Leadership and Management in Business Operations Report (MSc)

This report analyzes leadership and management principles within the context of Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd. It begins by defining and comparing the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, highlighting their importance in achieving organizational goals. The report then examines the application of leadership and management in different situational contexts, discussing various theories and models, including situational, systems, and contingency leadership. Key approaches to operations management are explored, emphasizing the roles of leaders and managers in achieving business objectives. Factors influencing operational management and decision-making within the business environment are also assessed. The report incorporates the views of Mintzberg, Drucker and Kotter, as well as the application of management by objectives and transformational and transactional leadership styles. The report concludes with a synthesis of these concepts, demonstrating their relevance in driving business success.

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
Role of leader and manager ........................................................................................................3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................5
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in
different situational contexts.......................................................................................................5
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency.........................................................................................................7
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and
managers play..............................................................................................................................8
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business
objectives...................................................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational
management and decision-making by leaders and managers...................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Management and operation plays a important role in success of an organisation.
Operation management referred as the procedure which is related with designing and redesigning
the process of production of good and services. Management refers as the process of managing
and controlling of people in an organisation. The primary objective of operation and
management is in attaining the goals and objective of an organisation along with the customer
satisfaction. To study this report, Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd is taken which produces knitwear and
school wear for the student (Ketokivi and McIntosh, 2017) . It was founded in the year 1972 and
is having the headquarter in United Kingdom. The following assignment will cover the role and
characteristics of leader and manager. Further it will also discuss about the theories, approaches
and models of leadership. At last, factors within the business environment that impact
operational management and decision making by leaders and management will be discussed.
TASK 1
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager
Leadership and Management is one of the most crucial feature of an organisation as they
help in achieving the goals and objective efficiently and effectively. Management refers to the
process of managing and controlling the affairs of a business enterprise. In other words it can be
defined as an art of getting the things done with the help of others. Where as on the other side
leadership refers to the act of leading people or group towards the achievement of common
goals. Both managers and leaders play a crucial role in an organisation. The success of an
organisation lies in the hand of managers as they have an ability to utilise resources in such a
way that help in achieving of the set objectives (Kim Sting and Loch, 2014). Where as leader
plays a role in leading the subordinates and motivating them to move towards the success.
Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd, a consumer discretionary started working in the year 1972 and is
manufacturing the school wear and corporate wear apparel. The company was founded in the
year 1972, having its headquarter situated in UK. It is efficient in providing knitwear and school
wear for school students. They supply directly to the public with an main aim of providing
highly qualitative products (Sodhi and Tang, 2014). The company works for providing the best
quality clothes to their customers and are very dedicated toward their objective and have efficient
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leadership and management skills inside the company which enables them to sustain for a longer
period.
Both management and leadership plays a crucial role in achieving of the objective of a
business enterprise. For proper function role of both of them are very necessary. Below is the
differentiation between leadership and management according to John Kottler:
Basis Management Leadership
Meaning It is defined as the procedure
of planning, controlling and
monitoring of the resources of
business that help in achieving
of the organisational goals
(Knoppen and et.al., 2015)
It refers to providing of the
vision or leading change that
helps in inspiring and
motivating the individual
towards the achievement of
organisational goals.
Focus Managers focus on controlling
and solving of the issues that
arise in between the
functioning of an organisation.
Leaders focuses on motivating
and inspiring of the people so
that they able to achieve the
individual goals as well as
organization.
Employee relation They control and manage the
subordinates and also exercise
power over the peoples.
They develop power within the
people and also encourages
them to move forward.
Though both management and leadership differs on a certain ground but they are
interlinked with each other and together helps the company in achieving the overall profitability.
In Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd they have both managers and leaders that plan and supervise the
business operations and motivate the employees towards the organisation goals.
Management by objective is defined as an approach that equilibrium between the objectives of
both employees and organisation (Lim, Alpan and Penz, 2014) They find the joint objective and
also provide proper feedback of the result. It also referred by the name of management by
results, Peter Drucker has developed five steps which are discussed below:
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 Determining of the organisational objectives: The first step for an organisation to set
proper goals and objectives along with mission and vision of an organisation.
 Translating the objectives to the employees: The objectives need to be
communicated to the subordinates so that they able to know about their duties. For
increasing the efficiency, Drucker used the SMART goal which is specific, measurable,
acceptable, realistic and time-bound.
 Stimulate the participation of employee: As soon as content are transmitted among
employees, managers should take initiatory steps to increase participation of an
individual employees. with this approach everybody would come to know their
responsibilities and contributes effectively towards the decision making process.
 Evaluation of performance: Administration must evaluate action of an individual so
that timely large problems can be prevented (Mahadevan, 2015) If any problem occurs
manger must train the employees which results in better problem solving and efficient
working.
 Evaluate and reward achievement: After evaluating the performance of an
individual, managers must provide rewards to the employees in the term of monetary
and non monetary form. By doing so it help in increasing the morale of an individual
that helps them to move forward toward the attainment of goals.
The objective given by Peter Drucker is used in Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd as through this
they able to communicate the goals and objective to the employees and make them clear about
their responsibilities which results in growth of the company.
Role of leader and manager
A leader is a person who has a ability to lead a team and other employees of an
organisation toward the achievement of goals. Where as on the other hand a manager is a person
who is responsible for managing the activities of an organisation. Managers and leaders both
plays a crucial role in increasing the productivity as well as profitability of a concern. Managers
are the one that helps in managing and controlling the activities of an organisation where as
leaders are the one that lead and inspire the team towards the achievement of goal. Below is the
difference between both manager and leader:
 Manager Leader
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 Managers always focus on setting and
measuring of the goals.
 Managers are always dependent on
other for the guidelines they cannot
perform alone with their uniqueness.
 Manager always work for minimising
the risk and always try to control the
problem rather than solving it.
 They are the one that creates picture
and engage the people towards
converting of vision into the reality.
 Leaders do not copy any one they have
their unique identities.
 Leaders always try new things which
means they are capable of taking risk in
an organisation.
Functions of management
Below are some of the function of manager of Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd an are mentioned below:
 Planning: It refers to the process of making plan and that requires active participation of
each and every member of an organisation.
 organising: Here the company organises all the resources like capital, staff and raw
material so that it become easy fro an organisation to run the function smoothly.
 Controlling: In this there is a need to check that every thing is according to the paln or not
and if not then it must be look after and controlled. m
 Directing: It is one of the important function as it set the action of every people so that
the task can be effectively performed.
Managers have some of the roles and duties in Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd ( Saucedo-Martínez and
et. al., 2018) Some of them are mentioned below:
 Managers are responsible for delegating of the task to employees according to their
capabilities.
 They are the one that support in solving of the problems and together work for decision
making process.
 They also act as a communicator as they help the sunbordinates to know about the duties
and responsibilities.
Transformational and transactional leadership
Transformation leadership refers to a style in which leaders have certain qualities like
charisma and enthusiasm through which they able to inspire the followers of an organisation.
Where as on the other hand transactional leadership is a style in which the leader use a technique
of reward and punishment in order to motivate the followers.
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Action centred leadership
It is a simple leadership model which make easy to apply and adapt different situation. A
good leader and manger always possess such quality and able to work in every situation
provided. Thus by this ability they able to keep proper balance between the results, quality and
productivity.
Hard management skills and soft leadership skills
There are two types of skills namely hard and soft both are necessary for effective
working of an organisation. Hard skills are the one that acquired through the help of training and
educational programmes. It includes short term training classes, online courses etc. Some of the
examples of hard skills are degree or certificate of any course, technical skills, machine
operations etc.
Where as Soft skills are the personal dimension which helps in interacting effectively
with person to person or group of people. There are some examples of soft skills are flexibility,
communication leadership etc. Leaders and manager of Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd have both hard
skill and soft skill that help them to achieve organisational goals.
TASK 2
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in
different situational contexts.
Mintzberg believes that skills are learned through experience and cannot be taught by
anyone in the classroom. For better performance of the company, Mintzberg has introduced
management role theory in the year 1991. Roles given by Mintzberg are mentioned below:
Organisational Situation- when there is a situation of decreased productivity within
Rowlinson Knitwear, manager should perform their interpersonal roles as follows-
 Interpersonal Roles: These roles are taken up for interaction between manager and
people in an environment. Here different responsibilities are assigned to the employees.
Further this role is subdivided into three types namely Figurehead, leaders and Liason. In
figurehead, manager is the head of the department and performs duties both internally
and externally in an business enterprise . Motivating employees towards the positive
working environment leads to the role of managers ( Martínez-Jurado and Moyano-
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Fuentes, 2014) In liaison role, manager develops and holds network inside and outside
the company. With the help of this role, managers contribute positive to the growth of an
organisation.
Organisational Situation- In Rowlinson when there is a situation of issues and conflicts
as employees are not able to work effectively and leads them in difficulty towards the realisation
of organisational goals. In such situation, manager should perform its informational roles
discussed as-
 Informational Role: This role involves receiving, collecting and analysing of the
information. The three main roles discussed under are Monitor, Disseminator and
Spokesperson. In monitor role manager gathers all the internal as well as external
information and is responsible for analysing the information so can easily identify the
issue. In Disseminator role manager convey the information to subordinates and other
people. In spokesman role, manager is the one who represent the company and
communicate to the outside world.
Organisational Situation- When the respective organisation is introducing new products
to their product line and needs to achieve sales, manger at Rownlion should perform the
following roles such as-
 Decision making Role: Under this role, manager is responsible for making the decision
in an organisation. In entrepreneurial role, managers designs and tells about the changes
wherever required (Maylor, Turner and Murray-Webster, 2015). In disturbance handler,
managers tries to reduce the conflicts that arise in an organisation. In resource allocator,
manager make proper allocation of resources so that can be effectively used. In
negotiator role, managers participate in negotiating with the organisation and works for
the interest of an organisation. By applying this role manager can effectively contributes
to the productivity and profitability of a concern. Rowlinson Knitwears Ltd is facing an
issues of lack of knowledge among the employees which is affecting the productivity and
profitability of a concern. For handling such issue manager of Rowlinson Knitwears Ltd
applies situational theory. This thoery will tell about the capabilities of manager that are
used by them in different situation. The manager provide training to every employees in
order to enhance their knowledge and skills. Moreover will interact with them on regular
basis so that their inner strength and weakness can be known to them. By doing so
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manager will be able to create a healthy atmosphere and relationship among each other
that result in enhancing the company's productivity and profitability.
The roles given by Mintzberg, will help the manager of Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd to be
more fluent and transparent in the communication. Moreover it also helps them in taking proper
decision which results in productivity and profitability of a concern.
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency.
The theory of leadership is based on the assumption that leaders are born with the
qualities and traits that helps towards accomplishing goals of the organization. Some of the
theories of leadership are mentioned below:
 System Leadership: Under such type of leadership, manager with the help of their
skills tries to build effective relationship among the employees of an organisation.
 Contingency Leadership: Under such type, leaders are required to change their
working patter according to the situations.
Leaders are the one that are successful in leading a team that helps an organisation in
maximising the profitability. The situation that occurs in Rowlinson Knitwears is lack of
knowledge among the employees of the company. In order to solve this situation, manager uses
situational leadership and provide efficient training to the employees (Ramasesh and Browning,
2014). The managers are able to handle this issue effectively. This theory of leadership will
help the managers to be flexible toward the working style which help them to take the decision
properly.
Two styles of leadership:
 Autocratic leadership: Under such style, the control lies in the hand of only one person
who is responsible for taking the decision of the firm. With the help of this style,
manager of Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd is able to control all their subordinates.
 Democratic: In such style, every individual person in an organisation contributes
together in the decision making process of an organisation. This style will help manager
of Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd to get some of the suggestion that help in growth of the
company (Piran and et.al., , 2016).
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Democratic style of leadership should be adopted by the leader at Rowlinson to make the
worker works towards the realisation of targets of company. The strength and weaknesse of
theory are mentioned below:
System theory:
Strength Weaknesses
 It is effective in providing coordination
among the department.
 It is not applicable in the practical
issues.
Contingency theory
Strength Weaknesses
 It is the best theory as it lays emphasis
on the style of leadership and demands
of the different situation.
 It could be effective in developing the
organisation planning.
 It is perceptive in nature which means it
lays less emphasis on theoretical
aspects.
TASK 3
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers
play
Operational management is responsible for managing the activities that products goods
and services. In Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd, operational department works in converting the raw
materials into the finished goods and providing in to the customers. Management team refers to
the group of individual that operates the business activities of an organisation. Rowlinson
Knitwear Ltd has many teams like sales team, customer care, QC and operation that woks
together in planning and supervising that helps in maximisation of the profit.
Different operation management approaches:
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Total quality management is defined as a continuous efforts by management to reduce
and eliminate the errors and provide superior quality products. Manager has some of the role in
Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd. Below mentioned are some of roles:
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 Facilitator: Manager is accountable for selecting and appointing line manger who is
able to take charge of entire project. Along with this able to communicate the principles
to the subordinates.
 Trainer: Mangers need to provide training and development programmes to employees
so as to develop their skills that help in production of the company.
With the help of above roles of mangers, Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd is able to improve the firms
productivity and profitability.
JUST IN TIME APPROACH
Just in time approach is defined as the process which works for improving the efficiency
and decreases wastage of product. It prevents a company from using excessive inventory and
also smoothens the production process. This method is used by Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd to
increases the stock turnover and also smoothens the company's production. The main aim of this
approach is waste maximisation which means it is interlinked with waste reduction. It enables
the company to cut down the purchasing cost and also improves the material handling (Taticchi,
P and et.al., 2015).
ABOUT QUALITY
Quality refers to state of getting free from defects. It is very important in an organisation
as to meet the desired needs of the customers and also it enhances the brand image of the
company. No one can compromise with the quality as customers always want the product which
are affordable in the size and are of desired quality. Quality cost are the one which are associated
with detecting and preventing the product issue related with the quality. The Rowlinson
Knitwear Ltd is providing the best quality of school uniform and knitwear. Several types of cost
of quality which Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd adapt for effective business operation are as follows:
 Prevention cost: It is the least expensive cost and is highly recommended. It includes
proper training of the employees and it mainly focus on reducing the scrap cost.
 Appraisal cost: It is the cost which keeps problem of quality from occurring and is
done by various inspection,
 Internal failure cost: This cost occurred when a defective product has produced.
 External failure cost: It is related with the dissatisfaction of customer on purchasing of
defective goods which results in customers complaints.
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As per the above discussed type of quality, company is able to amend the total performance and
productivity (Zhao and Huchzermeier, 2015)
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.
CAPACITY MANAGEMENT
Capacity management refers to the tool that helps in measuring the potentiality of a
company and its ability to achieve goal within a set period. In Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd, capacity
management enables the company to manage according to the priorities of the business. It
provides n ability to make more effective decision. Further more it helps the company to identify
the utilized capacity and also increases the firmsMethods by which manager of Rowlinson
Knitwear Ltd adjust capacity management in operation are as follows:
 Business capacity management: It includes capability of the company, power of a
group.
 Service capacity management: It is related with the IT technology in the company.
 Component capacity management: It mainly focuses on technology and provide the
performance to the IT service.
TRANSFORMATION OF RAW MATERIAL INTO FINISHED GOODS
Transformation process refers to the activity that converts the input into the output. The
primary objective of operational management is optimum utilisation of resources. There are three
steps of operational management namely input, transformation process, output. In input process
it requires the item of manufacturing such as raw materials, labour, equipments. In
transformation process, design, size etc are chosen for a product. Output, it is the last level where
products are developed into finished goods and are supplied to the consumers In input stage,
Rowlinson Knitwear Ltd was so successful in identifying the needs of customers and at the time
of transformational stage, it was successful in designing and developing according to the
customers need that together helps in the success of an organisation.
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