Marks & Spencer: Analyzing Leadership and Management Functions Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management within Marks & Spencer (M&S). It begins by introducing the organization's structure and then defines and contrasts the roles and characteristics of managers and leaders, highlighting their differences in function. The report further examines how leaders and managers respond in various situations, such as innovation and risk-taking, and explores different leadership theories like situational leadership to support growth and sustainable performance. Strengths and weaknesses of different theories are discussed, followed by a conclusion on how managers and leaders impact the organization, with recommendations for future improvements. The second part of the report focuses on operation management, including key approaches adopted by M&S, the roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful operation management, and the importance of operation management in achieving business objectives. The report also covers factors impacting operation management and decision-making, as well as a critical evaluation of applying operations management to manage wider business environment factors, concluding with recommendations for organizational improvements.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1. Introduction to organization and its management structure...............................................3
2. Define manager and leader and compare their role and characteristics.............................3
3. Differences of managerial functions and leadership roles.................................................6
4. Different situations in your organization and examine how the roles of a leader and
functions of a manager ..........................................................................................................7
5 Different management and leadership theories to support growth and sustainable
performance............................................................................................................................7
6. Strengths and weaknesses of different theories and approaches........................................9
7. Conclude on how managers and leaders make impacts on the organization and make
recommendations for future improvements..........................................................................10
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................11
1. Introduce operation management and key approaches adopted by the organization.......11
2. Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of the
operation...............................................................................................................................12
3 Importance of operation management in achieving business objectives...........................13
4. How managers and leaders could be effective in improving operational efficiencies to
successfully meet business objectives..................................................................................14
5. Factors which impact upon operation management and decision making of leader and
manager................................................................................................................................14
6. Critical evaluation of the application of operations management to manage the factors that
impact on the wider business environment..........................................................................15
7. Conclude and suggest recommendations for future improvements to be taken by the
organisation..........................................................................................................................15

CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17
INTRODUCTION
Operation management is the maintenance of business activity so that highest level of
efficiency can be achieved in the enterprise (Nakayama and Bucks, 2012). Management and
operation is connected with planning, organizing and supervising in the context of production,
manufacturing. It is process which is take place in the organization in order to convert raw
material and labor in the product effectively so that profit can be maximize. Marks and Spencer
is a multinational retailer who trade in cloth, luxury and food items. The company main office is
situated in the Westminster, London.
In this report there is an information of roles and characteristics of leader and manager
and their attitude in different situations of the enterprise. It also defines various leadership style
which manager and leader adopt in order to face the changes of external environment. Along
with this it illustrates different approaches which help management for improving their
production system. Lastly, it talks about the external factors which affect the decisions of the
leader and manager and organization operations.
TASK 1
1. Introduction to organization and its management structure
Marks and Spencer is the British international retail company which is situated in City of
Westminster, London. They are mainly deal with different type of products such as clothing,
home products and items, luxury food items. Marks and Spencer follow flat organizational
structure, this type of organization structure has limited levels of management between
administrative level and front line employees. This structure is followed in organization to
motivate their workers in making appropriate decision. Main reason behind following these kind
of structure are to resolving issues and conflicts of employees properly. Through this, employees
of firm can working together with the seniors workers that assist in enhancing their working
level properly.
2. Define manager and leader and compare their role and characteristics.
Marks and Spencer is started by the two friend Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer
through stall in 1884. The main aim of the respective company is to sell the durable product at an

appropriate rate. The organization become public limited company in 1926 (XU and et. al.,
2012). This company worldwide is known for providing qualitative commodity. It follows flat
organization structure where there is no level or few level of management between top
authorities and the junior level staff. M&S is less involved in supervising their employees and
take their involvement in decision making.
Manager: It is the person who perform five functions in the organization such as
planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. Manager is the link between the
organization and its stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and
government so on (Bealkowski, 2015). They are the one who by using their knowledge and skill
complete the work and has the authority to hire or fire any employee in the organization. There
are different kind of manager present in an enterprise such as functional managers, general
managers, top level managers, finance manager and so on.
Role of manager in the business are as follows:
Planning: Manager of a given company plan the activities in such a way that it is able to
achieve their goals in an effective manner (Khlat and et. al., 2016).
Organize: In context of Marks and Spencer, manager organize various things in the
enterprise such as workforce, resources, training so that business can have accomplished its
desired outcome.
Characteristics which manager should contain in their attitude are as follows:
Communication: In case of selected firm, manager should have the communication
skills in them because they are the link between the top level and lower level employees (Park
and Jho, 2012). If manager convey the information correctly to the employees than only they are
able to perform the job effectively.
Time management: In respect of given enterprise, the manager \should understand the
importance of the time. They should complete their work on time so that employees take
deadline of completion of their work seriously (Burke, 2013).
There are various roles which leader have to perform in the organization are
described briefly below:
Represent: A leader is the representative of the organization for the outside public
(Torkildsen, 2012). Marks and leader convey important information of the business to the

society. They represent organization in seminars and meetings. For all this thing it is essential
that leader have the complete knowledge of enterprise working and activities.
Combine organization goal with individual goal: Marks and Spencer leaders have a
great interest in the success of their followers and they support them for reaching that goal so
that they can achieve satisfaction (Higgins and et. al., 2014). When employees individual aim is
to satisfy then they work with full dedication and passion for achieving organization goal.
Motivate employees – The leaders plays an important role to motivate staff members by
listening their problems to solve them immediately. It involves that they also consider welfare of
employees along with goals of organization in proper manner.
Create vision – Leaders create new concepts with establishing vision of business which
facilitate to boost up profitability of organization by improving profit share in market. Moreover,
they create innovative missions and targets which provide support to improve performance of
people which is beneficial for business as well as staff.
Leader: Leader guide individual of the enterprise towards the achievement of business
goal. They direct their subordinate in such a way that business aim and vision become their own
objective and target (Botton, Cavalletto and Marmeggi, 2013). They undertake several activities
and strategy for their followers such as motivating the staff, innovation ,building cooperation and
many more things. They require at every level of the organization as they are representative to
the world.
Characteristics of a leader which make them different from other person of the
organization are as follows:
Vision: Leader know where they stand and where they want to go. For this they guide
their subordinate and provide the path through which they are able to achieve that objective
(Woo and Lee, 2011). Marks and Spencer leader should know their vision so that they be will
able to guide their employees towards that aim.
Confidence: A leader should have confidence in himself otherwise they are not able to
earn the trust of their subordinates (Thaler, Priest and Fuchs, 2016). They should be confident
about their skills and policies otherwise subordinate does not follow them. Marks and Spencer
leader should follow some strictness in order to gain respect.
Comparison between leaders and manager

 Leader is an individual who influence their follower in order to achieve a particular goal.
But A manager is the person who manages the various activities of the organization and
do planning, organizing, directing and controlling.
 Leaders are followed by their subordinate due to their personality, behavior and beliefs.
At the other hand, managers are followed because of holding a managerial position.
 The main aim of leader is the growth and development of every employee of their team
with the organization success (Parisio and Glielmo, 2013). Whereas manager has a target
of fulfillment of end or desired result.
3. Differences of managerial functions and leadership roles
Marks and Spencer authorities perform various duties in the organization for a common
goal but there is difference between in the function of manager and duties of a leader which are
described below in the form of table which are as follows:
Basis Functions of manager Role of a leader
Planning Manager of Mark and Spencer
plan activities for a whole
enterprise.
Leader of the firm implement
the plan formulated by the
manager for achieving the
organisation goal.
Organising Manager of Mark and Spencer
organise the activity for
development and working of
whole company.
Whereas leader of the
organisation organise the
activities and working
practices for their team
members.
Staffing In Mark and Spencer, Manager
assign the work to the all
employees according to their
designation or role in the
organisation (CHEN and
JIANG, 2011) .
Leader allot that work to their
staff on the basis of their
capacity and knowledge.

Even manager and leader of Mark and Spencer undertake similar type of activities in the
enterprise but they respond differently in the various situation of the organization due to holding
the unique post. A leader play crucial role in the functions of manager in Marks and Spencer as
he/she is responsible for handling, directing and guiding entire operations of company in
disciplined form. Leader provide vision and purpose to company for which manager functions
the operations.
4. Different situations in your organization and examine how the roles of a leader and functions
of a manager
There are different types of situations which may occur in business organizations which
are required to be tackled appropriately of running business smoothly. In this context, leaders
focus on particular condition and them make strategy to deal with the same properly. Here is a
description of two situations which tell how manager and leader react.
Innovation: Leader of M&S using innovative ideas in a manner to generate creative
improvement (Drucker, 2012). An organization is leading with dynamic environment by which
they have to enhance their working or strategies. By doing invention, leader can yield their aim
by using their new ideas and views. They always make efforts for the betterment and
development of their work.
Risk taking: Leader of M&S always willing to try new things without worrying about the
result. An organization is based on winning risk. M&S managers never involved in new
belongings, which assist in reducing risks. Organization has potential tends in a way to present
with an opportunity for rewarding income by taking risks. They hesitate from taking risk because
they don’t want to take responsibility of any loss happen due to their innovation (Niknam,
Meyman and Mojarrad, 2011).
Create new vision: Leaders deal with problems through creating new concepts which
make possible to solve issues along with generating beneficial opportunity for business. In
context of M&S, leaders are required to create fresh ideas which reduced present problem of
decreasing goodwill and implement a creative thought that improve good will as well as expand
business successfully.
5 Different management and leadership theories to support growth and sustainable performance
Leader management style help organization in improving their productivity and
performance. In today's time leader adopt the style according to the prevailing situation

(Kristiansen, 2013). Below there is a description of different leadership style which leader used
in order to achieve their desired target.
Situational leadership: This can be described as to make better policies as per specific
situation raised in an organization to overcome threats along with attaining desired outcomes
(Angles, 2012). It is a style under which leader or manager make changes in their leadership
style to adjust within particular condition and influence sub- ordinates to perform tasks
appropriately. When Marks and Spencer adopt leadership style according to their worker than
there is improvement in their productivity and performance as they are getting environment
according to them. In addition to this, situational leadership is helpful to solve problems occur in
different situations of operations management so that appropriate outcomes can be achieved in
correct manner.
(Source: Leadership theories, 2019)
Contingency leadership: It is style which indicate that effectiveness of leader depend
upon the leader style fit to the right situation (Bahn, 2013). There is certain situation in the
organization which occur suddenly to cope with that leader have to make changes in their
working way. These situations can impact the business in a positive way or negative way. Marks
Illustration 1: Leadership theories

and Spencer manager or leader is able to take the benefit of sudden situation or opportunities
which help business to increase their profitability and productivity. At the other hand, Several
contingencies may take place in operations which can be accurately managed with the help
implementing contingency leadership theory in order to avoid negative impacts of the same on
productivity.
System leadership: In this leadership managers and leaders have to perform activities in
accordance to business system. System leaders work for the welfare of the community not for the
particular individual (Berger and Solferino, 2012). Leader of Marks and Spencer have to make
changes in their style according to the modification in the system. If the business system adopts
any new thing than the leader has to make policies and strategies related to it and implement
upon its followers. When employees see that their boss adopt the new system than they will also
motivate to adopt changes in their working which increase their productivity. System leadership
facilitate to provide particular criteria of solving various issues occurred while conducting
operational activities to manage them for completing desired targets appropriately. It is
supportive to conduct operational roles in terms of completing tasks regularly by managing
operations successfully in M&S.
To improve their productivity marks and Spencer give training to their employees which
help them and the respective organization to expand and develop their business (Ellis and et. al.,
2015). They can organize various programs and event in the company so that worker get
comfortable and perform work with full passion and dedication towards achievement of an
enterprise vision.
6. Strengths and weaknesses of different theories and approaches
Here are mentioned strengths and weakness of different approaches and theories of
management which is discussed above:
Theory Advantages Disadvantages
Situational
leadership
 It provides flexibility to
leader to make changes in
their leadership style
according to the situation,
which help them to grab
 This leadership create emphasis on
the immediate things which shift
attention from the business long tern
goals and objectives.

the opportunity within
time.
 Under this style leader
doesn't look like bosses to
subordinate they are
partners of them which
help them to share anything
about them.
System
leadership
 It encourages employees to
perform the work with full
dedication and passion.
 It focuses on the end result
not the means which was
adopted in order to achieve
it.
 Sometimes there is necessity to make
changes in the whole system to grab
the opportunity but due to presence
of this leadership organization not
able to adapt it in their working.
Contingency
Leadership
 This style is very simple
due to which many
organizations adopt it in
their operational activities.
There main focus is to grab
the situation but does not
check tool and resources
available to the enterprise..
 There is certain action which is taken
in order to cope with the
contingencies it can create huge
damages or losses to the
organization.
7. Conclude on how managers and leaders make impacts on the organization and make
recommendations for future improvements
This can state that leader is accountable for persuading the organization toward the set
vision and stimulate overall M&S toward the objectives and goals. On the other hand, manager is
responsible for managing, maintaining and controlling the executed operations and activities
within organization to accomplish the set vision of leader. This can be suggested to Marks and
Spencer that company should keep modify their leadership style as per market needs and

demands. Also, enterprise should use contingency leadership techniques to manage different
consequences as per the requirement of Marks and Spencer and associated market. Through this,
organization can face numerous challenges easily in the terms of grabbing numerous
opportunities for the business success. In these practices, manager and leader of firm both
provides equal contribution and enhances business goodwill in target market.
TASK 2
1. Introduce operation management and key approaches adopted by the organization
Operation management is the process which is undertaken to effectively conversion of
raw material into finished good. There are various types of approaches in operation management
which leader and manager use in order to improve the performance of their followers which are
follows:
Six sigma: It is a quality management technique which was adopted in the business in
order to bring improvement in the process. It is a data driven approach which aim is to eliminate
the defects of product, service and the process (Mendis, Muttaqi and Perera, 2012). Marks and
Spencer can adopt this method in their organization in order to eliminate the defects and grab the
opportunities prevailing in the market. When unwanted things are removed then organization can
motivate their employees for increasing their productivity and performance. Basically it is
statistical representation which describe how organization process performing. Higher sigma
value represents less defects in the production process.
TQM (Total quality management) : Under TQM all persons of the organization make
efforts in the organization improvement process related to product, service and culture in order to
better facilities to the customer. TQM is the process of detection and reducing the errors in
manufacturing and distribution process so that customer experience get improved. It was taken in
the organization to improve the internal process and increase the customer satisfaction. Marks
and Spencer authorities should make steady improvement in the all the stages of production in
order to improve the quality (Liu,Yin and Fu, 2011).The main objective of TQM is improvement
in the quality of product and services to satisfy the needs and wants of the customer.

(Source: Total Quality Management, 2018)
Just in time: Just in time is a manufacturing philosophy in which right items with correct
quality is produced at the right time (Wang and Cullinane, 2015). If marks and Spencer used this
method in their organisation than they will make increase in their quality, productivity, improved
communication and decrease the wastage and cost. This approach is mainly adopted in the
organisation in order to reduce the wastage taken place due to maintenance of inventory.
2. Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of the operation
Manager and leaders play distinct role in the operations management within Marks and
Spencer. Here are discussed the role and functions of Leader and manager in different
approaches:
Six Sigma: Role of Marks and Spencer manager is to implement such strategies and
policies which can support organization in the optimum utilization of the resources. Six sigma
help manager in the elimination of defects so there is improvement in production process (Reim,
Parida and Sjödin, 2016).
Marks and Spencer leader by the help of team members able to apply six sigma in the
organization for the development. They have to make different policies and plans for the
betterment of production process.
TQM: The role of leader of marks and Spencer is to ensure that team working is in
harmony with the quality standards of the organization. Leader should create organization
culture and quality control as the part of employee’s activities (Susskind, Camacho and Schenk,
Illustration 2: Total Quality Management