An Analysis of Leadership and Management at Aston Martin

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management practices within Aston Martin, a luxury sports car manufacturer. It begins by defining and comparing the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, highlighting their application in various situational contexts, such as new product launches and conflict management. The report then applies leadership theories, including situational, system, and contingency leadership, to the Aston Martin context, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it explores key approaches to operations management and the importance of these approaches in achieving business objectives. Finally, the report assesses the factors within the business environment that influence the decision-making of leaders and managers in operations management, offering a detailed overview of Aston Martin's organizational structure and strategic approaches.

Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager..............3
Examine examples of How the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in
different situational contexts.......................................................................................................6
Apply Theories and model of approach including Situational, system and Contingency
leadership....................................................................................................................................7
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................12
Explain the key approaches to operation management and the role that leaders and managers
play............................................................................................................................................12
Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.
...................................................................................................................................................14
Assess the Factors within Business environment that influence the decision making of leaders
and manager in operation management.....................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

Introduction
Management is an art of handling something or supervising the skills of employees for
accomplishment of tasks and achieving goals of the organisation. Management utilise the human,
financial and other material resources in such a way that results with maximum outputs (Kaehler
and Grundei, 2019). Operation generally means managing the overall workings of internal
environment so that company can run efficiently. The Chosen Firm for this project is Aston
Martin, it is a British manufacturing company which deals with luxury sports car and speed. The
organisation is known for its beautiful and innovative designs that attracts customers to purchase
their products. In this part different roles of leaders and managers of Aston Martin will be
discussed by highlighting difference between management and leadership. A theory will be
applied stating its strength and weakness of different approaches to situations within Aston
Martin. The project also covers the approaches to operation management and importance of
operation management in achieving business objectives. There are also various factors within
business environment which should be assessed.
PART 1
Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
Management structure of Aston Martin

Caption
Aston Martin is a beautiful car manufacturing company that was founded in 1913 by
Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. They started the company to make cars for Singers and
decided to produce their own cars by giving name Aston Martin. The CEO of Aston Martin is
Tobias Moers. In the under of CEO there are 10 people of different departments they are
Kenneth Gregor (CFO), Nick Lines (Vice president and Chief Technical Officer), Catherine
Sukmonowski (Company Secretary and Director of Corporate Governance), David King (Vice
president and Chief Special Operation Officer), Marek Reichman (Executive Vice President and
Chief Creative Officer), Michael Marecki (Vice president, General Counsel and Company
Secretary), Peter Freedman (Vice president and Chief Marketing Officer), Stephanie Jackson
(Director of Corporate Strategy).
Role of Leader
Leadership is an ability to influence and motivate employees to achieve goals of the
company. Leader is a person who guide, instruct, command and motivate employees to follow
their vision (Haque, Fernando and Caputi, 2019). The Leader of Aston Martin should ensure that

their employees should be highly motivated towards their work and achieve the goals of
company in efficient and effective manner. There are many role of leader such as-
 Direction-
A Leader of Aston Martin provides a Direction to its employees, they make well defined
strategy for the future growth of the Firm, Communicate that strategy to the staff and make sure
that they can understand their role in achieving companies strategic objectives.
 Creates Structure-
Leaders are the one who create organisational structure, decide the roles of employees,
make decisions and help staff members to do productive work. The role of Aston Martin Leader
is to remove the hurdles that could affect the performance of employees. Leader frame the
structures and employees execute them.
Characteristics of Leader
 Encourage creativity and innovation-
The leader of Aston Martin encourage creativity and innovation among employees and
motivate them to implement new ideas. They focus on Improving and developing skills of the
Employees and utilise their skills in making productive outcomes.
 Communicator-
The Leader of Aston Martin is responsible to circulate the proper and genuine
information related to organisation present and future work, they should not provide any false
information that could create an impact on employees working pattern. They are great
communicator and have power to influence others (Parrott et. al., 2019).
Role of Manager
Management is an art of getting work done through others and ensures daily functioning
of organisation (Barbour, Bowman and Bendall, 2019). The role of Aston Martin Manager is to
control and supervise the overall activities of company. The Manager ensures the daily
functioning of different departments and employees of Aston Martin. The role of Manager in
Aston Martin are as follows-
 Daily Operations-
The Manager of Aston Martin have to ensure the daily functioning of activities which
will be held by different departments or group of peoples. The Manager have to keep proper

regulation and supervise the daily functions and make sure that work should be completed in
smoothly manner.
 Motivation-
The Manager of Aston Martin motivate their employees and develop an environment
where they can participate in each and every activities. It is very Important to Motivate employee
as the staff who are highly motivated gives their best where as the employee who are
unmotivated can't give their best output.
Characteristics of Manager
 Provides Training-
The Manager provide training to its employees if any new system or technology in Aston
Martin introduced. The employee should be properly trained so that they can work in effective
manner and achieve the objectives of Aston Martin.
 Expertise knowledge-
The manager of Aston Martin must have a expertise knowledge, this can be attain
through experiencing in professional working environment (Linder and Sax, 2020). Expertise
knowledge helps employees to think beyond and be successful in the organisation.
Differentiate Between Management and Leadership
Leadership Management
Leadership helps in assembling the staff
members.
Management creates and assign the tasks, they
make sure that work should be completed in
effective and efficient manner.
The Leaders are vision oriented, they create a
path and guide employees to follow their
vision.
Managers are process oriented, they keep focus
on work flow of the organisation.
The Leader are the one who creates a job
position for the employee.
Manager role is to recruit the employee for the
vacant job position.

Examine examples of How the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different
situational contexts
In an organisation there are various situational context which have to properly managed
so that the functions and activities of the organisation can run smoothly and efficiently. Aston
Martin also have various situations in which the manager and leader have to deal they are as
follows-
New Launches-
Aston Martin have announced re-engineering of Lagonda and it will be the First Electric
SUV Luxury car they are launching. From 2021, the products of Lagonda will be fully Electric.
In Such Situation a detail information should be shared to staff members so that they must be
aware about the new launches by Aston Martin. The role of manager and leader are-
Role of Leader-
Leader must build a strong team that could help in launching new product or services
with creative and innovative thinking. For Successfully launching SUV Luxury car leaders have
to guide employees so that they work in an efficient manner. They should encourage the new
ideas that helps in increasing the growth of SUV cars.
Role of Manager-
The Role of manager in launching a new product is to define the goals and make sure that
it must be understandable by team. The manager have to look out the overall process and
Functioning of new SUV car. They have to make a strategy of promoting and launching the car
in Market.
Conflict Management-
Conflicts arises due to misunderstanding occurs between the employees. A Conflict must
be resolve immediately as it creates an impact on atmosphere of the organisation (Yeung, Fung
and Chan, 2020). Aston Martin have to resolve the conflicts with professionalism so that proper
working atmosphere must be maintained in the organisation.
Role of Manager-
The Manager of Aston Martin could conduct a meeting to solve out issues and discuss the
problems. A open discussion should be held where each member can give their opinions and
points regarding the disputes.
Role of Leader-

Leader have to build a strong bond with employees so that they can handle the conflicts
and make sure it may not arise. They have to direct and guide the employees towards conflict
resolution.
Theories
The theory which should be used by Aston Martin in different organisational situations is-
Participative Leadership Theory-
Aston Martin should use Participative leadership Theory in different organisation
situations. The situation can be conflict management, New launches, High employee turnover
and many other. Participative theory helps organisation to overcome these situations and ensure
smooth functioning of activities. In Participative leadership Theory all the employees are invited
in decision making and giving suggestion for increasing the growth and profit of Aston Martin.
While new launching if employees take active participation they will give new ideas and
suggestions. In Conflict management an open discussion will be held related to the issue occurs
in organisation, participative theory helps in solving the disputes.
Apply Theories and model of approach including Situational, system and Contingency
leadership.
Situational Leadership-
In Situational Leadership, the leaders change their style to influence employees and
develop their skills (Male and Palaiologou, 2019). Leaders have to move from one style to
another so that they can meet the Changing needs of Aston Martin and its staff members. The
Hersey-Blanchard Model consists four leadership styles, each style helps in development of
employees.
 Directing-
This Leadership style focuses on providing direction to Team members, they should clearly
explain the duties and responsibilities to each staff and ensure that their skills must be developed.
 Coaching-
In this Leadership style, leaders provide direction and give personal support to their
employees. The employees are unable to perform their duties but they are highly motivated to
complete their task.
 Supporting-

In supporting Leadership Style, the leaders support employees and put less focus on
providing direction. The leader gives feedbacks and encourage employees to achieve their goals
and objectives (Santoso et. al., 2020).
 Delegating-
The Delegating Leadership Style provides minimum direction and support by leaders,
they encourage autonomy and don't overload the responsibility on employees.
Illustration 1: Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theories
(Source: Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theories, 2019)
Role of Leader-
The role of Situational Leaders of Aston Martin is to adapt different styles according to
the situations. They should be supportive and directive towards their employees when a task is
assigned to them.
Role of Manager-

The Manager of Aston Martin have to assess the needs of organisation and employees
before changing their style. Manager should properly direct employees so that they can perform
their duties in efficiently and effective way.
Strength and weakness of Situational Leadership
The strength of Situational Leadership is that it is easy to understand and used for
training purpose. It helps in showing that how leaders can achieve effectiveness of leadership.
The Weakness of Situational leadership is that it creates a confusion within the company as they
change their style according to the needs.
System Leadership-
In system leadership theory an individual skills and capacities are used in the procedure
of system level change. In Aston Martin, the system leadership combines collaborative
leadership, coalition-building and systems insights that helps in mobilising innovation and large
scale of actions for system change. The system leaders are polite, humble and smart having
strong skills in management. In regards to Aston Martin if the company apply the leadership the
certain role of leaders and managers are as follows:
Role of Leader-
The role played by leader in Aston Martin is to motivate and mobilise innovation, they
influence the employees to give their best outcomes by using new ways to keep them motivated
and aligned their agendas with the firm.
Role of manager-
The role of manager in Aston Martin is to improve the skills and capacities of employees
which helps in supporting system process by adopting better techniques and applying effective
strategies for doing so and keeping them engaged.

Illustration 2: The Key Elements of System Leadership
(Source: The Key Elements of System Leadership, 2019)
Strength and Weakness of System Leadership
The Strength of System Leadership is that it promotes innovation and transform the
culture of Company. Weakness of system leadership is that it creates difficulty in developing
coordination among staff m,embers due to the diversified nature of the organisation. This can
also leads to disagreement and developing conflicting situations within the Entity.
Contingency Leadership-
Contingency Leadership states that there are various factors that affect the effectiveness
of leaders. Contingency leadership helps in changing policies according to current and future
situation (Bachrach and Mullins, 2019). A Fiedler's Contingency Model is applied in which
different situational variables are discussed. According to Fiedler, the leadership effectiveness is
totally depend on the situation. Fiedler's Contingency Model consist three elements they are
leadership styles, situational variables, Relationship between styles and situations.
 Leadership Style-
Leadership Style depends on two elements task oriented and human relations oriented.
The task oriented is concerned with achieving task with better performance. Human relations

oriented means building a relationship between the employees and managers. Leaders in Aston
Martin have to follow this leadership style to create strong bond with employees.
 Situational Variables-
There are various situations that influence the leadership effectiveness. Leaders have an
ability to control situations and work accordingly. Employees follow the suggestions and orders
of leaders through which situations can be controlled.
 Relationship between Styles and Situations-
In this Fiedler talk about the relationship between situation and appropriateness of
leadership styles. The most effective situation is that when there is a good bond between leader
and employee. The leader act differently according to different situations, this gives an
opportunity to leaders to influence employees and follow right leadership style by developing an
alliance amongst the both and making sure of attaining the ultimate agenda.
Illustration 3: Fiedler's Contingency Model
(Source: Fiedler's Contingency Model, 2021)
Role of Leader-
The role of leader in contingency leadership is to adapt the leadership style according to
situation. In Aston Martin the leaders have to encourage employees to participate in all activities
so that they can contribute their best (Kibbe, 2019).
Role of Manager-
The role of manager is to provide various ways to solve problems and modify the policies
according to current situations and keep the people entangled in the situation satisfied.

Strength and Weakness of Contingency Leadership
The strength of Contingency Leadership is that it can analyse the situations and make
relevant decision accordingly. The weakness of Contingency Leadership is that it is a complex
approach, as when this theory comes to practical it becomes complex.
Recommendation
The manager and leaders play various roles in Aston Martin they guide and instruct
employees and create a path to achieve vision. No matter how talented manager and leader are at
some level they have to struggle in meeting demands and handle situations. Aston Martin can
apply Contingency leadership model as it helps in ascertaining different situational variables this
helps manager and leader to make decisions according to different situations.
PART 2
Explain the key approaches to operation management and the role that leaders and managers
play.
Operation management focus on managing the functions and activities of organisation. The
Operations of Aston Martin are-
 Production Operation-
The main aim of production department is to determine the value and quantity of Luxury
cars that have to be produced in given time period. They have to find the effective way through
which they can reduce the cost of production and have to ensure the quality of luxury cars so that
more customers get attracted towards Aston Martin.
 Sales Operation-
The role of Sales department is to increase the sale of Aston Martin by using different
promotional activities. They have to identify the needs of customer and build a strong
relationship with customers.
There are some of the key approaches which are used by the manager to understand the
operation management of the company in a better aspects. Some of those approaches are Just in
time, lean production, Six sigma, Continuous improvement, Total Quality Management, etc.
These all approaches helps to improve the performance of company and some of them which are
suitable for Aston Martin which can be applied by the entity are elaborated underneath.
Lean Production-

Lean production is used to improve the quality by cutting down wastes. The principles of
lean production are Eliminate waste, create knowledge, Deliver fast, Respect people, Build
Quality in and various other (Stimec and Grima, 2019). Aston Martin can apply this approach in
its activities of production to distribution for cutting the costs and make their business more
efficient.
Role of Manager-
The role of manager is to highly train their employees so that they can perform in the best
manner possible and offer best outcomes. They have to define the product, create a state map,
optimise the state map with lean techniques and implement the plan in production process of
Aston Martin Cars.
Role of leader-
The lean leader make sure that employees contribute to customer value by reducing
production time and giving best quality. Lean leader of Aston Martin have to set a vision and
develop a culture to achieve the success.
Just in Time-
Just in time is an other approach to Operation Management, this approach is a
manufacturing process that reduces the cost of production and increases efficiency (Phogat and
Gupta, 2019). Aston Martin can use this approach to increase their efficiency and reduce the
waste by taking material which they need in production process as it helps in reducing inventory
cost.
Role of Manager-
The manager have to ensure that employee have to work by keeping their focus on
minimising wastage in Inventory. As by reducing the wastage Aston Martin can increase their
efficiency and also leads to Higher productivity.
Role of Leader-
The Leader have to work on increasing productivity and efficiency of employees in
manufacturing process of Aston martin so that they can focus on giving their best output this
could be done by training and developing employees, by reducing distractions and making sure
that they remain happy with their work.

By using these approaches Aston Martin could improve their quality and reduce the
wastage occurred during production process. It helps in increasing efficiency and improve the
performance of employees and organisation.
Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.
Operation Management is a Business function that focus on planning, organising,
managing and supervising the process of production and manufacturing (Russell and Taylor,
2019). The operation management of Aston Martin ensures that they turn input to output
successfully with efficient and effective way. The manager and leader also plays a significant
role in managing the Functions and activities of Aston Martin. There are various importance and
value of operation management in achieving Business objectives they are as follows-
 Increasing Sale-
The operation management department helps to increase the sale of Aston Martin. They
properly plan, coordinate and organise the resources which are required while producing Aston
Martin Cars which helps in increasing sale of the company.
 Maximising profit-
Operation Management ensures that the profit of Aston Martin must be maximised. It can
be done when there will be continuous improvements in Cars which attracts customers to buy the
product. The operation department must ensures the quality which they are serving and take
feedback from the customers to make changes.
 Satisfying Customers-
The main aim of organisation is to satisfy the needs and demands of Customer. It is
important to satisfy the clients as they are one who could help Aston Martin to earn huge profit.
The Operation management have to make sure that the quality of product which they are offering
to customer must be best which satisfy their needs.
Assess the Factors within Business environment that influence the decision making of leaders
and manager in operation management.
Business environment is a collection of internal and external factor that could affect the
operations and functions of organisation. Aston Martin have to identify these factors that could
influence the decision making of manager and leader in operation management. These factors are
as follows-
 Corporate Social Responsibility-

Corporate Social Responsibility is an activity that helps to build a reputation and lead the
company into competitive advantage. The benefits of Corporate Social responsibility is that it
helps to increase the sales and customer loyalty, through this activity Aston Martin can attract
talent and retain staff (Yuan et. al., 2020). Aston Martin has decided to do their business in
ethical and transparent manner. The Leader have to ensures that their employees must follow the
CSR activity of Aston Martin. Manager have to make a strategies through which employees can
do their work ethically.
 Stakeholders-
Stakeholders are the person who are directly or indirectly interlinked with company.
Stakeholders are employees, suppliers, government, investors, communities, etc. The
Stakeholders of Aston Martin can also influence the decision making of manager and leader. As
they have the power to disrupt the decision and threaten management to follow.
 Ethics-
Ethics are the code of morals which employees of the organisation have to follow. Ethics
helps us to tell what is right and what is wrong. The decision of leader and manager can also be
influenced by Ethics (Ciulla, 2020). Aston Martin may also face various ethical issues which the
manager and leader have to overcome. These ethical issues can be health and safety in
workplace, conflicts of interest, employer-employee relationship in organisation. So the manager
and leader have to make decisions to solve out these ethical problems.
Recommendations
Each and Every company wants to increase their efficiency by reducing waste that helps
in increasing growth and profit of organisation. Aston Martin can use Lean production technique
to improve their quality of Luxury Cars. The quality can be improved when the team have
enough knowledge of cutting down waste and produce better quality of products.

Conclusion
From the above given information it is been concluded that there care various roles and
responsibilities of manager and leader which helps in increasing the growth and productivity of
company. There are different approaches of leadership and management which helps in
increasing the efficiency and reduces the wastage of organisation. The Company can use these
approaches to improve their performance and gain competitive advantage.

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