An Analysis of Leadership and Management Practices at Aldi

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership and management practices within Aldi, a prominent retail company. It explores the diverse roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, from recruitment and training to business growth and operational efficiency. The report delves into how managers and leaders function in various situational contexts, emphasizing their responsibilities in managing departments, interacting with subordinates and higher authorities, maintaining employee relationships, and providing training and motivation. Furthermore, it examines leadership theories such as trait leadership, behavioral leadership, situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency leadership, illustrating their application within Aldi's operational framework. The report highlights the importance of operational management and the role of leaders and managers in functional areas, concluding with a discussion of factors within Aldi's business environment.

MANAGEMENT
&
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
MANAGEMENT.............................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1:..........................................................................................................................................1
P1: Different roles & characteristics of a leader & manager at Aldi......................................1
TASK 2...........................................................................................................................................2
P2: Roles & Function of a Manager or Leader in different situational context at Aldi.........2
P3: Situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency leadership..........................5
TASK 3:...........................................................................................................................................6
P4: Approaches of operational management & role of managers & leaders at functional areas
of Aldi.....................................................................................................................................6
P5: Importance & value of operational management & role of leaders & managers at
functional area of Aldi............................................................................................................6
TASK 4:...........................................................................................................................................6
P6: Factors within the business environment at Aldi.............................................................6
Conclusion:.............................................................................................................................8
References:.......................................................................................................................................9
Book & journals:....................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Management & Operations is necessary for the better handling of the functionality of the
organisations. Management is an authority at a company which manages all the operations of a
company or an organisation. On other hand, Operations are the processes that are been followed
by an organisation to achieve productivity & profitability. The Managers or Leaders that are at
an organisation will see through it that the functional structure & basic working at a company is
been carried out efficiently (Aminero, Van Deun and Fujiwara, 2013). Besides this, the
Managers & Leaders working at the company will manage the work force or the employees,
motivate them to work better & maintain a better work environment for them & look after the
quality standards. The organisation or company we have opted here is Aldi. It is a big market
name in field of retail sector which provides a quality service & products at a cheaper cost. In
this report, we will analyse different roles & characteristics of a manager or a leader at Aldi, how
they work in various situational context. Various theories & models of approaches used at Aldi.
TASK 1:
P1: Different roles & characteristics of a leader & manager at Aldi
The Managers & Leaders working at Aldi will perform a wide variety of roles &
functions at Aldi. From recruitment of the employees to their efficient management to maintain
the productivity. The leader is the person who look after the effective handling of a team while
the manager is the person who look after the efficient management of the operations at Aldi. The
leaders & manager, at Aldi will have following roles & characteristics:
 Recruiting: The managers & leaders are hired by the company to look after the
recruitment process at the company. They will conduct interview drives, screening
processes, selection of the best employee meeting the requirement of the Aldi. For this,
the Manager or Leader has to be more good in interpersonal communication skills, more
efficient in management skills, well versed with the current scenario of the market to
meet company's goals. The manager will look after the effective function of placing of
the candidate in the department or the team while a leader will look after the better
management of the various operations of the recruited person.
 Intermediating: the Manager will act as a bridge between the company management &
the employees to communicate any sort of news or information at Aldi. They will receive
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the information from the company management & authority & will pass it to the
employees & other workers (Pinson, 2013.). Also, they will forward any request or
demand of the employee to the Aldi's management. This will ensure the better
functionality at company by bridging the communication gap. The manager will act as
the representative of its department or team in the decision making and will look after the
better management of implementation of various decisions. On other hand, the leader will
see through the effective handling of the various operations in the team and improve the
function over the decision.
 Training: Apart from these, the Managers & Leaders will look after the fact that the
employees are been provided with the trainings regarding to their jobs at Aldi. It will give
the employees a better understanding regarding their job, will enhance the confidence
level of individual employee & a better team building among a department or a group.
Besides this, it will also improve the efficiency level of the employees that will improves
the productivity of Aldi. The manager will arrange the various measures of training or
workshops to improve the work efficiency of the employee's. On the other hand, the
leaders of teams will see through effective management of various operations related to
training process.
 Business growth: It is a Manager's or leaders task to ensure the better productivity at
Aldi. These will give leads to the better market growth of the company. The managers or
leaders will see to it that the work is done by employees in efficient way, in targeted time
with meeting the quality standards decided (Gaichas, Fogarty, Fay and et.al., 2017). Also,
they will analyse the financial, operational conditions & will suggest a market strategy
for Aldi to get the idea of any sort of change in trends & customers demand. The
managers will perform the effective analysis about the better management of various
operations of the company to get a sustainable growth while the leaders will see through
its effective implementation in company.
TASK 2
P2: Roles & Function of a Manager or Leader in different situational context at Aldi
The managers or leaders will function on a lot of criteria which affect the productivity of
the company. Its task is not only to lead its department or team in a better context to meet the
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target goals of the Aldi, but also to ensure efficiency, productivity & profitability of the
company. The manager or leader will perform the following functionalities to meet the
operational performance of its department:
 Manages its department: the core job of a manager or leader is to manage its allotted
department in order to ensure the better productivity of its department. At Aldi, it will
perform all the duties & plans decided & will take all the essential measures to improve
the productivity of the employees.
 Interacting with Subordinates & Higher authority: At Aldi, the manager or leader
will look after all the communication processes which will include the team members of
own department, of other department & the higher authority of the company (Dufosse,
Patry and Reiner, 2014). They will act as a channel between the employees & Aldi's
management. They will communicate all the decisions taken & plans made by authorities
to the employees & the work progress & productivity report to the higher management.
 Maintaining Employees relationships: Beside this, managers & leaders at Aldi will
ensure a healthy relationship between various employees within the department, with
employees of other departments, & with the company. They will hear & will sort out of
any sort of interpersonal or interdepartmental issue to maintain the better flow of the
functionality of the company. Also, they will ensure a better work environment for the
employees.
 Training & Motivation: Apart from this, the managers will also see through it that the
employees of its department are been provided with the efficient trainings to meet the
ongoing market scenarios of the company. They will conduct various training sessions,
workshops & seminars at Aldi to improve the knowledge & skill set of their employees.
Besides this, they will also keep a regular check on their performance. Likewise, the
leaders will motivate the employees to work better for the productivity of the company &
achievement of its targeted growth (Falkowski, Hudak, Crookston and et.al., 2014).
 Providing Compensations & Rewards: The managers will analyse the work
performance of the employees & based on the work efficiency & preciseness, will
provide a better output to the employees in form of rewards, appraisals & incentives. This
will not only motivate the employee to work better but will also build a strong bond of
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loyalty of employees towards Aldi which, on the other hand will improve company's
productivity & work efficiency & will give it a better market share.
 Trait Leadership theory: It states that the leadership of a manager or a leader is based
on the qualities or traits it possesses. The effective handling of the various operations
helps in the better management of the different operations. It helps in better meeting of
the various operations of the individual.
 Behavioural Leadership theory: It includes the approach that states that the behaviour
of a manager or leader is quite important for the better leadership. The managers and
leaders must have a good behaviour to get a better leadership at Aldi. The Tannenbaum
Schmidt Model states that the effective and better handling of various operations helps in
effective handling of different operations based on the factors impacting the behaviour in
an organisation. The operations like directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating
helps in the effective management of the various operations that helps in the better
handling of different training measures at Aldi.
 System theory: The system theory states that the organisation must be considered as a
system with many interconnected components or departments to get a better productivity
and profitability. It consists of open and close system. In open system the tasks are quite
accessible to all the departments of system, while in the closed system the tasks or
operations are not easily accessible. As the Aldi is an open system, its operations are
accessible and interconnected and is deeply affected by various internal and external
methods.
 Fiedler's Contingency Style Model: This involves the better relations with the leaders
and improve the power of various relations. Besides this, it helps in easy identifying of
the various operations helps in better management of the different situations at the cited
firm.
P3: Situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency leadership.
The various theories and details are been taken into the effective consideration for better
handling of the various operations that helps in the effective management of the various
operations of the company. Some major theories that are been taken into effective consideration
are:
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Situational leadership:-Situational leadership mention to when the leader or administrator of
Aldi must set his style to fix the improvement level of the followers he is trying to determine.
With situational leadership, it's up to the leader to change his style, not the follower to
accommodate to the leader’s style. In situational leadership, the style may change continuously
to meet the of necessities of others in the Aldi based on the situation (Premer, Froese, Webster
and et.al., 2016). The situational theory of leadership advise that no individual leadership style is
best rather, it all depends on the condition at hand and which type of leadership and schemes are
better to the work. Situations can be complicated dealings and generally have some elements:
 The structure of social relationships within the group of Aldi.
The characteristics of the group as an entire.
The characteristics of the group's surrounding from which unit come.
The activity content, within the group and among its units.
Systems leadership:-
System leadership is based on improvement model to understand the Aldi as a system
that uses an OD approach to modify both leadership and the ALDI, affecting the way leadership
is applied, negotiated and improved.
For proper leadership to gesture, the Aldi's role itself needs to be firmly in the structure. The
systemic approach permits this by mixing management improvement and Aldi improvement
psychology and proficiently. The characteristics of systems leadership are various from those
that have frequently succeeded within an individual organisation or a small program. Logic-
based linear approaches to problem solving don’t work within highly analyse groups with
multiple performers and, often times conflicting, pressures and motivations (Pyzdek and Keller,
2014.). An entire system can succeed only through managers work cooperation in and across a
figure of utility systems. The entire system can go wrong only if whole level of leadership
system fails, and where respective senior managers are concerned. Therefore, such failure may
be labelled a systemic failure of leadership.
Contingency leadership:-
Contingency theories are a class of behavioural theory that contend that there is no one
the best way of leading and that a leadership style that is impressive in some situations may not
be successful in some other. An outcome of this is that leaders who are very hard-hitting at one
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spot and time may become defeated either when works to another condition or when the
elements around them occurrent (Goetsch and Davis, 2014).
This helps to justify how some leaders who appear for a while to have the 'Ability' suddenly
seem to go off the temperature and make very disappointed judgements. Contingency theory is
related to situational theory in that there is an assumption of no easy one accurate way.
Contingency theory takes a wide view that consider contingent elements about leader capability
and other changes within the situation of Aldi.
TASK 3:
P4: Approaches of operational management & role of managers & leaders at functional areas of
Aldi.
Covered in PPT
P5: Importance & value of operational management & role of leaders & managers at functional
area of Aldi
Covered in PPT
TASK 4:
P6: Factors within the business environment at Aldi
There are various factors which decides the efficient functioning of the operational
management at Aldi. These factors improve the quality of work & will lead to a better
profitability of the company. The factors can be either internal or external that affect the
functionality of the company on a wider prospect. The factors which can affect the
functionalities of the operations are:
 Work Process: In operational functionality, there are fixed routines to a process which is
needed to be followed by the employees & management to gain the profitability &
productivity. The work process will be on high priority within the operations are to be
carried out on a regular basis to meet the market goals of the employees. Also, an
inefficient & unplanned work process will lead to a mayhem & failure of the operational
management of the organisation (Caminero, Van Deun and Fujiwara, 2013). The
employees efforts will fail & will be unable to give the company the desired output which
are to be achieved by the company. This will give rise to a dissatisfaction among
employees.
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 Training: the employees should be provided with adequate trainings & skill sets which
defines their better working efficiency & the employees will give a better output for the
efforts applied in job. Apart from this, the training will improve their self confidence &
will give them a better motivation to perform well which on other hand will give a hike to
the market share & profitability of the Aldi. It will also give managers an idea to make
the best arrangements to improve productivity of the Aldi in the market. The managers &
leaders will look out that the employees are provided with the best trainings to meet the
market demands.
 Time management: This is the most important factor which affects the operational
functionalities at Aldi. The goals decided by the company has to be met by the company
on the time to ensure better profitability of the company. Any sort of delay in work
execution will lay a negative effect on the company, as well as on its work culture
(Pyzdek and Keller, 2014). The managers & leaders at Aldi will manage the work & time
of the operational processes of the company.
 Competition: the rise in competition will also give a major impact to the operational
functionality of the Aldi. The competition will increase the work stress among the
company, having a negative impact on the processes of the company. Besides this, it will
also have a greater impact on the overall profitability as rise in competition will affect the
market share & revenue. Also, the expansion strategy adopted by many firms will give
rise to a major & stiff back off to Aldi in its native market sector. Managers & leaders
will keep on doing a regular analysis of the environment & will device a plan or process
to meet the competition (Gaichas, Fogarty, Fay and et.al., 2017).
Besides this the effective business values, ethics sustainability and better management of
stakeholders by the managers and leaders, will help in the better management of various
operations that helps in the effective handling of different operations and handling of various
operations at Aldi.
Conclusion:
Thus, from this report, we can conclude that Manager & leaders plays very important role
in the operational management of the Aldi. There are various factors which can have a negative
impact on the productivity of the company. Besides this, managers have a major role of not only
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managing the employees & processes but also to ensure smooth flow of the functionality which
on the other hand helps the company to meet the market goals. Also, we have discussed various
factors that can affect the operational functionality of a company & role of managers & leaders
to tackle this sort of problems that occurs while execution of processes.
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References:
Book & journals:
Caminero, J.A., Van Deun, A. and Fujiwara, P.I., 2013. Guidelines for clinical and operational
management of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Paris, France: International Union
Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. pp.18-19.
Pinson, P., 2013. Wind energy: Forecasting challenges for its operational
management. Statistical Science. pp.564-585.
Gaichas, S.K., Fogarty, M., Fay, G., et.al., 2017. Combining stock, multispecies, and ecosystem
level fishery objectives within an operational management procedure: simulations to
start the conversation. ICES Journal of Marine Science. 74(2), pp.552-565.
Dufosse, E.D., Patry, N. and Reiner, W., Gvbb Holdings SARL, 2014. Operational management
solution for media production and distribution. U.S. Patent 8,744,246.
Falkowski, M.J., Hudak, A.T., Crookston, N.L., and et.al., 2014, December. Enhancing Tools
and Geospatial Data to Support Operational Forest Management and Regional Forest
Planning in the Face of Climate Change.
Premer, M.I., Froese, R.E., Webster, C.R. and et.al., 2016. Vegetation response to logging
residue removals in Great Lakes aspen forests: Long-term trends under operational
management. Forest Ecology and Management. 382. pp.257-268.
Pyzdek, T. and Keller, P.A., 2014. The six sigma handbook. pp. 25.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. 50(6).
pp.80-82.
Gomez, T.G., Kennedy, I., Manchester, M. and et. al., 2014. INVESTIGATING WEIGHT
VARIABILITY OF FOOD PRODUCTS-A SIX SIGMA APPROACH. pp.223
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