Operations Management Research Examples

This assignment presents a collection of research papers from various journals and books focusing on different aspects of operations management. The examples span topics such as quality control in food distribution, qualitative case studies, grounded theory application in inter-firm relationships, project management techniques, smart energy systems, network management, airport development, supply chain planning, and disaster operations management. Additionally, the collection includes papers on military capabilities, apartment facility management, pipeline integrity, and battery-supercapacitor hybrid energy storage.

Understanding and
Leading change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Comparison between different organisation's operations and strategy after adopting
changes...................................................................................................................................1
P2. The way internal and external factors affect the leadership, individual and team behaviour
................................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................6
P3. Evaluating the way to minimize negative impact of change on organisation..................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P4. Barriers which affect the change and affect leadership decision making strategies........7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5. Application of suitable leadership style in organisational context...................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The business organisation need to implement changes in its business operation on regular
basis through which they can compete with their competitors in an effective and efficient
manner. The business environment is complex in nature which brings challenges and difficulties
for an organisation to perform business activities in a proper manner. For this, company should
hire skilled and knowledgeable employees and manager who can implement new and innovative
changes in a successful manner that will bring positive results in the near future. The main
purpose of preparing this project report is to identify that how implementing changes in an
organisational structure will help company in achieving competitive advantage. This project also
covers internal and external factors which affect the leadership skills, team and individual
behaviour either in a negative or positive way. Starbucks and Costa are two such organisations
which are selected for the purpose of preparing this report.
TASK 1
P1. Comparison between different organisation's operations and strategy after adopting changes
Different organisation have their own plans and strategies relating to execute business
operations in smoothly manner. Every organisation has always focusing on adopting new and
innovative changes in order to give tough competitors to their rivals. Before adopting such
changes the company first focus on trends relating to technology, taste and preferences of
targeted customers and also market tactics through which they can implement corrective
measures in order to comply with such current trends and meeting the customer's needs and
requirements. Following are the some brief about two companies and their strategies to gain
competitive advantage in competitive market world.
Starbucks:
Starbucks is UK based company which in engaged in providing hot and cold coffee and other
refreshments across worldwide. As Starbucks carry brand image in competitive market thus has
attain large customers strength (Aslan and Reigeluth, 2013). Actually Starbucks started with
roasted whole beans in the small streets of Washington and later on, they offered wide variety of
products and services. It has operated its business in more than 50 countries and attain over
15000stores in America itself.
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Costa:
It is also similar company which offers roasted beans and Italian coffee in the small street
of London and later on, they reached to more than 31 countries and has attained more than 3400
stores in different regions and countries. They also focus on opening its coffee shop chain in
India as well. The company capture large market share after Starbucks through which they give
tough competition with each other (Yoder-Wise, 2014).
Starbucks and Costa they both have different strategies through which they can implement
changes and compete with each other.
Strategies Starbucks Costa
Competency based strategies The company must adopt an
effective strategy through
which they can compete with
their rivals. For this the
company must clearly analyse
the changes the targeted
customers wants in their
product and accordingly
implement suitable actions.
For example diabetes patients
avoid sugar therefore the
company should offer sugar
free product for them in order
to attract such group of people.
The company is providing
chocolates, tea and other
products through which they
can attract large number of
customers especially young
generation. Their main target is
to analyse the need and
requirements of youth and the
changes they want and
accordingly implement
changes which attracts
maximum no. of people.
Pricing strategies Starbucks generally charges
high prices on their products
due to which they fails of
attract middle and lower level
group of people. Therefore it is
important for them to produce
an affordable product which
The company should adpt
competitive pricing strategy
that will help them in
providing their product at low
prices. The company also
focused on the purchasing
power of customers and
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can purchased by every group
of people. The company can
also make changes in their
menu card on the basis of the
price which will help
customers in deciding the
product they want to buy.
accordingly set prices for their
product. This will help in
achieving competitive
advantage.
Promotion and advertising
tactics
Starbucks has attained good
image and goodwill in
competitive market therefore
they need not to invest much
money in advertising their
quality product. The manager
must think to invest money in
producing quality products
rather than investing in
adopting promotional
strategies. Through this they
can able to attract lower
income of people as well.
As the company is offering
good quality products and
services through which they
get success in attracting large
number of customers. But to
communicate the products and
its benefits the company
should required to invest little
much amount in promotional
strategies so that their tarted
customers reach at their stores.
Process Starbucks stores is almost
everywhere through which
they can provide their quality
products to large number of
people. They also provides
online delivery services which
will attract large number of
targeted customers.
Costa Coffee invite customers
to come in their store and
enjoy their product and
services. The employees
working in their stores need to
have good communication
skills which help in treating
and serving customers in more
appreciate manner. The
process of delivering product
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is that the customers Is order
their product and their
employees serve them on their
table.
Planned change: These change are pre-planned by manger of an organisation which
made during execution of business activities. In order to improve products the manager has
decided earlier to bring some changes in the features in order to add extra value to the product.
This will help company in attracting large number of customers.
Unplanned change: These changes are not pre-decided and made at any time in order to
cope up with the situation occurred due to internal and external factors. Therefore it is required
for company to have skilled and knowledgable manager to perform in an effective way during
emergencies.
P2. The way internal and external factors affect the leadership, individual and team behaviour
Leadership:
It refers to the traits and qualities that an individual have either from birth or developed
through experience. Such individual is called as Leaders. Therefore the company need to have
such employees who attain all leadership qualities through which they can direct their members
to perform in right way in order to achieve organisational goals (Clarke and Persaud, 2011).
Theses qualities help leaders to face challenges and problems which can influence the leadership,
an individual or team which requires changes in an organisation.
Types of leaders:
Proactive leader: He is pen who clearly understand the powers and responsibilities they
have and accordingly motivate its team members to make an effective decision. He has an ability
to solve problems and share vision to its members so that their members can con tribute their
maximum efforts in achieving desired goals,
Reactive: It is one who make decision by itself without collecting any suggestion or
feedbacks from their team members. Any mistake done by team members will get punishment
from leader which bring demotivation among them. Their main aim is to achieve desire target
without considering the interest and behaviour of their team mates.
Internal drivers of change:
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 Implementing changes in advanced technology brings dissatisfaction among employees
through which the leader may find difficulties in convincing them to utilise their
technology in an optimum manner.
 Conducting innovational programs within an organisation help in bringing new and
innovative ideas which need to be convert into action in order to perform work in
profitable manner. use Kottler's theory of change management.
 Following promotional strategies also required to be adopted in order to attract large
number of customers.
 Misuse of available resources due to lack of skilled and knowledgable employees will
also affect the productivity and profitability of company (Overview of Democratic
Leadership Style, 2016).
External drivers of change
Customers: They are the one who play an important role ingrowth and success of an
organisation. Any changes in taste and preferences of customers will bring huge influence in
decision making process of an organisation.
Competitors: They are the on who gives tough competition to an organisation due to
which the company should implement corrective strategies in order to compete with them and
attain strong stable position in competition market world.
Investors: They are the one provides financial help to company through which they can
decide to implement changes in organisational structure. The company must attain good image
and goodwill which attracts lot of investors to invest in their company (Doppelt, 2017).
Technology: It is also play an important role in developing the product which makes
them different as compared to their competitor's product. Implementing advanced and effective
technology help company in adding extra value to the product which maximise the interest of
customers to buy their company's product.
Government: Its rules and regulations are much affected and influence the decision
making process of company. In order to avoid legal consequences and achieve growth for future
period of time, the company need to comply rules and standards implemented by government.
Linkage of leadership with drivers of change
Leader is one who has ability and skills to guide and direct the employees to perform
their work in the rights way that will bring positive result to company. It is important for leader
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to analyse the working environment and find out the needs and requirements of adopted changes
and accordingly focus on selecting appropriate and effective technology which must be utilized
by employees ( Foltin, and Keller, 2012). Conducting training and development programs is also
play beneficial role in improving the skills and knowledge of employees to perform their
delegated role in an effective and efficient manner.
Leadership goals and motive
There are some objective of leadership that to be achieved by leader:
Direction: Leader through communicating ton their members, need to provide direction
and guide them as per the roles and responsibilities assigned to them.
Control: Leader has need to always focus on achieving desired goals by using limited
resources. They are responsible to evaluate the performance of employees and providing an
effective ways to complete task in profitable manner (Suchman, Sluyter and Williamson, 2011).
Authority: Leader should perform their roles and responsibilities in an effective manner
only when an organisation gives full rights and authority which provide freedom to them in order
to complete given tasks in proper manner.
Influence: The interest and behaviour of employees can easily influence by the manager
and leader through getting rewards, compensation, bonus etc. Therefore it is important to
conduct programs where they can provide benefits to them on the basis of their performance.
P3. Evaluating the way to minimize negative impact of change on organisation
Implementing changes in organisational structure will bring positive as well as negative
result for company. Therefore, manager must be required to carefully analyse the changes and
outcomes that they receive after adopting changes. Company needs to form committee and
panels consisting of skills and knowledgeable employees whose main aim is to control and
monitor the risk and focus on converting same into favourable manner. The negative impact on
the performance of an organisation after implementing changes is explained as below:
Employee resistance: An organisation can achieve success and growth when they
continuously adopt change in existing technologies and introduce new effective technology
which help them in operating the business operations in an effective and efficient manner. But,
on the other side, this will bring fear among the employees about their employability. Through
this, the employees feel demotivated and lose their confidence which will decrease their
performance as well. Utilizing change technology will bring difficulties for the employees
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through which they prefer to work manually. Therefore, manager should focus on improving
their knowledge and skills through conducting on-the-job training.
Expenses: Implementing new changes in organisational structure requires huge amount
of funds. Therefore, it is required for company to have financial capable of implementing such
changes. Starbucks carry brand image in competitive market world therefore financial
institutions make trust and reliable on them through which the company can easily raise funds
from them at certain rate of interest. But, for the small companies, it becomes difficult to arrange
funds as they need to first build their brand image and win trust of financial institution after
which they can be able to apply financial institution of granting them loan for a certain period of
interest. There the management of company should assure them to pay their loan amount along
with interest after decided period of time.
Lack of support and failure: Implementing changes in technology may not be supported
by the employees working in an organisation as they don't have enough skills and capabilities to
utilize such technology in an optimum manner. Therefore, the manager of company needs to
conduct training and development programs for them so that they will be willing to support
advanced technology and perform their tasks by using them.
Morale: There are different employees who are having different skills and knowledge
and therefore, implementing changes will easily be adopted by effective employees who but at
the same time less efficient employees feel demotivated as they have lack of knowledge and
skills. Manager also prefers those employees who are capable to work in the changing
environment rather than less efficient workers who will bring dissatisfaction among them.
Therefore, it is responsibility of managers to focus on interest level of each employee and treat
equally in order to achieve organisational goals and objectives.
TASK 2
P4. Barriers which affect the change and affect leadership decision making strategies
Management is held responsible to achieve productivity and profitability of company and
it can be possible only when they analyse the influencing factor which make negative impact on
the business activities. They also need to focus on adopting new changes in the working
environment that will help them in gaining competitive advantage. But due to some barriers, they
found difficulties in bringing positive outcomes after implementing changes. Leaders play an
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important role in eliminating such barriers and bring positive results to company. For example:
motivating employees to work in a team will be a difficult task for a leader as the employee who
attain good position in an organisation may not happy while working with their lower level
employees which maximises the chances of facing negative outcomes. Therefore a leader should
communicate with their employees and conduct motivational programs for them through which
they can perform together. It is also important for a leader to involve their employees in the
decision making process which will help them in making an effective decision. Sometimes, the
employees feel unsafe about their employability as they think after adopting new changes
decreases their importance in an organisation.
Therefore, it is important for a leader to create a platform for the purpose of
communicating their employees regarding benefits they will receive after implementing changes
and also required to collect feedback as well as suggestion from them in order to implement
changes in an effective and efficient manner. Main barriers that will restrict the manager to adopt
new changes in an organisational structure is lack of knowledge of employees about such
change. Thus, it is essentially required for an organisation to recruit skilled and knowledgeable
employees as well as conduct the training sessions for their existing employees in order to
improve capability to work in changing environment in more effective and efficient manner.
The other barrier that affects changes and decision making process is shortage of funds.
Adopting new technology will require huge amount of money in order to implement such
changes in a profitable manner. Therefore, an organisation should first analyse their financial
capability and accordingly, make the business decision. If company attains a positive image and
reputation in the competitive market then it will become easy for them to arrange funds from
various financial institutions such as banks, investors, etc. which help them in providing financial
help in adopting new changes. The manager should also be required to forecast regarding getting
positive outcomes due to implementing such changes otherwise, if they forgot to forecast and if
company will not get any positive results in the near future after implementing changes in
organisational structure then it will become difficult for them to repay loan amount to their
investors, banks, etc. which also make a negative impact on their goodwill and stability in the
competitive market.
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TASK 3
P5. Application of suitable leadership style in organisational context
It is important for an organisation to apply different leadership style on the basis of
business environment which help in achieving desired goals and objectives. So there are various
leadership style described below which need to be followed by company
(Source: Different type of leadership styles, 2017)
Autocratic: This is the leader ship which may adopted by company in case of emergency.
This approach provide full authority and power to leader of company to make an effective
decision solely without facing any interference by the employees. It has pre assumed that leader
is enough capable to formulate corrective steps and actions in order to direct their employees to
perform delegated task (Salmela, Eriksson and Fagerström, 2012). This approach is mostly
adopted in the case of emergency where a leader has no time to consult with anyone and make an
effective decision in order to deal with emergency.
Democratic: This leadership approach implies that leader should first consult with their
employees and collecting views and suggestions from them and accordingly implement an
effective decision. Through applying this approach the chances of getting positive result will be
more. Therefore the leader of Starbucks should required to invite their employees to take
participate in decision making process which increase motivation and confidence level of
employees.
Laissez Faire: This leadership approach provides full freedom to the employees of an
organisation to perform their delegated work in their own way. Here leaders play no role in
directing and guiding their employees as the employees perform with their own ideas which
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maximises the satisfaction level and feels motivated in an organisation. Therefore Starbucks
should also focus on applying such approach in their working environment in order to achieve
positive result (Johnson, 2016).
Transformational: This leadership approach provides rights and power to leader to
interfere in employee's work with the purpose of getting positive outcome in future. The leader
play an effective role in form of directing and guiding the employees so as to achieve desired
result in limited period of time. This approach restrict the employee to create new ideas and think
something innovative which deceases the interest level of employees in performing delegated
roles.
Transactional: This leadership approach implies that the employees must be rewards for
their effective performance by the leaders. This will help in encouraging their workers to
perform in desired way. Therefore Starbucks should also followed such approach which
maximises the motivation and confidence level of employees through which they can contribute
more efforts in achieving desired goals and objectives (Keppel, and et. al.,2012). This approach
also allows leader to provide punishment to their employees on their failure. Punishment can be
in the form of deduction of salary, imposing fines and penalties etc.
Kotter's process to successful change: With the help of this model the manager should
share clear vision to their employees and implement proper communication channels which
directly motivate employees to perform in such an effective way that will bring positive result to
company. It help manager to act in emergencies and encourage other to achieve vision of
company.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that an organisation must focus on adopting
new changes in their organisational structure after certain period of time in order to gain
competitive advantage. For this, it is important for manager and leader to proper analyse the
internal and external factors so that such factors are not make any negative impact on leadership,
team and employee's behaviour. In order to achieve organisational objectives, the leaders should
required to follow different styles of leadership which play an important role in making an
effective decision for company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
2010. Quality, safety and sustainability in food distribution: a review of quantitative operations
management approaches and challenges. Or Spectrum. 32(4). pp.863-904.
2011. Qualitative case studies in operations management: Trends, research outcomes, and future
research implications. Journal of Operations Management. 29(4). pp.329-342.
2010. Using grounded theory method for theory building in operations management research: A
study on inter-firm relationship governance. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management. 30(3). pp.232-259.
2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
2011. Smart energy management system for optimal microgrid economic operation. IET
renewable power generation. 5(3). pp.258-267.
2010. DECOR: DEClarative network management and OpeRation. ACM SIGCOMM Computer
Communication Review. 40(1). pp.61-66.
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2011. Contribution to the study of PPP arrangements in airport development, management and
operation. Transport Policy. 18(2). pp.392-400.
2013. Review of recent developments in OR/MS research in disaster operations
management. European Journal of Operational Research. 230(2). pp.201-211.
2010. Chapter two: military and civilian capabilities for EU-led crisis-management
operations. Adelphi Paper. 50(414-415). pp.41-58.
2010. A multi-structural framework for adaptive supply chain planning and operations control
with structure dynamics siderations. European Journal of Operational Research. 200(2).
pp.409-420.
2011. Operations and supply chain management (Vol. 567). McGraw-Hill Irwin.
2010. Management and Operation of Apartment Community Facilities and Post Occupancy
Evaluation-Focused on the R Apartments Complex in Daegu. Journal of the Korean
housing association. 21(4). pp.111-120.
2013, June. Pipeline integrity management–from design to operation. In The Twenty-third
International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference. International Society of
Offshore and Polar Engineers.
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.
Online
Overview of Democratic Leadership Style, 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.leadership-central.com/democratic-leadership-style.html>./
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