Leadership, Management, and Operations Strategies at M&S

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management practices within Marks & Spencer (M&S). It begins by outlining the responsibilities and characteristics of both leaders and managers, differentiating their roles in various situational contexts, such as decision-making and risk-taking. The report then delves into different leadership models and theories, including situational, systematic, and contingency approaches, illustrating how M&S has applied these in its operations. It further explores the main approaches of operations management, such as lean and reconfigurable manufacturing systems, emphasizing their significance in achieving organizational goals. The impact of these approaches on operations management and decision-making is also examined, providing insights into how M&S has adapted to changing market trends and maintained its competitive edge. The report highlights the importance of effective leadership and management in driving operational excellence and achieving sustainable success in the retail sector. Throughout the report, the student demonstrates a clear understanding of the concepts and applies them to the context of M&S, providing a detailed examination of how these concepts are applied in the business environment.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 .........................................................................................................................................1
P1. Responsibilities and characteristics of leader and manager ..............................................1
P2. Role of leader and function of manager in different situational context..............................3
P3 Different models and theories of leadership..........................................................................4
TASK 2 ......................................................................................................................................5
P4 Main approaches of operations management.........................................................................5
P5 Significance and value of operations management for achieving organisational goals........6
P6 Elements that made an impact on operations management and decision making.................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Operational work is considered as the main activity for a company because it is directly
related to their profits (Barratt, Choi and Li, 2011). Managing various kinds of resources in an
organisation for attaining objectives of enterprise is known as management. M&S (Marks and
Spencer) is one of the leading firms in retail sector of UK. They are running their business in
various parts of the world. This assignment will discuss about the roles and characteristics of
leaders as well as managers. Their function in different situations will also be included in this
file. Some theories of leadership will also become a part of this project. Prime approaches of
operational management will get covered here as well. Further, this assignment will examine the
assistance which is provided by operations management for achieving company's goals.
TASK 1
P1. Responsibilities and characteristics of leader and manager
Every organisation wants to hire skilled employees in the organisation so they can run
their operations in an effective way. M&S has attained continuous success because of strong
leadership. Their managers, at various divisions, were expert of their field and they were good in
the execution of plans. Role of leader is as follows:
Change agent – Business environment is changing rapidly due to various factors like
technology, rules made by government, etc. It is the responsibility of leader to analyse need of
necessary modification in company so the enterprise can face different kind of problems in an
effective manner. Normally employees in retail sector do not like to adopt changes because of
the fear of unknown, it is the role of leader to motivate workers and alter their mindset ( Berger
and Solferino, 2012).
Analyse talent of follower – Every person has some skills and it is the duty of pioneer to
find ability of staff members and then give them work according to their talent. This is an
indirect method of identifying and improving the flaws present in an employee.
Provide vision – All the workers of M&S look towards their leader when they think that
organisation is going in wrong direction. Their superiors depict them the right path and give
subordinates a vision to attain in upcoming time. Without setting goals, an enterprise cannot
grow.
Characteristics of leader
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Ability to delegate – Leader always know that he/she cannot do all the tasks, they transfer
their power to their subordinates so that the work load can be distributed in a proper way. It also
helps in increasing the level of motivation in workers and this makes a positive impact on their
performance.
Communication – Leaders at M&S always communicate to every person of their
organisation. They listen to their problems and then convey own message to them. This can be
considered as one of the most important characteristics of a pioneer, if one cannot express his/her
vision to the employees then it means that he/she does not have features which should be present
in a leader (Bhasin, 2011).
Confidence – If someone is not confident then other people will not follow him/her.
Leader is sure about his/her vision and plans and he/she never have any doubt about own and
organisational capability.
Role of manager
Implement strategy – Top level management of M&S makes long term plans for the
organisation so that they can forward towards their goals. Managers are accountable for effective
execution tactics. It is their responsibility to assure that resources in the firm are utilised in best
way possible.
Monitoring – It is the duty of manager to monitor work of subordinates and rectify
mistakes which they are committing on constant basis. They play a crucial role in identifying and
arranging training needs of workers.
Resolve dispute – Thousands of workers are working in M&S, high number of conflicts is
normal thing in a big organisations. Leaders cannot resolve all the disagreement, they delegate
this role to manager because they are present at every level.
Characteristics of Manager
Positive attitude – Every organisation has some flaws in it which sometimes upset
employees. Managers always keep their attitude positive whether they are satisfied with the
company’s policies or not. They never show their disagreement in-front of the subordinates, they
only talk to superiors when they are not satisfied with a strategy.
Flexible – Managers do not remain rigid, he/she changes his/her working style according
to the situation.
Differences between manager and leader
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Leader Manager
Inspire Manage
Lead Follow vision
Seek opportunities Evaluate opportunities
Establishes directions Coordinates
P2. Role of leader and function of manager in different situational context
If an organisation has good leader then they can give surprising results in short period of
time. Below are some of the responsibilities of leader and functions of manager in particular
situations:
Decision making
Leader's role – When M&S decided to expand their business in new territories like Asia,
the role of leaders was crucial. They figured it out that this company cannot run on their
domestic business and so, they has to expand their organisation by entering in emerging markets
(David, 2011). Some senior workers were not happy with the decision because they knew that
this will increase their workload and if things did not work out then enterprise may face huge
loss. Leaders of M&S motivated employees to work hard and follow the path of aggressive
expansion. They resolved various kind of disagreements in the organisation and made a correct
decision.
Manager's function – Plans do not assure success, if they are not executed in a correct
manner then a company cannot attain their set goals. Managers are responsible for
implementation of strategy. At the time of expansion, executives did work relating to finding the
right source of finance and best place of investment. They support leaders and helped them in
resolving conflicts.
Risk taking
Leader's role – M&S always focus on training of their employees. They took a big risk
in 1990 by arranging a training programme to for the workers. Employees could have left the job
after getting training but leaders at M&S still invested money on their professional development.
Leaders are responsibility for doing something out of the box when their organisation is not
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working properly and M&S did same thing (Johnstone, 2016). This risk is stilling paying them
off and now they have a quality workforce.
Manager's function – Some of the employee at cited firm were not ready to join training
programme because they were denying to spend extra time for training. The role of manager in
this case is very important, they convinced their subordinate to improve skills because it is
essential for employees professional development.
P3 Different models and theories of leadership
A leader is that person who is highly responsible for guiding and leading employees
within work place. For motivating his team members he can take help of various leadership
theories as well as models. Marks and Spencer is multinational company which have large size.
It is responsibility of its team leaders to motivate its employees in most effective manner so that
they will contribute more in accomplishing desired goals and objectives of company. Some most
important leadership approaches are follows as under:
Situational – Every leader has their own learnings style, this theory states that leader
should change their leadership style according to the situation (Liker and Morgan, 2011). He/she
may have autocratic but the scenario may demand democratic. Before 1990, the leaders of M&S
do not involve employees in decision making process, but at the time of expansion they discuss
various issues with managers and other workers who were working at ground level. If leaders
become rigid about their leadership style then M&S would not have attaining the current success
which they have today.
Systematic – Normally leadership is related to one person but this form of leadership is
bit new and does not revolve around singular heroic figure. System leadership focus on larger
system. In this approach, a leader can present at different level. M&S attain success in food retail
business by using this form of leadership. They can successfully expand their business in other
regions like Africa if they use this kind of approach. This theory concentrate of co- creating then
future.
Contingency – The core of this approach is that there is no single solution that can be
used in for solving every problematic situation. In order to find the best solution, leader have to
analyse the situation and then take appropriate decision. M&S adopted thus approach at the time
of entering in Canadian market. They can also use this theory for expanding their business in
India. The culture and trend in various part of this country varies so a single style of leadership
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will not work in every condition. By using different solution of the various problems, cited firm
can capture significant amount of market share in this region (Luna and Bott, 2012).
By using above theories, managers and leaders of mentioned enterprise can solve critical
problem of the company. This firm should try to focus on their core product, i.e. clothing
because they still have good market share in this segment. Their leaders should give more power
to workers so they can communicate the signification information which is present at ground
level.
TASK 2
P4 Main approaches of operations management
Their is a general perception that if a company want to attain long term success then they
have to make an efficient and effective operational management system. Business operations are
directly connected to revenue so if they will be managed in right condition then this will be
beneficial for whole organisation. Below are some approaches of operations management and
role of leader & manager in their execution:
Lean manufacturing – M&S have a clear policy that they will product best quality of
good. They hold significant amount of share in premium section of clothing segment because
they are using lean manufacturing. This company focus on reducing the amount of wastages at
their manufacturing units. This approach is helping cited firm in reducing their cost of
production, it assisted them in maintaining the proper balance between demand and supply
(Mendis, Muttaqi and Perera, 2014). The problems relating to overload and mismanaged
allocation of work also get resolved after using this method. Manager of this firm played an
important role in execution of this method in the company while leaders should get the credit if
introducing lean manufacturing in the organisation.
This approach seek assistance from the side of works because training is its crucial part.
It mainly aim at increasing the production level of manufacturing units without hampering
quality of products. This process help in increasing the level of profit of company. The leaders of
M&S identity the need of introducing new approach of operations management, they knew that
their current system will not work in future so they can adopted this method. Managers knew that
at initial stage the workers will face various kind of problems because they are unaware of this
approach so they played a significant role by monitoring and improving the performance of
employees (Zhang and Chen, 2014).
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Reconfigurable manufacturing system – Market trend changes in no time. This approach
help a company is reacting to the changes in an effective manner. It also include the introduction
of new soft-wares and hard-wares in the production procedure. M&S know that in clothing
sector, following latest trend is very important. Their leader adopted this operations approach
because they know that sometime they have make quick changes in their manufacturing system
so they can produce goods accordingly. The role of managers is equally important in this case,
they supervise the changes that are made in system and motivated workers to adapt according to
the demand of management.
P5 Significance and value of operations management for achieving organisational goals
Marks and Spencer know that if they will not make necessary changes in their business
operations then their whole business may get derail (Vogel and Güttel, 2013). M&S want to keep
the top spot in the premium clothing segment, this goal can be achieved by either reducing the
cost of business or by increasing the sales of the company. The techniques like lean
manufacturing played crucial role in attaining objectives of the cited firm. All of their
competitors fail to make the good quality of cloths because their manufacturing cost was high.
This approach helped them in increasing the level of customers satisfaction in the buyers. One of
the prime objective of M&S is to provide right value for the money which customers are paying
to them. Operations management played significant role in forwarding towards this goal.
The approaches like lean manufacturing and Reconfigurable manufacturing system force
employee to learn new things (Operations and Project Management (OPM). 2017). This helped
a worker in learning new skills which is necessary for their professional development. M&S
always earn competitive advantages on their company by using their quality workforce. Their
employee are highly trained and they the correct approach which should be used for making
permanent customers and enhancing profit of the company. M&S started expansion of their firm
when most of their competitors were try to focus on domestic market. They used Reconfigurable
manufacturing system for adjusting to the fast changes which are required in fashion industry
(Travis and Rekhtman, 2011). When this firm entered in food retail, they adopted different
techniques and values of operations management. M&S knew that they can not set high
standards for the industry, which is the key aim, if they will not only conduct their business in
clothing sector.
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Operations management provide great assistance in enhancing the revenue of the
company. It help in improving the overall performance of company by making their
manufacturing process more effective and by honing the skills that are present in the human
resource of the organisation. Their are various approaches used by cited firm which help them in
the task of quality control. An organisation cannot expand their business in a successful way if
they do not follow the values of operations management (Shuxin, 2011). Their market share can
easily get enhance if they focus on entering in new markets in regular interval of time.
P6 Elements that made an impact on operations management and decision making
An organisation can control the problems which are happen due to internal factors but
they cannot control external elements because they are out of their reach. They can make plans
for coping up with the challenges which are present in business environment. Prime elements
that influence the operations management of M&S is as follows:
Technology – The technology of manufacturing goods is continuously changing, many
organisation want to use latest technology so they can produce better goods at low rate. M&S
also modify their manufacturing units so they can produce better quality and at low price. This
company were already offering best quality to their workers but when their competitors adopted
latest technology and came close to offer same quality then M&S also introduce new ways of
manufacturing their products. They also started selling their product by using online mode. The
buying culture of customers is continuously changing and this were know that if they will not
modify their business according to the rapidly changing business environment then they have
their business operations and production system will become outdated in short period of time.
Leaders of cited firm took the significant decision on implementing new technology in
production procedure.
Quality workforce – The approaches like lean manufacturing and Reconfigurable
manufacturing system motivate employee to learn new methods of production. They make a
positive pressure on them so they can learn various skills like to how to increasing productivity
in less time etc. The demand of quality workers has increased in last few years. This external
factors is forcing the company to provide continuous and good training to the employees. M&S
always focused on the development on their workers and but the sudden enhancement in the
demand of skilled labour forced them to provide more training to their personnel so they can get
some extra edge over their competitors (Palizban, Kauhaniemi and Guerrero, 2014). The
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managers monitor the performance of workers in M&S, they were not doing this earlier but this
factor forced them to make necessary changes in their decisions.
Economic factor – M&S know that they can earn huge amount of profit from the
European market because the economic growth of this continent is slow. They are opening their
manufacturing units in Asian region because they know that they can get cheap but skilled labour
from this region. This can reduce their production cost by significant amount without spending
much money on buying latest technological equipment. The high fluctuation in economy,
specially in year 2009 forced the leaders and managers of the company to alter the crucial
decisions relating to achievements and growth of the firm.
Increased competition – The retail sector is a highly competitive market. Earlier M&S
was only operating in clothing and food retail sector but gradually they entered in other segment
because they knew that if they will not produce other kind of goods then their competitors will
earn competitive advantages on them. They are running their business in many nations, the local
sellers are getting strong in the increased competition is raising more challenges for the company
(Niknam, Meymand and Mojarrad, 2011). The decisions made by managers got changed when
they saw other firms who were spending huge sum on advertising their brand.
Globalisation – Globalisation made a huge impact on many multinational corporations
like M&S. It made a positive impact on their business. The manufacturing unit of this firm
expanded when the business of cited firm moved in forward direction. They are earning
significant amount of money from the investment which they have done in foreign nations.
Leader of cited firm made the decision of expanding business in other countries because they
know that it will be in favour of the business. Managers support them in this work.
CONCLUSION
At the end, it can be concluded that by using various approaches of operations
management, an organisation can improve their performance. Their is a big difference between
leaders and managers, both have them have significant role in success of an organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barratt, M., Choi, T.Y. and Li, M., 2011. Qualitative case studies in operations management:
Trends, research outcomes, and future research implications. Journal of Operations
Management. 29(4). pp.329-342.
Berger, A.H. and Solferino, V.P., Ford Global Technologies, Llc, 2012. Variable displacement
engine operation with NVH management. U.S. Patent 8,145,410.
Bhasin, S., 2011. Measuring the Leanness of an organisation. International Journal of Lean Six
Sigma. 2(1). pp.55-74.
David, F.R., 2011. Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Peaeson/Prentice Hall.
Johnstone, S., 2016. Labour and Management Co-operation: Workplace Partnership in UK
Financial Services. CRC Press.
Liker, J.K. and Morgan, J., 2011. Lean product development as a system: a case study of body
and stamping development at Ford. Engineering Management Journal. 23(1). pp.16-28.
Luna, M. and Bott, R., Seven Networks, Inc., 2012. Operation modes for mobile traffic
optimization and concurrent management of optimized and non-optimized traffic. U.S.
Patent Application 13/715,900.
Mendis, N., Muttaqi, K.M. and Perera, S., 2014. Management of battery-supercapacitor hybrid
energy storage and synchronous condenser for isolated operation of PMSG based
variable-speed wind turbine generating systems. IEEE Transactions on smart grid. 5(2).
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Niknam, T., Meymand, H.Z. and Mojarrad, H.D., 2011. An efficient algorithm for multi-
objective optimal operation management of distribution network considering fuel cell
power plants. Energy. 36(1). pp.119-132.
Palizban, O., Kauhaniemi, K. and Guerrero, J.M., 2014. Microgrids in active network
management–part II: System operation, power quality and protection. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews. 36. pp.440-451.
Shuxin, A., 2011. The Management and Operation Mechanism of Overseas Think Tank and Its
Enlightenment to China [J]. Contemporary Economy & Management. 5. p.021.
Travis, W.D. and Rekhtman, N., 2011, February. Pathological diagnosis and classification of
lung cancer in small biopsies and cytology: strategic management of tissue for
molecular testing. In Seminars in respiratory and critical care medicine (Vol. 32, No.
01. pp. 022-031). © Thieme Medical Publishers.
Vogel, R. and Güttel, W.H., 2013. The dynamic capability view in strategic management: A
bibliometric review. International Journal of Management Reviews. 15(4). pp.426-446.
Zhang, M. and Chen, J., 2014. The energy management and optimized operation of electric
vehicles based on microgrid. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery. 29(3). pp.1427-
1435.
Online
Operations and Project Management (OPM). 2017. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.beds.ac.uk/research-ref/bmri/centres/bisc/okm>. [Accessed on 16th November
2017].
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