Operations Management Report: A Detailed Analysis of J.P. Morgan Chase

This report provides an in-depth analysis of operations and management practices at J.P. Morgan Chase, a leading global financial services firm. It begins with an introduction to the company's structure and management hierarchy, followed by an examination of key management theories, including Henry Fayol's functions of management and Mintzberg's managerial roles. The report distinguishes between leaders and managers, highlighting different leadership styles such as Blanchard's situational leadership model and Robert House's leadership styles. It also discusses the impact of a company's stability on its management approach. Furthermore, the report defines operations management and its key areas, such as total quality management, just-in-time inventory, and continuous improvement, emphasizing the roles of managers and leaders in optimizing production processes. The document illustrates these concepts with examples relevant to J.P. Morgan Chase, providing a comprehensive overview of the company's operational and management strategies.

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ASSISTANCE IN COMPILING OPERATIONS
AND MANAGEMENT REPORT

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Table of Contents
J.P Morgan Chase - An introduction to the company........................................................3
P1.......................................................................................................................................3
Henry Fayol's theory..........................................................................................................3
Mintzberg's theory..............................................................................................................4
Three Differences between leaders and managers..........................................................4
P2.......................................................................................................................................6
Leadership style by Blanchard..........................................................................................6
P3.......................................................................................................................................7
P4.......................................................................................................................................8
Operations Management...................................................................................................8
P5.....................................................................................................................................10
P6.....................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................13
References.......................................................................................................................14

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J.P Morgan Chase - An introduction to the company
JP Morgan Chase & Co is a US MNC which is headquartered in New York City. It
specializes in Investment Banking and Financial Services. It has various divisions like
Investment Banking, Asset Management, and Private Banking etc. The asset
management division of the company has a net worth of $2.789 trillion. The Hedge fund
division is the second largest in the US (Hatfield, 2015).
JP Morgan follows a flat management structure, unlike other companies which follow a
complex one. It starts at the associate level followed up by other positions like Manager,
Managing director, Executive director, Vice chairman, chairman etc. Hard work is
always rewarded and one can expect to move up the corporate ladder very fast.
Here I am going to discuss the differences and main characteristics between a leader
and a manager. I will be providing the definition and I will also give proper examples to
justify my point. The main difference between leader and manager is that leaders are
always followed by other people whereas people work for a manager. Leadership is the
art of influencing others while management or a manager gets the work done by his
subordinates. Managers or management is applicable to the formal group of people
whereas leadership is applicable for both formal as well as the informal group of people.
P1
Henry Fayol's theory
Henri Fayol was the person who described the functions of management. According to
him every manager uses these functions in his normal work. Let’s understand briefly
what these functions are:
A. Planning
Managers must plan for the future. Irrespective of which department a manager works
It's very important that he plans for the future. Planning may encompass working for the
Future so that in case of any contingency the company or his department is secures
and most importantly prepared to deal with any unforeseen events. For example Jp
Morgan's Managers are always encouraged to plan from before to tackle any kind of
problems which May arise in the future (Shafritz et al. 2015).
B. Organizing
Organizing may mean the managers capability to recruit or manage a diverse
workforce.
He should recruit a skilled workforce and then make sure that the employees are given
work or trained in a field in which they have expertise. JP Morgan’s recruitment division
for example, are organized in such a way so that they are always in a good position to
recruit quality candidates (Edward, 2017).
C. Leading
The managers should encourage the employees to work towards a common goal and
also monitor their work on a regular basis. The manager should carry out his day to day
work which confirms to company policies and guidelines? JP Morgan's managers
always lead from the front and ensure that they solve the problem in the first instance
before it reaches the higher management level (Efthymiou and Yacoub, 2016).
D. Controlling
The managers must ensure that his or his subordinates’ activities are in line with the
Overall Company’s mission and vision. He should also keep track of any deviation and

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make sure to make necessary corrections in this regard. JP Morgan always follows the
concept of a transparent system which facilitates open interaction between a manager
and his subordinates (Uzuegbu and Nnadozie, 2015).
Mintzberg's theory
Mintzberg outlined 10 different roles of a manager which has been widely accepted.
Managers’ work can be divided into three parts like Interpersonal roles, Informational
roles and decisional roles (Daniel, 2018). Let us discuss them on by one
Interpersonal roles
This role encompasses three distinct characteristics of a manager like
a. The figurehead who actually performs various important activities like going out
with some official for lunch, attending business meetings with important
delegates etc.
b. The leader is responsible to motivate and encourage the subordinates and
ensure that they are always engaged in the process (Gronseth et al. 2015).
c. The liaison connects with third parties outside the organization for company's
benefit. It may be for several reasons like striking a business deal with somebody
on behalf of the company etc.
Informational roles
a. The monitor reaches out to the market to collect new information which may be
very important like collecting information for market intelligence etc.
b. The disseminator spreads information to the subordinates who can use it for
various purposes (Pigé, 2017).
c. The spokesperson whose main job is to disseminate information to the outside
world on behalf of the company. JP Morgan has a group of such people who give
this information to outsiders like shareholders or other stakeholders.
Decisional roles
a. The entrepreneur is often the person who finds out various ways to improve his
process by taking the active part in various projects etc.
b. The disturbance handler who reacts proactively to various internal or external
problems to which the company may be a part of like strikes, untimely death or
injury of a key personnel etc (Bonnafous-Boucher and Rendtorff, 2016).
c. The resource allocator allocates the work to various subordinates. He is the
person who assigns the work to various people based on his or her skill sets. It
helps in finishing work within guidelines.
Three Differences between leaders and managers
The first difference is managers get the work done by their subordinates but the leaders
influence other people to follow their footsteps.
The second difference is that leaders see a vision or a larger picture and involve others
to accomplish that goal whereas managers set short-term goals and allocate tasks to
subordinates and set timelines to finish that goal (Wheelen et al. 2017).
The third difference is that Leaders are risk takers. They know that they may fail but
they still try Managers, on the other hand, try to control the risk element so that the loss
can be reduced.

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Summary of P1
In short, manager is quite distinct from leaders. Leaders think about a project or a
unique idea and work hard to accomplish it. They are visionary people. Managers, on
the other hand, follow the tried and tested path and work hard to mitigate risk. There are
various types of managers as we can see and they have different styles of
management.

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P2
There can be three situations in a company like stable situation, slow to moderate
changing situation and fast-changing situation. A stable situation of an organization
means the company's activity is growing at a uniform pace without any hiccups. The
financial condition is also quite good without any major problems. Slow to moderate
changing situation means the company is still in its growth phase so everything is still
not stabilised. And finally, the fast-changing situation means the company is in its earlier
stages and nothing is stabilised as such. JP Morgan is a company which has been
operating for a long time. It is in its stable phase.
JP Morgan has reached its stable phase in operations and also in its financial aspect.
Let us see how it affects the management style of the company (planning, controlling,
leading, and organizing). The managers can surely plan for the future because the
present is quite secure and stable. The leaders or the visionary people can think about
a new initiative and think about accomplishing something big because everything is
stable and there is no need to change something abruptly. The company also can divide
or organize their subordinates work in a structured way because everything is already
organized properly. So, the hierarchy and accountabilities of persons are laid out in a
proper way which in turn helps in recruitment of more people based on need (Higgs and
Dulewicz, 2016). The managers also can lead a team which is well organized and
structured with well-defined expectations from every team members. Since the process
is streamlined and the employees know their own responsibilities and duties, it becomes
easy for the managers to handle the team.
Robert House enumerated three styles of leadership which have been very successful
in the corporate world. These are directive style, supportive style, participative style,
achievement-oriented style (Bolden, 2016). In the directive style, the leaders provide
specific job oriented guidance to the subordinates acting as a director; he supervises
the team members like a mentor and looks after the process as a leader. Supportive
leadership means the leader will try to understand the problem of the subordinates by
providing them full support. He tries to be friendly and acts like a friend rather than a
boss. In participative style, the managers consider the problems and encourage the
subordinates to take the active part in solving the problem. In achievement-oriented
leadership, the leader sets high goals for his subordinates and expects them to work
hard and achieve those goals. In JP Morgan, the leaders are always supportive and
leave no stones unturned to bring the best out of the employees/subordinates. So, here
the style is supportive leadership. JP Morgan always provides necessary guidance and
active support on an ongoing basis to all its employees.
So, we can see that a company's current state can be stable, fast-changing or moderate
changing and the leadership styles are also different. So, a company can implement
various management styles to suit its need. Management styles and the current
situation are closely linked. A company should alter its management style based on its
current situation (Mone and London, 2018).
Leadership style by Blanchard

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P3
Here, I am going to discuss the situational leadership style proposed by Blanchard and
Hersey in 1969. I am going to touch upon the various leadership styles and emphasize
how the company should change their style based on current situation.
Situational leadership means changing the style of leadership based on a current
situation of the company, its current workforce capability etc. A company has to
remember that it needs to change its style based on a present scenario. Something
which was working earlier may not work now. Situational leadership is further
subdivided into four parts like telling, selling, participating and delegating (Gaichas et al.
2017).
The systems theory was proposed by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy and Peter Senge. It
explains that a particular item or substance is made up of various parts and each part is
unique from the other part. They work together to make up the whole part. This can
have a direct impact on the management functions.

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P4
In this topic, I am going to define operations management. I am also going to highlight
the key areas of operations management. I will also outline the roles of managers and
leaders in operations management.
Operations Management
Operations management is the concept of controlling the production process of a
company. Here it must be ensured that the production is completed with optimum
resources and also trying to finish the job with as few resources as possible. There are
various steps to be taken to ensure smooth functioning of a manufacturing organization.
To achieve this objective the major stress will be on operations strategy, product design,
planning of facilities, control of inventory etc (Heizer, 2016).
Let’s discuss a few topics which have gained importance in recent decades.
a. Total quality management is a process where all the employees take the active
part in the improvement of the process. This is customer focused approach
where the customer determines the quality.
b. Just in time is a new concept where the main focus is on reducing the flow of
goods and articles in a production system and also reducing the processing time
between suppliers and the end users.
c. Continuous improvement is a production process which focuses on a continuous
effort to improve products, services etc. It's important to note that here
improvement does not only focus on quality alone. Continuous improvement can
be applied to business strategy, results etc.
d. Six Sigma is a process to improve quality. Six Sigma process helps to identify
how many error-free or defect free products an organization is manufacturing out
of a given set of criteria. The allowable limit here is 3.4 defects maximum out of a
million products.
e. Lean manufacturing is nothing but significantly reducing wastes from the
manufacturing process without sacrificing on the quality part.
The operations manager is a person whose role is to manage the entire manufacturing
process from start to finish. He is responsible for managing both people and raw
materials. He is a person who will oversee the material requirement, purchase and
sales in the organization. He is a person who should always have realistic expectations.
Moreover, an operations manager should always look for efficiency in his work. He
should ensure that the prices of the materials are as low as possible and at the same
time he should also ensure that the cost of goods is reduced so that the product can be
sold at a reduced price. The ops manager should definitely focus on quality. He should
never select a supplier which provides cheap items but gives shoddy or inferior goods.
Focusing on quality will ensure that the total costs are also ultimately reduced. For
example, if necessary investment is made in total quality management then it will help in
bringing down failure costs.
So, in short operations management is the process of controlling the manufacturing
activities of an organization from start to finish. There are few concepts which have
taken the centre stage in manufacturing organizations. A few of them are total quality
management, six sigma, lean etc. It's the duty of the operations management to ensure
that the prices of the items are of good quality and conforms to the guidelines of quality.

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He is a person who will oversee the manufacturing process. He should also not
negotiate poor quality products from vendors.

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P5
In this topic, I will discuss the important things that a company has to focus on to survive
in this competitive world.
The 5 necessary things which every company focuse on, for its continuous growth,
these are survival, increase in sale, maximizing profits, customer satisfaction and
growth. Survival is obviously of the prime importance of every company. This can be
done if the necessary steps to ensure that it serves its customers with good quality
products and keeps all the stakeholders happy. If we talk about survival then it has to,
first of all, do a SWOT analysis and understand where exactly it stands with respect to
its competitors, what are its strengths and weakness? It has to work on its weaknesses
and make sure that these weaknesses are eliminated or reduced significantly. Then
comes the question as to how to increase sale. It can be done by providing good quality
products to its customers. If a customer is satisfied with the service then he will surely
recommend its service to other clients. In this way, customers will increase which will
lead to increase in sale and revenue. Customer satisfaction can be ensured by
providing them with good quality products and also ensuring that the wait time with
respect to product delivery is reduced (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017).
Lists discuss few of the important things of operations management. First, come control
and distribution system. This is a unique automated system in which the entire
manufacturing system is divided into places which are geographically separated from
each other. There are various local controllers who are connected among them by the
extremely high-speed network system. Ultimately what's manufactured has to be sold.
The manufacturing process starts from procuring raw materials to converting them into
finished products. Now we have to formulate a strategy which will give us that
competitive edge. The ideal situation is to make a manufacturing plan ahead of
schedule so that we know how much and what needs to be manufactured. Process
design is also an important part of manufacturing. Here we design a process
beforehand so that we know how much needs to be manufactured, what needs to be
manufactured and all other minute details. In designing a process we will be much more
prepared for the future. We will know what to expect in each step of the manufacturing
process. Capacity management in operations management helps in streamlining the
entire process. This gives us a guideline as to whether we have sufficient goods in our
warehouse or we need more. We also have to ensure that we don't keep items more
than required in our warehouse which is also not desirable. This is very important
because it helps to reduce waiting time and increases efficiency. Logistics and inventory
management strategy is very important. The organization has to make a trade-off
between keeping too low and too much inventory in the warehouse. Keeping too low
inventory will result in stoppage of work in the production process. On the hand keeping
too much inventory will result in opportunity cost.
The role of operations management in increasing sale, survival of the organization etc is
immense. The efficient handling of operations department means the entire cycle right
from procurement of raw materials will be handled properly. Firstly the purchasing
manager will have to ensure that the raw materials are purchased with due stress on
quality. Then all other departments like quality, sales etc should carry out their work
properly and at last, everybody should focus on continuous improvement. This can be

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achieved if all the employees come forward and participate actively (Van Der Aalst et al.
2016).

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P6
There are a few factors which contribute to the proper management of operations. The
corporate social responsibility of an organization here means taking care that the
employees are given a good working condition, ensuring that the plant wastes are kept
to the minimum so as people are not affected because of this. This basically means
looking after the human side of management. It may be the workers working in the
organization or it can even point out to the general public at large. Sustainability can be
ensured only when the organization understands its strengths and weakness. It has to
strengthen its core areas and also work on its weak points. To do better than its
competitors it has to understand what are the areas where they are doing well and why?
Stakeholders also have to be given adequate service so that they are happy.
Stakeholders here can mean the workers, the end users or anybody who is directly
impacted by the production process. Sustainability has to be ensured from an
environmental point of view. In today's world, corporate social responsibility has become
a buzzword. Organizations are supposed to work in an eco-friendly way so that the
people at large are not hampered by their work. So, how to ensure that the
organizations have to ensure that wastes are disposed of and kept to the minimum.
Stakeholders in a manufacturing organization consist of people like end users, planners,
strategists etc. Each has a unique role to play in the entire process. The project team
will perform a plethora of activities like purchase of materials, look after the inventory
process, adjusting the process etc. The people who are performing the process must be
adequately trained in it. All the stakeholders should be divided and identified based on
the extent to which to which they will be impacted by the production process ( Holweg et
al. 2018).
So, we can see that operations management is a concept which is gaining popularity
recently. Here everybody should come together and work towards total quality
management. Each and every person should play his own part to make the process as
streamlined as possible. The manufacturing organizations have to behave in a way
which will display social responsibility. They can display that through conforming to
social norms which they are expected to follow.

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Conclusion
Managers and leaders can actually change the way an organization runs. That person's
decision making can have a huge impact on the entire process. The purchase
manager’s main responsibility is to purchase good quality materials so that other costs
can be brought down. The supply chain manager decides which medium of transport
will facilitate quick dispatch of materials to the customer. The quality manager will
ensure that the products (raw material or finished products) conform to guidelines. The
corporate social manager is responsible to ensure that the company conforms to social
rules and guidelines like many another responsible citizens. So, we can see that
managers have a big role to play here. Leaders, on the other hand, go one step ahead
and think about the bigger picture. They chalk out a long-term strategy of the
organization and strategize various ways to make the organization better from all
aspects. The main difference between leaders and managers as written earlier in this
passage is that leaders think about the future and managers think about the short-term
goals.

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