Leadership and Management in Operations: An Amazon-Centric Analysis

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MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................4
P1 DEFINE AND COMPARE DIFFERENT ROLES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF A
LEADER AND MANAGER.......................................................................................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
P2 APPLICATION OF ROLES OF A LEADER AND FUNCTIONS OF MANAGER IN
DIFFERENT SITUATIONS.......................................................................................................6
P3 APPLICATION OF DIFFERENT THEORIES AND MODELS OF APPROACH.............8
LO3................................................................................................................................................12
P4 KEY APPROACHES TO OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND THE ROLE OF
LEADERS AND MANAGERS................................................................................................12
P5 IMPORTANCE OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT IN ACHIEVING BUSINESS
OBJECTIVES............................................................................................................................16
LO4................................................................................................................................................17
P6 BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS THAT IMPACT ON THE OPERATIONAL
MANAGEMENT AND DECISION MAKING........................................................................17
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20
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INTRODUCTION
This assignment is based on managers, leaders and Operations management. The role of
managers and leaders is clearly defined with the comparison of the roles of both leaders and
managers. Every organisation needs the manager to perform the basic functions of planning,
organising, staffing, directing and controlling and these functions are explained in reference to
Amazon. The theories of leadership and approaches to management is also analysed with the
application in the context of Amazon. The role of operations management in the organisation and
how the operations manager helps in achieving the organisational goals. The relation between
manager and leader, their relation with operations management and how the leaders and
managers help the organisation to achieve goals in environmental changes.
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LO1
P1 DEFINE AND COMPARE DIFFERENT ROLES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF A
LEADER AND MANAGER
Manager – A manager is a person who has the art of getting things done through others. A
manager is responsible for getting employees together with the resources in order to achieve
organizational goal. Managers are having the responsibility to plan, organise and control the
resources including the human resource so that the organisation can achieve success (Slack, et al.
2010).
Leader- A leader is the head of the team at the workplace. He guides the team members to
achieve the goals and influence them to increase the efficiency and effectiveness in their
performance. The leader is a motivator and innovator who work under the manager (Zhang,
2012).
Difference between manager and leader
MANAGER LEADER
The manager has a long term approach to
thinking.
The leader thinks and focuses on short term
goals and objectives.
The manager has a risk-bearing capacity. The leader is not the risk bearer but is creative
and innovator.
The manager is formulator and planner of the
goal.
Leader executes the plan is having the
responsibility to motivate the team members to
achieve the goal.
The manager has the responsibility to manage
the whole department and comparatively have
a wider scope than a leader.
The leader has a very small scope where he
only guides his team members.
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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROLE OF A LEADER AND ROLE OF A MANAGER
The leader works under the manager his role is limited to that of a manager.
 The manager has the role to plan, organize, direct, control the resources including human
resources to achieve the organizational goal but the role of a leader is limited to the
motivation of team members or employees to achieve the goal.
 Manager designs the goal and the leader is the implementer or executor of the
achievement of the goal.
 The manager controls the employees and directs them towards the achievement of goal
whereas the leader influences the team members to work efficiently.
 The manager is a risk taker but the leader is an innovator and gives creative ideas for
success.
 Manager plans for long-term and leader deal with the short term goals
 Manager directs the solution to the problem of employees but the leader solves the
problem of team members with creativity.
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LO2
P2 APPLICATION OF ROLES OF A LEADER AND FUNCTIONS OF MANAGER IN
DIFFERENT SITUATIONS
Functions of manager- manager have a lot of functions from planning goal to its achievement but
mainly there are 5 basic goals of a manager-
Planning- Planning is the main and foremost function of manager, the manager is the planner of
the resources and strategies to achieve the future goals of the organization. Planning includes
resource requirement planning, human resource requirement planning etc. In Amazon the
manager is responsible for the planning of future goals like expansion into new country, for that
planning is required.
Organising- Organising means to provide for all the resources that the employees need to achieve
the organisational goal. It includes management of raw materials, finished goods, machinery, the
capital requirement that will be required for production etc. As Amazon is an E-Commerce
Company it has to deal with retailers/ distributor and customers. The manager here works as an
intermediate between the retailer and consumer, organise the flow of products (Tahan, et al.,
2015).
Staffing- Staffing includes planning for the requirement of human resource, recruitment and
selection of the employees according to the skills and qualification of the job and training them
about the working process of the organisation. In Amazon, the skills required to be an employee
is good communication and creative skills. Amazon has a protocol for the employees which are
to be communicated to employees and to be strictly followed (Tahan, et al., 2015).
Directing – After the manager assigns and delegate the responsibilities of the employees and
leaders he needs to communicate, guide and encouraging the employees and leaders to work
effectively and within the time frame allotted for the task. In Amazon, the manager has to clearly
communicate to employees and motivate them to achieve the targets (Tahan, et al., 2015).
Controlling- Controlling means to measure the performance of employees and compare the same
with the standards or set goals. The results should match the standards if they don't then the
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performance is not good, so the manager should analyse the cause of underperformance and
should solve the problem. In Amazon, the manager has the job to evaluate the performance of
employees and compare with the requirements. He should take corrective actions if they don’t
meet the required target (Tahan, et al., 2015).
Figure- Function of Manager
Roles of a leader
 Motivation- The leader is responsible for guiding, motivating and influencing the
employees to achieve the organization goal. The leader cannot be the person who guides
only he too has to work with the team to achieve the goals. Like in Amazon there are
various departments and various segments so the leaders have the job to make employees
achieve the target on time as time is most valued in Amazon.
 Creative and innovator- A leader needs to be creative as innovation and creativity is the
reason for the survival of the company. The leader has to deal with the issues in a creative
way. As Amazon is the organisation which have the competitive edge of creativity and
innovation so leaders here have to be creative in every task they perform.
 Problem solver and executer- The role of a leader is to solve the problems of the team
member, as team members depend on the leader for the solution as he is having more
experience than other team members and is having the ability to guide them in order to
achieve efficiency. In Amazon the leaders of different teams and have different problems
like the product is not delivered by the retailer or distributor so there will be delay in
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further delivering of the product to customer, the leader should have the ability to deal
with this type of problems like he can switch to another dealer who can provide the same
product timely.
P3 APPLICATION OF DIFFERENT THEORIES AND MODELS OF APPROACH
THEORIES OF LEADER
Situational leadership- This leadership approach don’t focus on a single leadership style but the
leader have the option to switch its style of leadership according to the situation, if the leader
thinks that in the current case there is no creativity required so he may choose system approach
and if the there is a requirement of creativity and innovation the leader can choose the style of
leadership in which he can welcome the opinions and ideas of the employees or team
members(Giltinane, 2013). This leadership will be appropriate for Amazon, as there are
situations where the experience counts and in that situation autocratic leadership can be applied
and as Amazon is the company which needs innovation the leader can choose participative
leadership that will appreciate the ideas of the team members.
System leadership – In this theory the leader constantly communicates the current working
condition of employees and the employees will get the recommendations before the problem
becomes too big to handle (Giltinane, 2013). In Amazon, this type of leadership can be very
appropriate as the company is about providing services on time so employees can be pinned
about their current performances and can bring up the performance level on the spot.
Contingency leadership- This leadership style states that the leader is to lead the team
according to the contingency of the task. This approach is also suitable for Amazon as the
working in this theory strategies can be chosen which best fits with the time as they have in
delivering and transportation of the products is very low, so the strategy matching the situation
will be chosen (Giltinane, 2013).
APPROACHES OF MANAGER
Classical approach
This approach is based on the original researches done on management and were developed in
order to improve productivity, effectiveness and output. This approach focuses on three theories
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that are a bureaucratic, administrative and scientific theory of management. This theory does not
concern with employee satisfaction or need of motivation to the employee. This approach is not
suitable for Amazon because this approach doesn’t care about the feelings of employees and
Amazon values its employees very much (Epelboym and Mazeh, 2014).
Management by objectives
This is a management model which focuses on improving the performance of the organisation by
defining the objectives which are acceptable to both the employees and the management. This
theory helps in creating commitment among the employees for the organisation and induces
participation from the employees (Drucker, 2012). The MBO approach also includes comparing
and controlling the actual performances from the defined objectives. The process of management
by objectives includes 6 steps:
 Defining the objectives
The first step is to determine the objectives and goals of the organisation which it wants
to achieve. The goal should be feasible, achievable. The goal in Amazon can be for
example to achieve the revenue of £60 million this quarter, so this goal should be slightly
more than the previous quarter revenue.
 Define employees objective
The goal defined by the management should match with the thinking of employees. If the
target is number is acceptable to the employees that only the objective will be further
continued. The time duration is fit to achieve the target or not, this question should be
asked by the manager to employees. The employees in Amazon should collectively agree
to the fact that they can achieve the specified target on time of 3 months.
 Monitoring performance
The manager has the responsibility here to monitor the employees, see that the employees
are working efficiently or not. The performance of the employees depend upon
motivation too and other environmental factors. In Amazon the employees working
hours, productivity over the week all is calculated by the software and the manager only
have to analyse the results.
 Evaluation
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The manager should match the weekly, monthly performances to the standards. These
outcomes should be close to the desired objectives. The manager at Amazon believes in
employee satisfaction and knows the strengths and weakness of each employee, he
evaluates the performances with the actual target.
 Feedback
The manager can give and get feedback from the employees. Getting the feedback of
problems from the employee is very much important as solving the problems timely can
reduce the wastage. The manager should give regular feedback to the employees about
their performances; by this, the employees will be self-rectifying their performances and
will be complete the task on time. In Amazon, there are various new technologies that
remind the employee about its target and quality of performance.
 Performance appraisal
The employees work very hard in achieving the organisational goals on time and so they
need to be given the appreciation for the same. The best performer should be awarded
and others should be motivated to do more and achieve more efficiency in their working.
Amazon values the dedication of employees and knows how to reward them plus they
provide the benefits of medical insurance from the day one which is also a motivation for
the employees.
Behavioural approach
This theory focuses on human behaviour and values the employees as the employees are the
assets to the organisation. When the manager takes interest in the workers they feel part of the
group. This theory is opposed to the classical theory of the management where the employees
were treated like robots and the focus was to increase efficiency, not employee satisfaction.
Behavioural theory helps the organisation to retain the employees and reduce the labour
turnover. The theory states that motivation is the key to increase the efficiency of people.
Motivation is a requirement of every employee, motivation need not be in monetary terms
always it can be through recognition, appreciation of the performances of employees. The
behaviour of an employee depends upon the basic needs of the employees which include salary
needs, esteem needs, physiological needs, safety needs (Gavetti, et al., 2012).
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Amazon values employees and provides the medical insurance on the date of joining; this is
safety need fulfilment of the employee. Amazon builds up the skills like leadership skills this is
the esteem need which helps the employee grow in the organisation and individually. Amazon
provides a good and healthy salary package and yearly bonus which works as a motivation to the
employees working there.
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LO3
P4 KEY APPROACHES TO OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND THE ROLE OF
LEADERS AND MANAGERS
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