Analysis of Leadership, Management, and Operations at Asda Stores Ltd.

This report examines the roles and characteristics of managers and leaders, contrasting their responsibilities within an organization, using Asda Stores Ltd. as a case study. It explores various organizational situations, such as conflict resolution, cost reduction, and technological upgrades, highlighting the specific actions taken by leaders and managers. The report covers leadership theories like contingency, situational, and systems theories, and discusses operational management approaches such as Six Sigma. It also analyzes the importance of operational management in achieving business objectives, and assesses factors influencing decision-making by managers and leaders, providing a comprehensive overview of leadership and management in a real-world business context.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Description and comparison of various characteristics and roles of manager and leader...................3
P2. Various situations in an organization and role of leader and manager in the company,.....................6
P3. Theories and models of operational management..............................................................................7
P4. Operational management approaches................................................................................................9
P5. Importance of operational management in order to achieve business objectives.............................12
P6. Factors affecting decision making of managers and leaders............................................................13
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations are concerned with organizing, planning, supervising for doing
production and manufacturing in the company. Operations management means to convert inputs into
outputs to achieve success in the business. It stimulates to do day to day activities of the business. The
study is based on Asda Stores Ltd. It is a British supermarket retailer. The company deals in the products
of grocery, financial services and general merchandise. It is founded by Peter and Fred Asquith on 14
February 1949. The headquarters of firm is situated in West Yorkshire in Leeds of England.
The study will define various roles and characteristics of leader and manager in compare and
contrast form. It will examine how a leader and manager work in different situations of the organization
with the help of examples. The report will cover various theories of leadership such as contingency,
systems and situational theories. It will illustrate key approaches of operational management and the
function which managers and leaders perform. Furthermore, it will explain the significance of operational
management. Moreover, it will assess the factors of business environment that influence the operational
management of an organization and also on decision making of managers and leaders.
MAIN BODY
P1. Description and comparison of various characteristics and roles of manager and leader
Definition
Manager - Manager is a person who is responsible for motivating and supervising the subordinates and
for directing the progress of an organization. Also Manager is a person who is responsible for the
customer satisfaction, their complaints and has to deal with disputes of the customer. Also Manager is
responsible for all the functions related to staffing, directing and controlling because the end result must
be supervised under the supervision of the manager.
Leader - A leader is a person who leads, guide, and groom and rectifies all the work done by the
teammates, and one of the most important functions is that a leader is responsible for motivating and
coordinating the work of the teammates toward the objectives Schnepp, Vidal and Hawley, 2017). A
leader must be full of patience and must maintain coordination between teammates to achieve the team
objectives with effectiveness and efficiency.
Differentiation between Manager and Leader:

Basis Manager Leader
Definition A manager is the one who is
responsible for the overall
development of the subordinates
in the organization. Also the
manager has to maintain
effectiveness and efficiency in
the organization (Ravinder, and
Kollikkathara, 2017).
A leader is one who has the
responsibility of managing and
directing the teammates in a right
direction. The leader is also
responsible for maintaining
coordination between the
teammates to achieve
organizational objectives.
Role A manager is responsible for
performing the functions like
planning, organizing, staffing,
directing and controlling. As
these functions are essential for
smooth work in the organization
A leader is responsible for
various functions such as
leading, coordinating, motivating
and directing the employees in a
right direction to maintain
efficiency.
Responsibility The primary responsibility of
manager is to ensure daily
functioning of a department or
group of subordinate. Also the
manager is responsible for
staffing.
The primary responsibility of
leader is to create a healthy
working environment for
teammates and to motivate or
inspire the team members
towards the organizational
objectives (Akalin, Huang and
Willems, 2016).
Characteristics A manager must be a responsible
person having a vision to take
right managerial actions at a right
time. A manager must be having
all the qualities of leader.
A leader must be having ability
to delegate, integrity, good
communication skills, gratitude,
influencing behavior, empathy,
etc.
Power and Authority A manger has a huge control
over the organization and has
powers like rewarding,
A leader has the power to
delegate the authority to
teammates, power to remove and

punishing, etc. A manager has
overall control of his department.
add team members, and most
importantly power to take all
decisions.
Focus point Manager basically focuses on
day to day activities of
subordinate and mainly on the
end result that the company
wants to achieve.
Leader basically focuses on
creating a coordinated
environment to ensure
Effectiveness and efficiency.
Fayol's description of manager functions
 Planning - Planning is a function of forecasting the future position of the firm well in advance.
Panning function involves establishing goals and putting them in a right sequence. Manager of
Asda work to formulate strategy and objectives by which the work of the employees becomes
easier that they only have to follow the objectives and the strategy formed by the managers to
reach the goal with effectiveness and efficiency.
 Organizing - This is a process of managing all the resources whether physical, human and
financial in the organization. This process divides all the work in the whole organization in
proper manner. The mangers of Asda will also organize all types of resources and will separate
the work of every employee properly.
 Commanding - In these employees must know about what the subordinates expect from them,
and all the employees will be giving strict instructions related to the work which should not be
neglected. The employees of Asda must know that the employees want work done in effective
manner (Mateo, 2016).
 Coordinating - The organization must be having a coordinating environment by which there will
be no disputes and conflicts in the organization. The managers of Asda must ensure a
coordinating environment which reduces overlapping of work.
 Controlling - In this the earlier implemented plan is compared with the actual results and the
deviation is analyzed to take corrective actions. The managers of Asda must compare their
standard results with the actual one to find out deviation and therefore can take corrective actions.

P2. Various situations in an organization and role of leader and manager in the company,
Conflicts in organization - The Company have faced various situations in which one of the situations is
conflicts. The employees of the company indulged in disputes and conflicts. For example sometimes the
view point of the employees doesn't match with one another. Some of the employees spread rumors due
to jealous nature. In competitive world everyone wants to put the other one down. Thus, through these
conflicts arises in Asda.
 Role of leader - Leader is responsible to teach its team members about team spirit. They tell
them about the Esprit de corps. It is a mutually consideration and loyalty which shares among the
team mates. Thus, by this the chances of conflicts with one another get reduced (Wu, 2016).
 Role of Manager - The role of manager is to evaluate measures by which conflicts gets remove
from the organization. Firstly they listens the problem of employees and analysis the situation in
depth. Once they find reason of the conflicts they try to resolve it. Various problem solving
techniques is adopted by the manager of Asda to provide solutions to employee’s problems.
Reduction in cost of production - Asda wants to remove the cost of production. They want to remove
the cost of production by removing the wastage in the production function. Also wants to have a control
over suppliers of the company to manage the costs.
 Role of leader - For cutting the cost of production leader encourage its team members to do lean
manufacturing through this waste from the production process gets reduced. The leader directs
their subordinates to work together by this work can complete on timely basis and productivity
also increases. Thus, by this extra cost of production gets reduced.
 Role of Manager - Manager of the company directs the employees to us raw materials at optimal
level so that production process doesn't incurred additional costs. They also contact up with
suppliers to purchase the raw materials in bulk at lower cost from a wholesaler. Thus, by this cost
of production gets reduced.
Technological up gradation - Asda is introducing retail technology by teaming up with Google in order
to use its home assistant. This helps the shoppers to build their own personalized shopping basket
(Manzini and Di Serio, 2017). The company is providing digital platform to its customers in order to
interact with them.
 Role of leader - Leader inspires its followers to use the new technology. This will helps to
increase operational efficiency. Some of the teammates don’t agree with the use of new

technology in the company. The leader makes them agreed to use advanced technology by telling
them about its benefits in the business.
 Role of manager - Manager of the company gives training to its employees in order to provide
familiarity about new technology. By conducting this training and induction sessions employees
gets well versed with the use of new technology.
P3. Theories and models of operational management
1) Contingency Theory - This theory claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to
direct the company, or to take decisions. Instead the course of action is situation and is dependent
upon the external and internal environment. A contingent leader applies his decision effectively in his
own style not in static style at the right situation. This theory is an extension of method study given
by F.W Taylor in his one of the techniques of scientific management.
For example: The Asda company must apply this technique because if similar situations will occur
then this concept will be helpful as mangers will not apply past solutions on new situations (Gupta, Yang
and Jain, 2018).
Figure 1 Contingency Theory
2) Situational Theory - This theory refers to the leaders who apply different varieties of Leadership
styles as the situation is created. This is considered to be a effective way of Leadership in which the
situation is first analyzed then the leadership style is selected according to the situation. This helps in
choosing the best leadership style as need according to the situation created.

For example: The Asda company must use this technique as it is the basis of other, this is a type of
technique which promotes the use of different leadership styles in the organization (Gibson and Parkman,
2018). This also increases the knowledge of the leaders. The leadership style will change according to the
situation and the result will be better than sticking in one type of leadership style.
Figure 2 Situational Theory
3). System Theory - This theory is an interdisciplinary study of all systems. This theory states that every
system is bounded with time and space that is influenced by the internal and external environment (Reid,
and Sanders, 2019). Also not the whole but some part of that system can also be influenced by the
environment which can further affect all other parts.
For example: The Asda company may also use this theory to improve and boost the leadership styles
can be helpful in tackling the situation that are being created by effect on one system or a part of it, by
which it will not cause any damage to other.

Figure 3 Key Elements of System Theory
P4. Operational management approaches
Six Sigma - This is a data driven tool that based on continuous improvement by eliminating defects in
services and products. Sigma refers as standard deviation that measures variation. From the bad outcomes
of the process it separates the good one. It enhances process control. It is a tool that helps to improve
capabilities of the business (WHAT IS SIX SIGMA?, 2020).
 Role of leader -The leader of Asda promotes their teammates in order to adopt Six sigma
approach in its production function. Their role is to guide their followers to make optimal use of
business resources and also eliminates defects from the products.
 Role of manager - Manager role in Asda is to take full control over inventories of production
process by which only a fix amount of raw materials is used to make goods, by this unnecessary
wastage of the raw materials gets reduced. Manager also do depth market study can get updated
with current customers preferences and trends, through which the quality of goods can be
improved.

Figure 4 Six Sigma model
Lean Manufacturing - It is a technique for running manufacturing and operation process in the firm.
This technique eliminates the activities which are non value adding in the business (Slack and Brandon-
Jones, 2018). The enterprise which works with lean system has extended this through concept of supply
chain management. According to this theory only lean factory cannot achieve results until suppliers and
contractors also adopt lean system.
 Role of leader - The leader helps to built team spirit among the subordinates by which they
started doing work together by keeping in mind about the lean production. By working
cooperatively they are able to implement lean manufacturing system in Asda.
 Role of manager – Asda Manager conduct induction sessions for the employees in which they
teach about the use of lean manufacturing system and how this system can be implemented in the
company. The manager use recycle strategy in production process through which resources
doesn't waste as well as this is cost efficient..

Figure 5 Lean Manufacturing
Just in Time - This is a strategy based on optimum utilization of resources. According to this theory the
materials are only ordered and received as they are needed in the production process. This concept
discourages the stockings of material or inventory of the materials in the organization. The main objective
of this method is to reduce costs by money on expenses incurred unnecessary for materials. For applying
this method accurately the company must be able to forecast accurately the demand and supply of goods
and services.
 Role of leader - The leader will use effective leadership styles to reduce the cost by guiding the
teammates to work in the most efficient manner (Bromiley and Rau, 2016). The leader must
ensure proper requirement of material for their group to reduce the cost of production according.
 Role of manager - A manger has a vital role in managing resources by reducing the waste of
resources; this can be done by training the subordinates in the most effective way to ensure that
there should not be any excess stock of material in the organization.

Figure 6 Just in time model
P5. Importance of operational management in order to achieve business objectives
Operational Management helps to manage day to day activities seamlessly. It enables the
organization to make good use if available resources in the organization. It is important as it helps to
improve overall productivity of the Asda. Operational management helps to reduce the cost of production.
This helps to achieve strategic goals of an organization. Its importance is listed below -
 It helps to increase customer satisfaction in the company. Operational department of the company
ensures that they produce goods and services which can be met the customers’ expectations
(What is Operations Management [Theory & Practice], 2019).
 It helps to improve product quality. Asda is using total quality management approach in its
operations. Thus, quality of products gets improved. The operational management uses two
concepts that is durability and reliability. They deliver products which are based on durable
concept on which customers can rely.
 Generate high revenues in Asda. By satisfying customers need through operational management,
the company is able to increase its sales. This eventually means that company revenue gets
increased with the increase in sales of good (Heizer, 2016).
 Operational management helps to reduce wastage from the production process in Asda. The
company is using lean manufacturing system model in its operations. They get successful in

removing unnecessary wastage from the production department. This is cost efficient and also
saves unwanted expenses of the company.
P6. Factors affecting decision making of managers and leaders
 Informational inputs - It is very important to have adequate and accurate informational inputs
about the situation for decision making, otherwise the quality of decision making will suffer. The
managers and leaders of Asda must collect all the relevant information about the situation to take
adequate and accurate decision which can be beneficial for the organization (Fiorentino, 2016).
 Cognitive Constraints - Human brain is the source of thinking, creativity and decision making,
is limited in thinking in numerous ways. As except from some points memory of brains is short
term. The managers and the leaders of Asda company must have to ensure that relevant
information related to decision making must not be lost otherwise the whole organization will
suffer.
 Prejudice - Prejudice or biasness is always in mind of the decision makers which can affect the
decision or can make a ineffective decision. The managers should keep this in mind that they
must not be biased while decision making otherwise the decisions will not be so impactful or will
be ineffective (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016)
 Technological change - The technological changes in the business environment can be a big and
major cause of failure as the competitor will use latest technologies for production and the
company will incur huge losses. The managers and leaders must insure that company is working
with latest technology and if required changes should be made quickly
 Market Trends - The trends in market directly affect the decision making as the decision first
made goes in vain, as the trends are changed and a new decision should be made as soon as
possible, and this all will consume a lot of time, money and efforts (Roda and Macchi, 2016). The
managers and leaders of Asda Company also analyze the market before taking decisions as if the
market trend changes then the old decision will be wasted and a lot of time will be consumed to
make a new one.
 Political changes - The changes in the political system can highly influence the decision making
as if the new political party will come in action then the behavior of government will be different
and unfavorable for the business units. The managers and leaders of the Asda Company must
analyze the political behavior towards business units before taking decisions.

CONCLUSION
Report has concluded that Management and operation are the crucial part of any business.
Operations refer as conversion of input into output. Raw materials are converted into finish goods. It has
been summarized that leader plays efficient role to lead a firm towards success. Leader inspires other
teammates to work coordinative in Asda. Function of the leader is to get things done from others. By
doing, planning, organizing and controlling managers of the firm are able achieve organizational aims and
objectives. It has been conclude that by adopting contingency, situational and system theory, Asda can
achieve higher profitability. By using approaches such as Six sigma, Total quality management and Lean
manufacturing the company is able to increase its profitability. Operational management plays a
significant role to manage day to day activities in Asda. It has been summarized that there are factors
within the business environment that influence decision making of leader and manager.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akalin, G., Huang, Z. and Willems, J., 2016. Is Supply Chain Management Replacing Operations
Management in the Business Core Curriculum?. Operations and Supply Chain Management: An
International Journal. 9(2). pp.119-130.
Bromiley, P. and Rau, D., 2016. Operations management and the resource based view: Another
view. Journal of Operations Management. 41. pp.95-106.
Fiorentino, R., 2016. Operations strategy: a firm boundary-based perspective. Business Process
Management Journal.
Gibson, P. and Parkman, R., 2018. Cruise operations management: hospitality perspectives. Routledge.
Gupta, K., Yang, Z. and Jain, R., 2018. Urban Data Integration (UDI) using Proximity Relationship
Learning for Design, Management and Operations of Sustainable Urban Systems. Journal of
Computing in Civil Engineering.
Heizer, J., 2016. Operations management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Hitt, M.A., Xu, K. and Carnes, C.M., 2016. Resource based theory in operations management
research. Journal of Operations Management. 41. pp.77-94.
Manzini, R.B. and Di Serio, L.C., 2017. Current thinking on cluster theory and its translation in economic
geography and strategic and operations management. Competitiveness Review: An International
Business Journal.
Mateo, J.R.S.C., 2016. Management Science, Operations Research and Project Management: Modelling,
Evaluation, Scheduling, Monitoring. Routledge.
Ravinder, H. and Kollikkathara, N., 2017. Project Management in Operations Management Textbooks:
Closing the Gap. Journal of the Academy of Business Education. 18.
Reid, R.D. and Sanders, N.R., 2019. Operations management: an integrated approach. John Wiley &
Sons.
Roda, I. and Macchi, M., 2016. Studying the funding principles for integrating Asset Management in
Operations: an empirical research in production companies. In 3rd IFAC Workshop on Advanced
Maintenance Engineering, Services and Technology AMEST 2016 (pp. 1-6). Elsevier BV.

Schnepp, R., Vidal, R. and Hawley, C., 2017. Incident management for operations. " O'Reilly Media,
Inc.".
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and practice for
strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Wu, D., 2016. Risk management and operations research: a review and introduction to the special
volume. Annals of Operations Research. 237(1-2). pp.1-5.
Online
What is Operations Management [Theory & Practice], 2019. [Online]. Available through :<
https://tallyfy.com/guides/operations-management/>
WHAT IS SIX SIGMA?, 2020. [Online]. Available through :< https://www.isixsigma.com/new-to-six-
sigma/what-six-sigma/>