Barclays plc Leadership and Management Operations Report

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MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
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Executive Summary
The departments of Management and operations of a company are influenced by business
functions such as execution and decision making. The company selected in this report is
Barclays plc. This study attempts to evaluate the role of leaders on the basis of several
external as well as internal attributes. These theoretical concepts pertain to several factors
such as appearance, demographics, age and background in order to understand their
significance. This is evident for the type of businesses such as online business portals and the
physical retail stores. It can be concluded from the present case studies that operations
management departments as an active business trade is influenced by both external and
internal factors.
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Company Background................................................................................................................4
LO1 Role of a leader and Function of a Manager......................................................................5
P1 Roles and Characteristics of a leader and a manager........................................................5
M1 Leadership and Managerial theories................................................................................6
LO2 Application of the role of a manger and functions of a leader in the given context..........7
P2 Roles of a leader and functions of a manger in different situations..................................7
P3 Leadership and managerial theories..................................................................................8
M2 Strengths and weaknesses of the theories........................................................................9
D1 Leadership theories and approaches.................................................................................9
LO3 Roles of a leader and managers in operations functions..................................................10
P4 Approaches of operations management..........................................................................10
P5 Importance and value of operations management...........................................................10
M3 Leaders and managers improving the efficiencies of the operations management........12
LO4 Relationship between the leadership and management in contemporary business
environment..............................................................................................................................12
P6 Factors of business environment impacting on operations management........................12
M4 Impact of the factors in business environment and wider community..........................15
Applications of operations management..............................................................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................................16
Reference List..........................................................................................................................17
Appendices...............................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
The departments responsible for the management and operations of company are concerned
with two of the most important functions of a business. One of these functions is the
responsibility of the overall management of a business. The other function is responsible for
the smooth running of production operation of the company. There is an existence of an inter-
relationship between these two departments. The operation department is dependent on the
management department for the purpose of its overall management. On the other hand, the
management department is concerned about the management purpose of human resources of
the operation department. For the present case study of Barclays plc, both the departments of
operations and management will be evaluated by applying different leadership and
managerial theories.
Company Background
Barclays plc is a multinational investment bank and financial services company of British
origin headquartered in London. It provides various banking services categorized into four
core businesses. These four core businesses are presented as Personal Banking, Investment
Management, Corporate Banking and Wealth Management. The latest financial year of 2017-
2018 reveals that the bank had made a huge profit turnover of around 2,113.6 crores GBP.
This bank has several subsidiaries including Barclaycard, Barclays Investment Bank,
Barclays Bank of Ireland and many others. The vision of the bank is stated to emerge as one
of the most recommended brand for the clients and customers in terms of innovative banking,
market leadership and customer satisfaction (home.barclays, 2019).
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Figure 1: Barclays plc
(Source: home.barclays, 2019)
LO1 Role of a leader and Function of a Manager
P1 Roles and Characteristics of a leader and a manager
Essential leadership: The leadership is termed to be a necessary function that is required in
all the management levels of Barclays plc. The top level of management requires a leader to
participate in several decision making sessions. The leaders are expected to co-work with
their colleagues for the finalization of a decision. On the contrary, the leaders of the middle
and lower level need to follow the project plans decided by the top level leaders. The impact
of a good leadership in Barclays plc is evident in the guidance and counseling sessions with
the project partners at the time of project execution.
Company Representative: There exists an unexpressed presumption to consider the leader
as a capable representative of the company, the leader is working for. Thus, it is on the part of
the leader to represent the company in several meetings, conference and workshops sessions
taking place outside the company. A leader belonging to Barclays plc is presented the
responsibility to convey the company rationale in these events for others attending it . On the
other hand, department leader of a company is considered as the representative of that
specific department. Thereby that leader is given the responsibility of conveying the progress
report of that department to the higher authorities.
A typical leader is characterized by characteristic qualities such as being honesty, confident,
creative and committed having positive attitude in all situations.
Figurehead: The manager of Barclays plc has multiple roles to play in a company. This is
evident from the Figurehead role of a manger. As per this role, a manager is given the
responsibility for a number of tasks ranging from initiating an event of the company to
welcoming the invited guests of the event. Apart from this, the manager is responsible for
arranging all the necessities of the event in addition to many others. In case of a conflict arise,
the manager is supposed to resolve that conflict. Using this experience, the manger is
expected to avoid the occurrence of such conflict in future. The figurehead role of a manger
symbolizes the company. At the bottom level of the company hierarchy, the frontline and
functional managers act as the figurehead.
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Role as a Leader: A manager functions as a leader in various situations as per requirement in
Barclays plc. The manager functioning presented with the charge of a department is expected
to lead the other subordinates of the department. Thus, it is essential on the part of the
manager to lead in the most efficient way possible. As a leader, the manager is expected to
maximize the effectiveness of the followers. Managerial work as a leader can be very
rewarding.
Monitoring: The monitoring of the situation is the progress tracking of that situation. A
manager is expected to be ready to face the well known obstacle called problem. This is
because, problems are sure to arise in an ongoing process. Thus, the managers are selected on
the basis of problem solving skill. One of the common problems arising in a situation is the
shortage of resources. This problem is avoided by the optimum usage of the allocated
resources. In addition to this, inventory is managed efficiently in order to maintain a balance
between the resources and the product.
A responsible manager is identified by qualities such as possession of knowledge, excellent
communication, capable of being a leader, time management and many others.
M1 Leadership and Managerial theories
There exist several leadership theories for the analysis purpose of leadership responsibilities.
Great Man Theory: As per the provisions of this theory, in Barclays plc, the leaders are
considered to be in born with the qualities of being an efficient leader. Such qualities include
communication, intelligence, confidence and many others. Among all such qualities, the skill
of excellent communication is considered to be the most important. This is primarily because
this skill helps a leader to lead the followers. The theory also considers that every leader has
an inbuilt quality of leading the followers in any situation, be it problem oriented or
otherwise.
Trait Theory: This theory suggests that both the successful as well as failed leaders of
Barclays plc are subjected for evaluation. Such evaluation is carried out based for the
identification of their favorite leadership strategies. Thus the prediction of effective
leadership is done by this theory. As per this theory, the characteristic of successful leaders is
compared with a potential leader. This is done to finalize the decision of leader selection. As
per the provisions of this theory, a leader is evaluated based on several external qualities
including appearance, and demographics. The demographics cover the attributes such as age
and background. In addition to this, a leader is subjected to evaluation for the attribute of
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intelligence. This is given the maximum priority since the leader is always expected to find
the solution of an existing problem using the intelligence.
Baumol's Theory of Sales Revenue Maximization: As per this managerial theory, the
provisions of maximization of the sales revenue are taken into consideration. This theory
states that the managers are expected to maximize the product sale irrespective of all other
scenarios. This is attributed for profit earning of the company. As per this theory, at the time
of company achieving the desired maximized profit, the concerned sales managers are
directly attributed for this achievement. This theory states that a company seldom takes the
goal of profit making for granted. Thus the managers of Barclays plc attach their personal
prestige to such company achievements.
Marris theory of managerial enterprise: The prime objective of Barclays plc is the
maximization of the balanced growth rate. This balanced growth rate depends on two factors.
One factor is the growth rate of demand for the business product. The other factor is the
growth rate of capital supply. This theory has several assumptions. One such assumption is
the presence of an existing price structure with the marked production costs. This theory is
free from any oligopolistic interdependence. The price factors are kept constant throughout.
The majority of the variables such as profits, sales and costs are assumed to be increasing in
uniform rate.
LO2 Application of the role of a manger and functions of a leader in the
given context
P2 Roles of a leader and functions of a manger in different situations
The different roles of a manager as an effective leader are beneficial for the organization in
context of the situations involving complex problems having the solutions yet to be
identified. This situation effectively assesses the leadership skill of a manager in the situation
involving problem solving. A manager is expected to critically analyze an existing problem in
order to identify the complex areas. These areas require majority of attention to focus on
solution identification. Subsequently the manger implements the leadership skill for the
estimation purpose of the solution identification. For this application plan to materialize into
reality, the contribution of majority company employees might be essential as per the
complex level of the problem. In such cases, the manager resolves to enlist the help of the
subordinates and thereby proceeds for problem solving. For such smooth execution of the
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solution plan, the manager divides the entire work into small modules. Thereby the
responsibility of these small modules is given to the appropriate employee.
The managers of Barclays plc have faced several situational problems in their workplace. The
vision of the company has been decided to specialize in investment banking products better
than the contemporary brands. This requires the company to face tough competition from the
other investment banking brands. The managers involved themselves in a thorough market
analysis to decide the launching of several subsidiaries (Savino, 2016:2). The unique
characteristics of these subsidiaries are that they prefer to function individually. They are not
much dependent on their parent company. This solution has an extra advantage of increased
profit margin for the parent company. These subsidiaries are such that their names have a
direct connection with their parent company. Thus while competing in the market, the parent
company of Barclays plc combines with all other subsidiaries. It has been observed that each
of these subsidiaries has emerged as an expert in a specific banking product.
P3 Leadership and managerial theories
Situational Leadership: This theoretical aspect of leadership states that the leader selection
for a specific situation is preceded based on the leadership capability of the potential leader
(Khan et al. 2015:90). This theory compares the performance of the followers as per the
capability of the leaders. The leaders are expected to adjust to the situation by the
modification of their existing strategy. The followers on the other hand need to adjust with
the leadership style of the leaders. These potential leaders are the managers of Barclays plc
eager to take the responsibility of the problem scenario.
Systems Leadership: As per the provisions of this theory the systems department of the
company is assessed to track the strength of the leadership. This goal is achieved when the
leaders of the operations department of Barclays plc is able to successfully evaluate the
performance of the employees (Hou & Gao, 2017:61). This evaluated report is thus
forwarded to the higher authorities for further requirements. The leaders of Barclays plc
create organization in such a way that employees from all the levels are able to work in the
new prescribed structure. It utilizes sound principles about human behavior for the purpose of
creating good leadership instances, systems design, organisational strategy and social
strategies. It provides the leaders with the necessary tools and techniques for helping to
predict the behavior of the employees in the company. It also helps to build an effective
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system to encourage productive behavior and lead in the direction of a more effective
realization of the organisational purpose. [Referred to Appendix 1]
Contingency Theory: This theory encourages Barclays plc to incorporate the modifications
in operations management as per the situation. A company might face problem in the existing
operation management strategy (Filinova et al. 2015:208). Such problems are addressed by
modifying the existing strategies. The theory considers the leader’s effectiveness to be
contingent upon the leadership style appropriate to the situation.
M2 Strengths and weaknesses of the theories
Situational Leadership: The advantages of this leadership theory are that its application
identifies the required amount of flexibility for a situation. This is necessary for the
addressing purpose of problems (Askeland, 2015:50). Application of this theory requires a
comfortable work environment for the concerned workers. On the other hand, the weakness
of this theory is that it focuses more on the short term goals as compared with the long term
goals. Also, the application of this theory is impracticable for task-oriented environments.
The theory fails to identify the maturity level of the leadership in addition to the necessary
information about some leaders.
Systems Leadership Theory: The advantage of this leadership theory is that each of the
individual department of a company is paid the due attention it requires. Thus, every
department of Barclays plc is managed as per the requirement. The necessities of the
individual departments are fulfilled within a very short span of time. On the contrary, this
theory never bothers about the overall contribution of different departments (Hitt et al.
2016:108).
Contingency Theory: As per the provisions of this managerial theory, its application
demands capability of adaptation in addition to the several leadership skills of an employee.
This indicates flexibility of the working procedure. The managers using the implementation
of this theory have enough scopes to consider all the contributing factors. This theory is
largely responsible for the broadening aspect of the leadership scope (Voss et al. 2015:2). On
the contrary, this theory prefers iteration but this repetitive iteration for a problem causes the
problem solution to take more time than the stipulated deadline.
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D1 Leadership theories and approaches
The various leadership and managerial theories are the ideal options for the specific situations
of Barclays plc. Thus, these strategies are implemented as per the urgency of the situations.
The potential leaders are selected based on their proof of leadership skills and are further
encouraged with expert advices required in that case scenario. The advantage of problem
solving for a long duration is the experience gathering. These experiences are used in future
by passing them to the new employees (Tortorella et al 2016:90). The learning outcome from
such experiences is utilized accordingly for the management of similar scenario.
LO3 Roles of a leader and managers in operations functions
P4 Approaches of operations management
There exist multiple approaches for the operations management in Barclays plc. This is
because different business sectors differ from each other in terms of their unique
characteristics. This is evident from the types of businesses such as online business portals
and the physical retail stores. The online portals require less number of human resources as
compared to the physical retail stores. The idea of collaboration with customers proves to be
fruitful in case of brand loyal customers. This is because; loyal customers have a prevalent
tendency of buying the branded products as per their choice. This is observed to be to the
extent of paying much more extra amount for the same product of any local company
(Holzmann & Golan, 2016:60). This is because after purchasing a product of a specific
company for the very first time and subsequently getting immensely satisfied of the product
performance. This is repeated consecutively for some more product lines and ultimately the
customer places the trust on that particular brand. Noting this, Barclays plc prefers to
document the customer feedback regarding their product line as and when possible.
P5 Importance and value of operations management
Organizational operations are important for making sustainable development in large firms
and facilitate the process of achievement of business objectives. In order to run the operations
smoothly with the organization, management is important as it reflects upon the profit of the
company. As mentioned by Senge et al. (2015:30), systematic approach to management of
organizational operations can help in sustaining higher profit level. The systematic approach
is concerned with the structural framework of the procedures undertaken within the
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organization. Dealing with the activities within the organisation in a systematic way can
reduce the interference of potential risks and encourage human resource to provide higher
performance level. The operational management needs to cater to employee needs, available
resources and objective of the organisation to make the projects successful.
Operational management Impact
Evaluation of ongoing projects
and work schedule
 Analyses the work progress in accordance with
predicted profit
 Implementing strategies such as training
programs, resource allocation to make the projects
successful
Managing resources  Supports the management of project work
 Maintains the quality of products and services
Analysing capacity  Accepting and working for different projects can
be determined easily
 Enhances the performance of the organisation
Determining and evaluating
output
 Analysing the results of implemented strategies
 Effectivity of developing projects and planning
for production can be comprehended
Managing stakeholders  Integration of talent can be managed
 Resource availability can be maintained
 Production is facilitated with sharing of
responsibility and contribution
Managing marketing by
collaborating between different
operations
 Product awareness can be gained
 Rivals can be well competed with
 Capturing of increased market can be achieved
Table 1: Value of operational management to achieve business objectives
(Source: Influenced by Hristov and Ramkissoon, 2016:232)
The operations in Barclays PLC are integrated with technological innovations and digital
intervention combined with mobile technology and global operations to heighten customer
experience and increases level of satisfaction (home.barclays, 2019). In addition, the
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organisational governance of the company has helped in managing potential risks such as low
rated employee performance, competition with UBS and Deutsche Bank. the operational
management has helped in acquiring the market occupied by UBS and its profit dropped by
27%. Therefore, the management of different operations is effective in gaining competitive
advantage over rival companies with concern to globalization (home.barclays, 2019).
Moreover, the scope of application of different operations such as employee management,
project management and maintaining the availability of resources can support the growth of
an organization effectively. The objectives of market expansion, sustainable development and
focusing of services quality for customers can be achieved with the aid of operations
effectively by Barclays PLC. Therefore, operational management is essential to implement
effectively by skilled personnel to make a business flourish.
M3 Leaders and managers improving the efficiencies of the operations management
The leaders and managers are responsible for controlling the operational activities for making
huge profit and ultimately achieving sustainability in their development in the era of business
globalization. The managers and leader regulate the work environment and in turn, control
the work output from the employees. However, the performance of employees is needed to be
managed to obtain the predicted profit share. As described by Feser et al. (2015:2), managers
are responsible for managing the ongoing activities within the organization, whereas the
leaders are responsible for making the operations effective by structuring organisational
policies and providing related resources to make effective work progress.
The managers and leaders are responsible for governing the overall mechanism and
maintaining inventory control to direct production in favor of the company. On the other
hand, Amanchukwu et al. (2015:10) commented that quality control and supply chain
management for controlling production and addressing customer demands are needed to be
undertaken by authorities of the company. Barclays PLC implemented realistic approach by
involving employees to implement efficient strategies that supported the structuring of
different operations to improve their digital payment methods and management of wealth
(home.barclays, 2019). Hence, the manager's role and leader’s vision are important in
directing the total operations in profit of the company.
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