Management and Operations: Leaders, Managers, and Business Strategies

This report delves into the critical roles of leaders and managers within an organizational context, specifically using Marks and Spencer as a case study. It differentiates between leadership and management functions, highlighting the importance of both in achieving organizational goals. The report explores various leadership theories, including trait, situational, and autocratic leadership styles, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it examines the application of management functions in diverse situations, such as increasing sales, product development, and implementing change. The report also covers the concepts of operations management, emphasizing its significance in achieving business objectives and discusses environmental factors impacting business decisions. The analysis provides insights into how effective leadership and management contribute to operational efficiency and overall business success.

Management and Operations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and characteristics of leader and manager..............................................................1
M-1 Role of a leader and function of a manager by applying theories and concepts............2
P2 How functions of managers and leaders apply in different situations .............................3
P3 Different theories and models of approach.......................................................................4
M-2 Strengths and weakness of different approaches............................................................5
P4 Various concepts of operations Management...................................................................6
P5 Importance of Operations Management............................................................................8
M3 Impact of leaders and managers on the operational efficiency of business.....................9
P6 Environmental factors and its impact on the business......................................................9
M4 Factors affecting business environment.........................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERNECES:.............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Managers and leaders plays a crucial role in achieving the goals and objections of
organisation. They develop strategies and take decision for performing the activities. They
ensure all employees efforts are integrated together so that common goals and objectives can be
achieved (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus, 2014). Moreover, they assign task to them and evaluate
performance in order to improve their efficiency. This report will show the roles and
characteristics of leaders and managers. It will give description about various leadership theories.
It will give brief about the importance operational management in achieving business objectives.
Also, the various factors that affect the business environment in decision-making.
For undertaking this the organisation selected is Marks and Spencer. The cited firm
belongs to retail sector and operates all over the world. The existence of company on global level
requires experienced managers and leaders in developing business strategies.
P1 Roles and characteristics of leader and manager
Management and leadership differs from each other in various ways. There is huge
difference between functions and roles of manager and leader. But there common purpose is to
achieve goals and objectives of organisation in effective way (Chevalier and et..al 2015).
Different authors have given definitions on this -
Management- Henry Fayol said that management is a process to forecast, plan and organise
activities.
According to Mary Parker Follett management is art of getting things done through
people.
Leadership- It is the ability of individual to influence people or team within an organisation.
Management by objective- It is an approach developed by Peter Drucker that shows that there
must be balance between objectives of employee and organisation. Also, objective must be
determined with the help of employees (Kuhn, Balke and Wood, 2017). This will provide quality
in achieving goals. Its basic goals is to growth and development of employees.
There are many differences between leadership and management functions given by J, Kottler.
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Leadership- It is defined as act of leading a group of people or team. The function of leader is to
motivate employees in achieving their goals. The key traits of leadership includes focus on
change, creating vision, motivating and communicating.
Management- It is defined as controlling and managing activities and people. The function of
manger is to develop processes to be followed. The key traits are developing policies, managing
things and measuring performance.
A manager and leader role differs from each other in various ways. It is described below:-
Managers maintain status- Manager focus on polices and procedures. They ensure that things
are going in same way as defined by them (Burgess, and et..al 2016) They stick with them to
accomplish task.
Leader creates vision- Leaders focus on long term goals thus they create vision. They prefer to
work in team rather than individually whereas mangers set standards for individual employees
and measures their performance.
Relationship- Leader develop relationship with customer and employees by gaining their trust.
On other hand manager creates structure that shows who will communicate to whom.
Risk taking- Leaders often take risk by innovating new process and methods to complete task.
They think outside the box and knows that they will learn something from it. Manager resists
risk taking and develop plans to control situations. They minimise risk by taking appropriate
measures.
Goals- Leader focus on long term goals. They think of the future and act accordingly. While
manager focus on short term goals, they develop plans to achieve them (Krajewski, Malhotra and
Ritzman, 2015). They think that achieving short term goals will lead to long term goals.
Leader coach – Leader knows the skills and abilities of employees, therefore they only guide
them in critical situations. Whereas manager direct employees on how to complete task and
assigns task according to their skills and abilities.
M-1 Role of a leader and function of a manager by applying theories and concepts.
The role of a manger and leader is completely different from each other. Manager is
responsible for making plans and strategies while leader is responsible for motivating employees
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to achieve that plan by guiding them. Manager creates vision but a leader shows the road map
to achieve that vision. Manager leads the whole group while a leader creates groups. Managers
take the credit of task completion whole leader takes the responsibility.
P2 How functions of managers and leaders apply in different situations
The three management roles given by H. Mintzberg are as follows :-
Leader- It is the main role that helps Marks and Spencer to manage and coordinate a team. It
helps in guiding employees to complete task in effective manner.
Entrepreneur- Manager must control change that occurs in M&S . it means that they should
solve problems, develop strategies and implement them. This will help in adopting change
effectively within short time.
Negotiator- This means manager should act like a negotiator and solve issues (Stadtler, 2015).
They need to take part in negotiator process that occurs between departments, employees or
teams.
Every organisation faces critical situations related to business operations and functions.
In order to find solutions of these situations managers and leaders work together and take
effective decisions. They develop strategies and implement them. With this it becomes easy to
achieve goals in effective way. The function of manager can be applied in various situations that
is described below :-
For increasing sales- Marks and Spencer needs to focus on increasing their sales in order to
earn stable profits. For this managers and leaders regularly modifies strategies and plans. This
helps business to change their way of selling products (Agrawal,, Atasu and Wassenhove, 2017).
Manager role is to assign tasks to employees by developing strategies. They provide resources to
employees and develops procedure on how to complete task. While leaders motivates employees
to increase sales. They involve them in decisions making process to share ideas and views. It
helps in identifying strengths and weakness and accordingly leader guides them. Also, leader
role is to enhance employees efficiency so that Marks and Spencer productivity can be
improved. Thus, the overall efforts of manager and leader will be helpful in increasing sales.
Product development- Business needs to develop new products to remain survive in the market.
Product development is also done to attract new customers and increase sales (Laudon and
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Laudon, 2016). The change in taste and preference of customer allows M&S to fulfil their
demands. Manager roles is to develop strategies for individual employees. They distribute roles
and duties and ensure that employees are performing according to it. They develop alternate
strategies and take proper measures to improve weak areas. Leaders on other hand, starts
building relationships with customers, suppliers, etc. to show the changes in products. They
ensure that these people get associate with products so that product awareness can be created in
the market. It helps in increasing product demand that leads to generating profits for company.
Implementation of change- This type of situation is faced by organisation that leads to
changing the overall business operations. It is because process and procedures are changed that
results in changing roles and responsibilities of employees (Sarkis, 2017). These changes have to
be implemented to improve business efficiency. For this manager have to define new roles and
task to employees. They provide resources and develop plans on how change will be
implemented. Moreover, they create polices and procedures to ensure proper communication.
Leaders motivate employees to adopt change. They use different leadership style and guides
them to use complete a task in creative way.
P3 Different theories and models of approach
There are various theories and models of leadership that are followed in different
organisations depending upon the situation. These models and theories are described below:-
Leader traits- It is a scale that consists of eight points such as cooperative, friendly, and other
traits of leaders is measured. Points are given to them according to their qualities and skills. It
shows that the leaders who have achieved high points are referred as relationship oriented leaders
while low pint achieving are known as task oriented (Amornpetchkul, Duenyas and Şahin,
2015). This means that relationship oriented leaders first develop relationship among employees
and then asks them to compete task whereas task oriented focus on completing task and then
develop relationship.
Situational leadership style- It is a style that is followed according to the needs and requirement
of organisation. This is a very flexible style as it can be changed according to situation.
Moreover, leader change this style as it is based on employees skills and abilities. This modifies
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the working of employees and their efficiency. Leader also becomes comfortable by following
this style.
Autocratic leadership style- It is a style in which leader take the decisions alone. Leader do not
allow employee to participate in decision making process. The decision taken by leader is
forcefully implemented on employees without their will. Leader has the authority and power to
solely take decision and impose them (Bartlett and Beamish 2018). It affects the performance of
employees it resists them to work in creative way. But contrary it is useful for those who requires
close supervision as they are not able to perform effectively. This style is generally used when
leaders have to complete goals in specific time period.
Participative style- It is the most common style followed by leader. In this leader values the
inputs of team member in achieving goals and objectives. The employees are allowed to
participate in decision making process. This helps them to share their views and opinions in
completing a task. But, power to take final decision is in the hands of leader (Jacobs, Chase and
Lummus, 2014). Generally, it is followed when changes are made. This allows leader to know
what are the views of employees regarding those changes and how it can be implemented. With
this style changes can be easily adopted within short period.
Strengths of management approach is :-
Approach followed by manager in M&S is active listening. Its strengths are :-
 Manager effectively listened to employee problems and then solved them. By taking all
information manager discussed with them.
 With this employees were able to share their ideas and views. So it helped in identifying
weak areas and improving them.
Weakness:-
 It often leads to misguiding manager as employees provide wrong or incorrect
information (Burgess, and et..al 2016).
 It do not provide an effective way of communicating with manager. This leads to
conflicts among employees.
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M-2 Strengths and weakness of different approaches
The situational leadership style is effective if the decisions are solely taken by leaders but
sometimes it may not be effective because the leaders can take decisions for their benefit and
force employees to follow their decision. Sometimes the leader can take advantage of employees
for fulfilling their goals.
The improved quality of product can help in increasing customer satisfaction. It will
help in long term success of business but as Marks and Spencer belongs to clothing industry the
taste and preferences of customers changes frequently according to the fashion.
P4 Various concepts of operations Management.
Management of operation is related to getting the jobs done by crucial planning,
organising of tasks and utilizing the available resources in the suitable manner so as to achieve
success in the coming years. Operations department is related to governing the production
activities. It is a management discipline which includes finance, sales, marketing and human
resources know how (Bartlett and Beamish 2018). The competitive advantage of any
organization is directly affected by the efficient utilization of available resources in the best
possible manner through satisfying customer needs and wants.
In the words of Peter Drucker, management of operations involves fulfilling certain tasks
and responsibilities by the managers. These basic operations are setting of goals and objectives,
developing people, managing organisational work, motivating employees and communicating
the organisations rules and procedures. On the other hand, the senior most managers are
responsible for defining the mission of the business, setting the standards to perform tasks,
maintaining relationships with external environment and performing only those functions which
are socially feasible (Drucker, 2014). Peter Drucker depicts management as a totally different
discipline which involves setting of objectives and measuring there performance. The key
objectives coined by the influential thinker are: Management by objectives: Peter coined the term 'MBO' which stands for management
by objectives and implies measuring the activities of employees in contrast with the
objectives of the business concern. Communication plays an important in defining
management objectives at all levels of the organisation. Since in this approach, every
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employee knows about his or her objectives, the managerial burden is lessened. It has
been developed to enhance performance at all levels within an organization (Drucker,
2014). Management by objective is an approach that works towards bringing continuous
improvement in the quality of production of the M&S manufacturing company. Six Sigma methodology: The term Six Sigma is defined as a quality program which
enhances the overall customer experiences while lowering the costs and building better
managers. This methods prime focus is on enhancement of quality and measurement of
superiority of the finished product(Drucker, 2015). The main focus of Six Sigma
analysis is on the implementation of a strategy which improvises the quality through
reduction of wastage. The manager implements this strategy while the leader monitors
the working of the methodology. M&S uses the Six Sigma method of evaluating the
output and measuring the defects. SMART method: The term SMART is an acronym which implies Specific, Measurable,
Attainable, Relevant and Timely fulfilment of organisational goals. Drucker emphasizes
on the smart method of working in the organisation so that managers can keep a track of
the performance of its people. It implies checking the specificness of the set objectives ,
measuring its quality, achieving standards and timely completion of activities. Today
every business unit is working towards achieving SMART goals (Drucker, 2008). Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) : This strategy focuses on building new
structures and design which help organization to rebuild processes. It assists in improving
relationships with customers, global competitors and government agencies. BPR radically
help companies to restructure their organizations by focusing on the ground-up design of
their business processes (Cooper, 2013). It is a process of rethinking and redesigning the
old work structure so that organisational vision and mission could be attained thereby
reducing overall cost to company.
 Supply Chain Management: This approach is responsible for the movement of logistics
from the warehouse, to the manufacturing units and finally to the end consumers. Supply-
chain management involves the planning, designing, performing, controlling, and
watching of the tasks of supply chain with the motive of creating net value, forming a
competitive structure, managing supply with demand and checking performance globally.
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M&S manages their supply chain with customer requirements and origin of product
(Business and management, 2016).
P5 Importance of Operations Management.
Operations Management plays a vital role in the success of organization and is
the key department of any organisation. It is part of management which is involved in
creation of goods or services of a company. Operations management is the cognitive process of
utilization of the resources of the establishment in the best possible manner and increasing the
productivity by converting the raw materials into finished products (Sarkis, 2017). Operations
Management in other words is termed as the science and art of managing people, procedures and
methods thereby converting inputs of raw materials into outputs of finished goods and valuable
services. M&S focuses on strengths and weaknesses of process before implementing into the
organisation. It includes total quality management, just in time production and business process
re-engineering. Before it was believed that operations management is important only for
manufacturing units though with time this belief was ruined (James, 2008). The M&S is engaged
in producing men and women clothing, food products and home based articles which requires
specialised machineries as well as it requires to take a special measure about the wastages which
helps in increasing the efficiency and reducing the overall cost to M&S.
 It is responsible for producing managers who are capable of achieving organisational
goals.
 It is the core of an organisation as it controls the basic operations from managing the
company to executing the operations.
 It is chiefly related with planning, organizing and supervising people to change materials
and labour into products and services as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of
an organization.
 It controls the design, operations, and maintenance and improvement of the
manufacturing units used to produce organisations products and services.
 It involves managing other departments activities and roles i.e. finance, marketing, sales
etc.
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 Organisations make good use of its product and services management through Operations
management.
 It includes a wide range of activities starting from the point when a new idea for the
product is developed to eventually provide customer support to those who have
purchased the product.
 Another importance implies maintaining quality of produce which are basically
developed for the customers.
 It involves controlling different activities and coordinating different functions with others
in the organisation.
 Effective management of operations not only reduces cost to company yet it also
enhances the worth of company in the global market.
 The competitive advantage of any organization is directly affected by the efficient of
utilization of available resources in the best possible manner through satisfying customer
needs and wants (Cooper, 2013).
M3 Impact of leaders and managers on the operational efficiency of business.
For the business to carry out its operational activity efficiently needs to focus on the
managerial skills and leadership traits. A strong operational leader knows that employees are a
valuable resource for the company and meeting their goals along with the organisational
objectives empowers the human resource to work efficiently (Burgess, and et.al., 2016). For
instance, if an operations manager sees that production is slowing down, costing the company
revenue, communicating directly with employees might be a better approach.
P6 Environmental factors and its impact on the business.
Business environment is a broader concept which includes external i.e macro and the
internal i.e. micro environment. A companies environment is a mixture of both macro and micro
environment which affects its working through the changes in the environment (Heller, 2008).
The internal environment is consist of customers, suppliers, stakeholders, shareholders,
employees etc. while the external environment comprises of the government, competitors and
international bodies. M&S working is affected by both macro and micro environment. The
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major environmental impact on M&S is changes in the government regulations and advances in
the technology know-how which is the foremost financial barrier to the company. The different
environment and its effects are : External Environment : This environment includes components which cannot be
controlled by the company and affects the decision taking power and growth of the
organisation. These external environment factors are political, economical, legal, social,
and technology (Heller, 2008). Change in consumers taste and preferences, change in
interest rates, change in government policies are key factors affecting growth of
companies. M&S is affected by these external forces. Macro environment factors include:
 Political Factors: It includes amendment in government rules and regulations
which affects the marketing decisions making of the organisation. For instance,
government provide subsidies or decrease in the taxation rate for few business
units which have a positive impact on the organisation. Marks and Spencer
indulge in re-training to keep up to date with new laws or legislations. Changes in
packaging is one of the key aspect to be considered by the company.
 Economic Factors: It The economic environment provides a complex working
environment for business firms which affects the commercial decisions of the
organisation and consumers decision taking power. Marks & Spencer is affected
by the economic circumstances which forced it to close number of stores and cut
job by 2% of their 70,000 staff in total.
 Environmental Factors: Organisation works in an environment where it uses
natural resources for its business operations such as agricultural goods and
remains, forest products etc. Every organisation should use these resources in a
limited manner considering the availability of such resources.
 Technological Factors: It includes advances in technology, new ways, upgraded
manufacturing units and machineries and knowledge required to operate them.
The technology used for producing goods also impact the working of the business
units (James, 2008). M&S spends heavily on advertising so as to create brand
awareness and build loyalty.
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