Management and Operations: A Report on Amazon's Leadership Strategies

This report provides a detailed analysis of leadership and management practices, using Amazon as a case study. It begins by differentiating between leaders and managers, outlining their roles, characteristics, and comparing their visions, decision-making processes, and approaches to tasks. The report then explores the functions of a manager, including planning, directing, organizing, coordinating, and controlling, using the example of a retail manager. It also examines how leadership models, such as situational, systems, and contingency leadership, are applied within an organization. The second part of the report focuses on Amazon's operational management, detailing key approaches like designing, location strategy, quality management, supply chain management, and maintenance. It highlights the roles of Amazon leaders and managers in operational management, emphasizing their strategies for employee motivation, shipping efficiency, and infrastructure investment. The report concludes by providing recommendations based on the case study.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
A) Difference between a Leader and a Manager.........................................................................1
B) Comparisons of roles and characteristics of leaders and managers .......................................2
C) Explain the following .............................................................................................................2
II. The functions of a manager.....................................................................................................3
TASK-2............................................................................................................................................1
A) Key approaches to Operational Management.........................................................................1
I Operational management...........................................................................................................1
II. Decision-making of leaders.....................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Management and operation usually helps in understanding special features of
management that contracts management and operation which gives maintenance and provide
sample contracts which bids documents. This report is totally based on case study that is of
Amazon which is in e-commerce industry. It will be presenting on the role of managers and
how it will be helping in growth by managers and with their development. The report will be
indicating on the perspective of leadership in organisation and how to maintain it. It will also be
giving recommendations on the basis of e commerce industry with leadership in organisation
with some specific theory i.e. of contingency theory of leadership.
TASK 1
A) Difference between a Leader and a Manager
Both leader and manager work simultaneously for the betterment of company and to
maintain its brand image in the market. Good leaders and mangers always help to compete with
its rivals in the market.
Leader: Leaders are those pillars of the organization or company who guides its team
members and motivate them to achieve the company's goal. It sets directions for the team to
follow. Its main aim is to increase growth and development of the company. A Leader helps to
minimize upcoming risks and threats to the company. They work for it's's effectiveness. A good
leader should have qualities such as- he must be innovative, motivated, confident and having
good leadership . He should also acts as a guide or mentor who encourages its whole team to
work hard and completes their tasks. (Hassan, Mahsud and Prussia, 2013). He will asign work
to his team members to work in proper manner. A good leader is must for the company. for
innovation and to put all their hard work.
Manager: A person who manages the entire organization is known as a manager. He is
responsible for planning, giving directions and executing them. A good manager always plans
strategies for the employees to work efficiently. He is a good decision maker for the
organization and is always ready to take risks and plann to overcome from it. Responsibilities
that a good manager should have is, he must be innovative in terms of giving new ideas to the
organization, planning and executing it, giving directions to the employees (Heizer and et.al.,
2009). Managers have effective decision-making skills.They have a very good business
developing skillsand can produce more revenue from their products.
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B) Comparisons of roles and characteristics of leaders and managers
Some major differences between a leader and manager are as following:
Vision: A good leader has a vision in its mind on how to work efficiently while a
manager has the ability to execute that vision by making some strategic plans for the employees.
Ability to challenge: Leader generally tries to minimize the risks while a manager tries
to take risks and tries to overcome it.
Decision making: A leader always tries to facilitate decisions while a manager makes
decisions for the employees to work effectively.
Implementation: A good leader always tries to innovate or invent new ideas while a
manager always tries to manage things which are already exists in the organization.
Aim: A leader’s aim is to always increase the growth and development of company
while manager tries to attain the end result.
Orientation: Leaders generally are people oriented while managers are task oriented.
Outcomes / Results: The main outcomes of leaders are their achievements while that of
manager is the final outcome/ result.
Focus: Leaders main focus is on leading their team members while managers manage
the whole work of that team (Seuring, 2013).
Approach towards tasks: Leaders lookout for problems and try to create new solutions.
They motivate and help other employees to solve the problems by themselves. On the other
hand, managers create different policies, strategies, to come up with new and innovative ideas
to execute.
C) Explain the following
I. role of a leader: Leadership is a practical skill which has the ability to guide other
individual in the entire organizations. Leaders focus on an organization’s strengths to analyze its
current situation. A good leadership is always required in the organization to work efficiently
and smoothly. They give guidance to their team members to work properly. For representing the
company, a good leader plays a vital role. It helps to set a clear vision ahead of their team to
understand and accept the work assigned to them.
They help to motivate the employees and guiding them to make them understand their
work. A good leader tries to connect to their team members. Leader empowers the employees
with honesty and transparency to work hard in the organization (Dale, 2015). A good leader has
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great communication skills which help them communicate the policies very precisely and
effectively. They have a great sense of responsibility which is very important to work in the
organization. For example, if the organization is planning to launch some new products in the
market, he will first go through the product's research analysis and then will allot the work to
the team.He will allot work to different employee to work efficiently and in faster rate. In this
way, a leader works in the organizations by taking all the employees together.
II. The functions of a manager
A manager plays many functions in the organization to manage things. It can be planning,
directing, controlling, organizing, leading, etc.
Planning: It is the basic step which is required for the organization to work. Planning
anything before executing it will help an organization to grow efficiently.
Directing: After planning, directing that plan is the next process for the manager to
execute. Properly directing and guiding the employees is an important task for the
manager.Giving proper directuin and guidance to the employee is most important for the
manager.
Organizing: Organizing the plan is the next process which is done to synchrone and
making sure that everything is going smoothly. Every task should be done in proper manner to
work fast and effectively (Du and et.al., 2013).
Coordinating: Coordination between the employee and the manager is also impoprtant
fot the organization to maintain a healthy environment.
Controlling: Manager has a great controlling power so its his job to make sure that
everything is working in control.
D) Explanation of how a manager you identified carry out his/her functions giving examples
Retail manager has to run his store successfully in order to maintain brand image of the store in
the repective market. They should be always keeping in contact with their customers and staff
members. They have to ensure that the staff is giving their bestservices to the customers and
making a good profit from it.
Responsibilities of the retail manager include:
 Recruiting, Training, Supervising and Appraising staff: First he will recruit the
employees which are most suitable for the company. They should be hard working.
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After recruiting, he will organise a training session to give them some basic knowledge
of their work and how to do it.
 Managing budgets: To maintain budget of the company, manager should always have a
balanced amount of money in the company's budget to fulfil all needs and requirements
of staff as well as organization.
 Maintaining Statistical and Financial Records: He should always have a record of the
finance department and maintaining a proper balance in statistical and financial records.
 Dealing with Customer Queries and Complaints: Manager should always make sure
that customer feedback is his first priority and should be positive always. And if there is
any such complaints or queries coming from customer side they should immediately be
solved.
 Stock control: Manager should always ensure that enough stock is there to fulfill all
needs of the customers.
 Ensuring compliance with Health and Safety legislation: Health and safety is most
important to take care of. If the staff members are not feeling well, they will give no
output from their side. To main a good working environment in the comoany, health
and safety of the customers should be considered by him.
 Preparing Promotional events: Organizing some promotional events to promote the
products and interacting with people will help a company to build trust among people of
society. This helps to increase the customers.
These are some points which the appointed retail manager should keep in mind to run
his company smoothly and work efficiently in order to gain more revenue.
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E) Explaining how leadership models are applied in the organisation by manager
eadership behavior There are three types of leadership approach i.e. situational , systems
and contingency leadership. To run the company smoothly the manager should apply all these
approaches towards his/her work. For example, in situational or contingency leadership, the
manager should apply his/her styles or strategies in order to fulfil the requirement (Northouse,
2012). These types of approaches encourage the manager to analyze the situations in detail and
come up with most appropriate solution.
TASK-2
A) Key approaches to Operational Management
Operational management refers to planning, executing and controlling the administration
of a business to increase the efficiency of it in all possible ways within an organization by
converting its resources into desired goods and services. There are several key approaches that
Amazon Company applies in their system, such as: Designing: It is done by applying new and
advanced technology which can meet the needs of customers. For example, Amazon uses some
advanced informational and communication technologies to make sure that their online retail
services are working efficiently and satisfying every customer’s needs and requests.
Location Strategy: For the location, Amazon is putting effort to locate their warehouses to the
areas that are near to their maximum number of customers on their online retail shop.
Quality Management: In this section, the operational management team makes sure that the
quality they are providing to their customers by satisfying their expectations. This requires
continuous improvement in their online retail stores.
Supply Chain Management: The operational management ensures that the supply of their
goods and services are reaching to their customers on time. Amazon has also has a option to
track the order and can directly communicate with the suppliers to get the details of his/her
order.Maintenance: In this section, the operational management team makes sure that the
maintenance of the company's warehouse is up to date. They ensure that it has enough stock
available. Amazon has a specialized team for maintaining technological assets of the company.
These are some of the most important key approaches of the Amazon which they are following
to grow their business more and more in this competitive world.
B) Role of Amazon leaders and managers with regards to its operations management
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Leaders and managers can connect effectively with their employees to understand the
value of work. They play a crucial role with regards to its operational management. Both of
them work together to achieve its target or goals which is to make their customers happy and
satisfied They frequently plan or make some strategies with innovative ideas to implement on
their online retail website to make it more attractive and efficient to use by of the customers
(Hassan, Mahsud and Prussia, 2013). The leader of Amazon tried to keep his employees
motivated and dedicated towards their work . With the guidance of proper leadership and
management of the company it has increased its shipping speed very effectively as compared
with many rivalry companies. They have also started their one day delivery option to attract
more customers. The company has also invested a huge amount on its infrastructure and
technology.
In between, some attractive plans are coming on website which makes it more popular
amongst all other online retailing shops. All these activities are managed by leaders and
managers of Amazon as they indirectly represent the company's name in the market. So it’s
very important for them to have good and effective team of leaders and managers who can
perform all these tasks. Moreover, they work as 2 important pillars of the organization (Heizer
and et.al., 2009). The dream of Amazon is to increase its availability by 85% in coming future
to gain to top level in market. All this will be done by the operational management team of the
company along with some plans and strategies made by company's leaders and managers.
Amazon has also stepped into grocery-market in US and UK to attract customers who often
shop groceries online. This has leaded the company to maintain its position in the market of
online shopping.
C) Importance of operations management in accomplishing goals of organization (P5)
The operations management is required to be managed in that way by which company
may be able to achieve stated goals in the best possible manner. There is immense importance
of operations management in Amazon so that it accomplishes desired goals in timely manner. It
includes managerial duties and responsibilities of leader as well to effectively achieve goals of
the company in effectual way. The inputs or resources are transformed in that way by which
output can be generated with reduced costs. This will bring efficiency and as such, optimum
utilisation of resources will take place and as a result, wastage would be minimised as well.
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Furthermore, value of operations management in Amazon is that customer services are
provided in fast and quick manner. It is the main reason which has made this organization
successful as deliveries regarding orders are imparted them at a faster rate. Thus, quicker
deliveries are made possible because of enhanced operations management of company.
Moreover, another value of this management is to increase overall productivity in the best
possible manner. The importance of operations management team is to seek that productivity is
enhanced in a better way so that customer's orders are fulfilled at the earliest and as such,
expectations are met effectively and that too within stipulated time.
An operation management streamlines overall performance of company and as a result,
better results can be obtained which gradually enhances sales of firm and more profits can be
garnered in effectual manner. For meeting effectively demand of the customers', Amazon
should analyse resources in that way so that business may be able to meet orders of customers
in effective way. If resources are not adequately available, operations management streamlines
the same and made available it to accomplish goals.
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D Assessing the factors which affects the internal environment of Amazon
There have been various operations which in turn affects the internal business operations
of Amazon (Gupta, 2017). However, there can be some influence of various variables and
factors which affect the business operation of this business such as:
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I Operational management
Amazon mainly operates in selling products through its online site which in turn has the
impacts over the operational activities in the business. There are various brands and companies
which are collaborative to the firm in terms of making appropriate improvements in the business
operations (5 Factors that Influence Business Environment, 2018). On the other side, this
business operates in various countries which will have impacts of cultural diversity that will be
indicative and affective to the business.
II. Decision-making of leaders
The business is operating over online platform and has huge brand varieties which are
clothes, accessories, gadgets etc. therefore, it has a huge workforce which helps in controlling
the operational tasks (Choi, Chan and Yue, 2017). The decision made by professionals to extent
the business on global level brings them positive response from the consumers (Akhtar and
et.al., 2018). Therefore, all the products and services which are being provided by them to all
the cultural area which will be effective in terms of rising the profitable gains of Amazon.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that leadership in any organisation is a
basic necessity for growth. Moreover, there is an essential need for management and operations
especially in e-commerce industry. This report has given the role of managers in operations.
The functions of manager are very important for leading any organisation in industry.
Situational leadership, system leadership and contingency leadership have their own merits as
well as demerits which are elaborated in the above report. There are many factors which has a
major impact on the wider business environment.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Top management tangible competencies, relationship‐based business networks and
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Choi, T. M., Chan, H. K. and Yue, X., 2017. Recent development in big data analytics for
business operations and risk management. IEEE transactions on cybernetics. 47(1).
pp.81-92.
Dale, B., 2015. Total quality management. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Du, S. and et.al., 2013. The roles of leadership styles in corporate social responsibility. Journal
of business ethics. 114(1). pp.155-169.
Gupta, S., 2017. Knowledge Economy: A Need for Social Reformation. Journal of
Management Science, Operations & Strategies (e ISSN 2456-9305). 1(1). pp.16-20.
Hassan, S., Mahsud, R. and Prussia, G. E., 2013. Ethical and empowering leadership and leader
effectiveness. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 28(2). pp.133-146.
Heizer, and et.al., 2009. Operations Management. Pearson Education India.
Northouse, G.P., 2012. Leadership: Theory and Practice. SAGE Publications.
Okurame, D., 2012. Impact of career growth prospects and formal mentoring on organisational
citizenship behaviour. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 33(1). pp.66 –
85.
Perkins, S., 2013. Organizational Behaviour: People, Process, Work and Human Resource
Management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Seuring, S., 2013. A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain management.
Decision support systems. 54(4). pp.1513-1520.
Online
5 Factors that Influence Business Environment. 2018. [Online]. Available through
:<https://www.paypervids.com/factors-influence-business-environment/>.
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