Marks & Spencer: Management, Leadership, and Operational Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Marks & Spencer's management and operations, covering key aspects such as the company's organizational structure, the roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders, and the application of various management theories. It explores the differences between managerial functions and leadership roles, examining how these roles are applied in different situational contexts within the company. The report also delves into different leadership approaches, including system, contingency, and situational leadership, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it assesses the impact of managers and leaders on the organization, providing recommendations for future improvements. The report also examines the operational management of M&S, key approaches to operational management, the impact of external business environment factors, and offers a critical evaluation of the application of operations management, concluding with suggestions for future improvements.

MANAGEMENT
&
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction of Marks and Spencer and its management structure........................................1
2. The roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of the
operation in Marks and Spencer..................................................................................................2
3. The differences of managerial functions and leadership roles by effectively applying a
range of management theories and concepts...............................................................................3
4. Role of a leader and function of a manager apply in various situational context ..................3
5. Different theories and models of approach, including system, contingency and situational
leadership ...................................................................................................................................4
6. Strengths and weaknesses of different theories and approaches.............................................5
7. Managers and leaders make impacts on the organization and make recommendations for
future improvements...................................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
1. Operation management of M&S and key approaches to operational management ...............7
2. Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders................................................................7
3. Importance and value of the key approaches to operations management...............................7
4. Evaluation of the effectiveness of managers and leaders........................................................8
5. Impact of external business environment factors on operational management decisions by
leaders and managers..................................................................................................................8
6. Critical evaluation of the application of operations management...........................................9
7. Conclude and suggest recommendations for future improvements........................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations is a business operation which is concerned with planning,
organising, etc. in context of manufacturing goods and services. It is a process of business
practice with a aim of highest level of effectiveness and production level. This project is
prepared in context of Marks and Spencer which is a British multinational retail industry. The
company also offers superior quality goods such as, clothing, food items and household products.
This company is operated by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in UK (Ageron, Gunasekaran
and Spalanzani, 2012). The report covers role that leaders play and functions that managers
perform in different organisational situations which arise at workplace. This assessment also
covers some leadership approaches and management theories which support growth and
sustainable performance of organisation. Further, the impact of external business environment on
operational management is also explained in this project.
TASK 1
1. Introduction of Marks and Spencer and its management structure.
Marks and Spencer Group Plc is a British multinational retailer operated in UK by
Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. The company is famous for its high quality clothing,
luxury food and stylish home ware products. The company operates more than 100 stores
Europe, Honk Kong, Canada, etc.
Marks and Spencer follows flat organisation structure to encourage and motivate
employees to work hard and in more decision making process. In London, the manager of M&S
shaken-up the duties and responsibilities of teams to perform well (Arunkumar and Jothiprakash,
2012). The management structure of company also seeks to speed up decision making process.
The company is also inviting new and unique operation commitment which is responsible for
smooth and liable running of management operations and functions. They are also enriching their
strategies and techniques with aim of reducing wastage and producing products with proper
allocation of resources. The main focus of company is produce quality products in affordable
rates and also to increase their sales and profitability margins. The company made changes in its
structure by giving higher responsibilities to its workers to enables them to make decisions faster
and bring enterprise more closer to its consumers. Additionally, there are some roles and
1

responsibilities plays by managers and leaders of M&S with aim of achieving growth and
success of company.
2. The roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of the
operation in Marks and Spencer.
The roles and responsibility of managers and leaders are given below -
Leaders: A leader is an individual who leads or commands the groups or employees in
company. The role of a leader is to encourage or motivate employees towards achievement of
their goals.
Role of a leader:
 Leader of Mark & Spencer need to perform interpersonal role such as documents act
as liaison for the better performance of an organisation. (Brown and et. al, 2013).
 Leader of mark & Spencer plays an Informational role . They collects information from
other organisations and give that information to their subordinates. So that they can
perform their roles and responsibilities in an effective manner.
Managers: A manager is a person who is responsible for controlling or administering the
workers or teams of organisation (Baek and Kim, 2011). The manager follows the instructions or
commands of a leader of company. They are accountable to run and control the entire part of
organisation. They provide training session to its employees so that they can perform their
activities easily.
Characteristics of Manager:
 herein Mark & Spencer needs to maintains and have communication skills by which they
can communicate with employees.
 Effective planning and strategies are build by managers so that they can enchants their
productivity and profitability of their organisation.
 The managers of Mark & Spencer have strong abilities of problem solving skills.
Moreover, the identify problems and provide solution for the same in an effective
manner.
Comparison between Leader and manager:
Basis Leader Manager
2

Characteristics The manager of M&S has
characteristic of management in
which they manages all work and
functions of company.
The leader of M&S have
communicative leadership
characteristic in which they
communicate their clear vision to
members of company.
Roles The role of manager in M&S is that
they always focus directions and
process of how to get maximum
outputs by reducing wastes and to
allocate all resources properly.
The role of leader in M&S is that their
main focus is on better results and
outputs.
Functions Managers in M&S helps in making
better coordination between
stakeholders such as, workers,
community, etc (Singh, Chauhan
and Anwar, 2012).
Leaders also inspire and encourage
staff members to perform well and
complete their tasks in allotted time
frame.
Working Policies are implemented by Leaders
but manager formulates them
(Alderton and Saieva, 2013).
Manager of Mark & Spencer builds
different policies in respect to activities
which are conducted within work
premises so that they can achieve their
goals and objectives respectively.
Approach and
attributes
Herein, leaders of Mark & Spencer
need to give direction and
foresightedness to its subordinates.
Formulates or design plans and its
attribute is mind.
s3. The differences of managerial functions and leadership roles by effectively applying a range
of management theories and concepts.
There are two management theories which are applied in context of managerial functions
leadership roles which are as evaluated below:
Classical management theory: This theory is basically depends upon beliefs of staff
workers in M&S with physical and economic needs (Wood and Wollenberg, 2012). This
management theory is also called “scientific management theory” which emphasis on increasing
3

employees productivity. It studies the tasks allotted to workers are accountable for it. The main
objective of this theory is to provide its workers with sufficient tools to workers which help them
to accomplish their tasks in time frame. The manager and leader of company develop standard
methods or techniques for doing their jobs by using scientific management. Thus , this will lead
to better results and performance and reach to the targets of M&S.
Transformational theory of leadership: This is an another important theory of leaders
in M&S. In this, the leader of company works with teams or group to determine the changes are
required to be done (Barnard, 2017). It also develops valuable variables among all the workers of
M&S management. The main aim and objective of this theory is planning with aim of successful
results or outcomes. This concept of transformational leadership was introduced by James V.
Downton. This also helps enterprise in achieving future growth and development.
Managerial functions
 Planning: This is a first and important function of manager of company. It is important
for a manager to make proper plans before taking any action. In M&S, this will help
manager in determining most appropriate actions for achievement per-determined goals.
This will also enhance coordination and relationship between employees of management.
 Directing: This is an another function of manager which helps in actuate production
methods to work effectively to achieve organizational purposes. It is the function of M&S
manager to provide supervision and communicate effectively with employees (Sánchez-
Munguía, 2011).
Leadership roles:
 Create vision: This is an important leadership role for achieving success and growth of
company. In this, the manager of M&S also create vision before taking any action into
consideration. This will help them in reaching their targets and goals.
 Coach potential: In this, the manager of M&S plays an important role in providing
guidance to employees. It is their duty to helps workers in resolving their issues and grow
their career for future (Bodenstein, Schryen and Neumann, 2012). In addition to this, they
gives them knowledge about tasks and helps them in dealing with all circumstances.
4. Role of a leader and function of a manager apply in various situational context
In big or small enterprises, there are some situations which arises in company that affects
business operations and functions. Marks and Spencer is a multinational company whose
4

business operations are sometimes affected by various situational context. The company faces
situations of changing in market trends, sorting out stores and many more. These situations
affects the operations of level of production and profitability. In this context, there are some
situations faced by M&S in which the role of leader and functions of manager of company are
defined:
Situation 1: The manager of M&S is assigned a new task by top authority and they have
to get this task done by their group of employees within a specific time frame.
Role of a manager: In this, the role which a leader play to overcome wit this situation is
by applying classical theory of management. The managers of M&S will allot this tasks to those
employees which are more skilled and have professional knowledge about the tasks. They also
provide incentives to encourage and motivate employees to develop better results and output.
Function of a leader: The leader of M&S play their role by applying behavioural theory
of leadership to get over this situation. This theory determines on the behaviour of leader towards
employee and management. They guides the manager or other employees about how to deal with
situation and which employee will be best suited to this context.
Situation 2: The other situation which can arise in M&S is fast Changing in technology.
This can effect business operations and functions of organization directly (Hefetz and Warner,
2011). Technology involves using of mobile applications etc. This is one of a main technology
which takes place in M&S and effects on functions of business. In this regard, to overcome with
this situation managers and leaders plays their role and functions.
Role of a manager: The role which leader play in M&S to get over this situation is by
guiding workers about the details of new technology. The manager provides sufficient tools and
training in order to helps employees to follow technology in a effective manner at work place. In
this way, managers can deal with the situation and can receive better results and outputs (Hill,
Jones and Schilling, 2014).
Function of a leader: The leader of M&S will provide better knowledge about the
technology and motivate employees to perform well at their workplace. This function of leader
will help employees to deal easily with it and accomplish their tasks in allotted time frame.
5

5. Different theories and models of approach, including system, contingency and situational
leadership
In context of Marks and Spencer there are different theories of leadership which help
company in achieving their goals and objectives in alloyed time frame.
System leadership: This theory enables leader of M&S to create conditions in which all
members of company can work and perform their activities productively and easily. This
approach provide tool to leaders by which they can predict behavior of employees in
organization (McPherson and Pincus, 2017). With the help of this theory, leaders of company
can also deal with issues effectively. The main focus of leaders is to improve overall
performance of employees and to achieve goals in time frame.
Contingency leadership: This type of leadership theory emphasis on matching leader's
style to right situation. This approach is developed by Fiedler after analyzing various leaders in
assorted context. This theory is followed in a specific state of affair which dependent upon the
state levels of employees. For example, leader of M&S can apply this theory to deal with a
situation of lack of employees skills and ability. In order to deal with this state, leader will
provide training session to employees to overcome with situation.
Situational leadership: This leadership style is given by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul
Hersey. This approach is a timeless, quotable framework of leaders to match their behavior with
performance needs of employees and group members (Huang, Jing and ZHANG, 2012). This
leadership is based on relationship between leader and follower to determine situation based on
performance. In M&S, situations related to fast changing of technology, decision making, etc
which highly impacts on business operations and functions of company.
Thus, the leaders of M&S opt situational leadership theory by which they can easily
handle the situation of fast changing, decision-making, etc. This also helps company in
improving their overall performance and productivity.
6. Strengths and weaknesses of different theories and approaches
System leadership
Strength Weakness
 It is advantageous for M&S because it
focuses on multiple dimensions of
This theory delays in decision-making and is
time consuming for M&S to create new and
6

management. effective approach.
 The another objective of this theory is
that it focuses on achieving goals and
objectives of organisation.
In M&S company hires high quality
administrators to handle some situations but
they are very expensive that it dent's company's
budget.
Contingency Leadership
Strength Weakness
 It is an effective and reliable approach
in M&S because it is grounded on
empirical research and helpful in
achieve goals.
This theory is complex in nature and suffers
inadequately of literature. In case of M&S this
theory does not spell various situation which
should be taken under different situations.
 This theory provide data on leadership
styles which is beneficial for
organisation in processing leadership
profiles for human resource planning
(Hughes, 2012).
It is not essential and valuable for training and
development process as it needs high quality
administrators.
Situational Leadership
Strength Weakness
 Situational theory is a practical
conceptualization as it is easy and
beneficial for M&S to understand and
apply on a variety of settings.
This style consumes more time period to deal
with different situations effectively.
7. Managers and leaders make impacts on the organization and make recommendations for future
improvements
In M&S, all theories are very essential in company and for leaders for up- gradation of
work and achieve goals and objectives in allotted time frame. In this, managers and leaders of
M&S plays a dominant role in managing business activities and operations of organisation
7

(Imanudin, Armanto and Susanto, 2011). On the other hand, leader give guidance about new
technologies and in others. They also motivates and encourage employees to work hard for
success and complete their tasks in allotted time frame.
Recommendations: In order to improve the overall performance along with growth and
development of M&S, managers and leaders plays ans essential role. There are some
recommendations given by managers and leaders to make improvement for future growth of
company and they are:
 Company should provide training and development process for employees of
organization to make them know better about the new and advanced technologies.
 Company should also give opportunities of decision-making and planning of operations
of business to all workers of company (Wu and Chen, 2012).
 M&S should also use different strategies so that they can easily deal with their consumers
and satisfy their all needs and demands.
TASK 2
1. Operation management of M&S and key approaches to operational management
Operation management is concerned with business practices in M&S which creates
highest level of efficiency within an organization. It refers to conversion of labor and raw
materials into goods and services or finished goods. Further, there are several key approaches of
operations management are explained below:
Just-in-time inventory: This key approach refers to maximize productivity by reducing
wastage. It helps M&S by producing goods with minimal wastage and proper allocation of
resources. This is beneficial for company in saving their time and money (Ryu and San Andrés,
2013). It also contributes in smoother flow of production. It is helpful in making strong
coordination between employees and satisfaction. This will reduce space for storage of products
and less time will be wasted in waiting for large amounts of products and materials.
Continuous improvement: This is the another approach of operation management which
is applied by M&S to improve their daily functions and operations. It also helps company to
shake up development of team work and accomplish goals with creation of higher quality goods.
Continuous improvement will give immeasurable benefits to company such as, increased
8

productivity, improved quality and lowered costs of production. It also assists in increasing
employee morale by reducing workers turnover rate.
2. Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders
There are different kinds of roles and responsibilities which are completed by manager
and leaders at their level for achieving desired outcomes. They manager work and encourage
employees to perform their tasks in appropriate manner (Kátai-Urbán, 2014). Moreover, some of
these roles of of managers and leaders are given below –
Roles of leader – The leaders has a role to determine a vision and make track record of
staff members in terms of evaluating their performance. It include to make an appropriate
strategy to encourage employees and identify their needs to fulfill them so that they will remain
motivated to perform task in correct way. In context of M&S, leader should fulfill their roles
such as setting vision clear, motivating workers, guiding employees and building morale.
Roles of manager – In case of M&S, managers have a role to conduct overall
management of operational activities and procedures to generate outcomes as per set target
properly. It involves several duties of manager including planning, organizing, staffing,
directing, coordinating and controlling.
3. Importance and value of the key approaches to operations management
Operations management is an important criteria so that desired targets can be completed
on required time in M&S. It has several values and importance which are as follows –
Quality improvement – This can be described as o put efforts for establishing effective
strategies for increasing quality of products which helps to attract new customers along with
retaining the current ones for improving profits of M&S (Pan, WANG and SHI, 2011). This
approach is valuable for company in expanding business and sales by serving quality products to
consumers. This will also enhance their position at market place.
Optimum utilization of resources – The optimum utilization of resources refers to
generate maximum outcomes of them along with reducing wastage. M&S is required to make
sure maximum utilization of sources for attaining better profits by reducing overall cost of
production in correct way (Nenonen, and Vasara, 2013). This is beneficial for company as it will
increase productivity and efficiency by operating maximum outputs per shift. Along with this, it
also gives satisfaction to workers and helps to retain them.
9

4. Evaluation of the effectiveness of managers and leaders
There are various kinds of strategies which are adopted by managers and leaders in terms
of managing operations which provide support to gain desired results in proper manner. It
involves more effective as well as efficient techniques which are helpful to attain desired
outcomes. In addition to this, managers of M&S put their efforts for adopting several appropriate
practices such as TQM, six sigma and lean production in respect of generating desired results of
specific targets. At the other hand, leaders fulfill certain roles including maintenance of track
records of employees and monitor their performance in terms of determining threats in their
working along with providing better techniques to improve the same.
5. Impact of external business environment factors on operational management decisions by
leaders and managers
There are different types of external factors which impacts on business operations and
influence decision making of managers & leaders (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). In case of M&S,
they are putting efforts for maintaining and bringing sustainability within working environment
to gain better productivity from improved performance.
Corporate Social responsibilities – This can be described as to conduct activities by
organization for social welfare through providing benefits to society. M&S conduct Eco-friendly
operations so that they environment will be saved from harmful chemicals or fumes which are
released to nature for creating problems like pollution, global warming and ozone depletion.
Business ethics – This involves to establish ethical culture of working in organization
which motivates people to perform their tasks properly through establishing positive
environment. M&S should follow this business ethical norms in correct manner while conduct
operations to complete desired target successfully.
6. Critical evaluation of the application of operations management
As per views of Slack (2015), it is analyzed that operations management is beneficial in
completion of task in allotted time period according to clients requirements. It involves the
criteria of building effective strategies to facilitate better coordination and cooperation among
workers which facilitates gain desired outcomes. Moreover, it has several applications such as
demand of clients, economical conditions and advanced technology which facilitate to increase
better outputs in M&S. In addition to this, it is helpful to maintain systematic conduction of
10