Leadership and Management: A Sainsbury's Perspective

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and management, contrasting the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers within an organizational context, specifically using Sainsbury's as a case study. The report explores various leadership theories, including situational, system, and contingency leadership, and their practical applications. It delves into the functions of managers and leaders in different situational contexts, such as employee turnover and conflict management, highlighting how they respond to these challenges. Furthermore, the report examines key approaches to operations management and its importance in achieving business objectives. Finally, it discusses factors within the business environment that impact operational management, offering a holistic view of leadership and management practices.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1 ................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and characteristics of a leader and manager.................................................................1
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................3
P2 Role of a leader and the function of a manager in various situational contexts.....................3
P3 Leadership Theories................................................................................................................4
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................6
P 4 Key Approaches to Operations Management........................................................................6
P 5 Importance and Value of Operations Management in Achieving Business Objectives........8
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9
P6 Factors Within Business Environment that Impact Upon Operational Management.............9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Management is a process which includes decision-making, organizing, planning, leading,
motivating and controlling which helps businesses to achieve their objectives and goals.
Operations are methods or working which will make the management come into practice. Roles
of leaders and managers within an organization are different from one another which leads to
better functioning within system. Managers control on all employees in organization and leaders
have a control on few employees in structure so that they can supervise employees well and
make them achieve their objectives from time to time.
Sainsbury's is a public limited company which is having its headquarters in London,
United Kingdom. Number of employees working in establishment are 186,900 and is marked as
third largest company in world.
Report would be discussing upon differences between managers and leaders regarding
their characteristic and roles, functioning of two and theories for leadership will also be
discussed in report. Different approaches which are being used by managers and leaders and
their roles in them. Leaders and managers have different roles and functions in each situation
which will also be discussed in the further report.
LO 1
P1 Roles and characteristics of a leader and manager
Leader and manager are salient part of an organization. They work together for success of
organization.
Leader: Leader is defined as the ability and efficiency of an individual to motivate others for
encouraging them to achieve certain goals or to accomplish specific tasks (Abugre, 2020).
Manager: ''A manager is a person who is proficient in leadership, mentorship and
ambassadorship as well as accountable for “managing the company” (Reichard and Johnson,
2011).
CHARACTERISTICS OF MANAGER
To be an efficient manager, a person should avail following qualities in it:
 Experience: An efficient manager is highly experienced and skilled in order to excel in
management.
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 Knowledge: Along with experience a manager also have good amount of knowledge with
an eligible degree and proper certifications in management field. Reliable: A manager who is leading a team is well grounded and available for employees
and provides continuous support to team.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADER
An employee of organization is regarded as a good leader when following attributes are
part of its character;
 Courage: A leader has moral courage to stand one's judgement and risk loss of power,
position or reputation. Moral courage helps leader to overcome fear and take
responsibility for their own actions.
 Optimism: Looking for silver lining, opportunities and possibilities in every situation is a
trait good a good leader. “We can do this” attitude is always shown by leader towards all
chances provided by organization.
 Self-control: Making choices and accepting their outcome are qualities of a good leader.
Leaders are always aware of what to do and what not to do.
Similarities:
There are certain features which are common between manager and leader and this accounts for
their similarity. Some of them are detailed here -
 Supervision- A leader supervises group of people or a team for better functioning and
guidance which is same with manager whose supervision make management an easy job
(Swanwick, 2019).
 Communication- Both managers and leaders adopt effective communication methods to
develop better relationship with employees, for completion of a task. Effective
communication skills are also common trait among leaders and managers so that they can
achieve organizational goals effectively.
 Evaluation- A manager manages its team and evaluates their function time to time and
also leader evaluates employees of working team.
COMPARISON OF ROLES
There are points which make manger and leader similar but still they differ in their roles
and responsibilities at various aspects. Few points have been discussed here -
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Roles:
Basis Manager Leader
Goals A Manager's role is to set goals and put
down operational plans in an
organization.
Leader helps employees to take
part in achievement of goals
plans.
Issue/
Implementation
Manager allot resources to organization
for their use.
Leader provides direction for
efficient use of resources for
better result in an organization.
Risk management Manager attempt to avoid and control
problems. They work to cut down risk.
Leader is inclined towards
taking risk in order to try new
things.
Focus Managers focus on system and process
and ensure that systems are in place to
attain desired outcomes.
Leader focuses on people.
They influence employee in
order to perceive company's
vision.
Authority and
power
Manager’s focus on building
subordinates and thus they hold their
authority and power to themselves only
so that tasks can be accomplished
effectively and on time.
Leaders focus on building
followers thus they empower
others by giving their authority
and power to others.
Hard management skills refers to strong controlling forces which are certain in work
while soft leadership skills denotes that management at upper level is malleable and weak.
Management skills are prioritized over leadership skills and thus hard skills are greatly specific
to the functional areas. Most of the managers focus on developing functional expertise instead of
skill development and thus skills possess by them refers to hard skills which are solid and firm
and are considered as essential for the development. According to Mintzberg successful
managers play three types of roles within organization which are interpersonal roles,
informational role and decision roles. Within information role managers perform the role of
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monitoring, dissemination and spokesperson. On the other hand in interpersonal role managers
must act as figurehead, leaders or liaison depending upon various organisational situations or
needs. In critical situations managers are also required to take decision in the role of
entrepreneurs, negotiator, and resource allocator and disturbance handler.
LO 2
P2 Role of a leader and function of a manager in various situational contexts
Leader and manager have different ways of reacting to a situation faced by Sainsbury.
Here, a discussion has been made on two of them which are Employee Turn Over and Conflict
management. These two are very common situations faced by Sainsbury's.
The managerial functions include various roles which demands for different response from
managers and leaders.
Planning: It is the responsibility of managers to plan the execution sequence and strategy to deal
with different situations within organization.
Organizing: Managers also organizes the resources and teams so that tasks can be achieved
effectively.
Commanding: The goals can be accomplished when each employee works effectively within
organization. Thus, managers give command to other employee's so that professional goals can
be accomplished.
Controlling: Control is an essential aspect to ensure that all tasks are performed effectively.
Thus, managers also use various tactics such as motivation, supervision to control the quality of
organizational functions.
Coordinating: It is the responsibility of managers to ensure that there is coordination between all
organizational tasks so that organizational goals can be achieved.
These functions of managers are performed in various organizational situations such as:
EMPLOYEE TURNOVER: A low employee turnover is one of the primary goal of
Sainsbury's. Hygiene issues, better work atmosphere, low salary, job type, toxic behaviour, lack
of extra-curricular activities, are various issues faced by employee in company.
 Manager of Sainsbury talks to employee about things other than work responsibilities.
This makes employee identify problems that are being faced and thus manager could
form personal relationship with employees. Manager put efforts on making workplace
more efficient by conducting various activities in office. The services and facilities
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provided by Sainsbury's should be improved by manager (Zaccaro, Dubrow and Kolze
2018). In Sainsbury's manager wisely use incentives and bonuses and incentives.
 Leader tries to know about capabilities of employee in team and tries to adjust
responsibilities according to their interest. Whenever team feels demotivated, leader on
its best tries to give best to make employee in Sainsbury's feel motivated. It is duty of
leader to fill employee with energy and positivity to do work. From time to time,
motivational and subjective training has been provided to employees in Sainsbury by
leaders in supervision of managers.
Conflict management: Some reasons like poor communication, lower compatibility between
employees, lack of planning, poor staff selection can lead to dispute between employees which
are not resolved, could result in big issues.
 Manager at Sainsbury's conduct identification test to check compatibility between people
like personality profiling etc. Arrangement of employees is done by giving demographic
preferences by manager. Managers are accountable for documenting employee
performance. It is work of manager to listen to both sides of conflict, determine real issue
and cease conflicts as soon as possible. When dispute has been sorted at the end
employees are taught how to communicate in a better way so that no more case of dispute
arises again.
 Leaders have ability to hear and resolve reason of conflicts between two or more
people/team at Sainsbury's even at low trust environment. Leaders first diagnose conflict
properly and then act accordingly. Unique skills of both parties at company are given
equal respect. While addressing team at Sainsbury, leader keeps in mind to address
people keeping everyone's point of view. They are so abled to manage conflict effectively
and gain back trust and understanding between employees again.
P3 Leadership Theories
Situational leadership
This theory refers to leadership traits where leaders use flexible working styles in
supervising team members and subordinates and develop their decisions based on situations
arising in organization. It is not based on specific skill of leader but allows flexibility to modify
the styles to suit requirements of company. It allows leaders to build adaptability in their
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functioning to meet dynamic changing needs of operational structure and the employees. These
leaders must be built insights and capabilities to enhance their leadership style in guiding team
members and increase the productivity levels of company. Sainsbury's being one of the largest
retail industry faces various situations where leaders need to adapt their skills and decision taking
skills according to various situations emerging in changing business scenario and company look
forward to preparing staff for future leadership and managerial roles.(Huertas-Valdivia, Gallego-
Burín, and Lloréns-Montes, 2019). Advantages- Situational leadership allows company leaders to work with efficiency in all
situations, in competitive industry companies face various situation where leaders need to
build strong situational leadership. Disadvantages- Leaders do not considerate important priorities and communication styles
of other employees while implementing this style. It diverts their attention from long term
strategies and policies which hinders effective growth of organization.
System leadership
This theory refers to leaders with traits of flexible working skills, strong interdependency
learning to enhance strong dynamic culture in organization. It enables leaders in company to
create conditions where people in all hierarchies can work productively to their full potential.
Leader motivates team members and subordinates with principles of human behaviour for high
performance standards with system design, social process (Kuri and Kaufman, 2019). Leaders at
Sainsbury through system leadership can build strong stakeholder engagement with continuous
communication to build trust, commitment and collaboration by adopting the concept of system
leadership theory. Advantages- It enables leaders to build strong ethics of working standards among team
members with strong communication skills and collaborative interpersonal learning
opportunities. Disadvantages- High transactional costs and long time frames with ambiguous outcomes
makes it difficult for leaders at times to adopt these traits.
Contingency leadership
It refers to leadership traits where manger adopts the best management style depending
on context of situation. Contingency approach of leadership helps leaders to adopt management
activity such as planning, controlling, leadership of company which are completely dependent on
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changing business scenario. It allows employees to grow within the high dynamic business
culture and share their ideas to management teams which enable them to build strong decision-
making skills. Leaders at Sainsbury with contingency leadership traits can build an adaptive
organizational structure to plan decision systems effectively with higher profit margins (Powers,
2019). Contingency leadership allows leaders to develop their leadership traits while supervising
team member on 4 maturity levels: telling, selling, participating and delegating which ranges
from incompetence levels to willingness and ability in performance. Advantages- Leaders have dynamic learning opportunities while working with
contingency situations which develops the overall organizational structure efficiently.
 Disadvantages- It is a complex approach and is basically reactive in nature, which when
applied to practical situations in organisation becomes hard for implementation along
with long term sustainability (Worthy, Dawson and Tavakoli, 2020).
LO 3
P 4 Key Approaches to Operations Management
Operation management is to create the highest level of efficiency within organization
with an administration of professional business practitioners (Business Idea Genius, 2019). For
managing the operations, a number of models are used by managers of Sainsbury for the
managers and leader to consider to have an efficient work force for themselves which are
described below (Salvi, 2020).
 Just in Time
This is most effective way of planning of operations for Sainsbury's, that helps managers
to minimize waste and utilize resources efficiently. Supplies in the company are limited which is
why there has to be a better planning in Sainsbury's to have a better method of using the limited
resources well. Planning will lead to having limited supplies and not those products which are
not going to come in use for the organization (Kalkanci, Rahmani and Toktay, 2019). Sainsbury's
must understand customers demand and need they have from company so that there is exact
number of supplies which are coming in establishment and not extra which will not be used and
will go for a waste. Leader by applying the model of JIT in operations management, can make
list of required resources and managers can recheck the same. This will help Sainsbury's to get a
competitive advantage which is a very important factor for establishment since there is a lot of
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competition in market. This approach is going to be really effective and efficient in Sainsbury's
because there is a saving of cost and demands are being met from time to time which is going to
be very helpful (Wilson, 2016).
 Six Sigma
Six sigma is used in organizations so that there is improvement in company in a lot of
way possible which is a very good factor and an advantage for organization. Before making any
decisions for company there has to be a consideration about internal and external factors so that
decisions can be made for best of results. Six sigma helps establishment to improve quality of
products which are being made in organization which will help Sainsbury's to have a competitive
advantage in market (Ham, 2018). Leaders and managers will be able to guide employees well
and objectives and aims will be met easily which is a very important factor for Sainsbury's.
Managers will have to make decisions for making this model be used in organization so that they
can have a better understanding and direction to achieve this factor faster. This approach will
help establishment understand troubles which is coming in front of organization and define it so
that they can over come trouble professionally which is very important in Sainsbury's because
they maintain their standards all time. Leaders have to make sure that the measures which the
management is making for the employees to follow are being made which the employees will
accept so that there are no chances of conflicts which affects the productivity of Sainsbury's (del
Rosario Pérez-Salazar and et.al., 2017).
 Lean Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing deals with waste which is being let out by industries in market. This
model helps organizations so that they can reduce their production of waste and have a
contribution towards making of world a better place to live in. Managers of Sainsbury's make
decisions according to lean manufacturing so that establishment can function better and decisions
will be able to have a positive impact. Managers have to find the best way to apply this model in
the functioning and production of the products so that the waste outlet is lesser. Leaders of
Sainsbury's have to implement these decisions by managers into action so that objectives and
aims of company can be met easily so that there is an effective growth in market. Control of
managers and leaders in Sainsbury's should be strong so that they can achieve their objectives on
time and have a better portfolio for themselves. This will help organization have a better
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standards for themselves and will be able to maintain quality of products which are being
produced in Sainsbury's (Collis and Hussey, 2017).
P 5 Importance and Value of Operations Management in Achieving Business Objectives
It is important for Sainsbury's to have a strong management for themselves which are
making right decisions for long run in market. Having an experience, knowledgeable and skilled
management workforce for themselves therefore they are being able to function so effectively
and efficiently (Christopher, 2016).
 Objectives
There are a set of objectives and aims which are set by management of Sainsbury's for
employees and leaders of company so that they have one direction while working. For a quicker
functioning managers break objectives down for leaders and leaders further break it down for
employees which increases productivity in Sainsbury's (Shokri, Waring and Nabhani, 2016).
Managers make sure that objectives are being worked up and are being completed from time to
time and leaders work according to expectations of managers since they are accountable to them.
 Labour
Managers have to make sure that leaders are motivated so that they can motivate
employees who they are commanding upon. There has to be good relationship between leader
and mangers and leaders and employees because communication gap will not be able to make
company reach their objectives. Team work is very important in Sainsbury's therefore leaders
and managers are trying to make them work which would lead to a faster functioning in
organization (Netland and Powell, 2016). Since there are a lot of changes like technological and
policy change which are being made by the managers the leaders have to make sure that they are
having a good relationship with employees so that they can make the changes come in
Sainsbury's effectively.
 Cost
Management has to make sure that decisions which are being taken by them are very
good so that they can save on cost and invest that cost for something more effective for
Sainsbury's. There are reports which are prepared by managers so that they have a detail
understanding as to how they can save cost and make future decisions accordingly. There are a
lot of future plans for expansion and other factors which Sainsbury's have for themselves which
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they need to achieve so that they can have a better capture over market and increase revenue
generation (Bilovodska, Syhyda and Saher, 2018). Demand will affect cost of products which is
if demand go higher than products will be priced higher than well. Managers of Sainsbury's
knows how to make decisions for growth of establishment which is going to be very beneficial.
 Resources
Limited resources are present in world therefore using resources wisely is very important
therefore managers and leaders have to come up with strategies so that they can fulfil demands of
customers and also use resources in a manner which is for a long term (Szepan, 2018). Managers
must know where and how resources are being used in company so that they can have a better
functioning for themselves and organization will be able to have loyal customers. There has to be
equal revenue generation throughout therefore it is very important for them to have a good
method of using their resources well.
 Productivity
It is very important for managers to make sure that employees are productive with their
work and are meeting with demands of customers from time to time (Twining and et.al., 2017).
Managers have to make decisions so that they can make the productivity level of the employees
improve. There is good level of productivity in organization which is leading to companies
benefit and it is due to effective leaders work which is they are being able motivate employees
correctly. There is always a personal and professional growth of employees and Sainsbury's with
this factor because they will be able to meet needs and demands of them.
LO 4
P6 Factors Within Business Environment that Impact Upon Operational Management
 Business Ethics
Updates about changes in organization has to be known by manager of Sainsbury's so
that government policies can come in organization effectively and employees have a clarity of
functioning. Treating the employees is the ethics which Sainsbury's has been following from a
long time now so that they can make the employees feel comfortable in the company and that is
done by the managers (Kotler and et.al., 2019). Managers and leaders pay attention to all
employees and help them where and when required so that they can function properly.
 Value
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