Leadership and Management Roles in ASDA's Operational Efficiency

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
ASDA

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................2
LO1 DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN THE ROLE OF A LEADER AND THE FUNCTION
OF A MANAGER.........................................................................................................................3
LO2 APPLY THE ROLE OF A LEADER AND THE FUNCTION OF A MANAGER...........9
LO3 DEMONSTRATE AN APPRECIATION OF THE ROLE LEADERS AND
MANAGERS PLAY IN THE OPERATIONS FUNCTION OF AN ORGANISATION........14
LO4 DEMONSTRATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN A CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT........................................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................... 23
1

2

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations in an organization play a vital role. The successful
structure of an organization is based on Proper management and Operational activities.
The managers are responsible to look and to manage all the managerial operations.
Management is an art of getting things done and operations are the activities performed
by individuals in an organization under a manager (Das, 2015). This assignment is
based on ASDA's Management and operational activities in the UK. ASDA is one of the
leading retail supermarket and the second largest retail company also in the UK. IN this
assignment, The ASDA’s Management strategies and managerial Activities will be
discussed. ASDA doesn’t only Provides the grocery but also deals with general
merchandise and financial services. The roles of leaders and functions of managers will
be discussed in this assignment. The relationship of managers and leaders will be
discussed and how their functions impact the organization will be analyzed with different
theories and models. The key approaches and importance of operations managers will
be discussed and how managers play a great role in order to achieve the business
objective will also be evaluated. The leaders are efficient to achieve the business
objective will also be examined here with examples by which the learners will be able to
understand the Business management or operational activities properly.
3

LO1 DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN THE ROLE OF A LEADER AND
THE FUNCTION OF A MANAGER
A leader is the one who carries the respect, Ethics, values and trust of the company. A
leader is also responsible for management activities (Chiu et al., 2017). A leader should
have the capability to delegate the work to its employees and should be able to
understand the tasks performing by his employees. Apart from this manager also plays
a vital role in a company. A manager is a person who manages all the activities and
superior to allow the task to the leaders within the organization in order to meet with the
company's objectives.
Difference between leaders and managers
Managers Leaders
Managers develop the company’s
objectives
Leaders induce the objectives set by the
managers with the help of his team
members.
Managers discuss the policies with leaders Leaders convey the policies to team
members in order to influence them to
work according to the policies.
Managers direct the groups. Leaders direct the teams.
Managers are the innovators to create new
ideas for the development of the company.
Leaders Execute the ideas into action.
Managers are focused on objects. Leaders are focused on People.
The role of the manager is to plan. Leaders mainly work to inspire the
employees of his team
Managers provide the direction to work to
the employees
Leaders provide the motivation to work to
the employees.
4

ASDA’s managers are quite focused to increase the productivity of the company and
leaders are well trained to understand the task and delegate the task to its team
(Murphy and Murphy, 2017). They both are qualified to perform their individual roles in
the best possible manner. ASDA has performed really well in terms of providing the best
hygienic food in the UK as well as in other countries. This is all because of the good
performance of Leaders and managers of ASDA. The roles and functions of managers
and leaders can be understood better with the help of Different theories described
below-
Figure 1: Management Theories
[Source: Heizer et al., 2017]
1) Theory of Scientific Management- Frederick Taylor’s theory of scientific
management is mainly focused on improving the productivity of labours and
5

efficiency of the economy of the company. This theory is based on employees
and labour motivation that comes from a good package of money. And hence,
Taylor's mainly focused on two differential rate plans. First is, if workers are
working more efficiently than they should be paid 120% from their normal piece
of rate and the second is if the workers are less efficient in their work then they
should be paid 80% from their normal piece of rate. Apart from this, this theory
also involves four principles and these are,
1. Time and motion study
2. Teach, train and development of employees
3. Premium payment on high performance
4. A mutual understanding between employer and employee (Vittikh, 2015).
2) Administrative management theory - This is a very famous theory given by the
Henri Fayol and he is also known as Father of Management. This theory involves
14 principles in order to understand the management process from every aspect.
1. Initiative - This is all about the freedom of the employee to work as per their
own interest. Company doesn't force or order to work.
2. Division of Work- This helps the leaders to divide the jobs to the workers and
employees as per there interest and skills.
3. Equity – This ensures the kindness and justice with every member of the
company and leaders should treat every member equally.
4. Stability of tenure- ASDA provides the secured job to their employees so that
they can work efficiently without any worries about future security.
5. Discipline- ASDA’s leaders also maintain the discipline in the workplace and
the employees are also respectful and obedient towards their leaders in the
company.
6. Authority and responsibility- Leaders are having the rights to make decisions
and command where they are also responsible for the performance of the
employees.
6

7. Remuneration- This helps to maintain the monitory and non-monitory
remuneration. ASDA should focus on the non- monitory remuneration in order
to maintain a good relationship between employee and employer.
8. Esprit they Corps- This principle is based on the unity as strength. ASDA's
leaders are much focused to create a strong team in order to increase
productivity.
9. Centralization- This principle implies that the leaders should be capable to
delegate the task to the subordinates but should be capable to take the
important decisions also. Overall the top level of authorities must be
centralized to the top level of management.
10. Subordination of individual interest- This principle is based on the harmony of
individual interest and organizational interest. Leaders of ASDA are more
focused on organizational interest as the better performance in the
organization reflects the productivity and employees get the reward on better
performance.
11. Scalar chain – ASDA has Hierarchy from top-level management to bottom
level management that helps to delegate the work step by step in order to
manage the work performance.
12. Unity of command – At one time, the employees should get the orders from
only one supervisor. More commanding supervisors can create the confusion
and ultimately the hustles will increase.
13. Unity of direction- There should only be one manager to direct and the
employees should be under his guidance so that work could be done with the
same strategy in order to meet with the goals and objectives of the company.
14. Order – There should be the right person for different tasks in order to run
business activities smoothly (Manning, 2017).
3) Max Weber’s Bureaucratic Theory of Management- This theory differentiates
Power and authority. It involves the Division of labours, management by rules;
legal power is in priority, documents should be written and follows the hierarchy
of formal structure (Niskanen, 2017).
7

4) Elton Mayo’s Behavioural Theory of Management- This theory mainly focuses
on products that can be increased by employees’ better work performance. This
theory studied the work of the employees and provides them with a positive
environment to work with dedication (Chukwuemeka and Onuoha, 2018.).
Leadership Theories
1) Trait Theory of leadership – This theory mainly focuses on the qualities of an
individual. It ensures that every person is born with a specific personality and
character that helps the individuals to lead. ASDA doesn't avoid the qualities of a
leader like intelligence, ability to take responsibility, motivate team members,
trustworthy, self-confident, Flexible and good decision maker. These leadership
qualities help the organization to grow (Nawaz et al., 2016.).
2) Behavioural Theory of leadership– Behavioural theory is based on the
person's certain leading behaviour. They are not at all inborn leaders. They are
made. In this theory, leaders are quite concerned with the task and people. This
theory helps to find out the leadership qualities by their behaviour in an
individual. ASDA's leaders are way better in order to maintain their behavioural
qualities to lead the team (Holten and Brenner, 2015).
3) Contingency Theory of Leadership- Contingency theory ensures the qualities
of an individual that come out only in certain situations. It argues that there is no
fixed style to lead the team. The leading style gets change according to the
situation. Leaders show the leadership style as per the situation in order to make
his team member comfortable and feel that their team members will complete the
task given by the leader (Fiedler, 2015).
4) Transactional Theories of Leadership- This theory is the best theory in order
to maintain a good relationship between the leader and the followers. Followers
perform the given task and leaders reward the as per their performance that
creates a positive environment to work with enthusiasm. This theory is all about
‘Give and Take'. It ensures that if the employees will work with the best result
then the company will reward them in different ways. ASDA's is quite focused to
8

provide the best services from its employees and hence ASDA prepares leaders
in order to get the best output and reward them with promotions and incentives
also (Khan, 2017).
5) Transformational Leadership theory - This theory is based on the
transformation of attractive personality and inspiration from leader to followers.
Leaders keep the rules and regulations flexible in order to maintain the flexible
work environment, this theory also helps to maintain the good relationship
between the leader and the followers that results in trust and motivation for both.
Later on, this relationship eases their teamwork and results in the best output.
ASDA should follow this theory in order to maintain a good relationship between
followers and leaders in order to get a better result without any discrepancy
(Ghasabeh et al., 2015).
1.
9

LO2 APPLY THE ROLE OF A LEADER AND THE FUNCTION OF A
MANAGER
Role of leaders in ASDA
ASDA doesn't make any kind of delay in order to prepare their leaders to think ahead.
ASDA's leaders are really advanced in terms of thought process as well as to act on
business opportunities. Leaders perform in a very challenging manner in order to
develop their leadership skills. The recent leadership event of 2011 took the example of
ASDA's strategy and around 10,000 managers and leaders were the part of that event
in the UK. It clearly shows that ASDA's leadership and managing skills are far better
than other company's leadership and management skills. Other key roles of ASDA's
leaders are discussed below-
1) ASDA provides the internship programs to the students and they educate
them to think ahead and enhance their leadership skills by proper training.
2) ASDA’s Leaders are efficient enough to carry the association’s work.
3) The leaders are well-trained and they know how to grab the information in
order to get future opportunities for the development.
4) ASDA’s communication council works to improve the communication between
leadership and membership of ASDA. And this is successfully done with the
help of ASDA’s website and digital initiatives.
5) ASDA's leaders maintain ethical behaviour also in order to reduce the
chances of ethical issues (Donate and de Pablo, 2015).
6) The leadership development of workgroup arranges the national leadership
training where the leaders get more effective leadership training.
10

Functions of Managers in ASDA
1) Staffing – Managers recruit the desired candidate in order to fill the vacancy of
the company
2) Coordination- The managers coordinate with leaders in order to make effective
strategies to increase the productivity of the company.
3) Organizing- Managers play the main role in optimum utilization of available
resources in a company in order to conduct the smooth flow of operational
activities.
4) Planning- Managers plan the strategies effectively in order to build effective
communication between leaders and employers that helps to increase
productivity.
5) Control- Managers are capable to control all the operational activities in order to
meet with organizational objectives.
6) Directing- Managers play a great role in terms of direct the leaders so that they
can meet up with the target.
7) Rights- Managers have special rights to take certain decisions in order to make
the working environment flexible for employees (Bachman et al., 2017.).
Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency
The situational approach of leadership- Situational leadership is based on the
relationship between leaders and followers. It helps to analyse the situation and they
work accordingly. This leadership maintains the performance in a common way as well
as it develops the qualities of the employee. Leaders are also allowed to change their
leadership style as per the changing circumstances.
11