Literature Review and Case Study Analysis

This assignment requires a thorough examination of the relationship between operations management and leadership theories, incorporating a literature review and case study analysis. It involves analyzing various research articles and studies to identify key concepts and principles related to operations management and leadership, as well as conducting a case study to apply these theories in a practical context.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART ONE......................................................................................................................................1
Define different roles and characteristic of manager and leader.................................................1
Role of leader and functions of manager applied in different situations.....................................4
Different theories of approach.....................................................................................................6
Evaluation of different leadership theories..................................................................................7
PART TWO.....................................................................................................................................7
Approaches to operations management & role of leaders and managers of Soft company........7
Importance of operations management & evaluation of improvement in efficiency..................9
Factors that influences the operational and management decisions at Soft company...............10
Factors affect the community and business environment..........................................................11
Critical Evaluation of application of operations management and Factors that impact the wider
business environment.................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Management is group of people's who manages functions and activities of company
include operations. By managing each operations of firm management gain high level of
efficiency within any organization (Habib and et.al., 2015). The present report is based on Soft
company that provide their software services in many countries. This report compare and define
roles and characteristic of manager and leader and also explain Joan Pearson leadership and
management style. It clarifies leader role and manager functions applied in various situation in
context of company. This study justifies Joan inappropriate approach and strength and weakness
of approach which she used. Furthermore, this report explain three different types of leadership
theories and one which suited for organization, and also includes evaluation based on theories
which used in firm.
PART ONE
Define different roles and characteristic of manager and leader
The main difference between the Manager and leader is that leaders have people who
follow them whereas managers have individual have people who work for them. Manager role is
different from the role of leader in company, they both hire for different purpose within having
different responsibilities.
Role of leader-
Leader is a person who command or lead individual person or group of people's within
organization (Landis, Hill and Harvey, 2014). Leaders of company exhibiting and defining
ethical and moral courage and setting good example for each of them in firm.
Motivating workers- Leader motivate staff members that enhance their performance and
make them comfortable at workplace. They provide training and developing session to all the
existing and new applicants in company which helps to improve staff skills and develop
knowledge of work more and better than now. Leaders role is to support workers while they are
working in group of people or individually. They efforts to make people feel comfort and work
effectively as to accomplish given task on time.
Guiding employees- Guiding is important in process of working, leader play role as
guide who give directions or guidance to staff how to work or perform in their task. They define
each of them about their roles in work procedure and provide all the basic information and tool
that is required to participate and perform in given tasks at workplace.
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Setting clear vision- It means that leader influence worker to accept and understand
future state of company (Brown and Treviño, 2014). They explain staff members to perform their
roles and duties as according to vision and mission of organization.
Characteristic of leader-
Good communicator- A leader must be good communicator. He or she should have
capability to communicate both oral and written with people.
Inspire others- the leader must be able to inspire others. He or she must be enthusiastic
enough to take challenging task.
Role of manager-
Manager is the person who managed and organize each functions and activities of
company and is in charge of taking decision in context of business growth and success.
Make strategies or plans- manager play important role in company they assure tasks
meet with business objectives on time and projects has been done under budgets.
Monitor employee performance- Manager Monitor and measure the performance of all
the staff members. They monitor each of them closely and identify its weakness and strength
than make plan for organizing training program.
Plan incentives- Manager pay incentives to employees for their hard work and effective
work performance at workplace.
Negotiator- Manager of company play role as negotiator, they take correct place in team
of group of people.
Characteristic of manager-
Resource handler- Manager Handle resources of company, they allocate resource as
required in area. In company each and every task has been tackled using assets that is essential in
workplace, manager handles the process of resource allocation.
Comparison between the role and characteristic of leader and manager-
Role Leader Manager
Leaders Motivate staff and
manager make plans
Leader is one of the most
important part of company
growth as leader they motivate
workers at workplace via,
Manager play role in company
which is different from leader,
manager make plans or
strategies for company growth.
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sporting and understanding
their problems.
They managed all the
functions and activities of firm
which is important to build
market reputation and increase
profit more than the other
companies.
Guidance and resources
handler
With the help of
communication leader solve
individual person issues and
any problem which helps to
enhance their performance and
productivity. As compare to
manager, leader role is quite
different, leaders guide
workers who to work, they
provide appropriate guidance
to staff which is essential for
accomplish task on decided
time which build positive
image of company in
marketplace.
Manager handle resources and
allocate as it needed for work,
it helps to mangedmunged
financial budgets and reduce
chance to wasting things.
Manager monitor employee
performance which helps to
take decision in context of pay
incentives.
Build morale and monitoring
performance
With the help of
communication leader build
good relationship with its
workers and other staff
members, they also build
morale that create health and
positive work environment
With the help of monitoring
workers performance, manager
make plans for improving the
skills and knowledge of
employees.
Characteristic Leader Manager
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Communicator A leader is a good
communicator. They try to
engage more with team
through communicating.
Manager is not a good
communicator. They only
communicate when it is
needed.
Inspire others A leader must have ability to
inspire others. They do this in
order to attain goals in
deadline.
A manager inspire others when
it is required. s
John Pearson is head of manufacturing department at Soft company, they need to used
participative leadership style in their work which helps to achieve organizational desired goals
and gain positive outcomes (Buble, Juras and Matić, 2014). With the helps of participative style
they can enhance workers working performance and productivity more and more consistently.
As management style John Pearson can adopt democratic management style, in which
they give many opportunities to staff to engage in process of decision making which boost up
their morale.
Role of leader and functions of manager applied in different situations
Leader play role in any situation within company as supporter and motivator, which
helps staff a lot to feel comfortable and as an important part of organization. Situation statement
1, competitive environment increase when companies enter into new marketplace within having
different strategies or plan to increase profit and build good reputation, organization high
authority put pressure on staff to work hard rather than the now, with this pressure staff feel
uncomfortable and cannot work under this high pressure, at that time leader play their role, they
try to understand their problems and communicate with them and provide detail why hard work
performance is important for them. They guide staff how to work and efforts to perform with
them just to make them feel comfort.
On the other hand manager is one of the most important person who also helps to
enhance workers performance and solve any issue (Kaplan and et.al., 2014). Manager function is
to make plans and strategies which helps to perform work appropriately. At competitive
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environment manager make plans for using new technologies that lower down the pressure over
staff members.
Situation statement 2, conflict between senior and employees is considered as another
situation in which leader play their role and manager performance according to its functions.
Conflict between workers and high authority create negative environment around workplace that
result in high employee turn overturnover. Worker concern is to get more wages when they are
giving extra efforts in competitive situation which create conflict in firms. Leaders at this
situation play role as adviser or guide, they understand problems of staff and try to solve it with
the help of communication, they told manager about it and they manager taught to higher
authority and suggest them to make better outcomes which is beneficial for both, staff and
company.
Joan Pearson approach-
Soft organization Joan Pearson is head of production department, she gives orders to staff
for something, as head of product manufacturing section she used autocratic approach as
working in company which is not appropriate (Akor, 2014). Joan with Autocratic leadership
style find many difficulties to adjust themselves to entire way of production process of mobile
units, at firm. She takes decision in department without discussing with its subordinates and staff
members, she always places order to their workers which is not appropriate way to treat all of
them, many people in staff complaining about her behavior because it influences on their
productivity and performance negatively. Staff feel that Joan autocratic approach is not good as
management styles which can lead negatively. Employees are not considered as important part of
decision making, Joan takes all the decision individually.
Strength of autocratic style- Joan Pearson are using Autocratic leadership style in its
working. In times of any business crisis where time is limited, and she need to take fast action,
autocratic management approach is impermissible.
Weakness of autocratic style- In time of crisis Joan are using autocratic approach which
is not easy to manage. Use of this approach can lead to higher employee turnover which is not
good for Soft company growth. By use of this style she orders staff in which staff will not be
able to feel good and decide to quit the job.
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Different theories of approach
Situational leadership- Situational leadership is one of the best leadership styles that has
been developed for the purpose of enhancing employee performance and also for business
growth and success (Luo and Liu, 2014). It considered as repeatable and timeless framework for
leaders to meet its behavior with performance wants of individual or team that they are effort to
influence. Situational leadership style is important to applied in work styles because it helps to
support and motivate employees and also contribute create healthy work environment that
increase productivity and profitability.
System leadership- system leadership is the another effective theory or leadership style
that contribute to make leader able to create conditions where staff members at all stages work
productively to its potential or higher than it (Toh and et.al., 2014). It makes individual capable
to serve their services or lead across the boundaries and gain high advantages. This leadership
style provideprovides leader of company the best tools that support to predict person behavior in
its organization. Situational leadership approach help leader to build effective programs which
drive staff productive nature and lead to be more effectual realization of firm purpose.
Motivation environment create positive atmosphere around workplace which influences
employeesemployee’s performance.
Contingency leadership- It is one of the best leadership theory that emphasize
effectiveness of leadership which depend on matching leader style to appropriate situation (Shao,
Feng and Hu, 2016). This theory defines that nothing is the best way to manage a company, to
lead organization or to make decision. Instead, optimal course of activity is dependent upon
external and internal situation that impact on business growth and productivity. It reflects that
management effectively is dependent or contingent, upon interplay between applications of
company management specific situation and behavior.
Situational leadership theory is the best suited leadership style for Soft Company,
which helps firm a lot to gain competitive advantages and increase productivity. With the help of
this style leaders adjust themselves at any situations and efforts to adjust all the staff members
according to situation which help to get the best results and to generate high revenue of
organization.
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Evaluation of different leadership theories
Contingency leadership is some extent effective, if Soft company used it or adopt in their
business structure which helps to enhance productivity. Situational leadership is also as effective
as other leadership theories for company which helps to gain positive results and lead high
market share. System leadership contribute to grow business more and better than now, it makes
leader effective to motivate workers which helps to generate high profit margin of Soft company.
PART TWO
Approaches to operations management & role of leaders and managers of Soft company
Operations management refers to the management of production of goods and services. It
involves products designing, product development, product production and product distribution.
It is considered to be core and administrative function of any organization as without goods and
services, no business can survive. Thus, it is very important for the organization to do operations
management (What is Operations Management?, 2019).
There are various approaches to operations management of Soft company which are as
follows -
Business Process Redesign (BPR)
Business process redesign is a systematic and well managed approach. In this approach,
Company's focus is mainly on the workflows and procedures in order to reduce the overall costs
and improved the customer services of Soft Company (De Boer, 2018). It is a process which
contains following steps -
 Determine the objectives
 Identify the needs of customers
 Evaluate the existing business process
 Redesign the business process
 Implement that new business process
By following these steps, company will able to adjust itself according to the needs of
external environmental changes which is essential for the company's growth and sustainability.
Re-Configurable Manufacturing System (RMS)
Re-configurable manufacturing system is a system in which the structure and its software
& hardware components of Soft Company can be easily change in order to quickly shape the
manufacturing capacity of the system according to the change in market.
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By using this approach, company will change its production capacity according to the
demand and supply of the company's products which cause company to save its cost, efforts and
resources.
Six Sigma
Six sigma is an approach for the quality control of production. It is a set of tools and
techniques which is focusing on the detects which are in products or services or production
process of Soft Company. Six sigma process approach consists of five steps which are as follows
-
 Define
 Measure
 Analyses
 Improve
 Control (Allen, 2019)
By this approach, company can find out the errors in its production and products which
helps company to produce good quality products.
Lean Manufacturing
It is also known as Lean Production. In lean manufacturing, the term “lean” refers to the
method through which wastage materials can be minimize without holocaust the production so
that company don't have to face any kind of problems regarding production. It has five principles
which are as follows -
 Customers' Value
 Value Stream
 Production Flow
 Pull System
 Kaizen
By using lean production, company will be able to use its resources optimum without any
compromise in its production quality and quantity.
For the Soft Company, Lean manufacturing approach is best because in this approach,
company is able to reduce its wastage materials and provide good quality products at the
reasonable price to the customers.
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Role of leaders and managers of Soft Company in operations management are as follows
-
An operational leaders and managersmanager’s platyplay an important role in successful
production in the organization. They think, plan, create and implement strategies which can
improve the quality of production and reduce the costs of organization in order to earn
profitability, stability and growth of organization and attract customers towards company. They
also oversee the budgeting, reporting, planning and auditing of the production in order to
monitor, evaluate and improve the quality of products and services. They also recruit, select,
train, assign and counsel the employees for the betterment of them as well as company too
(Andersen, 2019).
Importance of operations management & evaluation of improvement in efficiency
IMPORTANCE OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT IN SOFT COMPANY
Operations management plays a vital role in organization which are as follows -
Operations management involves the planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling and
coordinating the daily activities of organization which help company to utilize its resources such
as labor, raw material, money, machinery and other etc. optimum. This lead to reduce the cost
and increase the profitability for the organization (Wild, 2017).
It ensures the quality management of the products and services produce by company
which increase its quality without sacrificing production and its costs. This lead company to
provide its qualitative products and services at reasonable price to the customers which attract
and retain the existing as well as new customers. This also lead company to gain loyal customers.
Thus, Operation management is the heart of Soft Company.
The organization can earn huge profits through optimum utilization of resources. The
efforts of employees and various raw materials are used efficiently and that are converted into
qualitative goods and services. Also, Operations management plays an important role in Soft
Company because it handles issues such as products design, operation and maintenance of the
system and machinery used for the production of goods and services (Pereira, Silva and Pereira,
2018).
Due to operations management, company are able to manage its inventory which lead
company to supply its raw material to the production department on the time. This lead
production department to produce goods and services on the time. This helps distribution
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department to fulfill the gap between demand and supply of the products and services to the
customers on time. This lead company to increase the sales and profits.
EVALUATION OF IMPROVEMENT IN EFFICIENCY
Leaders and managers of Soft Company can improve the efficiency to meet the business
objectives in following ways -
Managers and leaders can select, hire and train right employees by doing strategic
recruitment and selection process in order to improve the company's productivity. They can
break the organizational objectives into small organizational goals and accordingly assign the
tasks to the employees in order to maintain a proper management of the operational activities of
the company. They also can create an open environment in the organization through implement
implementing open communication system in order to simplifies the work and reduce the
workload which bring efficiency in production and quality of products and services of Soft
Company (Kaur, Singh and Singh, 2019).
Factors that influences the operational and management decisions at Soft company
FACTORS AFFECTING OPERATIONAL DECISION MAKING
Economic Factors
Variations in economic factors affect the operational decision making. Change in any
factors of economy will impact the demand of the products and services. This will impact the
supply of the products and services by Soft company. For Example – Increase in tax rate would
decrease the consumption of goods and services which directly impact the demand and supply
equation of Soft Company.
Technological Factors
Change in technology also impact the decision of operational department. Due to
technological advancement in industry, Soft Company also has to adopt that technology to
sustain its business for long time in competitive environment existing in industry. It also impacts
the quality of products and services maintain by the company.
Financial Factors
Operational decisions involve the investment and cost. This two terms are important in
financial position of the company. Thus, financial factors impacts the operation management's
decisions of soft company based upon the availability of cash flow, liquidity, resources
availability for raising funds and goodwill of the company etc.
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Employee Training
Employee training affects the operational decisions of the company. If employees are
trained then they can take the decisions without any pressure and confusions, this lead to
operational management effectively and efficiently. Also, trained employees maintain the
workflow of the organization, this lead manager to focus on other important things which
required attention of manager (Janssen, van der Voort and Wahyudi, 2017).
FACTORS AFFECTING MANAGEMENT DECISION MAKING
Regulations
Changes in regulations not only affect the management decisions, it also affects the
whole organization too. Change in employment and commercial regulations affect the policy
related to the organization, employees and employers of the company which also influence the
decisions of the manager who are policy maker.
Cultural Factors
Cultural factors involve trends, preferences, demands and perceptions of the customers
towards organization. Change in cultural factors influences the business management decisions
directly. For example – In some cultures, particular tasks of the organization are not allowed to
assign to the girls, this lead company not to allot that particular tasks to the female employees.
Human Resource Behaviors
Human resource behaviors also influence the management decision. If some employees
are not well behaved, this lead management to become hard and strict with all the employees.
Also, they will make hard policy in order to reduce the not acceptable behavior with the Soft
Company (Luhmann, 2018).
Factors affect the community and business environment
There are various factors that influences the business environment and community. These
factors are as follows -
Change in economic factors affect the business profitability and brand image. For
example – increase in oil price affect the business production cost which impact the price of
business and also impact the profits and sales of the business. This also affect the purchasing
power of the community because when price increases, in case of same income level, their
consumption level decreases.
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Technological factors also impact the business. For the adoption of advance technology,
business has to do huge investment which affect the business profitability and performance too.
If Soft Company is able to adopt the technology successfully, this would affect the life style of
community by consuming good qualitative products and services at reasonable price.
Financial factors also affect the business. Cash flow, sales, investment decisions, liquidity
of cash will influence the profitability of business. If Soft Company's financial position get
strong as compared to previous year, community will be able to trust company and its
stakeholders' wealth will increase.
Employees training also impact the business and its environment. If employees training
goes perfect as expected by Soft Company, this would be beneficial for the company as they get
required employees who will maintain good environment by doing accurate work. Employees
who are trained will be efficient at his work which will give good performance. This will lead
organization to produce good results. Thus, it will affect the community by using the products
and services of the company.
Regulations help company to run its business in legal manner of the nation which
improve the company's goodwill as well as company don't have to face any legal actions.
Community get standard products and services from the company which will not harm their life.
Good human resource behaviors maintain a good and positive business environment
where Soft company is conducting its business smoothly without any conflicts. This lead to co-
ordination between all the activities of the organization and efficiency of the business improves.
Well behaved employees also behave good with customers and community, help them in solving
their problems and provide them comfort in purchasing their products and services.
Critical Evaluation of application of operations management and Factors that impact the wider
business environment
Application of Operations Management means apply the different aspects of operations
management in the context of business in order to fulfill the objectives of business. The
applications of Operations Management are as follows -
Transformation Of Raw Materials
The process of converting raw materials into finished goods is called transformation of
raw material. Communities' needs are fulfilled by that transformation. That transformation
process need to be updated on time to time.
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Capacity Management
Capacity management refers to the process of information technology practices meeting
the current and future needs of the organization. It helps in controlling cost which lead to price to
be reasonable for the community. Its basis is future activities which is uncertain.
Inventory Management
Inventory management refers to the process of acquiring, storing and using the
inventories in order to make products and services. Inventory management reduce the wastage of
materials. Inventory management is the long process which cause to gap in demand and supply
of the community.
Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is the management of the network of purchasing of raw
materials, manufacturing and distribution of finished products. Due to supply chain management,
community is able to use all the kinds of products from different nation. Bad supply chain can
impact the price of products which customers have to bear (Swink and et.al., 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarized that managers and leaders are an integral
part of organization where their roles, skills, contributions and characteristics are different which
cause conflict between these two parties. Both leader and manager should work together despite
being different because both end goals are same. Both wants to achieve the organizational goals
and objectives. Operation management was not given priority early but gradually given
importance due to reduction in costs, wastage materials and increase the productivity of the
company. Operation management is an important function of organization in which various
factors are involved. Analysis of these factors are important as they not only affect the
organization but also affect the community who are connected with the organization.
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Online
What is Operations Management?. 2019. [ONLINE]. Available through:
<https://www.topmba.com/mba-programs/what-operations-management>
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