Management and Operations: Leadership and Managerial Roles at Tesco

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of management and operations at Tesco, examining the roles of leaders and managers from a managerial perspective. It begins by defining and comparing the characteristics of leaders and managers, highlighting their distinct functions and responsibilities within the organization. The report then explores how leadership and management roles apply to various situational contexts, including stable, slow-changing, and fast-changing scenarios, both internally and externally. It delves into the application of different leadership models and theories, such as situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency theory, illustrating their practical implications. Furthermore, the report explains key approaches to operations management, emphasizing the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives. Finally, it discusses the factors within the organizational environment that impact operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers, offering a holistic view of Tesco's operational dynamics.

Running head: MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
Management and Operations
Name of the Student:
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Executive Summary:
The aim of the report is to provide an overview of management and operations of Tesco from
the perspective of manager. Tesco is a multinational grocer and merchandize retailer with its
headquarters in the United Kingdo (UK). The report puts forward definition along with a
comparison of different roles and characteristics of the managers and leaders. The report also
examines the function and the leadership role of the manager in context of different
situational contexts within organizations. The report puts forward discussions surrounding
various models, approaches and theories that included situational, systems and contingent
leadership. The report also portrays the basic approaches of operation management and
provides an insight into leadership and management roles. Further, the report provides an
explanation on the importance and the value of operations management in achieving the
objectives.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
P1. Defining and Comparing the Different Roles and Characteristics of Leaders and
Managers....................................................................................................................................3
P2. Examination of Examples on how Role of Leader and Function of Manager applies to
Different Situational Contexts of the Organisation....................................................................6
P3. Appling Different Models and Theories of Approach, Including Situational Leadership,
Systems Leadership and Contingency.......................................................................................9
P4. Explanation of Key Approaches to Operations Management and Role Played by the
Leaders and Managers..............................................................................................................10
P5. Explanation of Importance and Value of Operations Management in Achieving Business
Objectives.................................................................................................................................11
P6. Different Factors within Organizational Environment Impacting the Operational
Management and the Decision Making by Leaders and the Managers...................................13
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................13
References:...............................................................................................................................15

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Introduction:
The report aims at providing an insight into management and operations from the perspective
of a manager of Tesco. The company is not only a general merchandize retailer but also
multinational grocers based in UK (tescoplc.com 2019). As per the decision of the boards of
directors of the organization the task remains in the examination of the impact of the roles of
managers and leaders on organizational operation. The report commences with a definition
and comparison of the different characteristics and roles of the leaders and the managers. The
report also examines examples on how the leadership role and the function of the manager
apply to the varied situational contexts within the organization. The report also discusses the
different models and theories of approach that included the situational, systems and the
contingent leadership. There is also discussion on the key approaches of the operations
management and the role played by the managers and the leaders. The report also goes on to
explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving the objectives.
Lastly, the report also focuses on the various factors within organizational environment that
have an impact on the decision making and operational management by the management and
the leaders. The report analyzes each of the aspects individually before providing an
overview of it.
Managers
This section of the report discusses about the difference between the functional roles
of a leader and a manager. This involves traits, characteristics and concept of the
management and leadership. There has also been a comparison in terms of roles and
responsibilities given the different characteristics of a manager and a leader.

4MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
The key difference between managers and leaders is that managers consist of people
working for them while leaders comprises of people following them. However, a successful
business owner needs to possess both management and leadership qualities in getting the
team on board in following them towards the vision of the success (Born 2012).
Management refers to maintenance of organizational effectiveness within both non
profit and profitable organization. It helps in enhancing the strategy for effective coordination
and accomplishment of the objective through availability of resources (Albrecht et al. 2015).
Management comprises of four functions which are planning, organizing, leading as well as
controlling and controlling that aids an organization in accomplishing the goal. The
description of each of the functions is as follows:
Planning: It is the initial step where the manager tries to put forward a descriptive
action plan for accomplishing long term goals (Schraeder, Self, Jordanand Portis2014). On a
similar note, planning in Tesco has primarily been focused on the maximization of the sales
and attracting wider customers as far as possible. The key responsibility of the company lies
in making effective decision for the organizational benefit.
Organizing:This function allowed for synchronization of the human activity within
organizational process (Griffin2013). This involved the achievement of the results through
functioning of the organizational processes. Besides, this functions calls for the effective
coordination between relationships of authority and responsibility. Tesco organizes the
products that it offers to the varied customers while maintaining coordination amongst the
products.
Leading: This particular function emphasizes on the motivation and the inspiration of
the employees for achievement of the business goals and objectives (Doppelt2017). It
necessitates the intrusion of the authority for achieving the ends while communicating

5MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
effectively. The management of Tesco provides valuable guidance to the subordinates and
provides necessary motivation to all the employees.
Controlling: This function aims at reviewing and monitoring the employee goals and
performance and helps in deciding on the necessary action (Hill2017). In Tesco the
performance of the employees as well as the budget helps in representing this function.
Leadership refers to the practical approach of bringing the skills together in order to
do things (Yukl2013). Leaders help in the creation of an inspiring vision for the future. In
other words, leadership puts forward the criteria of results for motivating and guiding the
other employees for accomplishing organizational goals while attaining smoother access to
the business. However, different approaches and the theories of leadership in regard to the
chosen organization include:
Informational Roles: This is decisional role taken up the managerial activity. The
informational role in Tesco comprises of the superiors of the organization in taking a
voluntary decision for the benefit of the employees (Chelladurai2014).
Interpersonal Roles: This category comprises of three roles which are leader,
figurehead and liaison (Treadway et al. 2013). Here the managers collect, disseminate and
transmits information. In Tesco the role constitutes of the employee characteristics and traits
that will act valuable for the organizational benefits.
Decisional Roles: This role represents the pertaining action based on the decision
taken by the organization in accomplishing the objective(Steersand Nardon2014). While
handling decision, Tesco stresses on the effort that contribution to the rise in the goodwill of
the organization.

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Thus, in order to get a clear view, the report represents a comparison between the
roles and functions of the leader and Manager in a tabular form:
Leader Manager
The key objective of the leader remains in
guiding the other employees within the
organization.
The main objective of managers lies in
setting the roles within the organization
The responsibility of the leader lies in
communicating with the other employees
according to policies put forward by the
organization
Managers will communicate policies based
on the policies regulated towards the leaders
Leaders emphasizes on entire employees Managers mostly emphasizes on the activity
and things
Leaders play the role of motivating the
employees for achieving the organizational
goals.
Managers helps in allocating work to
employees
P2. Examination of Examples on how Role of Leader and Function of Manager applies
to Different Situational Contexts of the Organisation
The role of leader and function of management constitute the changes and
improvement in the organizational functions of Tesco. It also helps in determining the varied
types of characteristics and traits of the leadership in functioning of the management. The
concept allows for change in the factor that helps in initiating knowledge of managerial
activity. However, the different situations focusing on the organizational effectiveness
including the concept for detailed activity of results is described as follows:

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Stable Scenario: Such situations implies, that the organization will not be prone to
further changes that will have an influence in its purposes and thereby help in maintaining
stability of the results(Scott2015). For instance, if there are no changes in inflation, boom or
recession then the market will remain uniform and stable with creating an influence on the
organization.
Moderate to Slow Changing Scenario: In such a situation changes within the
organization takes place very slowly thereby influencing the factors moderately(McKinley,
Lathamand Braun2014). For instance, a slower rise in the rate of inflation will lead to a slow
or moderate change within the organization.
Fast Changing Scenario: This implies to rapid change taking place within the
organization. In such a scenario the fast changing market environment directly have an
impact within the organization(Palmer, Dunfordand Akin2016). For instances, such changes
are depicted by the rapid changes in the stock marking due to the immense fluctuations in the
NSE and the BSE indices. This will also have influence on the investors.
Tesco has its adaptation made towards the moderate to the slow changing scenario
since it involves varied methods of handling and precautions for safeguarding the purposes of
the organization without majorly influencing the results. Acceptance of such a scenario
allows the functioning of the organization with an emphasis on the organizational benefit.
There are other changing scenarios that act beneficial for Tesco. These include:
External Organizational Changes: Such changes areinfluenced by external forces
that primarily constitutes the action of focusing on the results including regulation of the
government, change in the policy and tax, various economic situations, change of the
competitor and changes in the preference and taste of organization (Foss, Lyngsieand Zahra,

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2013). In regard to Tesco, although the external factors ensured stability but the increase in
the economic factors and the taxes influenced the monetary implications of organization.
Internal Organizational Change:The factors for such a change includes changes in
the management team, financial situation of organization and strategies relating to the
products and the staffing and marketing activities within the organization (Jacobs, van and
Christe-Zeyse2013). In other words, such changes have helped in diversifying the products
and services of Tesco.
In order to deal with slow and moderate changes in Tesco, the management of Tesco
has adopted four functions which include planning, leadin, organizing and controlling. As far
as planning is concerned the organization adopt different planning techniques related to the
resource utilization, budget allocation and the decision making and availability of the
resources. Organizing involves undertaking measuring techniques and economic
development for enabling results. To deal with the situations, Tesco undertakes leading
through motivation of the employees for higher growth. For the control function, Tesco
entails preparing the staffs, reviewing policies and utilization of maximum resources.
As far as leadership is concerned, Tesco adopts a participative style of leadership for
decision making amongst the directive, supportive, participative and the achievement
oriented styles of leadership (Nanjundeswaraswamyand Swamy2014). Directive style of
leadership remains characterized by setting clear rules and objectives for the subordinates
while ensuring that the directions and expectations are understood and clearly defined.
Supportive leadership style helps in reducing the frustration and stress of the employees.
Participative leadership style represents managerial a style that invites inputs from the
employees in all the company decisions. However, the achievement oriented leadership style
is where higher performance is expected and management has higher levels of confidence on

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the ability of the employees. Nevertheless, Tesco has put forward and involved methods that
helps in attaining maximum productivity and strength.
P3. Appling Different Models and Theories of Approach, Including Situational
Leadership, Systems Leadership and Contingency
The section of this report put across different theories and models of leadership that
relates to the various aspects of organization thereby influencing and driving results. The
theories of leadership discussed in this section include situational leadership, systems
leadership and the contingency theory of leader.
The situational leadership theory or model was put forward by Ken Blanchard and
Paul Hersey and known as the life cycle theory of leadership. The key principle of situational
leadership model lies in the fact that there exist no best styles of leadership
(McCleskey2014). The theory presented that effective leadership holds relevance to the task
and most successful leaders represent those who are able to adapt the leadership styles
according to performance readiness of group or the individuals they attempt to influence or
lead. According to this leadership theory, effective leadership not only varies depending on
the group or the person but also on task, job or the function. Tesco adopted the situational
theory of leadership for evaluation of various situations or factors in order to recommend
various actions.
The system theory approach overviews the organization as the open social system that
interacts with the environment for its survival (Rice 2013). In other words, system theory
represented a phenomenon that prevailed to various systems and actions and required to be
followed including the temporal scale and type of the business. It also reflected an
interdisciplinary system of results that included action. In Tesco, the group of employee’s
remains motivated towards the well extended results.

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The contingency theory of leadership was put forward by Fred Edward Fiedler, an
Austrian psychologist (D. Waters2013). The contingency theory emphasizes not only on the
importance of situation within which the leader operates but also on the personality of the
leader. F
The contingency theory of leadership was proposed by the Austrian psychologist Fred
Edward Fiedler. The contingency theory emphasizes the importance of both the leader's
personality and the situation in which that leader operates. Although Fiedler tried to study
various contexts of leadership but he mostly stressed upon themilitary context. The two styles
of leadership outline included task motivation and relationship motivation. There are three
factors that characterize the contingency theory which includes leader member relationship,
position power and the task structure. The relationship between the leader and member deals
with general atmosphere of group and the feelings including loyalty, trust and confidence.
Task structure represents task accomplishment and clarity while the positional power refers to
the authority that the leaders have over the group members. Tesco adopts this theory to
influence the decision handling in relative to the current situation.
P4. Explanation of Key Approaches to Operations Management and Role Played by the
Leaders and Managers
The purpose of the operations management lies in administration of the business
practices for creation of highest efficiency level with the organization. It deals with the
conversion of the labour and the materials into services and goods in an effective manner for
the maximization of profit within the organization. In other words, operations management is
primarily concerned with the planning, supervising and the organizing the contexts of the
production, manufacturing and provision of the services (Fernie and Sparks2014). It is in fact
a delivery focused arena of management that ensures successful conversion of the inputs into

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the outputs in an effective manner. The inputs might include anything from equipment,
material and technology of the human resources that included the workers and the staff.
The approaches to the operations management includes:
Total Quality Management (TQM): This represented a long term procedure for
generation of effective results (Sallis2014). It is based on the innovation undertaken for
building the forces for increasing the organizational standards for the purpose of the
operations management.
Just in Time (JIT): This represented a practical approach towards the strategy
involving inventory for enhancement of employees in increasing the efficiency while
decreasing the amount of goods received in terms of the factor availed for easily predicting
the accurate demand(Hirano2016).
Continuous Improvement: This represented an approach for the development of the
ongoing products along with ensuring further improvements. Such improvement will
however break over time for inducing results.
The description mentioned above explained concepts that allowed the Tesco group in
maintaining productivity thereby leading to the stability of the various factors in order to
ensure a stable organization system. However, the key role of leader in operations
management lay in enhancing the aspects of management by focusing on results and quality
responsible for the supply chain management and ensuring adequate transaction in Tesco.
While the role of themanager in operations management include financial management,
resource allocation, effective communication and goal setting.