Business Management Operations: A Report on Soft Company

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes Soft Company's operations and leadership.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS
1

Acknowledgement
I am willing to give thanks to my project supervisor for providing me the opportunity of
conducting this report. It will not be possible for me to complete this report without the help of
my friends and class mates. I sincerely thank them for supporting me positively while conducting
this report.
I would like to give thanks to my mom and dad for endlessly supporting me at every context of
completing the report. Lastly, I sincerely acknowledge that all work in this report has been
constructed by me and I did not copy others work.
2

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Major Sections.................................................................................................................................5
Conclusions....................................................................................................................................20
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................22
3

Introduction
In order to conduct the entire study, different theories regarding management and operation will
be taken into consideration. In order to do so, different contemporary and seminal management
theories such as behavioural, classical, contingency and management by objective will be
considered. In addition to that, key difference and similarities between management and
leadership will also be constructed in this particular study. The entire study will be based on Soft
Company, which produces management units. In addition to that, different leadership theories
such as system leadership, situational leadership and contingency leadership will also be
considered for evaluating this study. Lastly, operational theories such as Kaizen, JIT and TQM
will be evaluated in context of Soft Company.
4

Major Sections
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
Every manager and leader plays important roles in their respective organizations and they are
closely associated with organizational activities for fulfilling business aims and objectives.
Different theories regarding management and leadership can illustrate the role of managers and
leaders in context of diverse organizations. These theories are consisting of Classical
management theory, Behavioural management theory, Contingency theory and Management by
objective. Brief discussion regarding these theories has been represented below:
Classical management theory
Classical management theory describes that the key responsibility of managers in context to any
organization are planning, organizing, directing, recruiting, allocating and controlling. This
theory can further divided into three parts such as administrative, bureaucratic and scientific
theory (McCaffery, 2018). Administrative theory describes that the key responsibility of
managers is to allocate tasks in between the employment base so that these employees can
increase the productivity of the organization. Additionally, scientific management theory
illustrates the fact that managers are needed to be co-operative for motivating their employees,
which can inevitably increase the efficiency of their organization (Thorpe, 2016). Lastly,
bureaucratic theory focuses into constructing a hierarchy of management to carry out the
organizational goals and objectives.
Behavioural management theory
This management theory can be delivered as human relation movement since it helps at
addressing human dimensions of any organization. In addition to that, this theory helps managers
and leaders of different organizations to understand the basic human behaviour at work place.
According to this theory, employees have to be considered as individuals and it is essential for
managers to address the need of individuals (Willis et al., 2017). Addressing different needs can
certainly move up the motivation level of individual employees. Motivated employees can
increase the revenue generation in respect to any organization.
5

Contingency theory
According to the contingency theory of leadership, the effectiveness of a leader is entirely
contingent upon his/her leadership traits and skills (Hallinger and Wang, 2015). This theory
describes that leadership style of any leader is based on the situation that he/she thrives in. Thus,
contingency theory illustrate that best leadership style does not exist since everything depends
into the situation.
Management by objective
This can be demonstrated as the management model that has intention of improving the
performance of any organization through clearly defining their key aims and objectives to their
leaders, managers and employees. Management by objective can also be demonstrated as the
management by results (Cherry and Jacob, 2016). This theory describes that creating action
plans and setting both long-term and short-term goals can improve the efficiency and
productivity of any organization.
Leadership can be described as the activity, ability and method of leading a group of different
people towards accomplishing a common goal and objective. Management on the other hand can
be illustrated as the organization and coordination of diverse business purposes for achieving the
mission and vision of a particular organization. Difference and similarities between leadership
and management has been elaborated below:
Leader Manager
Leaders generally set the direction of any
organization.
Managers plan the detailed approach of the
direction that has been set by leaders.
Leaders follow transformational leadership style. Managers follow transactional leadership style.
Leaders facilitate managers to take effective
decisions.
Managers make effective decisions.
They use conflict as their favourite asset. Managers avoid any kind of confliction.
Table 1: Difference between leader and manager
(Source: Created by the learner)
6

Despite the fact that leaders and managers have some differences, they also have some
similarities. Both leadership and management can create the key foundation of any organization
by constructing functional structure (Diamond and Spillane, 2016). Additionally, both managers
and leaders can positively or negatively influence the working environment and structure of any
organization. Managers and leaders are mainly concentrated towards achieving the goals and
objectives of any organization. Lastly, the main concern of both leaders and managers is to
assign resources for increasing the efficiency of their respective organization.
7

P2 Examine how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different
situational contexts.
The role of a manager and a leader changes according to the circumstances. One needs to be
self-sufficient and present at the time of crisis or any such havoc because the situation calls for
the indomitable judgment. The internal, as well as the external contexts, are constantly changing
in the company, in order to be efficient they should be flexible, play many roles, as well as
change their roles when the situation demands, create their roles according to the situations,
get used to them, and should be able to acclimatize themselves to diverse situations. A manager
has a larger influence on the situation when compared to the leader. A leader role influences the
external and internal functioning of the company indirectly according to R.M. Stogdilla, the
leader in both the property and the process. Managers are the most extrapolation of the situation.
The role of the manager and leader in the time of the need to change the internal context of the
business is significant especially within a phase of financial alterations. The manager in difficult
periods, when the reformation is being carried out should maintain subordinates and indicate
new purposes of the industry to propel them to make more efforts to realise the principles.
The responsible leader can serve better and administer the challenges, problems, and
opportunities effectively once they have an awareness of what is going on inside and outside of
the administration. A practice-oriented structure which deals with the situational context
enhances the organisational leaders’ efficiency. The practices that can help a manager and
leader to understand better and manage the situational context are; assessing and recognising the
factors of the situation as well as formulating behavioural options to deal with the challenges,
opportunities, and situational problems, and jointly they form the base of context administration
cycle.
8

Figure 1: Situational Management Cycle
(Source: Kerns, 2015)
In the given figure, this framework is related to the professional leader’s consideration and
administration of situational context. Situational leadership strategy considers many things in
the place of work and selects the headship method that fits the circumstances and objectives.
Ken Blanchard quoted, “In the past, a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders can no longer lead
solely based on positional power.” A leader needs to assess the situation and use the
accurate management style (Spahr, 2017). The situational context is valid on both macro
and micro levels. Each situation requires a particular administration and management
approach, and the finest course of action is responsible on the circumstance. There are four
styles or strategies in the changed situations that will help the leader and managers in
administration.
Telling or directing- By providing direction and guidance to the followers, telling them what to
do and how to do the work. The manager should identify the worker personally before delegating
the task to them.
Selling or coaching- The leader should direct and support the employees as well as encourage
them. It should take the time to instruct them.
Participating or supporting- The managers should reward the workers after their best
performance to inspire them.
9

Delegating- The managers should check the progress of the employees. The leaders also delegate
responsibilities based on the skills of the employees (Butt, 2017).
Figure 2: Four styles of leadership and management
(Source: Butt, 2017)
10

P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency
Situational Management Theory
Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard developed the situational management style, which refers
to the situation when a leader of an organization developed his methods and style to influence his
followers. The situational leadership model has four styles like supporting, coaching, directing
and delegating. Hersey and Blanchard found out many development styles for the development
of the followers. Many companies including the Soft Company use this situational leadership
theory to fulfil all the goals and dreams of their organization. The Soft Company applies this
theory to increase the productivity level. A good environment with supports and motivations can
help to the growth of the productivity. The situational management style of the Soft Company is
so flexible that the leader can shift into any positions due to the requirements so that the
productivity of the company remains in balanced rather same or to inspire their followers
(Lynch, 2015).
According to the situations, the situational leader of the Soft Company changes their positions or
the level of work to match the situation. If the development or the productivity become low, the
situational leader do more task than a common situation, when everything remain in balance.
When the staff or the workers being inspired by the situational leaders of the Soft Company
became so flexible and developed, the leader became supportive. They also direct the workers
and make them realize what the goals of the Soft Company are and then direct them how to
achieve or fulfil those goals. The team members are allowed by the situational leaders of the
company to present in the process of decision making to become more dependent and supportive
and to make them understand the process how to make a decision for the growth of the company
(Thompson et al., 2015).
11

Figure 3: Role of Leaders
(Source: Donate and de Pablo, 2015)
System Leadership Style
The leaders of an organization use this System leadership theory to make or develop a situation
where the team members or the workers can work freely and productively. There are four
elements in the system leadership theory like data, organization, process and tools. The Soft
Company applies this system leadership theory to increase the adaptability so that they can
manage the situation according to any environmental changes. The company focuses on
individual goals as well as the goals of the organisation. The main capability of the system
headship is to look and notice all the all the system. In any complexity, the other leaders look
after the other easy system while the system leaders look and give their attention to the
complexity and solve it to make the productivity going and balance (Meuser et al., 2016)
The system leaders of the Soft Company make their teams understand and realize that helping
the workers means that they are helping to fix the system’s problem. With the help of the System
Leadership theories, the Soft Company makes their workers work together rather than an
individual. The system leaders of the Soft Company shift the focus of the team members from
reacting to a problem in making a solution to solve the problem. As a result, the members or the
12