Leadership, Management and Operations: Virgin Media Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership, management, and operations, using Virgin Media as a case study. It begins by defining and comparing the characteristics and roles of leaders and managers, highlighting their differences in innovation, productivity improvement, and managing change. The report then explores the functions of managers and leaders in different situational contexts, such as conflict management and labor turnover, providing practical examples from Virgin Media. It delves into the application of various leadership models and theories, including situational, contingency, and systems leadership. Furthermore, the report examines key approaches to operation management, such as just-in-time, and the roles of managers and leaders in these approaches. Finally, it assesses the impact of factors within the business environment on the decision-making of leaders and managers in operation management. The report provides a detailed examination of these concepts, offering valuable insights into the practical application of leadership and management principles within a real-world business context.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Definition and Comparison of different characteristics and role of leader and manager. 3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P2 Function of manager and role of leader in different situational contexts..........................5
P3 Application of different models and theories comprising system, contingency and
situational...............................................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P4 Key approaches to operation management and role of manager and leader. ...................8
P5 Value and importance of operations management in achieving business objectives. ......8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6 Assessment of the factors within business environment decision-making of leaders and8
Manager in operation management........................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Management and Operations is a field of management which is related to controlling and
designing of different business operations. The practices of management and operations are
focused on administering and creating the highest level of efficiency in a company. The study
will outline comparison of different roles and characteristics of managers and leaders of Virgin
Media (Wu, Olson, D.L. and Wang, 2019). It is a British telecommunication service company
which provides television telephone and internet services in the United Kingdom. Further, the
assessment will cover examples of function of manager and role of leader in different situation of
organization. Also, it will present different approaches of operation management implied in
telecommunication company and the importance of the operation management which is brought
by the operation management in the organization. Lastly, it will identify impact of CSR, business
ethics and values on decision-making of managers and leaders when managing operations.
TASK 1
P1 Definition and Comparison of different characteristics and role of leader and manager.
Definition of leader -
Leader is the person who owns ability to influence followers for working in different
situations of work environment. Leading individual in an organization are responsible to getting
work done from employee by making use of qualities like, strong communication, passion,
innovation, positivity, commitment and collaboration. Leaders of Virgin Media Group leads with
problem solving approach and focuses on making employees work according to changing
business environment. To make staff work in dynamic situation leading person incorporates use
of supportive leading style which encourages employee’s participation in decision-making and
helps in establishing positive working work environment (Young, 2018).
Definition of Manager -
Manager is the person who is responsible for managing administration and control at
workplace. Managing person is an organization is focused on administering employee motivation
and workplace practices and conditions. The person aims encouraging workers to perform with
efficiency in order to achieve business goals. Managers of Virgin Media Group aim working
with creativity, versatility, commitment and structure. This type of managing style helps the
company in establishing coordination and cooperation in productivity of employees and
business.
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Difference between the role of Manager and Leader -
Basis Leader Manager
Innovation -
It is a process of producing
new products, process of
producing and distributing
goods or services of an
organization. Innovation
helps to improve the quality
of existing products or
services of the firm (Young,
2018).
Leader of Virgin Media plays
an important role in
motivating the employees of
the company so that they will
generate new ideas for
developing new products and
services.
Manager of Virgin Media
plays a major role in
describing the need of
innovation in the products or
services of the firm.
Management of the firm also
helps to communicate the
benefits of changing the
existing process to the staff of
organization.
Improvement in
productivity -
Productivity refers to the
development of more
products with the help of less
number of inputs that is raw
material. Improvement in the
productivity of the firm helps
to increase the sales and cash
inflow in the organization. It
also helps to generate more
return for the shareholders of
the firm.
Leader of Virgin Media
involves the team members in
decision-making. Due to
which employees of the firm
are motivated to perform
better. This leads to
improvement in the
productivity of employees of
the company (Slack, N. and
Brandon-Jones, 2018).
Manager of the company
helps to improve the
productivity of the workers
by clearly defining them their
job roles and tasks they have
to perform in the
organization. Manager of the
firm makes available the
tools that are required by
workers to perform their
work. In this way, it helps to
reduce the wastage of time
and resources and helps to
improve the productivity of
staff (Haque, Fernando, M.
and Caputi, 2019).
Managing change -
It refers to managing and
Leader of Virgin Media guides
and motivates the employees so
Manager of the firm plays a
major role of mentor for
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implementing different types
of changes in the company.
For example – change in the
organizational structure,
production process,
technology etc.
that, they will not resist to the
changes that are happening in
the firm. Therefore, Leader
plays an important function in
managing the changes in the
organization (Young, J., 2018).
coaching and mentoring the
employees during the process
of bringing and implementing
the changes in the firm.
Model of Henry Mintzberg –
As per the model of Henry Mintzberg, the Manager of company plays different roles like role of
decision-making, informational role etc.
TASK 2
P2 Function of manager and role of leader in different situational contexts.
Situational context describes the causes behind happening of something and the actions
that are necessary to be taken in that situation. The Manager and Leader of Virgin Media are
responsible to play different roles and functions in different situations. These are as follows -
Conflict Management -
Conflicts in the business arises due to the difference in beliefs, point of view, attitude of
employees. It is a natural phenomenon. Management of conflicts refers to reducing the negative
impact of the conflicts on the performance of the firm along with an increase in positive impact
of the conflicts. The management of Virgin Media should adopt different techniques for
resolving conflicts in the firm such as strategy of collaboration by identifying the solution that is
acceptable to both the parties.
Role of Leader -
Role of Leader plays an important role in managing the conflicts that are occurring in
Virgin Media between individuals or groups. Leader helps to identify the reasons behind the
conflicts and adopts different types of leadership styles according to the situation in the firm. In
this way, Leader helps to minimize the negative impact of conflicts on the performance of the
business (Thompson, G. and Glasø, 2018).
Function of Manager -
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Manager of Virgin Media helps to provide training to the employees of the firm for
developing the skills required to manage the conflicts in the organization. Manager of the firm
helps to develop effective communication strategy for communicating with the staff so that,
reasons behind occurrence of conflicts can be determined.
Labour Turnover -
Labour Turnover means the number of workers that are leaving the firm and on the place
of these employees new workers are employed by the management. Turnover can be Voluntary
or Non- Voluntary in nature. There are various reasons due top which the employees leave the
firm there are some natural causes that cannot be controlled by the management such as accident
of workers (Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, 2018). There are some avoidable reasons also that can
be controlled by the management of the firm such as improper working conditions, lower salary
and wages, lack of proper training programmes etc. all these factors also leads to employee
turnover.
Role of Leader -
Leader of Virgin Media plays an important role in managing employee turnover in the
organization. Leader of the team divides the whole work on the basis of SKA that is skills,
knowledge and abilities of the staff. This helps to improve job satisfaction level of team
members and it results in decrease in the level of labour turnover in the company. In this way,
Leader of the organization helps to retain staff in the firm (Macdonald, Burke, C. and Stewart,
2018).
Function of Manager -
Human Resource Manager of Virgin Media plays a major function in retaining the skilled
and talented workforce in the organization. Manager is responsible for developing the system of
providing rewards and compensation to the staff on the basis of their actual work performance. It
helps to improve the morale and job satisfaction level of workers that results in decrease in the
level of employee turnover in the firm (Khandelwal, A. and Shekhawat, 2018).
P3 Application of different models and theories comprising system, contingency and situational.
Leadership theories refers to the different types of concepts and behaviour that Leader of
the organization must have so that, the Leadership skills and abilities of Leader will improve.
There are different Leadership models that are used by Leader of Virgin Media such as -
Situational Leadership -
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It is one of the important Leadership Theory it says that, the Leader of the company
should adopt different Leadership styles according to the changes in situation in the firm. A
single Leadership style is not suitable in all types of situations. Leader of Virgin Media should
have ability to decide which type of Leadership style will be appropriate in a particular situation
such as Democratic, Affiliative (Haque, Fernando, M. and Caputi, 2019).
Strengths -
 Situational Leadership style can be implemented practically in different situations of the
organization.
Weaknesses -
 Situational Leadership style requires more time and efforts of the Leader due which
adequate time will not leave to concentrate on other important tasks (Carsten, Uhl-Bien,
M. and Huang, 2018) (Define situational leadership. 2019).
Contingency Leadership -
It is the leadership style which explains that there is no best leadership style in the universe
which can be suitable for every Situation. Contingency Theory of Leadership states that a
leader’s effectiveness is contingent upon with how his or her leadership style matches to the
situation.
Strengths -
 It is the best leadership when it comes on creating the leadership profile for the
organization.
 It also looks at the two aspect at the time the leadership style and the situation of the
business at a time.
Weaknesses -
It is the leadership style which is difficult to understand as this is not the leadership which does
not come automatically it needs to be earned.
System Leadership -
 It is the type of the leadership style in which leader in the organization used to create the
situation or the environment in the organization where all level of the employee can come
at work together with the sole motive of achieving the organizational goal.
Strengths -
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 It is the leadership which creates the good working environment in the organization as all
level of employee comes and work together which flow a good and positive
communication in the organization.
Weaknesses -
 It is the difficult leadership style to be implemented in the organization as it requires the
long processor and change in the structure of the organization (Carsten, Uhl-Bien, M. and
Huang, 2018).
TASK 3
P4 Key approaches to operation management and role of manager and leader.
Operation management is the very crucial part in the success of the organization as this helped
the business in increasing the efficiency of the work in the organization. Some approaches are as
follows:
Just in time: It is the approach which relate to the proper scheduling of the procurement of the
raw material to the manufacture of the product, The main objective of this approach is used to
reduce the cost by saving the time of the overhead inventory expenses. This is the approach used
to increase the efficiency of the work in the organization.
As the biggest issue which is faced by the virgin media is the inaccurate demand forecast.
Just in time approach can help the business in increasing the efficiency of the business as Just in
time will help the organization in overcoming the inaccurate demand forecast for the
organization (Wu, Olson, D.L. and Wang, 2019).
Lean Production: It is the approach which focusses on looking at the wastage management of
the production system of the organization, this process is generally done by ensuring that the best
available resource of the organization is at the work so that the organization get the maximum
result from the same amount of the investment and also the organization can supervise the
process of the production to reduce the wastage for the organization.
Virgin media should adopt the above approach as it will help the organization in reducing
the wastage of the effort and the raw material which will help the organization in offering the
quality of the product to the customer and will also help in delivering exactly the product which
has been demanded by the consumer which will help the company in improving the customer
satisfaction which eventually will increase the productivity for the organization. This approach
will also help them in the competitive advantage as if the average cost of per product will be
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reduced then it will positively affect the price of the product which will help them in getting the
competitive advantage.
TQM: TQM stands for the total quality management which relates to planning the procedure of
the business for the longer period of the time. This is the approach in which all the employee
comes together to decide how to improve the quality of the product or the service.
Virgin media should adopt this approach in the organization as it will help the business in
improving the quality of the product in the organization which will result in increasing the
profitably of the organization as this approach looks at the customer and works and rooms
around the customer satisfaction as they are known as a god for all the business (What is total
quality management. 2019.).
Role of the Manager
manager plays a very crucial role in the operation management in the organization as they used
to delegate or allot the resources for the business to work on and also looks that the function
which is going in the business is in the right direction and also pass on the view point about
which type of the employee are needed in the process to the HR department which builds upon
that information.
Role of the Leader
Leader also used to play a very crucial role in the operation management process as they used to
motivate the employee to work in the organization and also tries to build a good working
environment for them to work in and also organize the different training skill to develop the
Human resource in the organization.
It can be said that the manager in the organization used to look at the matter related to the
functional operation in the organization and the leader looks at improving the function of the
employee in the organization as this both factor are very important for the success of the business
it can be said that the both the leader and manager plays a crucial role (Young, 2018). .
P5 Value and importance of operations management in achieving business objectives.
Operation management of the business define as a managing the different activity in the
organization. The main objective or the function of the Operation management is the planning,
staffing, organizing, directing, controlling and motivating. It is very necessary or important or all
the organization in keeping check over day to day activity and for that it is very essential for
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them to do an operation management in the organization some benefits of the Operation
management are as follows:
New opportunity ascertaining: This is the biggest benefit of the operation management in the
organization as operation management emphasis on the research and development process of the
business which will help the Virgin media in ascertaining the opportunity present in the market
which can be used by the organization in getting the competitive advantage as the opportunity
which is ascertained can be the new opportunity which has never been ascertained in the past
(Khandelwal and Shekhawat, 2018).
Increase the sell: Operational management can also help the business in increasing the sell of
the organization as it with the help of the operation management the Virgin media can research
about the new technique present in the market which can help the business in getting the
competitive advantage in selling the product.
Consumer satisfaction: Operation management helps the business in satisfying the customer in
the organization as it helps the organization in building the good quality product in the market
and also helps the business in producing the product which is according to the customer need,
hence it helps the business in improving the customer satisfaction of the customer.
When looks at the role of the leader and manager in the Virgin media it can be said that
both of them play a very crucial role in the organization as both of them are the one who takes
the decision as per their power but with the mutual objective that the work done in the
organization is going at a right path. Generally both of them always supervise the work so that
they have a good command in the organization. The leader and manager of the company always
try to influence the work in such a way that organization is able to satisfy the need of the
customer in the market (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018).
TASK 4
P6 Assessment of the factors within business environment decision-making of leaders and
Manager in operation management.
Each decision-making process somehow affect the business management that might address a
specific problem or need in a department. Due to uncertainty in the business environment
company goals get direct affected. Such external factors are technology, social. Legal and
political (Formentini and Taticchi, 2016). On the other side, some internal factors also consists
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within the business environment that impact directly on the operation management of Virgin
Media such drivers are competitors, marketing activities, finance, employees etc.
External Influences on operational management
Economic Environment : Crucial for operations are the short term changes in demand impact
on capacity utilization, productivity etc. Due to sudden changes in economic policies and rates it
might affect the cost of financing capital investment in operations. These changes and
uncertainty in policies affect the decision-making process taken by the leaders and managers.
Competitors efficiency flexibility : Quicker and more efficient or better quality competitors
affect the Virgin Media manager decision-making approach in certain way. For example, high
competition arise the ineffective learning task.
Technological change : Technological changes are very significant for the businesses in order to
adopt the highest productive technology for the higher customer satisfaction. This factor
motivates and strengthen the decision-making process managers and leaders.
Legal and environmental changes : Greater regulation and legislation of the environment
places new challenges for operations objectives (Gurung and Prater, 2017). Legal interferences
of the environmental places new challenges for operations objectives. In order to minimize the
negative outcomes, Manager of Virgin Media should amend the all laws and regulations at the
workplace. This will help to better control the activities and goal effective result outcomes.
Internal Influences on operational management
Corporate objectives : As with all the functional areas, corporate objectives are the most
important internal influence for the business that contains the better aims and objectives. Should
not conflict with a corporate objective. Internal environment of the workplace is always very
challenging. Due to distinct individual behaviour it affects the manager and leaders.
Finance : Operation management often involve the significant investment and cost the financial
position of the business. Lack of financial resources make the decision process difficult and
lengthy to make proper choices (Martens, and Carvalho, 2017).
Human Resources : Human resources is the important aspect of the business that contains the
different approaches and target to impact the business approach. The more efficient and
productive employees is the key factors in operational objectives. Target for productivity will be
affected by the investment in training and the effectiveness of workforce planning.
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Marketing issues : The nature of the product determines the operational set up. Regular changes
to the marketing mix affect the different aspect of the business outcomes. The nature of the
business management somehow affect the business sources and outcomes goals. This will help to
continue the better development and leading work opportunity gain that motivates the business
opportunity and development makes the business more enlarging and effectively work
accordingly (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, eds., 2018). Besides that, managers and leaders
should always need to be considered the new development. Corporate objectives areas corporate
objectives are the most important influence. The negative impact of marketing influence the
activities or functions of production.
CONCLUSION
After going through above report it has been summarized that role of the leader and the function
of the management is very different from each other and both of them play a very crucial role in
different business situation. It has been also summarized that there are a good deals of different
leadership style which are used by the management. Further this report summarize that there are
different approach of the operation management, and they offer variety of the benefit to the
organization. In the end it was summarized that there are different factors which affects the
decision-making of the management and the leader.
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