Roles and Characteristics of Leaders and Managers in Management and Operations

This report discusses the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers in management and operations. It covers situational analysis, theories, and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency. The report also provides recommendations for effective leadership and management.

Management and Operations
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Defining and comparing the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager...3
Examining role of a leader and the function of a manager in different situational contexts..6
Applying different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency....................................................................................................7
Recommendations................................................................................................................11
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................11
Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play...11
Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives............13
Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management
and decision-making by leaders and managers....................................................................14
Recommendations................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16
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INTRODUCTION
Management is a term which provides administration and coordination of activities to
attain a objective. These administration tasks have setting the company's strategy and making
coordination between the efforts of staff to attain pre-defined goals with the use of present
resources (Anand and Gray, 2017). Management is also defined as structure which has seniority
of workforce within a company. Operations refers to the management of internal activities of an
organisation so it can run efficiently. It involves producing products, selling products and
providing services every organisation has to check the management and design of behind the
activities (Paton and et. al, 2020). The selected company is Burberry, it is a luxury fashion
organisation which has its headquarters in London, United Kingdom founded in 1856. This
report covers the various roles and characteristics of leaders and managers in an organisation and
situational analysis in organisations with various theories. This report also includes the different
approaches of operations management with the the roles of managers and leaders. It also
mentions the significance of value of operations management in attaining goals of the business
with various factors impacting the operational management and decision making by managers
and leaders.
PART 1
Defining and comparing the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
Burberry is a company which deals in designing and distributing ready to wear clothes,
footwear, accessories, fragrances, cosmetics, goods made from leather and trench coats. The
management structure is responsible for promoting long term success of Burberry, setting goals
that are strategic and providing framework to keep control on every activity. In a management of
Burberry there are different stakeholders which include officers, shareholders, managers and
directors who are responsible for guiding a company to attain the objectives of business. Chief
executive officer, Marco Gobbetti is responsible for planning the goals and objectives of
Burberry related to the products. Julie Brown who is financial and operating officer has the
responsibility of planning related to finance and operations for doing activities. Rod Manley who
is chief marketing officer does the whole planning related the marketing of good and products of
Burberry which also include the plan of using new technology for marketing (Chen and et. al,
2018).
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Management: Management is defined as an art of properly organising and aligning activities in
an effective and efficient manner.
Leadership: Leaderships refers to the skills of leading people or employees present in the
organisation.
Role of managers and leaders
Manager:
Manager is an individual in an organisation who is responsible for directing activities to
others. Managers do their activities at different levels and they are also known by various names.
First line managers are also known as supervisors or in a production they are called as foremen.
Managers make decisions for organisation, set strategies and policies which affect every aspect
of a company. There are various roles performed by the managers of Burberry which are
explained below:
 Interpersonal roles: Managers has to do various duties. Managers of Burberry are
responsible for signing legal documents as playing the role of head, they also sort the
activities and tasks of subordinates. They motivate workforce to do their activities and
they have also involved in recruiting and disciplining workforce.
 Decisional roles: Burberry's managers looks for the new product for improving the
performance of organisation, they take right actions for the problems, they also perform
the duty of allocating resources like human, monetary and physical.
 Informational roles: Managers of Burberry perform roles of informational where they
gather information of competitors and they communicate information to their
subordinates in a systematic manner.
Characteristics of managers:
 Handling pressure: Managers have the capability to handle pressure very easily because
they are also accountable for other's work.
 Always open for new ideas: Managers always stay with open mind and keep an eye on
better idea for operation.
Leader:
Leader is a person who is responsible for setting vision for a company. Leaders are
responsible for motivating workforce with the processing of work and building morale. Basically
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leaders are there in organisation so they can lead others to attain predetermined objectives. Some
of the roles of leaders are explained in following points:
 Needed at every level: Leaders of Burberry provide co-operation in formulating policies
and plans at top level whereas at middle level they implement the plans made by upper
level. They also provide counselling to subordinates while executing plans.
 Representative of a company: Burberry's leaders play the role of representative for a
company, they represent various concerns at annual meetings, seminars etc. They are
responsible for communicating rationale of organisation to the public present outside.
 Provides support: Leaders of Burberry are individuals who give co-operation and
support to subordinates. This they provide according to their experience, intelligence and
maturity. They ask suggestions from employees and if they are good then these are
implemented in plan.
Characteristics of leaders:
 Ability of delegation: Delegation being one of the most important characteristics, it is a
responsibility giving to subordinates or lower employees according to their ability and
this also provides teamwork and unity.
 Communication: It is essential characteristic that leaders of Burberry must have. This
helps them in communicating important information to employees that result in reducing
misunderstandings. And they have ability to communicate in different ways, from sharing
information to coaching employees.
Differentiation between management and leadership
Basis Management Leadership
Definition Management refers to the
discipline to manage activities
in the best manner.
Leadership is defined as
quality to influence people so
that goals can be attained.
Factor Management focuses on
controlling factor.
Leadership focuses on creating
trust factor.
Strategy Management adopts the
strategy of reactive.
Leadership adopts the strategy
of being proactive.
Perspective They have quite short range of They have great
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perspective. foresightedness.
Power They concentrate on ruling
activities and other resources.
They concentrate on
influencing resources with
proper guidance (Zhang and
Tu, 2018).
Examining role of a leader and the function of a manager in different situational contexts
Situational contexts refers to the situations which show why something is happening and
the right behaviour and actions related with the specific situation. Some of the situations which
arise in an organisation are: crisis management, new launches, conflicts and many more.
Changes in customer's expectations: Burberry deals in latest fashion products because of that
they have to keep constant focus on changing needs and expectations of customers. Now
customers are preferring digital technologies to buy different products. Burberry is focusing
more on enriching experience of customers through cloud based technology.
Role of manager:
 Managers of Burberry organises training session for their workforce to deal with the
changing requirements and expectations of customers. These sessions provide them
learning factors related to the changing behaviours of customers.
 Burberry's managers also provide training of developing new technology for enriching
experiences of customers. Managers give changes in existing technology which make the
activities more convenient and customers can buy online very easily in almost every
location.
Role of leader:
 Leaders of Burberry give constant guidance to the employees regarding the adopted
technology and their uses in a proper manner.
 Burberry's leaders continuously motivate and encourage employees to accept changes and
work harder to meet these requirements of customers.
Changes in strategies regarding staffing: Burberry changes its strategies regarding
performance appraisal of their staff, they have decided to provide more monetary benefits to
their workforce so that they could be encouraged to work hard and retain in the company.
Role of manager:
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 Managers of Burberry make plan related to the workforce and policies for praising the
employees. They focus on changing and forming strategies according to the need of
employees.
 Burberry's managers selects best and effective performance appraisal system from
different available alternatives.
Role of leader:
 Leaders of Burberry plays an important role as they directly ask opinions of employees
regarding their needs from strategies for their development.
 Burberry's leaders keep regular check on employees if they are satisfied with the changes
in strategies formed for them.
Theory
There are different types of theories available but Burberry should take assistance of
relationship theory because it has many benefits which are useful.
Relationship theory: Burberry should take help of relationship theory because it focuses on
creating effective interactions with others. Leaders would mentor workforce by arranging time to
interact and work to meet their requirements. With this theory leaders can encourage employees
to work hard to meet their objectives as well as organisation's. This theory help in building
confidence among employees to work, provide more suggestions and to take participation in
decision-making for the development of an organisation. This theory gives mentorship to
employees for creating opportunities to bring growth among workforce. This theory also brings
clear communication between employer and employee about the changes occurring inside and
outside the organisation.
Applying different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency
Situational leadership: Situational leadership model is given by Hersey and Blanchard, in this
leaders give emphasis on maintaining and forming better relationship with subordinates by
giving proper attention to personal, security and well-being requirements of the employees
(Meier, 2016). Leaders of Burberry may use this theory to meet the needs of employees, this
theory involves various styles:
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Illustration 1: Situational Leadership
(Source: Situational Leadership, 2019)
 Telling: In this leaders provide every instruction very clearly, give explanation about the
issues of non-performance and do strict supervision. For example, when a new employee
is recruited in such situation leaders can use the telling approach.
 Selling: In this leaders work to increase the level of confidence and knowledge of
employees so that employees could become more responsible for their activities. For
instance, while making plans leaders can engage the team member in developing plans
and make them understand different viewpoints and sell different ideas.
 Participating: In this leaders focus on praising, listening and interactions with
employees, they also put trust on these workers for their day to day activities. For
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instance the leader can make sure of engagement of individuals within the operations and
planning processes for the team.
 Delegating: In this leaders show full trust on employees and delegate activities to the
employees for performing independently. This form of approach is used when the
employees and individuals are talented and leaders have enough trust on their abilities
and skills sets.
Role of leaders: The role of situational leader in Burberry is to adapt style of leadership
according to the situations present.
Role of managers: The role of situational manager of Burberry is to enhance the confidence
regarding their work and increasing the level of their participation to give their ideas.
The strength of situational leadership is it helps in creating comfortable environment for
employees and the weakness is it concerns only on immediate requirements than long term
requirements of teams.
System leadership: System leadership is defined as set of capacities and skills that an
organisation uses to support and enable the system level change process. Burberry may use this
particular leadership for combining collaborative leadership and systems for mobilising
innovation and network that is decentralized (Schipper, 2017).
(Source: The key element of system leadership, 2021)
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Illustration 2: The key element of system
leadership

Role of leaders: The role of system leaders of Burberry is to use different combination of skills
to procure large scale actions for change in systems.
Role of managers: The role of managers in Burberry is to align different stakeholders around
objectives that are shared.
The strength of system leadership improves the adaptability of organisation according to
the changes in environment whereas the weakness is it does not remain practical and make
delays in organisation's decision making.
Contingency leadership: The Fidler's contingency leadership theory tells about the situational
variables. The author says that leadership style effectiveness depends on the specific situations
(Inyang, Agnihotri and Munoz, 2018). There are three elements in this which are defined below:
Illustration 3: Fiedler's Contingency Model
(Source: Fiedler's Contingency Model, 2019)
 Leadership styles: It has two dimensions human relations and task oriented. There are
two dimensions available with the leaders of Burberry where leaders of task oriented
focus on performance of task and fulfilment of objectives of task whereas managers focus
on enhancing interpersonal relationships with their subordinates.
 Situational variables: There are different situational factors which affect the leadership
style's effectiveness. Burberry can use with three important dimensions: Leader's position
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power, it defines the authority leaders have from their current position in a company.
Task structure: In this requirements of tasks are explained in respect of processes and
goals. With proper structure of task activities of subordinates can be controlled and
directed. Leader member relations: This dimension shows the degree of member's trust
and confidence in manager.
 Relationship between situation and style: This element shows leaders of Burberry
about the relation between appropriateness and situation of leadership style. Effectiveness
of leadership depends upon situation as one style favours one situation may not be right
in another situation.
Role of leaders: The role of contingency leaders of Burberry is to analyse the relationship
between situation and style and adapt leadership strategy according to the different situations and
align the earlier used leadership style.
Role of managers: The role of contingency managers in Burberry is to create good human
relationships by improving relationship that is interpersonal with their subordinates.
The strength of contingency leaderships is that it changes according to the situations as it
assists managers to change procedures as per the situation but it has weaknesses also like
sometimes situations become tough for the manager to solve practically.
Recommendations
From the above given report it has been understood that leaders and managers play an
important role in growth, success and profitability of an organisation. It has been recommended
to the managers and leaders to adopt the situational leadership theory because in Burberry
situations keep changing according to the need and requirements of their customers. So with the
assistance of situational leadership leaders can guide employees according to the dynamic
environment and they also keep motivating employee to achieve objectives of organisation.
PART 2
Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play
Operations management assist in setting out activities in an effective manner to attain
goals and objectives. Some departments of Burberry are:
 Designing process: It is the main process of Burberry, in this various designs are
produced for its products like clothes, accessories and footwear. Burberry is a luxury
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brand which uses gaming technology which assist in speeding up the process of prints on
the garments. This has also decreased use of paper at the stage of design.
 Marketing process: It is process which assists in Burberry to promote their different
products through different channels. In this manager come up with latest channels for
promoting their products to large number of customers like e-commerce sites and other
digital platforms.
Approaches of operations management are the set of activities, organisations adopt to
improve efficiency in manufacturing or production. Basically it is controlling process of
production and operations of business in an efficient way. Different approaches include: six
sigma, continuous improvement, just in time, lean production and total quality management.
Six Sigma: It is a methodology to improve the quality of operations management by removing
the defects and errors, reduction in cost and saving of time (Padhy, 2017). It is basically focused
towards to the participation of workforce in an organisation where every work is analysed and
measured. Burberry may adopt this approach to reduce the risk and errors in the workplace and
understanding the current practices of industry which assist in maintaining quality of products.
Role of manager:
 The manager constantly work to enrich the customer experiences and for doing so the
managers are focused to continuously make efforts to increase the quality of products.
Hence, in relation to the same the manager of Burberry while using six sigma technique
will be taking serious concerns to keep the quality of good at the highest level possible.
Role of leader:
 The leaders motivate employees to work hard so that they can do their work with more
concentration and defects any errors for minimising them to the lowest point.
 Along with it the leaders of Burberry also make sure to communicate goals and
objectives very clearly so that employees can work to attain objectives without wasting
time.
Total quality management: It is a continuous process of eliminating and finding errors. It used
in organisations to align the management of supply chain, enhance customer service and make
workforce trained. Burberry may apply this approach to enhance the quality of output which also
includes products and services by constant improvement in internal activities.
Role of manager:
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 The role of manager is to assign duty to right employee who can do activity and take
charge for the whole project. The selected employees should be diligent and have the
capability to handle important project total quality management.
 Another role of manager is to clearly convey the benefits and significance of total quality
management to all the employees of Burberry.
Role of leader:
 The role of leader is to develop proper environment that fosters workforce responsibility,
Burberry would fulfil quality output objectives as employees are more aligned in
advancement of organisation.
 The role of leaders is to do due diligence while researching the market in which they are
conducting their business. So that they can become reactor that is proactive to the
environment which is external.
Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
Operations management refers to the process that assists in planning, controlling and
supervising the process of production and delivery of services. It is crucial in organisations as it
helps in controlling, managing and supervising people, goods and services. Operations
management stand out first in manufacturing and producing companies. The Operations
management of Burberry assist in maintaining the quality of their products and increase the
satisfaction of customers which is the ultimate objective of the organisation. There are many
benefits of operations management in Burberry in attaining their objectives, some of them are
explained below:
 Process of design: Designing process is very important in Burberry because it is their
essential function as it clearly mentions the process in process of production, it carries out
the activities to fulfil the demands of their customers and to maximise profits from this
which ultimately meet the predefined goals of an organisation. The maximum efficiency
in process of design, Burberry achieve productivity by adopting apt process of production
by the help of limited resources.
 System of controlling and distributing: It is also one of the important functions in
operations management because it assists Burberry in controlling the process of design
and ensuring distribution of products in a systematic manner to attain the objectives of a
company. System of distribution and control's efficiency is enhanced by using great
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control system and to enhance logistics infrastructure of Burberry to attain predefined
objectives.
Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management
and decision-making by leaders and managers
There are various factors which affect the environment of business, activities of
organisation and decision-making. So it becomes important for Burberry to identify the effects of
external factors on the environment of business so that they can make right policies and
strategies to decrease the negative effect of external factors on the business activities.
 Sustainability: It is an approach which concentrates on fulfilling the needs of current
generation without limiting the demands of future generation. In Burberry it is an
essential aspect because it assists them in promoting their business as responsible towards
their customers. The day to day activities are sustainable to save the natural resources
from the environment. The role of managers and leaders to form the strategies and
objectives that do not harm the ethics of society.
 Values: It is referred as behaviour of people. It is essential in organisation because
products of Burberry are designed after analysing the values of customers. Values of
people are considered in the process of decision-making and its implementation. The
leaders and managers of Burberry give platform to workforce show their talents and non
ethical cultures are eliminated.
 Corporate social responsibility: Corporate social responsibility is an approach that
assist in contributing in developing sustainably by delivering benefits related to
economic, social and environment to their stakeholders. Burberry adopts the policy of
corporate social responsibility so that they can work for the betterment of local
communities where they conduct their business in respect to assist in growth of local
community who has suffered because of the operations of organisation. Burberry makes
sure that use of natural resources are minimised and do not increase the level of pollution
by their operations and activities. CSR contributes in decision making by taking those
decisions which are ethical and working in favour of stakeholders. The role of leaders of
Burberry is to follow ethics to promote stake-holder's welfare and instigate sustainable
development in the organisation. The managers of company make ethical policies for
business and followed by all employees.
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Recommendations
With the help of above mentioned report total quality management approach is
recommended to the managers and leaders of Burberry because it assists in removing the errors
from the process of operations management. It would also help in making decisions of
organisation so that mistakes from employees can be reduced. With total quality management
managers can keep control on the activities of Burberry related to the designing process and
through which quality of the products can be maximised.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report it has been concluded that management and operations
play an essential role in day to day activities of an organisation from designing process to
distribution and selling process. Leaders and managers of an organisation have great position in
organisation to improve the performance of employees as well as organisation. Leaders and
managers adopt different approaches to improve the effectiveness of operations management.
This report also highlights on various factors of business environment like corporate social
responsibility and sustainability which protect the environment of business without hampering
the demands of future generation and receiving the trust of customers by protecting the
environment.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Chen and et. al, 2018. Can leader “humility” spark employee “proactivity”? The mediating role
of psychological empowerment. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Inyang, A. E., Agnihotri, R. and Munoz, L., 2018. The role of manager leadership style in
salesperson implementation of sales strategy: a contingency perspective. Journal of
Business & Industrial Marketing.
Meier, D., 2016. Situational Leadership Theory as a Foundation for a Blended Learning
Framework. Journal of Education and Practice. 7(10). pp.25-30.
Padhy, R., 2017. Six Sigma project selections: a critical review. International Journal of Lean
Six Sigma.
Paton and et. al, 2020. Operations management. McGraw-Hill.
Schipper, D., 2017. Challenges to multiteam system leadership: an analysis of leadership during
the management of railway disruptions. Cognition, Technology & Work. 19(2). pp.445-
459.
Zaverbnyj, A., Redina, Y. and Matseliukh, Y., 2019. Role differentiation of leadership
knowledge and its assessment tools. Economics. Ecology. Socium. 3(2). pp.62-70.
Zhang, S. and Tu, Y., 2018. Cross-domain effects of ethical leadership on employee family and
life satisfaction: The moderating role of family-supportive supervisor behaviors. Journal
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