Leadership and Management: Roles, Theories, and Operations at M&S

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management roles within the context of Marks and Spencer (M&S). It begins by defining and comparing the characteristics of leaders and managers, highlighting their distinct responsibilities and contributions to organizational success. The report then delves into the specific roles of leaders and the functions of managers, emphasizing their importance in various situations such as risk reduction and task organization. Furthermore, it explores different leadership theories and models, including situational, system, and contingency leadership, and discusses their practical application within M&S. The analysis covers key approaches to operations management and the roles of leaders and managers in this context. The report also examines the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives and the impact of the business environment on operational management and decision-making. By examining these aspects, the report provides a holistic understanding of leadership, management, and operations within a prominent retail organization, offering valuable insights into effective business practices.

Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.........1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P2 Discuss the role of a leader and the function of a manager...................................................3
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach..................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play.....6
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieve Business objectives................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6 Factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision-making by Leaders and managers................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations are the two key factors which operates organizational
activities to achieve the objectives and goals. (Brandon and et. al.2016). The managers aligns the
task among their employees in modules and guide them to complete the given work. This report
is based on Mark and Spencer which is a renowned brand of clothing, home products and food
products. It is was established around 1884 by Sir Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in
London, United Kingdom. This report underpins different roles of leaders and managers along
with their characteristics and functions. It also comprises of leadership theories, key approaches
to operation management, importance and value of business management. In addition it also
includes the business environment which impacts on the decision-making of the leaders and
management.
TASK 1
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
Mark and Spencer is one of the largest retailer of apparels in the United Kingdom and it
also exploring business across the world. It has the strong support of its leaders and its managers
and that are define as below -
Leaders : An individual who is leading an organization has some qualities through which
they guides their subordinates and enhances their efficiencies. The leaders of Mark and Spencer
has a clear vision and they shares it with their assistants and motivate them to follow the path
willingly to achieve the goals. They provide the information, knowledge and methods by which
their associates can work smoothly (Pihlainen Santtila and et. al., 2016).
Managers : In Mark and Spencer, managers are specialised in their field and supports
their team or employees. They works in team and instructs their staff about what to do and how
to do.
Role of the leaders
A leaders plays a crucial role in Mark and Spencer that can be stated as :
Necessary at all levels : Leadership is a function which is required throughout the
management levels. The top level management in Marks and Spencer needs to develop plan and
policies with leaders. In the middle and lower level management, the interpretation and
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execution of the formulated plans and policies. Leaders can establish organisation policies after
the counselling of subordinates (White 2016).
Analyser : In Mark and Spencer, the leader should have sceptic and critical view that
will aid to support the future strategies for the organisation benefit. As being an analyser, the
leader and manager needs facts and figures that will assist to take a decision.
Motivation : It is required for both the leaders and managers because they have
subordinates to work with them. In order to reach towards the goals, managers and leaders both
motivates their associates to put efforts and participate in the activities that ensures the
achievement of task.
Role of managers
 Monitor : The managers needs the monitor the operations to achieve the goals and
objectives that are assigned to the subordinates.
 Measuring performance : Managers measures the performance of the employees in
order to identify their strength and weaknesses that can influence the organizational
output. They analyse the workers and give them opportunities to enhance the productivity
of the firm.
Difference between role of leaders and managers – There are some differences between the
leaders and management of Mark and Spencer that is mentioned as below -
Leaders Managers
 Innovation : In Mark and Spencer the leader innovates new ideas which offers a shift or
transition to the organization that can take the business farther.
 Motivation: They motivates their
employees to put efforts and do their
best to attain the task. Managing task :
In Mark and Spencer, the manager
organizes the functions that are aid to
achieve certain task. They only
manages the workflow and control over
the employees (Li ,Chen and Qiu,2018).

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 Control : Managers control their
assistants and develop the assets to
bring out the best.
Comparison between the characteristics of leaders and managers in Mark and Spencer
Leaders Managers
Vision oriented: Leaders of Mark and Spencer
has the vision to opens the store s worldwide
and that's the reason of their success because
they think about the future.
Decision making – They are the decision
makers and they never get hesitate to take a
decision for the organization(Ghetti Vittuari
and et. al.2017).
Process oriented: In Mark and Spencer the
managers are always think about the process to
enhance the productivity and effectiveness.
Decision cautiously – In contrast, the
managers are always depends on the higher
authorities to take a decision.
TASK 2
P2 Discuss the role of a leader and the function of a manager.
There are several situations when a leader plays an important role in various situations
such as -
Functions of manager
There are several functions of manager that are stated below :
Planning : Planning is essential process to identify the requirements and to analyse the
problems that can occur during the project. In order to reduce the possibilities of risk events an
effective planning help to take the decision achieves the goals and objectives of the Mark and
Spencer.(Salnikova and Schaffrath 2016).
Organizing : This is the second function of the manager and before putting all the
resources in practice. It aligns the entire resources to pursue the action in appropriate manner as
it has planned.
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Directing : The managers directs the staff to perform specific actions to attain the goals
within time. It emphasizes on the process to activate the efforts of the employees to achieve of
Mark and Spencer objectives.
Controlling : It is the last function of the organizational process that monitors the
ongoing activities to ensures the output of the planned activities. Through controlling, Mark and
Spencer's manager keeps tracks the overall performance with different standards such as
standards of performance, measuring current performance, comparing actual results with the
established standards, detecting deviations from the standards and taking corrective actions for
significant deviations (Bakalar,Baggini and et. al., 2017) .
(Source : FUNCTIONS OF THE MANAGER, 2018)
All of these are functions carry out the entire task with the coordination of leaders and
managers of the Mark and Spencer.
Role of manager and leaders in different situations
Reducing risk : A manager is always concern about their employees who are working
under them. The manager manages the work among the employees such as they divides the work
according to their skills and qualification. The leaders develops the plans and executes them with
the support of their managers. For an example, in Mark and Spencer the managers put their
efforts to remove the risk possibilities whole planning for a product development. They always
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Illustration 1: FUNCTIONS OF THE MANAGER

ensures that the errors should be minimise while planning to enhance the productivity of the
employees.
Organizing tasks : There are chances when the activities can be massive but the
managers organizes them in an effective way. For an instance, if there is a high demand in the
market for certain product and the leaders wanted to increase the productivity. At that time the
managers organizes their activities in an effectual way as the leaders will guide their staff to
continue their work in an effective manner. . They will manages the task in modules so that the
each state will be executed after the execution of previous state. In this way, the activities will be
organized in a systematic way. The employees will also get organized activities that is beneficial
for them because they can work in coordination.
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach.
There are defined various types of leadership theories or models that beneficial in
managing workforce of an organisation. Leaders or manager of M&S has considered different
approaches that must be adopted according to situations ( Wangand and Cullinan, 2015). The
leadership theories and models of approaches consists of :
Situational leadership theory: This theory is developed by Paul Hersey and Ken
Blanchar In this theory they states that company can adopt any any leadership style according to
the situations. According to this theory, leaders are those person who have abilities to handle the
situations and looking at clues including task types, nature of the group as well as other factors
for the purpose of getting the job done with effective manner. The leader of M&S also undertake
this style to deal with different circumstances and situation with appropriate way.
Strength
 Improves communication
 Increases production
Weaknesses
 Time Consuming
 It is hard to manage.
System leadership: In this leadership approach, the leaders pushes the potential of their
employees to increase the productivity. The leaders changes the condition in an organisation and
forces the employees to work according to the changed policies and increase their capacities that
can raise their productivity. This theory was developed by Dr Ian Macdonald who uses some
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principles of human behaviour to establish a models of good leadership, organisational strategy,
systems design and social process. The theory has a systematic approach in which new changes
are adopted by Mark and Spencer to innovate the things and the employees will also get the
guidance to achieve the organizational goals (Hammill and Tanner, 2011).
Strength
 Work is manageable in systematic way
 coordination will be improved.
Weaknesses
 The employees will be bound to accomplish the task in fixed time.
Contingency leadership: This theory developed by the Austrian psychologist Fred
Edward Fiedler and it quite similar to situational approach. It states that a leadership style
depends on the situations. This theory defines that styles and behaviour cannot be influenced so
when a leader or manager seems some different situation they can take decision according to the
time as in that situation what can be more suitable for Mark and Spencer. For an example: Mark
and Spencer manager observe some changes in the market like new fashionable trend in clothes,
entrance of new companies, competitors pricing strategies etc. These factors affect policies,
strategies and sales performance of this company. It also impact on business image in negative
manner. Therefore, under such conditions, manager will monitor all the aspect and then they will
take a decision about to maintain the business reputation. Hence, there are different situation in
which a leaders and managers may have different perceptions to deal with current position.
Strength
 It is flexible in contingency situations.
 It conducts an in depth research.
Weaknesses
 It is cumbersome to use.
 It does not match in various styles and situations.
All of these theories will use to enhance the quality of organization through all of these
theories as the leaders and managers will manages the work and motivate their subordinates.
Motivation improves effectiveness and efficiency of work. This will also encourage the growth
and performance of the Mark and Spencer because the managers takes care all the activities in an
appropriate manner. They will direct subordinates to achieve predetermined goals and objectives.
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The managers and leaders has the responsibilities to take the organization on the peak and they
plans for the future goals and objectives that have to achieved by the coordination.
The leaders instruct their managers to follow the task and enhance the profitability of the
M&S by utilizing task force. Managers also put their efforts to manage work among the
employees and motivates them to increase the productivity because when they will support to
subordinates their associates will also encouraged and put their efforts to achieve goals.
Recommendations
 The managers needs to involve the employees in M&S activities so that they can work
with effectively.
 There may some situations when the leader and managers need to take suggestions of
their associates while planning for a task at that time they can adopt the democratic style.
 To make the employees work in a systematic manner the manager needs to be autocratic
because they cannot flexible in some circumstance.
Leaders and managers in Contingency theory
In Contingency theory the managers can take the decision according to the present
situation. For an example, the managers need to take the decision while dealing with the risk
because there are several times managers needs to take decision to terminate the process or
continue. Whereas leaders can be autocratic because they can decide to acquire a small
organization before anyone can else attains the acquisition.
Leaders and managers in system theory
In this theory managers establishes a system for the workers through which they reaches
towards the goals. For an illustration, the managers can develop a pattern for the manufacturing
department of Mark and Spencer. The leaders will provide the guidelines to the managers to
establish a system for Mark and Spencer through which they can specify a system for the
organizational structure.
Leaders and managers in Situational theory
The situational leadership theory is not based on any particular theory and it works for
leaders and managers when they came across different situations. For an illustration, when Mark
and Spencer is facing a drop in sales that could be due to the customer turnover. As the customer
might not satisfied with product so the leaders and managers needs to find out the reason of
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decreases in product sales. They will put efforts to enhance the product quality and encourage the
users to increase the purchases.
TASK 3
P4 Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play.
Operations management is an important area of any organisation which manages the
functions and activities that are carried out within an organization. It is the major part of business
because it transforms the resources into finished goods and services that are valuable for the firm
and customers as well. It aid to convert the input materials such as the raw materials, labour to
produce a certain outcome and to gain the competitive advantage. Mark and Spencer
management gives the input in terms of capital, human resources and raw material to produce the
products and services (TianXiao and et. al., 2016). Mark and Spencer opted for several operation
management techniques to maintain the quality and effectiveness of the working process and that
are described below -
Six Sigma Methodology – This is based on statistical and data driven approach that
eliminates the defects with continuous improvements in the process. It is majorly focused on the
quality of the products and with elimination of defects it ensures to deliver a quality goods that
can offer a customer satisfaction. Mark and Spencer can opt for this method cause it serves the
best quality without any fault because at the production level this method reduces the errors in
the product development.
Just in time : This approach minimizes the waste and maximizes the quality of work. For
an example, if Custer demands increase for products then the operational department of Mark
and Spencer will develop the product according to the requirement of the market. This will be
helpful to minimize the wastage of funds that are required to perform the activities to develop a
product. It will also reduces the labour cost because the labour will be needed according to the
demand of the goods.
Lean Principles : It is refers to minimize the waste and increase the productivity. It has
five principles namely, identifying customers and specify value, map the stream, create a flow by
eliminating waste, respond to customer pull and pursue perfection. It follows all of these
principles and removes the waste from the entire manufacturing process.
Roles of leaders and managers
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 Leader are the representative of the organization they represents the business in seminars,
meetings, conferences and so on. They presents their organization as an iconic brand
among the people and put efforts to make it stand out different from others. For an
example, the leaders of Mark and Spencer used to make the brand more visible to the
people. To attain this the leaders of M&S can promote it through webinars as they can
connect with more and more people to build a strong image of the organization.
(Higgins, Fitzpatrick and Dancho, 2015).
 The managers needs to cooperate with the employees who are working within the
organization. It is the core responsibility of the managers to distribute the work among
the people according to their skills and abilities so that they can work in effective way. In
Mark and Spencer there are several departments and the managers needs to divide work
so that the employees can execute their work after the execution of first task. The
employees can work in coordination to enhance the productivity of the firm.
P5 Importance and value of key approaches of operations management in achieving Business
objectives.
Operation management is the core of Mark and Spencer because it controls the activities
and process within the organization. It objective is to monitor and control the activities which
help to produce the valuable outcome. In order to achieve the business objective operation
management plays an important role that are mentioned as below -
Utilization of available resources – This is the most crucial for a Mark and Spencer to
use the available resources and maximise the productivity. As it can be seen for many time if
company enhances their resources without analysing the available resources that will increase the
wastage of money and resources also. So to eliminate the wastage it will be better for the M&S
to utilize the limited resources and enhances the profit margin. It will be beneficial for the
organization because there will be no wastage and company can enhance its capacity.
Improve productivity - Operation management helps to enhance the productivity in
order to do so it measures the efficiency of managers and employees as well. So the operation
management of the Mark and Spencer focuses on the inputs to achieve the end product which
can improve the overall productivity of the firm (Kirezieva and et. al., 2013).
Operation management is important for Mark and Spencer because it increases the
profitability of the organization. The key approaches like six sigma and lean principles supports
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to provide quality of the product and services with minimum waste. It increases the profit of
Mark and Spencer by offering effective products and services. The managers and leaders can
gain the benefit through adopting the technologies and which maximizes the resources and
quality of the goods.
TASK 4
P6 Factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision-making by Leaders and managers.
There are some external factors of business environment which impacts upon the
operation management and decision of leaders and managers. These external aspects are known
as PEST and that are described below -
Political factors – These are factors which are established by the government and has a
crucial impact upon the business. Mark and Spencer affected by the changed trade policies that
creates difficulties to expand its business. On the other hand, Brexit opens the opportunities for
retailers to explore in the UK(Haddad and Mariño, 2011).
Economical factors – It is the major aspect to influence a business growth. Brexit raise
the currency in the UK and that why it attracted to retailers to expand the business. It was also
beneficial for the Mark and Spencer because it offers a huge opportunities to the leaders to
expand the stores in UK that ca give a growth to the country and company as well.
Social factors – This impacts on the Mark and Spencer because there people has there
own preferences, choice and customs. These are demographic elements affects the business
because people easily get attracted towards the reasonable price but to maintain the cost there is
the possibility to compromise with the quality. So the leaders and managers needs to focus on the
preferences and choice of the end user and recognise their behaviour to increase the sales of
business.
Technology factors – It plays an important role because all the businesses are going to
adopt the technology and they can connect with their customers. To reach out the users Mark and
Spencer leader needs to adopt the latest technology that will also useful to build a strong
relationships with them (Singh and et. al., 2011).
These are factors which impacts on the operations management and leader and
management decision to expand the business.
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