Role and Characteristics of Manager and Leader in Sainsbury

Unit 4- Management
and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
PART 1............................................................................................................................................4
Role and characteristics of manager and leader together with its comparison.......................4
How the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts?
................................................................................................................................................6
Application of different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency.......................................................................................7
Conclusion and recommendations........................................................................................10
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................10
Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play.. .10
The importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.....11
The factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision-making by leaders and managers...........................................................................12
How operational efficiencies can be improved to successfully meet business objectives.. .13
Conclusion and recommendation.........................................................................................13
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Management can be referred to as the process which involves planning, organising,
motivating, leading, decision making and controlling different resources of a company is that it
can reach its goal and target effectively and efficiently. The business is concerned with the major
role to uplift the economy by contributing in the country through generation of maximum
revenue. Leaders and managers plays an important role in managing the operations and
workforce of the organisation so that smooth running is ensured (Duke, 2020). The organisation
chosen for this report is Sainsbury, a supermarket chain headquartered in London, United
Kingdom. This report shall cover the role and functions of leader and manager and their
distinction, how these roles apply in different situations, different theories and approaches
relating to leadership. Further it will cover key approaches to operations management, its value
and importance in attaining business objectives and the factors of business environment which
impact the operational management.
PART 1
Role and characteristics of manager and leader together with its comparison.
Sainsbury is a second largest supermarket chain in UK. It was founded in the year 1869
and gradually become the largest retailer in London by the year 1922. The company follows
hierarchical organisational structure where it has levels of hierarchy of the people and the level
above have a control on each level. There is a command of chain mainly from senior
management to general employees.
Leader and its role
It is a main personnel in an organisation which motivates the group of people so that they
can work to achieve the organisational goals of the company. A leader may be a person who is in
power which controls and monitors the performance of the people (Ryan, Myers and Mooney,
2020). There are different roles which a leader plays in a company and in context to Sainsbury,
these are narrated below- Provides direction- It is the most important role where the leader has to communicate the
clear and persuasive direction to the people. The leader in Sainsbury has to make
strategies in order to contribute in the future growth of the company and the strategies are
communicated to the team so that strategic goals can be achieved.

 Execute strategy and monitor result- It is important to have a strategy and a plan to
execute it. The leader of Sainsbury is entrusted with the role to execute the strategy by
formulating the plan so that the team can work accordingly. It also has to monitor the
outcome of each member so they are prepared in advance to make the adjustments or
changes in the strategy due to any reason.;
Characteristics
The leader has a unique specification which differentiate it from the rest of the team. The
characteristics of leader are discussed below- Self-awareness- The leader is the one who continuously tries to improve its area of
working so that it can produce better results. This may be done by leaders of Sainsbury
through attaining the knowledge and getting ready to learn everything so that it can bring
out its best result. Focused- The leaders in Sainsbury are very focused towards their work as it helps them
to achieve the goals of the company and lead the team in a systematic and efficient
manner (Alexander-Wright, 2020).
Manager and its role
It is the person which is entrusted with the major role to motivate and supervise the
employees and also provide directions to the people so that they can efficiently contribute in the
achievement of organisational goals. The roles of manager in relation to Sainsbury are illustrated
below- Setting objectives- The managers are entrusted with the role to set the targets for the
employees and communicate it to them so that they can work on to achieve them. The
manager of Sainsbury creates such environment where there is clear communication of
goals to the workforce. Monitoring the performance- The manager in Sainsbury has to monitor the progress of
employees in order to guide them whenever necessary and keep the track of all so that the
objectives are achieved in an effective manner (Dimitrov, 2020).
Characteristics Time-management- This is the essential quality in manger of Sainsbury as it helps them
to prioritise their work and make sure that they have enough time to communicate it to
the workforce in order to achieve the goals of the company.