Management and Operation Analysis: Roles of Leaders and Managers

This report analyzes the roles and characteristics of managers and leaders within a business context, specifically focusing on the case of United Biscuits. It examines the distinct responsibilities of managers and leaders, including planning, direction, alignment, and relationship management. The rep...Read More

Management and operation
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
A). Roles and characteristics of manager and leaders............................................................3
B). Examination of role of a leader and function of manager in different situations.............4
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C) Different theories and models of leadership .....................................................................5
TASK2.............................................................................................................................................8
A). Key Approaches to Operations Management ..................................................................8
B). Role of Managers and Leaders in United Biscuits ..........................................................9
C). Importance of the Operations Management in Achieving the Business Objectives......10
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCE ................................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
In business, expertise is required to perform some specific tasks. Business management
and operation involves the planning and execution of strategies and system to make business
work properly. Administration of the business comes under the operation management. Leaders
and manger play a very vital role in the company & they make strategies to run smooth and for
the good environment in the organisation. They both also have role for the profit maximisation
they use their skills and utilize available maximum resource in the company for good
productivity. The leadership is ability which help the employee to attain the organisation goals
which the help of the team work. This present scenario is focused to analyse the activities which
has s been carried out in United biscuits which is the big brand for the biscuits manufacturing.
This project has been evaluated on the basis of different approaches and theories of leadership
(Fry and et.al, 2011).
TASK 1
A). Roles and characteristics of manager and leaders
For the development of company, mangers and leaders plays an important role and
assumed the huge responsibility of succeeding this competitive market. United Biscuits have
manger in every department to run the operations smoothly as per the required productivity of
the company. Leader of the company is known as strength of the company they guide to
employees to achieve the organisational goals leaders are require to motivate employee toward
their work. Manager and leaders both have different role and characteristics in the company.
Manger and leaders have different role in the company. As per the United biscuit role of the
manger and leaders are-
Direction- As per the direction in the company, manger make planning and decide the
budget for the work. Manager tends to keep his eye on every employee to manage the work
properly.
Leaders make vision of the company and start making strategies to fulfil that visions of the
company. Leaders always take care of the vision of the company if the work not go as per the
vision he makes the strategy to fulfil this (Guest, 2011).
Alignment- Manger needs to maintain the environment of the company so as to decide the
boundaries and make rules and regulation for employee to maintain that.
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Leaders of the company help employee to reduce the boundaries and help them to do it and
also provide them value of their work.
Relationship- Manger plays a very responsible role in the organisation. He has to take car
of the relationship of employee for the good environment.
Leaders motivate their worker toward their work to fulfil the objective of the it. Leaders play
role of coach in the company.
Personal qualities- The manager has organisational skills which help him/her to improve
work efficiency. Further, he possesses problem solving and conformity skills.
Leaders have to be innovative in the it so he will bring the new idea into the company and it
will help to increase the productivity in the market. Leaders need to be open minded with the
strategic view so he will make the planning for the better productions.
Outcomes- Manager maintains the stability in the company that is always necessary for
the company.
Leaders make the changes in the company which are always necessary. They develop it
as per the market needs which always needs.
For the company like united biscuits they should have good leaders and manger in their
company so they can manage the work with the mangers skills and leaders always use their skills
to fulfil the vision of the company (Jackson, and Parry, 2011).
Leaders :- They work for developing skills and capabilities of the staff members. Positive
efforts are made by leaders so that competence of staff members can be improved. Innovative
ideas and concepts are used by leaders for completing required goals and targets in effective and
better way. Leaders challenges the status quo and it motivates the followers. Leaders makes
action plans for accomplishing a desired work and long term and short term objectives are
formed by leaders.
Managers :- managers maintain exist capabilities and skills of the staff members. Managers
gives orders and imitate the followers regarding tasks and responsibilities which they need to
complete. Managers accept the status-Quo. Managers formulates strategies for achieving goals of
the organization.
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B). Examination of role of a leader and function of manager in different situations
United biscuits have different product manufacturing and do supply the product
worldwide so for the good performance they have to make strategies to keep customers satisfied.
Leaders have their own responsibilities. United biscuits have heavy competition in the market
there are many company who produce biscuit so for the sustainable development manager need
to make the good decisions in the market and leaders need to make the plan for the development
as per the require market. When other company produce the product which is similar to their
product it case sale down of the product and they need to face the loss so for that they have to
make competitive policy for stability in the company. Leaders have to make new strategies to
make this competition tough for other company (Liker, and Convis, 2011).
In the different situations, to handle it they have play the different role in the
organisation. Manager play the role of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and
negotiator so they have to perform as per the situation so that company can get maximum benefit
from their skills. Leaders play the role of communicator, thinker, decision-maker, policy-maker,
team leader and image builder he needs to play the role as per the requirement of the situation to
maintain the environment of the organisation and for the goof productivity.
To increase the rate of employee turnover manager needs to give them proper training
which they require for the work. As per the united biscuit for the machinery which the worker
use they have to have proper knowledge of it and that is the responsibility of manager. Leaders
should apply the changes which will help to achieve the goals. Like if there is some technology
which reduce the time consumption in making the biscuits than leader should motivate the
employee for that changes and apply that change into it (Liker, and Convis2011).
Roles of leaders :- Leaders re responsible for motivating the followers for achieving a
specific target. Leaders delegate authority and roles and responsibilities to each staff member are
assigned by them. Plans and strategies made by managers are executed by joint efforts given by
leaders and managers. They are responsible for solving problems and issues that are faced by
followers. Leaders provide assistance to followers so that they can complete their assigned task
and responsibilities in a better way. Innovative ideas and concepts are given by leaders for
making improvements in existing practices and procedures that are used by followers. Leaders
develop long term vision and on the basis of that strategies are formed to complete the required
task. Leaders involve mutual support of followers for carrying out the business activities.
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Roles of managers :- managers are responsible for executing planning process in which
long term and short term goals are formed for achieving the goals and targets of the organization.
Scheduling of work place functions is also done by managers and they assign specific job roles
to the staff members. Operational activities are controlled by the leaders and effective measures
are taken by them for rectifying the weak performing areas. Grievances and conflicts that occur
at work place are resolved by managers by making use of collective bargaining and negotiation
process. Monitoring is done by managers of the organization for the work performed by the staff
members. For example sales of United Biscuits is decreasing and managers organized an open
discussion session in which all the staff members were invited to give their suggestions. This
method supported for assessing better and innovative solutions that can be used in the enterprise
for enhancing sales.
Contingency approach :- in this method decisions are taken by leaders and managers on the
basis of a specific situation. It is required that leaders and managers should take initiatives for
resolving issues that are associated with a specific business situation. Behaviour of a leader
depends upon a specific situation. Contingency approach requires that decisions should be taken
by leaders and managers for resolving critical and complex situations in better way.
C) Different theories and models of leadership
Every company need to apply some theory for the leadership some theories are following-
 Situational leadership- As per this theory, it is highly believed to make the changes as
per the needs of the organisations. Like united biscuits they have umber of varieties of
their company so to expand the more productivity in the market in different country have
to produce the biscuit as per their taste. Leader needs to use their expertise in the
organisation and if they are facing some situation where they are losing the targeted
consumers they have use the strengths to manage the sale of the product.
 Systematic leadership- For the good production level, the organisation needs to make
systematic development. Leader always know about the weakness, strengths of the it so
he has to make the plans where he can apply his strengths and can sustain for long period
of time and find out the opportunities in the new market and expand business as per that.
United biscuits have to focus on stability because there is so much completion in this
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market so leader will make the plan accordingly and promote their brand as per the target
of the consumers (Neck,and Manz, 2010).
 Task or relationship-orientated approaches- This theory of leadership is to maintain
the behaviour as per the performance and the relationship maintenance. As per this task
oriented is a behaviour approach in which the leader focus on particular task to meet the
certain organizational goals and relationship oriented leadership where leaders are focus
on the satisfaction and the motivation of the team members. As per the united biscuit
company they need to have their leaders should be task and relationship oriented so they
can achieve the target goal easily.
Leaders provide direction and guide other toward the work to attain some goals.
Leaders develop strategy for certain goals of the organisation and for that he provide tanning to
their team leaders. He has responsibility to create the report of update about the progress of team
members leader also solve the problem of employee which they are facing on work place. United
biscuits have their leaders they handle the situations like changes in the market. If the company
require more productivity than apply some strategies for that and that has to be beneficial for
employees as well (Nkomo, 2011).
'Chaos theory' is one of the development theory which is consists of the quantum mechanics
principles which are being presentable in the complex system environment.it includes the
interaction which is held between the firm and its suppliers and its markets.it is complex in
nature.
Manager of the company have five functions to manage the work effectively which include-
 Planning- This step manger needs to make the plans to achieve some particular goal of
the company.
 Organizing- As per the plan managers are supposed to organise the material as per the
plans and also need to organise the team member.
 Staffing- To fulfil the goal manger need to require the employee as per
The required skills. Manger work to manage the human resource to accomplish the goal.
 Directing- Mangers need to direct employees for their work.
 Controlling- Mangers need take care of activities in the organisation and it is necessary
to have control over it.
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United biscuits apply the hard engagement skill they have rules and regulations which have
to follow by their employee and they apply soft leadership skills so that employee can share their
work related problem to their leaders so it is most effective way to for the good environment
organisation (Osland, and Turner, 2011).
Different approaches of leadership which the entity can use for the improvement that will
include situational, system and contingency leadership.
 Situational theory- This theory is for manger as well as leaders. This theory it help in
adjusting the style so that they can fit the development level of the followers so that they
influence. This theory is simple and easy to apply but where as in the difficult situation it
cannot be applicable.
 Systematic theory- This theory will help leader to understand the strengths and
weakness of the company. So leader can focus upon the strengths for the development
and easy to attain the target of it. Sometime threats come suddenly so leaders doesn't have
plan for that it is the key weakness of this theory.
 Contingency theory- To apply this theory the person has to be expertise in the market.
Along with this it helps the leaders in doing the identification. This theory is having an
inadequate literature and it is very complex (Renz, 2016).
There are many theory which is used by the organisation. There are different theories and
models used by the united biscuits which include great man theory, trait theory, contingency
theory, situational theory and behavioural theory. Different theories use to handle the different
situation in the company. These theory are help to attain the target to the company and set the
objective of the company. As behavioural theory of leadership it evaluate that what should leader
to get susses and what action he should take to be the successful leader. As per this theory
behaviour modification which will take into account the effect of reward and the punishment for
the changing behaviour. As per this theory employee should be praised for his work and he
should get the punishment. To resolve the issue and manage the work in the united biscuit can
use these models which assist reaping the success in competitive environment. Company also opt
systematic theory as so they can make the changes as per the environment to for the stability in
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the company. All the theory models positive and negative impact on the it like contingency
theory it require the expertise person but it is not necessary that one person is saying he is correct
about the situations to relay on him and making change according to him that is so much
difficult. So sometime these model perform diversely and which is not good as per the
organisation (Serenko, Bontis, and Hull, 2011).
TASK2
A). Key Approaches to Operations Management
Operations management means the management of the production of the goods and
services produced by the company. Operation management is the process in which the resources
are combined and transformed during the process of production to add value in the products to
achieve the desired objectives. The organisation named United biscuits, which is one of the
leading company of UK is updated its products according to the management theories of the
operations management. The following approaches of operation management are considered to
achieve operational excellence:
 Total quality management: Manager of united biscuits assures that the quality and
quantity of the products should be up to the mark and satisfies the customers. This theory
focuses on the customer satisfaction by delivering the products on time, best quality of
the products. The leaders assures that there should be a systematic and strategic approach
to achieve the goals and objectives of an organisation. Improving the services will lead to
the continual development of the organisation. The managers are responsible for the
development of the business (Serenko,Bontis and Hull, 2011).
 Just in time inventory: The united biscuits company has adopted the theory of just in
time inventory. The meaning theory is to make sure that that the products of the company
are produced according to the requirement of the customers without any wastage and
hence reducing the cost of production. It emphasise on to produce the goods and services
as and when it is demanded by the customers which results in the decreased inventory
costs. The leader of the company makes proper guidance about the production to its team
members during the training period so as to achieve the desired objectives of the
company. The leader should always keep his eye check on the performance of its
employees so that time should be saved giving better results.
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 Continuous improvement theory: Another important theory that has been adopted by
the Unite biscuits is the theory of continuous improvement. It emphasizes on fact that that
the leaders along with the organisation should always adopt the strategies and plan
accordingly. The leaders of united biscuits always ensures that the planning and
organisation of the particular plan should be in a controlled manner so as to avoid any
ambiguity in the minds of the team while the work has been allotting to them to fulfil the
needs of an organisation. Proper management always ensures continuous development
(Spillane, and Healey, 2010).
B). Role of Managers and Leaders in United Biscuits
Managers and leaders play a pivot role in the management and success of the
organisation. Manager is the person who controls and administers a group of staff or an
organisation, while leader is the one who has the capability to guide and lead the particular group
of an organisation to achieve the objectives. Under distribution management system which
means the collection and control of the applications which efficiently distributes the work.
Leader of United biscuit assure that distribution of the work is done appropriately among the
employees of an organisation so that it ensures the reliability and improved quality of the service
for its customers. In addition, they also ensures that the work should be allotted according to the
capabilities of the employees, so that it can assure the minimum outage time, maintain flexibility.
Another important work area of the leaders and managers is to transform the raw materials into
the finished products. They has to get the raw materials transformed into finished products
according to the norms, so as to provide the best quality service to the customers which results in
the good image of the company. The manager of the company has to make a perfect business
process design which includes the framework of the task, technology to be used, proper
communication among the hierarchy of people, control and coordination in the team. Leader of
the united biscuit fully optimise the resources and man power to achieve an optimal level where
production meets demand, which is also known as capacity management. Managers should
design the plan, which is effective in taking the decisions increasing the capacity management of
the company. Leader of the united biscuits takes into consideration all the long term and short
term aspects while production of the goods and services (White, 2016). Inventory management
means managing and controlling the production of the finished products for sale. Leaders and
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managers of the company always adopts and fulfils all the obligations which makes it one of the
biggest company in UK.
C). Importance of the Operations Management in Achieving the Business Objectives
Operation management is the concept which ensures that the business of an organisation
is working effectively and efficiently with the optimum use of resources in a given period of time
to satisfy the needs of the customers. It is important in the designing of the products and
managing its production with the use of best technology so that the customers get attracted to the
company, increasing their wealth. Operation management is also important in the terms to
determine the manufacturing field, location, size etc (Cruz,and Marques, 2011). United biscuits
produces biscuits and sweet and salty snacks. It has the network of its manufacturing areas in
Netherlands, France and Belgium. The company aims at reducing its production costs, deceasing
wastages, increasing healthy production of goods and services. It emphasises on the quality and
quantity management so as to render the product marketable to its customers timely and
efficiently. The leaders of the company wants the team to work efficiently so as to utilise the
resources in an optimum manner and render the demanded goods and services. It aims on the
cost leadership. The social responsibilities of the company also includes that the company the
production does not alters or tampers with the resources of the nature, so as to protect nature.
The company also desires to utilise the warehouse appropriately and it has established various
customer grievances system where they can explain the details and methods of production .it also
includes the details about how the product has been manufactured. The leaders and managers
want to deliver their products to the costumers without no issues, with a low shifting costs. The
store also focuses to take care about the strategies of the marketing and sales so as to improve
their quality. All these aspects are governed by the operations management of the company,
which plays a crucial role in the development of the company. So this shows that the operation
management is always a beneficial task for the managers and leaders of the company (Lisi,
2010).
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There are two factors in the business organisation which affects the business that are,
internal factors and external factors. The internal factors are those which are within the
organisation influencing the operations, approaches and success of internal organisation. The
internal factors are those which shows about the performance of the company for achieving its
objectives, the strength and the threats .While, external environment factors consists the factors
which belongs to the outside of the organisation, which are not in the control of the organisation.
Managing the strength and internal opportunities of an internal and external factors of an
organisation along with the threats that any organisation faces while operation. Company is
affected by many factors and decision by the leaders and managers. There are 3 types of the
factors that affects the internal organisation of united biscuits:
 Management changes: This means that the change in the team of the management
within an organisation. It affects the company's performance. The new management team
came up with the new ideas and innovations (Burke, 2013).
 Employee morale: Morale of the work force of the company has been increased due to
the effective guidance of the leader and manager of the company.
 Financial changes: They effect the performance of the company to a much extent, if he
company has more profits, it can have better production results and quality .but if its
facing financial crisis then it will have to minimise the production capacity of the
company which reduces the image of the company
There are 2 types of factors which affects the external organisation:
 Changes to the economy: Changes in the economy means the changes which are not in
the hands of an organisation. If the recession period is there, the business will not
prosper. Similarly in the boom period the business grow at a fast rate.
 Competition: It is something which we cannot get rid of. Competition is a very
important in the Industry for the survival.
 Government forces: They are those from which any business is affected by its policies.
The united biscuits was also affected from the same due to the policies and norms formed
by the UK government.
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The internal business environment consists of the factors within the organisation, which
impact the success of the organisation (Rani, and Moreira, 2010). Company has the control over
these kind of factors. Internal factors that affect the business environment are:
 Management changes: Management changes means the change within the management
team or the board of directors. It affects the business environment in both negative and
positive aspect.
 Employee morale: When the employees of the company have high morale for achieving
the objectives
Some of the external factors are:
 Competition: it affects the business environment in a good manner. Companies always
try to get itself up from the other competitors, so that they can be number one in the
industry.
 Government policies: This is also a factor which any organisation cannot help it. An
organisation should work within the norms and policies as prescribed by the government.
Operation management is area of the management where all the planning is designing
and controlling the process of the production for the better production of the goods and service in
the market. This is the individual responsibility of to ensure the business operation which are
efficient in nature and have to use the appropriate resources so that can increase the sale and also
can generate the maximum revenue out of it (Kang, 2010). By the operation management it
include different activities which utilize the resource in most appropriate manner to get the
maximum profitability. By the operation management competition in the market can be handle
form some strategies and can create the stability in the organisation. In the wider business it will
help to make the changes in the working environment (Handschin, and Petroianu, 2012).
Conclusion
It has been concluded from the above project that the leaders and mangers play a very
important role in the organization. It has been inferred that in United Biscuits leaders as well as
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mangers are necessary so that they can work effectively and which the company does not deal
with the issue in the company. Both leaders and mangers have different role and responsibility to
achieve goals. Further there is different leadership theories classified and models define which
help company to attaining the target of company. Project also define about the strengths and the
weakness of the different theories which apply in the leadership and also give further knowledge
for the same (Strande, and Brdjanovic, 2014).
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