Leadership and Management Report: Operational Management and Factors

This report delves into the multifaceted aspects of leadership and management, examining the distinct roles and characteristics of leaders and managers within an organizational context, specifically using Marks & Spencer as a case study. It explores how leadership and management functions apply in various situational contexts, highlighting decision-making, risk-taking, and problem-solving. The report provides an overview of different leadership theories and models, including situational, systems, and contingency approaches, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it investigates key approaches to operational management, such as dynamic, systematic, just-in-time, and total quality management, and analyzes the impact of internal factors on operational management and decision-making processes. The report concludes with a critical evaluation of operations management, synthesizing the key concepts and their practical implications for effective business practices.

Management and Operation
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1

TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager...............................................1
P2 How the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational
contexts.......................................................................................................................................2
P3. Different theories and models of leadership.........................................................................3
M1 Difference between the role of a leader and function of a manager.....................................4
M2 Strength and weakness of different approaches to situation within the work environment. 4
D1 Critical evaluation of the theories and approaches of leadership..........................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P4 Key approaches to the operations management and role of the leader and manager in it.....5
P5 Importance and value of operations management.................................................................6
M3. Improvement in the efficiencies of the operational management for achieving the
business goals..............................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
P6 Impact of internal factors upon operational management and decision making....................7
M4 Influence of factors upon business environment and wider community..............................8
D2 Critical evaluation of operations management......................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
.......................................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Operational management has to do with the designing and regulating process of the
production so that all the demands of the potential consumers can be fulfilled. This all process
has to do with the conversion of the input into the output goods through using various resources
like raw material, land, building, capital, employees, plant and machinery (De Roover, 2017).
They operate the business activities to serve the demands of both domestic as well as foreign
customer. This all report has been divided into the four sections thus briefing the role of a leader
as well as a manager. Marks and Spencer is a British multinational retail company and they have
the aim of polishing the talent of the individuals for a particular job role or help them to enhance
their knowledge (Grant, Wong and Trautrims, 2017). This all report highlights various models
and theories used by the managers of the organisation to deal various situations. Other than this it
also covers crucial approaches of the operational management thus briefing about the impact of
the internal factors on the decision making process.
TASK 1
P1 Different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager
Leaders are the peso who lead and control whole team and also enhance their skills and
knowledge in order to improve their performance and productivity. They are responsible for
treating all the employees in equal manner. In this there are some role of a leader in Marks &
Spencer: Required at each level: Leaders are required at every level in which they lead and control
all the department to get better results. Act as a representative of a group: They always tries to improve their team performance
and also repent in most effective manner in front of organization (Bahmani-Firouzi and
Azizipanah-Abarghooee, 2014).
 Act as a friend, philosopher and guide: Leaders treat their employees as a friend so that
they easily share their problems with him and also maintain better trust with each others.
Characteristic of a leader: Ability to resole problems: Leader have best ability to deal all the situation and evaluate
better solution for resolving all the problems in effective manner.
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 Politeness: It is important for leader to be polite and cool with their employees so that
they easily maintain positive environment.
Manager are the person who manage all the activities in most effective manner they are
totally differ form leaders. Role of a manager: Management of whole organization: One of the important role of a manager to manage
all the business activities and set clear goals to attain higher success (Mohammadi,
Soleymani and Mozafari, 2014). Job assigning: It is also important for manager to assign right person for right job so that
they easily perform their task.
 Allocation of resources: It is important role of a manager to allocate all the resources in
effective manner for manufacturing quality services to their customers.
Characteristics of a manager: Ability to reduce business risk: Manager have better knowledge and skills to evaluate the
risk and reduce it effectively.
 High level of patience: It is important for manager to control their anger and deal all the
situation easily in order to get positive results.
P2 How the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts
Manager and leader both are play important role in Marks & Spencer in which they
always tries to evaluating and resolving all the conflict situation in most effective manner
(Strande and Brdjanovic, 2014). Both are helps in managing and motivating their staff members
in order to attain all the goals and objectives. In Marks & Spencer context, manager and leader
provide best services to their employees to encourage their morale so that they face all the
complex situation and get better solution. There are some role of a leader and function of a
manager are as follows:
 Decision making: Manager and leaders play important role in decision making in which
they show their opinion and views. Both are define accurate data and information to take
best decision.
 Risk taking: Manager and leader have best authority to take risk in resolving all the
conflicts situation in order to get better solution.
 Problem solver: Both are responsible to resolving all the problems and conflicts in order
to maintain and develop healthy and positive work environment which helps in
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motivating the employees towards the work and performance (Sedaghati and Kavousi-
Fard, 2014).
 Management of time: Both are responsible for managing time of the task in which they
assign activities for their staff members so that they complete within time frame and
achieve positive results.
 Training and development: It is important function as well as role of manager and
leader to provide better training and development programs to their employees so that
they easily perform their task and achieve positive results.
P3. Different theories and models of leadership.
Leadership can be defined as the ability and skills of a person to lead their team by the
giving them certain instructions related to the work. Marks and Spencer requires people who has
knowledge and talent of handling the things related to the organisation. Following are some of
the theories and models which can be used by them:-
 Situational Leadership:- It can be also called as the life cycle theory of leadership and
this model states that there is no single leadership style is beneficial in all the contexts. So
a leader should act according to the situation if they have the aim of resolving the issue.
This is based on the suitable suitable which means job role, tasks or any function which is
accomplished (Ferguson and et. al., 2017).
 Systems Leadership:- This theory has to do with the systems and policies of a company
while handling any situation. Through considering the facts and figures the management
take the decisions. System leadership styles follows certain norms, rules and regulations
which are executed by the higher authority of a company to run their business in proper
way.
 Contingency Approach:- It is the theory which emphasis on the leaders of the company
that makes the decision through taking care of the internal and external factors who are
linked with each other (Zurich, 2017). This is the other form of the situational leadership
thus it can be said that this is the most appropriate for organising and leading a firm. So
the leaders of the company should take actions by considering the situation in which they
are dealing with.
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M1 Difference between the role of a leader and function of a manager
Manager and leader play important role in organization but both having different role and
responsibilities to manage overall growth of the company (Grabara, Kolcun and Kot, 2014). Both
have their own position in Marks & Spencer. Which are as follows:
Role of a leader Function of a manager
One of the important role of a leader is to lead
and control whole team in order to improve
their productivity.
Manager of the company is responsible for
managing all the organizational activities to
attain positive results.
They always tries to increase skills and
knowledge of all the team members.
Managers are focus on enhancing learning
skills of the workers so that they easily
perform their task in effective manner
(Mohammadi, Mozafari and Solimani, 2014).
The main role of a leader is to represent their
team members in front of organization to attain
positive results.
One of the important function of a manager is
to arrange and set all the required resources
which helps in producing better services to
their customers in order to achieve their higher
satisfaction.
Hence, manager and leader both are totally separate in organization and also play their
roles in order to achieve all the desirable goals and objectives.
M2 Strength and weakness of different approaches to situation within the work environment
All theories and approaches define their strength and weakness which are differ form
each others and also beneficial for the employees. In this strength and weakness of various
approaches are as follows:
Situational leadership:
 Strength: This leadership helps in taking better action and also responsible for their
mistakes. It also helps in making better relationship with the leaders.
 Weakness: By using this, some time staff members failed in achieving their goals. It is
not applicable for every company.
System approach:
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 Strength: System approach include all policies, regulation which helps in dealing with
conflicts.
 Weakness: Some time unnecessary regulations create more problems within the
organization process (Foroulis and et. al., 2014).
Contingency approach:
 Strength: This approach helps in dealing all the situation within the organization and also
easy for applying.
 Weakness: But some time it is not applicable to reducing the conflicts situation.
D1 Critical evaluation of the theories and approaches of leadership.
Almost all the theories can be called as useful as it is their simple nature because of
which firms uses it to resolve the issues. Situational and Contingency theory is quite different
from the systematic theory (leadership Theories, 2017). After comparing both of them it can be
said that each of them as different tools and techniques to resolve any issue according to the
demand of the situation. Contingency and situational theories might follow the same pri9iinciple
but6 they are different as they changes because of the internal and external factors thus
impacting all the whole organisation.
TASK 2
P4 Key approaches to the operations management and role of the leader and manager in it.
For any there is requirement of the people or the managers who has the skills and ability
to handle various tasks so that the operation management can be done properly. On the other
handle operation management requires effective leadership so that all the activities can be
handled effectively with the use of different approaches. Dynamic Approach:- According to this approach, Marks and Spencer is going to solve
all the issues in one by executing various techniques and methods. It can be said that this
model is very much useful in completing the operation in a less period of time by using
minimum resources (Hasegawa, Nec Corporation, 2017). Systematic Approach:- This is the approach which is concerned with the rules and
regulations executed by the higher authority of a company by taking the facts and figures
in the scenario. It can be said that this model is very much useful in developing an
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environment which ensure that each and every person is treated equally through
implementing the strict policies. Just in Time:- This model that emphasis on doing the activities in decided time frame
and it can be said that it is the inventory strategy who main aim is to reduce the inventory
costs. Total Quality Management:- The main objective of such approach is to maintain the
quality of the company through using innovative and creative ideas and approaches. They
are trying to improve the quality of the work thus bringing new ideas in the services
(Burgess and et al., 2017). It is the quality of the products and services of any
organisation whether small or large which decides the fate of their business success. This
is the approach which is used by the Marks and Spencer.
 Six Sigma:-This is the process which combines tools and techniques to improve the
processes. It can be said that this is the process which is used by the sanitisation to
increase the quality of the output through obstructing the factors which are hampering the
quality (Loch, 2017). Their main target is to minimize the time which is needed for the
production and the cost of the products so that they can fulfil the demands.
P5 Importance and value of operations management
It is required for director of each and every organisation to arrange entire activities which
are associated with their operations in an effective and appropriate way. As a result, they can
easily improve their profits. To enhance work performance of all staff members, it is
fundamental for manager to organise overall exercises in a systematic manner (Althaher,
Mancarella and Mutale, 2015).
To improve skills of workers, employer of M & S will provide training to them. It works
as a motivation and will increase work quality. Furthermore, this will give growth and success to
company. By utilizing some techniques of research, superior will improve operations of their
firm. This will assist them to collect necessity data which will help them in procedure of
operations. Thus, they can attain coveted targets and objectives within specific period of time. To
done task in a sufficient time, manager will formulate required policies as well as strategies. If
organisation wants to improve their revenues then, they have to decrease their expenses. For
above stated aim, they can also create adequate plan.
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Leaders and managers want to enhance capabilities of management of operations. For
this, they can utilize some effective applications as this will aid them to achieve targets within a
proficient time duration (Ma and et. al., 2016). To acquire more market share, it is essential for
manager of M & S to develop some creative goods as well as services for users. They can
modify their existing products time to time, this will improve its effectiveness. Along with this, it
is required for them to use all resources properly and reduce waste. As a result, they can maintain
their profits in an adequate manner.
M3. Improvement in the efficiencies of the operational management for achieving the business
goals.
Following are the ways through which efficiency can be maintained:-
 Motivate Staff:- The basic role of the manager and leader is to increase the moral of the
staff so that they can achieve personal as well as professional goals.
 Following the suitable steps:- Through executing various procedures and approaches so
that any loophole can be removed thus bring bringing efficiency.
 Framing effective strategy:- The improvement can be made by developing risk
management strategy.
 Suitable plans:- To remove any kind of barriers it is necessary that their should be
planning process and at Marks and Spencer the knowledge of the labours will be
enhanced through it.
TASK 4
P6 Impact of internal factors upon operational management and decision making
Many components which are associated with environment of business can provide impact
to operational management and their process of decision in a direct or indirect manner. There are
many factors which can described as below:
 Educational components
 Technological components
 Legal elements
 Political components
 Socio-cultural factors
 Demographic components
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Hence, it has been comprehended that those factors which are mentioned above can influence
decision of manager in a broad manner.
Apart from this, some another components are discussed as beneath which can affect
operation management if M & S:
Corporate social responsibilities: According to this, it is essential for an association to
fulfil entire exercises of CSR effectively and efficiently (Wang and et. al., 2015). This will aid
them to take benefits from their competitors at competitive world. Along with this, enterprise can
increase their reputation also. It is necessary for each and every affiliation to fulfil these sort of
activities; thus, they can hold up at market for maximum time duration.
Business ethics: As per this, it is necessary for company to do their business in an ethical
manner. This will portrays that, manager has to follow all norms and regulations which are
linked with their business to perform their work. Consequently, they can achieve coveted
objectives as well as goals in an effective and efficient way. Along with this, it will provide
proper guidance to an enterprise; hence, they will do their business correctively.
Stakeholders: They are most significant part of each and every organisation. Basically,
they are consider as a blood for firm because they cater finance to them; thus, they can conduct
their business in an appropriate and adequate way. Bondholders give amount to employer of M
& S, this will assist them to enlarge their firm. Shareholders can be of both types, i.e. internal
and external. This will consist regulatory body, banks, suppliers, institutions, partners and many
more.
Hence, it is fundamental for superior to consider all of them while they are going to take
decision for company. As they can affect their judgements directly as well as indirectly. Instead
of all of this, manager has to fulfil entire activities which are related to CSR as this will aid them
to take benefits from their rivals at competitive world (Brahman, Honarmand and Jadid, 2015).
As a result, they can increase their revenues and reputation effectively. It is required for each
firm to do their business ethically.
M4 Influence of factors upon business environment and wider community
Micro and macro, both kind of elements are prominent to accomplish coveted goals and
targets within limited time span because they are much connected to each other. M & S is
utilizing resources properly; this will assist them in their success as well as improvement. Along
with this, employer has to find out overall factors because it can provide impact to desire of
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users. Therefore, some factors which are associated with surrounding of business are mentioned
as below:
 Both, macro and micro factors can influence an enterprise in a direct or indirect manner;
therefore, it is requisite for superior to implement some effective methods which will
cater success to them (Diamantoulakis, Kapinas and Karagiannidis, 2015).
 Employer has to identify needs and wants of their users; thus, they can accomplish it
within limited period of time and then compete their competitors at marketplace.
 To acquire more growth, they have to create healthy relations with their customers. This
will aid them in international market and along with this, they can maintain their
customer base.
D2 Critical evaluation of operations management
Manager has to organise entire exercises effectively and efficiently. There main task is to
transform raw materials into last items within limited period of time. As a result, they can
provide items to purchasers as per their requirements. Apart from this, there are some
applications which are linked with operational and management are mentioned as below:
 Superior of each and every enterprise has to manage their overall task in an adequate and
proficient way. For above stated purpose, they can take assistance of various effective
tools and methods. There are some examples of it, such as tools of project evaluation,
critical path and many more.
 To fulfil needs of domestic as well as foreign customers timely, manager has to produce
products and services as per their demand (Althaher, Mancarella and Mutale, 2015). As a
result, they can compete their rivals at competitive world and improve their revenues.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report, it can be concluded that management and operation is
essential process for the company to manage all the activities in appropriate manner. In this
manager and leader also play important role in organization to take any kind of decision by
leading and managing employees at workplace. With the help of manager and leader efforts they
easily improve overall productivity of the company which direct contribute in rising profitability.
By applying various approaches and theories of leadership in several situation helps in
improving overall performance of the employees. Along with this operational management is
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also play important role in achieving organizational goals and objectives in appropriate time
period. It also helps in taking best decision in the organization to improve performance of the
company.
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