[SOLVED] The Role of Operation Management in Marks and Spencer

The assignment discusses the significance of operation management in Marks and Spencer, highlighting its contribution to reducing wastage, delivering customer value, and maximizing profitability. It also emphasizes the importance of leaders and managers in managing activities and situations within the organization.

Management and
Operations

INTRODUCTION
Management is a process of managing, organising and coordinating business activities to
improve performance of the company. In this, operation is also concerned with change of raw
materials into final products to deliver quality values to end customers. Therefore, management
and operations consider as an important approach which focus on converting raw materials into
quality goods to maximize the overall profits within the organization. As an considering HR
intern operation department is liable for designing or dominating the entire activity of production
for making quality products (Strande and Brdjanovic, 2014). It increase efficiency inside of the
company and also deliver values to customers for attaining their satisfaction. Under this report,
chosen company is Marks and Spencer, which is famous British multinational retailer
headquartered in Westminster, London. It specialises in selling clothing, luxury food products
and home products in over the world. Report is going to define leaders role and function of
management in organization. Different leadership theories and key approaches of operation
management is also discussed in this report which help in achieve set organizational goals and
objectives. Furthermore, relationship of leadership and management and its impact on
operational management is also described here.
TASK 1
P1
Marks and Spencer is a famous British multinational retailer operate business at London.
It was founded in 1884 by Michel Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds. Currently, company has
around 979 stores across the UK. Company serve clothing, home products and luxury products in
over the world for attaining higher success at market. Furthermore, company follow flat
organizational structure which has limited level of management among administrative level and
front line workers. With the help of this structure, company easily encourage employees to
involve in decision making process to increase overall sales and productivity level of the
company (Schulze and et. al., 2016).
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Leader and manager both show a important role in business organization to manage and
lead a workers activities in order to accomplish set targets. In this, they has different roles and
characteristics to perform their activities. Through which, organisation attain success and make
performance more productive.
Definition of leader:
Leader is an individual who has capability to influence other and also have power to
guide, direct to person towards the accomplishment of particular goals and objectives. For better
understanding, there are some roles and characteristics of leaders are given below:
Roles of leader:
Representative of the organization: The main role of leader in Marks and Spencer is to
represent the concern at conferences, general meeting, seminars and many more (Parisio, Rikos
and Glielmo, 2016). By this they easily communicate with workers and outsider pubic about
organisational activities.
Characteristics of leader:
Creativity: Leader of Marks and Spencer is more creative as they develop new and
creative ways in front of workers to perform the task activities. It help employees to effectively
done the assigned activities.
Ability to inspire: Leader is unable to influence their followers to do something well a
workplace with the aim of attaining specified targets. In Marks and Spencer, leader provide
better guidance while attaining their task activities in effective way.
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Illustration 1: Flat organizational structure

Definition of manager:
An individual who is liable for managing, creating and planning business activities or
group of staff is called manager. They has skills in managing resource and employees activities
at workplace to accomplishing set targets.
Role of manager:
Decisional role: It is crucial duty of a manager in business organization in which they has
four roles associated with decision. In this regards, manager of Marks and Spencer initiates for
rising the performance company. It is relate to entrepreneurial role within the organization.
Along with this, they also disturbance handler, resource allocator and also act as a negotiator to
improve the performance of workers
Strategy formulation: Manager is responsible for formulating strategies for attaining
specified targets in stipulate time (Mohammadi, Soleymani and Mozafari, 2014). As manager of
Marks and Spencer formulate strategy to keep up in the competitive environment.
Characteristics of manager:
Time management: It is essential for manager to effectively manage the time at
workplace. In Marks and Spencer, manager assigned task activities along with specified time so
that employees can perform task and complete it in set time frame. It contribute in
accomplishing set targets in an befitting way (Loucks and Van Beek, 2017).
Communication: It is vital for manager to being able to communicate with staff members
so that they easily communicate job responsibilities with employees and at the same time also
motivate workers to perform job activities.
Difference between Leaders and managers
Basis Leader Manager
Approach Leader of business set the
ways and direction to their
workers with the aim of
attaining set outcomes.
Manager responsible for
making plans in detail and at
the same time also provide a
framework to employees for
attaining desires goals.
Change Leadership promote the
changes within the M&S.
Manager react towards the
change and develop effective
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ways and strategies to
overcome from the changes.
Therefore, it can be evaluated that both manager and leader consider as a essential part of
the business organization as they put their efforts for attaining all the set targets in appropriate
manner. Both are contributes a lot in Marks and Spencer by accomplishing desired objectives.
M1
In an organisation leader and manager are very much important and leadership is both an
research area and skills encompassing an ability to guide other individuals. On other hand
manager is an individual who manage or coordinate every aspect. They control departments in
that case leader takes major decisions in an organisation while manager coordinate their
subordinates to attain desirable goals and objectives. The role of both in adverse situations such
as in condition of conflict leader evaluate the root of major difficulty and manager apply the
decisions taken by the leader in proper way. Apart from this, leader is a one who lead whole
team and manager prepare plan for executing task activities from the team members. The main
function of manager is to planning and organising workers activities at workplace.
TASK 2
P2
Leader play a vital role in business organization in directing, guiding and inspiring their
workers towards the working activities in they perform their task to achieve desired target
(López and et. al., 2015). On the other side, manager is also a important part of the company in
which they prepare and implement an effective planning through which Marks and Spencer
attain their set targets in stipulate time. In this context, conflict management is an crucial
situation that occur at Marks and Spencer in which both play a vital role in handling this kind of
situation in most effective manner.
Role of a leader in conflict management:
Conflict are occur at workplace due to miscommunication and less understanding among
employees. It adversely impact on the performance and employees motivation. Marks and
Spencer is a multinational company wherein employees are belongs to different background,
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culture, value and beliefs. This is the main reason that conflicts and issues are arise among
workers at workplace (Lee, and et. al., 2014).
Role of leader:
Thus, manager and leader both are responsible to manage or handle this type of situation.
In this leader is responsible for communicating with their employees about company mission and
vision so that they can aware about the policies. By this, employees execute their task effectively
and also put positive efforts to maintain positive relation.
Function of manager in conflict management:
Furthermore, there are some function of a manager in conflict management that support
in reducing the negative impact on the organisational activities.
Function of manager:
In this manager make a plan to resolve issues of employees by communicating as well as
interacting with them and also organise them accordingly. With the assistance of this, manager
easily build better coordination between all the employees through which they create optimistic
relation with each others. After this, manager also direct towards the assigned task activities and
also controlling their activities with the aim of reducing the changes of arising issues among
workers at workplace. In case of M&S their leaders and managers deals in various situations in
positive manner that they give their opinion to resolve in adverse situations. Along with this, the
main function of manager in this situation is make an effective plan and organise their workers
accordingly so that employees can easily perform their task and maintain positive relation.
P3
Leadership refers to leading group of people or company. Leader guides and leads team
members regarding their activisms and tasks. There are some models and theories related to
leadership mention below:
Autocratic- These leaders view themselves as having the more power and also make
decision themselves. In Marks & Spencer, autocratic leaders do not involve employees in
decision making.
Bureaucratic- It is founded on set authorized responsibility in hierarchy of authority and
applying system of management rules and the decision making (Kátai-Urbán, 2014). Leader of
Marks & Spencer expect that their team members should follow rules as well as procedures in
better manner.
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Democratic- under this, leader involves team members in decision making process and
also consider their opinions. The leaders of Marks & Spencer value the ideas and input from
other people and also encourage the discussion regarding those contributions.
Coercive- This leader demand compliance with order immediate. The leaders understand
requirements to adopt various style to the changing situations.
Transactional- It is someone that is laser- focused on execution same to pacesetter. In
this, leader establishes pre examined rational motive in terms of monetary reward for success.
Laissez faire- Under this, leader delegating the several tasks to its workers and also
supply them little to no supervision. Leaders adopt this kind of leadership when they are highly
experienced.
There are some other theories mention below:
(Source: Leadership theories, 2019)
Situational leadership- It mention to style while leader of Marks & Spencer should
manages their styles to provide better guidance to followers when trying to influence. The leader
change its style as per situation.
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Illustration 2: Leadership theories

Contingency leadership- It define the appropriateness of the leader is possible with how
leadership style match with situation. According to it, there is no better method to organise
corporation and make decisions.
System leadership- It enables that leaders in company develop situation where all worker
at different role of work productively to possible. It gives leaders with proper tools which aids to
predict behaviour of people in company.
M2
In an organisation there are various kinds of leadership approaches in which situational
leadership that helps in understand the need of flexibility in an organisation at various levels and
it provides comfortable environment for workers. The major disadvantages of that it create
pressure to analyse situation before making decisions. On other hand in contingency leadership
that helps to managers to change policies as per situation and enables to enhance leadership and
decision making. The major disadvantages that leader sometimes appear inconsistent because
circumstances frequently changes and style not match with situation.
D1
From the above discussion it has been summarised that all leadership approaches are very
much important for an organisation and they have to select one of them according to
organisational internal structure. In case of M&S by applying various theories and practices
organisation face many problems in that they not properly coordinate each and every activity
according to relevant changes in organisation. In that scenario M&S have to apply various
theories according to situation so that competitive advantages should be gain.
TASK 3
P4
Operation management is an area of planning, organizing, supervising and making
necessary improvement for attaining higher profitability (Jiang and et. al., 2016). Mainly, it is
relate with everyday operations activities within the organization that support business
organization to accomplishing set target. The main focus of operation management is to reduce
wastage and at the same time also improving higher efficiency. In this context, operation
management of Marks and Spencer help in increasing revenue, customers satisfaction, reduce
wastage, product quality and many more. All these are directly lend in heighten the brand image
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of the company (Jabbari-Sabet, Moghaddas-Tafreshi and Mirhoseini, 2016). For attaining better
success, company use top down planning approach in which various phases are involved to
improve performance. Furthermore, there are some key approaches to operation management
includes within the Marks and Spencer with the aim of increasing profitability level. All these
are as follows:
Operation strategy decision: This phase of operation management is vital in which
manager of Marks and Spencer set long term aspects to produce quality products. In this phase,
lean production approach used by the manager which focus on reducing the wastage from the
production activities in order to ensuring about the product quality. Along with this, it includes
all aspects from design through production to distribution. Under this the role of a leader to is set
practices and activities in which entire workforce focus. Through which they can easily improve
the operational activities within the organization.
Tactical: Under this phase, operation management is set medium range of production in
which manager use six sigma approach in order to reduce the variation in processes. Mainly, it is
based on the process improvement which contribute in increasing customers satisfaction. By this,
Marks and Spencer can easily improve product quality and at the same time also eliminate the
defects in products and services. By this company invite large number of customers towards
company offerings and also increase revenue at market place.
Operational planning and control: This phase play a critical part in business organization
in producing services for end customers. In this the main function of manager of Marks and
Spencer set short range to manufacturing values to attain better results. For attaining the same,
company implement total quality management approach which is customers focused that
includes continual improvement (Total Quality Management (TQM) and Quality Improvement,
2019). The primary aim of this approach is to deliver high prime products which aid in satisfying
customers demand. This will impart in increasing overall profitability of company at market
place. Under this, role of manager is to prepare an plan, organize activities and also control the
work force at workplace. By this, company improve their performance by serving quality
products services.
P5
Operation management is related with the designing and dominanting the production
process for manufacturing quality goods. (Helleno and et. al., 2015). Mainly, it is an effective
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practice which make advanced level of efficiency in the organisation that may contribute in
maximizing profitability level of the company. Furthermore, it also includes planning,
organizing, managing, controlling as well as supervising overall process of manufacturing and
production activities. By this, company deliver value for the customers to attain satisfaction
level. It contribute in accomplishing organisational objectives in specified time frame. In this
context, there are some importance of operation management in Marks and Spencer are as
follows:
 Customers satisfaction: It is essential for business organization to give better satisfaction
to their customers by offering them quality goods according to requirement. It directly
contribute in increasing overall sales company at market place. In this context, quality
management of Marks and Spencer is responsible for taking care of product quality and
also ensure that customers needs to be met. By this, company can easily increase
customer base.
 Waste reduction: Operation management play a crucial part in Marks and Spencer by
reducing the wastage from the production process. It could be include lean manufacturing
system that help in minimizing the wastage and at the same time JIT help in managing
inventory cost. It help in saving money and eliminate unnecessary cost which ultimately
improve overall production of the company.
 Revenue increases: When product quality and customer satisfaction is increased company
improve their brand image at market place. In this context , Marks and Spencer serve
quality products to its customers. This is the main reason that company invite more and
more customers towards its offerings and also expand their market share. It lead in
increasing revenue through which company can easily grow at competitive market.
 Product quality: Operation management responsible for ensuring quality management of
the products which help in capturing customers attention. In this, operation department of
Marks and Spencer includes two aspects like reliability and durability of services while
maintaining products quality (Fayol, 2016). By this company deliver quality products to
large number of customers according to their requirement and need as well.
All are valuable for operation management through which company improve their
productivity level by minimising the wastage in production process. It directly impart in
accomplishing set business objectives in an appropriate manner.
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M3
Efficiency of an organisation can be developed by applying various management
practices to reach at desirable goals and objectives. In M&S objective strategy and tactical
strategies with operational strategies are very much crucial for organisational growth and
enhancement. To overcome various kinds of situations organisation have to plan and coordinate
each and every activity in which strategic planning, tactical planning and at last operational
planning are very much important to reach at desirable goals and objectives.
D2
In an organisation operation management are very much crucial to reach at desirable
goals and objectives in order to M&S various factors such as competitors, consumers and
suppliers are very much important to deal in various situations. All that factors should be
evaluated in precise manner to reach at desirable goals and objectives.
TASK 4
P6
Business environment is crucial feature for business organization as it directly impact on
the company image. Thus, it is essential for company to interact with business environment to
cut down the negative impact on the operation management of the organization and decision
making of leader and manager as well. In this, there are some business environmental factors in
Marks and Spencer that contact on operational management and decision making process. All
these are as follows:
 Employees: Workers are the essential factor for organization as they contribute a lot in
attaining success at market place. Employees are the person who perform assigned task
for attaining set goals and objectives. They also put huge impact on operation
management in both positive and negative manner. If they have proper knowledge about
operation management and its importance for company than it positively impact on the
company and its performance as well (Bahmani-Firouzi and Azizipanah-Abarghooee,
2014). In this, leader and manager decision also get affected from the employees so that
they are responsible for including workers in decision making process of the company.
 Technology used in organization: It is largely affect the entire activities of operation
management of the company. In context of this, Marks and Spencer implement inventory
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management technology to reduce the wastage and maximise profitability level. This will
positively impact on the overall performance of the company at market place. Mainly,
this type of factor is related with external factor of business environment that directly
impact on the operation management and decision making of leader and manager. Thus,
both are responsible for updating new and innovative technologies within the operation
management.
M4
In an business environment there are various factors that affect in both positive and
negative manner that are raw materials that helps in production process, employees that are
precious assets of an organisation, technology that brings effectiveness in works and procedures
with data and information that helps in decision making which evaluated by leaders and
managers and at last capital that enables in growth of a business to put major resources according
to the requirement. To balance and evaluate all these factors role of manager and leader are very
much crucial to take important decisions while environment changes and organisation have to
adopt to them.
CONCLUSION
As per above mentioned report it has been summarised that, operation management play
a significant function in organization by reducing wastage and delivering values to end
customers. By this company can satisfy their wants. Along with this, manager and leader is also
perform important role in managing as well as leading different activities and situation within the
Marks and Spencer. In this regards, roles or leader and function of manager in different situation
is also cover that help in improving the chances of attaining positive results. Furthermore,
operation management is also contribute in maximizing profitability level by reducing wastage
within the production activities. In this manager adopt various approaches of operation
management with the aim of eliminating defects while producing goods and products.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
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