An Examination of Leadership and Management Roles at M&S

This report analyzes the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, comparing their functions within an organizational context. It uses Mark & Spencer (M&S) as a case study to illustrate these concepts. The report explores various leadership theories, including Contingency Theory and Situational Leadership Models, and examines how these theories apply in different situations. It also delves into key approaches to operations management, such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Just-in-Time (JIT), and Lean Production, highlighting the roles of managers and leaders in these processes. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of operations management in achieving business objectives and the factors that influence operational decision-making. The report provides a comprehensive overview of leadership, management, and their combined impact on organizational success.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Compare roles and characteristics of a leader and manager.............................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P2 Role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts....3
P3 Different theories and model of approach.........................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Key approaches to operations management and the role play of the managers and leaders. 6
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives........7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6 Factors that impact upon operational management and decision making.........................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Operations management is necessary for every organisation for controlling activities of
business houses so that they could be finish in limited span of time while using minimum
resources in best possible manner (Introduction to Operations Management, 2017). Operational
activities are main function of company in which it is dealing and they must be accomplished
efficiently because they will decide future expectations & opportunities of firm i.e. how longer
organization will work ahead (Bainton and et. al., 2011). Present report is based on Mark &
Spencer which is a retail store and setup in UK. M&S founded by Micheal Marks & Thomas
Spencer in near 1884 in London. Company have approx 979 stores in UK and 454 stores
internationally approximately. This assignment is going to highlight various roles and functions
which are performed by manager and leader of firm. In this, there is a description about many
leadership theories. It is required for superior to take an adequate decision for company as this
will help them to accomplish their targets within specific period of time.
TASK 1
P1 Compare roles and characteristics of a leader and manager
Leadership is motivating, inspiring team and showcasing way to team to achieve company
objectives.
According to Books and et. al. (2015) Leadership is not only an inborn quality but also it
could be enhanced by developing some skills and capabilities that leads a dynamic, exciting and
inspiring personality who guides, shows and let go others on path of desired level. Management
is proper administration of organizing, planning, controlling, delegating, commanding of
business activities running in organization.
According to Diabat and Govindan (2011) In earlier day's administration called
nowadays management who sets targets and takes decision regarding other actions like
controlling, commanding etc. of profit or non-profit business firm's achievement of objectives.
Functions of management:
 Planning: It is fundamental aspect of M&S managers to take actions correctly and
showcase a way to its employees for accomplishment of their task assigned to them.
 Organising: Senior of company decides activities that are necessary to do in a proper way
and fulfill requirements regarding them.
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 Directing and coordination: superiors of firm do proper direction of actions that an
employee has to take and coordinate with him time to time.
 Control: Managers of organisation controls westage of time, money and other resources
of company (Books and et. al., 2016).
Mintzberg's managerial roles:
 Interpersonal role: it concludes three points of managerial roles i.e. Figurehead, Leader &
Liaison.
 Informational role: It includes next 3 aspect of roles i.e. monitoring, disseminator and
spokesperson.
 Decisional role: Mintzberg's described his last four points of managerial roles in this
section i.e. Entrepreneur, Disturbance Handler, Resource allocator and Negotiator.
Role of a Leader: Required at all levels- Leadership is required at top level in formulating strategy and in
middle level in execution of that strategy. Representative of organization- Manager is face of enterprise because he has to face
public on behalf of company. Integrates and reconciles personal goals with organizational goals- Leader is a person
who reconciles individual interest into firm's overall objectives (Hitt, Ireland and
Hoskisson, 2012).
 He solicits support- By personality traits for example intelligence, maturity, experience
etc. leader ensures co-ordination and support of subordinates.
Function of Manager: Optimism- he creates future hope among employees which motivates them to work
harder. It is called his optimism attitude. Confidence- it's key aspect of building image in eyes of subordinates that you are having
capability of making good decisions. Flexibility- he or she must have some flexible nature according to changes happening in
external environment.
 Self-motivation- manager should be self-motivated if he would be motivated then he will
be able to motivate others.
Characteristics of Leader and manager: It can be stated as beneath:
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 Prioritization- He should be able in prioritize things according to current desire.
 Empathy- he should take care of his team for better results otherwise consequences could
be wrong (Kátai-Urbán, 2014).
 Accountability- he must have this skill to take decision and fulfil his responsibilities.
Comparison between Leader & Manager:
Leader Manager
Portrays a pictures of vision Goal setter
It is a unique quality. It could be copy from another person.
Brings change in business house. Maintains status quo.
TASK 2
P2 Role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts
Both the manager and the leader are important for an organization where a manager is
the one who manages the things in an organisation like task planning, leading employees,
organizing stuff related to the organisation and controlling and a leader does not needs to hold a
management position. Leading personal qualities of a person can make him or her a leader. The
Leaders do have people followers and the managers have assistants.
To describe the Role of Leaders here are some points:
 Leadership requires in all aspects as in all levels of the management. Plans can created by
the leader at the top level and then the executing it in the lower and middle level of the
management.
 A leader is the one who represents the organisation in front of the outside world,
Seminars, meetings and conferences are the part of it where a leaders does interacts with
the outside world (Martin and Tian, 2016).
 Good leaders are only said when they try to achieve the set goals for the organization
with the co-ordination of the organisations employees under which the employees are
also meeting there goals like making incentives by doing extra work that can help both
the organisation and the employee to make the profit.
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 Leaders must interact with the employees as a friend so that they can give suggestions
and can share feelings for the betterment of the organisation or for employees.
Functions of the manager: Planning: This situation comes up when an organisation is trying to set the goal like if a
company is trying to decrease the cost of the product by which companies sales gets
increases so how to manage all of it comes under this planning part to achieve the set
goal. Organising: When the plan takes place managers needs to assign the work to the team
according to there job and ability for an individual employee. Staffing: In some situations like when the plan took the place and if the workers or the
employees are not enough to achieve the set goal then it might be very helpful to recruit
the people or sometimes training becomes the major part of the organisation to crash the
set goal so a leader does all the part of it and in large companies they take the help of
Human resources (Moeini and Afshar, 2013).
 Leading and controlling: Only the set goal or plan is place is not only the part to achieve
goals but sometimes a manager have to lead and in this involves motivating,
communicating and problem solving situations of the employees which leads to
accomplish the goals and a manager also needs to continuously watch that if the
employees are working on the right path or not for the set goal.
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Illustration 1: Functions of manager
(Source: Functions of manager, 2014)

P3 Different theories and model of approach
There are various theories which is associated with leadership is defines as below:
Contingency Theory (1960s): leadership could not be done in single way& they depend
upon situations because of them style of leadership varies. As discussed above traits which lies
on condition happening in present time shows different behaviour in several situations.
Contingency theory is extension of trait theory.
Main aspect of CT is that leaders show their more interest when they see that their
followers are very responsive regarding decisions and actions.
Situational Leadership Models: Developed and studied by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul
Hersey. According to this situational leadership is where leader converts his pattern into the
followers learning style to meet the company demand.
Models
Selling & Coaching
 It is for those who are still learning & inexperienced and leader coach them not manage
to keep out input from juniors (Park and Jho, 2012).
Participating & Supporting
 leader builds confidence, motivates & inspires his followers by feedback and praise for
task completed.
Delegating
 Here employees are responsible for task chosen by them and taking actions to complete
it. Contribution of subordinates is more than leader. Delegation of authority is flexible in
this style.
System Leadership: It can be described in two distinct & interconnected manner i.e. one
is collaborative second is crosses boundaries – organisational, professional and virtual level. It
can be evidenced in leaders by following:
 Their personal core values
 How they perceive
 Way of thinking and analysis
 How they relates to others
 Behaviour & action
 Personal Qualities
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TASK 3
P4 Key approaches to operations management and the role play of the managers and leaders
Operations Management is the management which manages the complete production of
the product or service like input of raw material, energy and also the labor into the best outcome
as services or fine goods (Rinke and et. al., 2012). This area also concerns to controlling of the
production process where they can pull the best result in a short period of time using minimal
resources and here both the managers and leaders keeps an eye on operational management of
the organisation.
Key approaching points are: Total Quality Management(TQM)- This term refers to satisfaction of the customer for
what they are using a product or services. Leaders, managers and all employee of the
organisation tries to improve the services and products and this term comes for long-term
success. Just-in-time(JIT)- This term aimed at reducing the flow times in the production system
of the organisation and also from suppliers the response time its advantages are that the
companies does not needs to spend more money as they buy minimal amount of raw
materials to produce the products. Continuous Improvement- This is an ongoing process which keeps the goods and
services improving time by time. Where managers and leaders tries for the same thing
with innovative ideas that how there products or services keeps on selling in the market. Six Sigma- It is one of the quality managing method in which tools and techniques used
for improvement of the process. Under this method an organisation can find and remove
the products defects reducing the variable in manufacturing and process of the business. Lean Production- It is the method to minimize the waste in manufacturing without any
loss in productivity. This also refers to remove the extra part in the production part,
distribution part and from the design part this can reduce the cost of the product and time
as well of the organisation (Tadlock and et. al., 2013).
 Queueing: In every business queueing is important as it ensures queues of the products at
the effective way and this is mainly used by managers which keeps the increase in sales
of the products and it also increases the profit of the organisation.
Role of leader and manager in operations management:
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Under operations management both the managers and the leaders are important for the
profit maximization of an organisation. A leader is the one who leads and not manages and a
manager is the one who manages the resources and finance of the organization. They set the
goals for the betterment of the company, communicates, educates and gives the training to the
employees so that they can work efficiently in a smarter way. An operations leader is the one
who brings and execute the policies which maximizes the profit of the company with less risk
factor and quick response in the ups and downs of the demands.
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
There is an important role of the operations management in an organisation to achieve
goals as it uses minimal inputs like raw material, energy and resources and pull up the best
outcome like services and fine products in a very efficient way that it reduces cost of the product
which automatically increases the profit of the organisation (Trojnarska and Ciepłucha, 2011).
Marks and Spencer uses this method and brings out the quality product focussing on the needs of
different consumers. They have designed there process to reduce the cost of the product and also
the time as well. Utilisation of the resources: This is the core part for a company where they have to use
the limited resources at its lowest and brings out the best product out of it in a short
period of time. If an organisation fails in doing this than their might be a possibility that
the schedule gets delayed, products cost may increases and keeps the customers unhappy. Minimisation of the wastage: This process includes reduction of the material that is
going to get used to produce the product this allows in small businesses in reduction of
operating costs and it also helps to protect the environment. Recycling or reusing of the
resources can be beneficial for small business which is a part of operations management.
 Profit maximization: This refers to the process which can be long or short that pull up the
cost of the product and output level which shows the maximum profit of the organisation.
This is also divided into two parts and those are fixed cost and variable cost. In which
fixed cost comes up only in short time period where variable cost comes up in long
period of time.
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TASK 4
P6 Factors that impact upon operational management and decision making
There are two type of factors that may impact the operations management and those are
Internal factors and external factors.
Internal Factor: These are the factors which builds in the company only. Suppliers: In today's time most of the companies tries to build good relations with the
suppliers. As they have the power to affect the quality of the product in both negative or
positive way (Verma and Gangele, 2012). Suppliers also plays a leading role in
development of the product as they may have innovative ideas that how a little
modification in product tends to become profitable for the organisation in the market.
 Employees: They also plays a major role in the operational management as if they don't
work accordingly for a set target in a given time frame then productivity will be less and
it can be the reason for the loss of the company. Managers and leaders should keep on
communicating with the employees as it can be helpful to understand what they are
thinking for the organisation.
External Factors: These Factors relates to the organisation as an outsider. Political Factors: United kingdoms government do sets some rules and regulations that
needs to be followed by each an every company that comes under UK. Once Marks and
Spencer did not followed the standards of British charged them for not looking at the
rules of safety when a door fell down on employee than the government asked the
company to repair all the doors of the warehouses.
 Technology Factor: In today's time technologies changes rapidly in which companies
should manage there brands in the market. Advertisement is becoming the major part to
create brand awareness where Celebrity Icon of Marks and Spencer is “Myleen Class”
who appears in TV advertisement which possibly attracts the Customers (WU, WANG
and CUI, 2013).
CONCLUSION
From above assignment it has been comprehended that both leader as well as manager is
must for each and every kind of company. They both have their different roles and in addition
functions which need to be perform by them in an effective and efficient manner. In this
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assignment, there is a description about various leadership theories which must be follow by
manager. Therefore, they will improve skills and knowledge of their staff members. It is required
to motivate employees; so that, they will accomplish their task within certain period of time.
While taking decision for association, superior needs to consider interest of internal as well as
external stakeholders. Apart from all this, it is needed for organisation to manage their entire
operational activities; thus, they will improve their profitability and productivity. As a result, this
will assist them to enhance their profits and they will easily take benefits from their competitors
at competitive world.
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Online
Functions of manager. 2014. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.essaywow.com/management/functions-managers.html>.
Introduction to Operations Management. 2017. [Online]. Available
through.<https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-operations>.
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