London College: Leadership, Management, and Operational Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the roles of leaders and managers within a business context, using Sainsbury as a case study. It begins by differentiating between the functions of leaders and managers, emphasizing that leaders focus on vision while managers focus on execution. The report then delves into various leadership theories, including trait, behavioral, and situational theories, with a detailed examination of the situational leadership model and its four styles: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. Furthermore, the report contrasts contingency leadership and system leadership, highlighting their distinct approaches to organizational change and decision-making. The assignment also includes an overview of operational functions, such as capacity management, logistics, inventory management and scheduling, and the use of continuous improvement (Kaizen) to improve the operational machinery. The report also addresses the impact of factors such as corporate social responsibility, culture, values, ethics, and sustainability, as well as the challenges of meeting wider stakeholder expectations. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of both leadership and management in achieving organizational goals.

Operations Management in
Business
(Assignment Part 1)

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Role of manager and leader.............................................................................................................4
Three differences and similarities between role of leader and manager..........................................5
Description of leadership styles by using the situational leadership model....................................7
Difference between contingency leadership and system leadership................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
This report consists the various aspects related to the leader and manager as the leader and
manager are two important people used in the business environment. The whole business
environment can be managed properly by the leader and manager. Sainsbury organization will be
used in this report to analyse the various aspects of the leadership and managerial skills (Powell
and Butterfield, 2015). Sainsbury is the supermarket which includes as the second largest chain
in United Kingdom. The organization includes the groceries, clothing and many more other
products. The report includes the description of the role of leader and manager in the
organization and the differences between the leaders and managers. The description of
situational leadership model will be briefly described in this report. The difference between
contingency leadership and system leadership will be discussed in this report.

Role of manager and leader
Leaders and managers both play an important role in the business organization. Sainsbury
includes the leaders and managers for managing the several functions and activities of the
business. As per the analysis, it has been analyzed that leaders focus on roles and managers
focuses on the functions included in the business (Vaccaro, et al., 2012). Leaders pull the
workers to attain the goals and objectives of the organization and managers push them towards
the goals and objectives.
There are different theories that helps in analyzing the concept of leadership and management.
Trait theories, behavioral theories, situational theories and many more defines the role of leaders
in the organization. These theories are related to the leadership theories used in the management
of the business. There are several theories that define the leadership concept in the business
management (Derue, et al., 2011). The trait theory of leadership defines that leaders are born so
this belief gives the description of the various qualities and traits included in leaders. The several
behavioral characteristics that are common in leaders are described in this theory. This theory
describes the difference between the role of leader and manager.
The other theory is the behavioral theory that defines the different behaviors of leaders used in
the proper management of the business. The other theory of leadership is situational theory of
leadership that defines the proper role of leaders in the business process (Dartey-Baah,
2015).This defines the role of leaders as pe different situations occurred in the process of the
business management. In this leadership style, leaders adopt the styles as per the situation of the
business. Among all of the theories, situational leadership style is one of the best styles of
leadership that also define the proper role of leaders and differentiate from the role of managers
as they both differently used in the organization.

Three differences and similarities between role of leader and manager
The leaders and manager perform different roles in the organization. Both of them perform
different activities and functions in the organization. The leader and manager have some
similarities also that gives the brief description regarding the same works performed by leaders
and managers.
The key differences between leader and manager are discussed as below-
 Leader acquire the foresightedness while manager has the quality of intelligence
 Manager takes the decisions and manager facilitate the decisions.
 Manager of the organization tries to avoid conflicts while a leader takes the conflicts as
an asset (Ellis and Abbott, 2015).
 The change occurred in the organization is promoted by the leaders and managers react
on these changes.
 A leader influences the employees to attain a proper goal and objective while manager
manages all the activities of an organization.
 Leader sets the direction related to the proper goals but manager plans the details of the
directions.
 There are different styles of leadership and leader uses the transactional leadership style
and manager adopts the transformational leadership style.
 The people organized by the manager and leader aligns the people of the organization.
 The process can be managed by the manager and leader focuses on people.
Along with these differences, there are various similarities also included in the leader and
manager. Some of the similarities between leader and manager are:
 The leader and manager supervise the group or teams of the people
 The leader and manager manage the results of the organization.
 The leader and manager rely on effective communication that is essential in the business
process (Dumitru, et al., 2015).
 The leader and manager both use the different metrics to measure the performance of the
organization.
 The both guide and evaluate the employees in a proper manner.

 The leaders work as same as manager and planning process of both is also similar.

Description of leadership styles by using the situational leadership model
Situational leadership style can be defined as the style is developed to influence the followers.
The actions, events and the other things are cognitive in this leadership model which works on
the organizational behaviour of the company (Bargau, 2015). There are four leadership styles in
situational leadership which are directing, supporting, coaching and delegating.
Directing: At starting the directions are given t every employees junior or the team members
that what to do and how to do. The benefits of these styles are that it helps in evaluating what the
person needs to learn and what they already know. The demerit of this style is that experienced
leader can easily found the transition out and bear the phase which becomes difficult for the new
employees.
Coaching: The employees are not fully developed but they have some skills in the team. The
commitment in the future is build up in this leadership style. The benefits of this style are that
individual skills are improved as the major focus has been put on that and effective commitment
is made for the future (Engelen, et al, 2015).The demerit of these styles is that as the people are
not fully developed so they can’t start the work without the proper guidance or senior.
Supporting: This leadership style addresses the person who is now competent for the job and is
very supporting in doing the task. The followers in this style have the great job to do the work
correctly and make effective decisions (Lynch, 2015). The disadvantage of these styles is that
even when the progress report of the followers is disappointed still the leader supports the
followers and it affects the performance.
Delegating: It is end of the situational leadership in which the strong commitments and skills are
made. The performance is monitored in this stage by the leader and then they took the decisions.
The benefits of this leadership style are that growth of the individual team can be achieved by
focusing on high level goals (Carlos Do Rego Furtado, al., 2011).The disadvantage of this style
is that the leader does not put the focus on the relationship and the tasks so delegation is there but
there is no effective relationship.

Difference between contingency leadership and system leadership
Contingency leadership: This theory of the leadership mainly focuses on the matching the right
style of leadership with the right situation. In contingency theory of leadership motivation is the
main variable which helps in increasing the productivity of the company. When the situation
goes adverse this leadership style is effective in matching the contingent situation. The effective
decisions can be made with the help of the contingency leadership approach and great ideas can
be shared in the company by providing their opinion to each other (Thompson and Glaso, 2015).
In this leadership style organizational structure can be designed and it helps in taking the
important decisions of the company (Mom, et al., 2015).
System leadership: If any change in the organization is taking place then this leadership style is
very effective as it is the set of skills and knowledge which can be used at the system level
change. In this leadership style, the leaders create the effective conditions so that employees can
work effectively to their potential (Van Wart, 2013). A system leadership is good leadership
style as it sound principles about the human behaviour and influence the people to accept the
change. This leadership style has certain benefits like it provides flexible working conditions and
also coordinates with the other members so the environment changes can be easily adopted by
them (Mikalef, et al., 2015).

Conclusion
From the above report, the role of leaders and managers are discussed. The leader and manager
both are essential for the proper planning of the organization and they perform different roles in
different tasks of the business. The role of the leader is to lead the people and the role of manager
is to manage the people of the organization. Sainsbury organization is selected to discuss the role
of leaders and managers. There are several theories that define the leadership concept in the
business management. The trait theory of leadership defines that leaders are born so this belief
gives the description of the various qualities and traits included in leaders. The various
similarities and differences between leader and manager are included in this report. The
situational leadership model has been briefly described in the above report. The contingency
leadership and system leadership has been discussed in this report.

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