Roles of Leaders and Managers in Business Operations (M&S)

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers within a business context, specifically using Mark and Spencer as a case study. It delves into the distinctions between leaders and managers, outlining their responsibilities in providing instruction, building teams, financial management, and resource allocation. The report explores how these roles function in different situational contexts, including training and development, issue resolution, and innovation. Furthermore, it examines various leadership styles, such as situational, system, and contingency leadership, and their application in operations management. Key approaches to operations management, like the Six Sigma methodology, are discussed, highlighting the importance of operations management in achieving business objectives. The report concludes by assessing the impact of leaders and managers on operational decision-making, offering valuable insights into effective business practices. This report is a valuable resource for understanding the dynamics of leadership, management, and their impact on operational success.

Management and
Operation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager...............................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P2 Role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts.........3
P3 Different theories and models of approach............................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
P4 Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers ...........5
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives ............7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6 Impact upon operational management and decision-making by Leaders and managers ......8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Management is an eminent part for every business organization which requires to develop
their business strategies to sustain for long term. It is essential to adopt management strategies to
maintain balance in between a business firm as well as internal environment of an organisation.
Hence, operation is a part of management which is used by various employees to achieve their
target on time (Firouzi and Abarghooee, 2014). Mark and Spencer is a multi- national retailer of
Westminster in London. This has a wide range of clothing, home décor and contains luxury
items, kids-wear, women wears, men wears and so on.
This project deals with different roles and characteristics of leader and manager,
functions of leaders and managers in different situation of Mark and Spencer company. This
report guides in how to uses approaches to operation management, importance value operation
while achieving objectives. Also, bring highlights to the impact upon operation management at a
time of decision making.
TASK 1
P1 Different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
It is necessary for a business organization to maintain the balance and improvement in
their current status while performing their task on time (Bahn, 2013). In Mark and Spencer
company leaders and managers are important features to attain business goals. It has a wide
range of home products, accessories,beauty products and so on. The major role and
characteristics of leaders and manager are mentioned in below as:
Leader are the one who guides their followers to achieve their targets in an effective
manner. They provide better information and guidance while assisting them in proper direction.
Majorly leaders are responsible for making an effective strategies while achieving objectives of
Mark and Spencer company. The roles of leaders are as:
 Provides instruction: In this case, leaders provides guidelines and instruction to their
workers while performing their task on target. This bring efficiency among workers while
performing their task. Team building: Under this, leaders are able to engage their work. It can be done through
by developing team which help them co- relate with other employees.
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Characteristic of leaders
 Committed:Leaders are committed to their work in support of followers they achieve
their goals in a specific period (DeAnna and et. al., 2010). This assist in to do their work
in proper manner to achieve their targets.
 Confident:This is an eminent part of leader that helps in to boost other to follow the
effective strategies. This makes them to feel confident while doing their job.
Manager
They are the most wanted person that are required by every business organization.
Managers helps in to achieve target with desired objectives, uses strategic methods while
achieving goals. Therefore, management and operation plays a vital role at a time of performing
their activities to accomplish their target goals. It involves activities such as production,
marketing, information technology and many more. The role of manager are defined under
below as:
 Financial management: The managers assist in maintaining the budgets, cost controlling
methods, income statement and many more to achieve an effective results (Hammill and
Tanner, 2011). Resources management: It is a major part of manager that helps in hiring, recruiting,
managing resources which are scare to improve the quality of their products and services.
Characteristic of manager
 Communication: This is a most effective part which is required by a manager. Through
an effective communication a manager able to handle difficult and complex situation
regarding a respective business organisation.
Difference between manager and leaders are as:
Leaders Manager
 Leaders are supportive and helps their
subordinates to perform their duties on
time.
 Leader is a individual who take
responsibility of employees by
motivating towards the achieve business
 In case of manager, they develop
effectual plans to control the
stimulation while performing their
goals.
 Manager is a person who takes
responsibilities of overall organisation
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objectives and goals.
 Leaders are those who sets direction for
employees towards the targeted
objectives.
 Leader has a aim of growth and
development of employees.
for as planning, coordinating,
controlling and implementing as well.
 Manager are basically works to plan
details of a specific objective.
 Manager has aim of attainment of
required results.
TASK 2
P2 Role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts.
Managers and leaders are two different personalities in a business organization. They
have different practices to resolve the issues or problems while using their skills, knowledge,
experience and so on (Handschin and Petroianu, 2012). Since Mark and Spencer has a wide
range to deals with complex situations, this require an effective roles and functions to handle the
circumstances by manager consultant. These are discussed in below:
 Training and development: In this, the activities and actions are designed and managed
by leader and manager consultant of Mark and Spencer to develop the skills, abilities and
knowledge of workers. This assists employees to work on their own basis. This will
increase the performance of an individual to achieve the common objectives.
 Resolve issues: Manager and leader have enough capabilities to solve problems related to
organisation. This helps in maintaining a healthy environment between the workers and
employers. The main purpose of both these is to understand issues and problems that are
considered in Mark and Spencer. For example, organisation majorly having issues for
choosing raw material for production practices. Thus in this manger takes responsibility
to provide direction for choosing better option for business practices.
 Authorities: Under this, authority are assigned as per the responsibilities they can handle.
An individual should bound their activities according to the duty they have to perform.
Leaders are followed because of their qualities and characteristics. Although, manager
consultant are conform due to the authority they are assigned to them (Heizer and Barry,
2013). Therefore, people are set to follow leaders as compared to managers. For example,
manager of Marks and spacer are basically assigned responsibilities to the leader for the
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accomplishment thus it has been responsibility of a leader to assign task to each
individual as per their skills and abilities. Therefore, they have authority to make changes
in decisions at any time.
 Resource allocation: In this case, leaders place the resources for various other
department of Mark and Spencer company. This involves funds, human resource,
material, equipments and many more. It is a manager responsibilities to see the proper
implementation of resources in a respective company. If they are not use in limited they
can be exploited by employees of a business firm.
 Innovation: According to this, innovation assist in to compete with other existing
competitive brands. This helps in to survive for prolong period in a global competition.
Therefore, leaders and manager of Mark and Spencer company should be actively
participate to builds company's reputation and get platform to show their hidden talent.
Under this part, it is discussed for the roles sand the functions of leaders and managers to
improve their business while performing in different situations (López, M.A and et. al., 2015).
This helps in to maintain the balance in between role of leaders and managers of a respective
company.
P3 Different theories and models of approach
Operation and management is a business function that is responsible for managing the
process of creating products and services which involves planning, organising, directing,
controlling and other needed resources for production. The great leaders are those who can
handle different leadership style in adverse condition. Therefore, it is necessary of a leader to
face and work in difficulties by using an appropriate leadership styles. Operation and
management is a central core function of every business enterprise (Mendis, Muttaqi and Perera,
2014). It is a smooth plan which are acquired by company to achieve their goals on target which
are pre- determined by senior authority of a respective business organization. For a successful
leader it is essential to adopt various leadership styles that can be used according to a
circumstances requirement. There are various styles that can adopt by manager consultant these
are mentioned in below as:
 Situational leadership: According to this leadership, a leader can change style as per the
required situation for the development of employees and a business firm. By adopting
this kind of leadership style can bring change for a business as well as followers. The
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effectiveness depends upon leaders capabilities that is to be a native by Mark and Spencer
company. Since, situational leadership is adopted into different situations which can help
the leader as well as manager to face such problems in an effective and efficient manner.
For example in Mark and Spencer, leaders takes responsibility to make changes in
operational practices on the basis of customer's demand and requirement. Sometimes they
also takes decisions on the basis of employees situations.
 System leadership: Under this, system leadership is used as per the requirement of
system of business. This helps in determining new ideas, views, opinion while dealing
with any circumstance. In this type of leadership it follows the rules and regulations that
are given by higher authority to run a business in a smooth manner (Moghaddam, Seifi
and Niknam, 2012). Hence, the manager and leader should always prepared for uncertain
situations which arises on daily operations. Also, the situation may develop due to
external factors such as political, legal, technological, economical, environmental which
is to be countered with undertaking system approach.
 Contingency leadership: In this type of leadership, leaders can decisions by involving
internal and external factors that are interconnected with each other. This leadership style
is when a situation arises abruptly and to manage the organization needs to select an
alternative strategy is known as a contingency theory (Mohammadi and et. al., 2013).
This helps in to handle the uncertainties that are occurred on regular basis into Mark and
Spencer company. According to this leadership, manager or leader should be prepared
from any uncertain circumstances that may be arises due to external factor of business
environment. For example leader of Mark and Spencer takes decision on the basis of
changes in current trends and fashions. Through this they can adopt new ideas for dealing
with different situations.
From the above reference, it is indispensable for manager and leader to fight against
uncertainty this will bring an effective measures while performing their task. This includes the
efficiency level which will be develop inside leader as well as manager consultant. It will be
simpler for the one to face uncertainty or issues while performing there duties as a strength for a
respective company. Whereas, weakness of these theories is that they are not provide the exact
result from the faced situation.
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TASK 3
P4 Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers
Management and operation is an essential part for Mark and Spencer company which are
carried out by various other business firm. There are different purpose of a company which are
assist by the manager consultant of Mark and Spencer company. They uses and adopt different
strategies, policies, objectives to achieve their desired goals. While adopting different traits and
characteristic or style of leadership can able to direct the employees by their consultant manager
of respective firm (Nakayama and Bucks, 2012). There are various key approaches to operation
management which helps in to determine role of leaders and manager in every aspects. These are
describe in detailed under below:
Six Sigma methodology
This is a statistical method that focuses on manufacturing processes which is used to
gear up the improvements that measures the defects and bring innovative ideas to satisfy
customers needs and their wants. According to a case scenario, Mark and Spencer has to adopt
different strategies to grab the opportunities to enhance their working performance. Therefore
they should prefer procurement, managing relations involved processes for improving company's
sustainability while using their resources in an effective and efficiently way.
The major tools that helps in to make a perfect manufacturing process these are defined as:
 Define: According to this phase of six sigma, it helps in to identify Mark and Spencer
objectives and also guides in which tools or resources are going to use in an effective
way.
 Measure: Under this step, it helps in to measure the performance of workers and also,
bring outcome to cope up the problems by using better ideas to improve the existing
issues related to a business firm.
 Analysis: In this part, this assist in how to find out the root cause of a problem and bring
out the solutions while adopting an effective methods to increase the productivity of a
business enterprise.
 Improvement: Under this part, it deals with the identified problems and solving them
through a possible solutions (Neck and Manz, 2010). This can be done through adopting
various strategies related to a business firm.
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 Control: It is a last phase, it helps in taking an effective measures while implementing
new techniques and tools that are responsible for effectual results.
Total quality management methodology
It is a prime set of management practices that are based upon the beliefs that an enterprise
can establish their prolong success by focusing on their standardisation. This includes quality
improvement, delivering consumer satisfaction. Total quality management is a system of
management based on value of every staff member to committed to maintaining high standards
of work to accomplish their target.
Just in time
It is based on manufacturing industry management strategy that are used to adjust the raw
material from provider directly with the production manager and bring the material on time
(Niknam and Mojarrad, 2011). This method involves strategy to increase efficiency and reduce
the wastage of goods which are needed in the production process. It requires proper forecasting
when demand arises.
The role of leader and manager plays an eminent part in every organisation to resolves
the issues related to a work while performing in a team or a group. The major role played by a
leader is support, influence their followers and integrates an individual goal to an organisation
objectives. This will bring an effective results towards the performance of an individual basis. In
case of role of manager, they includes innovation and creativity while performing task in an
effective manner. Also, develop various strategies related to accomplishing business goals, acts
as a resource allocator and so on. This will help them to attain desired goals by the employees.
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
Operation and management plays an eminent role by controlling system of business
operations in Mark and Spencer company. When the manager consultant of a respective
organization are managed in well manner there business will run smoothly and easily handle by
others (Pinkerton, 2011). If they do not suffer from any problems or issues related to work they
can adopt effective approaches that can bring harmony into work place. This section of operation
management is depends upon the nature and size of an organization. They key approaches which
has been emphasized by the organisation are JIT and Six Sigma which are helpful in enhancing
operations. The importance and value of operations management to attain Mark and Spencer
objectives. They are defined as below:
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 Dynamic process: Management and operation is a continuous process that helps in
maintaining the balance between the changes that are adopted by a business firm. This
will increase the efficiency among the workers while focusing on customer demands and
the productivity related to it. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt managerial practises
which are pervasive in nature.
 Production planning and control: This is a most effective method that are used to
value the operation and management objectives. It can be achieved by reducing the
wastage of resources, using standard quality while using an effective strategies that are
concerned by leader and manager consultant of Mark and Spencer. This increases the
forecasting to achieve their pre-determined goals according to a planned budget.
 Standardisation in quality: In operation management, it is necessary to maintain the
standard quality at minimum cost that will increase the profits of Mark and Spencer
company. The consultant manager and a team leader should focus on their quality to
ensure about the positive results by customers (Niknam and Mojarrad, 2011). Therefore,
company should put it as an utmost priority to maintain the quality of every product
which they serve.
 Effective decision making: According to this, the management and operation plays an
essential role at a time of making decision. It helps taking corrective measures while
controlling any conflict or issues related to Mark and Spencer. The effective decision
making helps a business firm to accomplish their goals on target. This can be done by
involving more and more conversation in between employees.
 Higher cost productivity: This is an essential section which helps in improving the total
productivity. It guides in operating management by using available resources in an
effective manner by manager and leader of Mark and Spencer company. This will result
into increase in productivity and reduces the issues such as retention, retrenchment and so
on.
 Optimum utilisation of resources: In this part it covers, the minimum utilisation of
resources that helps in to sustain the resources for future as the available resource are
scare (Niknam and Mojarrad, 2011). Therefore, it is necessary to use the resource at
minimal level of Mark and Spencer company also, able to generate profit while using
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resources at optimum rate. This will bring efficiency and effectiveness to a business
enterprise.
From the above discussion, it is concluded that it is necessary for every business
enterprise to value their operation management. This helps in to maintain the balance in available
and used resources, increase productivity, make an effective planning and decision to achieve
desired targets and so on.
TASK 4
P6 Impact upon operational management and decision-making by Leaders and managers
There are various external factors that affects a business environment and its operation
management along with decision-making of the leaders and management as well. Therefore, it
becomes essential for a business organization to analyse and identify the external factor which
can impact on the organisation's operations and decision making. Due to correct analysis Mark
and Spencer can adopt the strategies and policies to reduce the impact of these elements. These
factors are mentioned as below -
Political – This refers to the government policies and legislation that impact on the
business stability. For an example, if a business is going to spend in the Poland then there is a
possibility that a business can be influence by the political rules. Thus for them it is required to
implement each and every norm of government otherwise they can get punished or may be their
licence have cancelled.
Economical – These are the factors which can support a business to increase the
profitability. For an instance, Poland has high per capita income then it is beneficial for Mark
and Spencer because the people can buy the products according to their high income rate.
Sometimes higher inflations practices impacts negatively on business organisations. Thus, it is
required for organisation to analyse how to manage changes properly on the basis of these
situations.
Social – Mark and Spencer needs to research about the public preference, choice and
priorities. As it can be seen that the company is offering a huge range of apparels that changes
according trends. So it is essential to identify the purchasing behaviour of the targetting customer
as they are valued to the business. One of the negative aspect of social factor is that frequent
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