Management and Operations: Roles, Characteristics, and Approaches

This report covers the definition and comparison of leadership and management, their characteristics and roles, and how they apply in different situational contexts. It also discusses the key approaches to operations management, including Six Sigma, Business Process Management, Business Process Re-engineering, and Supply Chain Management. The report includes a case study of Tesco Plc.

Management and
Operations
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.........3
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in
different situational contexts.......................................................................................................6
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency. .......................................................................................................7
PART 2 ........................................................................................................................................10
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................10
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and
managers play............................................................................................................................10
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business
objectives...................................................................................................................................11
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational
management and decision-making by leaders and managers....................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
In this report the following topic are covered, defining the leadership and management,
who perform this function, what the characteristics and role of leader and manager. Difference
among them. How manager acts in different situations and to know them situational leadership,
System leadership and contingency (Sunday and et.al., 2021). How manager and leader play
roles in operational management, Importance of operational management in achieving
organisation goals, examination of the factors affecting the operational management. Leadership
is the skill through with individual or numbers of individual as group influence large of people or
employees in an organisation. . Management is a ability to organise all the required resource at
exact time for the smooth operation of organisation. For the observation Tesco company is
taken into consideration. Tesco is a United Kingdom based multinational groceries and general
merchandise retailers. Their ranges includes books, clothing electronics,furniture, toys, petrol,
software, financial services and telecommunication services etc. Tesco Plc uses decentralised
management structure for operation.
MAIN BODY
PART 1
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
Leadership: -Is the activities to performed by leader to deviate group in direction of
organisation goals as to achieve it as soon as possible.
Leader:- The person who have the ability to pursue or influence people to do prescribe
task by the way of motivation.
 Characteristics of a leader
◦ Effective Communication:- As leader do influential work to direct the personal
forces in the direction of organisation objective in here leader need to be very good in
the communication as the follower blindly follow them so they need to be effective.
◦ Trustworthy:- Person need to be trustful with the commitment as their ought to be
claim accurate no worries in following such person.
◦ Decisive:- Leader have clear in choosing among the alternative with accurate
reasoning.
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◦ Independent Thinker:- The individual posses the thinking compatibilities to vision
the best possible future of the organisation.
◦ Positive:- Person who are capable of influencing are mostly positive as positivity
attract more people.
◦ Humility:- Person also posses kindness and humanities as these quality make them
role models for others.
◦ Conflict Resolution:- Leading the dynamic natured human being group is not a
simple task, conflict resolution in most important characteristics.
 Role of leader
◦ Required at all levels- Leader are present at all level as the lower level employees
follower their heads so they are the leader for them.
◦ Representative of the organization- As leader represent the whole group it is similar
in organisation the leaders of organisation represent organisation.
◦ Integrates and reconciles the personal goals with organizational goals- It sis the
responsibility of the leader to influence the work force in such way that personal goal
is achieved while achieving organisational goal.
◦ They solicits support- As the followers is following him so he grantee support when
the direction is accurately followed.
◦ As a friend, philosopher and guide- Leader provide guidance to the follows as
friend so the direction of employees can be kept in direction of organisational goal.
Management:- means the activities needed to be undertaken in order to achieve the
predetermined task in effective and efficient manner.
 Manager :- Person who undertake the function of management in order to operate the
organisation in a way that it get successful in achieving organisation goals.
 Characteristics of a manager
◦ Posses Leadership skills:- Manager is the who is the head of the team, leading team
need great influencing power, It act as leader for Co-workers and employees.
◦ Have professional Experience :- Manager is the demanding position of business,
such as Tesco operates in dynamic environment that why the person need to have
professional experience to meet the uncertainties.
◦ Excellent at Communication skills:- Managing is the co-ordination activities,
person need to organise the activities divided among department is such that whole
process get completed.
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◦ Managing Knowledge:- Literature provided with the knowledge of many
businessman and researchers that can be very helpful to resolve the problems arising
in management.
◦ Ability to Organise best person for right jobs:- Manager is to perform organisation
functions so it is very important find the best suited person for the job to achieve
efficiency and effectiveness.
 Role of manager
◦ Leader:- As manager is the team leader. He need to perform as leader for the team to
achieve the targets.
◦ Coordinator:- As in organisation work is divide and reassembled so coordination is
the act performed in order to maintain proper coordination.
◦ Team developer:- Team head or manager act as team builder to build team for
operation of the organisation with best personnel available.
◦ Administrator:- The responsibilities to the work done by is of manager so they have
power to control group and administer their activities.
◦ Motivator:- In managing function motivation is the one of the important function as
it is the easiest way to take work from employees.
Difference between manager and leader
basis Manager Leader
Definition
Way Power is excessed
Manager is the person who
manages the operation of any
organisation or association.
manager is power by the
position they holder in the
organisation (Zhennd and
et.al, 2019). They manages the
operation by organising the
work flow to increase
Leader are the individual have
the ability to influence other
people of the organisation or
group.
Leader have their power due to
their attitude towards the
growth in future. Follower
follow them because of their
vision.
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Responsibilities efficiency and effectiveness.
Manager have the
responsibility to deliver
achievement of organisation
result.
Leader is responsible to
satisfies the employees from
inside in respect of their
personal growth. Help
employee to reach to their
maximum results (Yanand and
Lv,2022).
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in
different situational contexts.
 Situation 1:- Conflict within the employees of Tesco Plc resulting in poor performance
and creating rigidity in achievement of organisation.
◦ Manager :- In this condition manager manager investigate the cause of conflict and
take action according to the policy of the Tesco. Manager first calculate the lose
caused due to conflict and demand from them to compensate the loss in monitor
penality or by over time (Wolniak, 2019). Manager will charge them claims to
violates the term of workings. Manager transfer the work to other personal for
temporary times to minimize damage and effectively completion of work.
◦ Leaders:- In such situation leader try to find the inner cause of the conflict try to
solve with providing the solution to personal problems so conflict can be resolved in
short notice and maintain their relation with management as leader work on emotional
bases to retain all the employees with the company.
 Situation 2:- Employees feel demotivated with the work assigned to them. Resulting in
high employees employees turn over.
◦ Manager:- In case of demotivation see to their payment of the efficiency if they are
under paid some incrementation is given to them to keep them motivated to work in
full potential in their companies.
◦ Leader:- In such situation leader provide the employees with personalised growth
vision that provide the employees with the motive to stay in and work on to the full
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potentials (Li, He and Wang, 2022). Leader also provide the benefits and changes
they are putting on the society when organisation objective is fulfilled.
 Situation 3:- Targeted output not achieved by Tesco company in respect of their sales.
◦ Manager:- Do the evaluation where they have lacked punishment to the
underperformed employees be the first action then providing with teams with
effective personal (Wolniak, 2021). Target also be analysis in context of feasibility.
Setting new target in accordance of studies.
◦ Leader:- will provide the ways on the individual level to overcome their deficiency
Through the way of motivation giving each and every one personal assessment and
corrective action plans (Getchell, 2022). Leader will provide targets which help in
increasing their potentials and are aligned with organisation objectives.
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency.
Situational leadership:- In this leadership theory the author Hersey and Blanchard
categorised the operations leaders can take into consideration while tackling the situation arising
in the organisation. Style are delegation, participating, selling, telling etc.
In case of conflicts between employees in Tesco, management can use the telling in
which they can clearly tell the employees their responsibilities , work to be performed and how
to be performed. So there will be no conflicts of interest between employees.
Systems leadership:- Leadership approaches provide with the five key elements to lead
in circumstances. These are convene and commit,look and learn , engage and energise, act with
accountability, review and revise.
In case where Tesco employees feel demotivated and resulting in high employees turn
over here management can choose review and revise to known the factor due to which
employees feel demotivated and changes can be implemented in the way to improve employees
motivation and reduce employees turnover.
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Strength Weakness
These are hybrid techniques which solve
almost every problem in management only
the detection of techniques which can be
suitable is done by management.
As it does not allow managerial freedom to
manager that they can not alter the solution
personally to the situation other than
provided.
Contingency:- This approach of leadership suggest that the personal skills combined
with the circumstances of the situation make leadership successful (Mohammed, 2018). Due to
which all the situations are not suitable for every kind of leadership style so there is a need to
change styles and leadership approaches to management distinct approaches.
In case of target not achieved management is using decentralised approaches of
management that's why control of top management is diluted and poor coordination lead to non
completion of targets. Company can try hybrid approaches combination of centralised and
decentralised leadership.
Strength Weakness
As contingency theory provide the solutions
to all problems as there no perfect style to be
followed by companies.
It is a time consuming process as evaluation
of situation is necessary to choose best
suitable leadership style.
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PART 2
INTRODUCTION
Operational management is the field of management which is concern with the activities
of production of goods and service, it's prime motive is to maximize the profitability by reducing
the operation cost in respect to the revenue. The out come is called net operating profits (Meng,
2022). Tesco Plc is a retail chain in UK which is the world third largest retail chain. They provide
all kind of customer products which includes eatables, clothes and electronics etc. Operational
manager is the person responsible to mange operational cost in the organisation. Leader provide
with vision that is followed by manager to complete vision through providing direction to
employees.
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and
managers play.
The key approaches to operational management are as follows
 Six Sigma:- Sigma is the level of the defeats per million opportunities, as this model tell
the level between -6 to +6. The level should not rise from 3.4 DPMO level, Tesco want
their production department to follow six sigma rule in which the sigma from 2 to 3 is
considered normal but it rise to 3.4 inefficiency foe every million opportunities is the
matter to which management is concerned.
 Business Process Management:- Management of the production process includes
regular analysis, Improvement and automation in the processes. Tesco focuses on
improvement of the operational process as most of the losses is cause to due to lack in the
process (Pilipczuk, 2021). A separate team is appointed in order to known the rigidity in
the process from the point of view of employees And corrective action is taken on regular
basis.
 Business Process Re-engineering:- Tesco also believe in the approaches of re-
engineering in here company see advanced alternative ways to achieve same level of
achievement is short span of time.
 Supply chain management:- This the most important kind of management Tesco
consider as their main focus on to supply management as their main earning come from
distribution network (RojasWatkins-Fassler and Rodríguez-Ariza, 2022). They cannot
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tolerate the the interpretation in the distribution of products to customer in difficult
situation as well.
The role of manager in execution of these approaches are
 Identifying the changes:- Manager help to identify the problems in the current working
pattern the impact on productive, changes required to boost productivity.
 Organising the resources for implementations of changes:- Managers duty to organise
all the required resources to implement the changes in the organisation.
The role of leader in the respect of the adoption of approaches.
 Motivation to employees regarding changes:- As changes create the uncomfortable
environment which result in demotivated staff so leader complete the responsibility by
motivating the employee Through different personal counselling.
 Provide broader vision to the company:- As leader will provider with company's long-
term vision which help in accepting the require change as purpose is clarified by them to
the employee of the company and direction for manger to take decisions.
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business
objectives.
As the companies work through operational process such as Tesco Plc is the retailer chain
so they follow process of distribution. It includes procurement of goods from whole seller or
direct from producers then to check the products and storekeeper arrange in warehouse then in
malls (Schwepker, 2019). The whole process is called operations. Manager who manages or
undertake the work of operational control in called operation manager.
Importance of operational management to achieving organisation goals are:-
 Help in reducing the cost of production:- As OM is concerned with the process
improvement to the best potential to reach at the optimum level of cost per unit, the scale
of economic combined with the best process of operations reduce the cost to the
minimum resulting in maximum product which adds on to profits of the company.
 Help to fasten the process of operations:- Management focuses on to the evaluating of
the the process to get the best alternative which provide same or mare level of out in same
time or less (Tikhonov and Zelentsova, 2021). So alternative course of action provide
the process the boost in time that will lead to fast completion of operations. As company
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provide the product sooner get more order to be fulfilled so the sales will automatically
improved which contribute in the achieving of organisational objective.
 Proper responsibility of work is divided:- Operation are analysed in order to know the
insights of the operational process so decision can be take in that accordance (Loan,
2018).specifying the work of responsibility assigned to person, it provide clarity of
working so duplication of activities and conflict are avoided which contribute in early
completion of work.
 Quantity and Quality of work is evaluated:- The quality and quantity estimation is
done to known the capabilities of organisation which help in giving exact quotation to the
related parties result in profitability of the organisation.
 Reduce the wastage in processes conducted :- Proper planned process lead to only the
excepted wastage, unexpected wastage is avoided which help to be on track with the
target prescribed to achieve organisational goals.
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational
management and decision-making by leaders and managers.
As business operates in dynamic environment so there is many factor which affect the
operation of the business, such factor are not in control of the management only the responsive
measure can be taken by manager and leaders.
 Technological Environment:- These factors includes all the changes which is induced
by the research and development of technologies through innovation. Such changes have
impact on the business in indirect way. Whenever new technology enter in production of
products or in rendering of services, so management change their own facilities of
production to come up with the competition (Jalal, 2018). In case of Tesco online order
and delivery, online order and takeaway and order offline and pay online etc . Are the
new ways to get to sell the products, changes have induced in operations so manager have
to assign new responsibilities to the persons as well. Leader needed to be allotted with
their team so as to conduct new operations according to management.
 Demographics of target market:- It consist of the conditions of the customer base such
as their age, gender, race, nationality, belief system and income sectors etc. These factors
are evaluated on the regular basis to known the demand of the customer in accordance to
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the supply. Alternation is needed if non favourable result are shown in report.
Unfavourable result can be the result of sudden migrations or other reasons (Ebabu and
Engidaw, 2021). Manger need to organise the business in such way that they can drive
profit from it. Leader provide the vision and direction to the human resource in the
organisation. In case of Tesco deals in multiple products and for different target market as
they get most affect by this factor.
 Economic factors:- The state of economy plays very important role in the business
operation as at tome of recession due to unemployment the demands for the products
goes down make is difficult for the business to hold there employees and sales.
Corrective action need be taken by the manager to maintain sales and reduce the the
supply of less demanded products to minimize the operating cost. Leader provide the
confidence and courage to the management and employee's so that difficult decision can
be executed properly.
CONCLUSION
Form the above presented report conclusion can be drawn that manager can as leader
some time but manager is much more than leader. As leader only leads the group through
motivation or providing satisfaction to the follower to influence them but Manager do these
things as well but organisation of each and every resources undertaking the operation of the
business and many more thing is the responsibility of manager. External factor affects the
operation of the businesses. Manger under take certain approaches to deal with operational
management, As operations are the small task to complete the big organisation objective so
Operational management help a lot to achieve organisational goals.
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REFERENCES
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Sunday, A.A., and et.al., 2021. Evaluation of Effective Maintenance and Reliability Operation
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