Leadership and Management in Operations

This assignment examines the crucial role of leadership and management in operations, highlighting how different theories contribute to effective product and service delivery. It emphasizes the importance of leaders adapting their roles to various situations to achieve organizational objectives efficiently. The analysis draws upon concepts from operations management, leadership styles, and case studies.

Operation and management

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Role and characteristics and of a leader and manager...........................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P2 Roles and functions of a leader and managers in different situations....................................4
P3. Different theories and models of approach of contingency and situational leadership in the
organization.................................................................................................................................5
P4 Role of leaders in management............................................................................................6
M2 Assessing the strength and weakness of different approaches.............................................8
M3. How leaders and managers improves efficiencies to operational management..................8
D1 Evaluating the different theories and approaches to leadership............................................9
P5 Explaining the significance of value of operation management in achieving business
objectives.....................................................................................................................................9
P6 Assessing the factor within the business environment that impact upon operational
management and decision making process ..............................................................................10
D2 Critically evaluate application of operation management and factors which impact the wider
business environment................................................................................................................11
M4 Analysing the way through different factor affect the business environment....................11
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................12
REERFENCE.................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Operation management is an area of management which is related with designing and controlling
the process of production and redesigning of product and services. The main operation function
required management of both the strategic and day to day production of goods and services. The
present report is based on Marks and spencer organization which is one of the leading
organizations in United Kingdom. The present report covers, the roles that leader and manager
play within an organization is explained. Along with this, the way leader and manger play
improve efficiency of operational management is evaluated.
TASK1
P1 Role and characteristics and of a leader and manager
A Leader is the person who increases the behavior and ability of work of the group
efforts towards achievement in a given situation of specified goals.
Manager is the person who has got traits of leader in him. It controls all the functions of
management (Slack, 2015).
Characteristics of Leader Manager
Leader helps employee to learn new things, and skills that they required in their work of
an organization. In marks and spencer, the leaders are great orators. A manager defines the
effective way of determine the company destination and goals of a group. Those are
characteristics are;
Flexibility- The work leader in the company is not planned, they have to take important
decision in short time. Managers have to be able to change focus, course and goals of employees
in the organization. The leaders and managers of mark and Spenser’s are very flexible to take
decisions in the uncertain situations (Krajewskil, Ritzman and Malhotra, 2013).
Communication- Good communication is very important for the leader and manager. The
leader who communicates well can share their thoughts they can easily say their feelings to their
employees and they can also define very well about their company’s traits and opportunities.

Responsible- A good leader and manager have to be responsible about their work and
have to be accountable of their work. In company if in a situation if there is something going
wrong the manager and leader have responsibility to accept this.
Roles of Leader and Manager of a Company
Leader’s role is to communicate with the employees and the groups of a company or an
organisation in other hand the managers roll is to communicate with the leaders. In the Mark and
Spencer’s, the role of a manager and leaders are very well defined their work (Zurich, 2011).
Leader is the person whose role is to define employee’s instruction and guidance to a
group of individuals. In Mark and Spencer’s managers defines leaders their roles for work with
the employees.
Managers manage the flow of work in an appropriate manner. This company leader’s
capabilities to run a successful store and control the retail head office and franchisees stores in
different countries.
M1
According to the traits theory the leader’s role is to analyzing mental, physical and social
characteristic in order to influence understanding their work in company. Many studies of traits
theory analyzed the trait among existing leaders in their responsibilities (Peng and Lai, 2012).
The contingencies theory defines the two types of leader’s roles in a relationship in a task
oriented. In relationship oriented the leader must achieve their task and objectives and goals by
holding good relationship with the group of the company (Subramanian and Ramanathan, 2012).
In task oriented the leader have its prime concern to carry out the all task and activities of the
company take himself. The managers make the decision to identify the problem, analyses the
different alternatives and select the best alternative in situational approaches.

TASK 2
P2 Roles and functions of a leader and managers in different situations
Roles and functions of a leader and managers in different situations
Function of a manager in different situation- the manager’s sells the decision will identify
the problem and identify the subordinator to implement the decision (Sheu, 2010). Present the
ideas and invite the questions situation of the decision allow the subordinate to raise the question
on the decision that manger took himself in order to implement the solution of the problem. The
situation of present a tentative decision that is subject to change the manager change the decision
according to the subject and that process the decision will not be the one side the subordinator is
also the part of it, but the final decision will be taken by managers of Mark and spencer’s.
Role of Leader
In this company Leaders have to act as advocates for the change at their different level in
the organisation these are the representative to carp the change in front of their peers, the hire
ups. In the company, the leader has to be supportive in the uncertain situation to effectively solve
the problem. The failure of a task of the employees the leader plays a role of motivator to
motivate the employees of the organisation and they provide the motivation to the change the
situation of the company. Leaders hold the people of the company accountable for the change
and upload the agreement and make sure that others do the same (Talk, 2016). They don’t get the
employee with not changing and work to understand the underlying reasons so they can remove
optical of the organization. A effective leader recognize that change cannot happens unless they
fulfil the role that only authority can and it support and clarifies the role need to fill in different
situation.
P3. Different theories and models of approach of contingency and situational leadership in the
organization.
According to the Marks & Spencer contingency theories states that the effectiveness of
the leadership depends on the situation and there are various factors which affect these theories.
These factors could be nature of task, type of job being done, personality of the leader, etc. It is

based on the assumptions that there is an interaction between the leader and its group and that the
people tend to follow the leader.
Some of the important elements of the contingency theory:-
1. Leadership Style :-
Task-Directed :- Main motive is to complete the task and ensure that the task is completed
within time and with desired performance.
Human Relations :- It deals with achieving good interpersonal relations so as to maintain a
good environment among the members .
2. Situational Variables :-
Leader’s Position :- this means that how influential a leader is . How much control he has
control over the organization i.e. over hiring, discipline, promotions, salary increments etc.
Leader – Member Relations: the amount of trust, confidence and respect subordinates have
in their leader.
Implications of Contingency approach
Following are the implications of contingency model :
1. Leadership style is not appropriate in all situations.
2. To achieve organizational effectiveness, leaders are selected according to the situation
and amount of pressure one can handle in a particular situation.
3. Leaders who are task-oriented have the strongest positive effect.
4. Relationship – motivated leaders work well in large groups.
5. Leader effectiveness depend on various factors like situation, type of task, amount of
pressure one can handle in a tough situation, interpersonal relationship with the co-
members.
Criticism of Contingency approach
The contingency theory has some serious weaknesses. Its interpretation has been changed in an
arbitrary fashion, and the current interpretation is speculative. Following are the criticism: -
1. The model does not explain how a leader’s performance affects the performance of the
group.
2. The lack of explicit leader behaviors and intervening variables limit the utility of the
approach.

3. Selection of leader to fit the situation does not always satisfy the requirements.
4. Any changes made in the task structure should be guided by the concern for efficient use
of workforce and resources.
5. Situational Leadership style:
This strategy helps the leaders to take stock of their subordinates and set the goals and
objectives of Marks and Spencer. Situational leadership is the best fit model which helps the
organisation to increase the customer base and build rapport. It also helps in bringing out the best
product among the people. Further, this style is flexible and helps the organisation to adapt
changes according to the changing needs of the market. This leadership style also helps the
organisation to know the choice and demands of their customers.
6. System Leadership style:
In this style the leader is innovative and motivates its team members to increase their
performance. In this, the manager do not affect the vision of the company but it manages
different employees which affect the performance of Marks and Spencer. The transactional
leaders motivate its employees to achieve their task on time which helps the organisation to
accomplish their long term goals and profits.
P4 Role of leaders in management
According to Marks and Spencer the Role of leaders in management with respect to
Operations management are as follows:
Communication: Leadership is influencing others, and this cannot be achieved by
effective communication. Communication is one of most important factors in the operations so
as to explain the workforce as to what exactly is to be done, understand the problems of
members, communicate with the so to work effectively.
Representative of the organization: A leader is the representative of the enterprise who represents
the organization at various platforms for e.g. seminars, conferences, board meetings etc.
Integrates and reconciles personal goals with the organizational goals: A leader helps in
reconciling/ integrating the personal goals of the employees with the organizational goals. His
role is to co-ordinate the efforts of the people towards a common purpose and thereby achieving
the organizational goals and objectives. This can be done only if he can influence people around
him and get willing co-operation and urge to accomplish the objectives.

Sharing Burden of Risk: Leader’s role is to motivate employees by sharing the risk with them.
Through coaching, a leader can encourage an employee to set goals and work efficiently and
effectively.
Motivating and Caring: another role of leader is to motivate his employees and show concern
whenever his employees have problems and help them in resolving their issues.
As a guide: One of the most important role is to be a guide to his subordinates. A leader must
possess the three-dimensional traits in him. He should a friend by sharing the feelings, opinions
and desires with the employees. He can be a philosopher by utilizing his intelligence and
experience and thereby guiding the employees as and when time requires. He can be a guide by
supervising and communicating the employees the plans and policies of top management and
secure their co-operation to achieve the goals of a concern. At times, he can also play the role of
a counsellor by counselling and a problem-solving approach. He can listen to the problems of the
employees and try to solve them.
Key approaches of operation management are as follows:
Dynamic approaches:
It helps the organisation to look for business strategies which can fulfil the needs and
requirements of the customers. Further, it also measures the impact of external environment to
determine its weak areas which helps them to focus on developing their lacking area.
System approach:
System approach includes open and closed system. In open system, the organisation receives
various technical equipments, employees work and other resources. In this, the inputs are
transformed into outputs which are the effective products. Open system collects all the
information and helps them to make effective system. Closed system is independent by the
environment of the organisation. It helps the organisation by collecting market policies and
strategies of other companies.
Functions of manager:
Planning:
The main function of the leader is to choose their objectives, communicate them to their
subordinates. To accomplish desired results effective planning is very necessary to be done.
Organising:

The manger has to organise all the important resources which are essential for their
employees and organisation to achieve their target.
Leading:
The manager sets various rules, give orders and leads its staff members to increase their
productivity.
Controlling:
Controlling is very necessary to coordinate all the activities and to ensure that all the
functions of the organisation are done in prescribed manner.
Following roles of the leaders help an organization work effectively and efficiently and help in
achieving desired performances and goals.
M2 Assessing the strength and weakness of different approaches
There is various type of approaches that is contingency leadership, situational leadership etc each
approach has some strength and weakness which are as follows:
Situational leadership: this approach is very supportive for an organization in order to influence
employees toward the work. Further this approach is practical and easily understood by manager
of M&S Ltd. Its strength is that leader change their way of performing as per different situation.
On the other hand, its weakness is that sometime employees feel pressure of work under this
approach.
Contingency leadership style: In this style leader of M&S Ltd involve its employees in decision
making process. Strength of this leadership style is that leader motivates employee for working
with more efforts which lead to increase in production. While its weakness is that all power and
authority is in leader hand so it direct employees toward the work and not involve with them in
their work.
M3. How leaders and managers improves efficiencies to operational management
According to marks and spencer efficiencies can improved to operational management by
adopting different methods in the management by adopting different methods to improve the
working conditions and working environment of the organizational culture and organizations
people including higher level to lower level employees to a greater extent. Efficiency is the total
effectiveness durability and viability towards work .by adopting certain methods leaders and
managers are helpful to improve efficient operational management. These methods include

motivating factors, self-awareness among employees and organizational culture, self-regulation,
empathy, social skills, inspiration, charisma and intellectual and individual consideration.
Self-awareness means having a wholehearted perception of one’s feelings, strong point, weak
points, requirements, demands and expectations. It includes honest people self-dependence with
others and themselves. Self-understanding includes self-understanding of motives, thoughts,
ideas and feeling. It includes highly professional and educated people.
Motivation means emotional intelligence that the leader has a great desire to achieve than to than
to obtain a good salary, impressive title or status. By motivating employee’s managers and
leaders play a vital role in the organization with their roles and responsibilities towards the
organization. By appreciating employees for their outstanding performance in the organization is
another important trait of motivation.
Charisma is another important characteristic to improves efficiency, it provides vision and sense
of mission, instils pride and gains respect and trust. Inspiration communicates high expectations,
uses symbols to focus efforts, and expresses important purposes in simple way. These are the
methods used by leaders and managers to influence operational management and improves
efficiency.
D1 Evaluating the different theories and approaches to leadership
Theories and approaches of leadership is as follows:
 Trait theory of leadership. As per accordance to this theory it has been evaluated that this
theory is based on different characteristics in which some lead to failure and some are
successful. Further it assists in measuring the effectiveness of leadership (Liden, Liu and
Song, 2016.). Leader under this theory have capability to inspire employees for achieving
goal on time. Further it is evaluated that leader work with full motivation and self-
confident.
 Behavioural trait theory of leadership: it is a theory in which leader is characterized on
the basis of its behaviour. This type of leader at M&S Ltd support in making effective
decision which assist organization to accomplish goal and objective on time. It is
evaluated that leader of this style are best predictor and encourage team member for
achieving target.

P5 Explaining the significance of value of operation management in achieving business
objectives
Operation management play crucial role at M&S Ltd in order to make high quality products and
services. further operation management support in increasing the sale and profit of M&S Ltd.
Through this company can easily measure the present demand of customer in order to meet their
expectation. Elements of operation management are very important for carrying out the
production process in appropriate manner. For example, flexibility, quality and speed etc. this all
elements are required to keep in mind by production department at the time of making product
and services. Moreover, there are different valuable concepts of operations management which
are required for achieving organizational goal and objective. M&S Ltd operation management
system is not much effective which become barrier for delivering high quality product and
services to customer. Further this department not only deal with external activities but also with
internal activities. Operation management department required to make proper coordination with
different department such as sales, customer relationship management etc. this all department
provide information which support in carrying out production activities (McNeil, Frey and
Embrechts, 2015.). Customer relationship management department help in collecting information
regarding the view and opinion of customer for the product and services. on the other side
information gather from marketing department assist manager of production department to
modify product and services as per the current demand of customer. Operational management
assist in enhancing the productivity of M&S Ltd. And decrease the cost of production. If
productivity of organization is review than it helps in assessing the performance of employees.
Leader of operation management make sure that all scared resources used effectively without
wasting them. Further it makes sure that workers who work under operation management must
be highly skilled and possess technical knowledge in order to make high quality product and
services. operation manager role to ensure that all workers work under safe working place so that
they not get harmed at the time of working.
It is evaluated that leaders and mangers are very necessary for M & S to regulate their
well functioning. Leaders and managers can increase their efficiencies by increasing their skills.
They have to focus on the way in which they lead their employees because effective leadership
is very necessary to guide the employees in right direction. Further, they can increase their
effeciency by taking trainings from their senior manager which helps them to understand the

ways in which they can increase their interaction with their employees. Further, trainings also
helps them to increase their productivity by understanding the long term goals and objectives of
M & S.
P6 Assessing the factor within the business environment that impact upon operational
management and decision-making process
There are different internal and external factor which impacted the leader and manager decision
making process of M&S Ltd.
Internal factor;
 Financial variable: Most of the function of operational management are depend on the
financial aspects. For instance, if M&S Ltd does not have enough finance to repair or by
new technology then firm cannot make good quality product and services (Mendis,
Muttaqi and Perera, 2014). this lead to impact the decision of manager as well as leader
of operation management.
Internal relation: It comprises of investor, owner, workers and managers of an organization. If
there is strong coordination and proper communication between each of them, then manager of
M&S Ltd can quickly and effective decision. Further, strong relation between leader and
employees support in making effective decision which lead to attain operational goal and
objective on time.
Value system: M&S Ltd organization have its own value system under which employees,
manager and leader work together in order to achieve goal and objectives (Five simple ways to
improve warehouse efficiency, 2017). For leader, it is necessary to direct its team member
toward the value system in order to make appropriate decision in any situation.
External factor:
Supplier: Supplier paly significant role for M&S Ltd, as it supplies raw material to them on right
time in order to make products and services. therefore, it is necessary for M&S Ltd to make
proper coordination with supplier so that they get raw material on right time at right price.
Competitor: Competitor of M&S ltd. are those who make similar type of product and services
for customers. This impact the decision of manager and leader, for this purpose manager need to
make sure that it used advance technology for making innovative product and services in respect
to gain competitive advantage. M&S organization required to adopt new technology so that it
can make product as per the requirement of customers.

PESTLE analysis:
Political factors:
Political factors include government policies which directly influence the business operations of
M & S. The organisation has to develop its business by following all the rules of the government
to increase their productivity.
Economic factors:
Economic slowdown of UK has adversely affected the profit margin of the organisation
because major portion of its business is dependent on the customers of UK.
Social factors:
Social factors includes the culture, beliefs and practises of the people. It is not possible
for the organisation to make products according to the different culture of the people.
Technological factors:
The organisation has provided online services to provide the best customer services and
help them to access their product in their home. The company has make use of all the technical
equipments to increase their sale.
Legal factors:
This include all legal laws and legislations which the company has to follow so that they
can regulate their well functioning. Legal policies helps the organisation to prevent from legal
issues.
Environment factors:
Environment factors like floods, landslides etc. adversely affects the sale of the
organisation as their management disturbs by these natural calamities and they have to suffer
great loss in their business.
D2 Critically evaluate application of operation management and factors which impact the wider
business environment
It is critically evaluated that manager of operation management need to monitor the quality of
product and services regularly so that customer not switch to other company products Further all
the new machine and equipment used for making product and services need to repair on time so
that employee not get harmed by them at the time of working. Employees need to provide
training and development facility so that they can handle new technology effectively. Further it
is critically evaluated that leader need to provide proper guidance so that they can work with full

efforts in respect to meet goals and objectives. Apart from this all negative factor need to
monitor and replace so that company not get impacted by such factors at the time of carrying out
operation management functions.
M4 Analysing the way through different factor affect the business environment
There are different factors which affect the business environment of M&S ltd. some of the
factor that is political factor which impact organizational sale as well as profitability. If
government charge high tax rate then company cannot make profit. Furthermore, if the
organization not used advance technology then it also impacts the organization performance
because company unable to make innovative product and services for its customer. It is analysed
that the cited organization required to adopt new technology in order to make innovative and
high-quality product for its customers (Five Roles a Leader Needs to Play, 2012.). In addition to
this, taste and preference of customer also impact organization sale and profits. M&S need to
conduct market research for identifying the needs and demand of its customer.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that leader and manager play significant role
within an organization. Operational management play important role in an organization as it
makes effective product and services for achieving organizational goal and objective. Different
theories of leadership and management support organization management in making high quality
products and services. Further, it can be concluded that, in different situation different role is
played by leader in an organization in order to meet the goals on times.

REERFENCE
Books and journal
Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K., 2013. Operations management: Processes
and supply chains (Vol. 1). New York: Pearson.
Liden, R., Fu, P., Liu, J. and Song, L., 2016. The influence of CEO values and leadership on
middle manager exchange behaviors: a longitudinal multilevel examination. Nankai
Business Review International, 7(1), pp.2-20.
McNeil, A. J., Frey, R. and Embrechts, P., 2015. Quantitative risk management: Concepts,
techniques and tools. Princeton university press
Mendis, N., Muttaqi, K. M. and Perera, S., 2014. Management of battery-supercapacitor hybrid
energy storage and synchronous condenser for isolated operation of PMSG based variable-
speed wind turbine generating systems. IEEE Transactions on smart grid. 5(2). pp. 944-953.
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.
Sheu, J.B., 2010. Dynamic relief-demand management for emergency logistics operations under
large-scale disasters. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation
Review. 46(1). pp.1-17
Slack, N., 2015. Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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.
Talk, O.M., 2016. Operations management.
Zurich, L.B., 2017. Service Operations and Management.
Online
Five Roles a Leader Needs to Play, 2012. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.corpmagazine.com/executives-entrepreneurs/expert-advice/five-roles-a-
leader-needs-to-play/> [Accessed on 14 April 2017].
Five simple ways to improve warehouse efficiency, 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.cips.org/supply-management/opinion/2015/august/five-simple-ways-to-
improve-warehouse-efficiency/> [Accessed on 14 April 2017].