Leadership Styles and Management Theories

This assignment delves into the world of leadership styles and management theories, examining their roles and applications in store performance, auditing measures, total quality management, open book accounting, marketing brand decisions, current assets management, and contrast leader-manager-administrator. The assignment includes references to academic journals and books, providing a comprehensive analysis of the topic.

Management and
Operations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
2. Defining manager and leader with comparing their roles and characteristics....................2
3. Differences of managerial functions and leadership roles.................................................2
4. Examples of different situations in your organization and examine how the roles of a leader
and functions of a manager.....................................................................................................3
5. Different management and leadership theories and approaches........................................4
6. Strengths and weaknesses of leadership theories...............................................................5
7. Managers and leaders impact on organization and future recommendations.....................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
1. Introduce operation management of your organization and explain the key approaches. .6
2. Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders...........................................................7
3. Importance of Key approaches in organization..................................................................7
4. Managers and leaders could be effective in improving operational efficiencies..............8
5. External business environment factors on operational management................................8
6. Critical evaluation of the application of operations management to manage the factors...9
7. Recommendations for future improvements to be taken by the organization...................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations are important part of any organisation and it is concerned
with the services provided to customers. It can be defined as the set of functions involving
planning, controlling, staffing, directing and organising staff. It is very important in retail and
manufacturing sectors as there are number of processes and operations that aim at converting its
input into output (Rego, Júnior and e Cunha, 2015). In this report, M&S Ltd is taken into account
which is a retail company in the UK and is specialised in selling of luxury clothes and food
products and focus is given on the value of operation management in achieving its goals. It also
describes managerial functions, theories, leadership responsibilities and managerial roles of
M&S Ltd.
TASK 1
1. Introduction of organisation and its management structure
M&S Ltd. is a retail company of UK that deals in selling clothes and food items. It has
entered in long term relationship with British manufacturers and sold food and clothes that was
introduced in 1928. It has expanded the branches in Canada. It follows an organizational
structure which has restricted level of management in between front line and administrate
employees. Therefore, it has flat structure to empower employees in decision making process.
Its size depends on the channels of reporting, delegation and accountability. In order to get good
organizational structure, it is essential to modify effective structure where cut cost is the most
important so that it becomes competitive in the market.
Flat structure makes employees more knowledgeable and skilled as they are authorized to
take decisions. M&S reduces the layers of authority due to which every employee gets power of
putting his/her own opinions (Kolesár and et.al., 2016). Almost 3000 employees are working
and are perfectly specialised in their field. They are capable of making quick and result-oriented
decisions. Flat organizational structure in M&S has less middle management and permits entire
company to work with low resistance and ease. It also increases speed up the working of all
employees. Flat can also be defined as pyramid which has different departments that work
effectively.
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2. Defining manager and leader with comparing their roles and characteristics
A person who takes complete responsibility of administrating and controlling group of
staff or an organisation is known as Manager. He/she has special managerial skills and charge of
controlling his/her subset. Staff of organisation basically reports to manager whenever required
for any decision making or project work (Dahlgaard-Park and et.al., 2018). On the other hand,
leaders hold a dominant position in the organisation and have high degree of controlling his/her
team leaders. Leader's influence is not so amicable as well as he/she is superior and can take
decision individually.
Comparison between roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers
Leader Manager
1. Leader of M&S Ltd is assigned to create
vision of the organisation.
1. Manager of L&S Ltd. Thinks above
individuals' perception and create goals.
2. They are referred as change agents of M&S
Ltd.
Also, they are arrogant disrupters.
2. But manager of M&S likes to maintain
status and always sticks with their work.
3. They are unique in their work and decision.
They actively participate and are self-aware in
order to build personal brand (Alenius, Lind
and Strömsten, 2015).
They are transparent and authentic.
3. On the other hand, manager copies and
mimics the behaviour and competencies they
learn from all around and adopt various
leadership styles and traits.
4. Leader likes to focus on stakeholders and
build relationships so that they can realize their
vision properly.
4. Manager of M&S Ltd. is more focussed on
the processes and systems. They aim on
ensuring analytical procedure of organisation
in order to achieve desired outcomes.
3. Differences of managerial functions and leadership roles
Managerial Functions Leadership roles
1. Managerial functions means hiring of
employees, organizing of staff, planning and
1. Leadership roles means managing day to day
functions and developing strategy for the team
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decision making. (Chimhundu, 2016).
2. It follows a staffing structure with organized
resources and perfect planning s done for the
evaluation of goals. Processes are controlled
and monitored and data is reviewed by leaders.
2. Leadership is commitment and perfect desire
to serve other team members effectively that
illustrates humility, wisdom, experience and
character. It is all about offering credit and not
taking it.
3. Theories applied in Managerial function are
Fayolism, Scientific management,
organisational and Mintzberg's 10
Management roles. M&S Ltd. Follow
Fayolism because it defines six roles that
includes planning, organizing, commanding,
forecasting, coordinating and controlling.
Major industries go for Fayolism aims at
responsibility of single manager of each
specialised group in any firm (Daniel, 2018).
By applying this theory, employees' turnover
can be minimized and there are chances of fair
employment.
Theories of leadership are trait theory, House
Path Goal Theory, Blake and Mouton's
Managerial Grid, Transformational leadership
and transactional leadership (Winston, 2018).
Management grid reflects impoverished
management, country club management,
authority-compliance management and middle-
of the-road management. It is applied mainly
when there is concern of production and
people. M&S Ltd. By applying
transformational leadership, leaders can
increase effectiveness among staff members.
4. Examples of different situations in your organization and examine how the roles of a leader
and functions of a manager.
There are some situations that arise in retail firm which can be effectively handled by
leaders and managers of M&S Ltd. There is deficiency of good people who are honestly working
with food industry and deals with all types of issues and problems with customer service,
cleanliness and food safety. In this situation, manager can take situational approach and provide
financial stake for the success of organisation (Nobanee and Abraham, 2015). Manager should
perform functions like proper planning and controlling of employees by organising resources of
the company and arranging the staffing problem. Complete information regarding food and
safety laws should be reported to higher authorities.
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There can be conflicts and miscommunications between employees of M&S Ltd. For
example if any project is undertaken launching a new product. So there can be disputes among
employees as there can be different opinions for the project and confusion can be created.
Therefore, it should follow effective communication leadership. Leaders of it should be
confident and trust their team members in order to resolve conflicts. They should be self-
motivated and energetic and must be clear to their team so that all expectations get fulfilled on
time. They should be able to communicate clear words with open mind because a simple wrong
message can create conflict and split the team. They should know what they are delivering in
messages and in retail industry they should have complete and clear knowledge of products so
that effective results can be generated on time. Feedbacks help in overcoming shortcomings and
rectify all types of errors. Thus, manager and leaders both play an important role.
5. Different management and leadership theories and approaches
Different Management theories are as follows:
1. Contingency theory: Managers take decision according to the situation and most
importantly they are based on current aspects.
2. Systems theory: In this theory, there is proper understanding of system by manager and
this influence working power of employees. Varieties of components work together in
order to achieve firm's goal. It is considered to be a wide perspective in which manager is
allowed to analyse variety of events and patterns of the required workplace (Alenius,
Lind and Strömsten, 2015). M&S Ltd. mainly follows this theory because it helps
managers to properly plan and coordinate events and processes collectively for overall
mission of M&S Ltd. rather than focussing on individual departments.
3. Chaos Theory: This theory says that change is constant and some circumstances and
events can be controlled while other problems are not possible. In order to maintain new
level of complexity, energy is incremented.
Leadership theories and approaches:
Situational leadership: In this style, leaders have to fit according to development level of
members or the followers for whom they are determinant. It may change regularly, in order to
meet demands of others, based on the situation of M&S Ltd. Feedbacks are appreciated and
work of employees is motivated.
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System leadership: In these leaders are more drawn towards one or more dimensions. Their first
acknowledgement lies in the technical knowledge in order to offer integrated services (Hatchuel
and Segrestin, 2018). They lead and improve organisation in extremely challenging
circumstances and try sustain for longer period.
Contingency leadership: This theory describes the behaviour of leaders. They take the test of
employees and decide whether they are capable of performing task or not. Most important is
relationship between followers and leaders of M&S Ltd.
Different Leadership approaches are transformational, laissez-fair, moral, transactional,
cultural, autocratic and charismatic leadership.
6. Strengths and weaknesses of leadership theories
Strengths and weaknesses of contingency theory:
1. Contingency theory consider all leaders optimal in situations so that they can make best
decisions for their team.
2. Leaders provide data that is meaningful and useful for the firm in developing leadership
profiles.
3. Weakness of this theory is that it is reactive in nature (Lawton and Rayner, 2016). It
presents issues in testing the aspects of this theory and is complex.
4. It is basically suffered from inadequate literature. It cannot proved sufficient assistance to
the regular practice of management.
Strength and weaknesses of system theory:
1. System theory persists adaptability, interdependency and exchange of resources and
energy from various systems.
2. It doesn't support connectedness of all departments and team members rather than their
separation.
3. Main negative or weak point is that it believes in change that modify a system. Thus,
slow changes can occur instead of radical change.
Strength and weaknesses of situational theory:
1. It is a practical approach and is well known for training leaders (Valavanis and
Vachtsevanos, 2015). It can be applied across all types of settings.
2. Employees are valued and this results in better working environment.
3. It mainly focuses on flexibility of leaders and rely on the requirements of situations.
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4. Due to such flexibility, managers can shift their attention away from long term objectives
and goals. It can be harder to think about future company needs and fulfil requirements.
These theories help in decision making processes and influence positively all functioning
of all departments. It hinders perception of project failure.
7. Managers and leaders impact on organisation and future recommendations
Managerial skills and leadership qualities effect a lot on M&S Ltd. Managers support and
build well-executed and strong performance culture. They influence day-to day performance of
worker and engage employees through positive management (Connell, Page and Meyer, 2015).
They are responsible for an individual organizational department and sets the context to help
each and every component to offer its part to broad firm's goals. On the other hand, leaders of
M&S Ltd. Monitoring and mentoring of the team is done for best customer service so that there
is high sell of food items and profitability increases. There is maintenance of records on daily
basis. They don't box themselves in one leadership style. They take reviews of their team success
and ask their struggles. Like this, there is sharing of ideas and performances are appraised.
Recommendations:
Leadership style can be improved by maintaining positive attitude and improving
communication skills among employees. Concrete action plans should be followed by the
leaders. Management skills of M&S can be improved by praising and rewarding the
performances of team leaders and also employees. Their feedbacks should be considered and
problems should be reported at time.
TASK 2
1. Introduce operation management of your organization and explain the key approaches
For efficient use of services and products, operation management provides profitability in
retail store. This is very essential part of M&S Ltd that completes all market requirements
systematically. Development is needed in the functioning of quality, speed, flexibility and cost of
products of M&S. Strong relationship is maintained between supplier and owner and different
level of strategies are followed by the departments like corporate, functional and business.
Key approaches of operation management includes Six Sigma, queuing theory and lean
production theory. Six Sigma is used to improve the results to recognize and alter reasons of
imperfections in the procedure of manufacturing and business (Harrison and Lock, 2017). Lean
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production aims at increasing productivity through reducing wastage. Queuing theory is used to
make business decisions. M&S follows these approaches in order to improve operations and
management. It follows Six Sigma theory which is data driven, statistical-based and disciplined.
Organisation can easily help its higher authority in creating its vision and can help in strategic
development of its action plan so that maximum revenue can be derived. Through this strategy, a
documented methodology is available for problem solving materials. It is right methodology to
attain objectives of M&S Ltd.
2. Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders
Roles and responsibilities of a Manager of M&S Ltd. are:
1. Main responsibility of a manager at M&S Ltd. is directly reporting to employees for
whom he/she has taken the responsibility.
2. Manager leads the work of group of people and oversee their performance. Functional
areas of manager includes human resource, marketing, finance. Managers of these
departments are responsible for work and results of their respective sections and
incorporates the department through their direction and various managerial skills (Chang,
2016).
3. They plan the operation and accomplish goals by organizing production of workforce and
work, providing training to employees and looking at the available resources.
4. They direct employees with sufficient guidance and provide support and monitor the plan
properly so that reliable measurements can be taken.
5. Evaluation of plan is done and reviewed by performing responsibilities which are
dependent on organization's objectives and goals.
Roles and responsibilities of Leaders of M&S Ltd. are as follows:
1. Leaders develop strategy to attain goal and communicate clearly with other team
members.
2. Participation of team members is clearly monitored as they are trained on regular basis.
3. Leaders of M&s Ltd. manage the flow of operations of various departments on regular
basis.
4. They create and distribute reports to respected personnel of the organisation (Monczka
and et.al., 2015). They are responsible for implementing and developing timeline for their
team so that they can achieve their end goals.
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3. Importance of Key approaches in organisation
Operation Management is a crucial part of organisation. It includes planning, organising,
coordinating and commanding.
Lean production is important to M&S Ltd. because it makes value flow at the pull of
customers and removes wastage discovered in the processes. These wastage can be inventory,
waiting, motion, over-processing, inventory and several other defects (Rego, Júnior and e Cunha,
2015). This process helps in gaining satisfied customers and removes inventory that makes space
in the organisation.
Six sigma is important because it aims at attaining predetermined quality levels and
improves efficiencies and is a data driven approach. Decisions taken will have desired influence
on goods and services and improves efficiency of business processes. It helps in building
loyalties and customer satisfaction is gained. It exists overall quality improvements because it is
adjusted to meet the requirements of innovative businesses for the future and is also flexible.
Queuing theory is important in creating various virtual queues and help businesses in
conducting studies regarding mathematical models and formulae. It makes its importance in
M&S Ltd. by making transactions and maximizing profitability and revenues. It includes number
of factors like customer volume, number of workers etc.
4. Managers and leaders could be effective in improving operational efficiencies
Operational efficiencies are abilities of any firm to provide services and products to
customers in the most cost-effective way with high quality and maximum support. Managers and
leaders can improve this by providing training to employees of sales department and analysing
strengths and weaknesses of organisation (Kolesár and et.al., 2016). Firstly, there should be
complete knowledge of the products and services and should not overlook the value while
walking on the floor. Managers and leaders of M&S Ltd. should know how to retain
relationships to keep productivity and order fulfilment on focus. This leads to improvement in
customer service and thus, profitability is raised. They should appreciate their team members and
put a reward system so that employee's presence is admired and their suggestions are considered.
5. External business environment factors on operational management
External Factor that effect M&S operational management are political, economic, social
and technological:
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Economic: There are changes in at political level which includes exchange rate, interest rates
etc. these factors influence costing of products of M&S, access the demand and expansion and
growth.
Social: It involves age distribution, population growth and influencing potential size of the
market. This directly affects targeted customers (Connell, Page and Meyer, 2015).
Technology: It includes advanced technological factor like social media sites and operating
system and advanced apps in mobile phones. M&S can promote itself through social media sites
like Facebook and Twitter.
Political: Political factor includes rules and regulations and fluctuations in government policies
that directly affect the working of M&S.
6. Critical evaluation of the application of operations management to manage the factors
M&S should be able to adopt all political changes prominently and all cost effective
decisions are taken effectively. Organisation should optimize its presence in the market. PEST
also improves strategies and ability of doing business and leads to success through proper
allocation of funds (Nobanee and Abraham, 2015). Technological and social factor affects a lot
in if applied in positive way. In present scenario, social media is very cheap platform for
promotion of goods and services and leaders can easily connect to customers.
7. Recommendations for future improvements to be taken by the organisation
For future improvement of operational management performance of the business should
be assessed properly and M&S bottom line should be improved by making proper orders of
shipping supplies in bulk and reducing wastage. Price evaluation should be properly done by the
managers and strategies implemented should be viewed on regular basis.
CONCLUSION
Finally, it can be concluded that this report comprises in two tasks in which roles of
manager and leaders are described. It is elaborated that how managers and leaders apply various
approaches and strategies to manage various business activities and operations. Operation
management has become very important for smooth running of enterprise. Different key
approaches like Six Sigma, Lean and Queuing theory are applied so that management could
improve its imperfections. It can be articulated that many external factors are influencing
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operational management of M&S. Thus, it should be prepared of these factors and know its
strengths and weaknesses so that M&S could take stand in the competitive world.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Rego, A., Júnior, D.R. and e Cunha, M.P., 2015. Authentic leaders promoting store performance:
the mediating roles of virtuousness and potency. Journal of Business Ethics. 128(3).
pp.617-634.
Kolesár and et.al., 2016. Methodology of the Auditing Measures to Civil Airport Security and
Protection. MAD-Magazine of Aviation Development. 4(20). pp.38-44.
Dahlgaard-Park and et.al., 2018. The evolution and convergence of total quality management and
management theories. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence. pp.1-21.
Alenius, E., Lind, J. and Strömsten, T., 2015. The role of open book accounting in a supplier
network: Creating and managing interdependencies across company boundaries.
Industrial Marketing Management. 45. pp.195-206.
Chimhundu, R., 2016. Marketing store brands and manufacturer brands: Role of referent and
expert power in merchandising decisions. Journal of Brand Management. 23(5). pp.24-
40.
Daniel, G., 2018. What makes a leader?. In Contemporary issues in leadership.
Nobanee, H. and Abraham, J., 2015. Current assets management of small enterprises. Journal of
Economic Studies. 42(4). pp.549-560.
Winston, B.E., 2018. Contrast Leader, Manager, and Administrator. In Biblical Principles of
Leading and Managing Employees.
Alenius, E., Lind, J. and Strömsten, T., 2015. The role of open book accounting in a supplier
network: Creating and managing interdependencies across company boundaries.
Industrial Marketing Management. 45. pp.195-206.
Hatchuel, A. and Segrestin, B., 2018. A century old and still visionary: Fayol's innovative theory
of management. European Management Review.
Lawton, A. and Rayner, J., 2016. Managerial Functions in the Public Sector. Global
Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. pp.1-6.
Valavanis, K.P. and Vachtsevanos, G.J., 2015. Future of unmanned aviation. In Handbook of
unmanned aerial vehicles (pp. 2993-3009). Springer, Dordrecht.
Connell, J., Page, S.J. and Meyer, D., 2015. Visitor attractions and events: Responding to
seasonality. Tourism Management. 46. pp.283-298.
Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
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