Roles of Leader and Manager in Operations Function of Unilever

This assignment discusses the roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers in the operations function of Unilever. It explores the differences between leaders and managers, their characteristics, and their impact on the company's performance. The assignment also examines the relationship between leadership and management in the contemporary business environment.

Management
Operation

PART -A
INTRODUCTION
Management is a process in which following activities like planning , organising,
directing, decision making, provide motivation, performance appraisal, controlling , staffing is
done by smart managers so that goals of the company can be understand and achieve easily.
Whereas operations refers to managing internal practices of business so that business run
smoothly. The company which was selected in this report is unilevel, as it is multinational
consumer goods company having its headquarter in London. The topics that are cover in this
report are roles of leader and functions of manager., leader & manager role in context to
company. Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders as well as leaders play in operations
function of company are explain in detail in this assignment. And lastly describe the
understanding of relationship b/w leadership & management in contemporary business
environment in this project.
MAIN BODY
Give definition and comparison of different role and characteristic of leader and manager?
Leaders: Leader is an individual who thinks how improvement can be made in different
things, they rallies person to move for better vision. Leaders can wok towards making their
vision a reality while putting people first. As just being able to motivate people isn't enough.
Leader must posses the quality of empathetic and make connection with various people to
become successful.
Manager: He/ She is a person who is responsible for some part of organisation. May be
they become in charge of some unit and make control people who tends to work in these
departments. As it is their responsibility to exercise primarily all managerial functions. They
have power to do performance appraisal, maintain discipline, hire, approve overtime and also
authorise vacations as they play a role of boss in the company.
Difference between leader and manager

Leader is an individual who perform the task of influencing behaviour of members of
team in order to achieve the objectives which is planned in advance in effective and efficient
manner. Unilever plc leader role as describe as follows:
 decision making role is perform by leader of Unilever in their organisation. To make
decision correctively and according to that implement that decision.
 To make the task easier for staff members is main role of every leader of company.
Unilever plc leader effectively listen as well as observe performance of members and also
tends to give motivation time to time so that they perform their duties and roles in efficient and
effective manner.
Following are few examples of their characteristic-
 Honesty: Company's manager must posses quality of integrity and honesty. The
organisation “ Unilever plc” manager is tends to committed towards honesty & integrity
in organisation.
 Excellent level of confidence : leader is a person who must have quality as well as
potential of having great confidence through which leader can ensure that members of
staff should work as per their demand of organisation.
Unilever plc leader role as describe as follows:
 decision making role is perform by leader of Unilever in their organisation. To make
decision correctively and according to that implement that decision.
 To make the task easier for staff members is main role of every leader of company.
 Unilever plc leader effectively listen as well as observe performance of members and also
tends to give motivation time to time so that they perform their duties and roles in
efficient and effective manner.
Unilever plc manager role are explain in below points-
 A company's manager responsibility is to identify and do planning for long and short
term objectives so that organisation can survive for long term in competitive market.
 The manager of company plays a main role to ensure regular functioning of all units of
departments in addition to their workforce.

 Implementation of policies, rules, code of conduct that are formulated by them are their
main role as they do business practices holding accountability for all action which they
perform.
A manager is a person who make control over workforce of company. He is the individual whose
responsibility is to direct duties at regular interval of time to their organisation staff members so
they can easily achieve the targets on time in efficient way.
Unilever plc manager role are explain in below points-
 A company's manager responsibility is to identify and do planning for long and short
term objectives so that organisation can survive for long term in competitive market.
 The manager of company plays a main role to ensure regular functioning of all units of
departments in addition to their workforce.
 Implementation of policies, rules, code of conduct that are formulated by them are their
main role as they do business practices holding accountability for all action which they
perform.
Manager characteristic are explain as follows:
 understandable: It is the duty of every manager to listen queries and views of every
members of staff and they should try to understand what their subordinates wants to say.
As effective understanding leads to business survival and growth. It also tends to
decrease employees turnover rate in organisation.
 Trust : manager can be consider as good and effective if they resolve the issue of
company on time and in appropriate manner. Also tend to delegate sense of trust to staff
members of firm.
Democrative Theory: It a a form of leadership style where members of the team plays a more
participative role in the process of decision making. Members of the group motivate to share
opinions and ideas. As Group group ,members feel more engaged in the activity or process.
Behavioural theory of leadership concentrate on the activity that how leaders behave in
different situations. Some times it is also known as style theory as it is consider that leaders are
not born successful but can be due to their learnable behaviour.

In context to above Theories role and functions of leaders are describe in below
mentioned paras:
Role of Leader: The leader in team play a role of decision maker as it is their
responsibility to take effective decision so that targets of the company can easily achieve by
their team members. The main function of leader in organisation Unilever is to provide direction
and time to time give guidance to members and try to avoid or resolve conflicts as well as
maintain co ordination & cooperation among them.
Management Theory of Leadership
Quantitative management theory – This theory brought all the experts together to address
logistics, material, staffing etc. The clear cut numbers oriented approach to managers support
decision makers to calculate benefits, risk as well as drawbacks of particular actions.
Classical management theory- It predicts that employees only possess physical needs
because they can satisfy these physical needs with help of money. This Theory focus on
economics of organising employees.
Managers role and function
Informational role- As information is lifeblood for any organisation and manager act as
nerve centre of his unit. Manager is the person who collects and provide information to
employees and audience whenever it is necessary. They acquired information with the help of
documentations, conversations, meetings etc. To subordinate they provide information time to
time.
Decisional roles- At the time of performing the role of decision maker, manager in the
company act as enterprenuer, negotiator, disturbance handler, resource allocator etc.
It is concluded that managers plays a important role as informator in business so that
subordinates get the information and according to that react to get effective results. For this they
perform various function like organising, analysing , implementing etc.
Analysis of different roles of management and leadership in application to organisation
situation , supported by theories and concept?
Situation that exist in the organisation Unilever are explain as follows-

Change management: there are certain changes in practices in task resources and
various different operations are considered all as business concern in organisation. For example
Unilever , top level authorities has decided to make change in their company's structure from flat
to divisional structure. The organisation arrange resources and divide them into different
department according to requirement. As the role of leader is to direct the change in efficient
manner.
Team management: In this situation important function of manager is to give motivation
to their employees so that they can easily achieve desired goals effectively with their high level
of performance. By giving rewards Unilever manager appreciate their workforce. Whereas
leaders keep focus on influencing behaiviour and provide clarity to their workers regarding
responsibilities and duties so that Unilever's employees achieve objectives of company easily.
Situational leadership- this theory work on assumption that most effective leadership
style is changes in different situations . To be most successful and effective , leader must
be able to follow their style & approach to diverse circumstances. Unilever company such
theory in organisation. This theory not only focus on team performance but influence team
member to reach their potential up to maximum level. Theory identifies 4 important
leadership approach such as selling, telling, participating and delegating.
Contingency Theory- It claims that there is no best method to organize a corporation , to
lead company and take decision. upon external and internal situation optimum course of action
is contingent. the main objective of this theory is to optimize workers productivity up to highest
level. By using this theory company can easily improve standardization and specialization. As
contingent leaders are flexible to choose strategy as per situation.
Evaluate strength and weakness of different approaches to management and leadership to draw
conclusion that support leadership theories.
Strength and weakness of Leadership style
Style of leadership Strength Weakness
Situational leadership  It is advantageous for
Unilever because it
gives suitable direction
to business so it
 In whole company,
situational analysis
creates complexity and
confusion. Leaders in

become easy for firm
to get proficient result.
 This style determines
flexibility in place of
working. In Unilever
all persons was so
flexible so it can easily
create diversity in
company.
this shift from one to
another direction that
leads to create
confusion as well as
frequent
communication does
not take place. In
organisation unilever ,
leadership style is
change by leaders
which tends to create
confusion in company.
 It also develop
corporate dependency
because leaders in
company expected that
they remain with same
kind but in Unilever
case dependency got
created that leads to
turnover for them.
Systematic leadership  When corporate follow
this style , directions
that are being prepare
is set up properly that
helps everyone who are
working in firm to
achieve targets with the
help of effective
direction and in
Unilever every task is
 With proper systematic
and effective structured
way , workforce
engaged in company do
not get creativity and
Unilever make less
changes even it is
necessary to change.

perform systematically.
For the situation change management leaders and manager plays an very crucial role as
managers analyse in which areas change is needed . Unilever , top level authorities has decided
to make change in their company's structure from flat to divisional structure. The function that
perform by manager is to arrange resources and divide them into different units as per the need.
In this manager plays a role of resource allocator in the company.
CONCLUSION
After deep study and analysis it is to be conclude that both leader and manager play
crucial role in every organisation. They both are necessary for success of company. As good
manager as well as leader help the firm to compete with their competitor and survive in long
term. Leader play positive role, hidden talent in their team members is figure out by them only.
While managers plays a little negative role. He criticizes their workforce to make them best in
respective field area and not to demoralize their employees in any situation. Every leader must
have some qualities like confidence, enthusiastic, open minded, ability to inspire, having good
convincing power, must have excellent skills of communication. On the other hand manager
must posses these qualities like effective decision making power, patience, delegation power,
committed to work etc. for the purpose to serve effective and positive results.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barnes, D., 2018. Operations Management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Breidbach, C.,, et. al., 2018. Operating without operations: how is technology changing the role
of the firm?. Journal of Service Management.
Calais, J.F.L.G., et. al., 2017. Management and operations maintenance for a water treatment and
supply company. International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 25(3),
pp.360-382.
Comi, A., Schiraldi, M.M. and Buttarazzi, B., 2018. Smart urban freight transport: tools for
planning and optimising delivery operations. Simulation Modelling Practice and
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Ferreira, K.J., Simchi-Levi, D. and Wang, H., 2018. Online network revenue management using
thompson sampling. Operations research, 66(6), pp.1586-1602.
Jinhua, X.I.A.O., et. al., 2017. Standardisation focus on process planning and operations
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Engineering and Manufacturing (pp. 223-232). Springer, Cham.

PART – B
INTRODUCTION
Key operations of organisation Unilever is divided on the basis of Territory and
product. And on the basis of these factors organisation divide their departments. For each
product different product line is prepare for every unit like marketing, planning, finance, sales
etc. Operation management is mainly concerned with following functions as these are planning,
controlling, staffing, directing, organising etc. As it convert human efforts towards valuable
items and services for satisfying needs of customer.
2.Details of each key operational function , identify the roles and responsibility to manager in
key operation functions.
Leader and Manager both are playing prominent part in the success of the organisation.
The role of a leader is crucial because leader is the single person who are responsible to
maintain and improve the employees movements and performance. The functions of the manager
of the Unilever is very essential because manager is responsible to manage over all performance
of the organisation. There are three situations are considered which determine the role of leader
and the function of manager of Unilever are discussed below-
Introduce a new Product
To introduce a new product is very challenging for the organisation and because it take
lots of efforts and planning. Unilever is about to introduce a new product so that organisation
want to launch new product in various areas and also use various promotional strategies so that
this product easily identify by the people. So to introduce a new product, the role of the leader
and the all functions of the manager are given below - Role of a Leader – To introduce a new product, Unilever need to a person who have a
effective leadership quality and power so that he or she can conduct the good
coordination among employee’s who are part of this new product. Leader can responsible
to keep update them with the relevant information about the new product and provide
their support and also help employees in every situation so that employees feel
comfortable in their working condition.

Functions of a Manager - Manager of the Unilever is responsible to perform all the
management functions. Manager need ton prepare a plan about the new product and also
implement this plan. Manager allocate all the duties and responsibilities on the basis of
department and also provide all the appropriate information about the product to the leaders of
all the department. All the managerial activities are important for the launch the new product of
the Unilever
Responsibility to manager
 It is the responsibility of Unilever manager to time to time formulate policies,
smart strategies and planning.
 To develop, implement and time to review various operational procedures and
policies.
 IT is also their responsibility to oversee various areas like auditing, budgeting,
reporting, planning etc.
 Build partnership with other company is the responsibility of them.
 Support communication of workforce with management team.
3. Key operational approaches to operations management and their values.
Explanation of key approaches regarding operational management and role of Unilever
plc manager and leader are explain in detail as follows-
Operation management: It is contain as an administration of company where corporate
perform various different business practices and generate effectiveness that is possible within
company. The main operational management responsibility is to transmit material in different
products and services in efficient and effective manner. Organisation leader consider all
activities that are relates to operation which become helpful in management of team members.
Unilever manager maintain all the records & specific information of workforce properly and
also made an effective strategy and try to use some specific policies that give support to
workforce so that working operations can easily manage by them.
Total quality management: This is a practical approach which specify long lasting
success of company by providing customers satisfaction. As every worker can participate in
entire improvement process and also tends to follow culture of company. Organisation Unilever
mainly concerned regarding this approach because this particular approach tends to increase

over all quality of workforce and tends to improve standard also. It is the responsibility of
manager to manage team members quality so that all workforce can perform their activity
effectively. Whereas all the managerial functions are perform by operation management to
maintain good quality of employees and leader both in indirect as well as direct manner.
4. Evaluation of impact of external business environment factors that affect decision making by
managers and leaders.
There are many different factors that influence decision making and management
operations of manager and leader but in Unilever context , technological as well as social factors
related to business environment is considered. Details of these respective factors according to
operational management & decision making of Unilever manager and leader are describe in
detail in below paras-
Analysis of Social Factor
In social environmental factors various elements such as religion, taste preference, age,
culture, customer buying habits and buying behaviour includes. Unilever is one of the most
largest company who run their business globally so that company desires to show their concern
in every small or big operational activities as it give support in decision making of every
manager as well as leader of all department in the organisation. Due to reason of uncertainty of
covid , brand experienced so many ups & downs in business operation. rapid changes in
technologies tends to influenced the purchasing behaviour of individual. With introduction of E-
commerce , audience are more active to purchase products as well as get the product easily in
their home. Unilever offer good quality items and services as they also focus on their priority /
preferences that will help to raise the revenue of concern.
Analysis of Technological Factors
Technological factors involves all modification and technological advancement. In this
time technologies are taking a massive place and cover all the market. With the help of various
technological platforms & digital marketing channels such as , LinkedIn, Facebook ,you tube,
Instagram, Twitter and other platform tends to help to enhance marketing of Unilever so that
organisation easily expand their market at one location to another. By adopting good
technologies, company can track all activities of consumers and also consider which products

used mostly by the audience. Technologies help to maintain the payment activities. Through
effective software, audience can do payment quickly for their shopping .
All the above mentioned factors affect operational management & also influenced
decision making power of managers and leader of Unilever directly. With the help of social
factors, leader as well as manager can determine and tends to make all necessary changes as per
need of consumer and preferences and though technological factors , Both persons easily make
strategy to promote their brand items at domestic and international level.
5.How operational efficiency can be improved to successfully meet objectives of business by
using appropriate management and leadership approach.
Total Quality Management
It is a practical approach which specify long lasting success of company by giving
customers satisfaction. Every workforce can participate in whole process of improvement . It
also tends to follow effective culture of company. this approach is mainly concerned due
increase quality of workers and tends to improve standard also .organisation leader necessary to
manage overall quality of team members so that workers can effectively do their task. As all
managerial functions use by organisational manager to maintain leaders quality in direct &
indirect manner.
Just-In-Time
It is also known as JIT and consider as a useful inventory management tool. Respective
approach contain , raw materials , labour and manufacturing products which re-filled and also
scheduled which help to arrive labour and material on time when need in the manufacturing
process of the Unilever organisation. The main motive behind this approach is that it is useful to
improve efficiency and effectiveness by reduce wastage by receiving items when all the
employees needed in the manufacturing time. Unilever leader provide direction to their team
members which support employees to work effectively. Leaders help to manage data related to
inventory so that leader easily enhance efficiency as well as decline wastage of stock and
resources
Lean Production
This is consider the most useful approach to the operational management of the
organisation. Lean production is contain as a systematic and structured production process that
decline the wastage of the resources. Unilever organisation production process is really efficient

that help in produce the more output in exchange of the less inputs. The main role of the leader is
to coordinate and support those team members who are involved in the production process of the
organisation. Manager of the organisation can plan , organise and monitor all the production
activities and manage all the records of the employees and labour.
CONCLUSION
After deep analysis it is conclude that operation management leadership and necessary
for success of company. There are various theories used by company to improve overall
operational activities. As by using situational theory and contingency theory company Unilever
can easily analyse market. Every leader and manager need to perform important role and
responsibilities which helps them to give direction to employees. At last it is also conclude that
technological factor make positive impact on operation management and also helps in decision
making process.

REFERENCES
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