Leadership and Management: Roles, Functions, Theories, and Operations

This report analyzes the roles and functions of leaders and managers within an organizational context, focusing on their responsibilities in different situations. It explores various leadership theories, including contemporary, management by objective, classical, behavioral, situational, and contingency theories, highlighting their applications. The report further examines key approaches to operations management, such as total quality management, Six Sigma, and lean manufacturing, and discusses the roles of leaders and managers in implementing these approaches. The report uses Unilever as a case study to illustrate the practical implications of these concepts, emphasizing the importance of operational management and the factors that impact decision-making. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and their implications for organizational success.

Management and Operations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Roles of a leader and manager.....................................................................................................3
Functions of leader and manager in different situations..............................................................4
Theories of leadership..................................................................................................................5
The key approaches to operations management and the role of leaders and managers...............7
Importance of operational management......................................................................................8
Factors impacts the operations management...............................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
Online........................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Management and operation both are important for the company. As management manages
the firm and operations manufacture products and also design it. Unilever is the multinational
company which have wide product portfolio. Company manufactures FMCG goods and are
established in many countries. This report will discuss characteristics of manager and leaders.
Functions of leaders and managers will apply on different situations. Further models and theories
of approach will be applied along with key approaches to operations management. This report
will also discuss importance of operations management in attaining business goals and factors
impacting operation management and decision making.
MAIN BODY
Roles of a leader and manager
Leader is an important part in a management system. When there is a group of people
working together to attain a common goal, leadership becomes an essential part in doing so.
Some of the important roles of a leader in achieving success are:
Providing a vision: Having a vision for an organisation is the most basic thing leading to
success. Employees cannot put their efforts for an unknown goal but when they know the goal
they are more focused and recognizetheir role as an individual working for the organisation and
helping in attaining success for the business (Mesdaghinia, Rawatand Nadavulakere, 2019).
Leader helps the employees in finding this vision. A leader is supposed to set goals and policies
to make the team members work with zeal and assurance.
Establish effective organisational structure: Organisational structure is what defines
the organisation. It includes forming an outline for chain of commands and helping in effective
communicating by making some protocols. Employees should know to whom they are supposed
to approach regarding any problems or questions. Leaders are required to develop some
communication protocols to facilitate efficiency and better communication among the people
working in the company (Arifand et.al., 2017). Conducting face to face meetings to solve
problems or for giving ideas and discussing about some of the important matters is a part of
leader’s roles and responsibilities.

Be a role model: Employees look after their leader as a role model. They should be able
to control their anger, avoid taking any rash decisions. If a leader fails to do all this, then
employees do not respect them and will not receive and complete what the leader orders.
Favouring a particular employee always and showing less care for other are factors of destroying
leadership.
A manager is responsible to overlook the department in an organisation. They have look after the
business, manage the stress and the co-workers communicate effectively. Some functions of
manager include, Manager on board the candidates who are best suited for the job profile and
will do best for the company. They take interview for the process of hiring them and then train
them.Managers are responsible for handling all the administrative activities. They coordinate
with all the other departments and manage accordingly. They hold a big role in policy making.
Managers enforce an organisations policies and forming a work environment where employees
are accountable for their own actions (Sainger, 2018). To encourage effective and satisfactory
working conditions, mangers are supposed to evaluate data and look after the performance of
each and every employee.
A manager can also be a leader and vice versa. But there are some points
whichdifferentiate functions and roles of both. Manager focus on things and resources but a
leader’s focus is on its people. Manager wants everything to happen in right way but leaders
want to do things which are right and benefitting the organisation. A good leader inspires its
people to do well and stay motivated whereas a manager is good at planning things in order to
work smoothly. They organize and control every step to work as required but a leader creates an
influence on other people. Managers stay strict to follow the rules and regulations, leaders on the
other hand build the structure and shape entities.
Functions of leader and manager in different situations
Leader and mangers have different roles and responsibilities in an organisation. Managers
direct the process and leaders motivating the employees working for following the procedure.
Leader takes decisions after analysing the condition in market and being updated with the trends.
Organisation can go through many kinds of situations such as being slow or stable (Chiu,

Balkundi and Weinberg, 2017). During such situations the roles and functions of managers and
leaders are different. These situations can be:
Slow: When the development and growth of the organisation is running in slow speed,
any change in the organisation which is slow can result in reduced profits as there is a setback in
the projects and results. When the external factors of organisations are changed, internal
structure of the organisation also changes. If there are slow earned profits in the company then
those results in slow growth in the market and not affect the company in a negative way.
Stable: When the development of the company is moderate or stable, market does not
change very much. These changes do not affect the company as there is no chance of having high
changes and quick decisions can be taken. This way helps in analysing the market in correct way
and there are no changes in the business environment.
Fast: Fast growing market plays an important role for the company (Ashley, Gifford and
Lefebre, 2019). These changes bring new trends and encourage innovation among the industry.
Because of this, there can be some rapid decision making which can be wrong and can affect the
company negatively.
These all changes affect the business in some way. There are changes in the
organisational structure, forming new policies setting up new machinery changing the process
and leading it. Handling these factors helps the company to gain more profits and develop better
position in the market. This also helps the organisation to diversify their range of products and
keep expanding the business. There are several other types of changes which include political,
legal or sociologically changes are analysed by a leader and associated decision is taken to help
the business grow avoiding the risks.
Theories of leadership
Leadership and management are not the same process but they must go hand in hand,
both the roles must have an understanding of behaviour of individuals working in the
organisation in order to create more employee engagement and lead productive workforce.
Leadership and management theories that the organisation follow are given below:
Contemporary theory of management: It is a behavioural or scientific management
approach which focuses mainly on internal process of the organisation. More attention is given
to the organisations to interact with the external processes (Importance of operational

management, 2021). Contemporary theory of management also includes systems theory and
contingency theory. This theory is used by the organisation to manage higher costs if production.
To reduce costs of the supplies, organisation keeps negotiating with the supplier. Leader
motivates its employees to work well with changing suppliers and maintaining performance to
get the desired outcomes.
Management by Objective: This approach helps in improving the performance of
employees by setting some objectives on which employees and management can both work on.
Having a hold in the goal setting process makes the employees participate better and stay
committed towards the company. Managers lead the team for completing the task and
maintaining the standard performance.
Classical management theory: This theory helps in increasing the productivity of the
business. This theory focus in improving continuously in the production sector. It is based on
physical and economic needs of the employee (Bosse and et.al., 2017.). It provides them job
satisfaction and improves the process of working. Organisation follows this leadership style.
Behavioural theory of management: The leadership followed in such approach is
transformational leadership. Managers are supposed to understand human aspect of employees
and consider it as an important aspect in achieving organisation’s goal. Management takes
interest in employees needs and makes them feel an important part of the team. Skills and the
abilities of the workers are closely looked by the leader and there is an effective communication
between employee and its team leader.
Situational leadership: It is a way of blending in a management style to adapt to
changing situations and changing needs of the team. Situational leadership depends on the
abilities of the workers to finish their job in the allotted time period. Organisation uses this
leadership strategy to fulfil the demands according to different situations.
Contingency theory: This theory focus on changing the strategy according to the
changes in situation. This approach supposes that a leader’s working effectiveness is contingent
even when the leadership style may or may not be the best fit in a particular situation. According
to contingency theory, an individual can be effective leader and one incident and not so effective
in other. Organisation uses this approach to get minimum risk where leaders are in spotlight to
make changes and helping the workers cope up with changes in market condition.

The key approaches to operations management and the role of leaders and managers
It is important that for running the business for the longer time and to manage employees
of the company. Managers and leaders should have come with effective technique to manage the
organisation. The business operations of Unilever is dependent on lean production which have
objective to decrease the resource quantity which was using for serving consumers. Approaches
are also helpful in regulating production process and improvising operations of the company.
Approaches are given below:
Total quality management:
For the regular development of the Unilever, it is necessary that there should be regular
development in respect of services and goods of the company (Roth and Rosenzweig, 2020).
According to this approach that development should be brought in the products which are
demanded by customers. Unilever should take customer’s feedbacks before bringing change.
This approach have wide approach. As per the continuous development it will attract more
consumers towards the organisation and help company in increasing sales.
Six sigma approach:
This approach is refer to the quality programmes which is helpful in reducing the cost of
production, making better managers and leaders and also making customers experience better.
This approaches is also useful in improving product’s quality and quantity which is
manufactured by the company. Managers use charts, radios and do calculations which is helpful
in making product’s quality better. Approach is also useful to ascertain the opportunities (De
Boer and Andersen, 2019).
Lean manufacturing:
Everybody knows that in the production process it ends with waste and that waste is thrown by
the organisation. this approach is used to decrease or eliminate the wastage which comes after
production. Unilever uses this approach so that cost of production can be minimized by reducing
the waste which comes from raw material which is used to produce final items. As resources are
limited on earth so it is the duty of company to use resources in proper manner.
Role played by leaders:
The most important role which leaders play is to apply lean production approach so that
organisational goals can be achieved. Leaders also provide direction to their employees so that
they can achieve company’s objectives (Swami and Shankar, 2018). Leaders also motivate their

team members so that their productivity can be increased. Leaders also have responsibility of
boosting employee morale so that their performance can be improved. Leaders also tell their
employees vision of the company so that employees can perform accordingly.
Role played by managers:
Managers have role to manage all the resources of the company which include HR also. To add
lean production in very activity of the company manager can use limited resources effectively
which include money, technology, equipments, time etc. It is duty of managers to convey the
goals which are set by the management to the employees. Managers of Unilever are aware of
issues which facilitate in the organisation and also timely take feedbacks from the employees so
that problems can be solved at same time.
Importance of operational management
Operational management is the process of planning and controlling all the process and
services happening in the organisation. It helps in managing the business by controlling,
supervising goods and services and thus helping the business grow effectively. Every business
needs an operational management system to ensure smooth working. When there is anything
going missing or if there is any kind of trouble, there is always an individual who is technical
and savvy, knows the reason and solution of the issue. In production and manufacturing industry
operational management is necessary for it run successful and reach the desired goals. It is also
important for effective deliveries of the products and the business to run as per planned and
scheduled. The major benefits of operational management in achieving the business effective
are:
Product quality: Customers are soul of working business and providing them with best
quality product is what Unilever aims on. Operational manger has a check list to manage that
everything goes in a certain order. They first checks durability and reliability in the product.
They see the quality of the products which must suit the customer on and after its delivery. Good
quality products give an advantage over the competitor’s products.
Productivity: In normal words, productivity is a ratio of input to the outcomes. This is
the way to check the performance of the employees. Operational management team makes sure
there is a proper staffing in the organisation according to the available resources and therefore,

help in attaining maximum results. An effective management can help in better productivity by
the company.
Customer satisfaction: As said before, customers hold the power to destroy or make a
business successful. Their validation towards the product is very important. Customers getting
the satisfaction they need is the best feeling for an employee or even a manger (Baltaci and
Balcı, 2017). Operational management ensure this to happen by providing them with best quality
of products and services. Customers must be treated well in every situation and every possible
way to make the company thrive and be a success.
Reducing operation costs: With the help of having increased productivity, satisfied
customers and serving quality products, the servicing cost is reduced to a maximum level. This
in turn leads to increase in revenue of the company. Only operational management can make this
to happen. In the process of reducing costs on operations, there is also a reduction in waste. The
products are produced as how much they are required with the help of proper operational
management.
Factors impacts the operations management
There are many factors which impact the decision making of leaders and manager in the
organisation. Apart from this, operations management also have to face difficulties due to several
factors.
Competition
Competition is one of the biggest factor which is giving threat to the operations management of
the organisation and also it puts negative impact on the decision making of leaders and managers
(Hill, A.V., 2021) . Global competition among companies are getting increased day by day.
Every company is trying to sale the product two customers on cheap prices and also want to
provide high quality product so that companies can create a large customer base. So it becomes
necessary for Unilever to produce quality product and win the hearts of customers. As Unilever
is one of the big organisation in retail product and it deals in global market so this company has
to face global competition. This is the responsibility of operations management that they increase
the online sale of Unilever's product through which it can provide better product and desired
product to customers.
Social and environmental responsibility

To enhance the market share and goodwill most of the companies are indulge in doing good for
the society and environment. This is also a factor which affects the operations management of
the company. Apart from this, managers have to make sure about CSR activity while making any
decision for the company. As Unilever is continuously working for the well fare of the society
and environment. To protect the environment Unilever uses recycled product in the packaging.
Apart from this company is using renewable energy in their offices to protect the environment.
Besides this company is working for society as well, Unilever provides various teaching and
training sessions to the youngsters and make them job ready so that they can increase their living
of standard and also the income. So this is in the hands of operations management how they
maintain the CSR and its expenses in the company. By providing better CSR activity this
company can increase its market share specially in developing countries and in those countries
where Unilever is not present.
Ethics of business
Every company has its own business ethics which the employees have to follow. So this is the
responsibility of operation management that they ensure that all the employees must the code of
ethnic and produce the quality proud for the company. With the help of proper and maintained
ethics, organisation can create more better and healthy environment. Apart from this leaders and
manager also have to discuss such code of ethics to the employees so that they may work
appropriately.
Technology and its expansion
It is one of the key factor which impacts the operations management of Unilever. As it is
necessary for the company to expand its technology so that they can produce more quality
product. This is in the hands of operations management that they provide better training and
knowledge to the employees so that they can use advanced and modern technology.
CONCLUSION
Through this report it can be concluded that managers and leaders play vital role and have
responsibilities in order to achieve business objectives. Report has mentioned different roles and
function of leaders and managers applied in different business situations. Theories of approaches

are also applied which include situational and systems leadership and contingency. Report has
also analysed key approaches to operation management role of both leaders and managers play in
company. Operation management also have impotent role in order to achieve goals of the
company. Factors are also accessed which impact operation management and decision making.

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Online
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