Analyzing Leader and Manager Roles in Management Operation Context

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers within the context of Marks and Spencer's operations. It compares and contrasts these roles, evaluating their application in various situations, and defines relevant leadership theories and models. The report also explores key approaches in operations management, emphasizing the importance of these functions in achieving business objectives. Internal and external factors affecting operational management and decision-making are discussed, along with strategies to improve operational efficiency. The analysis covers employee engagement, introduction of new products, conflict resolution, and the application of different leadership theories. The document concludes with recommendations for enhancing leadership and management practices to drive business success. Desklib offers a variety of similar solved assignments and resources for students.

MANAGEMENT
OPERATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction about the organisation............................................................................................3
Explain and compare various roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager....................3
Evaluate how role of a leader and function of a manager can be applied in different situations.
.....................................................................................................................................................6
Define various theories, models of approach which explains types of leadership......................8
Conclusion and recommendations............................................................................................11
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................12
Define key approaches in operations management. Explain what are the roles that are played
by leader and manager.............................................................................................................12
The value and importance of Management of operations in achieving business objectives.....13
The factors in business that affect operational management and decision making by managers
and leaders.................................................................................................................................13
Internal factors:.........................................................................................................................13
External factors:........................................................................................................................14
Explain how can operational efficiency be improved for meeting business goals successfully.
...................................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion and recommendation..............................................................................................14
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
The report prepared below explains role and characteristics of leader and manager in
Marks and Spencer. It also highlights how role of a leader and functioning of a manager would
help business in various complex situations which would require special assistance and guidance
(Xue, Dou and Shang, 2020). It also states how different theories, models, leadership qualities
would help to find solutions for unpredictable problems. It also helps to understand what are the
key approaches in operation management and what are certain role that are played by leaders and
managers. Managers and leaders play an important role in business which would help it to grow
and expand. Management operation can be explained as factors which contribute in managing
business work. It also focuses on how efficiency of a company can be improved and how
conversion of material into goods and labour in services is possible keeping efficiency in mind.
PART 1
Introduction about the organisation.
Marks and Spencer is a company which deals in retail sector and is considered the largest
British company which considers cloth line and food as well. It had started its business from a
small stall in open market which had a tag line that attracted attention stating “Don't ask the
price, it”s a penny”. Marks and Spencer follows a flat organisational structure, this kind of
management has restricted level of management between front line employees and
administration. This type of structure is applied in company which would motivate staff persons
in making effective decision making and minimize costs.
Explain and compare various roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
Leader: It can be explained as capability of a company in setting and achieving challenging
goals planned by a business. It helps Marks and Spencer staff to give their best and reach heights
that are expected by its linked customer's and investors (Watkins and et.al., 2019).
Role of a leader:
1. Setting a transparent vision for company: Every business whether small or large
require a clearer picture and transparency for better working and functioning in a
competitive environment. It helps the business to improve its growth and expansion rate

with time. Thus in Marks and Spencer it would help employees and linked customer's to
understand in which direction a company is planning to lead.
2. Provide direction and guidance: Leaders of Marks and Spencer are liable to provide a
proper direction and guidance for carrying out operations well in time. It will help
company to meet its goals and serve customer's well in time (Vadari, 2019).
3. Implement strategies and monitor results: It is the duty of leader to implement useful
strategies in Marks and Spencer which would help to plan steps that would contribute in
expanding and increasing the profit margin scale. It is also responsibility of leader in a
company to keep a check of results being delivered by the organisation and do the
required changes if any.
Characteristics of a leader:
1. Focused: Leaders in Marks and Spencer are consistent and more focused on carrying out
related activities which would help company in achieving goals set by the company. It is
necessary for the leaders to manage activities and its respective team as well which would
serve as a helping hand in completing tasks.
2. Innovative: Marks and Spencer leader's are expected to possess innovative qualities
which would help them to maintain sustainability in competitive market. It acts as a new
and unique feature which would help business in long run.
3. Self aware: Leaders are expected to improve their work areas and specialisation which
would serve as a advantage for Marks and Spencer. Leaders of Marks and Spencer are
always on their front foot to gather and collect information which would help them to
learn new skills and add qualities in their profile.
Manager: Manager can be explained as a person which performs a range of operations which
include supervising employees, examining performance of Marks and Spencer and improve
efficiency of company as well (Umar and et.al., 2021).
Role of manager:
1. Setting goals: Managers of Marks and Spencer are the one's who are liable to set goals
and targets for all employees which would provide them a direction for achieving those
objectives before deadline. It also helps employees to increase their efficiency and
effectiveness in work.

2. Monitoring performance: In Marks and Spencer the managers lend proper guidelines
which are to be followed and areas which must be covered which helps them to have a
track of performance and evaluate where they are lacking and how the present
performance can be improved.
Characteristics of manager:
1. Experience: It is an additional advantage present with the company if a manager has any
experience in the required areas which demand improvement. Experienced managers in
Marks and Spencer would be able to find out what is the issue and how it can be solved
using proper methods (Rissman and et.al., 2020).
2. Communicator: Manager of Marks and Spencer must have capability to have a proper
communication which would help him to inform about the plans which are to be
implemented and how it would help the company and contribute in its growth for a
certain time period.
3. Time management: Management of time is necessary and is a huge task in every
company. It is duty of Manager of Marks and Spencer to manage operations and work
accordingly which would save their time, reduce the costs incurred and increase profit
earned.
Distinction of leader and manager
Basis Manager Leader
Meaning Managers are liable for
preparing proper plans,
maintaining proper
coordination, providing
direction and controlling
employees involved.
The leaders of company are
accountable for managing the
employees in order to
complete the work on time.
Aim The main aim of managers is
to reach and complete their
goals on time.
They are more focused on the
growth, development and
expansion of company.
Change They react to changes
recorded.
They are more interested to
promote changes in the

company.
Basis for comparison Leadership Management
Meaning Leadership is termed as a
quality that influences other
individuals, to work towards
attaining a common objective
with utmost willingness and
enthusiasm.
Management is a study of
managing various things together
in the best way possible to get
the desired results.
Base The basis of leadership is trust
among the group of
individuals.
Management is based on the
control that the individual has
over other in the group.
Focus Leadership focuses on
encouraging change in people
around.
It focuses on bringing stability
and firmness in the group and in
the organisation at all levels.
Power The power of Leadership is to
influence the individuals in the
group.
Management rules the
individuals that are present in the
group.
Emphasis The emphasis of leadership is
to influence the individuals in
the group.
Management is based on the
control that the senior individual
has over other in the group.
Perspective It contains a good
foresightedness as it influence
the long term working
behaviour of individuals.
It has short range perspective as
it targets the task needed to be
done in the near time.
Formulation of Leadership is the formulation
of a set of principles and
guidelines.
This contains a set of policies
and procedures that guide the
work of management.

Evaluate how role of a leader and function of a manager can be applied in different situations.
The managers and leaders of Marks and Spencer can be observed as performing their
tasks, jobs and roles in an efficient and effective manner. It is thus very important for them to
tackle tough situations, implement strategies and policies which would help to carry out
operations without any issues. The role of leader and functions performed by managers are listed
below:
Employee engagement:
Role of leader: Improvement in working environment of Marks and Spencer at work
place would help to improve employee engagement. The leaders of Marks and Spencer provide
proper directions to their employees which would help in improving effectiveness and efficiency.
This would help them to perform tasks which involves mutual discussion and informing the team
for coordination and cooperation (Munteanu and Purcarea, 2019).
Function of manager: The managers of Marks and Spencer are expected to develop rules,
regulations and policies which would help in building relations in a organisation among
employees. It would also help to analyse what are the expectations of employees which would
help them to feel motivated and perform business activities and operations that would reduce
chances of errors.
Introduction of New products and services:
Introducing new products and services by the company in the market would help to
improve growth and expansion of business. It would further help to facilitate changes as required
by the competitive environment. Marks and Spencer having innovation as their special key
feature to sustain in market against other rival companies. It has introduced many new product
lines which helped it to increase demand and attract new potential customer's as well. Role of
leader and function of manager are stated below:
Role of leader: They are responsible for communicating strategies and policies to their
employees which would help them to feel motivated. It will help them to improve efficiency and
effectiveness in work. Innovative products are a way which would help Marks and Spencer to
engage more customer's and build relations which would help it in futuristic situations (Mackie
and Lawrence, 2019). Leader is involved in leading plans to the direction which would prove to
be the best for company in long run.

Function of Manager: In case of Marks and Spencer, all plans, policies and strategies
which help in implementation of innovative steps. The function of a manager is to put them to
use which would help to carry out desired results.
Solving conflicts:
It is a major issue which can take place in any organisation at any point of time. It might
seem small but is a major cause if not dealt properly. It is the duty of manager and leader to look
into such matters at their own level. Non – cooperative environment and not able to facilitate
coordination among present employees and work performed will result lack of growth in the
company (Liao and Chen, 2018, January).
Role of leader: Effective leaders have an idea as how conflicts can be resolved in time so
that it won't affect the company in adverse or negative ways. Leader of Marks and Spencer play
an important role in such situations, they ensure that there is a constant contact between
employees and him which would help them to understand reasons behind such issues and what
could be the best solution for it.
Function of manager: Manager in Marks and Spencer is responsible for investigating
the matter which led to such situation. It is his core duty to ask, listen and understand what has
been the reasons behind such conditions in respected company and how it can be solved by not
affecting position of company in market. It helps to serve as a medium which would help to
search for solutions and find peaceful results.
Define various theories, models of approach which explains types of leadership.
Leadership can be explained as a process which guides and helps employees in order to
keep a check whether the work is completed on time or not. The core motive of every leader is to
carry out operations in a effective and efficient manner (Kumar and et.al., 2020). Every leader
follows a specific leadership style which would help him in managing work and lead the team for
achieving objectives. Types of leadership styles are explained below:
Contingency Leadership style
This type of leadership style helps to understand the efficiency of a leader in particular
situations. It gives an idea that it is not necessary that qualities possessed by leaders would be
applicable in all prevailing situations. Flexibility is a quality which must be practised by a leader
in Marks and Spencer because there might be conditions that would require additional skills and

techniques to be developed in the hour of need. In Marks and Spencer adaption of such theory
includes three elements which are listed below:
 Build relation between leadership style and situation: Leaders of Marks and Spencer
are required to prove their skills and knowledge by building relationship between
leadership style and situation so that company can find solutions for the problems in a
more effective and efficient manner (Hui, 2019).
 Situation: In this situation being the leader of Marks and Spencer he is required to have a
thorough analysis of situation and plan what could be the possible steps which would
help the company to sort the problem.
 Leadership style: After analysis of situation the leader is expected to choose best
leadership style which would help to work in best possible manner. The leader of Marks
and Spencer can apply leadership style which can be selected after proper assessment.
Strength Weakness
 It reflects flexibility in company the
reason being that a leader can modify
strategies according to conditions. It
would help to improve decision making
process of leaders as they need to
evaluate the situation for selecting best
applicable leadership style.
 If ineffective leadership style is being
selected by the leader it might disturb
the work performance of whole
organisation.
System leadership style
It is necessary for every company to update some changes if it wants work done from its
workforce on time. This type of leadership style brings environmental changes in company. This
leadership helps organisation when the operations and functions are performed on a large scale.
This theory involves several functions which guide leaders in leading people and providing them
a direction. It also helps in proper utilisation of resources which would help company to achieve
its targeted goals in a given time frame (Gajadhar and Stomski, 2018). This style of leadership
will contribute in development and expansion of Marks and Spencer keeping sustainability of
company in mind.

Strength Weakness
 This type of leadership possess
qualities which offer effective
approaches resulting in increment of
company taking environmental changes
in account.
 It is quite a complex activity that
involves handling workforce with the
help of this style as there would be
situation where some might agree and
others might disagree that would result
in communication gap and disturbances
as well.
Situational Leadership Theory
It can be concluded after assessment that there is no leadership style that would prove to
be suitable for every situation. This theory is more helpful when situation differs from time to
time. At initial stages situations present in the organisation which it has to deal with must be
evaluated and then find out which style would serve the best results. This theory include 4
elements which are taken in account by leaders in various situations (Dong, Wang and Gong,
2020). Certain elements are described below:
 Participative: Leaders in Mark and Spencer gives chance to its employees for being a
part of planning and implementing which would help them to participate in decision
making that would help them to work effectively and efficiently.
 Coaching: This approach can be used by Marks and Spencer where the leader is
considered as decision maker. Leader are assigned the work to sell ideas to their
employees which would help them to present their view point on the same that would
provide a better picture and clarity in work.
 Delegating: This approach includes less involvement and role of Leaders in Marks and
Spencer company that provides certain suggestions at the time it is demanded by the
employees. It gives the authority to subordinates to carry out operations and decisions on
their own.
 Directing: This approach facilitates powers like directive and authoritative powers
towards leaders which would help them to provide direction to employees. It would help
them to understand how certain tasks must be performed (Curnutt and Sikes, 2021). The

leaders of Marks and Spencer guide their people and help them to work according to the
guidelines laid down.
Strength Weakness
 This type of leadership style is flexible
in nature when compared with others. It
also includes various elements which
can be implemented as per changing
situations.
 It also leads to activity which builds
confusion in the mind of subordinates
as they have to modify their styles on a
frequent basis.
Strengths and weaknesses of different approach to leadership and management.
Strength Weakness
Management  Problem solving -
management provides
individuals with the
knowledge to look for
creative and practical
solutions to problems
and hence helps in
solving all issues.
 Goal setting- The
management
sometimes fails to set
some well defined
goals for the team and
the organisation which
leads to failure in
completion of tasks.
Leadership  Strong analytical skills-
A strong leader needs
to have some strong
analytical skills to
assess and evaluate the
frequent data files and
as these assists in
decision making on
various levels.
 Overly critical:
Leadership sometimes
pushes the leaders
critical towards the
work of individuals in
a way that is more than
required and hence
affects the working of
employees.

Conclusion and recommendations
It can be concluded from the above assessment that the managers and leaders both serve
as an important element in growth and expansion of Marks and Spencer company. Leaders are
liable for carrying out work in a company on time and with less error, costs. The applied
leadership style affects the performance of employees. The recommendations are states below
which must be taken in consideration by Marks and Spencer:
 For the intention of adapting changes, leaders of Marks and Spencer can use contingency
style of leadership which would help In development of certain strategies that make
changes easier to adopt.
 It is recommended to manager of Marks and Spencer that it should plan some policies
which would help to motivate employees so that they can work in a dynamic environment
and adapt changes quickly (Cordeiro, 2022).
PART 2
Define key approaches in operations management. Explain what are the roles that are played by
leader and manager.
Operations management can be defined as management of business related role, practice
and activities which help to manage efficiency to the extent possible. It can be explained as a
process that involves conversion of raw material in products and labour into services rendered.
Marks and Spencer is a company that deals in retail industry so it includes various activities such
as marketing, production, sales, promotion etc. In such key approaches leaders and managers of
Marks and Spencer is explained below:
 Learn production: This approach involves steps useful for minimizing wastage of
materials which also ensures no compromise in quality. It can be applied in all areas such
as production, distribution etc.
Role of Manager: Marks and Spencer have managers which have specialisation in planning
strategies that helps to reduce cost and make proper utilisation of resources.
Role of leader: If any company wants to allocate resources to its best possible uses it has to
motivate its employees for better working. Leaders of Marks and Spencer are expected to
manage tasks for employees so that various actions could be planned which would increase
productivity and minimize risks (Chang and et.al., 2019).

 Total Quality Management: This approach is mainly helpful for Marks and Spencer
because it would help employees to increase focus and improve their work so that they
can provide better services and qualitative products to clients.
Role of leader: The leaders of every company are expected to locate their efficient workers at
one place which would ensure that qualitative goods are being carried out. Leader of Marks and
Spencer are liable to inform the task which are to be completed by its employees and what would
be the deadline.
Role of manager: They are held responsible for building various strategies which involve code
of conduct and make sure that Marks and Spencer is producing qualitative goods.
The value and importance of Management of operations in achieving business objectives.
Operation management is linked with goals of company. Thus it is considered as a
necessary factor which contributes in business. Points described below explains importance if
operation management for Marks and Spencer:
 Quality of product: In case of Marks and Spencer it is important to closely examine
performance of employees which would help to provide qualitative goods. This type of
improvement helps in development of company as well.
 Resource utilization: The managers and leaders of Marks and Spencer are evaluating the
performance of their workforce on a daily basis which helps them to improve their
quality of products as well. Managers and leaders are responsible for proper utilisation of
resources which would in turn reduce the cost, wastage and help to achieve goals in a
efficient & effective manner.
The factors in business that affect operational management and decision making by managers
and leaders.
All companies are affected by certain factors present in market which are internal and
external factors. Some are listed below:
Internal factors:
 Sustainability: For serving the motive of sustaining in market competition it is necessary
for the managers and leaders of Marks and Spencer to plan its policies which would bring
sustainability and help to reduce cost and increase profit margin.

 Corporate Social responsibility: It is important for Marks and Spencer that the carried
activities are not affecting environment in any manner. CSR are taken in account which
would help managers and leaders to build policies and take decision which would fulfil
social responsibility in an efficient and effective aspects.
External factors:
 Technological: Marks and Spencer is expected to use updated version of technology at
their work place. Technology helps to produce qualitative products in less costs which
can be done with the help of advanced technology.
 Social: It can be explained as factors which affect demand of customer in a company. It
can be defined on the basis of age, culture and preferences. Marks and Spencer deals in
products which can create a buzz in demand of certain products and services in market
( Candogan, 2020).
Explain how can operational efficiency be improved for meeting business goals successfully.
The managers and leaders are expected to plan policies which would help to reduce cost,
waste and increase revenue generation. It is the duty of operation management to plot resources
fir better utilisation. The leaders and managers are required to plan various schemes which would
help to reach goals set by Marks and Spencer. It is necessary for them to have a ptoper
communication channel in business.
Conclusion and recommendation
 The company must take into account such as micro and macro factors which would affect
working of business and plan strategies accordingly which would help to overcome such
barriers on time.
 For attaining high level satisfaction in case of consumers, managers and leaders of Marks
and Spencer must monitor the quality produced in case of goods and services.
CONCLUSION
The report asserted above highlights how management operation is helpful for the
company. It is a process which includes planning, controlling, supervising, manufacturing and
producing goods and services. It includes how these functions can be carried out without any
error and minimizing risks which are present around the company. It helps to manage services

rendered by a company to its potential customer's and how a chain of clients can be formed.
Operations management includes proper utilization of resources of material, technology and
staff. It helps managers to assess and handle various issues related to strategies planned that
includes determining scale and size of manufacturing plant, management of projects,
implementing methods which would help in sorting ordering level of inventories. It helps
managers to have an idea what operations are to be kept at priority and how additional revenues
can be generated.

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