Roles of Leaders and Managers in Operational Management: M&S Report

This report delves into the distinctions between leadership and management, focusing on their roles within operational contexts, particularly within the framework of Marks & Spencer (M&S). It begins by defining and comparing the characteristics of leaders and managers, highlighting their differing responsibilities in areas such as vision creation, strategy development, and change implementation. The report then analyzes these roles through the application of theories like scientific management and the Hawthorne effect. Furthermore, it explores how leaders and managers function in various situational contexts, including change management, performance management, and employee engagement. The report also examines different leadership models such as situational, systems, and contingency leadership, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. It then transitions into operational management, discussing key approaches, the importance of operations in achieving business objectives, and how leaders and managers can improve operational efficiency. The report concludes by assessing factors within the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making, with the M&S case study providing real-world examples throughout the analysis.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Definition and comparison of different roles and characteristics of leader and manager......3
M1 Analysis and differentiation between role of a leader and function of a manager by
application of theories and concepts............................................................................................5
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
P2 Examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different
situational contexts......................................................................................................................6
P3 Different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency leaders.............................................................................................8
M2 Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to situations within the work
environment.................................................................................................................................9
LO3................................................................................................................................................10
P4 Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play...10
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives............12
M3 How leaders and managers can improve efficiencies of operational management to
successfully meet business objectives.......................................................................................13
LO4................................................................................................................................................14
P6 Factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision-making by leaders and managers................................................................................14
M4 How different factors affect the business environment and wider community..................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Management can be defined as a set of activities that are based on planning, organising,
directing and controlling of organisational functions. Operations can be defined as performance
of a practice or actively involving practical application of principles. In organisations process of
converting material and labour into goods and services is also known as operations. Management
and operations and their efficiency require important contribution and support of managers and
leaders of an organisation. This report aims at discussing difference between roles and
characteristics of leaders and managers. In this report will also discuss different roles of leaders
and managers in context of different situations and will involve application of different theories
and models of leadership. Followed by this report will involve discussion about operations
management approaches and what are the roles that leaders and managers play in these
approaches and importance of operations management in achieving business objectives. Lastly,
report will involve assessment of factors within business environment that impact upon
operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers. This report will discuss
in context of Marks and Spencer (M&S), major British retailer founded in 1884 in Leeds, UK
and is headquartered at London, UK. Company specialises in selling clothing, home products,
and food products and mostly products are of its own label. M&S follows a flat organisational
and management structure. In this structure management hierarchies between administration and
front-line employees are less.
MAIN BODY
LO1
P1 Definition and comparison of different roles and characteristics of leader and manager
Leader can be defined as a person who undertake and completes activities and functions
leadership. Leadership involves several things but some important of them are creating vision
and communication it with other and influencing thoughts and actions of others to realise vision.

Manager can be defined as a person who is responsible for activities of management and
works on completing different managerial activities (Demir and Budur, 2019). Managers are also
responsible for administration of organisation and its different activities.
Manager and leader both are different in terms of their roles within organisation and as
their roles are different their characteristics are also different. Characteristic are those elements
on the basis of which people or situations can be identified.
Difference in Roles of leader and manager is as follows-
Leader Manager
Leader plays important role in creating vision and
objectives of M&S. Along with this leaders also
play important role in developing mission of the
M&S.
Managers on the other hand plays important role in
developing goals of the organisation (Reunanen
and Kaitonen, 2017). In addition to this, they also
play important role in aligning organisational
activities with vision and mission of the
organisation.
Leaders develop strategies within M&S. Strategies
are plans through which organisation achieve its
objectives.
Management plays important role in execution of
these strategies and implementing planning within
organisation.
Leaders also play important role in implementing
change within organisation. This means that leaders
bring change, creates need for change and then also
implement change within M&S. This is because
they are willing to try new things for growth and
strong competitive position of M&S within retail
industry.
Managers however are different and their role is to
maintain status quo within organisation. This
means that managers work on different aspects that
things seems unchanged reducing stress and
discomfort that is caused by change and new
practices.
Leaders within M&S also plays important role in
coaching employees and team-members that is to
equip employees with sources and knowledge that
they can find solutions to their problems (Samah
and et.al., 2017).
Managers on the other hand have an important role
in directing employees for the activities that are
assigned to them.
Difference in characteristics of leaders and managers

Characteristics Leader Manager
Focus
Leaders focus on people aspects of
different activities and task. This means
that they are focussed on creating and
building relationships.
Managers on the other hand have
focus on task and activities. This
means that managers focus on
completion of the activities and tasks
that are assigned to them.
Completion of task
This means that in organisation leaders
focuses on completion of task
effectively by motivation of employees.
Managers whilst focus on completing
tasks by employees by means of
directing them about task and
informing them how they can
complete tasks.
Uniqueness
Leaders are unique in their approach
and their way of practicing is also
unique.
Managers are not unique and adopt
practices that are tried and tested.
Learning agility
Leaders are highly active in learning
and also focus on learning from
experience and developing them for
future challenges.
Managers focus on learning and
developing for the skills that
managers will require in their job
roles (Tucker, 2017).
M1 Analysis and differentiation between role of a leader and function of a manager by
application of theories and concepts
There are different theories with help of which role of leader and functions of manager
can be differentiated. These theories are-
Scientific management- Scientific management within M&S is about knowing what to do and
what is the best way of doing it. In this approach of work and its methods are thoughts and
considered scientifically. In this management approach functions of manager are directed and
guided by principles of management. These principles include scientific study and analysis of the
job rather than rule of thumb. Another principle of scientific management is scientific selection,
training and development, cooperation between workers and management, equal distribution of
work and responsibility, maximum prosperity for both employee and employer. Last and
important principle of scientific is mental revolution (Church, 2020). Managers in M&S are
guided by these principles of scientific management and this is contributed significantly in
growth and sustainable performance of M&S.

Hawthorne Effect- This is another important theory and Hawthorne effect refers to situation in
which some people work harder and perform better when they are being observed. This requires
role of leader in M&S that they can create situation when employees realise that they are being
observed. This involves monitoring and in modern workplaces and different stores of M&S there
are systems through which employees can be observed. This plays important role in growth and
sustainable performance of M&S. Other than this, environment of organisation should also be
created in such way by leaders that employees remain aware and agile.
LO2
P2 Examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different
situational contexts
Role of leader and functions of managers both are important for smooth organisational
operations of M&S. There are several kinds of situation that either are developed in organisation
or sometimes organisation required to face them. M&S also deal with different situations and
every situation has some role of leader and requires some of the functions of manager. Some of
the examples of the situation are as follows-
Change Management
Change management is a process of bringing and implementing changes with an
organisation and its different activities. Change management is a crucial situation that requires
strong contribution of leader as well as manager. Concerned with Change management three
main stages of Change management are unfreezing, freezing and refreezing (Rosenbaum, More
and Steane, 2018). These are different situation through which organisation passes during change
implementation within M&S. At each phase of Change management leader and manager have
different roles and functions.
Role of Leader- Leader plays very important role in change management by identifying
requirement of the change within organisation. In addition to this, communicating requirement of
change within organisation is also a role of leader in M&S. In phase of freezing change
implementation within organisation it is role of leader to reward small achievements of team and
within M&S.

Functions of Manager- Manager also plays important role in change management within M&S.
They plays important role in implementation and execution of change within M&S. Managers
also function by preparing employees and organisation for change acceptance. Providing regular
assistance to employees and team members is also a function that managers play within M&S
during change management.
Performance Management
Performance management is a practice of managing performance within organisation
through which M&S aims to create an environment where employees can perform best as per
their abilities and can make the best contribution in achieving organisational goals and
objectives.
Roles of Leader- Leader play a very important role in performance management by creating
vision for performance of employees within M&S (Tweedie and et.al., 2019). In addition to this
creating a environment where every employee can perform effectively and building a culture
accordingly is also a role of leader within organisation.
Function of Managers- Performance management includes monitoring and evaluation of
performance of employees and to monitor and evaluate performance of employees is a function
of manager. Before monitoring and evaluation performance management required developing
goals for individual and team performance and this is also function of manager in performance
management.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is a concept and a practice of M&S in which organisation aims to
create right conditions for all employees where they can creates and build commitment with their
job and their organisations goals and values. It is very important that organisation have high
employee engagement in order to perform effectively and stay strong in competitive
environment.
Role of Leader- leader plays a very important role in creating a culture of M&S where
employees can build commitment towards their job (Saks, 2019). Leader also plays important
role in communicating right values of organisation and it is also very important role of leader to

give adequate freedom to employees to take decision within scope of their job so that they can
effectively engage with their job.
Function of Management- For the purpose of employee engagement it is very important that
employees are well equipped with required knowledge for performing a job in order to build
engagement with it. Managers should consider that employees are well trained so that they can
be engaged with their job. This involves providing training to employees and also providing
them goals for their job and for their performance.
P3 Different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency leaders
System leadership
System leadership can be defined as a set of skills and capabilities that M&S can use to catalyse,
enable and support process of system level change within organisation. System leadership
includes coordination of collaborative leadership, coalition building and insights of systems so
that organisation can mobilize innovation and actions across a large and decentralized network of
organisation (Gilson and Agyepong, 2018). For M&S it is very important that it develops
suitable skills and knowledge that it can create suitable leadership within organization where it
can bring organizational change through system level leadership. For organizations like M&S
system leadership is very important to implement change within organization.
Situational leadership
Situational leadership Theory in which leaders are required to change the style according to
situation. Situation consists of employee’s capabilities and employee’s willingness to complete a
task. Different styles of situation leadership include telling style. This is a leadership style in
which leader in forms employees about what to do and how to do it. Another style of situational
leadership is selling style this is about selling idea of leader and message to group member so
that they can buy one of the ideas and worked on the basis of that idea (Wright, 2017).
Participating style of leadershipinvolves leaders and to allow members to take a more active
participation in task and activities of M&S. Delegating is a style of situation leadership in which
leaders delegate decision making authority and responsibility to team members.
Contingency Leadership

Contingency leadership Theory considers that effectiveness of leader is based or contingent on
style on leadership. This theory believes that leadership style of individual can be effective in
one situation and can be less effective or ineffective in another because situation is not suitable
for their style of leadership (Vidal and et.al., 2017). In order to ensure effectiveness of
contingency leadership in M&S it is important that organisation effectively align situations with
style of leadership within M&S. In contingency leadership effective of leadership style get
influenced by leader-member relations, task structure and leader’s position power in
organization.
M2 Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to situations within the work environment
Situational Leadership
Strengths
 Able to identify requirement of flexibility as per capabilities and maturity level of
employees within M&S
 Situational leadership also is effective while matching with employees
 Creates comfortable environment for members and employees
 Considers development phases of members (Thompson and Glasø, 2018)
 Enables team to work together by ensuring suitable support from leader
Weaknesses
 Has strong emphasis on immediate needs rather than long-term needs
 To define maturity is a challenge because it requires identifying competency of
employees and their confidence level
 Can create confusion within M&S
Contingency Leadership
Strengths
 Helps manager in enhancing and improving their decision-making and leadership skills
 This facilitates organisational decision-making regarding which leader is suitable for
what kind of situation

 This also facilitate determination of effectiveness of leadership style and leadership
capabilities of leader within M&S (Shao, Feng and Hu, 2016)
Weaknesses
 It does not have any type of flexibility and there is no use of one’s leadership capability
when situations are not according to leadership style and capability of leader.
 This is very difficult to correctly measure leadership style of leader in order to link it with
right situations.
 In a frequently changing business environment it is very important that leaders are
capable of leading in changing situations of business and its environment.
LO3
P4 Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play
Approaches to operations management are some of the ways in which operations
management are carried out by organisations. Operations management approaches are-
Just-In-Time (JIT) - This is one of the approaches of operations management in which raw
material from suppliers is aligned directly with production schedules. This strategy is adopted to
increase efficiency and decreasing waste by receiving material at the time it is required in
production process and this also reduces cost of inventory. In addition to this, this approach also
is helpful in reducing cost associated with storage of inventory and inventory management
(Kong and et.al., 2018). Advance planning also helps in best and optimum production from
production facility. This approach of operations management is also useful for M&S in
managing effectiveness for its retail operations in which company should align supply of
material with its requirement and this will help in effectively managing its in-store inventory.
Role of Leader- This is a approach that involves important role and contribution of suppliers in
M&S. This involves role of leader by identifying and building effective relationship with
suppliers. As discussed earlier, leader has focus on people aspects of tasks and activities,
building and developing relationship with suppliers is role of leader.

Role of Manager- Success of JIT is significantly dependent on effective planning and this is role
of manager to effectively plan production process and in relation with store, managers are
required to plan requirements of stock. It is also important role of manager to make sure that
production facility is prepared for production activities.
Total Quality management (TQM) - Total Quality management is an organisational approach
of operations management in which organisation are customers focused and all employees are
involved in process of continual improvement of quality. This approach considers long-term
success through customer satisfaction (van Kemenade and Hardjono, 2019). Concerned with
employee involvement in process of improving processes, products, services and culture,
employees at every level of organisational hierarchy are included in the process. Principles that
guide this approach includes commitment from management, employee empowerment,
continuous improvement, customer focus, process oriented and decisions based on facts rather
than opinion.
Role of leader- Total quality management is highly based on a culture of having emphasis on
quality and inclusion at every level. It is role of leader to create such culture by communication
values that contribute in building such culture.
Role of manager- Manager plays very important role when it comes to decision-making. This
means that decisions when are based on facts and manager has important role in collecting facts
and analysing them to make decisions.
Six Sigma - Six sigma can be defined as a management tool that is designed to improve business
by reducing possibility of error. This is a technique that is driven by data and uses a statistical
methodology for elimination of defects in the process of M&S (Alhuraish, Robledo and Kobi,
2017). Six sigma method of DMAIC has five phases that are define, measure, analyse, improve
and control. This method is used to improve existing methods and in order to improve redesign
different parts of product manufacturing and service design M&S will require to adopt DMADV
process and phases in this involves define, measure, analyse, design and validate.
Role of leader- Leaders has a very important by creating a culture focused on customer
satisfaction and also that has least scope for defects.

Role of manager- Managers play role when it comes to implementing practices and method for
six sigma. Collection of data and information is also done by managers in M&S.
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
Operations management is the process that includes planning controlling and supervising
manufacturing and other organisational activities that are involved in process of providing goods
and services to customer. Operations management is a very important process and can be very
helpful in effective realisation of organisational objectives. There are several ways in which
operations management is important for Marks and Spencer some of these are-
Maintaining Product Quality- As one of the very important of the two of Marks and Spencer is
to provide high quality product to its customers operations management facilitate achieving this
objective of organisation. Operations management facilitate determination of quality standards
and also help in evaluating quality of product being manufactured. This is why in order to
maintain effective and desired product quality operations management is very important.
Customer satisfaction- In present business environment where every business is customer
centred customer satisfaction has become very important objective of organisations (Barnes,
2018). This is also important objective of M&S and operations management creating products
and services through which it can provide value to its customers in order to gain customer
satisfaction. This is very important to ensure customer loyalty and it requires high quality of
product and services. Customer satisfaction also involve offering required and quality products at
a price that customer can afford and this also is important for gaining customer satisfaction.
Reduced operations cost- effective operations management within Marks and Spencer helps
Organisation in identifying practices that incur extra cost and identification of such practices can
help Organisation in reducing operational cost. This also includes reduction of waste and using
available techniques to their optimum level in order to gain highest productivity. Highest
productivity also helps and makes an important contribution in reducing operational cost along
with reduction in waste.
Profit Maximization- creating and increasing profit is a very important objective that Marks and
Spencer have (Gölzer and Fritzsche, 2017). By operations management organisation can reduce
cost of operations and also increase their productivity leading to increase in profit. By adopting