Operation and Management: Leader, Manager Roles and Theories

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the roles of leaders and managers within the context of operation management. It begins by defining and comparing the distinct responsibilities of leaders and managers, highlighting their differing approaches and focuses. The report then examines how these roles shift and adapt in various organizational situations, emphasizing the importance of interpersonal relationships, information management, and decision-making processes. Furthermore, it delves into different leadership theories and models, including situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency leadership, explaining their core concepts and practical applications. The report also addresses the key approaches of operation management and the impact of leaders and managers on achieving business objectives. Finally, it explores how leaders and managers influence operation management and the decision-making process, providing a well-rounded overview of leadership and management principles.

Running Head: Operation and Management
Operation and Management
Name
Institution Name

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Contents
Definition and comparison of roles of a leader and a manager....................................................................3
The roles of a leader and a manager in different situations..........................................................................5
Different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, Systems leadership and
contingency.................................................................................................................................................6
The key approaches of operation management and the roles of leaders and managers..............................10
Importance of operation management to achieve business objectives.......................................................12
The factors of leaders and managers that put impact upon the operation management and in decision
making process..........................................................................................................................................14
References.................................................................................................................................................16

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Definition and comparison of roles of a leader and a manager
Leader: A leader is the one who motivates the employees. In every aspect of a given task, a
leader takes all the responsibilities and help the employees or the workers of the organization in
an effective way. It is to be said that a leader of an organization (Moore, & Williams, 2011) takes
all the responsibilities on his or her shoulder and helps to achieve the organizational target. A
leader leads the teams to complete any task. The leaders also set good examples for the
employees. These examples can be considered as the paths of work and the workers follow that
particular path. It makes the job easier for the employees, and they are satisfied with the
servitude of the leader. The employee satisfaction is maintained in this way.
Manager: In an organization there can be many managers for a different department. The jobs of
the managers can be explained in many ways depending on the different section of the works.
The main task of a manger is to maintain the organizational environment. They are the ones who
takes the jobs and divide them among the employees. There are many departments like financial
department, working department, management department (Nomination of Elaine C. Duke,
2009), etc. They are considered to be the main persons of the organization. They hold the
positions just after the authority of the organization. It is to be said that depending on the work
distribution of the mangers of the organization, the leaders play their roles.
Comparison
The comparison between the leaders and the managers can be explained through various aspects.
The comparisons are as follows:
 The managers have employees, such that the managers of the organization do everything
concerning the presence of the employees of the organization. The tasks are divided

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among the employees by the managers and they wait for the outcomes whereas the
leaders help the employees to complete a particular task given by the manager. It can be
firmly said that the leaders have followers rather than employees. The employees of the
organization are the one who can be considered as the followers where it comes to the
point of view of a leader. It is so because the leaders lead the employees all the way
through to complete a particular task.
 The managers mainly want the given task to be completed by the given deadline.
According to the managers if any changes are needed in the organizational environment
(Zhong, & House, 2012) then it must be done by the employees only, but the leaders, in
this case, helps the employees to make the required changes in the organization. The
leaders take all the responsibilities to help the employees of the organization. It is to be
said that the leaders are the ones for whom the organizational environment is maintained
and the employees are satisfied.
 The managers of the organization give good ideas whereas the leaders of the organization
implement those ideas in order to complete the given task.
 The managers of the company give the direction to the groups of the employees, and the
leaders of the organization create their teams.
 Managers want a given task to be completed in the given time. They are focused towards
their tasks all the time. But the leaders make all the employees make focused towards the
job. It makes the job easier for the employees as all the employees are focused at a time
towards their jobs.
 The mangers take the credit when a job is completed, but the leaders take the
responsibility to complete that particular job.

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These are the main points that can differ a leader from a manager. A manager may be the
main person of the company, but the leader is the one who helps the manager to be succeeded
in the field.
The roles of a leader and a manager in different situations
An organization mat faces different kinds of the situation while working on a particular project.
It is to be said that the managers and the leaders have different roles to play in order to handle
different kinds of situation. The managers mainly have the situations like interpersonal
relationship (Weinstein, 2014), managing information and decision-making process.
 The managers are mainly concerned about the starting stage and the final stage of a
particular job. In the middle stages where the work is in progress, the mangers don't have
many things to do.
 In the initial stages, they take care of the interpersonal relationship among the employees
of the organization; they also take care of the information that is needed to complete a
particular job.
 The information is mainly provided by the managers of the organization as they hold the
key position in the organization.
 Lastly, they are the main persons of the organization who take part in the decision
making process. There are various decisions in the organization that must be taken
depending on the situations of the organization (Hernez-Broome, McLaughlin, & Trovas,
2009).

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The leaders, in this case, have a huge role to play. They are the one who takes all the
responsibility in order to complete a particular task. It means that the leaders are the ones
who are active during the task is in progress.
 It is obvious that the idea of creating an interpersonal relationship is given by the
managers. But the leaders are the ones who create the relationship among the employees
(Liu, 2010). They are the one who makes the organizational environment perfect for the
employees. The conflicts are avoided, and the work flow is maintained by the leaders
only.
 After taking the information from the managers, the leaders capture the information.
They give all kinds of supports and suggestions to the employees to implement the given
information in the ongoing task. The leaders make the implementation easier for the
workers by providing all kinds of necessary information.
 In the field of decision-making process, the leaders play active roles because they are the
ones who inform the authority or the mangers that changes are needed. There are various
places in the tasks or in the organization where the changes must be done. These crucial
information about the change is mainly provided by the leaders, and after getting the
information sometimes the leaders play an active role in the decision-making process
(Decision making process, 2013).
Different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, Systems leadership
and contingency
There are different theories that redefine the facts of leadership in a different way. It is to be said
that the theories can be divided into many parts depending on the different process of leadership
(Gmelch, Hopkins, & Damico, 2011). The theories are as follows,

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Great man theory: This theory was mainly invented in the 19th century. The historian Thomas
Carlyle made a comment on the great men or the heroes saying that the history of the world is
nothing except the biographies of great men and heroes. According to the point of view of
Thomas, a particular leader is the one who is gifted with all the uniqueness and qualities which
have the ability to capture the attraction of the people. They are the one who can lead people to
become successful in life. In the early stages the leadership was considered as a quality that is
associated with males and that is the reason why this theory ids called the great man theory. But
as the days progressed, with the emergence of many great women the theory was recognized as
the great person theory. The main conclusion of the theory is that some people are born with
many qualities and uniqueness (Dalton, 2015), and they are the one who leads people in the
future in different stages of life. This theory says that the leaders are the ones who assume all the
power and lead the people to achieve their success in the path of life. Moreover, it is added that a
leader is a hero who accomplishes all the goals against all the odds for his or her follower. The
leaders are the ones who share their characteristics with their followers to make them eligible to
survive any kinds of situations.
Situational Leadership: This form of leadership is mainly formed by Dr Paul Hersey in the late
stages of the 1960s. This leadership model is mainly based on the relationship between the
leaders and the followers and it is served as the framework to analyse every single situation that
is mainly based on,
 The amount of guidance and direction a leader mainly gives.
 The amount of emotional support that a leader gives.
 The readiness of the leader to perform in any situations.

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Moreover, the Situational leadership is mainly demonstrated by four core, common and critical
leadership competencies (Gardstrom, 2014). These are,
 Understanding the situation of the task where the leadership is needed.
 Adapting the situation and the environment of work perfectly.
 Making all the necessary communication among the employees and the managing
department of the organization so that the organizational target can be easily achieved.
 Making all advanced movement that suits the environment of the organization (Awards
for improving the coastal environment, 2007).
Lastly, it can be said that Situational Leadership stresses flexibility and the simplicity in
execution, can make leaders in the organisation with all the necessary tools to navigate the
demands skilfully in the increasingly global market. This leader is mainly made to deal with
different circumstances in order face any kinds of challenges to survive in today's work
environment.
System leadership: System leadership can be considered as the professional leadership. This
type of leadership is mainly done based on the system of the organization that was set initially. In
other words, this type of leadership follows the exact path of the system of the organization. The
employees and the workers of the company follow the rules and the regulations of the path. The
system leadership can be categorised into two parts like, collaborative and crosses boundaries-
professional, organizational and virtual. This makes the leaders go beyond the limitations and the
authority gives all the responsibilities and the permission to do anything that will help the
organization in a perfect way. The great system leadership requires a particular mind set and a

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way of thinking about and approaching the leadership roles. This aspect is often noticed in the
characteristics of a leader through the following,
 The personal core values- It defines the role of a leader in the field of taking risks.
 The way of perceiving- It says about the ability of the leader and the way the leaders take
all the necessary requirement from the outside and implement those data in the
organizational work.
 The thinking and analysis- This shows the performance of the leaders (Neale, Spencer-
Arnell, & Wilson, 2011) and the way they think to complete a particular job. The
analysing power of the leader is also measured in this way. At the end of everything, the
result shows everything.
 Ability to relate to others-It says about the ability of the leaders and the way they relate
themselves to the other employees of the organization.
Contingency leadership: The overall leadership theories suggest that a particular leader can be
effective for a particular situation only. The leaders are not effective in the different kinds of
situation. In other words the contingency theory proposes that effective leadership is contingent
on factors that are independent of an individual leader. This theory mainly predicts that effective
leaders are the ones whose personal traits mainly match the needs of the situation in which they
find themselves. Fielder's contingency model of leadership effectively focuses on the interaction
of leadership style and the situation. In the later stages, he described three relevant aspects of the
situation leadership like the quality of the leader's relationship with the others, the conclusion of
the structure of their leadership, the leader's amount of formal authority.

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The key approaches of operation management and the roles of leaders and managers
The key approaches to an operation management can be measured through various stages of
operation. The stages are as follows,
 Inputs and claimants: The inputs from the external environment may include the people
of the organization. This also can include the capital and the managerial skills as well as
technical knowledge and skills. Also the employees of the organization can make
demands on the enterprise. For examples, the employees may want higher pay, job
security and many more benefits. On the other hand the consumer may want more
products with greater quality in an affordable price. The suppliers may claim that their
products must be sold more and the stake holders might want a better return on their
deposited money. Not only that, the stake holders also want to make their invested money
more secured. The government may want the organization to be with in the boundary of
their rules and regulations. The other claimants that can be made to the enterprise is
financial claimants, labour union may also claim for their position in the company. Even
the competitors may claim for fair play.
 The management transformational process: It is to be said that the managers of the
organization must be eligible and expert enough to convert all the inputs to a proper
output. The transformational process can be viewed from different point of view. Starting
from the process of distributing the jobs to the end of collecting the desired result, the
management must play transformational role in order to achieve the best outcomes. It is
to be said that the management department of the organization musty take all the
responsibilities in order to construct the inter-personal relationship, information
management and decision managing process. The planning organizing and the staffing

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and the leading part must be checked every now and then in order to control the
organizational environment.
 The communication system: It is one of the most crucial approaches that an operation
management must have. The perfect communication can make a desired job to be done
easily. While working, the employees and the leaders and the managers of the
organization requires perfect communication among them. The manager must check the
progress of the work very often, the leaders must help the employees while working in a
particular job field and the employees must be active enough to work in the organization.
It is to be said that a perfect communication among the employees and the authority of
the organization can make a particular job done easily. The second aspect of the
communication system is to communicate with the external environment. This is helpful
when a particular organization is associated with other companies or with markets of the
outside market. The needs of the customers, the demands in the market, the positive and
negative feedback of a particular product can be known only through perfect
communication system.
The role of a leader in the operation management: It is known that a leader and a manager
are two different but main post in an organization. It is to be said that in the field of operation
management leadership cannot be so much effective, that is why the management is
sometimes still looked upon as an operational piece of the particular organization. The
leaders believe that they should employ managers to manage and leaders to lead. First of all
different views of the organization must be taken and then the role of the leaders must be
briefed to the leaders. As the work progresses and the employees start to go in the top level,
they start to see the operation management as someone else’s responsibility. This is the place

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where it can be concluded that the approach of leaderships fails. There are different views of
operation such as conventional and systematic view. The conventional view sees the
organization chart and the job details. The system view is the responsibility of the leaders as
the leaders are the ones who control the system and the employees of the organization.
Moreover the leaders observe the overall operation in the organization and take part in the
operation along with employees and the workers. The job of the leaders is mainly helping the
employees and the workers of the organization.
The role of a manager: An operation manager has many roles to play inside the
organizational environment. The responsibilities of the managers differ with the company.
There are specific needs of the manager for different company. As it is said that a manager
actually manages the environment of the organization, manages the required information and
takes part actively in the decision making process. The managers moreover manages the day
by day data and the activities of the employees in the organization. There are other
responsibilities and duties for the managers. These are as follows,
 Planning and controlling the change in the organization.
 Managing the quality of work in the organization.
 Researching about the new technologies and alteration methods of a particular work.
 Managing the cost and reviewing the budgets.
 The facilities and the jobs are mainly distributed by the managers of the company.
Importance of operation management to achieve business objectives
First of all it can be said that the operation management’s contribution in the field of any
particular business is worth remembering. The operation management is mainly related with the