Analyzing Leadership and Management in Operations at M&S

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the roles of leadership and management in operations management, with a focus on Marks & Spencer. It differentiates between the roles of a leader and a manager, applying various theories such as situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency theory. The report examines the importance of operations management in achieving business objectives and assesses factors within the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making. Furthermore, it evaluates how leaders and managers can improve the efficiencies of operational management to successfully meet business objectives, providing a critical analysis of different approaches to leadership in given contexts.

Operations management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Part 1................................................................................................................................................5
LO1 Differentiate between the role of a leader and the function of a manager..........................6
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.....6
M1 Analyse and differentiate between the role of a leader and function of a manager by
effectively applying a range of theories and concepts.............................................................9
LO2 Apply the role of a leader and the function of a manager in given contexts.....................11
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in
different situational contexts..................................................................................................11
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency......................................................................................13
M2 Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to situations within the
work environment..................................................................................................................15
D1 Critically analyse and evaluate the different theories and approaches to leadership in
given contexts........................................................................................................................16
Part 2..............................................................................................................................................17
LO3 Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders and managers play in the operations
function of an organisation........................................................................................................17
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and
managers play........................................................................................................................17
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business
objectives...............................................................................................................................19
M3 Evaluate how leaders and managers can improve efficiencies of operational
management to successfully meet business objectives..........................................................20
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LO4 Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between leadership and management in
a contemporary business environment.......................................................................................21
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational
management and decision-making by leaders and managers................................................21
Laws.......................................................................................................................................22
M4 Analyse how these different factors affect the business environment and wider
community.............................................................................................................................23
D2 Critically evaluate application of operations management and factors that impact on the
wider business environment..................................................................................................24
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................25
References......................................................................................................................................26
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Introduction
This assignment is formulated in order to thoroughly evaluate the necessity of management and
leadership for increased competency of Marks & Spencer performance. For easier understanding
difference between management and leadership is presented. Diverse manager's functions are
described that can enhance the organisational performance. Leadership importance is highlighted
those can be suitably adopted for organisational benefits. Further significant approaches and
concept for effective operational management at Marks and Spencer are being evaluated.Role of
management has been illuminated for efficient operation execution in the firm.Organisational
factors for decision makingare identified as well.
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Part 1
Introduction
Marks & Spencer is a very popular retail chain group which specializes in clothing selling. The
134 years old firm is having 979 stores across the UK. The company is planning to grow
international and is need to expand its staff along with some major change introduction for
performance enhancement. The workforce is in need to prepare for future introduction thus are in
need to be properly introduced with various beneficial management and leadership forms.
Executive summary
A report is presented here regarding various leadership theories and their proper adoption
impacts on Marks & Spencer. For enhanced efficiency level while growing in size and market,
the company and its workforce are in need to understand the importance of good management
and leadership that can help attain their aligned goals.
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LO1 Differentiate between the role of a leader and the function of a manager
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
Leader
The term can be defined in various aspects as a person with an art of leading. Leader must be
possessed with a course of accountable actions that provide the followers with significant
motivation, vision, support, and improvements with effective attitude (Hitt, et. al., 2016).
Leadership comes with responsibilities to provide followers with effective information,
knowledge and methodologies to attain their vision. Leadership skills are engaged to make
multiple minds follow a converging direction.
Several characteristics of a good leader are:
 Considering the process of working as an interpersonal process in which proper guidance
and influence are required.
 The processing is a group effort that involves some effective integration (Kato, et. al.,
2015)
 Understanding that an impacting leadership is about being situational and must always be
adaptive thus moulding the workforce behaviour.
Manager
A person with a bunch of responsibilities for administrating workforce or an organisation with
skills to manage resources is known to be a manager. Management is to organise and control and
guide workforce to work for the organisation.In business streams managers work with their
knowledge and specialities to make the most possible profit for the organisation they work for
(Hitt, et. al., 2016). Firm’s activities and employees are to be seen by manager with required
supervision. Work alignment and goal attainment are the benchmarks that managers can help
reach.
A few characteristics of a good manager are:
 To be able to become a good leader to lead employees effectively
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 Possessing significant amount of knowledge and experience to work with and for
diversity at organisation for organisational goal attainment
 Appreciable utilization of resources while bringing the best possible results
Comparative analysis between leader and manager
Leader Manager
Workforce They have people who follow
them willingly
They have people working under
them and for them
Accomplishment for workforce Leaders provide vision at M&S
for their followers for them to
become reality
Managers are goal oriented and
are focused on controlling the
situations to achieve the same
(Walker, et. al., 2015)
Existence value Leaders are focused to induce
change and find better ways to
improvise, thus are known to be
change agents (Hitt, et. al., 2016)
Managers tend to stick to what
they are supposed to work while
at the same time structuring and
refining the process the flow for
betterment at M&S
Roles and responsibilities Leaders are responsible to build
relationships and stay focused on
people. And in order to realise
their vision, they need to
influence their stakeholders while
generating sense of trust and
loyalty (Walker, et. al., 2015)
Leaders coach their followers to
their potential and help them
grow optimistically
In order to attain goal and
achieve success they are more
dependent on analytical system;
thus focusing on necessary set of
structures for attainment of
desired outcome.
Managers are more of formal and
provide tasks while providing
necessary guidelines to execute
them successfully
Authority and power Leaders in Marks & Spencer
have the power to influence their
followers. This is the basic level
where leaders need power.
However, they may not have the
same level of authority or rank
Managers have more of authority
than common leaders working
under them. They have formal
right to provide order to people
working under them. However, it
is not necessary that they possess
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via official post same levelof power over workers
(Hitt, et. al., 2016).
Risk-taking They are always ready and
willingly take on risks to try new
while failing numbers of times
and then attaining unique success
(Hitt, et. al., 2016)
Managers try to work in a
manner to reduce the risk factor
while controlling and avoiding
problems (Walker, et. al., 2015)
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M1 Analyse and differentiate between the role of a leader and function of a manager by
effectively applying a range of theories and concepts
Hard and Soft powers of leadership
For leadership to be effective a perfect bed of hard and soft skills is necessary since the major
responsibility of leader is to influence. Two majorly important hard powers to be significantly
used by leaders are political skills and organisational capacity (Kato, et. al., 2015).Organisational
capacity at M&S can be referred as hiring, firing and compensation for strategy development.
Political skills include beneficial arrangements, inspirations, trust network development, etc.
A set of soft skill required for leaders at M&S is communication, emotional intelligence and
vision. Emotional intelligence is the empathetic capacity of leader that channel personal passion;
further, he must possess effective communication capabilities (Mahadevan, 2015). In addition to
them to have attractive and inspiring vision is another soft skill.
Mintzberg's Management Roles
The management roles can be categories to be important of three forms interpersonal, providing
informational ideologies, informational, involvingprocessing of the information and decisional,
involves the using up of the information. In accordance with theMintzberg's theory, as
illuminated by Madanayake& Gibson (2015), the ten roles can be categorised as:
Category Roles
Interpersonal Leader
Liaison
Figurehead
Informational Disseminator
Monitor
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Spokesperson
Decisional Disturbance handler
Entrepreneur
Negotiator
Resonance allocator
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LO2 Apply the role of a leader and the function of a manager in given contexts
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in
different situational contexts
Henry Fayol had introduced the concept of 5 functions he identified that must be performed in
daily functions while executing roles as leader and manager (Crane &Matten, 2016). A brief of
these five functions are:
Figure 1:Fayol’s 5 managerial functions
(Source: Author)
 Planning
Significant planning for unpredictable future, while developing strategic objectives to
attain set goals, is necessary for Marks & Spencer. It can optimistically shape the
company. Organising
Efficient organisation of workforce and structure as per the need of Marks & Spencer is
termed as an organisation (Kerzner&Kerzner, 2017). This involves engagement and
training of right people for right job. Commanding
For Marks & Spencer to achieve its goals, seamless communication of policies and vision
is necessary. Standards must be followed while treating subordinates and supervising
them. Coordinating
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Harmonising the activities and processing of Marks & Spencer for meaningful outcome is
effective coordination. Company and workers must compliment via adjustment provided
by managers (Crane &Matten, 2016). Controlling
Workforce activities and actions must fall in-line with the company’s objectives and
policies. Managers must thoroughly observe and then report any noticed deviation thus
enjoying controlling power.
Marks & Spencer’s complexities may not be completely covered under presented factors but for
functional view, the workforce management base can be set thus enhancing work output and
relationship among workforce (Kerzner&Kerzner, 2017).
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