Management and Operations of M&S Assignment

Management and Operations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1: Introduction of M&S Ltd and its management structure........................................................1
2: Comparing roles and responsibilities of manager and leader with reference to M&S Ltd.....1
3: Differences of managerial functions and leadership roles by management theories and
concepts.......................................................................................................................................3
4- Examples of different situations and examining the roles of a leader and functions of a
manager applied in those situations............................................................................................3
5: Supporting growth and sustainable performance by applying different management and
leadership theories.......................................................................................................................4
6: Strengths and Weaknesses of theories and their critical analysis...........................................4
7: Impacts and Recommendations of managers and leaders on M&S Ltd.................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
1: Introducing operation management and the key approaches adopted by M&S Ltd...............5
2: Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of the
operation of M&S Ltd.................................................................................................................6
3: Importance and value of key approaches to operations management of M&S Ltd................6
4. Managers and leaders effective in improving operational efficiencies...................................7
5. Impact of external business environment factors on operational management and analysing
how these factors affect the business environment.....................................................................7
6: Critical evaluation of operations management decision to manage factors that affect
business.......................................................................................................................................9
7. Recommendations for future improvements: .........................................................................9
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Operation is crucial function as it assists to improve productivity by handling issues like
design, maintenance and operations of the system used for production of goods (Armstrong and
Taylor, 2014). Thus, term management means planning, organising, controlling and coordinating
all the resources that's needs to managed to carry out business function efficiently as possible to
maximise the profitability of the enterprise.
Here, this report will take into consideration the business activities of Mark and Spencer,
which specialises in cloth, home products and various luxurious food products. Being a global
leading company, it has to maintain its reputation by keeping the needs and demands of the
customers in mind and increase the efficiency.
In following report, the roles and differences of leaders and managers, external factors
that affect business environment will be explained. The strategy of the M&S is to accomplish the
objectives by managing the work of leader and manager so it can attract the customers and aids t
maintain long term sustainability.
TASK 1
1. Introduction of M&S Ltd and its management structure.
Marks & Spencer sells branded goods along with cloths and home products. The main
aim is to sell the best quality goods at fair or reasonable price so that the consumer gets attracted
to the product easily. To achieve the goals and success in the organisation, it is significant to
maintain a management structure. Hence, each entity follows different structures as per the
suitability.
Thus, M&S follows the Flat management structure in which the level between the
administrative and the front line employee is limited. As, this structure motivates employees in
taking a quick and right decision and it helps the employee to feel free and put efforts
accordingly. Under this structure bureaucracy is decreased and employees are more skilled by
giving opportunity to take decisions. Thus, because of low levels of management the
communication becomes easy between the base line employees and upper managers that helps in
making a sudden change of the decisions. The structure has a pyramid shape having many
departments which includes heads and managers that leads effective working to lower level.

2. Comparing roles and responsibilities of manager and leader with reference to M&S Ltd.
Manager is the person who controls and administers the organisation or group. They give
instruction to the leaders about what to do.Leader is the one who leads the group of individuals
and motivates them to achieve a specified goals. Thus, roles and responsibilities of leaders and
managers of Mark & Spencer has been discussed in below context,
Basis of comparison Managers Leaders
MEANING A manager is a one who
controls or administers the
organisation in the direction of
goals and success, the one who
manages the company (Bens,
2017). He runs the whole
business organisation and have
the rights to take business
decisions.
Leaders are those people who
are in charge of the group of
individuals they make
employees to do work by
motivating them. The main
aim of the leader is to inspire
employees in doing their work
which results to increase the
productivity of the
organisation.
SKILLS USED 2. Managers of the selected
organisation don't have their
personal way of managing and
they lean on others skills.
2. Leaders work according to
their own skills and are
comfortable in their own way
of leading.
TRAINING AND
DEVELOPMENT
3. The manager trains the
employees, supervise them and
maintain financial records
3. The leader direct the
employees, motivate them to
reach the desired goals.
TASK 4. Manager of the M&S
company runs the whole
process and manages the
employees as per the situation.
4. Leaders assist the members
in the team. Members of the
company has to follow the
leaders decision.
RISK TAKING 5. Managers of the selected 5. Even having the fear of

company avoids taking risk so
they always work on a short
term goals which lacks risks.
failing leaders takes risk and
they stay motivated without
any rewards.
STRUCTURE FOCUSED 6. Managers always focus on
the structures which will help
to achieve goals.
6. Leaders focus on the people
like stakeholders. They create
trust among them which leads
to success.
3. Differences of managerial functions and leadership roles by management theories and
concepts.
The managerial function includes commanding, coordinating, controlling, planning and
organising. These management functions focus on the relationship between employees and the
management so that problems are solved in practical manner.
The role of leader is to lead people in the firm to achieve goals and it is done by
influencing employees in different ways. Leaders of M&S set vision and followers work
accordingly to reach the goals. In this content the role and functions of manager and leaders have
been differentiated as per the following theory.
 Behavioural theory: This theory is adopted as per the behaviour of the leader. Here, by
the M&S company the action of the leader is taken into consideration not the mental
quality. People can learn leaders’ quality under this theory as it states the belief that
leaders are made successful not born successful.
 Transactional theory- The transactional theory is based on principles that the success is
rewarded. Hence, this motivates the employees to work harder and get a reward in the
quoted company
 Transformational leadership- There is a focus between the members and leaders’
relationship. Thus, M&S company keep an eye on the performance and see that they
fulfil potential.
 Chaos theory- It is the study of complex and dynamic systems and describes the
unpredictability of system like weather, water flows and eco systems. The fact is that it
has been developed in relation to physical system.

4. Examples of different situations and examining the roles of a leader and functions of a
manager applied in those situations.
 Interpersonal conflicts- Employees who works together will have a chance of having
conflicts. Manager of the M&S company should have a talk with the particular employee
separately and advise him to cooperate with the colleague. Leaders must not avoid the
conflicts as it can create a huge fight between employees. In order to avoid conflicts at
workplace the role of leader is to provide all employees with suitable amount of resources
which may not affect the performance of the other members. The leader of the company
must ask the questions and clarify the problems.
 Creating teams- Manager of M&S company should create an innovative team to reach the
goals easily. Hence, to make innovative teams the manager has to first analyse the
uniqueness of the member and on that basis which the team is created. Leaders of the
team must understand each member and help them in working with the new employees
accordingly. Hence, it plays a very difficult role in creating teams.
 Setting a goal: To set a particular goal towards success, it is important to set different
goals in the company. Thus, in M&S company it is a challenging task for the managers
and leaders to set a goal which increases the productivity of the company to the greater
extent.
5. Supporting growth and sustainable performance by applying different management and
leadership theories
The support and growth of the M&S company specially depends on the manager and
leaders. To continue and increase the growth of the products and to maintain the sustainable
nature they have to work with different leadership style. Here are some styles adopted by leaders
and managers in M&S.
 Situational leadership: Situational leadership style indicates that the decision should
change as per the situation arises (Bolman and Deal, 2017). This leadership style is one
which depends on the situation. As there is a change in the situation of the company, the
leader's decision has to modify suddenly according to the situation. As we take
competition into consideration the situational theory of leadership applied by managers
are that they have to look after the competitive nature and the factors affecting the
reputation of the organisation and leaders will have to motivate the employees to work by

appreciating their efforts. For example when there are conflicts between the employees of
the cited company regarding a particular decision, they have to modify that decisions into
new one that leads in decrease in conflicts and engage customers into a particular work.
 System leadership: As per the M&S company, this leadership style is adopted when
there is a requirement of changes and need to implement the innovation in the system,
organisation leadership is vital. This means that the one institution or particular person
cannot solve the problem of mutual concern as it is the work of beyond national
boundaries. For example- if M&S have to set goals in order to achieve particular
objectives, this can not be done with the one person, it requires many people s they
have to connect with national boundaries.
 Contingency leadership: The basic meaning of this theory is that it is not based on the
one signature way but many internal and external ways which they adopt in particular
situation. This theory highlights the importance of the situation that the leader operates
and his personality. Contingent leader is one who applies his own style to the situation he
faces. For example- if need occurs to create a unique team, this leadership comes into
existence. Random changes in team occurs as per the situation if required high skilled
and specialist talent to obtain particular objectives.
6. Strengths and Weaknesses of theories and their critical analysis.
1. Situational leadership
 Strengths: Situational leadership style is easy to understand and is applicable faster in
business environment as and when need arises (Zare and et.al, 2016). Thus, this makes
the employees more flexible which in turn helps them to develop new skills and to give
innovative ideas to reach the goals.
 Weakness: The individuals struggles to remain flexible as they have to change their way
doing work or thinking according to the situation constantly.
2. System leadership
 Strengths: Decision in this type of leadership is taken as per the internal and external
environment by focusing on the multiple ways of management and has dynamic nature.
 Weakness: this style of leadership is not applicable to small scale organisations. As it is
the work done beyond the national boundaries, it may lead to delay in decision making.

3. Contingency theory
 Strengths: contingency theory develops the data which is useful for the human resource
planning, the leaders work according to their own style as the situation arises and they are
not depended (Day and Sammons, 2016).
 Weakness: this theory has a complex nature, to give suggestions is simple but taking into
action becomes difficult.
 Thus, every positivity comes with some negative effects (Tan, 2018), the theories have
both strengths and weakness with them. The theory has saved the time of the people by
giving information which don't need any efforts of researching deeply.
7. Impacts and Recommendations of managers and leaders on M&S Ltd.
Manager and leaders face challenging task in company as it becomes complicated to
understand employees behaviour and requirement of innovation. The managers and leaders are
not based on the knowledge and skills they acquire but on understanding the behaviour of their
followers and their performance (Schaltegger Burritt and Petersen, 2017).
Hence, for future improvements the manager and leader has to build strong understanding
among employees about the strategy which has to be followed and see that each employee is
using the specialised skills which will help in the success and increase the efficiency of the
business.
TASK 2
1. Introducing operation management and the key approaches adopted by M&S ltd.
The operation strategy of Mark & Spencer follows the policy that all types of demanded
products are available in market, and have stores at the places where the person feels it easy to
buy a particular product as needed. Thus, operation manager of creates better relationship in
organisation so that the members feel free to share their ideas which leads to productivity. Here,
the members are trained in creative way which helps them to take sudden decision to the
changing situations. Further, the customers are also satisfied by delivering right product at right
place.
M&S has adopted many changes as, technology is updated which improves the customer
satisfaction and this helps the customer to adopt the quality products.

2. Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of the operation
of M&S ltd.
 Roles of manager- To make management successful, manager has to play challenging
role in M&S. As being a manager, he has to set the budget and accordingly manage
resources which keeps a company financially strong. Thus, to maintain this they will
have to set objectives and implement it in various departments for the success and must
have good communication skills to maintain good relationship and results in positive
culture. Here, the managers take the high level decision and discuss about it with the
heads and chief executives.
 Roles of leaders- Team leaders of operation management in M&S company has to ensure
that the members in a particular team perform well and that they respect each other.
Further, they have to design the work or a program which leads to higher productivity
and efficiency and the design should be in such a way that the new employees can work
with ease and learn the work easily. Here, the leader has to analyse the strengths and
weakness of the members and set them accordingly. The leader should have the ability to
take a sudden decision for the sudden situation which helps the management to work in
adequate manner.
3. Importance and value of key approaches to operations management of M&S ltd.
 Total Quality Management(TQM): The employees of the M&S company should have
knowledge about the TQM policy so that they work as per the policy and make it as a
part of their work Here, all members put their efforts in improving the quality of goods
which would lead to high demand for the commodity and customers remain loyal to the
product. The main aim is to maintain the quality and meet the expectations of the
customers, so that it results to heavy sales and customer gets attracted.
 Just in time inventory approach: M&S company's success is based on this approach, as
this states that there is decrease in wastage as they receive raw materials only as per the
required quantity the production process requires. For this the company requires less
capital and the remaining capital can be invested somewhere else which helps in the
growth of the business.

 Six sigma: The goal of six sigma is to increase profit and minimize the waste and defects
of the products. The basic principle is to focus on the regular customers, manage the flow
and improve its variations and to undertake the improvement activity.
4. Managers and leaders effective in improving operational efficiencies.
 Transforming raw materials into finished goods: Transforming raw materials into
finished goods is very challenging task. It is the duty of the manager of M&S Ltd to plan
the transformation and accordingly leaders and the members work and raw materials are
converted into finished goods so that the customers get attracted easily and continue the
demand for that product which will result to high productivity.
 Process design: The managers and leaders of M&S company has the task of designing the
process in such a way that it guides the customer from the period of choosing the product
to the moment they purchase it in an attractive or magical manner.
 Scheduling: The manager and leaders of the quoted company schedule the work
according to the skills and knowledge of the employees, and this may lead to work with
enthusiasm and it may give success to the business.
 Logistics management: It is a detailed coordination of a difficult operation that involves
people, facilities and supply. It is also a coordination of information, physical and
financial flows and each of them contains each set of activities.
 Inventory management: Inventory management is essential because sometimes the time
consumer willing to wait for a product is less than the time required to produce the
product and to ship it at the location customer needs and it is full of risks and complexity
in lead time and location.
5. Impact of external business environment factors on operational management and analysing
how these factors affect the business environment.
External business environment is defined as the outside factors that affects the business
operation and productivity. It can affect the ability of the company to achieve its specialised
goals. Thus, the external factors that affect the business are discussed as follows:

 Political factor: The activity which relates to government policies and laws which has an
effect on business (Mone and London, 2018). Thus, change in laws will affect the
decisions of the leaders and accordingly the followers are also affected.
Illustration 1: Pestle analysis
(Source: Scanning the Environment: PESTEL Analysis, 2016)
 Social factors: M&S has been affected by social factors such as education, lifestyle taste
and preferences. To make the positive place in the mind of the people they have to set a
plan to become multi-channel retailer. As customers are buying on the basis of their
needs, the company has to put efforts in considering the needs and produce goods
accordingly which attracts the customers.
 Technological factors: To accept and to secure the market, M&S has to move towards
new and trended technology (Ghasabeh, Soosay and Reaiche, 2015). As there is the trend
of online shopping, customers follow the website to buy products so the company must
have an up to date and latest technology which attracts the customers.
 Economic factor: Recession has affected greatly to the M&S retail sales. As customers
don't spend on luxurious goods the company has to change the way of marketing so that
the customers remain attracted to the product.
 Environmental factor: Climate change is the main reason of the environmental factor that
affects the business environment of Mark and Spencer. The consumers purchase the

goods according to the seasons, so company will have to concentrate on the goods that is
demanded
 Legal factors: To make the customers get attracted towards the products, Marks and
Spencer will have to ensure the labelling and the safety of the products. Hence, trading
beyond borders a company must have the complete knowledge about legal formalities, as
rules and regulations differ in different countries.
6. Critical evaluation of operations management decision to manage factors that affect business.
The study of these factors ensures that the right product is delivered to the right person at
the right time with right quantity (Kim and Yoon, 2015). Hence, it identifies the taste and
preferences of the consumer so that the company can manufacture the well quality goods at the
lowest price which satisfy the demands of the customers. Due to this, Marks and Spencer can
stand in a global competitive market. The company acts as a multiple channel which helps the
customers to enjoy the goods as per they need. The main activities of the operation management
is to plan, design, organise and supervise functions which helps to produce company's
productivity.
As it is said that the positivity comes with its negative aspects (Chotipanich and
Issarasak, 2017) the company Marks and Spencer is facing the negative aspects as well. Thus, to
stand in the competitive market they have to change the plans and has to perform according to
the market which affects the internal environment of the business.
7. Recommendations for future improvements:
The manager of the Marks and Spencer should focus on the competition in the market
and accordingly manage the quality of the products and they must have the flexibility to change
the plans as and when requires. The communication between the manager and his followers
should be good so that the employees gets inspired to work harder and increase the efficiency
(Zare and et.al. 2016).
The leader of the Mark & Spenser company should follow the instruction discussed by
the manager regarding the success of the business and accordingly guide the member of the
particular team to use their skills and knowledge in effective manner.

CONCLUSION
From the above summarized report, it can be concluded that the management and
operations are important as assist in creating the highest level of efficiency as well maximising
the profitability of enterprise. This assignment is based on activities of Mark & Spenser and it
has covered various aspects as roles, differences and functions of leaders and managers, and
critical evaluation on managing operational decision. Further, this report highlighted on the
recommendations that need to be carried out by manager and leader for future improvements.

REFERENCES
Journal & Book