Operations Management Concepts & Theories

This assignment delves into the core principles of operations management, examining various concepts such as strategic operations management, sustainable operations, and the future of the field. It requires students to analyze different perspectives on operations management, drawing upon a range of scholarly sources and research papers. The assignment emphasizes understanding the impact of these concepts on business performance and the triple bottom line.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Define and compare various roles and traits between a leader and a manager......................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P2 Examine role of leader and function of manager..................................................................3
P3 Theories and models of approach, situational leadership systems leadership and
contingency.................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Approaches to operations management.................................................................................6
P5 Worth of Operation management in achieving business objectives......................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6 Factor of business environment impact upon operational management and decision making
.....................................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management of operations consist of planning and designing strategies and implication
of them in order to proper functioning of business. Operation administration involve
programming, organising, supervising and designing in regard of production of commodities that
company manufacture (Wong, and et al. 2012). This includes two major elements of organisation
that is logistics and supply chain management. Tesco is a multinational retailer who supply
grocery services and general merchandising products in all over Europe and UK. This report
differentiate and identify the roles of manager and leader as well as their different function. It
will also evaluate different leadership style or approaches that company use fir evaluation in
market.
TASK 1
P1 Define and compare various roles and traits between a leader and a manager
The ability of leading to a number of people, group or organisation is called leadership.
This determines company culture, objectives, vision, aims and its goals to meet achievements in
market. Leader of a organisation aid in ways to accomplish objectives by them through helping
employer in planning, organising and functioning of operations and motivating the by providing
them a purpose or target. Management is administration process that include controlling and
designing of various activities in attain target of company. Manager of a company maintain a
disciplinary structure by assigning tasks to employee and monitor all operation occurring in an
organisation (Subramanian and Ramanathan, 2012).
Tesco have few leader that administrate all activities in entire stores of company to
deploy their business as well as attain set objective in span of time.
Characteristics of Management
1. Integrity
Management's one of most common characteristic is integrity. Employee follows the path
of a manager. Hence it is employer's role to manage it in workplace for better administration.
2. Dynamic
Management process is dynamic in nature as market. Company require to maintain
framework according to business environment and trends (Similarities and differences of a
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leader and a manager, 2015 ). Employer should be flexible to suit every situation or condition of
Tesco.
3. Persuasive
An organisation use process of management for implementation and administration of
entire activities occurring in company for attaining business objectives. Thus, it is persuasive and
comprehensives (Singhal and Singhal, 2012).
Characteristics of Leadership
1. Importance of Diversity
Leadership understands that value of diversity in Tesco to deploy their business. A good
leader knows hat diverged employee open the environment within more creative and innovative
idea that can be used in expansion and strategies building process.
2. Interaction Ability
A leader is the person who motivate group of people or masses with their revolutionary
thoughts and opinions. Leadership should have traits of effective communication skills enables
to influence.
3. Optimism
Leadership style refer to optimistic characteristic of a person. Leader themselves are the
sea of positivity, they communicate so effectively that their message inspire everyone.
4. Deciseiveness
Leadership refer to the ability to take decision in most worst situation. Business faces
complex situation in industry while developing in market. A good leaders should be decisive,
making quick and tough decisions whenever required.
Roles of Leader and Manager
2. Direct and Design
Leader is responsible for providing direction through commend into entire group of
individual g employer fir making changes by providing them target (Peng and Lai, 2012).
Manager design various planning for meeting the expectations of leader. They assign
whole work to employee by allotting them target to complete till the specific time.
1. Formulate
Formulation of organisation's culture, mission and vision is the role of leader. They
recruit bets employers for management of major programmes.
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Manager whereas, produce plan and design a structure of operation administration to
monitor employees working for the company (Mollenkopf, Frankel and Russo, 2011).
4. Allocate and Coordinate
Leaders are the first persons of organisation which coordinate with whole entity,
government and public the company's recognition focusing over the deployment of Tesco.
Manager's role is organise various strategies and allocate the task to employee for proper
functioning and achievement of targets.
3. Stimulate and Monitor
Leader's motivate the employer to keep inspiring them to accomplish mission and freshen
their confidence. They organise training and development programmes of them to interact them
directly.
Manager whereas inspire their employees and monitor entire operation through
commending the internal workplace. To enhance their performance they execute organise
activities to boost worker's skills (Lewis and Brown, 2012).
TASK 2
P2 Examine role of leader and function of manager
Manager and leader both are a indispensable part of organisation without the presence of
such crucial member in organisation the goal will seem like a far fetched dream. In layman terms
the leader is one whom people follow and look up to for guidance and manager is the one who
have to work for group, with people. In successful organisation there will always be a
motivational leader and a competent manager which can take them towards their goal
achievement. Leaders are visionary and managers have to work hard to achieve their vision.
There required a great level of integration and coordination among the two for a smooth
and hassle free work environment.
Origin phase in organisation begins with generation of the idea and in this situation role
of a visionary is being played by leader where as manager is the one who is supposed to follow
vision of leader and make things reality. There are a number of tasks which are performed by
manager with the guidance and support from leader.
Planning
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Planning refers to bridging the gap of where we are and where we want to be. In this
particular situational context, role of a leader is to bring clarity of what the future of company
will be and along with this leader also provides a series of actions which can make us reach
there. There comes a function of a manager to follow what being described to him and form a
blueprint of the series of events to take place in coming period (Krajewski, Ritzman and
Malhotra, 2013.).
Organising
This task mainly revolves around synchronising task and activities and making ensuring
that activities matched with predefined ones. It is the function of manager to ensure the same.
Leader in this situational circumstances will make sure that they employees have the adequate
resources and working environment to help them accomplish the same .
Forming/staffing
This is the most critical task when it comes to the organisation. Leaders are the one who
have ability to hire the right set of people as he carries quality to persuade and hire right set of
people and in this particular situation task of manager is to group people with similar
competency and assign tasks to them for purpose of goal achievement.
Leading
This can be primarily a task of a leader who is to lead by example share the hardships of
people and boost confidence in them for accomplishment of a certain task . Where as function of
manager is to direct them in all circumstances and lead them so that they have a clarity of
objective and how to accomplish the same.
Controlling
This is one of the critical of function performed by manager which involves making sure
that everything is under control and going as planned (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus, 2011).
Manager controls tasks at ground level and on top senior level circumstances are controlled by a
leader.
Reporting
Reporting is feedback mechanism in organisation. Managers have to stay updated by
ongoing task in organization and their level of accomplishment. It is role of a leader to have a
efficient communication system existing in the organisation which can help in leading as well as
in constructive communication.
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P3 Theories and models of approach, situational leadership systems leadership and contingency
Leadership is a process that decide culture, vision, mission and objectives of organisation
according to its traits (Hill and Hill, 2012). Management of enterprise handle recruitment,
supervision, personnel and organising of activities in company which is assisted by leader of
company. There are several types of theory and leadership styles in market, here are few of them
briefed below:
Behavioural Theory
Source 1: Leadership Style, 2012
Rather than being inherited with the characteristics of leadership as per the trait theory,
this states that it is the combination of abilities and behaviour of an individual. According to this,
a good leader a rise according to surroundings, attributes,abilities of an individual. To understand
this theory, many research put their efforts for going to depth f this study, in them most known
study was done in 1945 – 1947 which was executed by Ohio State University and University of
Michigan.
Contingency Theory
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This concepts refer to setting one self according various consequences and situations. It is
theory in which leadership is called as combination of chance and skills as well as ability and
methods which is required in a situation. According to the founder of this theory Fiedler, a leader
is more pleasant when they are in pleasing condition but in no favourable condition, one become
more effective or non indulgent.
Trait Theory
This concept refer to the theory that great leader are are being made or educated, they are
born with the ability to lead and influence people. They believe that a person is inherited with
leadership talent, those who are not, can not be a good leader. This is a trait which go generation
to generation. Critic does not believes this theory. They claims on the implication of it in
different situations or places. It can be analysed from history leaders that those who have
changed the way of society thinking are not inherited but emerged according to consequences.
Skill Theory
According to this theory, leadership is all about knowledge, information and ability of an
individual which they had or earned. Those skills and data which they can implement according
various situation in effective way is the recognition of a good leader. A person can transform
those educational information in valuable way and guide others on the same path for betterment
for them can only be proven a better leader (Heizer,2016).
Situational Theory
This theory states that leadership approaches changes according to different situation and
consequences. Individual who is can suit oneself in all environmental condition is a good leader.
Those styles should be more directive and supportive. It also claims that an impressive guide
should know which model is more useful in which condition to make the best efforts of from it.
TASK 3
P4 Approaches to operations management
To achieve the target one require to follow all steps that is determined and need to be
followed. Larger organisation handle their issues related with functioning of activities by
operation management to result more positively than possible. Organised and systematic work
make the practices more effective and appealing than it is. This helps in competing rivals in
market as well as maintenance of several unique work including distribution, allocation of
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resource, manufacture process etc. Tesco is aiming to deploy their business in global market
along with increasing revenues by increment in sales amount. To increase performance, it is
necessary to or adopt effective approaches for strengthening leadership style which commend
whole functions of organisation.
Empirical approach -
This is related to the analyse of previous data and information of experiences of planning
in market. It facilitates in building new strategies through evaluating previous implementation
and their outcome. Tesco conduct survey to older implication and feedback of customers by
which they come up with new plans.
Approach of Social Framework
Social system approach is related to the natures as well as background and culture of
manager and leader which is important to analyse for organisation like Tesco.
Human Behaviour Approach
This approach studies leadership styles and management attributes as well as behaviour
of company. For this they apply a survey over their behaviours and traits to understand strengths
and weakness of company leadership and administration (Gunasekaran and Ngai, 2012).
Role of Manager
Manager of Tesco assist leader in accomplishing competitive advantages through
monitoring processes such as assigning of work, manufacture process, supply, distribution etc.
They organise, design, control and implicate the strategies within organisation for helping in
extension of organization in industry (Gimenez, Sierra and Rodon, 2012). Here are the role of
manager in operational manager:
 Negotiate in human resource management related issues by undertaking bargaining
procedure. They initiate in changes to alternate the system according to their staff.
 Tesco manager interact with public as well as employee and convey company content or
message delivered by leaders.
 Allocation of resources of company including human resources, fiscal , assets and others.
This is their responsibility to control them altogether.
 Tesco employer administrate main operations administration within entity by performing
functions i.e. designing, organising, monitoring and leading.
Role of Leader
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Leader not only determines Tesco's culture to attain organisational goals but also provide
purpose to develop to members of staff of organization. They stimulate the employee organising
activities in favour of employee for providing a better environment t them to work and discipline
all operation functioning in same routine. These are some of leader's role explained below:
 Leader's role is top focus over the operations quality of running operation in business for
competing to competitors.
 Leader of Tesco concentrate on quality of whole entity, programme which run in firm
that involve processes of production and dispersion.
 Arrangements of supply chains of services of Tesco and management documentation of
production procedure in entire stores of company in worldwide (Brown, Bessant and
Lamming, 2013).
 Motivate the employers of company through organising meeting, discussion, seminars
and allotments of target top them to scale increments of company in various parts.
P5 Worth of Operation management in achieving business objectives
Operation management play very crucial part ton administrate all activities of company
market systematically. Each firm either NGO or profit oriented companies attain this function for
documenting all reports of functions that is occurred. CI assists in analysing responses of
previous operation which is useful for future activities (Barratt, Choi and Li, 2011).
Importance of Operation Management
To implicate various strategies of company like Tesco in market, management operation
is being coordinated by leaders. To maximize efficiency of production process, organisation uses
different approaches and structures that helps in implementation of planning in more effective
way. Through rendering better quality and lower cost commodities, Tesco can easily meet their
target customer which h can be possible through this. This assure costumer about the quality of
products company supply.
To understand customer's preferences as well as identifying expectations of users of
services, the company had structure of inventory management. This assist in coordination of
operations through supplying a pattern to follow to entire branches of company worldwide. This
helps in portraying company's unique recognition in society which create a different impact over
public. It harmonised entities that modifies the structure into more disciplinary and systematic.
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This not only facilitates to customer preferences but also ease the supply chain of company
which increment in competitive advantages.
TASK 4
P6 Factor of business environment impact upon operational management and decision making
Decision-making practices are behavioural procedure occur in order to meeting
objectives or vision of company which impact over the development of Tesco. To manage those
activities, organisation take the help of operation management system which monitor and
document all those practices as well as maintain supply chain. Tesco and other enterprisers like
this face many barriers for achieving success those are required to identify within a period of
time before turning into a major problem.
Tesco is one of the leading supermarket and retailing company that render grocery and
other range of services in market listed as the best retailing company in London Stock
Exchanges. Some time, decision of leaders and manager lead to major fall in the system or
financial condition of company that can affect its positive image. Here are those factors which
can affect commodity's quality that can turn in weakness:
Quality and cost effective prices is the major strengths of Tesco which is attracting
consumers brought company on the heights of achievements. The problem that can occur in
company is poor prices of services which can affect the production of commodity. This ca result
in break of potential buyer of Tesco that can lead ton capital or financial losses for company (Ahi
and Searcy, 2013). manage those resource manager or leader should take immediate actions
studying market factors which has affect this process that can be demoralisation in workers, poor
administration, appreciation or appraisal dearth, lack of able workers and many others. Also
company can resolve this solution by undertaking effective approaches of recruitment for hiring
able labour.
Employee with more ego in respect of their work can lead to internal environment
conflicts within company's workplace. This can demotivate other worker which work with that
which can hinder the production system and decrease the quality of products. The issue can be
raised by a labour which have a relation with employer enabling a negative workforce leading to
crisis or mutiny. Leader or manager of Tesco should be unbiased at work area to balance dignity
as well as increase the quality.
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Supplier in a company provide the raw material to company which they transform into
major assets and deal them in market in exchange of capital. Leader of an organisation
communicate with them and make the decision related to deals or contract. A good supplier can
make increments in revenues through trimming the manufacture cost of products and services of
company but an expensive one can increase the commodity prices by increasing raw material
cost which can lead enterprise to heavy loss in benefits. Tescn company understands the
requirements and values of them and thus, they maintain a better relationship with them for
effective supplying strategy.
Culture of Tesco have impact over the decision making process and operational practices
of company. They use those strategies for betterment of functions of company to increment
product sales in market. This straightly influence whole procedure of organization by impacting
over the major activities that occur including finance, production and others.
CONCLUSION
In this assignment, it can be conclude that leader and manager both play crucial but
unique role in a company. Leadership style shapes vision, objectives, culture, and system of an
organisation whereas employer are employed by company leader for managing different dpet.,
along with assisting in execution of strategies build by management within their specific area as
well as assign target to employee. Both of these combinly work together for proper functioning
of operations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Ahi, P. and Searcy, C., 2013. A comparative literature analysis of definitions for green and
sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production. 52. pp. 329-341.
Barratt, M., Choi, T. Y. and Li, M., 2011. Qualitative case studies in operations management:
Trends, research outcomes, and future research implications. Journal of Operations
Management. 29(4). pp. 329-342.
Brown, S., Bessant, J. R. and Lamming, R., 2013. Strategic operations management. Routledge.
Gimenez, C., Sierra, V. and Rodon, J., 2012. Sustainable operations: Their impact on the triple
bottom line. International Journal of Production Economics. 140(1). pp. 149-159.
Gunasekaran, A. and Ngai, E. W., 2012. The future of operations management: an outlook and
analysis. International Journal of Production Economics. 135(2). pp. 687-701.
Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Hill, A. and Hill, T., 2012. Operations management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Jacobs, F. R., Chase, R. B. and Lummus, R. R., 2011. Operations and supply chain management
(Vol. 567). McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Krajewski, L. J., Ritzman, L. P. and Malhotra, M. K., 2013. Operations management: processes
and supply chains (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Pearson.
Lewis, M. A. and Brown, A. D., 2012. How different is professional service operations
management?. Journal of Operations Management. 30(1). pp. 1-11.
Mollenkopf, D. A., Frankel, R. and Russo, I., 2011. Creating value through returns management:
Exploring the marketing–operations interface. Journal of Operations Management.
29(5). pp. 391-403.
Peng, D. X. and Lai, F., 2012. Using partial least squares in operations management research: A
practical guideline and summary of past research. Journal of Operations Management.
30(6). pp. 467-480.
Singhal, K. and Singhal, J., 2012. Imperatives of the science of operations and supply-chain
management. Journal of Operations Management. 30(3). pp. 237-244.
Subramanian, N. and Ramanathan, R., 2012. A review of applications of Analytic Hierarchy
Process in operations management. International Journal of Production Economics.
138(2). pp. 215-241.
Wong, C.W and et al. 2012. Green operations and the moderating role of environmental
management capability of suppliers on manufacturing firm performance. International
Journal of Production Economics. 140(1). pp. 283-294.
Online -
Similarities and differences of a leader and a manager. 2015 . [Online]. Available Through:
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