Operational Management and Operations Introduction

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Comparison of different roles and characteristics of leader and manager..............................1
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................3
P2 Application of Role of leader and function of manager in different situations......................3
P3 Application of different theories and models of approach.....................................................4
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
P4 Key approaches to operations management and role of leaders and managers......................7
P5 Importance and value of operations management..................................................................8
P6 Factor that affect the business environment.........................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Operations Management is an extremely important aspect in all the organizations as it
helps them in improving the production processes that have been implemented in the company
and also increase the profit by reducing their operating cost avoiding any compromise on the
quality of the products and services thus manufactured (Meindl, 2016). TESCO Plc. is an
international retail giant having its headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England,
United Kingdom. Tesco is a public limited company placing itself as the third largest retailer in
the entire world. It was founded in 1919 in the form of market stalls by Jack Cohen beginning as
a grocery store. Gradually the company expanded and diversified itself in many different sectors
as well as in many countries over the years. Tesco has implemented hierarchical organizational
structure in its company under which the organization is divided into different departments,
structures and positions each having its own authority and responsibility with those who are at
the top having maximum authority and the those at the lowest have minimum authority. In this
report, various aspects of leaders and managers and their roles and responsibilities in operating
the organizations like Tesco have been discussed. Further, different theories have been applied
and analysis has been done so that the impact can be determined (White, 2016).
MAIN BODY
LO 1
P1 Comparison of different roles and characteristics of leader and manager.
In an organizational context, both a leader and a manager have an important role to play.
Leadership can be defined as the individual's ability to influence another individual or a group of
them so that they can be motivated to work towards achieving common goals and objectives
(Chiu and Lo, 2016). Management on the other hand refers to coordination and organization of
all the activities at the workplace which will help in successfully achieving the desired goals and
objectives. In Tesco, while leadership focuses on employee factor, manager ensures that the cost
and other resources utilized are minimum. There is a vast difference at Tesco in the roles and
responsibilities of a manager and a leader. A leader is a person who acts as a guide for a group
of people and has the authority to influence their actions and control the decisions that they are
taking so that they can achieve the desired goals. A manager on the other hand is a person who
is concerned with performing a particular set of duties and their major duty is to manage the part
of the company which is assigned to them.
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Difference at Tesco in the roles and responsibilities of a manager and a leader:
Leader Manager
A leader aims to bring innovation and focuses
on people aspect in a company (Nakamura, and
et.al., 2015).
Manager focuses on administration and
maintaining those people in Tesco.
Leader, motivates employees building and
garnering their trust towards each other and the
leader.
Manager on the other hand focuses on
controlling employees and developing proper
mechanisms and systems which will minimize
cost and maximize profit.
A leader portrays himself as a separate identity
having his own ideologies and beliefs and
presents what he actually is to the employees.
A manager, however tries to convey the
objectives of Tesco Plc as his own objectives
and is focused on achieving such targets
(Johnstone, 2016).
The focus of leader is on the what and why
aspect in a task and is concerned with doing
the 'right thing.'
A manager concerns himself with when and
how part in the task concerning himself with
doing 'things right.'
A leader refers to his juniors as his team-mates
and tries to develop everyone together.
A manager considers his juniors as his
subordinates and his only concern is ensuring
that their productivity is sufficient.
Difference in characteristics of Leaders and Managers: A manager needs to possess
some basic characteristic in order to successfully manage the employees assigned to them. They
need to ensure that the work assigned to the employees gets completed in time trying to
implement a more directive or controlling approach. Usually, the employees whose performance
levels are extremely high are appointed as managers so that they can properly guide their
subordinates and they can ensure that they are working toward achieving those objectives.
A leader on the other hand is a person who instead of focusing on giving order to the
employees tries to inspire and motivate them to work harder and they implement strategies based
on emotional intelligence. They try to regularly implement new policies in the company so that
Tesco can incorporate changes in its activities and redefine their current practices. Altogether,
manager is concerned with doing right things and leader is concerned with doing things in right
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