Analysis of Leadership and Management Roles in Walmart Operations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management roles, functions, and their application within Walmart. It begins by comparing the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, highlighting their differences in influence, vision, and approach. The report then provides examples of how these roles are applied in different situational contexts within Walmart's operations, emphasizing the impact of leadership styles. Furthermore, it explores the application of various leadership theories and models, such as situational leadership and contingency theory, within Walmart. The report also examines key approaches in operational management, assessing the importance of operational management in achieving business objectives. Finally, it assesses the factors within the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers, providing a holistic view of leadership and management practices in a large retail organization.

Management and
Leadership
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
P1 Comparison between different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.........3
P2 Example for the application of role of a leader and function of a manager in different
situational context...................................................................................................................5
P3 Application of theories and models in the leadership and management of Walmart........7
P4 Key approaches in operation management and the role of leaders and managers play in an
organisation............................................................................................................................9
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business
objectives..............................................................................................................................10
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational
management and decision making by leaders and managers...............................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Management and leadership roles are significant for the good performance in an
organisation. It is with the help of them an organisation is able to achieve its several task and
goals. An organisation involves various operations which needs to be taken care with the help of
operations management. Operations are the core activities which includes various functions to
achieve desired outcomes or product of a company (Bush, 2018). These are production,
manufacturing and other activities which leads to ensure a company has convert input to outputs
optimally. It is delivery focused which is done with considering planning, organising and
directing the efforts of employees. It is the administration of business practices which helps in
achieving highest level of best practices. It is concerned with designing and controlling
activities for the production of goods and services. Also, it is concerned with the redesigning
process of business operations for implementing desired change in an organisation. Thus,
operations management is concerned with the conversion of all the resources into outputs. It is
the process of converting inputs into outputs with the help of raw material and labours in a
company. Walmart is one of the largest company which deals in retail industry with operation in
different countries. It is an American brand which operates with the help of hypermarkets,
discount departmental stores and grocery stores etc. In this report it includes comparison between
the roles of a leader and manager with application of them in different situational context
considering several theories and models. Also, key approaches to operational management and
importance of them in achieving business objectives. It includes various factors which impact
upon operational management and decision making by leaders and mangers.
P1 Comparison between different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager
A leader is a person which act as a mentor in a team. He or she is one of the key person
which performs major function or roles in a company (Adeleke and et.al.,, 2018). A leader
influences and motivates people for achieving team goals with consideration of their interest
with overall organisation interest.
A manager is a person who develops plan and objectives to be achieved by the people of
a company. They ensure completion of work with the help of people. They plan, organise and
direct the activities in a company. Thus, a manger performs various responsibilities and functions
which is wider in scope.
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Comparison between a leader and manger on the basis of roles and functions
Following are the differences between a leader and manager which has direct influence
on the performance of employees:
1. A leader is a person who influences his/ her subordinates or followers for achieving team
goals and objectives. Whereas, a manager is a person who plans, organise and directs the
whole organisation of a company.
2. A leader possess various qualities for setting vision with the help of foresightedness.
Whereas, a manager follows the set vision in the performance of various people with the
help of intelligence (Bambale, Gire and Barwa, 2017).
3. A leaders motivates people with setting clear direction by effective communication.
Whereas, managers plans activities which has to be clearly stated.
4. A leader is a person who apply various leadership styles as per the situation which helps
in facilitating decisions. Whereas, a manager takes various decisions within its control as
per the requirements.
Basis Leader Manager
Develops A leader develops vision which is
used for achieving goals and
objectives of a company (Beggan
and Allison, 2018). It helps in
directing and motivating members
of a team.
A manager is a person who
develops goals and objectives with
the help of planning and organising
activities.
Defination He/ She is a person who influences
and inspires people of an
organisation for achieving goals and
objectives as well as its vision.
He/ She is a person who manages
the organisation with planning,
organising, directing and controlling
to get the work done by its
employees.
Approaches Leaders performs with the help of
providing directions to its
Managers performs various
activities with the help of planning
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followers. It is achieved with the
help of setting of
details clearly.
Focuses They focuses on people of a
company which results in aligning
of people in one direction.
They focuses on processes and
procedures for achieving goals and
objectives in a company. It results
in developing of structures and
organising of teams.
Responsibility It is responsible for implementing
change in a company (Bolden,
Gulati and Edwards, 2019). It leads
to responsible behaviour which
helps in conducting require change
in a company.
It is responsible for reacting to
various external factors affecting
the performance of a company.
Influence It influences the behaviour of
people in a company. This can be
achieved with consideration of
various styles.
It influences behaviour of
employees with application of
transactional style of management.
Aims It aims for the growth and
development of his teammates
It aims for accomplishing the end
results and objectives of a company.
Example The practice of leadership results in
effectiveness of outcomes. This
leads to utilising of resources in
most effective manner.
Management leads to results in
efficiency of outcomes with
optimum utilisation of resources.
P2 Example for the application of role of a leader and function of a manager in different
situational context
Walmart operating in retail industry has a wide scope of operations which require
application of various role of leaders and different functions of management. Company is one of
the largest in size across the world. It has followed the participative also called as democratic
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leadership style for motivating and inspiring people of a company. Company has been operating
in various countries with the result of vision seen by one of the leader of a company. Leaders of
the company has performed the role of change agents which helped the company in achieving
exceptional success. Founder of the company named as Sam Walton had introduced various
concepts which helps them in structuring work and organising operations of company. It includes
concept of profit sharing or financial procedures and team building for better performance of a
company. Another leader named Scott Lee is considered for taking company at global level
resulting it in international entity (Butler, 2020) (Chan, 2019). Scott lee has always encouraged
its employees to perform in team, take adequate risk and focus on company's goals. He is
considered as good leader with following of transactional leadership style. Also, he has expanded
company in various regions such as North America, Europe and Asia. This has helped company
in becoming globally established and renowned company which has helped in turning around
operations and decision making of company. Sam Walton being the founder of company has
considered as transformational leader because of its ability to inspire people in the business
world. He participates people and values every idea.
Functions of a Manager in Walmart
Managers are the people who performs various functions for the achievement of goals
and objectives in an organisation. Managers are considered for accomplishing work with the help
of people in a company. In Walmart managers perform various functions such as planning,
organising, directing and controlling for the achievement of its goals and objectives. It also
works with three beliefs for achieving success such as strive for excellence, respect for
individuals and excellent service to the customer. Also, management follows transactional and
transformational style in managing people of the company. This helps in directing and
influencing behaviours of subordinates and other lower level hierarchy in a company.
Following are the functions performed by the company which helps in achieving goals and
objectives effectively and efficiently in various stores by different managers of the company.
Planning- Planning is one of the foremost function of a manager which helps in pre
determining future activities of a company. It helps managers in developing plans and objectives
to be achieved by the company as well as lower level hierarchy (Cherkesova and et.al., 2017).
Planning is mostly done by the top management of a company. Walmart is one of the largest
company which requires effective management for the completion of various task and objectives.
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This leads to effective management which is important for the fulfilment of various goals and
objectives. Planning is one of the major function which helps company in forming various goals
and objectives. It results in
Organising- Organising is another function which help in allocating resources of a
company at right places. It is the development of structures and allocation of jobs to the right
people at the right place. This function involves the allocation of work and resources at right
place by the right people. It involves analysis of various factors which can affect the
performance and operations of a company. Thus, organising functions help company in
allocating various task and activities.
Directing- Directing or coordinating function involves implementation of predetermined
plans and set objectives to execution. This is one of the vital function which helps in
performance of employees. In this managers perform important function which results in
achievement of goals and objectives of a company (Fowlkes and McWhorter, 2017). Walmart is
one of the leading company which has achieved various success leading to accomplishment of
goals and objectives. It is the implementation phase which involves direction of employees as
per the pre determined plans. In this managers of the company interacts with lower management
and lower hierarchy from which work is going to be performed. This is one of the significant
function which helps company in performing various task
Controlling- In this mangers perform the vital function of controlling which helps in
avoiding obstacles and deviations faced by the company. Controlling is one of the important
function performed by the managers which helps in reducing deviations. Controlling is another
function which has helped company in achieving various task as per the plans formed for
achieving overall success in a company (Frost, 2019). It helps in achieving various task which
are essential for the growth and development of a company. Controlling is the last function
which impacts the performance of a company. This can be achieved with the application of
various tools and techniques in a company. Thus, controlling function help management in
avoiding deviations and obstacles in the achievement of plans and objectives of Walmart.
P3 Application of theories and models in the leadership and management of Walmart
Walmart is one of the leading company which serves customers needs and wants in
consumer goods. It is based on the slogan “ Save Money. Live Better”. Its vision statement is to
become the worldwide leader in retailing. Its mission statement refers to give ordinary folk the
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chance to buy the same thing as rich people. It utilises various theories and models which helps
them in achieving all the objectives and goals of company. These are set by the top management
of company with the help of analysis and scanning of various factors. Company utilises them for
the effective management of various operations and functions used. Leadership and management
theories and models approaches includes situational leadership, systems leadership and
contingency theory. These can be further illustrated as following:
Situational leadership- This is one of the leading theory which helps in achievement of
influences and dynamics of various factors available in a company. This leadership theory helps
in decision making and application of various situational leadership theory. Situational
leadership is one of the significant model which helps company in approaching people with the
help of various leadership style (Kearns and et.al., 2019). It is based on the situational factor
which helps company in using various styles based on the requirement of the situation. This help
them in channelising and implementing change due to presence of various factors in the external
and internal environment of a company. Walmart uses transactional and transformational
leadership styles mostly with inclusion of various styles required as per the situational
leadership.
System leadership- It is one of the essential tool used for collaborating the efforts and
capacities of various individuals which helps in supporting system level change. It is the set of
skills which helps in collaborating leadership, affiliated system and coalition building (Gipson
and et.al., 2017. This helps in mobilizing innovation and performance in an organisation. This
approach is most useful for the complex challenges which involves teamwork in which no single
individual is in control. However, this approach is challenging which includes high transaction
cost, ambiguous results and long time frames.
Contingency leadership- This leadership theory states the effectiveness of a leader in the
achievement of best leadership style in a particular situation. According to this theory, a person
is an effective leader in one situation and ineffective leader in another circumstances. It includes
Fiedler's contingency theory, the situational leadership theory, the path goal theory and the
decision making theory. The main idea of this theory states that different situations in a company
demands different styles of leadership (Kim and Stepchenkova, 2018). Thus, it can be said that
best leadership style is contingent on the basis of situation occurring in a company. Walmart is
one of the leading company in retail sector which operates within various external and internal
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factors in a company. This theory is best used by the company for facing various threats and
challenges. This theory is utilised by the managers of the company for achieving success in an
organisation.
P4 Key approaches in operation management and the role of leaders and managers play in an
organisation
Operation management is one of the significant function performed in a company. It is
the business function which involve completion of various process in the production and
manufacturing. It includes planning, organising, coordinating and controlling of all the resources
require to produce company's goods and services. It is one of the significant function which
helps in managing and influencing the overall performance of a company. Leaders and managers
plays a significant role in the application of various operational activities in a company. It
involves transforming of various inputs into outputs with the help of most efficient manner. It
focuses on delivery of various goods and services in a company (Lumpkin and Achen, 2018).
Leaders and managers helps in achieving various goals and objectives of a company which is
highly based on the management of operations in a company. Thus, operations management is
one of the leading function which helps in the achievement of various goals and objectives of a
company. Walmart utilises its operations management effectively with combination of various
approaches such as supply chain management, inventory management and marketing. It ensures
that transformation of production and operational inputs into outputs which helps in distribution
of goods and services with meeting the needs of customers. Walmart utilises strategy for
acquiring large market share with everyday low price, the process of creative destruction and
cultural adaptation. They focuses on training of employees as people are the most essential for
the business. They focuses on mass production with acquiring of raw materials from vendors in
bulk at lower prices. This help company in managing goods and services effectively with
increase profit margin.
Porter's five forces of competition
This model helps in the analysis of competition available and faced by the company with
the competitive advantage. It helps in understanding of various rivalry available in a market.
Rivalry among existing competitors- Walmart has a very strong competitive advantage
over its competitors which is not easily imitable by others. However, rivalry among its market
players is not that strong as compared to the Walmart (Luu, 2020).
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Barriers to Entry- High barriers are available for new entrants which is quite hard to
overcome. Walmart is one of the large organisation which is hard to be overcome or challenged
by other competitors in a company. It offers good at very low prices to its customers which
makes it more difficult to enter in the industry. This industry poses major threats for new entrants
as it requires high investment and becomes too expensive for new firms to enter.
Bargaining power of Buyers- It is weak due to the prices asked are very low from the
the very starting. This makes them lower control in the achievement of bargaining of prices from
the potential buyers to bargain with.
Bargaining power of suppliers- It is also weak as company used its own distribution
centres which help them in achieving less dependence on the suppliers.
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
Operations management is used by the organisation like Walmart, as it is an effective and
useful management technique to achieve the business objective and aims (Muradli and
Ahmadov, 2019). These aims and objective are pre-determined according to the budget and
effectiveness of the time. Same as these techniques the leaders of the Walmart play an important
role for managing the business operational units. It is generally a concept which is help in
making the plans, controls, using different and effective management techniques to serve the
delivery to their customers. There are various benefits which are effective in operational
management which are described below:
Product quality: The quality of the goods and services which are serve by the customer
is produced and managed by the operational management in the Walmart organisation.
Operations ensure the quality of the products and welcome the various offers which serve the
opportunities to identifying the new area where the quality of the products can be improved.
Customer satisfaction: Customer are important stakeholder of the any type of industry
or company. As customer satisfaction is essential for the any company to make the growth and
increase the sales volume. Walmart is one of the largest organisation which used operational
techniques. To increase the customer satisfaction level they try to increase the services and rise
in the quality standard of the products.
Revenue increase: Increase the product quality will provide a large support to Walmart
for having a good reputation in the market (Pafford and Schaefer, 2017). This will directly make
the impact on the revenue increment. This will help in expanding the business operations and
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increase the market share. Further more operational management will help in cutting the extra
cost by removing the inefficient strategies and activities. Walmart operational manager try to
achieve the desired objectives and increased the revenue.
Waste reduction: It is one of the important component in the operational management.
To remove the waste, there are various techniques and activities are used by Walmart
organisation. Mostly they used lean manufacturing strategies and JIT which are helpful in
managing the inventory. Eliminate the waste from the production unit, will allow the respected
company to increase the efficiency and improve the profit ratios. In the Walmart the manager are
try their best to manage the operational units and increase their effectiveness so that they can
work as per their best possibilities.
Collaboration: To work adequately in the operational management, it is important to
make the strong collaboration between the many individual with all the levels of the company
(Peach, 2017). As Walmart is the very large organisation, it is very important to them to work in
the collaboration so that they can achieve the a common goal. Walmart use the many business
strategies like chain management, capacity to hold the money control, optimal utilisation and
sales. In order to achieve the success it is important to manage and involve the proper utilization
of human resource.
Optimum utilisation of resources: This is the importance which is used by the various
organisation like Walmart, as it is important to manage the resource in their best use. So to use
this, the managers of the respected company to formulate the different strategies in the company
to manage the optimum utilisation of the resources.
Managers of the Walmart play a significant role as they use operational management
technique in their best way to achieve the objectives. In the critical situation within the company,
the leader and manager try their best to achieve the success and motivate the other employees to
work in best productive and effective level.
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management
and decision making by leaders and managers
There are various factors which are affect the business environment, as it make the strong
impact on the operational management and the decision making of the leaders and manager of
respected organisation (Siren and Gehrs, 2019). These factors affect the organisation to achieve
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the objective and manage the leaders essential impact of the operational management. These
factors are describe below:
Resources of the company: There are various resources which are used by the
organisation to complete the work on the given time period and achieve the targets. Resources
like human resource and raw material, equipment, machinery and many others are used by the
Walmart. The productivity and ability of the employees are checked in timely basis as they affect
the operational management of company and their decision making power.
Financial Status: The financial status and resources of Walmart which help their leaders
and managers to make the proper strategies and work in a guidance direction to achieve the
goals. The decision which are related to the cost and management factors welcome the various
customers and make the strong investment base in the company (Sultan and et.al., 2019). All this
thing affect the cash flow and profits of the company as these things affect the operational
management and decision making of the managers of respected company.
Market trends: The new trends help the company to make the more powerful position
and stand in the industry with high market share. All these trends first need to analysis and
evaluate according to the need of the company. This research make the strong impact on the
decisions of the company and make the more useful decision in operational management by
managers.
Stakeholders: The stakeholders include employees, customers, shareholders, investors
etc. they all help the company to grow in the market and analysis the decision on the basis of the
behaviour of various stakeholders of the company (Zaim, Demir and Budur, 2021). Investors are
the one who make the investment to achieve the desired objective and profit which have to
earned by the company.
Legal and political changes: these two are the important factor of the company as a
change in the legal change make affect the policies and standard of the company. The managers
and leader of the Walmart may get the impact on the operational management and their decision
making power. Here the managers and leaders play an important role in making the future
prediction about the changing environment and the impact of the legal and political impact. To
manage these legal and political issues will help the company to predict the changes and future
plan within the company and try to motivate the employee's of the company
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Technological changes: These changes happens in the external market of the company
and it may impact on the company while each new day (Tsui, 2019). These changes are to be
adopted by leaders and manager of the Walmart to make the future decision easily.
As there are various factors which affect the decisions making skills and operational
management by managers and leaders. Some of the factors play negative while some play
positive impact of the business activities. All these factors may get the high impact on the cost,
quality and price as these factors are being evaluated effectively so that the planning and
strategies can be use more effectively and get the success in the growth of the business.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it is concluded that a large organisation must be used a
centralized organisational structure which help their managers and leader to complete the work
effectively. As in the centralized structure the power and authority is described among various
employees. All the power is being distributed among the employees and they al know about they
individual role and responsibilities. With the help of different leadership theories and models the
roles of the leader understood easily. Furthermore by analysing the strength and weakness of the
models and theory the work pressure is reduced in between the leader and manager. Operational
management include the various theories, models, approaches, importance and values which give
the high impact on the companies decision making tools. All these things help in the growth of
the company and provide a large support in order to increase the profit revenue. The relationship
in between the leader and manager may make the strong internal impact which directly affect the
internal environment.
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