TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3 LO1..................................................................................................................................................3 P1 Comparison between a leader and manager...........................................................................3 LO2..................................................................................................................................................5 P2 Roles of leaders and function of manager in different situational context.............................5 P3 Different type of leadership theory and approaches...............................................................7 LO3..................................................................................................................................................8 P4 key approaches of operations management............................................................................8 P5 Importance and value of operations management..................................................................9 LO4................................................................................................................................................10 P6 Factors that affects decision-making and operations management......................................10 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11 REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
INTRODUCTION Leadership and management are important aspects in a company which tend to influence vision,mission,employees,productionanddelivery,processesandproceduresinan organisation. Leadership is about inspiring the people to comprehend vision of the company and being motivated to achieve goals. Management is the administration of daily activities through planning, organising, controlling, monitoring and directing people and resources for achievement of specifictargetsand productive performance. Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation dealing in consumer goods and is headquartered in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and London in the UK. It is involved in the manufacturing of food and drinks, cleansing agents, beauty products, personal care, pharmaceutical products, breakfast serials and other fast moving consumer goods. It has a high turnover of 53.7 billion Euros in 2017 and owns over 400 brands. This report aims to compare and differentiate between role and characteristic of leaders and managers and examine them in situational contexts, apply models and theories. The report also highlights approaches to management and operations along with examining the relationship bewteen leadership and management in a contemporary business environment. LO1 P1 Comparison between a leader and manager Leadership is inspiring the people to comprehend and follow the vision that is set for the companyandleadsthewayformotivationofachievinggoals.Managementisthe administration of daily activities in the organisation and deal with planning, problem solving, controlling,directingpeopleandresources,andmonitoringtheeffectivenessandwork productivity in accordance to the established standards and values. Leadership and management are part of the same role in a corporate culture and are complementary to each other. Differences between leaders and managers A leader is a person who influences and inspires people to achieve a specific goal and has a vision tor others. Leader makes strategies to achieve that goal and possesses foresightedness and other inspirational characteristics. Manager on the other hand is the person who manges the
organisation and is responsible for the direction, planning, organisation, control and coordination and has the ability to get work done from the others and possesses problem solving and management qualities (Wajdi, 2017). On the basis of role and functions BasisLeaderManager AimGrowthanddevelopmentin accordance to vision and mission. Achievementandcompletionof particular targets to gain results. DecisionLeader facilitates the decisionsManager makes the decisions ChangeThey promote changes and movementThey react to the implemented changes by producing order and consistency ApproachSetting direction, mission and vision forotheremployees,creating strategies and big picture Planningofdetails,establishing agendas, setting timetables, allocation of resources. StyleMotivational and TransformationalTransactional and directive SubordinateFollowersEmployees FocusPeopleProcedures and processes StrivesFor effectivenessFor efficiency ConflictConsiders and uses conflicts as assetsTends to resolve and avoid conflicts PeopleAligns and inspires peopleOrganises people On the basis of characteristics LeaderManager ConfidentDisciplined Highly visionary as has a vision for the entire company Effective in decision-making Open minded and accepts changesProblem solver
Paraphrase This Document
Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
Has a positive attitudeHasaneutralattitudeasplansfor contingencies Motivationalashastheabilitytoinspire followers Competent Good communication skillsPatient EnthusiasticEtiquette Similarities between leaders and mangers Management and leadership roles are considered same in organisation as they go hand in hand and share similar traits. The two qualities are complementary in nature and extricating one from the other doesn't happen practically. In a corporate environment, mangers have to take up leadership roles as both the roles are switchable. A good leader are known for getting involved in daily operations to understand their followers and order to ramp up production, productivity and delivery. Good managers have the ability to take challenges hand on and play an important part in deriving the idea for vision. Both leaders and managers need to be a source of integrity, inspiration and empathy for a organisational success (Liphadzi, Aigbavboa and Thwala, 2017). LO2 P2 Roles of leaders and function of manager in different situational context Both leaders and managers in Unilever organization play an important role in growth and success of firm by motivating, guiding employees the way they need to work so that overall objectives can be achieved. In different situational such as recruitment, induction, performance or conflict or change management leaders and manager plays active roles that helps company in gaining competitive advantages. Such as: In recruitment process:Manager function is to recruit right individual for right place so that it can easily complete its task and contribute in growth of firm. It is responsible for selecting the best possible alternative for pools of individuals so that company can get the best candidate. Whereas leaders of Unilever plays roles or its function is to guiding new recruited employee’s about the manner in which they have to complete particular task so that company objectives can be attained (Usman, 2020). Proper direction, guidelines helps in minimizing amount of errors and mistakes thus helps in delivering best services to customer’s.
Induction:ManagerofUnilevercontinuouslyhiresnewandtalentedemployeesinthe organization so its function is to provide proper structure, culture so that new individuals can easily complete their respective task. At the same time it is duty of leaders to provide key information to new joining about the organization, its vision and mission statements and task that it need to performed in the firm so that company can retained its market positioning. Thus, both leaders and manager by making efforts to provide healthy work environment and induction to new employee’s helps in satisfaction of their needs. Conflict management:Unilever is huge enterprise that have diverse number of individuals from different background, culture and preferences so there are situation in which conflict arise between them. So, manager is responsible for finding key issue that have resulted in conflict among employees thus find the best possible course of action that can be taken to reduce conflict for better coordination (Keene and Stelson, 2017). On the other hand, Leaders of unilever by coordinating and motivating employees to work in team rather than individual or listening to their grievances in order to find better solutions that can be used to manage conflict. Change management:There are several changes in external environment such as taste and preferencesof people,technologies,policiesof governmentandeconomicconditionthat adversely impact on growth and operation of business. So, manager is responsible for identifying key external factors of environment and the method that can contribute in effectively motivating, inspiring employee’s to put their best so that company can gain competitive advantages. On the other hand, leaders of Unilever act as role model and influence employees by providing proper support, direction, guidance about the way particular activities need to be done so that they can complete assigned task within limited time frame and cost (Six Roles of a Leader During Change, 2020). Therefore from above analysis and evaluation of different situation it can be stated that manager and leaders are essential as they perform different function in order to handle situation and circumstance so that company can retained its brand image in market. P3 Different type of leadership theory and approaches There are variety of different type of leadership style which is used by the different leader to lead the operation of the business. Some leadership style used by the leader are as follows:
Situational Leadership:It is the type of the leadership which generally used to run on the concept that there is no leadership in general which can be used at all the time in the organization to get the result. This is the type of the leadership in which leader generally uses more than one type of leadership style on the basis of the situation which is prevailing in the organization. Strength Biggest strength of this type of leadership is that it is more flexible in nature and help leader in adopting different changes very easily. Also, it promotes the socio emotional support in organization. Weakness This type of the leadership generally used to focus more upon the immediate need which is prevailing as compare to looking at the long term goal of the business(Basri and et.al., 2017). Another issue with this type of leadership is that it can be ineffective in the organization where there is task oriented organization. Systems Leadership: System leadership is the type of the leadership in which leader in the organization used to create the situation where all the different level of employee can work together and contribute toward the organization success. It uses principle of human behaviour to create model of good leadership. Strength Under this type of the leadership style different idea are shared easily among one and another. This type of leadership is highly effective and productive in nature. Also, morale and motivation level of employee enhanced at the workplace. Weaknesses Looking at the weakness of system theory it has been analysed that control over the business is not maintained in this type of leadership style as all variables have some equality in extend of impact and control. Contingency Leadership theory: Contingency theory is the type of the theory which also claim that there is no specific type of leadership style which can be used in every situation. Hence, the leader continuously used to bring variety of the different changes so that good sort of the control is maintained in the organization. Strength
Secure Best Marks with AI Grader
Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
One of the biggest strength of this type of leadership style is that it used to give importance to the manager understanding, knowledge and leadership style and also help them in taking variety of the different decision depending upon the situation which is prevailing in the market(Alghazo and Al-Anazi, 2016). Weakness One of the biggest weakness of the theory which is found is that this theory do not explain why all the people are not able to work in all the situation in the organization. Also, this type of leadership theory is not beneficial in long run of business. LO3 P4 key approaches of operations management Currently there are lots of approaches of operations management available in market place which can help to Unilever for improving quality of its different products and services. However, top-level management and production manager at this venture completely follows various key approaches of operations management in their workplace. There are different leaders and managers of company also plays an excellent role while implementing different approaches of operations in the production department. Some major approaches of operations management have been discussed below with role of leaders and managers plays. TQM (Total Quality Management):This is one of the most popular approaches of operations management that currently followed by many of organisations in market place. The manager of company prepares the plan for implementing this approach in production department.On the other side, leaders of Unilever take steps towards informing different team members and employees about the impact of TQM in workplace(Akhtar and et.al., 2018). This approach of operations management generally contributes in managing an effectiveness in the quality of developed goods and services.By using this approach, production departmentat Unilever can simply reject such produced products which has poor or bad quality. This is the main reason that, leaders and managers of Unilever highly considers this approach in their production department. JIT (Just in Time):JIT is another major approach of operations management which has followed by the Unilever’s production department. JIT is basically approach that enables to companiesforidentifyingsuchraw-materialswhichareverynecessarytorunexisting production processes.By using this approach, Unilever’s manager orders quickly required raw- materials from suppliers. JIT is very helpful approach to company, because it saves lots of
precious resources,fund and time of the production department. The manager at venture give order to the production manager for employing this approach in workplace to save time and resources (Rykhtikova, 2018). On the other side, leaders contribute in informing senior manager about that type of raw-materials which is highly required in the existing operations of production management. Lean production:Lean production is also an approach of operations management, in which production manager considers this approach as well in its workplace. This approach generally contributes in cutting waste in production department. Lean production method helps in ensuing the quality of products and services as well, that produced products and services has an excellent quality or not. In this situation, manager of company takes the decision of implementing this approach in workplace. It passes appropriate fund or budget also for its production department to employ this approach in workplace. Leaders of Unilever plays an effective role to aware different team members and employees about how to work in the production processes to maintain an effective quality of various goods. Six Sigma:Six Sigmais another key approach to operations management, that will help to Unilever for using different tools which can improve the performance of its business processes. Approach can increase productivity of Unilever and also decrease in procedure variation supports lead to the defect reduction as well as improvement in profits margins, quality of products & services and employee morale. P5 Importance and value of operations management Operations management is very important to Unilever for achieving its decided business objectives in market place (Gold, Kunz and Reiner, 2017). Top-level management of this consumer goods company completely aware about the actual value and importance of operations management, and this is the main reason that it always considers the concept of operations management in workplace. Some major importance of operations management for Unilever has been discussed below; Maintains effective quality of goods and services This is the first major importance of operations management to Unilever. Basically, most customers in market place expect good quality products and services from various ventures. In this situation, operations management enables to this company for fulfilling the expectations of customers by maintaining effectiveness in its goods’ quality. Operations management generally
provides different approaches to production management of company, like; JIT, TQM, Lean production etc. Top-level management of this company has given order to its production manager for always considering these all approaches or methods of operations management in daily operations, because it not wants to compromise with the quality of its developed goods and services. Make loyal customer base When Unileveroffersquality productsby using variousapproachesof operations management, then it indirectly enables to company for gaining very loyal customer base in market place. Existing management of this venture completely knows the actual needs and demands of customers. For example; currently most customers in market like to consumes good quality products on very favourable or cheap prices, so that management always tries to develop its products accordingly (Ionescu-Somers and Brassey, 2019). When company provides quality products in market place, then most customers be loyal with the brand, and also be motivated to always buy consumer goods from Unilever only. These all factors are enough to show that, operations management is important in gaining loyal customer base in market. Provides excellent profit margins and competitive advantage Operations management helps to company for gaining excellent profit margins and competitive advantage also in market place. Basically, most of customers like to consume products and services of Unilever, because of its good quality products and services. In this situation, when maximum number of people buys products and services through Unilever, then it can simply generate huge profit margins and excellent competitive advantage in the market. These all are major importance of operations management, and without considering this concept in own workplace, Unilever can’t maintain its higher reputation in marker place. LO4 P6 Factors that affects decision-making and operations management Currently there are lots of factors exists in the business environment of Unilever which highly affects to its operations management and decision-making of managers and leaders. In his situation, some major factors of business environment have been discussed below with their positive and negative impacts.
Paraphrase This Document
Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
Product quality:This is one of major factors that highly affects to operations management and decision-making of leaders and managers. Currently most people or customers within market place wants to consume only quality products and services, in which the factors influence to manager of Unilever to take decision towards considering the concept of operations management in workplace. On the other side, leaders also have been affected by product quality factor of business environment to take decision towards informing their team members and employees to perform very well in the production department (Golini and Gualandris, 2018). Leaders get influenced to take decisions towards rejecting such developed goods in production processes which has poor and bad quality. Market competition:Currently there is huge competition in international consumer goods industry, in which this market competition factor affects to company’s manager for taking decisions towards adopting competitive-based pricing strategy to make price of its goods something cheaper than its competitors. The main objective of manager behind taking this decision to gain huge competitive advantage in market place. On the other side, leaders of Unilever also take different decision for improving productivity and performance of employees, because when a company has lots of high performers, then that company has enabled to take huge competitive advantage in market. Employeesperformance:ThisisanothermajorfactorinsidetheUnilever’sbusiness environment that affects to leaders and managers of Unilever for taking decision towards providing different training and development sessions to different employees. Basically, an employee can simply improve its performance after participating in these sessions (Liu, Zhu and Seuring, 2017). Mainly the leaders ensure that employees have proper performance or not, and then they take decisions for informing their senior manager if employees have poor performance. Then, manager at Unilever takes final decision for conducting training and development sessions in workplace to improve the performance of all employees. CONCLUSION From the above report it can be concluded that leadership and management both are significantaspectsfor the successof Unilever. They are differenton the basis of role, characteristics and functions but are complementary to each other. Their major role is in induction,conflictmanagement,recruitmentprocessandchangemanagement.Different
leadership and management styles are situational leadership, contingency leadership and systems leaderships. The key approaches to management and leadership are autocratic, democratic, transformationalandtransnationalalongwithmodernapproacheslikeinnovationand inspirational. The value and importance of management and leadership in achieving business objectives through integration, organisation and allocation of resources, motivating workforce to increase productivity and effectively control and monitor activities. Various factors which impact the operational management and decision-making of leaders and managers were evaluated in a wider community and business environment.
REFERENCES Books and Journals Akhtar, P., and et.al., 2018. Essential micro‐foundations for contemporary business operations: topmanagementtangiblecompetencies,relationship‐basedbusinessnetworksand environmental sustainability.British Journal of Management. 29(1). pp.43-62. Alghazo, A .M. and Al-Anazi, M., 2016. The Impact of Leadership Style on Employee’s Motivation.InternationalJournalofEconomicsandBusinessAdministration.2(5). pp.37-44. Basri, H. H and et.al., 2017. The impact of Malay transactional leadership style on employee performance;TheMalaysia'pharmacyindustryperspective.InternationalJournalof Information, Business and Management.9(2). p.45. Gold, S., Kunz, N. and Reiner, G., 2017. Sustainable global agrifood supply chains: exploring the barriers.Journal of industrial ecology.21(2). pp.249-260. Golini, R. and Gualandris, J., 2018. An empirical examination of the relationship between globalization,integrationandsustainableinnovationwithinmanufacturing networks.International Journal of Operations & Production Management. Ionescu-Somers,A.M.andBrassey,J.,2019.Unilever’sSuperStretchGoalfor2020. InManaging Sustainable Business. (pp. 623-635). Springer, Dordrecht. Keene, B. and Stelson, U. M., 2017. Managing People as a Leader. InEncyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management(pp. 965-976). IGI Global. Liphadzi, M., Aigbavboa, C.O. and Thwala, W.D., 2017. A theoretical perspective on the difference between leadership and management.Procedia engineering,196, pp.478-482. Liu, Y., Zhu, Q. and Seuring, S., 2017. Linking capabilities to green operations strategies: The moderatingroleofcorporateenvironmentalproactivity.InternationalJournalof Production Economics.187. pp.182-195. Rykhtikova, N., 2018. Main directions of the development of the risk management system in corporations. InMATEC Web of Conferences. (Vol. 212, p. 07012). EDP Sciences. Usman, M., 2020. Transformational Leadership and Organizational Change: In The Context of Today’s Leader.International Business Education Journal,13(1). pp.95-107. Wajdi, B.N., 2017. The differences between management and leadership.Sinergi: Jurnal Ilmiah Ilmu Manajemen,7(1). Online OurLeadership,Unileverofficialwebsite,2020,Availablethrough: <https://www.unilever.com/about/who-we-are/our-leadership/>. SixRolesofaLeaderDuringChange,2020,Available Through:<https://www.enclaria.com/2011/10/06/six-roles-of-a-leader-during-change/>