Roles and Characteristics of a Leader and Manager in Management and Operations

This report explores the roles and characteristics of a leader and manager in management and operations. It discusses the definition and comparison of different roles, the examination of their functions in different situational contexts, and the application of different theories and models of approach. The report also highlights the impact of external business environment factors on decision making. The case study focuses on Kingfisher Plc, a multinational retailer of home improvement products.

Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Activity 1.........................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Definition and Comparison of different roles and characteristics of a leader and manager..1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P2. Examination of role of a leader and function of a manager in different situational contexts
.....................................................................................................................................................3
P3. Application of different theories and models of approach....................................................4
Activity 2.........................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3 & 4.....................................................................................................................................7
Covered in PPT ..........................................................................................................................7
.....................................................................................................................................................7
........................................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
Management introduces as the process of managing and monitoring the affairs of the
enterprise, irrespective of its type, structure, size and nature. Operations means the actions and
decisions that are made by participants and members of an organisation which turn to affect the
distribution, production, management, service etc. Therefore, management and operations is the
administration of business practices to develop the highest level of efficiency or effectiveness
within an enterprise (Akalin, Huang and Willems, 2016). It is basically concerned with
converting labour and raw materials into goods or services as efficiently as possible to increase
the profitability of company. Main purpose of this report is to increase understanding about the
role of a leader and functions of a manager. Kingfisher Plc is a chosen retailer for this report that
provide home improvement products to their customers. This assignment is based on two
different parts, where part one is related with leadership and management concept in the
organisation. This part also includes differentiation between the role of a leaders and functions
of manager in different situation. Under second part, different approaches of operations
management will also cover which helps an organisation in improvement of its business
operations. At last, impact of external business environment factors on decision making process
of leaders and managers will also cover in this report.
Activity 1
TASK 1
P1 Definition and Comparison of different roles and characteristics of a leader and manager
Kingfisher Plc is a chosen multinational organisation that specialise in selling and
marketing of home improvement products such as home appliances, building material, garden
product, home furnishing, hardware etc. Therefore company markets its product in all over the
world. Company was founded in 1982 by the Andy Cosslett, Thierry Garnier and headquartered
in London, England, UK. Kingfisher Plc has an hierarchical structure. It is basically a functional
structure which emphasis on the various departments within an organisation. Main reason behind
using such type of structure is because the organisation is large and has variety of layers within it
(Battini and et. al., 2016).
Leadership: It introduces to the art of motivating an individual or group of people
towards achievement of common goals. In addition, it is the capacity of an organisation's
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management to set and accomplish challenging goals. A leader is an individual who is liable
towards guiding ad motivating the workers to attain short as well as long term goals of
Kingfisher Plc.
Management: It consists of interlocking functions of developing corporate policy and
planning, directing, organising and controlling resources of an organisation to accomplish the
objectives of that policy. A manager is an individual who manages entire functions and resources
of an organisation in systematic manner. Furthermore, manager adopt business functions in a
way which allows company to become efficient and effective (Bromiley and Rau, 2016).
Difference between between leadership and management on the basis of their role and
characteristic within the business organisation:
Basis Leadership Management
Risk Leader is also a risk taker as they
tries to implement as well as
determined the new and innovative
concept and theories with the aim of
developing creativity within the
company to enhance positive brand
image.
Manager of company also play a
crucial role in managing risk as they
effectively perform their task and
activities in order to eliminate the
negative impact. This will aid in
improving the chances of attaining
positive results and also reduce risk
factors at workplace.
Resistance to
change
Leader is play a crucial role in
implementing changes within the
business as it promote to innovation,
new ways to manage the same.
Mainly, leader are also determine
the new of working activities as per
the changes (David and David,
2016).
In comparison to leader, manager
perform well to effectively manage
the working activities. In this
regards they play a crucial role in
managing proper stability within the
business activities and process as
well. By they can easily maintain
better coordination among
employees at working area.
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TASK 2
P2. Examination of role of a leader and function of a manager in different situational contexts
Manager and leader both are play crucial role in business organisation in effectively
managing several situation that arise at workplace and different situations as well. Thus, both
manager and leader are responsible for effectively deal with all the ascertain in order to keep up
the effectiveness of company. This may beneficial in developing as well as building better
coordination among entire activities of organisational activities. In context of this, there are some
roles and function which perform by manager and leader within Kingfisher to manage crisis
management and major product launch situation in effective manner (Excoffier and et. al, 2016).
Crisis management: It is the process by which company deals with a unexpected and
disruptive event that harm an organisation or its stakeholders. This situation is faced by
Kingfisher plc, for example, marketing and finance team comes into a crisis in relation to the
marketing cost of products of the company. In this, there would be grieve condition in terms of
harmony and productivity within an organisation. There are some roles of a leader and functions
of a manager that helps Kingfisher Plc in reduction of the impact of such situation. These are
determined as below: Role of leader: In order to manage crisis situation at workplace, leader of Kingfisher
might play an important role. They must take tough decisions during and after the crisis.
They must also act as spokesperson for the company, in front of the press and many other
stakeholders. Function of manager: Manager of the kingfisher is responsible for the hour-by-hour,
day-to-day implementation of the actions that are required to deal with crisis. Manager
must set-up lines of communication and provide accurate information to their internal and
external stakeholders about the business.
Major product Launch: It is another situation within Kingfisher Plc. Company is more
consistent in delivering in new service and products to the marketplace (Ferguson and et. al.,
2019). In order to launch new product in marketplace, different issues would be faced by
company such as lack of marketing sources, changes in customers needs and wants etc. These
issue have direct impact over business performance and growth of Kingfisher Plc. In order to
reduce these issues, there is requirement of leader's role and manager's functions which will be
explained as below:
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 Role of leader: Leader of Kingfisher Plc must use transformational leadership style.
Main purpose of this type of leader is to create a clear vision or objective onto the
variation in product line.
 Function of manager: Main function of manager is to organise and give effective
training to their employees about the new technology, process and equipments that would
be followed by the Kingfisher to launch a new product (Heizer, 2016).
P3. Application of different theories and models of approach
It is important for company to maintain their reputation at market place by leading as
well as guiding their workforce. While executing task activities, employees required proper
guidance to improve their abilities to do their best. Along with this, there are some effective
theoretical aspect of leadership that implement by company to handle entire working activities.
As it also help in developing better coordination at work place and at the same time also make
workers able to attain their set targets in an effective manner (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016). In this
regards, there are different theories and model of leadership can be understood by following
points:
Situational Leadership: It is also consider as an effective theory that implement by
leader at the time of managing current and existing situation within the business organisation.
Under this, leader apply this style as per the situation that occur at workplace. By using this
theory leader can easily balance the entire activities of company. In this regards, the main
strength of this theory is that it give flexibility within the company wherein they can easily
accomplish their set goals and objectives. However, it is based on current period of time and
does not provide enough information to leader.
System leadership: This type of leadership help leader to effectively create the
conditions wherein each and every level can work effectively. Mainly, it is based on human
behaviour that help in developing a good leadership and strategy to manage the situation. As it is
implement as it the complex issues that help in improving the possibilities of attaining set targets
in stipulated period of time. In this regards, the main advantage of this theory is that it help in
managing all the environmental changes that directly contributes in improving performance level
of company. However, the major drawback of this leadership theory is that it is not always
accurate as it create issues in decision making.
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Contingency Leadership: It is an effective leadership theory that implement to different
situation occur at workplace. It define that there is no particular approach to leadership because
the working environment is very dynamic. Mainly it is evaluate that how leadership style
matched to the situation (Ravindran, 2016). In this, leader evaluate as well as take optimal course
of action that support in maintaining the working environment of Kingfisher. One of the main
strength of this theory is that it change as per the situation and also allow manager to change
their policies according to the situation as it enhance decision making skills of manager. On the
other hand, the major weakness of this theory is that it includes highly complex process as
changes required huge efforts to modify or manage the situation.
Application of Theories in different situation:
In a business organisation, certain situation are occurs that affect entire activities of
company and its workers as well. In this, both manager and leader play a significant role in
managing issues and situation. This will contribute in eliminating negative impact and at the
same time also enhance employees performance as well.
Crisis management: Under this situation, contingency leadership is applied within the
Kingfisher as it help in managing each and every activities within the company. Mainly, it is
related or based on situation for task oriented and relationship oriented as it is al about based in
the situation. In this regards, leader focus on relationship orientation that help in managing
organisation activities in effective way. This will directly contributes in improving the
possibilities of attaining all the set targets without any kind of risk factors within the company.
A major product launch: In this situation, leader of Kingfisher implement Situational
leadership model as it is effective for task and relationship as well (Reid and Sanders, 2019). As
it refers to launching a new product and along with also includes behaviour of employees. In this,
leader provide guidance to workers with the aim of making them able to execute their task
activities within the business organization. In context of this, there are some effective factors that
is related with leadership are as follows:
 Delegating Style: Under this, it is mainly refers as low task and relationship style. This is
because, leader make an initiative to identify its manpower potentiality or interest and
based on that assign or delegate roles and responsibilities. Due to such initiation, it enable
leader to acquire increased level of contribution form employees that helps them in
making managerial and operational decision in an effective manner.
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 Participating Style: It is also play a crucial role in launching a new product as it refers to
low task along with high relationship. In this leader focus in sharing their decisions wit
their team members and also make the encouraged to take participate within their
decisions. This will aid in selecting a best product portfolio within the market to make its
strong image (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018).
 Selling Style: This type of style is related with high task and relationship wherein leader
is responsible for sell their ideas and opinion to their team members by using effective
communication. As it support in eliminating any kind of issues and error within the
company while launching a new product.
 Telling Style: It refers to the low relationship and high task in which leader give
instruction to employees without taking communicating with them.
All these leadership styles are effective but leader of Kingfisher applied participating
style in which they encourage their workers to take participate within decision making process in
order to make them more productive towards the set goals and objectives (Uhl and Gollenia,
2016).
Activity 2
TASK 3 & 4
Covered in PPT
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CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned research it has been concluded that management and
operation are crucial part of business as it help in attaining all the set organisational goals and
objectives. In this, determining roles and responsibilities of manager and leader is also crucial as
it support business organisation in implementing entire activities more smoothly. Along with
this, both manager and leader play their essential role and functions in different situation that
occur at working area. In addition of this, different models and theories of leadership are also
important because it provide better direction to workers in making them more productive.
Furthermore, key approaches of operations manager is also its importance for company is also
significant to be understand that put positive impact on production process. At last, various factor
of business environment and its impact over operational management and decision making is
crucial to evaluate effectively as it help in enhancing overall performance of company at market
place.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akalin, G. I., Huang, Z. and Willems, J. R., 2016. Is Supply Chain Management Replacing
Operations Management in the Business Core Curriculum. Operations and Supply
Chain Management: An International Journal. 9(2). pp.119-130.
Battini, D. and et. al., 2016. Sustainable humanitarian operations: closed-loop supply
chain. International Journal of Services and Operations Management. 25(1). pp.65-79.
Bromiley, P. and Rau, D., 2016. Operations management and the resource based view: Another
view. Journal of Operations Management. 41. pp.95-106.
David, F. and David, F.R., 2016. Strategic management: A competitive advantage approach,
concepts and cases. Pearson–Prentice Hall.
Excoffier, F. and et. al, 2016. Concurrent management console operations. U.S. Patent
9,298,501.
Ferguson, N. T. and et. al., 2019. Secure management of operations on protected virtual
machines. U.S. Patent 10,176,095.
Heizer, J., 2016. Operations management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Hitt, M. A., Xu, K. and Carnes, C. M., 2016. Resource based theory in operations management
research. Journal of Operations Management. 41. pp.77-94.
Ravindran, A. R., 2016. Operations research and management science handbook. Crc Press.
Reid, R. D. and Sanders, N. R., 2019. Operations management: an integrated approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and
practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Uhl, A. and Gollenia, L. A. eds., 2016. A handbook of business transformation management
methodology. Routledge.
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