Operations Management: Examining Leader and Manager Responsibilities

This report provides a comprehensive overview of management and operations, focusing on the diverse functions and features of leaders and managers within an organizational context, using Unilever Plc as a case study. It examines the responsibilities of leaders and the purpose of managers in va...Read More

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
1. Diverse function and features of a leader and a manager........................................................3
2. Examination of illustration of the responsibility of a leader and the purpose of manager
applied in dissimilar situational context......................................................................................4
3. Different theories and models of approach..............................................................................6
4. Key advances to operations supervision and the responsibility played by executives and
leaders..........................................................................................................................................6
5. The significance and worth of operations management in achieving company objectives.....8
6. The factor within the surroundings that affects operational management and conclusion
building by managers and leaders................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Operational management is the administration of business practices in order to build the
maximum level of efficiency within an organization. It is basically concerned with the
convergence of raw material and labour into finished goods and services as appropriately as
possible with an intention to maximise the profits of the firm (Wang and et.al., 2021). In order to
describe the concepts in detail, Unilever Plc has been taken as an organization. It is a British
multinational consumer products firm headquartered in London. The company includes various
products involves food products, vitamins and minerals and various other supplements etc. This
report will describe the roles of managers and leaders within the Unilever which helps the firm in
the improvement of the production efficiency and development of the high quality goods and
services. Apart from this, the study will also highlight the importance of theories of management
and different leadership styles in context of Unilever Plc.
MAIN BODY
1. Diverse function and features of a leader and a manager
Managers are the people within an association who propose and administer the work within the
workplace in order to direct the pre defined ambition and objectives of the firm. For the
victorious achievement of the tasks, the administrators are responsible to prepare relevant
strategies and policies according to the working of the staff or employees with an intention to
execute their individual tasks according to the establishment objectives. The managers are
diversified at different levels to direct the assignments in different departments (Renea, 2018).
The managers are also completely concerned with the performances of their staff members and it
has been identified with the involvement of appraisal procedure at regular time intervals.
On the other hand, the leaders are the persons who get their work done by the workforce
that are associated to the goals of the establishment. The leaders are highly important in order to
play vital role related to appealing the workforce through their management and communiqué
ability along with inclusion of a vision towards the betterment of the organization within them.
The primary aim of the leader is to inspire and influence the employees to make all them perform
in a way which enhances their productivity and efficiency within the firm.

The roles of the leaders and managers are often interchangeable in nature but apart from
this, certain difference lies among the functions performed by the mangers and leaders to make
their employees work within the Unilever. The differences have been described below:
Managers Leaders
 Set objectives within the organization  Provide directions within team
 Communicate policies to the leaders  Plays a role of implementing the ideas
into reality
 Provide directions to the group of
people or employees.
 Leaders focus on people.
 Produce the information for the
betterment of the firm.
 Their function is to inspire the
employees to work
 Do planning within the establishment  They converse and manipulate the
employees to job according to the
strategies.
In context of Unilever Plc. the managers set standards for the employees to perform their
tasks and the leaders within the firm helps them to encourage well-organized interpersonal
announcement talent in order to get the employment complete by the workforce according to the
set principles by the executive within the organization (Posylaieva, Sherstiuk and Posylaiev,
2019). The differentiated role of managers and leaders in Unilever marks in the enlargement of
the firm as the everyday jobs are separate out and execute in proper way.
2. Examination of illustration of the responsibility of a leader and the purpose of manager
applied in dissimilar situational context
The functions of managers and the role of leaders make the work within the establishment
towards the desired direction in order to fulfil the objectives of the firm. There are various
functions of management within the firm and diverse approach of management which enables
the employees in the appropriate implementation of the functions of organization. Unilever Plc.
is currently facing the situations of experiencing low sales amount and under such circumstances,
the effective performance of the utility of the supervision and the talent of leaders have been

presented. Such strategies are able to handle the cost of production as well as their marketing and
thus help to augment the sales volume and income of the firm. There are various presumptions of
administration which implicit with the directional skills that make the corporation cultivate its
actions (Rossinskaya, Saveleva and Rokotyanskaya, 2019). The functioning administration
department of Unilever Plc. spotlight on the supervision theories and unite the efforts of leaders
to scratch downwards the cost of construct. The contemporary theory of management is applied
by Unilever Plc. in order to deal with the current situations due to which the mangers of the
organization plan strategies such as selection of suppliers who can provide the raw material at
effective prices so that the final cost of the production of goods and services also gets reduced.
The leaders in Unilever Plc. use their attribute to inspire their workers to accept advancement of
expertise in order to reduces the cost of development and get rid of confrontation to modify
among their workforce through building surroundings which promotes the belief level with the
help of effectual announcement skills.
Management by purpose is the theory which meeting out on the mutual efforts of the
managers and the workforce for the completion of goals. The managers work with the employees
and set standards for them to perform. Apart from this, the leaders are responsible to hand over
the responsibility to workers so that they are enthused to achieve any chore.
Classical supervision theory has been useful within the Unilever where the directors prepare the
policies to increase the productivity. The managers developed the strategy in which the efforts of
the staff members and management are continuously improve the manufacturing actions and the
participative approach of guidance of leader useful so that the contribution from the labour and
director in conclusion related to the reduced production cost so that the firm is able to sell their
products at lower prices and enhance their sales volume. According to the behavioural theory
within the Unilever, the managers follow the policies which have been prepared on the basis of
skills and talents of employees and leaders use traditional style of leadership where the policies
are described to employees in an effective manner (Boyes, Ellul and Irwin, 2017).
Contingency theory focuses on the transformation in scheme according to the change in the
state of affairs. The leaders play a vital role as they persuade the workers to carry alterations
within the process in order to meet the confrontation faced by the firm within the marketplace.

3. Different theories and models of approach
Situational leadership describes the type of management where the method of management
depends upon the expertise and abilities of the workforce for who the influencers are required to
manipulate for the accomplishment of the assignment. The business organization of Unilever Plc
can be precious with this kind of guidance as the leaders agree to different leadership techniques
according to diversified circumstances. The current condition of the firm where the company
facing the subject of less amount of sales, thus situational leadership plays a chief role in the
arise condition.
Systems leadership applied within the Unilever Plc, the role of the leaders played that they
control the working of the workers and converse the exact situations of the firm and make their
workforce to labour as per the desires and requirements of the organization. Unilever Plc wants
to make modifications in the process of the firm and put into practice those schemes for the
fulfilment of Kaizen and other requirements of the situation and allow their employees to
improve the activities within the firm that are related to the manufacturing of goods and services
(Önen, Nsair and Kuchta, 2019).
According to the contingency theory, the leader plays an important role by influencing the
employees to bring certain necessary changes in order to meet the challenges within the market
place. The managers of Unilever considered that the less amount of sales are the reason of
enhanced cost of goods and other competitive firms’ availability within the market space. Thus,
the necessary changes within the production department has been implemented due to which the
cost of production decreases and thus they are able to reduce the price of goods and services. The
activities have been adopted within the firm which reduces the prices of the raw material and
equipments received from the suppliers and hence they change the policies in the production and
operations department of the company.
4. Key advances to operations supervision and the responsibility played by executives and
leaders
Approaches has been utilised in order to understand the operation management in better
way. These approaches are highly helpful in analysing the situations within the firm and take
actions accordingly. The approaches are:

 Total quality management: TQM is the procedures in which the assignments and
activities are supervise in the considerable manner to make sure that they are constant at a
stage which will please the needs of the organization. Its requirement is to spotlight on
the improvements, the quality and the performances of all the occupation that sprint
within each and every subdivision and make sure that there is a equilibrium with each
procedure. People involvement, continual improvements, strong leadership, effective
decision making, suppliers’ relation, management and focusing on customers are the
seven primal principles of TQM. The role of leaders played within this approach is that
their aim is to remain dedicated and concerned within the subdivision so that they are
able to provide specific plan to support the firm (Singh and Hong, 2020). The leaders
develop the procedures by the presentation and dimension of each execution period.
While the role of managers played are focusing on both internal as well as external
customers. They guarantee the suppliers are treated as business partners and thus provide
their complete focus on improvement of process of construction.
 Just in time: This process states the enhancement of the effectiveness of the ways in
which an organization can decrease their wastage by accommodating merchandise which
will only be mandatory in the construction procedure. It ensures that the procedure is in
position and tolerates the management to support the business in lower down their
storage space and only see goods that are needed at definite point of period. Within the
approach the role of manager highlights that they are responsible to order goods at the
right time from known suppliers also ensure that the right amount of quantity has been
ordered. They also have to maintain good relationships with the suppliers along with
make sure that they supply the accurate amount. While the role of leaders ensures that all
goods will be utilised throughout the production process. They also have to ensure that
they are responsible for inform all the employees related to their roles and monitor all the
equipments utilised in production process.
 Six sigma: This is a system which looks at unlike task that will allow the organization to
remove the imperfections within the services and products offered by the firm. The firms
are able to satisfy their customers up to their maximum by separating the defects from the
advertise which will able to make sure that they find their level-headed growth within the
firm (Roe and et.al., 2017). The leaders of Unilever Plc. invest through training and

resources, recognise and support their employees contributing towards this method.
While the role of managers is to provide support and reviews to employees, shows the
ways through which management can save cost and monitor the implementation of this
approach.
 Continuous development or Kaizen: This approach defines continuous approach where
the improvements made within the firm. This procedure is to remove the wastage from
the business process of Unilever Plc. the role of managers played in the firm with this
approach are they identify the scope of different tasks, make sure that all employees are
aware about the group of people working on Kaizen and measure the success rate using
the Kaizen method. On the other hand, the leaders are responsible for recognizing special
tasks allocate to exacting persons according to their talent, ensure that players payback
from the course along with providing assistance with challenges to their employees.
 Lean theory: This manufacturing process is explained systematic method which works
for the removal of waste within mechanized system. This factor assist the operational
management of Unilever in refining their products quality along with the involvement of
whole labour force as this means engross the complete commerce to make a payment
towards enhanced progression for their clientele. The role of leader within this factor is to
enable their workers to understand their responsibilities and able to supply instructions to
workforce to enhance production level (Taelman and et.al., 2020). While the role of
manager is to analyse effectiveness of products and services along with make sure that no
useful material has been eliminated from the complete procedure.
5. The significance and worth of operations management in achieving company objectives
The importance and value of the operations management are:
 Transfer of raw material into finished goods: This function refers to the assessment of
customers demand according to their desires regarding the products and services. The
organization utilises this information while developing the products in the most
intelligent manner (Sprock, 2018). The final outcome evaluated when the firm is able to
produce high quality of products that are highly acceptable within the market place.
 Monitoring and distribution system: This function is an important factor that describes
that manoeuvre supervision is answerable for the observance of manufacture

development within the commerce. They ensure the suitable allocation of merchandise in
order to attain organizations aims and objectives. With the fulfilment of this function, the
intention to use resources in proper manner will be achieved.
 The design procedure: The procedure of designing a product is an essential function, as
with the effective products the firm are able to meet the customers’ demands and satisfy
their requirements in most appropriate manner (Kral, 2018). This function completes the
design of product and provides services according to the requirements of market people.
 Stock and logistics management: This factor is highly essential for the organization as
without proper logistics, the firm is unable to transfer finished goods and services within
the market space within proper time frame. Being unable to fulfil such kind of demands
decreases the demand of goods and services within the market and thus the competitive
organizations get the advantage of such conditions. Hence, the Unilever focuses on their
inventory management and the way in which they can store their remaining raw material
as well as finished products.
6. The factor within the surroundings that affects operational management and conclusion
building by managers and leaders
There are plentiful features that affect the functioning supervision and choice making within the
Unilever Plc. These issues influence the firm in achieving their goals and objectives. As per
various changes, the negative as well as positive decisions are being taken by the managers and
leaders of the establishment Unilever (Fuxin, Xijin and Wei, 2020). The factors are discussed
below:
 Market trends: Each and every new day more innovative trends are being introduced
within the market. These trends enable the firm to analyse the market properly and helps
in order to identify the demands and desires of the consumers. The market trends if
evaluated in proper manner helps the firm to achieve success in the firm and vice a versa.
 Financial status: The financial position of the Unilever Plc. enables the organizations
managers and leaders to make proper strategies and work towards the appropriate
direction to achieve organizational goals (Schugoreva, Lobanov and Minakov, 2018).
The decisions that are related to the cost of final goods and services offered by the firm to
their customers have been analysed and thus after the complete evaluation, the

investments have been done by the firm that affects their profit margin and cash flow
within the organization.
 Legal and political changes: A legal or political change highly affects the business
organization. As in the pandemic situation, the governments of various countries put
restrictions on the business operations that result in loss of sales within the Unilever.
Here, the role played by the leaders is to predict the future conditions and requirements.
While the role of managers are arranging and managing the resources in most appropriate
manner.
 Technological changes: The technology has been changes each new day as the
generation of new and innovative products increases. These changes have been adopted
by the Unilever Plc. in which the managers and leaders forecast the changes and thus plan
for the future accordingly (Paine, James and Bahaj, 2018).
 Stakeholders: the employees, customers, investors, suppliers etc. are the stakeholders of
the Unilever Plc. The investors are the ones who make investments when they get desired
outcome in terms of profits to be earned.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that the performance of operations management
plays an active responsibility in the firms from the very commence of the manufacture
development to the distribution of goods and services within the market place. Leaders and
managers make sure that they follow principles and must ensure that they are cheering their
employees to complete their assignment efficiently who will result in intensification and
expansion of the industry. This report also described the factors that Unilever have to follow
certain policies in order to operate within the business environment efficiently. The importance
of operational management also had been highlighted with the help of various theories,
approaches, models and values of operations management and thus correct decisions are taken
which enables the firm in their growth and earn profit margins. At the end, the relationship
between a leader and manager has been explained which affects the business overall
environment.

REFERENCES
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