Comparing Leadership and Management at Superdrug PLC

This report, prepared for the Chief Executive Officer of Superdrug Stores PLC, provides a detailed comparison of leadership and management within an organizational context. It explores the core functions of management, including planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling, and contrasts them with the key functions of leadership such as setting goals, planning, communicating, and supporting. The report highlights the distinct personality characteristics and roles of leaders and managers, examining their influence, self-awareness, and power dynamics. It analyzes how situational factors affect both management and leadership functions, and discusses the significance of operations management in achieving objectives. Furthermore, the report investigates the relationship between leadership and management in the contemporary business environment, presenting the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches. The report concludes with a synthesis of the key differences and interdependencies of leadership and management, emphasizing their combined importance for organizational effectiveness within Superdrug.

Running head: REPORT 0
MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
JULY 9, 2019
STUDENT DETIALS:

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Background of the company..................................................................................................................3
Management in company.......................................................................................................................3
Functions of management..................................................................................................................4
Leadership in company..........................................................................................................................4
Functions of leadership......................................................................................................................5
Different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager in company-...........................................5
Management personality characteristics vs. leadership personality characteristics or roles-.............5
Common characteristics of managers and leaders.............................................................................6
Roles of leader and functions of manager..............................................................................................7
How situations affect the function of a manager and role of a leader....................................................9
Significance of operations management in getting objectives.............................................................10
Relationship between leadership and management in contemporary business environment................11
Weaknesses and strengths of different approaches to situation-..........................................................12
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................12
References...........................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The management and leadership are the expressions, which are regarded as synonymous.
This is very necessary to develop the understanding that leadership is considered as main part
of efficient management. As the vital element of the management, outstanding leadership
behavior focuses on making the environment where all the workers develop. The leadership
is described as potential to influences as well as drives the effort of team to achieve the
targets and objectives. It can take place from the formal resources, like that rendered by
acquirement of the post of manager in the company. Leadership is a setting of new visions
and directions for the group, which they go after. On the other hand, the management handles
and guides the resources as well as individuals in the group as per the value, belief and
principle, which have been developed.
It is essential that the manager should have the characteristics of the leader. For an example,
the manager should have the qualities of leadership. The leader develops as well as starts the
approaches, which make and maintain the competitive advantages. It is required by the
companies that the company should have healthy leadership and positive management for
best organizational effectiveness (Cole, et. al, 2017). The Manager may be considered as the
actual manager only in the condition in which the manager has got the characteristics of the
leader in him. It is always expected by the manager to be a leader of work team to
subordinate gladly carry instruction as well as accept the direction. The individual may be the
leader by virtue of characteristics in him. In the following parts, the report is made to Chief
Executive Officer of Superdrug Company to explain the differences between the leadership
and management in the organisational environment by applying various concepts and
theories. This report also develops the understanding of the relationship between leadership

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and management in a contemporary business environment. In these parts, the strength and
weakness of the different methods are also discussed and examined.
Background of the company
Superdrug Stores PLC renders the products related to the health as well as beauty. This
organisation sells the fragrance, personal electrical tools, make-ups; hair related appliances,
as well as the dieting services and the medicines. The Superdrug Stores delivers these beauty
products and health care products through United Kingdom. This company is the beauty and
health retailer. The stores of this organisation sell the skincare products, soaps, shampoos,
electronic products, health and wellbeing products, baby care products, mother care products,
and the products for men. The company also provides the online healthcare service in the
field of health of females, sexual health, health of men, lungs, heart, travel health, as well as
other services. Additionally, there are certain stores of the company that include in-store
drugstores with pharmacy advising room and the hospitals that render the health check.
Management in company
As a human resource officer of Superdrug Stores PLC, it is essential to identify and tell what
management is. The Management is a necessary thing for managed life. The best
management can be considered as the backbone of winning companies (Bush, Bell and
Middlewood, 2019). As per the definition given by F.W. Taylor, ‘management is considered
as art of having knowledge when and what to do, and observe that this is conducted in a
cheap and positive manner‘(Solomon, Costea and Nita, 2016). Management of Superdrug
Stores PLC is a person or a group of persons, which take accountabilities to run the company.
The management of company is set of principles related to the various functions such as
planning, organizing, directing as well as controlling, and implementation of the principles to
harness physical resources and human resources in productive and effective manner to

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achieve the aim of selling fragrances, personal electrical tools, cosmetics, hair tools, and
medicines.
Functions of management
Following are the five functions of management of Superdrug Stores PLC -
1. Planning- Manager will make the detailed action plan targeted at certain
organizational goals to sell more products and provide services.
2. Organizing- The next managerial functions is organizing as per the plan to get above
mentioned goals of company.
3. Staffing - this is the function of selecting and retaining the suitable team at the stores
at non-managerial level and managerial level
4. Directing- it is concerned with leadership, interaction, enthusiasm and administration
so that the workers do the activities in the best possible effective way, to get the pre-
determined objectives of selling more products.
5. Controlling- the manager of the company ensures that the event does not differ from
per-established plan (Peck and Hogue, 2018).
Leadership in company
The leadership is considered as the procedure, with the help of which the executive may
direct, lead, and affects the conduct and work of others to achievement of the particular
objectives in the provided conditions. The leadership is a capability of the manager for
involving the subordinate to work with self-belief and enthusiasm (Edwards, et. al, 2015).
The leadership is also defined as the ability to affect the group to the understanding of the
goals. As per the meaning described by Keith Davis, “the leadership is a capability to
influence other people to look for pre-determined goals passionately.”

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Further, leadership is inter-personal procedure where the managers of Superdrug Stores PLC
are in affecting and directing employees towards the achievement of targets and objectives.
The leadership at company defines the certain characteristics to be present in an individual
who involves cleverness, maturity as well as the character. The leaders of company are
involved in creating and changing the actions of team to achieve organizational objectives of
improving e-commerce abilities and general digital presence as well as online doctor
services. It is the situational bound. There is no any good style of leadership in the company
(Assis, et. al, 2019).
Functions of leadership
Following are the four functions of leadership in Superdrug Stores PLC -
1. Setting goals- the leader is expected to do work after setting the goals
2. Planning- before taking the actions, the leader should plan that how to increase sale
of healthcare and beauty care products
3. Communicating- after making the plan, the good leader should always communicate
the plan to all team members effectively
4. Supporting- the leaders have to reconcile interest of team members with that of the
Superdrug Stores PLC.
5. Informing- It is a main function of a leader to inform and direct the staff about the
approaches and strategies to enhance sale.
6. Evaluating- it is always required by the leaders to evaluate the plan in the end
(Eriksson, et. al, 2017).
Different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager in company-

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Management personality characteristics vs. leadership personality characteristics or roles-
Management personality characteristics Leadership personality
characteristics
1. rational and practical in managing the team
and stores
Visionary and dreamer to enhance in-
store experience by motivating the
team members
2. Goal, task to sell more products and services Vision strategy, execution of planning
to communicate the way of working
3. Left brain or linear thoughts Right brain or creative thoughts
4. excavate vision Panoramic vision
5. Tactical role to get objectives Strategic role to get objectives
6. Make the references from external points Make the references from internal
points
7. Take external directions to improve deliveries
of services as well as products
Take internal directions to improve
deliveries of the services and products
8. Manager is concerned with what gets made,
how and how much
Leader focuses on capacity of the
asset to make something
9. pursue visions copy visions
10. Efficiency in achieving the goals Effectiveness in assessing the
feasibility of how staff motivation is
evaluated for tracking the satisfaction
11. process Progress
12. Individuals are the resources Individuals are the reason
13. Single piece of data to manage the things at
store
Detailed piece of data to lead the team

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Common characteristics of managers and leaders
Following are the some common traits between managers and leaders-
1. Influence- both influence things or people to get the aims
2. Self-awareness- it is the essence of great management and leadership
3. Objectivity in dealing- manager and leader both try to get success by their skills
4. Power- The leaders as well as managers have powers to lead and manage the people
in the company.
Roles of leader and functions of manager
Functions of manager Roles of leader
1. The main function of the managers is that
they focus on the things such as
accomplishment of the goals to sell more
health and beauty products. Sometimes, the
focusing only on things not people can be
proving as disadvantage for company. This
cannot ensure the welfare of team members
of the company (Pihlainen Kivinen and
Lammintakanen, 2016).
The main role of leader is to focus on the
people not the things. The leader may make
more focus upon some aspects of the
individuals in a company like the workers
with optional performance and ignore the
others. The leaders focus on development
of skills of the workers.
2. The managers control the risks. Managers
work to reduce the risks. The managers
control and avoid issues in place of
The leaders take the risk. They try new
things even if they can fail. They have
knowledge that failure is step to get

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accepting them. success.
3. The managers make process and system to
know how Superdrug importantly achieves
competitive edge by the retention of team
members. The managers work with team
members, goals as well as targets.
Leader makes good relations to get
objectives effectively. The leaders have
knowledge that who are shareholders and
who spend most of the time. The leader
builds faithfulness by constantly providing
the promises.
4. The manager maintains status quo. The
manager sticks with what does, refining
system, structure as well as process for
making them better
Leader is change agent. The leader is proud
disrupter. Innovation is the mantra of
leaders.
5. Manager allocates tasks and provides
direction on how to get them.
Leader knows that his team members have
the answer. They are capable to find them.
They see the individuals as competent and
are hopeful in relation to the potential.
6. The manager makes goals to be the
favourite up to the minute beauty and
health retailer loved for our value, choice,
friendliness and fun. The manager focuses
over setting, assessing as well as getting
the goals. The manager controls situation
to get or exceed the objects (Kuhlmann, et.
al, 2017).
Leader creates the vision to communicate
the manner of work now and in upcoming
period. Leader makes the image of what
see possibly and inspire and involve the
people in turning those visions in actuality.
The leader has knowledge that high-
functioning team may get lot more
functioning together rather than people

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working separately.
7. The manager does the rights things in the
company
The leader does the things right in the
company
How situations affect the function of a manager and role of a leader
The company has to face various situations to make its place in marketplace. Making the
beauty as well as healthcare accessible, the mangers and leaders of Superdrug has managed to
shape niche in marketplace, creating the high street incidence almost vital to the consumer.
When the company previously raised in boot’s shadow, then the development and expansion
plan means this is the well-intentioned competitor possibly even winning in a battle for
attention of new consumers of the present world. There are different leadership theories that
affect the roles of leader and functions of manager. The situation leadership model motivates
the manager to flexibly use the leadership style as per situation and get outcomes
accordingly. The four leadership style of telling, participating, selling, and delegating
proposed in situational leadership style can be utilized by the manager as per motivational
requirement of the subordinates. For example, in Superdrug Store PLC, the new hired senior
manager will require more chances to prove himself (Renz, 2016).
Also, by following the task-oriented leadership style the leaders focus on task, which requires
to be performed for fulfilling some goals, or to get the standards related to performance. The
task-oriented leadership style includes the step by step planning to get the objective of selling
beauty and health products. It also includes the system to reward the employees of company
or to punish them. On the other hand, the system leadership renders the leaders with tools,
which are helpful in the prediction of action of individuals in the company. Moreover, the
chaos theory is considered as subset of more general chaos theory, which makes quantum

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mechanics related principles and shows them in the difficult system environment of the
company (Gruber, et. al, 2015). The Contingency theory of leadership explains that the
effectiveness of leaders is contingent on with how the style of leadership equivalent to the
situations. Therefore, the leaders should search what type of leadership style as well as the
situations thrives in. The Contingency Theory is concerned with the following:
1. There is no good style of leadership ( Contingency Model of Fiedler)
2. The leader are effectual while the style of leadership fits with the situations
(Contingency Model of Fiedler)
Significance of operations management in getting objectives
The operations management is considered as the heart of the company. The operations
management controls complete operation system of the Superdrug Stores PLC. It is very
helpful for the company to get the key goals of generating profits as well as increasing the
stakeholders by the functions. The leaders and managers design and manage the operations
system. They play key role in managing human resources (Armstrong, 2016). The cost of
production is decreased to make sure that tangible assets as well as the intangible assets are
not over prolonged within the company.
The mass production worked well if higher volume of mass-developed goods can be made
and traded in conventional and gradually modifying marketplaces. However, in the year
1970, marketplaces became greatly disjointed; product life cycle decreased considerably and
consumer had great choices in comparison of earlier. The new production techniques of
Japan, as just in time (JIT), total quality management (TQM), and worker’s participation
were emulated somewhere else in the globe, with combined outputs. The different approaches
for managing operations that are currently popular include-

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1. Flexible specialization- in this firm focuses on separate part of the value-adding
procedure and work together within network to make complete products.
2. Quality management concepts (Six sigma and Kaizen approach) - Kaizen is
helpful for improving the business by making standard manner of functioning, enhancing
effectiveness and ending the wastage. On the other hand, Six Sigma is very focused over the
quality of outputs (Shin, et. al, 2015).
3. Lean production- it is developed from best Toyota Production System. The lean
production highlights the exclusion of form of wastage from the production system.
Relationship between leadership and management in contemporary business
environment
The corporate social responsibility of the manager and leader of the company is the process
of broad spectrum that involves not only entire cycle of product’s formation as well as
marketing however also interpersonal relations. In response to expectation of shareholders of
Superdrug Store PLC, the corporate social responsibility policy involves the organizational
action, values, culture and ethics, for that the managers and leaders are liable, who have to
overcome numerous issues and obstacles of values as well as behaviours of workers.
According to Ardichvili, who made focus on the significance of corporate social
responsibility, HR management, corporate sustainability as well as ethics are part of the
similar subsystems of companies, made through the difficult communication between human
capital, personal ethical development, mind-set, disposition, managerial strategies and
approaches, culture, as well as outer situational elements (Annarelli and Nonino, 2016).

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Weaknesses and strengths of different approaches to situation-
For the better implementation of the leadership approaches in the company, it is required to
assess their strength and weakness. The leaders or managers of company should assess the
theories before the implementation. The task-oriented leadership style is very helpful in
communicating the goals and clearing the issues. However, this style can reduce the worker
morale. Further chaos theory has wider applicability in new era but it is complex to take
decisions. Although there are various strengths of the contingency theory, there are also
various weaknesses. This theory is helpful for the better development of leaders. However, it
does not address why individuals are not effective leaders in all the conditions.
Conclusion
As per the above discussion, it can be concluded that the leaders are precisely what this name
tells. The leader leads the members of team to get the pre-determined objectives and goals.
The manager, like a leader, has the meaning referenced in a name. The main difference
between manager and leader is that leader has individuals to follow them (Podsakoff and
Podsakoff, 2019). The success of the company depends upon the leaders and manager that
how they tackle the situation.

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