Report on Management and Operations: Unit 4 Analysis and Discussion

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of management and operations, focusing on the roles of managers and leaders within an organization, using Sainsbury as a case study. It delves into the differences between management functions and leadership roles, supported by various management theories and models. The report explores the applications of leadership and management in different situational contexts, such as product launches and conflict management, and discusses various leadership approaches including situational, systems, and contingency leadership. Furthermore, the report examines the key approaches of operations management and its significance in achieving business objectives, along with an assessment of how leaders and managers can improve operational efficiency. It also analyzes the factors within the business environment that affect operational management and decision-making. The report concludes with an evaluation of the applications of operations management and the factors that impact the business environment.

Unit 4 - Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1) Describe how functions of managers are different from role of leaders.........................3
M1) Analyse difference between roles and functions of managers with suitable theories....6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P2) Discuss the applications of role of leader and functions of managers in context of different
situational context...................................................................................................................6
P3) Discuss theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency..................................................................................................10
M2) Asses the strengths and weakness of difference approaches to situations within work
environment..........................................................................................................................13
D1) Analyse and evaluate different approaches and theories of leadership in given context13
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................13
P4) Discuss the key approaches of operations management along with the role of managers
and leaders............................................................................................................................13
P5) Explain significance and values of operations management in achieving business
objectives..............................................................................................................................15
M3 Measure how leaders and mangers can improve the efficiency of operational management
for attaining business objective............................................................................................18
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................19
P6 Examine the factors within business environment that affects operational management and
decision making by managers and leaders...........................................................................19
M4 ) Assess how these different factors affects the business environment and wider
communities.........................................................................................................................20
D2) Evaluate the applications of operations management along with the factors that impact
business environment...........................................................................................................20
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................22

INTRODUCTION
Management is consider as an essential activity that is carried out in order to manage all
the business functions in an efficient manner. It is a wide concept that comprises ample of
activities from planning to controlling to ensure future growth and success of entity.
Management is to operate, run as well as control several business functions in an appropriate
way to attain predefined goals and objectives (Ahmed and et.al., 2018). Here operations
management is consider as a crucial function to make optimum utilization of available resources
within company. It comprise different activities to enhance the overall productivity and
efficiency of entity by minimizing cost of production. Further the report is based on Sainsbury
that is a retailing company has headquarter in UK. It owns a chain of retail stores to serve
domestic as well as international audience. Organisation was founded in the year of 1869 by
John James. It provides a range of groceries and general items to the customers of different
countries. The report is carries out with an aim to deliver overall prospective about management
and operations techniques within a company. The role of leader and functions of manager along
with necessary theories are included in the following report. In addition, it tend to comprises
ample of theories as well as models and concept pertaing to management and leadership along
with their applications. Further, importance of operations management are also discussed in
report along with the tools that are essential to operate business effectively.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
P1) Describe how functions of managers are different from role of leaders
There are ample of management theory that are used by managers to manage workforce
in an efficient manner. In context of Sainsbury different management approaches are mentioned
below:
Management by objectives- It refers to alien business objectives with individuals
objectives working in company in order to maintain better coordination at work place. Managers
of Sainsbury formulate objectives and convey it to employees so that they get motivated and
work for the betterment and growth of entity (Belvedere and Grando, 2017).
Behavioural Management Theory: Here, managers prepare effective strategies in order
to manage human resources within company in a better manner. It refers to understand the

behaviour, needs, wants of employees to enhance their productivity and efficiency and motivate
them accordingly. There are certain models such as Maslow, Mayo and more which are applied
by Managers of Sainsbury to retain human resources with entity for a longer period of time.
Further, it is also essential to maintain a positive environment at work place.
Classical management: Here, managers believe that employees only have physical and
economical needs. As per this, there are predefined ways to work which need to adopt in order to
get work done on time. Here main aim of managers is to earn profit due to this they treat
employees like other resources and do not pay attention over working conditions. In context of
Sainsbury, managers use different classical approaches such as Scientific management,
Bureaucratic and Administrative management with some modifications in order to manage work
force in better manner within entity (Chary, 2017).
Managers are the person who undertake ample of managerial as well as administrative
activities to manage various business activities effectively. In addition, they are the key persons
and prepare effective strategies and plans for the success of entity. For this managers of
Sainsbury perform below mentioned functions:
Planning: Here, managers prepare make anticipations about future circumstances and
make appropriate strategies to minimize the impact of uncertainties. In addition, it also helps to
grab the opportunities of growth and success that may occur in upcoming years. In context of
managers of Sainsbury, prepare plans and policies to ensure higher profitability of entity.
Organizing: In this, all the resources within company are organised in an appropriate
way. Here, management team of Sainsbury ensure to make effective use of available resources to
maintain operational efficiency within organisation.
Staffing: To perform various business task, it is imperative to hire and select potential
candidates (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). It will help to achieve predefined objectives in
stipulated period of time. In this regard, managers of Sainsbury select best suitable and qualified
applicants from internal as well as external sources to meet with organisational requirements.
Directing: Here, managers provide appropriate direction, suggestions to employees to
resolve their issues. To achieve predefined objectives, it is crucial to guide as well as lead human
resources on timely basis. In Sainsbury, managers prepare suitable strategies to maintain
effective coordination at work place.

Controlling: Here, standards are formulated to keep proper control over the performance
of employees at work place. Management team of Sainsbury evaluate the work of human
resources on timely basis in order to take necessary corrective actions for further improvements.
Leaders are the person who guide, motivate as well as lead followers to perform better to
attain predefined goals (Filimonau and Delysia, 2019). They communicate with employees on
regular basis to keep them motivate and maintain effective co-ordination at work place. Roles of
leaders in references of respective organisation are given as under:
Developing vision: Leader put a great influence on followers by providing necessary
institution and guidance to them. In addition, leaders of Sanisbury are responsible to develop
vision and goals for employees so that they work to achieve it.
Motivation: To enhance the productivity and effectiency of human resources, it is
significant to motivate them on timely basis. Motivated employees tend to work for the
betterment and success of entity. In context of Sainsbury, leaders of respective entity inspire
workforce by providing them various benefits such as incentives, rewards and many more.
Comparison between roles and functions of managers and leaders:
Managers Leaders
Manners of respective entity prepare policies
and strategies in order that are essential to
attain predefined goals and objectives.
Here, leaders maintain effective
communication with employees and make
them aware about organisational plans and
policies.
All the important decisions are taken by
managers. In addition, they perform various
function to make effective use of available
resources (Gibson and Parkman, 2018).
Leaders convey the policies to subordinates
and continuously guide and coordinate with
them in order to minimize conflicts arises at
work place.
Leadership role: There are different roles are played by leaders in organisation which are given
as under:
Interpersonal role: Here leaders are responsible to interact, communicate with followers on
regular basis in order to know their problems and resolve them in an efficient manner. It refers
the relationship of leaders with others individuals who are working in company.

Here main roles of leaders are as Figurehead, liaison and more.
Informational roles:
Monitor: In this leaders are responsible to monitor the work of subordinates on
continuous basis in order to guide and lead them.
Disseminatior: Here, main responsibility of leader is to provide necessary information to
subordinates.
Spokesperson: In this, leader represent organisation in front of external parties who affexct
business performance.
Decisional role:
Entrepreneur: Here, leaders need to have capabilities to undertake necessary innovation
and risk to evolve new & advance products.
Disturbance handler: Under this, leaders are responsible to handle adverse situational
arise at work place in an efficient manner.
M1) Analyse difference between roles and functions of managers with suitable theories
There are several theories such as management by objectives, behavioural theories are
used by managers of respective company to operate business successfully. They are responsible
to prepare appropriate plans and policies to run organisation in better manner. For this, they keep
proper control over resources. Whereas leaders of Sainsbury also undertake different leadership
styles to influence employees within company. Further, they coordinate, communicate with
subordinates to keep to resolve their issues on timely basis.
TASK 2
P2) Discuss the applications of role of leader and functions of managers in context of different
situational context
Managers and leaders both are crucial part of an organisation as they are responsible to
handle various situations occurs at work place in proper manner with their expertise and
knowledge (Grisales-Noreña, Montoya and Ramos-Paja, 2020). Here, performance of employees
are influenced by guidance of both managers as well as leaders. In this regards, some crucial

situations that may occur at work place and roles of leaders and managers implied in those
circumstances are mentioned below:
SITUATION 1: PRODUCT LAUNCH
Presently, Sainsbury is looking forward to introduce a new product in market place in
order to enhance its customer base. Managers of entity are producing organic products to meet
with the recent trends and requirements of consumers. For this, they carry out extensive market
research in order to develop innovative and unique goods to sustain at market for longer run.
Role of leaders:
In this, role of leader is to developing effective strategies, visions for team so that they
get a proper direction to work (Guo, 2016). They also inspire human resources to enhance their
morale throughout the process. Here, leaders are also responsible to provide necessary
information to employees in terms of goals, objectives of company to keep them updated and get
necessary support to launch a new product.
Functions of Managers
In this reference, managers are responsible to prepare effective strategies to achieve
predefined goals. In addition, they also allocate the work to employees as per their skills and
knowledge in order to keep them motivated and make effective use of available resources.
Managers also assign task to human resources related to launch of new product. They are
responsible to place right person at right place in order to keep them motivated and make the
launch a success.
SITUATION 2: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
There are ample of employees belong from different background, culture work together
within organisation (Gupta, Yan and Jain, 2019). Thus, there are higher possibilities to arise
conflicts at work place because different persons may have different prospective on a particular
concept. It is analysed that Sainsbury is a global brand, here employees come from different
backgrounds work together that may arise conflicts and ambiguity within company.
Role of leaders:
Here, role of leader is to communicate with work force on timely basis in order to resolve
their issues and maintain effective coordination at work place. In addition, leaders also need to

ceratin steps such as formulation of informal groups so that employees get a chance to know
each other. This practice is essential to minimize ambiguity among human resources and attain
predefined objectives. Further, leaders need to adopt such an effective organisational structure
that facilitate better communication between superiors and subordinates within entity. They need
to have empathy in order to understand problems faced by staff and provide appropriate solutions
(Johnstone, 2016).
Functions of Managers:
Managers of Sainsbury are required to understand various situations arises during work
and act accordingly to minimize internal conflicts and disputes. Here managers are required to
collect necessary information and data to provide proper solution of various problems arise
during work. They need to maintain better relationship with subordinates and try to maintain
such kind of environment at work place where employees can interact with each other in best
possible way. In addition, it is the role of managers to keep proper control over activities of
employees to achieve predefined objectives.
Stable situation: In this, organisation work as per predefined manner and avoid new &
evolve practices. Here, managers generally avoid changes and stick with predefined ways of
work.
Slow to moderate: Here, companies adopt changes but gradually. Managers understand
the importance of change and adopt it as per requirement.
Fast changing situational: In this situation, unique as well as innovate approaches are
adopted by organisation to provide better products and services to customers. It helps to provide
higher competitive edge to organisation.
It is analysed that Sainsbury is working in fast changing environment where it adopts
advance techniques such as automation, digital approaches to survive at market place for longer
run. There are several changes has been made in current government policies, tax regime and
many more. In UK, Brexit has bring several changes. In addition, customers expectation, their
buying behaviour is also getting change. Now, they prefer to shop online rather from physical
stores. For this, Sainsbury execute necessary changes in its existing policies and approaches to
operate effectively.
There are several internal elements such as expectation of employees, their behaviour,
financial situational, marketing strategies and more. It is analysed that Sainsbury has been

adopted several changes in its existing marketing plan. Now, managers more rely on digital
marketing practices rather traditional approaches to attract more number of customers. In Stable
situation: In this, organisation work as per predefined manner and avoid new & evolve practices.
Here, managers generally avoid changes and stick with predefined ways of work.
Slow to moderate: Here, companies adopt changes but gradually. Managers understand
the importance of change and adopt it as per requirement.
Fast changing situational: In this situation, unique as well as innovate approaches are
adopted by organisation to provide better products and services to customers. It helps to provide
higher competitive edge to organisation.
It is analysed that Sainsbury is working in fast changing environment where it adopts
advance techniques such as automation, digital approaches to survive at market place for longer
run. There are several changes has been made in current government policies, tax regime and
many more. In UK, Brexit has bring several changes. In addition, customers expectation, their
buying behaviour is also getting change. Now, they prefer to shop online rather from physical
stores. For this, Sainsbury execute necessary changes in its existing policies and approaches to
operate effectively.
There are several internal elements such as expectation of employees, their behaviour,
financial situational, marketing strategies and more. It is analysed that Sainsbury has been
adopted several changes in its existing marketing plan. Now, managers more rely on digital
marketing practices rather traditional approaches to attract more number of customers. In
addition, due to current pandemic situation sales of entity has been also declined which affects its
financial position. Therefore, managers need to make necessary changes in their current policies
in order to survive at market place for long duration.
Impact of changes of organisational function:
Planning: Here, company need to make effective strategies and plans to operate business
in fast changing environment.
Organising: In this, managers are need to divide the work between employees in a
specific manner and allocate resources effectively to attain predefined goals.
Controlling: In this, managers need to keep proper control over the activities and
functions of human resources to operate business in highly changing environment. It is a time
taking process.

P3) Discuss theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency
Leaders are crucial part of an organisation and play an important role in overall
development and success of company. They tend to lead, guide and motivate employees to
enhance their productivity and efficiency. Here several theories are developed that are helpful for
leaders and assist them to maintain effective relationship with subordinates. In context of
respective entity , some are given as under:
Situational leadership theory:
In organisations, different situations are arise which need to manage effectively by
providing proper direction to employees so that they can perform assigned task in better manner.
In this, leaders prepare strategies to deal with uncertain and contingent situation which may arise
at work place (Konstantinopoulos and et.al., 2018). Here a significant leadership style such as
Heresy-Blanchard are opt to manage human resources efficiently. Under this, leaders are allowed
to act and take instant decisions to handle different situations arise at work place. It provides
huge flexibility to leaders to enhance the productivity and efficiency of work force in order to
attain organisational goals. Further as per this framework, four crucial styles of leadership are
adopted by leaders of Sainsbury to deal with situation. These are mentioned below:

Telling and Directing: It shows proper guidance and support from leaders by monitoring
the work of employees within company. With this, leaders of Sainsbury provide appropiate
training to new employees who recently joined the company by making closely supervising and
monitoring their work. It helps to provide clarity to work force in terms of their job roles and
responsibilities (Lee, 2018).
Participating and Supportive: Under this, leaders motivate subordinates to take part in
organisational activities. It is essential to get support of human resources and enhance their
engagement in business operations. In this regard, leaders of Sainsbury opt above style to
maintain positive environment at work place.
Delegating: Here, necessary authorities is given to subordinates to perform assigned task.
Leasers transfer the authority of work to employees enhance their capabilities and potential and

improve overall decision-making process of company. In context of Sainsbury, leaders of entity
do not opt delegation as it provides complete authority to subordinates which can misused by
them.
System leadership theory:
As per Ludwig von Bertalanffy, system theory is define that system is a complicated
variable and they are open to and communicate with their environment. As per this, human
behaviour is self regulated that need to be correct by self assessment and feedbacks. It states that
there are inputs are provided by human beings after analysing their performance. In case of
Sainsbury, managers apply this theory in which subordinates monitor their own work and make
plans as p[er that. It helps in effective planning, organizing and controlling within company as
work force make necessary improvements on their own. It refers to undertake appropriate actions
in order to manage various projects in more systematic and effective manner. It is essential to
manage better performance of employees throughout project life cycle. Leaders of Sainsbury
adopt this theory by monitoring external environment and market condition to guide and
motivate staff members in an appropriate manner (Lee and Tang, 2018). Here, systematic
leadership style are helpful to manage available resources such as funds, employees effectively
to achieve desired goals. With this, leaders of company are able to complete various business
activities, task ,projects in cost effective manner that minimize cost and enhance profit margin.
In addition, it also enhances the engagement of employees in organisational task that is essential
to attain predefined goals in stipulated period of time. Further, with this, entity is able to make
further modifications in existing strategies in order to enhance its market share and profitability.
Contingency leadership theory:
In organisation, several contingency and uncertainties may arise at work place that are
required to handle in better way. It is essential to formulate effective strategies to face
uncertainties and grab the opportunities of success and growth. Here, Fiedler's contingency
model is used by leaders of Sainsbury to enhance the efficiency of employees and use their skills
as well as knowledge to achieve desired goals. As per this, there are no proper way for leaders to
guide human resources thus they need to as per situation arise at work place. Leaders need to
adopt effective strategies to deal with situations in better manner, This is essential to receive
positive outcomes and to make better use of available resources within entity.