Roles and Characteristics of Leaders and Managers in Sainsbury's

This report discusses the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers in Sainsbury's, a prominent supermarket chain in the UK. It explores the definition and comparison of different roles, examines their functions in different situational contexts, and applies various theories and models of leadership. The report also highlights the importance of management and operations in achieving organizational objectives.

MANAGEMENT
AND OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1. Definition and Comparison of different roles and characteristics of a leader and manager
................................................................................................................................................1
LO2..................................................................................................................................................3
P2. Examination of role of a leader and function of a manager in different situational contexts
................................................................................................................................................3
P3. Application of different theories and models of approach...............................................4
LO3 & LO4......................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Management refers to appropriate planning, organising, directing as well as controlling
all the functions of an organisation to ensure achievement of its organisational objectives in a
clear and effective manner (Saucedo-Martínez and et. al., 2018). On the other hand, operations
are the activities and processes that are used by the company to support the functions adopted by
the firm to attain the goals. Both of these elements are very important in context of ensuring
effective success and sustainability within the marketplace and to gain better and consistent
competitive advantage. Hence, in this relation, the report below is based on Sainsbury's, that is
one of the most trusted and renowned supermarket chains in the United Kingdom. The
assignment is hence divided into two parts, where part one addresses leadership and management
concepts within the company. This includes differentiation between the roles of managers and
leaders, along with application of the roles and functions of leaders and managers respectively.
As for the second part, it addresses appreciations of roles which leaders and managers play in
operations function of the company, along with demonstration of an understanding of
relationship between leadership and management.
LO1
P1. Definition and Comparison of different roles and characteristics of a leader and manager
Sainsbury's is one of the most prominent and effective organisations within the United
Kingdom, which has more than 600 supermarket chains within the country itself (Sainsbury's:
Groceries, 2019). Moreover, it is one of the topmost companies in retail sector and deals in a
variety of products and services, ranging from groceries, home appliances and more.
Leadership: It refers to the combination of al the activities that is adopted by leader of an
organisation to appropriately lead the organisation towards achieving the objectives of the
company.
Leader: A leader is an individual within an organisation who is responsible towards
motivating and guide the employees of a company towards attaining the short, as well as long
term goals of the firm.
Management: It refers to the planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling of
the organisational functions in context of enabling the firm to gain profitability and growth
within the marketplace.
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Manager: A manager is an individual who handles all the organisational functions and
resources and aligns them towards objectives of the firm. Furthermore, they adopt functions of
the company in a way which allows the organisation to become effective and efficient (Reid and
Sanders, 2019).
However, it is very important that the roles and characteristics are compared in order to
gain a better understanding of how these two individuals function within Sainsbury's. Hence, in
this relation, the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers with respect to the
organisation are differentiated below:
BASIS LEADERS MANAGERS
Change
One of the most prominent
roles within the country is that
they act as change agents
within the organisation. Within
Sainsbury's leaders facilitate
innovation, along with
suggesting and guiding
individuals through new
knowledge, ways of working,
as well as machinery.
On the other hand, managers
within Sainsbury's act
effectively towards managing
the status quo of the
organisation despite the
changes within the company or
its structures. Their role is to
maintain the stability within
the processes, resources and
working systems (Gibson and
Parkman, 2018).
Risk Taking In relation to this, leaders
possess the characteristic of
risk taking. This is reflected by
the fact that within Sainsbury's
these individuals are
responsible towards trying out
new things, concepts and apply
new theories within the
company to enhance the level
of creativity within the
In comparison to the leaders of
the firm, managers within
Sainsbury's are very
calculative when they perform
their activities as well as
manage the organisation.
Hence, in this relation, they
take calculative decisions and
adhere to the safety standards
that is necessary to save the
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company. firm from failures.
LO2
P2. Examination of role of a leader and function of a manager in different situational contexts
Within an organisation, there are several situations that require an active role and
function of leaders and managers respectively in order to deal with the same and keep up the
effectiveness of the company. Thus, in this context, an overview of the roles and functions which
leaders and managers play within Sainsbury's are discussed below:
 Role of Leaders:
Leaders are the individuals within the organisation that are responsible towards guiding,
as well as motivating the workforce, along with bringing effective change within the company.
In addition to this, they encourage the workforce towards attainment of objectives, as well as
ensure personal and professional growth of the employees. In addition, within Sainsbury's, they
are also responsible towards setting up a clear and effective vision for employees to help them
channelise their efforts towards the same (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018).
 Functions of Managers:
These individuals undertake several crucial decisions within the firm and are responsible
towards the overall management of the company, especially its resources and processes.
Moreover, functions such as planning, coordination, organising, directing, as well as controlling
are the most prominent aspects covered up by these individuals.
In relation to these roles, the situations within Sainsbury's which would be witnessing the
roles and functions of these individuals are evaluated below:
Major Product Launch:
One prominent situation within the firm is major product launch. Sainsbury's is very
consistent in bringing in new products and services to the marketplace. Moreover, quite recently,
the company has joined a fast food chain, Leon to sell a new range of groceries within the
marketplace, which would be including Sour-dough bread and Vegan mayonnaise (Fast food
chain Leon launches new product range with Sainsbury's, 2019). Hence, this change requires an
active role and function of leaders and managers of the firm that are elaborated below:
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 Role of Leaders: One of the main roles in this situation for leaders is to adopt
Transformational Leadership Approach. The main reason for these individuals to do
the same is related to develop a clear vision onto the change in product line and processes
that is taking place for the new product, that would be helping the workforce towards
working appropriately towards enhancing effectiveness of the situation.
 Function of Managers: In relation to managers, their function would be to Organise and
provide effective Training to its existing employees in relation to new technologies,
equipments and processes that would be used by the firm to product its new offering.
Conflict Management:
Another situation with respect to Sainsbury's is associated with conflict management. For
instance, the finance and marketing team comes into a conflict in relation to the cost of
marketing products of the firm. In such a situation, there would be grieve circumstances in
relation to the productivity and harmony within the overall company. Hence, role of managers
and functions of leaders in this context are explained below: Role of Leaders: The leader in this situation would be adopting Democratic Leadership
Approach, to play the role of a Disturbance Handler by appropriately listening to
viewpoints of both the parties involved in the conflict and handle the situation in an
appropriate manner through guiding the departments towards reaching onto a common
ground (Lee and Tang, 2018).
 Function of Managers: In this situation, Negotiation is one of the most prominent
functions that managers would be adopting through Communication. Moreover, in this
context, both the parties in question would be approached to negotiate on the terms of the
other party that would be assisting both the departments in resolving their issue and
facilitate the harmony.
P3. Application of different theories and models of approach
There are several theoretical concepts of leadership that are required to appropriately and
effectively understood as well as applied in context of develop a better insight within the
application of leadership within different situations. Hence, in this relation, thee are several
theoretical concepts that are explained below:
 Situational Leadership:
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This type of leadership is utilised when leaders of the organisation moulds the approaches
taken by them in order to suit the current and existing situation of the firm. Its application is
witnessed in the companies where flexible environment is induced and individuals possess
adaptation as a characteristic. One of its key strengths is that it provides the company with a
need to be flexible, which is necessary to ensure appropriate accomplishment of the firm's goals
and objectives. However, its weakness is that it emphasises on the current short term needs of the
firm rather than having a long term orientation (Hazen and et. al., 2018).
 System Leadership:
Within this leadership, the company leads across several boundaries quite appropriately.
In addition to this, this is effectively utilised by an organisation in context of a complex issue or
problem, which there is an inclusion of different organisational departments. Its major advantage
is that the firm could easily cope up with the environmental changes as the approach is very
effective in increasing the adaptability of the company. However, its disadvantage is that it
might not always be accurate in terms of application, which might lead to delay in decision
making. An example of system leadership would be Delayed Supply Delivery, which would
require the leader to handle departments like logistics, operations and customer service. In his
context, system leadership would enable coordination within these departments and dealing with
this problem effectively.
 Contingency Leadership:
Within this leadership, distinct leadership styles are adopted in relation to different
situations prevailing within the company. Furthermore, the notion which this type of leadership
supports is related to the fact that there is no definite approach to leadership and it could be very
dynamic. Its strength is that it contributes in an appropriate and effective structuring of the
infrastructure of the company. In contrast to the same, its weakness is it is highly complex
procedure as situations could require more effort than just moulding of leadership style
(Fettermann and et. al., 2018).
Application of Theories in different situations:
 Major Product Launch:
In this situation, Situational Leadership would be applied for which, Hersey and
Blanchard Situational Model is being implemented. Within this model, effective leadership is
relevant to both the task, as well as relationship. This means that the new product launch, as well
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as the maturity level of subordinates would be taken into consideration to determine the level of
guidance. There are several key factors associated with this leadership that are explained below:
◦ Delegating Style: This is Low-Task, Low-relationship style, in which the leader
would enable individuals to take responsibility of decision making in relation to
product launch, such as choosing the methods of production, distribution cycles, etc.
◦ Participating Style: This is a low-task, high relationship style which focuses upon
shared decisions, such as helping and supporting individuals towards their decisions
associated with selection of product portfolio within the new range.
◦ Selling Style: In this high-task, high-relationship approach, leaders would sell their
ideas to the subordinates through persuasion.
◦ Telling Style: This is a high-task, low-relationship style, leaders become autocratic
and provide clear instructions to employees.
Out of these, participating style must be used by the company to ensure high inclusion of
employees towards the new product launch happening within the company.
 Conflict Management:
Within this situation, Fiedler’s Contingency Theory would be applied within
Sainsbury's. It relates with being either task oriented, or relationship oriented as dependant on the
situation. This is rated through High and Low LPC ratings of the organisation. These constitute
the main factors under this model. Therefore, in the given situation, the leader must be
relationship oriented, in order to manage and resolve the conflict effectively (Wensveen, 2018)..
LO3 & LO4
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded from the report above that management and operations are integral
part of a company, which supports as well as contributes towards appropriate and effective
achievement of organisational objectives. It is necessary to define and compare roles and
characteristics of leaders and managers, as well as it is important to examine examples of how
the role and function of these individuals apply in different situations. In addition, application of
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different models and theories is important to understand leadership application. Moreover, key
approaches of operations management and its importance is very crucial to be understood and
appropriately evaluated to ensure better understanding of the same. Lastly, assessment of factors
within business environment and its impact upon operational management and decision making
is necessary to be understood effectively.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fettermann, D. C. and et. al., 2018. How does Industry 4.0 contribute to operations
management?. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering. 35(4). pp.255-268.
Gibson, P. and Parkman, R., 2018. Cruise operations management: hospitality perspectives.
Routledge.
Hazen, B. T. and et. al., 2018. Back in business: Operations research in support of big data
analytics for operations and supply chain management. Annals of Operations
Research. 270(1-2). pp.201-211.
Lee, H. L. and Tang, C. S., 2018. Socially and environmentally responsible value chain
innovations: New operations management research opportunities. Management
Science. 64(3). pp.983-996.
Reid, R. D. and Sanders, N. R., 2019. Operations management: an integrated approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Saucedo-Martínez, J. A. and et. al., 2018. Industry 4.0 framework for management and
operations: a review. Journal of ambient intelligence and humanized computing. 9(3).
pp.789-801.
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and
practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Wensveen, J., 2018. Air transportation: A management perspective. Routledge.
Online
Fast food chain Leon launches new product range with Sainsbury's. 2019. [Online] Available
Through: <https://www.cityam.com/fast-food-chain-leon-launches-new-product-range-
with-sainsburys/>
Sainsbury's: Groceries. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/great-products-and-services/groceries>
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