Exploring Leadership and Management Theories in Operational Contexts

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report explores leadership and management in operations.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
1

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
P1 Definition and comparison between the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a
manager............................................................................................................................................4
P2 Examination of the examples on how the role of a leader and the function of a manager are
applicable in various situational contexts........................................................................................6
P3 Application of different theories and models of approach including systems leadership,
situational leadership, and contingency...........................................................................................7
P4 Explanation of the key approaches to operation management and the role of leaders and
manager under the contextual situation...........................................................................................8
P5 Explanation of the importance and the operational value of management in achieving
business goals and objectives..........................................................................................................9
P6 Assessment of the factors within the business environment impacting the operational
management and decision making process of managers and leaders............................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
2

Introduction
The rise of an organization in a given post globalised condition depends on the several
behavioural attitudes of the employees who are the backbones of the organization. The
management of the organization and its influential approach of an organization to their
employees is a double way approaching process guarantying and ensuring the quality outcome
from the organization. The organizational functionalism is dependent on the systematic approach
and the influential and motivational factor that approaches the economic development along with
the evaluation and analysis of the strategies for undertaking best and most effective leadership
and managerial system for an organization to rise above the ordeals and to resist the potential
risks.
3

P1 Definition and comparison between the different roles and characteristics of a leader
and a manager
The leadership attribution is a quality that has a significant symbolic value to the people as it
deals with the motivational and other moral aspects to broaden up the production outcome
quality. The leadership approach deals with the behavior mechanism of the employees
understanding the social and cultural structures and affiliations of the employees to channelize
their ability and mobility for the production progress development process. With the rise of the
globalised narration in the contemporary world, the influential factors have been taken under
consideration as a business strategy to approach not only the customers or consumers but also the
employees as they are the direct and in-house consumers of the organization. The organizational
functionalism has been emerged from different leadership mechanisms that maintain a smooth
workforce flow within the organization. The leadership contribution and approach is completely
different from the functional contributions of the management system of a company or
organization. The psycho-behavioural approach is the best progressive strategy to target and
influence individuals with certain effective measures. The leadership attributes is based upon the
two significant foundations of the sense of freedom and happiness in a work culture. The role of
a leader in an organization is to understand the persuasive visions of an organization in order to
set a configuration for the employee to perceive. The psycho-dynamics of the employees and
individuals are to be understood in the very first place to make the subordinates work efficiently
for the growth of the organization. The organizational culture and management are correlated to
the significant attributed of the leadership approaches.
4

Figure 1: leadership and management function in an organization
(Source: Laudon and Laudon, 2016)
In the contrary the organizational work has been differently using the functional status and nature
of the management and leadership with different contextual perspectives. The management
function in an organization entails the unique work function and culture maintaining the given
vigorous, diverse and other critical factors. As identified by Lins et al., (2017), the management
in an organization is described or considered as the systematic exercising direction with the
execution of the supervisory practices to the employees channelizing and generating their work
goals in a systematic methodical approach. The management is more about the controlling
function of an organization monitoring over the resources, required structures and systems at the
same time. It is the organized systematic working mechanism that organizes employee’s working
skill and goal achieving factor. The manager and their management department is the direction
setting unit that enhances the organizational standardization and conceptualization. It has the
basic dealing with the army formulation system approach to build an empire over the systematic
and regulated production with the proper maintenance of standardize quality which is relevant to
the market.
5
OrganizationalstructureLeadershipapproachManagementfunction

The management procedure includes the competency of the ability skills, delegation skills and
communication skills all together. In the post modernist structure the economic and the market
dynamics have been evolved by the given contextual drivers and forces affecting the
organizational upsurge and workforce mechanism. The economic changes in the market and the
effect on consumers over evolution should be incorporated in the managerial procedure to make
relevance with the market and sustain the market challenges accordingly. The managerial
department is a multidimensional function structuring and measuring the coordinating budgeting
plan altogether. Whereas the leadership deals with the psycho-effects and the behavioural
proliferations, the management indulges the specialized fields of human skill, finance, capital
investment and production delivery and quality achieving the business goal.
P2 Examination of the examples on how the role of a leader and the function of a manager
are applicable in various situational contexts
Business organization cries are unpredictable and unexpected in a situational context of usual
business routine and performance. However, in the contemporary scenario of ever changing
market and political economic scenario the analytical discourse on the role and functions of the
leadership and management practices and function in an organization should be taken under the
purview of the research evaluation.
Role of leader and manager in situational crisis
The situational crisis in an organization is a very common and threatening phenomenon in the
context of the business functionalism and transformational mechanism. The management has the
duty to continuously analyse and work on the warnings that have the potential to rise as a
potential risk in near future. Hence the management has got the job of proper monitoring and
evaluating system of the workforce mechanism including employment related issues and
financial transactional departures. The important people in power or authority holding a great
position influencing the
6

P3 Application of different theories and models of approach including systems leadership,
situational leadership, and contingency
Employees can be stated as the base units of an organization. Directing these employees in a
proper manner helps an organization move up the competitive market (Uhl and Gollenia, 2016).
Identification of potential employees that can help an organization function with ease and
efficiency towards excellence depends on proper leadership skills. Application of various
theories along with the models of approach can help in gaining a deeper insight in this context.
Systems leadership can be considered as the first in this context that helps in providing proper
grounds of operation to an organization such as IKEA. Understanding the human behavior and
creation of an organizational environment with applicable strategies come under this leadership
style. Understanding the basic organizational behavior can also help the business adapt new and
advanced trends with ease, contributing to the overall growth of the organization.
Situational leadership, on the other hand works with the employees based on the demands of the
situations in hand. Application of innovative strategies that can help the business deal with the
current issues can prove to be challenging, although this can help the organization come up with
an environment that can survive extreme situations without the fear of failure. Employees are the
base units of an organization. Understanding the issues and successful mitigation of the same can
help an organization to create a strong base in the market. Providing proper directions to the
employees rather than confusing them can be stated as an example of situational leadership style.
This can create definite steps for the employees to follow, adding to the organizational growth in
the long run (Grayson and Hodges, 2017).
Contingency leadership style is another that states the importance of leadership skills in
controlling a present situation that can hamper the organizations functions (Jing and Avery,
2016). Applications of proper strategies in order to curb the situational hazards are taken care of
by this leadership style. It explains the importance of the leaders to create their own style and
pattern that can help the overcome these issues with minimal efforts in order to gain the control
back on the organizational operations (Schwartz, 2017). This can help an organization to grow
along with the personal growth of a leader in an organization like IKEA.
7

P4 Explanation of the key approaches to operation management and the role of leaders and
manager under the contextual situation
Operation management uses the process that converts the inputs into outputs, and the
transformation follows set of processes that supports the conversion (Bolden, 2016). So it is the
duty of the Manager to look into the whole process so that products get delivered within the
projected time and within the manufacturing costs. The manager uses the resources tactfully so
that it could gain the competitive advantage of the market. IKEA is a company deals with the
vast range of furniture, the key approaches that the Manager performs encompasses the whole
process of capacity planning, managing the inventory, designing the whole supply chain
management and the total quality management (Northouse, 2018). The manager and leader have
the similar set of work but they idea they implement under the working condition is different
from each other. A strong planning is required to make the whole process in a feasible state, the
manager would ask the subordinate to follow the plan according to selected previous
formulations, and get the work finished before the allotted time, but on the other hand, the leader
will offer each member of the group to think individually and make a firm planning, as a firm
planning would help the process to maintain proper sequence. The idea of implementation of the
proper planning changes according to the scenario.
The management faces problem when synchronizing the processes and these are quantitative,
technical issues and social issues. The other problem includes the analysis of the critical path and
the crucial factor related to proper initial planning. When these problems arise, manager and
leader have their own approaches towards the solution. The manager has the full control of the
employees, and any issue which is neglected by the workers at the nascent stage becomes a huge
problem for the company (Mendenhall et al., 2018). The unattended issue led to major problems
and crisis at time of delivery. The leader has own way of mitigating the problem, the
subordinates are very much free to discuss the issue and with proper training such problem could
be eliminated. The leader always tries to lead the team in emergency, and come out of the crisis
as soon as possible. The leader are the worker of the front row, they break barriers so that group
spirit is achieved (Munyao et al., 2018). The operation mangers have other roles as well like
budgeting the whole process, cost of the raw material in a controlled state. The approach that
IKEA prefers is Six-Sigma approach; the quality of the product is improved by finding the
defects and the loopholes in the process. The empirical statistical method is used by the team
8

who are the experts in the group. For example, in case of IKEA, the manufactured good go
through short process cycles timings, the pollution is created is of minimal standard, the cost
reduction of the raw material so that prices are set at standard and produces maximum profit
through the process.
P5 Explanation of the importance and the operational value of management in achieving
business goals and objectives
The business objectives and goals are known to define the purpose of the company along with
the assistance based on the growth of the business and also to achieve the financial objectives.
Hence, the setting of goal and also to attain them seems to help an organization for acquiring the
increased efficiency, profitability and productivity as well (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018).
However, the management of operations is known to be the obligatory for the organizations
regarding the management of daily activities in a seamless manner. Hence, with the help of
these, the organizations seems to make use of the resources in an effective manner such as the
raw material, labour, money and similar other resources as well. Fixing the goals and aims of a
business is considered to be significant for an organization as; the goals are known to be
powerful and also seems to focus attention based on the achievement of desirable outcomes. In
context of a business, profitability is referred to as a desirable outcome whether the goals of
business are known to be fixed upon the direction of a company or to provide attention
(Schedlitzki and Edwards, 2017). These goals and objectives are known to be measurable,
specific, achievable as well as timely in nature.
Apart from these, the business objectives are known to present the ability for monitoring the
progress of the organization. They are considered to provide with appropriate checks which can
keep the people of the organization updated and also helps in maintaining their records rather
than becoming blind through one’s own biasness. Therefore, the objectives and goals are known
to help in evaluating the employees and also allow them to evaluate themselves (Hitt et al.,
2016). On the other hand, the operational value of management refers to implementation and
promotion of the process of decision making based on the values associated with human
resources, ethics, environment, development of community, employees, mutual advantage and
the information as well.
9

Hence, operations management is known to be important for improving the all over productivity
of an organization. This eventually is considered to help in achieving the objectives and goals of
the organizations. In case of the respective organization of IKEA, the operational value of
management plays an important role in administration department and also its helps in defining
the core operation of the respective organization based on its functions. Therefore, it is known to
arrange the production factors and also seems to organize as well as assemble the resources of
the company and also is known to integrate the resources with an effective manner for the
purpose of achieving the goal and objectives of the particular organization. These organizations
are known to provide the services which are related with the objectives and goals of the
organization (Antonakis and Day, 2017). Hence, this operational value of management and the
goal or rather aims and objectives of the respective organization are known to provide success to
the organization and also allow sustaining the organization for the long run in the market place.
P6 Assessment of the factors within the business environment impacting the operational
management and decision making process of managers and leaders
In the recent years, organizations are bringing more attention to the maintenance of ethics, values
and sustainability within the organization in order to improve relationships with customers and
provide them satisfaction with excellent services by following and maintaining the ethical
standards in its operations within the organization (Wong and Shi, 2018). The business
environment of IKEA is full of competition which requires it to adopt effective methods to gain a
competitive advantage and establish itself at a superior position among its competitors. In order
to gain a competitive advantage, IKEA has adopted a concept of developing a sustainable
business. The corporate social responsibility is one of the most important roles that are
undertaken by the leaders and management of IKEA. It has also been observed that the
relationship shared between the different styles of leadership and the functions of the
management have an influence on the corporate social responsibility of the organization. The
managers are accountable for adopting appropriate policies and preparing effective strategies by
considering the factors which have a potential to affect the corporate social responsibility of the
organization towards the society and environment (North and Kumta, 2018). The policies are
related to the satisfaction of the customers, protection of the environment, providing products of
high quality at an affordable price, provision of after sales services, etc. the role played by
10

managers is to implement these policies by effectively communicating the policies to employees
at all the levels of the organization and direct their work towards achieving these policies. The
leaders in IKEA are responsible for ensuring that the prepared plans and policies are
communicated to each of the employees in a clear manner and then motivate and influence them
to perform their work in a manner which implements the strategies effectively.
The leaders are responsible for defining and assigning appropriate work to each of the employees
according to their capabilities. If required, they are also responsible for providing training to the
employees that enhances their capabilities and helps attain the goals and objectives of the
organization with respect to corporate social responsibility (Uhl and Gollenia, 2016). There are
some factors of the business environment of IKEA which has an impact on its operations
management and also the decision making of the managers and leaders. Some of these factors
might be the efficiency of the employees, which determines how they need to be directed which
again influences the adoption of an effective leadership style to make the employees more
efficient (Young and Ghoshal, 2016). Another factor which influences the operations
management and decision making is the performance of the employees. High productivity of the
employees helps in effective management whereas if the productivity of the employees is low, it
affects overall operations management and decision making as it requires a reassessment of the
employees and figure out the factors which is hampering their performance. Another factor
which has an influence on the operations management and decision making of the leaders and
managers is availability of the resources within the organization. These factors have an influence
on the operations management which also includes the total quality management and the six
sigma approach.
11

Conclusion
Operations management of an organization can also be stated as the set of functions undertaken
by an organization. The above discussion has highlighted the importance of the roles played by
leaders and managers in an organization such as IKEA with the help of various theories along
with models of approach. Based on the discussions, the organization needs to take certain
approaches that are beneficial in the long term. The roles and responsibilities of leaders and
managers have been thoroughly discussed which focuses on different organizational objectives
such as communications, performances, Productivity and others to name a few. With the help of
appropriate objectives and agenda, the organization can implement the necessary changes.
Operations management is a crucial factor that improves the performance and productivity of the
organization. IKEA needs to understand these crucial factors in order to amend the errors that
have been occurring in the past to improve their business objectives on a larger scale.
12