Management and Operations: Leadership Skills, Theories, and Approaches

Management and operations

Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3
Main body ............................................................................................................................................3
Part A....................................................................................................................................................3
1(A) Managerial skills and leadership qualities..............................................................................3
1(B) Actions and Achievements of Steve jobs and Tim cook..........................................................4
2(A) Strength and Weakness of the leaders.....................................................................................4
2(B) Leadership theories..................................................................................................................5
2(C) Analysis of leadership theories................................................................................................6
Part B....................................................................................................................................................6
1(A) Two theoretical approaches.....................................................................................................6
1(B) Strength and weaknesses of approaches..................................................................................7
1(C) Role of management/ leadership and business value .............................................................7
2(A) Factors of business environment.............................................................................................8
2(B) Impact of factors on decision making.....................................................................................8
Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................................9
References .........................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
Management refers to the activities of planning, organising, directing and controlling the
management functions of the organisation. It is applicable in every industry. This activities are
performed for achieving the organisation goals and objectives efficiently and effectively. Whereas
operation term is related to the business operations of product and services(Bryant and et. al., 2019).
It ensures the business resources are optimum utilised in the process of production. Both the terms
are important in the functioning of the business. The study is based on the company apple. Apple is
a multinational American company established in 1st April 1976 by Steve Jobs. The company deals
in the product of consumer electronic, online services etc. In this the discussion is related to the
leadership skills and theories required strength and weaknesses of the leader.
Main body
Part A
1(A) Managerial skills and leadership qualities
The term managerial skills defines the attributes and abilities of the person that are needed to
perform the specific task in the organisation. The skills are provided through learning. Where as
leadership is a process of motivating the person for accomplishment of the objectives to be effective
leader it requires the qualities of team work, conflict handling etc. Skills and qualities used by the
leader in the apple company are as follows.
Skills
 Technical skills – It is related to gain the knowledge about the techniques, methods, and
procedure used for performing the task. The leader should have adequate knowledge of
technical skills for achieving the objective. This helps in increasing the sales and marketing
of the product and services. This skill is required mostly the lower and middle levels of
employees(Dai and et. al., 2018).
 Conceptual skills – It involves the critical thinking and developing new ideas for the
company. The leader of the apple finds the problem, analyse it and provides the solutions.
The skills helps in coordinating and integrating the activities of the company. This skill is
required when the apple launches an new product, or functioning in international market and
using the new technology.
Leadership qualities
 Communication- effective communication is the key factor for the good leadership. the

leader of the apple must be good in communicating the information to their employees and
at top level. The leader should not include the harsh words and communicate the
information with the proper words and expression. It helps in expressing the thoughts, ideas
and formulates the decision(Devold and et. al., 2017).
 Delegation- The leader should have the quality of delegating the work to the employees.
Proper delegation helps in achieving the productivity and performance. It builds the trust
with the team members and leads to decision making.
1(B) Actions and Achievements of Steve jobs and Tim cook
Steve jobs is the founder of the apple company in 1976. Steve jobs has provided influence in
the business and technology which has a list of achievements.
 Revolution of computer- In 1984 there was a launch of the computer without having
programming language with the name macintosh. It was successful in using the graphical
user interface(Gore 2018).
 Music players- In 2001 it established the digital music players with the thousands of songs
stored in it.
 Animation studio pixar- In 1986 jobs made the investment in computer graphics which
was known with the name of pixar. The aim was to develop the animation studio for making
animated films. In 1995 first animated film was toy story which was made by collaborating
with the Disney.
Tim cook joined the apple company in 1998. He was the senior vice president and Became
the CEO of the apple in 201. It took the responsibility for managing the operations and sales
worldwide comprising of services and support. Achievements of the Tim cook in making the
success of the company were in 2011 his name appeared in the 'Forbes' magazines. He was
honoured with the 'Alabama academy' through the citizens of the Alabama. In 2015 university of
Glasgow awarded the doctor of science.
2(A) Strength and Weakness of the leaders
Managing complexity is a methodology in analysing the complexity which occurs in the
business. To manage the complexity it involves the strategy, measures to trade-off value chain and
identifies the benefits. The complexity occurs in the field of market, product, customers process and
production. It is due to the change in market conditions, globalisation, merger and acquisition in the
company. The strength and weakness of managing complexity of apple are
The strength of the leader includes the effective communication, helps in resolving the