Analysis of Management and Leadership Functions within the M&S Group

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of management and leadership within the Marks and Spencer (M&S) group. It begins by distinguishing between the functions of a manager and the role of a leader, highlighting the differences in their approaches, personalities, and decision-making styles. The report then explores the functions of managers and leaders in different situations, with examples from M&S, and discusses various leadership theories, including contingency, situational, and system leadership. Furthermore, the report delves into the operational aspects of the organization, outlining the inputs, transformations, and outputs within M&S. It examines the roles and responsibilities of operational managers, including financial management, resource management, goal-setting, sales increase, and communication. Finally, the report discusses operational approaches to management and value creation, emphasizing the importance of external environmental factors and the systematic approach of M&S in converting raw materials into products and delivering them to the market.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION

Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1:.............................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Distinguish between function of a manager and the role of a leader in the M & S group......3
LO2 Function of a manager and role of a leader.............................................................................4
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
LO3 and LO4: Introduction to operation of the organisation..........................................................5
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference list.................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
Marks and Spencer’s group follows a flat structure and it has a limited level in management
between the employees of the front line and the administrative level. The basic reason to follow
this structure of the M & S group is to encourage the individuals of the organisation to make
more decision. Following this structure bureaucracy is decreased and the employees become
skillful when they are given the authority to take the decisions. The problem solution issues and
the rapid change help in the communication between the baseline employees and the upper
managers and this is only possible due to fewer management levels. The flat structure is like a
pyramid shape not like the typical traditional way and it is so because in the M & S group there
are fewer levels of management between the bottom and the top and the different departments
that are headed by their respective managers and the executive manager heading at the top of the
pyramid.
Task 1:
LO1 Distinguish between function of a manager and the role of a leader in the M & S
group
P1- According to Robinson, (2015, p.3) the main difference in the definition of a manager and a
leader is that the former has people who work under her instructions and the later has a number
of followers. The reason behind the success of the M & S business group is that it has both the
strong designations and gets their team on board and follows them towards their success vision.
The ongoing debate continues for the correlation between the leader and the manager in the M &
S. Leaders have the ability to influence, motivate and helps others towards contributing the
success and its effectiveness in the organization whereas the manager harmonizes and coordinate
that group towards their goal of success. As per Dutta et al. (2014, p.1730) the personality style
of the leader is often charismatic and influential and they are mostly private persons with risk
taking capability which are crazy and wild whereas the managers have strong analysis, rational
and persistence powers. They focus on structures of a personnel, goals and resource availability.
The managers tend to be task oriented whereas the leaders are people. The focus lies in the work
management for the manager and leading people for the leaders. The outcomes of the managers
are results and achievements for the leaders. There is a vivid difference in the approach of the

tasks in both of them. The leaders use their commitment and charismatic manner to excite, focus
and motivate people and to solve a problem their problem and make them excel in it. They look
at problems with a creative new solution but the managers create policies, methods, and
strategies to create teams with ideas that operate smoothly. They have to empower employees by
soliciting their principles, values, and views. They think that this combination might generate
success and reduces the risk of inherent. The approach to risk is positive in case of a leader
whereas the managers are averse to risks. Leader’s role of decision-making facilitates the styles
which are consultative, participative and transformational. Bahmani-Firouzi, and Azizipanah-
Abarghooee, (2014, p.50) states that the managers have dictatorial, autocratic, authoritative,
transitional and democratic. The use of power for a leader is influence and charismatic whereas it
is formal authority and position in management. The managers have subordinates in the M & S
organisation whereas the leaders here have huge followers. Their appeal differs as the leaders do
it from their heart and the managers from their head.
LO2 Function of a manager and role of a leader
P2 - Function of a manager and the role of a leader in different situations in the M & S
group along with examples
As per Expósito, (2016, p.80) the role of a leader in the operation management at the M&S is to
discover the wealth of positions in leadership that might grow and stretch skills to the next level.
Leaders excel as they head with great organizational, analytical and communicational skill as
well commercial mindset. The role of a manager in a social context needs to balance the social
and professional life. They must abide by the guidelines when handling any employee issue and
have the responsibility to produce productiveness in the staffs. The manager has to balance with
the issues of employee personal life and when to alert the human resource. Rumors should be
stopped from spreading and it's the manager's responsibility to explain such situations. They
must be responsible for upholding the disciplined life with that of the socials. He should know
how to establish himself outside the office and no incident should affect his respect. The leader
of any social event has the responsibility to focus on its strategies and self-knowledge about its
practice. He has to have a critical evaluation and creativity so that people listens to him and gets
inspired. He has to have moral courage towards social changes. There is the need for stability to
influences that are positive. Leadership has to cope up with change. In the cultural context, a

leader has to control and enhance performance and look into the factors contributing to it.
Leaders often have to organise events or cultural activities to maintain its position. Managers fail
to realize that their effect is direct to the culture of M&S. They scrutinize with the subordinates
and excise managerial traits that support the cultural system.
P3- different models and theories
Xia et al. (2016, p. 80) stated that the different theories of approach are the contingency,
situational and the system leadership. The contingency theory assumes that the different
characteristics of different situations and no optimal psychological leader exist. It says that the
interaction of individual conditions and traits creates effective leadership. It opts for factors
independent of individual leaders. The effective leaders match with a situational need and focus
on the interaction of situational control and leadership style. Handan and Uchida (2013, p.80)
opted that the relevant aspects are the quality of the leader’s relationships with others, their well-
structured tasks along with his formal authority. The situational theory suggests that there is no
best style in leadership. The leaders adapt their style towards any situation and look at the type of
tasks its nature in a group and the factors that contribute their work done. Without followers,
leadership is unable to exercise and it ensures that a purpose with a structure in spite of the chaos
in a situation. It clarifies the thought on dynamism and complexity of an environment and
provides a framework for idea building.
Task 2
LO3 and LO4: Introduction to operation of the organisation
An organisation contains various operations and this operation help the organisation to achieve
its objectives and target. This operation is headed by the various leaders and manager of the
organisation. Various companies have various types of leaders and managers. The success rate of
companies are inter dependent with the qualities of its leaders and manager (McDonagh and
Prothero, 2014, p. 105). Basically there are three types of operation in any organisation. They are
as follows:
● Inputs: The input categories of an organisation contain factors like labour, equipment,
facilities, raw material, time, skills and customers relationship. The success story of
Marks and Spencer’s says that it handled these factors brilliantly. These are the reason

M&S is one of the top most retail organisations in UK. Their net profit is increasing is
increasing day by day. But still company needs to give more focus over these factors
during its operational management. The various powers are dependent on the taxes that
are been paid by the organisation, such powers are state and government. But still this
power wants organisation to follow rules and regulation made by them.
● Transformation: This is considered as the middle stage of an operation. It is combination
of some factors like physical conservation, storage, inspection and transportation.
Basically these factors help the organisation to achieve its ultimate target. It even helps to
converts input factors to output factors. M&S have very strong transformational
department. This is the reason transformation is considered as most important factor
among three operational factors (Purvis, 2015, p. 104).
● Output: It the final stage of operation in an organisation. In this stage inputs are been
converted to output with the help of transformation. This stage is the combination of
product, information and experience. Marks and Spencer have good strategy to follow
these factors as it possesses the system of division in work. This system of M&S helps
input to be converted into output very smoothly. After this output company needs to
sustain themselves in the market and also to earn profit.
Figure 1: Operations within organisation
(Source: Gruber et al. 2015, p. 55)
Role and responsibility of manager in operational function
There are various type of manager in an organisation, but manager who are responsible for
operation in an organisation are known as operational manager. They have a vital role whether in
government or in private enterprise. According to Chiu et al. (2017, p. 180), their role is
interdependent with the size of the organisation. As M&S is a retail company so its operational

manager plays a vital role. This is the reason why Marks and Spencer is very much different
from other organisation. Some common roles and responsibility of operational manager are as
follows:
● Financial management: The finance department of Marks and Spencer’s such as
budgeting, controlling and costing are been handled by the operational manager. The cost
of product’s production is minimized and thus chosen company gets to earn more profit.
The manager always focus on sales department and aims at increasing the sales. So that
organisation earns more profit. To improve the efficiency cost benefit analysis is been
used by the managers.
● Management of resources: Handling of raw material and personnel are been headed by
the operational managers (Gruber et al. 2015, p. 55). Maintaining the relationship
between employees and the organisation, hiring of employees and overseeing are the
main responsibilities of managers. M&S itself is a big company so it has various types of
department to carry operation, so it needs to maintain good relationship between
employees and the company. These managers even focus on setting goals for the various
employees.
● Goal-setting: Goals and objectives are been set by the operational managers so that every
employees focus on working together. A complete work is been divided into various
small units so that company would have smooth work function. After setting goals for all
employees it is the duty of operational manager to encourage the team to that they can
work hard.
● Increase sale: According to Karlsson, (2016, p. 65), operational manager of Marks and
Spencer helps the company to increase the sale and thus will increase the profit. Gives
various planning that are required to increase the sale. He even focus on its competitors,
this would help them to understand their working strategy and also to overcome them.
● Communication: A good communication with the employees is very important for an
operational manager as it motivate others to work together. As M&S follows flat
organisational structure so it has various departments and it is very important to have
good communication within that department. They help to solve the disputes between
organisation and the employees. Managers of chosen company help in taking decision
with the higher authorities of the company.

Operational approaches to operation management and value
A successful and systematic company is always interdependent on external environmental
factors. M&S receives its raw material and then manufactures product and family sale that
product as output to the environment (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014, p. 101). Some of the
mentioned operational approaches are as follows:
● Inputs and claimants: This point is based upon manpower, managerial skills and capital
as all this help the organisation to achieve the desired target. Two of the major issue
related to this is that employees want higher salary and more benefits and other is that
customer’s wants good quality of products but at low price. So during operational
management M&S needs to focus on these approaches.
● Communication system: The most important phase of operational management as it helps
in communication between the company and other factors. Good communication helps to
attract more customers. M&S follows flat organisational structure so its manager needs to
be a speaker so that various department staff gets to understand what manager wants to
communicate.
● Transformational process: This process helps to convert finance, production and sales
into ultimate output. The operational manager of Marks and Spencer plays an important
role in the transformation of input to output (Goetsch and Davis, 2014, p. 121). Change
of above mentioned factor disturbs the company to take some steps as a slight change
needs to change the whole system.
● Output: This is the last step of operational management as after this organisational hit its
ultimate target. Operational manager even focus upon giving a best quality of output to
the organisation. Gaining profit, customer satisfaction and sustaining its position in the
market is also the main motto of this output (Jeston and Nelis, 2014, p. 122).
Impact of external environmental factor in decision making by leaders and manager
There are two types of environmental factors that affect in decision making such as internal and
external factors. But in this section we will only focus towards external factors. Even this
external factor is been divided into two parts such as:
1. General Environment

2. Task Environment
General environment is based upon various factors and all this affects in operation and decision
making for the organisation. They are as follows:
● Economic dimension: : This factor focus on inflation, interest rate and unemployment.
This always stress on demand of the product such as during inflation M&S pays more for
it resources and incur a high cost. When unemployment is very high than organisation
gets confuse whom to select. Thus buying power gets lower (Cassidy, 2016, p. 212).
● Socio-cultural dimension: It is the duty of operational manager to study all the factors
related to the socio-cultural dimension. Due to various socio-cultural factors taste and
preference of customer’s changes and thus this effect in operational process of
organisation. Such as dressing sense of people may change if society changes its dressing
style and this company’s sales get affected. Marks and Spencer overcome this factor and
upgrade itself according to the change of socio-cultural dimension.
● Political dimension: This is related to the government law, relationship with government
and issue related with political party. Sometimes M&S needs to take beyond their wish
due to government rules or political pressure thus this effect in decision making.
● International factor: Every organisation gets affected due to international dimensions.
Entry of new foreign company sometime affects a company’s decision making as it lower
down the sale. Pantaloons, Bare denims affected the market of M&S by lower it sale and
thus affected in decision making for the management team (Goetsch and Davis, 2014, p.
121).
Task environment is based on factors as follows:
● Competitors: Due to competitors M&S faces various types of problems in decision
making. Thus this directly affects the sale and strengthens the bargaining power of the
customer.
● Suppliers: They supply production and raw materials to the company. It is very important
to keep good relation with the supplier or else company faces may problems in decision
making. Operational manager should not allow supplier to increase their cost or demand.
● Regulators: Management team needs to focus on this factor while taking a decision as
this would affect the policies and practice of M&S. M&S follows flat organisational

structure so its manager needs to be a speaker so that various department staff gets to
understand what manager wants to communicate.
● Customers: The most important factors for every organisation. As growth rate of a
company is fully dependent on its customers (McDonagh and Prothero, 2014, p. 105).
Primary goal of M&S is to satisfy the customers. During taking a decision management
team needs to focus on customer so that they would retain customer. As customers is the
main reason behind earning profit.
Leadership and management can improve operational efficiencies to meet business
objectives
Appropriate leadership and managerial skills is very much important for an organisation to bring
improvement in operational unit of the organisation. Appropriate leadership ensures timely
decision making and implementation of required management approaches with the aim of
continuous improvement of the operations of the business. From the research report it is inferred
that the management of Mark & Spencer have undertaken the process of implementing suitable
leadership and management strategies for the purpose of improving the operational efficiency of
the company aligning with the business goals and objectives (Gruber et al. 2015, p. 55). With the
help of good leadership an organisation can maximize its rate of efficiency and achieve its target.
Bold and decisive decisions action and implementing swiftness within business will help to
improve efficiency and thus will help in meeting business objectives. Leadership and
management approaches complement one another in the organizational background for
successful implementation of the policies and procedures determined by the management of the
company which is to be communicated across the organizational structure. One of the significant
management approaches towards employing operational efficiency is achieved through the
process of ‘continual improvement’. This approach requires the capability or the ability to
understand and recognise various processes that creates an impact on the organizational
objectives and achievement of the goal set by the entity.
Recommendation
The organisation’s goals and motivation are been set by leaders and managers. As they set goals
for the other staff and even motivate them to achieve those goals. Encouragement is the

important point that is done by the help of leader and manager. Whether it is a private or public
company it is very important to have good leaders and managers. Leadership and management
skills help a company to be in top. Three categories of operation are input, transformation and
output. It is interdependent with the nature and size of the enterprise. The operation manager of
M&S plays a vital role as it is a retail company so its function is very much different from other
organisation.
Marks and Spencer needs to focus on its marketing strategies and promotion. If possible it should
think about some new and unique ways of promoting its product. It even needs to focus upon
international marketing. M&S even needs to focus upon some countries where it does not have
any stores. Upgradation in clothing style is needed so that it can be accepted by all. Some other
department are to be introduced by the organisation so that it customer from other department
like electronics and furniture. Focus on this area would help the company to improve its position
in the market. It also needs to focus on its competitors; this would help them to understand their
working strategy and also to overcome them.
Conclusion
The leaders, as well as the managers, are instrumental towards achieving high performance in
M&S. their approach is to lead and manage effectively the employees. Their task is the
contingent on the manager's ability to adapt style to different situations. The situational
leadership shows how to an employee on task and help employees to learn new skills and
become confident in their work. The needs of an employee should be kept in mind of the leaders.
Leaders should not become overly dominant in the performance of the M&S. They should keep
in mind the various outlooks in this organisation and look forward to their financial beneficial.

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