Leadership and Management Roles in Operations at Marks & Spencer

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership and management within Marks & Spencer (M&S). It begins by comparing the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, differentiating between their responsibilities and influence within the organization. The report then explores the roles of leaders and managers in various situations, such as resolving conflicts and adapting to market changes, highlighting the importance of communication and strategic planning. Leadership theories, including situational, system, and contingency approaches, are examined to illustrate how M&S can effectively guide its employees. The report further delves into the application of these theories within the framework of operations management, emphasizing the significance of resource management, financial planning, and goal setting in achieving business objectives. Finally, the report considers the factors impacting operational management and the critical role of leaders and managers in ensuring efficiency and productivity within M&S.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
P1 Comparison in roles and characteristics of leader and manager............................................4
P2 Role of leaders and function of manager...............................................................................5
P3 Leadership Theories...............................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
P4 Role of leaders and managers in the approaches of operations management .......................7
P5 Significance of the operations management in achieving business objectives......................9
P6 Factors impacting on operational management ..................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is an skill or the ability of a individual or an organisation to 'Lead' or guide
other individuals or organisations (Yang, Hong and Modi, 2011). Leadership is the art of
influencing other people to do something, which a leader wants to do. They are considered to do
the right thing. Leaders are the initiator of task, have inspiring vision and always are in rush to
create something new. The primary task of leadership is about finding out the best alternatives
and then with the use of required management skills, it guides people in the right direction to
achieve the targets in most efficient and effective manner. Mark and Spencer plc is a major
British multinational retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London. Mark and
Spencer was founded in 1984 and they have to different fields of clothing, home products and
luxury food products. This research will investigate the impact of leaders and mangers on the
operations of this ever growing company.
TASK 1
P1 Comparison in roles and characteristics of leader and manager
Mark and Spencer is a 133 year old, every growing company. It was established in 1884
by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds. It is the first company in the UK to make pre
tax profit of over £1billion (Wu, Olson and Birge, 2011). But after this achievement its sales saw
a sudden slump. In 2009, M&S closed down around 22 unprofitable and minor food stores as a
part of restructuring. Also they have shaken up the management and the responsibilities of the
executives to simplify the firm's management structure and to speed up decision making. Today,
Marks and Spencer is looking at the difference between and the impact leaders and managers
make at their own levels, so as to find the best people for their management.

A Leader is a person who holds a dominant and superior position in his field and have
influence over a large number of people, who look up to him for the direction and guidance.
While a Manager is person who holds a position in a organisation and he is bonded by the rules
and regulation of the company. They has formal power and authority. He uses them in
supervising people and gets the job done.
Comparison in between the leaders and manager
Leaders Managers
A leader has the personal qualities in him like ,
good communication, influential powers,
confidence and honesty,
A person is a manager by the powers and
authority granted with the status of his
position.
Leader have followers, who look up to him for
better guidance and direction. He also provides
them with a vision.
A manager have subordinates, who have to
follow his direction to achieve the required
goals.
Leadership is temporary as any wrong decision
can make his followers unfollow him.
It is more stable as it is bounded by law and
also people are their with a purpose.
All leaders are not managers, because not
every leader have the desired managerial skills.
All managers are not leaders, because the some
managers do not have the leadership skills.
Leaders are not accountable to anyone, it
depends on their leadership style.
Managers are accountable to his subordinates
and the superiors for all the issues and
performance.
Leadership and management can be analysed with the help of different theories of
management, like- Great man theory, trait theory, behavioural theory, contingency theory. They
all focused on the leadership while the transactional theories and transformational/relationship
theories focused on management (Wong and et. al., 2012). The basic difference which comes out
after studying these theories is – a leader and a manager are not very much different, its the set of
skills and traits which differentiates them apart. Like a leader has to be initiator, risk taker, a
knowledgeable entity and a guidance provider. While a manager has to have the knowledge of all
the management process so as to perform all the task. Not everyone have both qualities, some of
the qualities are needed to be developed and some are already existing in a person.

P2 Role of leaders and function of manager
Situations in the organisations are the most dynamic in nature, situation/conditions never
remains same. They keep on changing and Managers as well as leaders act in those situations
differently. To sort out a frustrated customer, a manager and his great communication skills are
required. Every situation ask for different solution (Wang and et. al., 2010). As the Marks and
Spencer is having conflict situation in between that Trade Unions are claiming over low salary so
the HR manager will look into this situation and will use a already devised plan which states –
understanding the core issue, initially getting workers back to work, consult top manager and
finance department and pass on the probable solution to the union. Leaders of the Marks and
Spencer are also have to put their views in it, leader will use his inter-personal relations to solve
the problem in most efficient manner. A leader will go out of the way and will not go with any
devised plan to solve the issue.
As the company is facing down fall in the sales of the product so the marketing and sales
manager has to find out the possible reason for the fall in sales. They can use different method of
research to understand it and then will try to get the result of research implemented (Tang and
Musa, 2011). Their leaders are also look at this a opportunity to understand the market better and
they has to try to grab another opportunity to launch the same product at different place and time
or launch a new product.
The management of the M&S have to understand both situations and how the manager
and a leader responded differently in both situation. They can use different leadership theories
but for this case the contingency theory of leadership. Contingency theory is based on the
situational analysis, meaning the leader will respond according to the nature of the problem.
They can change ways and approaches according to the problem. The leader has to look at the
problem structure, the leader/member relations, his own positioning power. They can guide or
delegate the powers to the concerned employee so as to deal with the situation. The leader has to
need to decide what type of leadership style they can use in a situation like; directive or
participative. Basically it will depend on the situation, according to which leader will take his
actions.
P3 Leadership Theories
Leaders are having a role in the organisation to make strategies and guideline for the
employees which can determine their path to perform their business activities. There team can be

a group of people or it can be the organisation. Leaders is always be the top level of the
organisation (Talk, 2016). So they have to take a proper decision for the organisation
development. Because in organisation have to take care of every one how is in the organisation
like workers, employee, machine finance, management, marketing. A leader take help of the
manager so that he can me effective decision for the organisation. Manager have seen there work
of organisation and manages. Its main function have to planning, organisation, staffing, drafting,
controlling. If this work is done in a proper manner then Marks and Spencer well make its work
effect. It major topic to change company traditional to modern work because change have to be
survive in this world.
Marks and Spencer know that change is very important to accept without accepting
company can not survive in the market. But the problem comes always that more of the half or
more then half of them will not want to accept change in the organisation. So in that company's
leader have to motivate them and do the proper management. If this happen then there will be no
problem (Subramanian and Ramanathan, 2012). There are different approach which are have to
see by the leader of Maker and Spenser are as follow:-
Situational leadership: In this leader have to see the situations according to that only they have
to see how to lead the company. There are four type of sporting, coaching, delegating and
directing in this the result will give good result but it will take more time to do. In maker and
Spencer this well help to make work performance better.
System leadership: The leader have to see all the social responsibility and analysis the system an
according to that they lead then that type of leader ship is known as the. System leadership. In
the organisation leader have to manages the issues which is creating the problem in company's
performance. It need the a expert person to do without that person the another person can not be
able to handle it. But in the bigger organisation it is mostly needed.
Contingency: According to contingency theory leader have to de his own personality and
develop it but he have to work on situation also so that they can solve it easily. And make proper
coordination in the company (Stadtler, 2015). This well organisation get task motivated and
relationship motivated.
In the organisation the company have to do analysis that what are weaknesses and where
coordination is breaking. They have to analysis that what they have need in the performance and
there life. This well help in do the motivation more simple and effective. This analysis help in

making decision that which motivation approach is effective. Like if company employee are not
accepting the change then communication well not be the good way it will not do so effective
work
TASK 2
P4 Role of leaders and managers in the approaches of operations management
In the organisation the basic work have to manufacture the product which they have to
sell to customer. For this manufacturing work company have a department there name is
operations department as per name shows the have to to do the operations. The operation means
that orating the system in such a procedure the work so the it will take less time for
manufacturing a product. This is the important task that have to be see in the maker and Spencer
so that they can get the best productivity (Slack, 2015). For that the have to see the the row
martial storage and there nearest they have to to set the machines for producing or manufacturing
the product and after that they have to set packaging work then they have to make there storage
from where transportation can do easily.
If leader not see that they few things like what type land have to be needed and what type
of resources (labour, water, transportation) is needed and how much area is need for the
manufacturing work. If company well not see them then will be gating problem's in the work. It
is key part of the organisation.
In the role and responsibility of the operational manager in production and services
Maker and Spencer are as follows:
Management of resources: In in the production work the most important need is the
resources so he have to manage the resources in effective manner.
Financial management: Every thing which is required in the organisation need money
so the manager have to manage the financial work for company.
Goal-setting:The leader have to set the goal for organisation group department or
individual so that every on well know what they have to achieve
Communications: In the organisation there are two way communication one is down
words communication second is upward communication . They both should be manage properly
Salary and wages: The employee and labour have to given time to time salary. So that
they will as properly.

In the organisation leader is always right and manager do the right thing. Leader see that
what work is going on but the manager sees that how work will complete. Leader give the
commitment and manager control (OPeng and Lai, 2012). Leader have create change and
manager have to manage the change. There should be some some approaches which have
follows by a leader. These are as follows:-
Line Production: In this company have to see the a processes of there manufacturing product
that soul be in such a manner wastage well be reduced.
Total quality management: In the organisation the product which we are manufacturing that
should be best quality for that manager have to check its quality time to time
Just in time: The product or the production of the company product that should be done before
the deadline of time.
P5 Significance of the operations management in achieving business objectives
Operation management is very important for any organization to conduct its activities in
proper manner so they can provide their product and services to the customers on time and
maintain the higher quality with cost effectiveness. Operation management includes planning of
the resources and controlling those resources for the production (Fallon and Rutherford, 2011).
This activities took place when the material reach to the production factor till the product gets
ready. The operation department ensure that they produce the good in systematic manner with
less time and high quality.
In context to the company Marks and Spencer the company is into different businesses
like clothing,supermarket store, retailing etc. they have the food and clothing business and the
operations activities are also differ from business to business. As they always try to give their
best services to the customers. They plan and control all the activities like what to produce, who
will be the suppliers of raw material, process adopt for the production, and the channels which
will used to make product available in the market and how the product will arrange in the stores
so the customer can easily reaches to it.
The operation management add the value in business for its success as the resources has
been plan according to the demand and in an affective manner so they can reduce the cost, take
less time, give the high quality and retain the customer. It enhance the organisation smooth
working environment and the company will earn the profits for the future run. It enhance the
employees and leader how they have to work with organisation to learn and perform with full

efficiency. The leader will know the responsibility he has to fulfil and according to that they will
complete the task with their team (Kuruppuarachchi and Perera, 2010). At the higher level of
management they will know what are the important decision which as to make where they need
to focus and which area need to be improved. At the middle level staff they have the
responsibility to mange the lower level and done the work as per company benefits. To improve
the efficiency company can support the employees in the following way because employees are
key resources for the organisation.
Give proper and regular training:- Employees on different level needs to get the
training regularly so they can learn the new concepts and new techniques and have the updated
knowledge about the products and trends in the market.
Encourage the employees participation:- In any decision making company should take
the opinion of the lower lever as well as the middle level employees to make them believe that
they are the important part of organisation with that the employees willing to participate and get
more explorer (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra, 2013).
Give the employees respect and also take the regular feedback from them:- They can
take their customers feedback policy on regular basis which can help them to manage their work
as per the needs of the customers.
By the following ways managers can increase the efficiency in the operation management.
Understand what customers wants:- By fulling the customers needs and serve them the
best services.
Initiate the team work:- Leader should initiate the team work so they can achieve the
team targets.
P6 Factors impacting on operational management
Factors affecting the internal environment of the organisation upon the operational management.
 CSR:- CSR indicated the corporate social responsibility. Every company now has its
individual department which work for the social welfare and it creates the positive
impact on the organisation as the image improves and also suppliers give the more
support (Jacobs, Chase and Chase, 2010). It also impact on the consumers. In context to
the company mark and Spencer gives the full fair information to the stake holders and
consumers about the profits and their trades.

 Stake holder:- In context to company stake holder of the company are important
participants in the organisation and take the vital decision of the company.
 Company culture:- company follow its own ethic and norms mark and Spencer also
have its own belief of doing business as they use quality of raw material and also try to
create the unique designs in their clothing (Hill and Hill, 2012). They use certain codes
to communicate the employees and make them understand what work they need to do
and how they will do that.
The factors which influence the managers and leaders for the decision making can be the cost
the, distribution channels, stores merchandising, variety, future targets management of resources,
availability of the suppliers, etc. In fast years mark and Spencer was facing the decline sales and
profits of the product due to its pricing and limited stores so as recommendation they should
focus more on the cost and come up with more and more showrooms so the product get easily
available and also they should advertise its product so customer can get to know about this
brand.
CONCLUSION
As from the above discussions it helps to know that the company Marks and Spencer is
into diversified business they are in supermarket business as well as in clothing business they
have multiple retail stores where the products are available. They are having the different kind of
the employment level in the organisation each level is responsible for its given task. In
operational management they look after all the activities which should be properly manage from
the raw material to the final product they see how the product can be produce in effective and
efficiently manner so they gain more profits with less cost. For managing and controlling the
activities managers and leader have to do lots of practices by which they can reach to their
planned goals and meet the expectations. Manger will create the demand in market where the
leader will encourage the employees to give their best. With that company has to follow the
internal factors like CSR, company culture and also satisfied the stakeholders.

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