A Comparative Study of Leadership and Management in M&S Operations

This report delves into the multifaceted roles of leaders and managers within Marks & Spencer (M&S), exploring their distinct characteristics and responsibilities. It contrasts the roles of leaders, focusing on team building and motivation, with those of managers, emphasizing operational control and strategic planning. The report examines how leaders and managers function in various organizational situations, analyzing the application of different management and leadership theories, such as situational leadership, within M&S. Furthermore, it investigates the significance of operational management in achieving organizational goals, alongside the impact of the business environment on decision-making processes. The report also includes a comparative analysis of leadership and management, highlighting the differences in authority, working styles, and scope. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of leadership and management practices within M&S, emphasizing their importance in driving business success.

MANAGEMENT AND ITS
OPERATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P 1- Different roles and characteristics of manager and leader:..................................................1
P 2- Roles of leaders and functions of manager in different situations:......................................2
P 3- Different theories and models of management and leadership:...........................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P 4- Role of leader and managers in key approaches of operations management:......................5
P 5- Value and importance of operation management in achieving objectives:..........................6
P 6- Factors of business environment that affects operational management and decision-
making of managers and leaders..................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
In this report different roles and characteristics of leaders and manager and their
comparison, roles of manger and leader in different organisational situations, different theories
and models of management and leadership applied in the organisation, roles of managers and
leaders in operational management, importance of operational management in achieving goals or
objectives of organisation and different factors of business environment which impact the
operational management and decision making of leaders and managers of the company Marks &
Spencer. In this study it will get to know that how roles of leader and manager and operational
management is important for organisation like M&S.
TASK 1
P 1- Different roles and characteristics of manager and leader:
Leadership is an approach for which leader takes initiate regarding taking challenging
and contribution in achieving entity's effectiveness. However, leader plays crucial role in gaining
entity's target in the form of team building and managing its workers' performances. A leader
must have following characteristics as:
 He/she must be risk taker and able to take initiate to reduce issues and achieving goals
effectively.
 He/should have confidence to deal take steps and dealing with issues occurred in
business.
 A leader should be challenging and problem solver to reduce occurred issues within
entity.
 He/she must have quality to lead team as of segmenting work team members and
encouraging them towards better contribution in team efficiently.
 A good leader is an effective coordinator however he/she must be able to coordinate in
team in terms of decision making and managing the team efficiently.
However, management of business operations is done by company's manager who must
have following characteristics:
 He/she should be a good observer of the business operations on which planning are
created for the further years.
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 It is essential for a manager to plan and control over excess of operations to create
balance and improving performances.
 He/she must be able to crate good coordination with other departments' managers and
coordination in decision making process appropriately.
 A good manager should have quality to deal with issues occurred regarding business
operations at M&S.
 An ideal manager follows on working ethics strongly during his/her performance as well
planning regarding business operations.
Roles of leader and managers:
Leader and manager of M&S are responsible for their roles as mentioned below:
Role of leader:
Leader's roles are as follows:
 Team building and segmenting work according to workers' abilities.
 Analysing workers' contribution in team as well working for improving their
performances.
 Creating positive and effective environment of the group as reducing conflicts and
disputes occurred among workers.
 Giving suggestions to team workers for better performance and appreciating their work to
gain their participation effectively.
 Providing training and development programs to enhance working efficiencies of team
workers also impacted on their personal and professional development.
Roles of managers:
 Analysing entire business operations of M&S critically.
 Planning and decision making regarding improving business performance and its
efficiency at higher level.
 Getting aware with innovations in business operations and competitiveness of the entity.
 Controlling over excess of production of goods and creating balance between demand
and supply as well.
 Planning for maintaining public relations and increasing entity's effectiveness at
maximum level.
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Organisational and management structure is very important to every company. A
company like M&S have very wide structure. Organisation need manager or leader to run its
business. Manager is the person who manages the organisation and communicate the company
goals and objectives to the employees. Every department of the organisation needs the manager
who can look out and take responsibilities of the task. (Atonakis and House, 2013). Manager of
company like M&S have roles to be performed as controlling the working of employees,
representing the organisation is seminars or meetings, and managing the working of whole
organisation. There are many characteristics which the manager have like responsibility,
controlling power, communicating skills, effective delegation, management skills etc. these
qualities help them to achieve the objectives of firm in better way.
The leader is the person who leads and motivates its team to achieve the goals and
objectives of an organisation. All the workers tend to listen their leaders because of their skills.
Leaders of organisation (M&S) have many roles like leading the team, representing the team
members, motivating the members to work hard, listening to the employees suggestions. Leaders
of the organisation have many characteristics like encouraging, inspiring, motivating, fearless,
polite etc (Ba and Nault, 2016). Employees work hard and giver better performance when leaders
apply these characteristics on them.
Comparison between roles and characteristics of manager and leader:
Basis Manger Leader
Definition A manager is the person who
manages the organisation and
communicate the task to be done by
the workers. In M&S the managers
manages different departments of
the organisation (Baboli and et,al.,
201).
A leader is the person who leads the
team and motivates the employees to
achieve different objectives. In the
company like M&S, their leaders
lead the different teams given to
them.
Nature Managers are mainly controlling in
nature because of their higher
authority.
Leader’s nature is polite and they
listen to all their workers suggestion.
Authority Mangers of organisation like M&S Leaders of organisation may or may
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have the higher authority in the
company.
not have the higher authority in the
organisation.
Working Manager of M&S works at a higher
level and manages the rules and
regulations of the company and
make sure that objectives of the
organisation efficiently achieved.
Leaders of company like M&S leads
the team and efficient team together
achieves the goals and objectives of
the organisation (Casolino and et.al.,
2012).
Skills Managers may have the leadership
skills or not.
Leaders have leadership skills to lead
the team or groups.
Responsibility Responsibility comes with taking
risks. Managers do not take risk and
if they do then they only take small
risks and if taken risks leads to
some problem then it will create
dispute in M&S (DeAnna and et.al.,
2010).
Leaders takes many risks whether
small or high for the development of
their team. Taken risks sometimes
lead to some problems then leaders
take full responsibility of their
failure.
Scope Manager has very high scope to
grow by effective management.
Leader has very high scope to grow
by effective leadership skills.
Motivation Managers does not mainly motivate
employees.
Leaders main work is to motivate
their workers.
Time periodicity Short time period Long time period
Emphasis on Team building and managing
workers' performances
Analysing M&S' performance as
well planning to implement it
effectively.
P 2- Roles of leaders and functions of manager in different situations:
There are many roles and functions of leaders and managers in organisation, especially in
large organisation like M&S managers and leaders have to work very hard and in efficient way
to achieve the goals and objectives of the company. Many situations come in the organisation
that have to deal by managers and leaders of the company. The leaders in M&S have many roles
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and functions. The problem related to the employees arises then it can be solved by the leaders in
very effective manner because they are the persons who are closely related to the employees and
their problems in the organisation (Hallinger and Heck, 2010). The work of leader is to motivate
the employees when they are demotivated and inspire them to work hard. There are many
situations in M&S where leaders have to take high risks for development of the company.
Sometimes the risks are high or sometimes low, they both affect the organisation in some way or
other. Leaders takes full responsibility of their taken risks and if they fail also they don't get
disheartened or do not stop taking risks (Jing and Avery, 2011). Leaders of M&S effectively
understands the situations when employees are not happy with decision of management, leaders
makes the employees understand the situation and tell them about that why the decision has
taken. Disputes in M&S are to be handled by the leaders because they have to make better and
safe working environment in the organisation.
Managers of M&S also have very important roles and functions in the workings of the
organisation. Managers of organisation manages the workings of company and they make sure
that all rules and regulations of the organisation are being followed. Clients of M&S are handled
by the managers of the company and problems related to the clients are solved by the managers
only. All the activities of employees are monitored by the manager of M&S, they can check that
all employees are working properly or not and checks whether goals or objectives of the
organisation are efficiently achieved or not (Kark and Shamir, 2013). Manager of M&S also
checks that objectives of the organisation are being achieved according to the plan of the
company. Managers communicate all duties and responsibilities that are to be done by the
employees of the organisation. M&S managers checks and makes sure that work will be
completed on time and whether there is any problem in completing the task or not. Managers of
the organisation works for making profits for the company and make the company achieve its
desired goals and objectives (Kim, Kumar and Kumar, 2012).
The above information states that managers and leaders have different roles and functions
in the workings of M&S. It is said that both managers and leaders have various impacts on the
organisation by their working styles, while their style of working can be improved by giving
them proper training which will also enhance their skills. By adopting these styles managers and
leaders will more effectively to achieve the desired goals and objectives of the organisation.
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P 3- Different theories and models of management and leadership:
There are many theories and models to efficiently handle the workings and operations of
business of an organisation like M&S. Applying theories and models in workings of company is
important to survive in the market and compete with the competitors of the organisation. That’s
why many theories are applied by M&S in its operations.
 Situational leadership- This leadership style works according situations that comes in the
organisation. In this leader sets his working style according to the situation. This helps
them cope with problems in better way. This leadership also help the leaders to make
their skills better which can cope with any situation. M&S leaders are already following
situational leadership as they give works to their workers according to the situations in
the organisation. In this type of leadership employees are involved in process of decision
making nor their suggestions are taken while making decisions for the organisation
(Kopardekar, 2015). This style raise disputes or conflicts between the employees and
leaders. In this type of leadership style employees cannot talk directly to the leaders of
their team. All the decisions of the organisation are taken by the leaders of the company
considering the various situations of the organisation. For example a situation arises of
taking risks leaders will follow situational leadership.
Under situational theory of leadership, leader prepares planning to reduce the occurred issue as
well creating peace at organisation. In order to this, he/she shares the ideas and strategies with
team workers to adjust workers towards new planning and contribution in team. However,
situations occurred as; adopting new technologies and increasing their learning with their use.
 System leadership- In this type of leadership style workings of the organisation are done
in the systematic manner which are concluded in the plan of the company. This helps
them to understand all the factors which can affect the organisation in achieving their
objectives and goals. Leaders of M&S takes decision for the organisation after
considering all the external and internal factors of the company. Leaders takes decisions
for organisation without considering any suggestion by the employee, they personally
take all decisions for the development of organisation (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra,
2013). This leadership style have very bad effect on employee's relation with their leaders
and also damage the co-ordination between them. In system leadership all employees get
their task according to the plan also gets the feedback in between their task. System
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leadership helps the organisation to complete the work on time and also achieve the
organisational goals and objectives. It increases productivity.
It is an effective leadership theory to emerge workers' interest towards working together and
supporting team as well. Including this, it is useful for getting workers' ideas and increasing their
interests for accomplishing tasks efficiently. However, good coordination is created among
workers and tasks are accomplished effectively.
 Contingency theory- Functions of the organisation are known in the contingency theory.
This makes the leaders to handle the situation when it arises. Present condition will help
the cope with problem in better way. M&S applies this theory in some different way, by
which disputes are not to be handled by the management but they are handled only where
they been raised. Customers of M&S are asked to give feedback for the products and
services given to them by the employees of the organisation. Customer satisfaction is
must for the company so all leaders and managers works in the direction of keeping their
customers satisfied. Management changes their working style to keep the customers
satisfied. Contingency theory also keeps in mind the environmental factors of the world.
M&S uses its resources in the proper and systematic manner to not to have any bad effect
on the environment of the world and maintain proper working environment in
organisation. Making extra plan is known as contingency theory.
Under this leadership theory, leader makes plan regarding project's activities and instruct
workers to accomplish the tasks. In order to this, goals are meet systematically and in disciplined
towards effectiveness of the entity.
There are contemporary theories of management which says that the decision for
organisation should be taken by the leader and managers according to situations and external and
internal factors of the organisation. Contemporary theories applied make the organisation grow
and have sustainable good performance because they help to achieve the objectives and goals of
organisation.
TASK 2
P 4- Role of leader and managers in key approaches of operations management:
Key operations of organisation are that important functions or operations that are needed
to be performed by company in order to achieve all its goals and objectives. There are many key
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approaches for M&S. This company deals with clothing and food industry. Main aim of M&S is
to have large and continuous growth of the organisation. The company wants to give their
customer the best quality products and keep them satisfied. M&S works in environment friendly
way which keeps the environment healthy and increase its reputation in the market. Process of
changing raw materials in finished goods is known as operations management. This process of
this management need the raw materials, machinery, human resource etc. to make the final
product (Kuruppuarachchi and Perera, 2010). Designs are considered after this process, which
takes so much time of the organisation that effects M&S in achieving the objectives. Chain
management of M&S is very good which makes the product that keeps customer satisfied. The
company is also working on the social factors for learning the taste and preferences of the
customers which are changing time to time. M&S want to have strong impression on consumers
mind and to have a very strong brand name.
However, operation management plays crucial role for managing entire business
operations of M&S, some of its approaches are to discussed as:
Six sigma- It is the measure which is very effective to detect the defects in the business
operations. It is set or decided by the leader or manager. It can be used as tool to decide the roles
of leaders by the company. Many improvements can be done by using this strategy. This also
help the leaders to effectively manage all the situations by using this skills.
Therefore, six sigma approach focuses on improving quality services and efficiencies of
M&S. In order this, new technologies are adopted for this improvements impacted on
profitability and marketability of the entity.
Lean production- It carries the rules which can be implemented by managers or leaders
for the effective management and leadership. It solves all the issues which arises in the
operational management. It mainly focuses on making customers and employees satisfied. These
principles set the guidelines which makes the leader to give respect to all other members in the
organisation.
This operation management approach is appropriate reducing wastages and creating
balance between production and distribution system of M&S. Therefore, effective planning can
be made for manufacturing, production and marketing process of the entity.
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TQM: It stands for 'total quality management' which emphasis on managing quality of
business and its business. However, entire operations and their performances are analysed work
for enhancing profit level and proper management efficiently.
JIT: It refers as just in time approach for achieving any task in particular time. However,
variety of ideas are created for balances and improving quality services of M&S. It also includes
managing operations in appropriate time as well decision making regarding further
implementations.
MBO: It is management by objective, an approach of operation management work for
achieving objectives systematically and improving M&S' effectiveness. Therefore, further
operations can be improved and managed effectively.
Roles of managers and leaders in operation management
Managers and leaders play very important role in operation management of the
organisation. Manager of operational management manages all the process done from changing
raw materials into finished goods. Making decisions regarding the resources used, activities of
supply and distribution etc. only skilled managers can do these activities and achieve the desired
goal or objective for its organisation. In stores like M&S human resource is very important to
work on activities like allocating raw materials, taking decisions, distribution and supply etc.
managers keep in mind that what external or internal factors can affect the operational
management of the organisation (Ming and et.al., 2013).
Leaders also works like manager in the organisation but in making vision of the company
true which means vision into action. Mark & Spencer works in the direction of providing quality
products to the customers and leaders of company makes direct contact with the consumers and
try to learn their taste and preferences. Leaders make groups of workers in different fields or
tasks to achieve the vision and objective of the organisation. Employees are given training by the
leaders to achieve the objectives. Interaction of leaders with the consumers makes the healthy
relationship between them. Creative ideas are given by leaders to compete with other
organisations in the market (Kark and Shamir, 2013).
P 5- Value and importance of operation management in achieving objectives
The organisation works for achieving some desired goals and objectives time to time and
work on or set another goal for the organisation. Operational management of the company helps
to achieve these objectives more effectively. There are activities which are to be done daily for
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the smooth working of organisation and these activities can be done by the operation
management. These operational management needs to be somewhat strict to efficiently achieve
the objectives of the organisation. This will increase the growth of Mark & Spencer and also
enhance its brand name. The effective operational management will lead to achieving all the
objectives of M&S. This management helps in assigning tasks to the employees and complete
them on time (Kim, Kumar and Kumar, 2012). Operation management also help to decide what
is to be done what not. Managers and leaders maintains the workings of operational management
in the organisation and give profits to the company. M&S uses operational management in its
business because they are working in the field of clothing and food which are related
manufacturing industries need proper and systematic manner for the workings of the organisation
and achieve the set objectives of the company. Innovative Changes done on regular basis in the
operational management will increase the working productivity of the workers, so this
management should stay stable. The changes done are for customer satisfaction then it can be
included in the operation management. Changes will also increase the production capacity of
organisation. So M&S should bring changes for its growth comparative to its competitors. The
managers and leader have duty to allocate the resources and machinery at the right place for
better production capacity (Kopardekar, 2015). The operational management solves all the
problems related to the workings of the organisation which is best for M&S, this management
also helps the leaders and managers to perform their work effectively. By using operational
management in organisation the company achieve all its set and desired goals and objectives
which makes the organisation grow continuously.
Operation management approaches are essential to manage entire business operations and
improving quality services of M&S increasingly. In this regard, its significance can be identified
as follows: Analysing current business performance: Applying operation management approaches
are suitable to analyse actual business performance of M&S in terms of production,
profitability and so on. However, variety of ideas are generated for further
implementations. Reducing wastage of resources and fund: It is effective for M&S for reducing wastages
of resources and fund influences its productivity and profitability. Therefore, appropriate
decisions can make regarding business operations and maintaining its performance.
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