Report on Leadership, Management, and Operations at General Electric

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership and management within the context of General Electric (GE). It begins by defining and differentiating the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, emphasizing their distinct responsibilities and qualities. The report then applies these concepts to GE, examining how leadership roles and management functions operate in different organizational scenarios, such as product launches and conflict management. Furthermore, the report evaluates various leadership theories, including situational, contingency, and system leadership, assessing their suitability and application within GE's operational environment. The report highlights how these theories can be implemented to motivate employees, manage conflicts, and enhance overall organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Through this analysis, the report offers valuable insights into the practical application of leadership and management principles within a multinational corporation like GE.

Management of
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
P1 Explaining different role and characteristics of a leaders and a manager.........................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P2 Application of different roles of leaders and functions of managers in organisational
context....................................................................................................................................4
P3 Application of theories, models and approaches of leadership.........................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
1

INTRODUCTION
Operations management is governance of business practices to create the highest level of
efficiency within an organisation. It is concerned with and focuses on converting raw material
and labour into finished goods in order to attain all organisational goals and have maximum
profits. The report is developed for General Electric which is an American multinational
company, operating in number of divisions and headquartered in Boston. The company was
founded in 1892 by Thomas Edison, Elihu Thomson, Edwin J. Houston, Charles A. Coffin and
J.P. Morgan. The products which it offers are electric motors, electric engines, aircraft engines,
health care, finance, lightings, wind turbines and electrical distribution (Zhang and et.al., 2016).
The report covers the roles and characteristic of leaders and managers. The roles of leaders and
functions of managers are seen in different organisational context. And at the end, leadership
theories and approaches are evaluated in context of General Electric.
TASK 1
P1 Explaining different role and characteristics of a leaders and a manager
Leaders
A leaders is the one who is in charge and convince others to follow in order to make them
move in right directions. A leader has several roles and the one responsible for ruling, guiding
and inspiring people around them. In context of company, a leader is an individual who is
responsible for managing their operational teams and guiding team members in right direction or
path for achieving organisational goals and objectives.
Roles of leaders:
 Motivating employees is the first and foremost role which a leaders will perform.
General electric is a multinational organisation which is dealing in numerous products
and services, it has various operations and operational teams, the leaders role if to
motivate their team members to work with their utmost potential.
 Guiding employees, as the human resource are skilled but lack clarity about their tasks
and responsibilities. Therefore, its the role of team leader to guide their staff and give
them clarity of their tasks.
Characteristic of leaders:
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 Confidence, is the first quality of a leader and a characteristic as well. A leaders is
effective and successful when they are confident enough about themselves and their
leadership skills. It enables them to work and perform their task in potential manner,
motivate staff and manage them properly.
 Creativity, is another characteristic which a leader holds. The leaders needs to be
creative and search for new ways to motivate and manage staff for increasing their
efficiency and effectiveness.
Manager
A manager is the person responsible for managing the whole organisation and its
operations. Managers are the higher staff, above all the leaders they are responsible for the whole
organisation and its working. Managers exercises the managerial functions in their organisation
on primary level and holder higher power.
Roles of managers:
 Decisional role, is performed by managers as they are at the higher level in hierarchy.
Managers are responsible for making the strategies and plans of actions for the company
to operate in an effective manners. The managers have decision-making authority and
take long and short term decisions on be half of company for effective running
(Ulewicz,2016).
 Informational role, the managers make all the plans and strategies for company which
makes its their responsibility for collecting all the related and relevant information form
market. It enables them to make appropriate decisions according to the current market
situation.
Characteristics of managers:
 Experienced, the managers and their success is dependent on their experience they hold.
The level of knowledge which a manager hold enable them to be most productive and
take proper decisions in favour of company and induce its the planning structure.
 Risk avoider, the managers are well knowledgable and skilled but their attitude is of a
risk avoider. Managers are the one who wishes to work with old, fully tested methods
rather than innovating and searching for new ideas.
Comparison between roles and characteristics of leaders and managers:
Basis Leaders Managers
3

Management A leaders is charge of their team
and responsible for its
management. The leaders will
guide their staff, give them orders
and manage them.
On the other hand, managers are
responsible of the whole
organisation (Buchli,Sutton and
Thiele, 2014). The manager
make plan and motivate the
whole company and parties
involved it.
Risk seeker/
Risk avoider
The leaders hold characteristic of
a innovator and be creative.
Leaders are the one who are in
charge of their teams, therefore, it
search for new ideas and ways to
motivate staff and make them
work with their full potential.
The managers are at higher
levels, develops plans for the
company. The managers are risk
avoiders, they plan and perform
their actions with those methods
which are effective and tested.
TASK 2
P2 Application of different roles of leaders and functions of managers in organisational context
The managers and leaders are present in all different types of organisation public or
private, national and international etc., the ultimate goals of both the parties is to manage the
organisation and it staff in effective manner in order to make them most efficient and achieve
ultimate goals (Strande and Brdjanovic, 2014). They hold different roles and functions according
to their abilities, also performs few power which enables them to complete their tasks in given
time frame. Different roles of leaders and functions of managers are described below in context
of General Electric with two separate situations.
SITUATION 1:
Product Launch
This situation reflects that General Electric is introducing some new products line in their
operation. The company is already a conglomerate, which implies that the policy of entity is to
keep moving into new sectors. Therefore, every time company adds new products the roles of
leaders and functions of managers increases which they need to perform on their own.
Role of leaders:
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The leaders of various teams of General Electric, have first and foremost role of
increasing communication with staff and their team members. The leaders have to make use of
effective interactive channels to inform them about the new plans of entity. The leaders will be
informing the members about their job roles and duties they hold. The leaders will guide them
and motivate employees to work in effective manner for making the new product a success.
Functions of managers:
The managers of General Electric, performs managerial actions and controls the whole
organisation. The managers will make plans and develop strategies which are required for
launching the product in marketplace. The management team will make plans for the operations
and assign task to particular teams. They will also performs function of being a motivator,
encourage the whole organisation including leaders to work with their efficiencies. The
managers controls the company, they will be organising the resources for all the different
functional units which are required by them.
SITUATION 2
Conflict Management
A organisation is a place where people comes from various segments of society with their
unique personal experiences and knowledge. These factors makes them separate form one
another. Due to these cultural differences and in experiences of individual they face personality
differences. This gives rise to conflicts amongst individuals working together at the same level.
In such situations the role which leaders of General Electric play and functions of managers are
described below (Palizban, Kauhaniemi, K and Guerrero, 2014). As General Electric, is a
conglomerate operating in several geographical locations and in varied sectors, it increases the
changes of taking more measures for managing conflicts within company.
Role of leaders:
The role leaders of General Electric, will have when to manage conflicts between the
employees or their team members is they can make use of behavioural theory. The leaders will
analyse and determine the behaviours of individuals, with the help of they can make good idea
about different motivational factors which motivates them. The leaders will develop
communication amongst staff and include them in team decision-making, taking their opinions
and views. This will make team mates feel their importance in team and encourage them in
positive manner.
5

Functions of managers:
The managers of General Electric, will adopt Transformational leadership style,
which will help them to encourage the whole organisation, increase their involvement in
company and mapping its path towards growth and success. This form of leadership style will
help managers to give a thorough picture of company to its people, provide clarity of their task
and help in reducing any chances of conflict development in between separate teams and
personnels belonging to distinct segments.
P3 Application of theories, models and approaches of leadership
There are number of leadership styles which exist and given by separate leaders for
managing and motivating staff in positive direction and making them work potentially. The
General Electric, leaders can make use of such approaches for controlling employees. Leadership
styles are elaborated below in context of General Electric which are suitable for it.
Situational leadership
This leadership style was given by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard's and the result of
their mixed efforts. The theory suggest that the leaders and the approach they adopt for
motivating their staff will be dependent upon the situation. The leaders will seek understanding
about the behaviours of individual, analyse the situation and accordingly by their creative
thinking adopt a leadership style. It suggest four approaches which are:
 Telling- Through this approach the leader will use directive technique, takes all decisions
and give orders to its staff members (NOZARI and MOSTAFA, 2017).
 Selling- The leaders will make all decisions but communicate with them and listen to
their opinions first.
 Participating- This leadership style states that the leaders involves their team mates in
decision-making and accordingly make operations rather than burdening them with
orders. Delegating- Here, team members are delegated authority and responsibilities according
to their skill sets. They perform actions themselves and be responsible for it.
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(Source: The Right Leadership, at The Right Time, 2020)
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Illustration 1: The Right Leadership, at The Right Time, 2020

Contingency leadership
This form of leadership style states that success of an individual or a leader of a team
depends upon the mixture of their expertise, knowledge and on the given situation or scenario.
This model of leadership is given by Fred Fiedler's. The situation of any emergency and conflict
is the best where it suits (Manzini and et.al., 2018). The leaders of General Electric can use to
reduce conflicts amongst the team mates. Contingency theory of leadership has three elements
which makes it effective. First is the leadership, the leaders of General Electric, their attitude
towards staff and their abilities. Then next factor is the situation, in which leaders are adopt
contingency leadership style. And the most influential is the relationship both these factors holds.
For instance, the situation of conflict management is perfect for this form of leadership as the
leaders of General Electric, can analyse the situation and develop communication with staff and
accordingly search for solutions. This can help in boosting morals of individuals and positively
motivate them.
(Source:Fiedler’s Contingency Model, 2020)
System leadership
This type of leadership enable leader to create an environment in which full potential of
followers can be extracted. System leadership is usually implemented on a large scale. System
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Illustration 2: Fiedler’s Contingency Model, 2020

leaders has the ability to influence followers to a large extent ( Karangelos, and Wehenkel,
2016). This leadership theory has been proposed by Dr. Ian MacDonald. Its is a skill set and
ability to lead across borders and used by those firm who have many departments and serves in
different geographical locations. General Electric, is a huge organisation which happens to deal
in numerous locations around the world and with number of different product lines. System
leadership style can bring synergy in the operations which are performed by separate offices of
the organisation. System leadership style will be effective for company more than employees as
it helps in developing coordination and cooperation in between its different operations.
CONCLUSION
The above assignment summarises, operation management tool is used to manage the
operations of company, convert raw material into finished goods in an effective manner for
earning maximum profits. The leaders and managers plays vital role in smooth functioning of all
the operations of company and making them most effective. The role which leaders perform in
order to motivate staff and the functions of managers for managing the whole organisation
effectively makes the operations of the entity potential. The leadership styles which leaders
adopts in order to motivate staff makes the impression appropriate and increases their
performance level which ultimately benefits the organisation to attain higher positions in
marketplace by earning higher profits.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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term energy neutral operation of solar energy harvesting systems. In Proceedings of the
12th ACM conference on embedded network sensor systems (pp. 31-45).
Karangelos, E. and Wehenkel, L., 2016, June. Probabilistic reliability management approach and
criteria for power system real-time operation. In 2016 Power Systems Computation
Conference (PSCC) (pp. 1-9). IEEE.
Manzini, M. and et.al., M., 2018. An integrated framework for design, management and
operation of reconfigurable assembly systems. Omega .78. pp.69-84.
NOZARI, H. and MOSTAFA, M., 2017. Management of operation of Amirkabir Dam water
using System Dynamics and Nonlinear Planning Method.
Palizban, O., Kauhaniemi, K. and Guerrero, J. M., 2014. Microgrids in active network
management–part II: System operation, power quality and protection. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews. 36. pp.440-451.
Reim W, Parida V, Sjödin D R. Risk management for product-service system operation.
International Journal of Operations & Production Management. 2016 Jun 6.
Strande, L. and Brdjanovic, D. eds., 2014. Faecal sludge management: Systems approach for
implementation and operation. IWA publishing.
Ulewicz, R., 2016. Quality management system operation in the woodworking industry.\ Path
forward for wood products: A global perspective, proceedings of scientific papers.
pp.51-56.
White, P. R., 2016. Public transport: its planning, management and operation. Taylor &
Francis.
Zhang, Y. and et.al., 2016. Model predictive control-based operation management for a
residential microgrid with considering forecast uncertainties and demand response
strategies. IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution. 10(10), pp.2367-2378.
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