Management and Operations Report: Leadership and Operations

This report provides a detailed analysis of management and operations, focusing on the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers. It explores the functions of managers and leaders, including planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling, and how these functions contribute to achieving business objectives. The report also examines various leadership theories, such as situational leadership, systems leadership, contingency leadership, and transactional theory, and their application in different business contexts. Furthermore, it discusses key approaches to operational management, including lean approaches, and the importance of operational management in achieving business objectives, particularly in a retail environment like Marks and Spencer. Finally, the report considers factors in the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers.

Management and
Operations
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TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3
LO1....................................................................................................................................3
P1 Role and Characteristics of a Leader and Manager.................................................3
LO2....................................................................................................................................5
P2 Functions of Managers and Leaders........................................................................5
P3 Theories and Concept of Leadership.......................................................................6
LO3....................................................................................................................................8
P4 Key approaches of operational management..........................................................8
P5 Importance and values of operational management in achievement of business
objectives.......................................................................................................................9
LO4..................................................................................................................................10
P6 Factors of business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision making of leaders and manager....................................................................10
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................11
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
Management is the process of assimilating all the activities in the business
towards the achievement of objectives which helps business to grow and increase profit
margins effectively (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018). Operations are the activities
which takes place on a daily basis in business to achieve objectives. It is very essential
for organisation to determine all the factors in the business environment and improve
management styles to gain higher efficiency to compete in the market effectively. In this
report there is a brief description about different roles and responsibilities of managers
and leaders which helps organisation to develop different leadership and management
style to attain better productivity. In addition, report also highlights role of operations
manager which increases the production capacity of Marks and Spencer which is
fashion retailer in global market and also produces different types of clothes to increase
customer base and to gain higher profit margins, with the help of brief explanation on
importance of operation management and several factors which also impact the
operation management to develop effective decision making of leaders and managers
to achieve objectives of the company effectively.
LO1
P1 Role and Characteristics of a Leader and Manager
Businesses are operation in order to increase the economic activities and gain
higher profits from business environment. This also helps business organisation to grow
however it is very essential for businesses to maintain their performance and provide
consistency in the market to attain core competency effectively (Hitt, Xu and Carnes,
2016). Business has to understand the roles of leaders and manager develop effective
working environment which also increases the productivity of business to grow and
compete in market effectively. A leader is a person who has the ability of influence
people in the organisation to increase their willingness to increase their performance
and achieve objectives effectively. Manager is a person which is authorised to develop
effective strategies and policies of business which increases the performance of
employees and develop effective working culture using managerial function to reduce
risk and become competitive in market effectively. Marks and Spencer has to
understand all the roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers to develop
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effective strategies effectively.
Traits
 Manager has the trait to develop effective communicative policies and also has better
skills to improve the efficiency of the organisation.
 Manager has the quality to assess all the factors and develop effective strategies which
helps the organisation to reduce external risk effectively.
 Managers have the ability to take right decision at the right time which also increases the
performance of business organisation to compete in the market.
 Managers are very effective in delegating tasks to subordinates to increase the time
management and complete the task before deadline effectively (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis
and Schönberger, 2017).
 Leaders and manager both has the quality to increase the positive environment in the
organisation to develop healthy working environment effectively.
 Leaders have the ability to understand all emotion of employees to provide them support
and increase their performance to achieve objectives effectively.
Roles and Responsibility
 Manager is responsible to perform all the managerial functions which are planning,
staffing, directing, controlling of all the activities in the organisation. Leaders uses those
policies and execute by influencing employees to achieve objectives of the organisation
effectively.
 Manager has a role to work as a link between employees and top level managers to
resolve all the issues of the organisation. Leaders have effective knowledge to resolve
all the issues without any support.
Authority and Power
 Manager ha to follow regulative and formal authority and power which is assigned by the
company. Whereas leaders are the influencing body and do not need any authority and
power as employees provide them power to take actions in the organisation.
 Manager practice legal authority and power however leader has the charismatic
authority in the organization and also helps to increase the productivity of employees by
motivating them effectively.
 Leaders are more powerful than managers as they have effective skills and knowledge
which is beyond managerial functions.
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LO2
P2 Functions of Managers and Leaders
Henri Fayol has developed several principles of management which helps the
organisation to increase the potential and improve the quality of working effectively. This
also helped the organisation to improve decision making in Marks and Spencer and
analyse all factors to increase brand value of the company (Fahimnia and et al., 2019).
Management principles help the company to develop better policies and improve the
healthy working environment effectively.
Function of a Manager
Planning
This is the first managerial which managers of Marks and Spencer follows to
understand all the resources which are available in the business (Zhu, 2018). Planning
helps company to reduce the risk of uncertainty and develop effective strategies
according to potential of employees in the company to achieve objectives. Managers
also have to evaluate the resources and formulate effective vision and increase the
potential for organisation to gain profit margins.
Organising
This is the second of managerial function which also helps business to develop
effective understanding about all the employees. Managers of Marks and Spencer have
to provide effective organisation of employees which helps to company to manage all
the human resources and also train them. In this function manager has the role to
assign tasks and also delegate authority to other employees which also increases the
performance in Stores of Marks and Spencer effectively.
Commanding
Managers has to provide unity of command to all the employees of Marks and
Spencer this also helps to increase the communication channel to develop effective
understanding to compete in the market effectively. Managers has to develop motivation
strategies this also improves the retention power of Marks and Spencer to increase
profit margins effectively. Leaders of company help to develop effective teams to
increase integrity in achieving objectives.
Coordinating
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Marks and Spencer has to develop harmonised functional department which
helps to increase the potential of to achieve objectives effectively. Managers of Marks
and Spencer formulate a management strategy which is followed by leaders to increase
the productivity of the organisation and increase profit margins effectively to compete in
the market.
Controlling
This is the last managerial function yet very essential to ensure the efficiency of
all the planning and other function in the company to achieve the objectives become
leader in the market effectively. Manager has to control all the activities in the
organisation to increase the productivity of employees and improve brand image of
Marks and Spencer in the market effectively.
Function of Leader
Influencing Workforce
Leaders have to provide better knowledge and skills to employees who also help
to influence them and motivate workforce of Marks and Spencer effectively. This also
helps the organization to maintain all the strategies which are developed by managers
to manage risk and grow business in different market effectively.
Policy Making
Marks and Spencer has effective leaders in the form of owners and CEO which
develops effective policies of the company by analysing beliefs, attitude and cultural
values of employees. This also helps Marks and Spencer to increase culture
environment to increase performance and achieve objectives effectively (Meredith and
Shafer, 2019).
Group Representation
Workers union leaders and employee’s leader helps to protect and represent all
the issues which are faced by them. This also increases unity and solidarity in Marks
and Spencer to increase shared values of the organisation effectively.
Product launch
Managers has role to reduce all the risk before leauching the product in the
market. Managers of Marks and Spencer also have to develop effective marketing
strategy which increases opportunity for the company to compete in the retail market.
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Leader has the role to analyse all the internal and external factors to implement change
management in the company and influence employees to increase performance to
achieve marketing activities to before more effective in the market and increase
customer base.
Conflict reduction
Every business has internal and external conflicts and managers have to ensure to
reduce those conflicts by developing effective communication channel and
organisational structure to ensure proper roles and responsibility of all the employees in
the organisation. leader helps to inpire employees and attain healthy working
environment, collaborative working and ethical operations in the organisation which are
according to policies.
P3 Theories and Concept of Leadership
Leadership theories are developed in order to support all the managerial
activities of business and increase the performance to compete in the market
effectively. It is also very essential for Marks and Spencer to understand different
leadership theories which help company to make effective decision to lead and
employees and make them more effective in increasing their personal development.
Situational Leadership
Situational leadership provide efficiency to leaders to understand the behaviour
of employees within the organisation and adapt different leadership styles which
increase the communication level of leader (Bozarth and Handfield, 2019). Marks and
Spencer has to implement this leadership theory in different market as the company has
diverse workforce and every market has different cultural values, ethics and beliefs
which can impact single leadership theory negatively. It is very essential for leader to
adopt with the changes in the market to increase the market share and grow business
to earn more profit margins effectively. This also helps Marks and Spencer to become
more efficient in dealing with customers and providing better experience to improve
brand image effectively.
Systems Leadership
This theory helps leaders by providing effective information to develop structure
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and assign roles and responsibilities to employees according to objectives to reduce
ineffectively. Marks and Spencer uses this leadership theory to decrease the cost of
wastage of time. It also increases the communication channel and improves the
innovation opportunities to increase market share of the company (Roda and Macchi,
2016). Using this theory company will also reduce disputes due to definite roles and
responsibilities effectively.
Contingency Leadership
This theory states that the potential of any leader is hidden in themselves and it
very essential for them to adopt different leadership styles and situation to discover their
potential and develop high performance teams and achieve objectives of the company.
This theory helps Marks and Spencer to increase more leaders which are able to make
decisions and also understand their strengths and weaknesses according to situation
and develop them effectively. this will also helps the company to increase the
performance of workforce and improve customer engagement level to gain higher profit
effectively.
Transactional Theory
This leadership theory helps leader to increase the performance of employees by
providing them financial benefits on each transaction (Adebayo, Oyatoye and Amole,
2016). This also increases the sales of the business organisation and also improves the
size to compete in the market.
LO3
P4 Key approaches of operational management
Operational management refers to management of various processes in order to
effectively utilise available resources to get maximum output. It is responsibility of
operational manager to ensure that maximum result should be gathered from minimum
input so that company can earn large amount of profit margin (Raevich, Maglinets and
Brezhnev, 2019). Therefore, there are various key approaches of operational
management that are used by operational manager of Marks and Spencer so that
company can gain competitive advantages. Such as:
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Lean approaches: Operation manager of M&S identify values of products and services
render to customers so that effective price can be set and customers will be willing to
pay specific amount to purchase products. Organisation plans to minimise wastages in
order to provide great valuable, qualitative products to customers. Therefore manager of
M&S has reduces amount of wastage through optimum utilisation of available resource
so that customers needs can be satisfied in an effective manner. On the other hand
leaders provide guidance and support the way wastage of products can be reduces and
maximum output can be gained for growth and success of enterprise.
Total quality management: It is another approach that is used by operational manager
of M&S so that goals of firm can be achieved. Manager continuously monitors and
supervises, evaluates performance and productivity of each employee so that various
problems, error within process can be found out and effective solution can be made so
that qualitative services and products can be rendering to customers within limited time
and cost (Tsay and et.al., 2018). Leader ensures that each employee put their best to
provide qualitative products and services to large number of customers. Training and
development program are organised by manager so that employees can easily learn
new techniques to manufacture and deliver quality product to end user so that company
can gain competitive advantages.
Six Sigma: It is a technique that is used by most of the organisation to improve
customers experience, reduce cost of manufacturing so that company can easily
achieve its predetermined objectives. Operational manager has set six standard
deviations in order to maintain quality of products and services by improving process
from manufacturing to delivery of products to end user of firm (Bateman and Radnor,
2017). Whereas leader ensures that all rules, regulation and standard are followed by
individual so that desired outcome can be gathered. Therefore, with effective
coordination of leaders and managers of M&S this techniques helps company to reduce
its defects by zero, make operation efficiency excellence and needs of customers are
satisfied beyond their expectancy. Thus, it can be stated that all such approached used
by Manager helps in delivering qualitative, valuable products and services within limited
time so that needs can be satisfied.
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P5 Importance and values of operational management in achievement of business
objectives
Operational management is one of the most important processes that involve
various steps such as planning, organising, controlling and managing different activities
so that desired outcome can be gained within limited time (Essila, 2019). Therefore
operational manager find innovative method to ensure effectively utilisation of raw
material and timely delivery of services for satisfaction of customers’ needs. Thus,
various importance of operational management within Marks and Spencer in
achievement of company goals are as follows:
Enhance employee’s performance and productivity: Operational manager through
continuous supervision ensures that employees effectively utilise their capabilities and
skills for attainment of desired objectives. Leader ensure that sufficient technologies,
resource are provide to employees so that it can easily perform its duties and contribute
towards achievement of organisational goals.
Maximum utilisation of resources: Manager of Marks and Spencer has formulated
effective strategies, set particular standard that need to be followed by employees to
make optimum utilisation of resources. Training and development program are also
planned by operational management so that employees can make maximise utilisation
of available resources (Cormier, R . and et.al., 2017). Leaders of M&S guide and
support individual through resolving conflict between them and provide appropriate
suggestion to reduce waste and make qualitative products so that company can gain its
objectives.
Increase motivation level of employees: Operational manager and leaders both play
important roles in increasing motivation level of individual. Manager by clearly defining
roles and responsibilities reduce chance of confusion among employees so that they
can effective work as team toward particular goals. On the other hand Leader guides
them various steps that need to be used and motivate them by building strong
relationship and resolving their problems so that objectives of M&S can be achieved
Contribute to overall growth and success of organisation: Due to hard work and
effective coordination, performance of employees M&S is able to render qualitative
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products and service within particular time to large number of customers (Tsay and
et.al., 2018). Therefore it helps in expanding market share and brand image of firm by
making customers happy and satisfied.
LO4
P6 Factors of business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision making of leaders and manager
M&S has to operate its function in business environment so there are various
factors that influence operation management and decision making of leaders and
manager. Therefore manager and leader of M&S take appropriate decision for benefit
of organisation and satisfaction of customers needs beyond their expectancy. Such as:
Availability of resources: Every organisation needs human and physical resource in
order to effectively operate different function so that it can earn maximum amount of
profitability. Therefore Operational manager take decision to arrange resources as per
estimation of total resource available and required to perform specific task and
responsibilities (Hallam and Contreras, 2016). On the other hand leaders help manager
to take appropriate decision regarding resource that need to be arranged so that
employees can easily perform their activities. Therefore, Availability of resource may
impact positive and negatively on operational management.
Social preference: Customers trends and requirements keeps on changing therefore
operational manager of M&S ensure that it manufacture products as per needs of
people to increase sales volume and profitability of organisation. People of UK are more
concerned about their health and needs organic products therefore M&S operation
manager decided to manufacture organic products to meet needs of customers.
Therefore leader decided to provide training to employees so they can manufacture
qualitative and organic products at reasonable rates for satisfaction of customer’s
requirements. It has positively impacted operational management as company is able to
earn maximum profitability and market share.
Technological development: It is most changing external factors that adversely impact
on operational management and decision of both manager and leaders in the
organisation. Operation management has planned to use recent technologies for
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optimum utilisation of available products so that valuable goods can be rendering to
customers (Breuer and Lüdeke-Freund, 2016). Therefore leaders of M&S has also
decided to motivate and trained employees in order to enhance their knowledge about
recent technologies so that better services can be offered to people.
Environmental changes: It can be stated that government and customers are
becoming more aware and concerned about various harmful waste released by
companies while manufacturing products. Therefore it has negatively impact on M&S as
company has to invest money for protection of environment and reduction of waste so
that customers need can be fulfilled. Operational manager of M&S has decided to
reduce wastage of products through using innovative technologies and training
employees (Krol and Boström, 2018). On the other hand leaders have decided to
motivate and influence employees to enhance their performance so that amount of
wastage can be reduced for growth of firm.
CONCLUSION
This report concludes that it is very essential for business to analyse skills and
knowledge of managers and leaders of organisation which can also impact performance
of decision making. Report discussed the roles of leaders and function of a manager in
organisational setting to achieve objectives and improve the performance of employees.
This helped to understand that there are many factors in the business environment
which can be analysed with the help of effective leader and manager and reduce cost of
operation to gain higher profit margins effectively. Different leadership and managerial
styles were explained with description of skills and knowledge to make them effective in
the organisation. Operation management has different strategies and techniques to
reduce the cost which is explained in this report. It is also discussed that there are many
management theories which helps to improve the performance of organisation to
compete in the market and attain core competency effectively.
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