned
with planning, organising and functions of supervising. Toyota is a Japanese manufacturer
corporation whose headquarter is in Aichi, Toyota city, Japan. It is the world's market leader in
sales of hybrid vehicles. This report shows about several roles of managers and leaders in
company which help them in achieving organisational goals (Einarsen and Nielsen, 2015).
Company have to face many situations and problem at workplace and with the help of leadership
and management theories, managers effectively manage and control all the processes and
employees which lead in maximizing profits. Operation manager also help in achieving business
goals as they support in improving quality of products, improving working conditions.
LO 1
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristic of leaders and managers
Leaders: Leaders are the person who have the skills and ability to lead other people and
influence them towards achieving determined goals.
Managers: A manager is a person who supervise and manage all the functions and
processes in an organisation. It takes all the major responsibilities of administrating of staff.

Leaders Managers
The main role of leaders in the company is to
make the vision and strategies.
Manager of Toyota company makes the
policies and procedures.
Leaders influence people for accomplishing
their vision and goals (Filippini and Forza,
2016).
Managers Power and control employees
towards organisational goals.
Leaders of Toyota corporation asks questions
from staff and work accordingly.
They mainly give direction to the employees.
Leaders know their employees potential and
ability to give all the answers and see them as a
competitor. They tell method and give every
details about tasks to employees.
Managers allocate tasks among employees and
tell them how to complete task.
They take risks because they know that risks
and failure is the key of success.
Managers try to minimize risks rather than
taking risks.
Leaders mainly focus on democracy style of
leading where they trust on employees and
involve them in their decision-making process.
On the other hand, managers emphasises on
autocracy style of managing staff where it does
not involve employees in decision-making
process.
There are other roles and functions also which managers and leaders play in Toyota corporation
such as:
Planning: Planning is the main function for Toyota corporation which manager play.
Managers make planning related to maximize sales by attracting large number of customers.
Planning help in predicting and assuming the future demand. Planning also included the effective
decision-making for benefit of company.
Organizing: Organising means arrangement of all things that include planning and
controlling things and make coordination in order to achieve objectives of organisation. For

better organising, manager of Toyota provides several products to their customers and coordinate
and maintain among those products.
Leading: Leading function refers as do all the things which can motivate and inspire
employees in order to encourage them for effective work. This leading function help managers in
maximizing productivity and revenue.
Controlling: controlling means monitor the performance of employees and then take the
necessary action according to monitoring. Toyota uses total quality management approach for
controlling function.
Theories of management and leadership
There are various theories of leadership and management which help them in play their
roles effectively and in decision-making process.
Classical management theory: It is the theory of management which believe that
employees have only economic and physical needs and do not have social needs that may
include job satisfaction. This theory follows hierarchical structure of managing people in Toyota.
It also shows them about roles and tasks of workers.
Contingency theory: This theory of management believes and find out the best way and
method of managing employees. This theory helps managers in operating different
environmental conditions. It provides a framework which help in resolving problems that
depends upon environmental conditions.
Trait theory: Trait theory depends and focus on the behaviour of leaders. This theory
has some characteristic like desire to lead employees and self confidence which help in make
employees honest towards company.
Style theory: Style leadership focus on the style of doing things rather than focusing on
leaders. It helps in development of self confidence in staff and motivating them (Ghasabeh,
Soosay and Reaiche, 2015).
LO 2
P2 Roles of a leader and function of manager in different situation by examples
There are many situations happen in Toyota corporation that impact on its business. This
situation may be internal or may be external. Roles of a leaders and managerial functions help
company in improvement and resolving the problems and change the situations.

Stable situation: Stable situation means no changes in external factors that impact on
Toyota's corporation. For example, if there are no changes happen in market like demands of
customers, changes in their taste, inflation, deflation then the situation of company will be stable
and leaders and managers will play their role as they were playing. There will be no requirement
of changes.
Labour turnover: Labour turnover is internal situation which Toyota have to face many
of the times. There are many reasons which increases labour turnover that include: low wages,
bad working conditions, discrimination. With the help of Chaos theory, manager, managers can
make small changes in their style which will help them in solving this problem. Managers can
focus on providing equal pay and better salary to employees according to their performance.
Manager also focus on its function of better planning. For solving this problem leaders focus on
satisfying all the needs of employees by providing them better working environment (Hitt, Xu
and Carnes, 2016).
Fast changing situation: The changes in external factors also impact on Toyota
corporation. This situation happen mostly in the organisation. Company have to changes in their
planning and procedures according to changes in market condition. For example, rapid changes
in stock market which influence company in negative manner as well as positive manner.
Managers and leaders have to changes in their planning and style of managing employees
according to these changes.
Conflicts at workplace: Toyota corporation face this problem as there are many reasons
of conflicts such as: miscommunication, unequal wages etc. With the use of management by
objective theory, managers can help in improving communication as they can convey specific
objectives within an organisation and its employees. Leaders can try to follow all the rules and
building human relationship within an organisation which will help in improving their
interpersonal relations.
P3 Different theories and models of approach that include system, situational and contingency
theory
Traits approach: Trait approach is a method of that helps in focusing on trait and
behaviour of an individual. It shows about traits and characteristic of person which make them
differ and unique from others. This approach can help company in identifying the characteristic
of employees while hiring and recruiting. Trait theory help in facilitating planning function of

managers as they can see the behaviour of candidates while recruiting and selection. They can
become calm st the tome of changes in external business environment.
Contingency theory: Contingency theory refers and believes that there is no best way of
managing and leading people which they have used. This theory is dependent on the optimal
position for the contingent position. This theory of Toyota influence decision-making process
related to the current position. This theory can help in solving miscommunication problem which
Toyota corporation faces which also leads conflicts at workplace. This theory has flexibility and
it is the main importance of this theory. While it has limitations as it only focuses on situations
not on tools and resources (Medina Munro and Belanger, 2017).
System theory: System leadership theory help leadership in providing a system that lead
in increasing productivity by making leaders enable to create better working condition for
employees. This theory can work in any type of situation. As we have read about staff retention
problem so with the help of this theory leaders can make and create the conditions for worker
where they can work productively in order to enhance their morale. The main advantage of this
theory is it is effecting in solving problem and effective communication. On the other hand it is
over conceptual theory.
Situational theory: Keneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey has developed this theory.
According to situational leadership theory, leaders can use their ability in all type of situations
which arises at workplace. Managers and leaders adjust their styles in order to fit the
development level of employees which are trying to influence them. Advantages of this theory is
it improve communication and employees morale. Whereas, it is time consuming theory and
difficult in managing.
System approach: This approach is important for Toyota's manger as it concentrate on
managing unified system where all functional departments are interrelated. The main aim of this
approach is to arrange several parts in a manner that can support to produce a unified hole by
interrelating all that parts. Toyota uses this approach because it evaluates elements of market that
affect business's profitability. It has main feature as it receives all materials, information from
other system as an input.

LO 3
P4 Key approaches to operation management and the roles which leaders and managers play
Operation management is the process of doing something best and it make able to
managers in better use of resources like material, labour, money in order to improve efficiency
and productivity. The main purpose of operation management is to maximize the use of
machines, manpower and make good quality products.
Toyota corporation use and focuses on some strategy in this operation management that
are supply chain management, management of quality, inventory management etc. There are
some operational approaches that Toyota uses in order to improve quality of goods for satisfying
customers (Rawashdeh, 2018).
Total quality management: Toyota is world leaders market in sales of vehicles and it is
known for its best quality products that it provides to its customer. Company's products quality is
done by because of total quality management approach which is also called Toyota's way. The
main aim of using this approach to reduce waste and focus on quality of products rather than
quantity of products. With the help of this approach, employees emphasis on continuous
improvement of their ability in order to provide and produce product and services that customers
demand to achieve a value. Manager also focus on meeting customers requirements, employee
empowerment, processes etc. This approach has some qualities and characteristics which make it
different from other approaches such as: reliability, learning, efficiency and time behaviour.
Just in time approach: Toyota's total production system is also known as just in time
approach. This production system is a subsystem that is controlled by Kanban. The main
objective of company of using this approach is it helps company in smoothing production
operation and prevents them from using excessive inventory. Company focuses on reduce the
waste and provide goods and services on time to customers in order to gain value from them.
With the help of this approach Toyota also reduce their overall cost which lead in maximizing
profits and revenue.
Kaizen theory: Kaizen is a Japanese word which represent or refers improvement which
emphasise on change for better. In Toyota, this word defines to those activities that support in
improving all organisational functions by involving all company' s employees from the CEO to
the assembly line worker. Its main aim to eliminate and reduce wastes in order to reduce costs. It
is a daily process in company whose main purpose in productivity improvement. There are five

elements of Kaizen that include improved morale, team work, quality circles, personal discipline
and suggestion for better improvement (Ross, 2017).
Six sigma approach: With the help of six sigma tools, Toyota is growing rapidly and
maximizing its profit and productivity. It is a process for improvement that address defects that
arises while producing process of products. The main aim of this approach is it eliminates
process variation and help in improving process capability. This approach of Toyota also
improves customer experience.
Roles of leaders and managers
Leaders and manger play very significant role in operation management and its functions.
Operation manager make sure that all activities and processes are going in better way. Leaders
role in operation management is to supervise all inventory and supply chain. Leaders and
managers try to focus on and make sure that there is no use of excessive inventory. Leaders of
Illustration 1: Total quality management approach
Sources: (Total quality management approach, 2019)

Toyota emphasises on improving skills and ability of employees in order to effective and
improving quality of products. Toyota's operation manager focus on providing goods to
customers on time for that they make their employees effective and capable for doing all the
tasks on time or before time.
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
Operation management is a method and process of organizing, planning, controlling and
supervising processes. The main function of operation manager of Toyota is To successfully turn
raw materials and inputs into outputs or in finished goods. The importance of operation
management is to improve overall productivity.
With the help of this operation managers make bale themselves to make good use of its
human resources like raw materials, labour and money. Operation managers make their
employees capable in order to better utilization of raw materials for converting into services and
goods that is required and demanded by customers. Operation management is not only important
for the company but also for the functioning of the organisation. It is important for Toyota to sale
along with management manufacturing of raw materials to the customers and it is only done by
effective management of operations (Schönsleben, 2016).
Value of operations management
Operation managers impacts directly on quality and cost of Toyota as they assure that
manufacturing, suppliers, materials and labours all work collaboratively and together in an
effective manner in order to reduce cost of production. There are some values of operations
management that include: better quality of goods and services, improvement of working
conditions, higher standard living and concern for the environment.
Higher standard of living: The main value of operations management is it helps in
increasing standard of living of people and employees. It supports and make employees able to
increase productivity which leads to lower cost of goods and services.
Better quality of goods and services: The another main feature of operations
management is it improves quality of goods and services. There is increasing competition day
by day in automotive industry and it is important for Toyota's manager to improve its quality for
being in competition.

Improved working conditions: The another main value of operations management is it
improves working conditions for employees that help them to concentrate on task only. It makes
better participation of employees.
Concern for the environment: Operations management is concern with environment as
it recycle for air and water quality as it focuses on reducing and eliminating wastes that help in
satisfying environment (Wang and et.al., 2015).
LO 4
P6 Factors within business environment which impact upon operational management and
decision-making process
There are various external factors that impact operational management as well as decision-
making process of managers and leaders such as:
Environmental factors: There are various environmental factors that impact on Toyota
corporation. Company can increase their business sustainability and take opportunity by lay keen
emphasises on quality of products. It also requires maintaining CSR (corporate social
responsibility) and it can be done by fulfilling all the demands and needs of customers.
Political factors: Political factors also impact on operations' management in long term
profitability. There are some factors which company should analyse before entering and
investing in various markets and countries such as: Anti trust laws which is related to auto
mobiles, Tax rates that can influence its business in positive manner and in negative manner.
There is an opportunity of free trade agreement for improving market penetration that directly
impact on decision-making by leaders as it increases sales of the company (Slack and Brandon-
Jones, 2018).
Social factors: Society's culture impacts on the culture of company in an environment. It
is important for Toyota's marketers that to make a better design and message of marketing for
auto mobiles and parts that can be better understand by customers. Education level of people
impact on decision making process and culture of society which include social convention,
gender roles also impacts its activities.
Technological factors: Toyota is a technology business and it has been transforming
rapidly from last five years. It is important for company to analyse speed at which technology is
improving and disrupting its business and its all process which include decision-making process.

Slow speed takes more time and fast speed make them able to be more profitable and being in
competition.
Legal factors: There are many legal factors that are increasingly complex environmental
laws and intellectual property laws that impact Toyota corporation as by adopting discrimination
laws it can enhance morale of employees at workplace which will more focus on their work.
Company should consider and follow data protection law before entering in new market because
it may be create risk for them and impact on decision-making process in negative manner.
Recommendation for future improvement
For the better improvement, Toyota should focus on effective communication which help them
in eliminating conflicts at workplace. Managers can use democratic style of managing and
controlling in which they can involve their employees in all the decision which will make them
able, creative and will improve their self-esteem (Ulmer, 2018).
Company should follow all the laws which prevents employees from discrimination,
unwanted activities and which provides them better salary according to their performance.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that managers and leaders play significant
roles in company for better and effective production in order to achieve organisational goals.
With the help of leadership and management approaches and theories they played their function
in various work-based problems and situations which arises in company. They helped in better
utilization of human resources that influence and impacted their decision-making process.
Key operational functions and their approaches also played an important role in company
as they focus on better quality products in order to satisfy customers demands. Just in time
approach and total quality management approach helped operation managers in reducing waste
and overall cost of organisation which leads in maximizing profits. External business
environmental factors also affected company's activity as well as decision making process by
managers and leaders.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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Hitt, M.A., Xu, K. and Carnes, C.M., 2016. Resource based theory in operations management
research. Journal of Operations Management. 41. pp.77-94.
Medina Munro, M. and Belanger, C., 2017. Analyzing external environment factors affecting
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Ross, J.E., 2017. Total quality management: Text, cases, and readings. Routledge.
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Ulmer, W.F., 2018. Leaders, managers, and command climate. In Military leadership (pp. 97-
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ONLINE
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