Management and Operations: Leadership in Marks & Spencer Report

This report delves into the realm of management and operations, specifically focusing on the Marks & Spencer (M&S) retail company. It begins by differentiating the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers within the organization, exploring various leadership approaches and models relevant to M&S. The report then examines the functions of managers, including planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling, as well as the role of leaders in driving organizational success. It also discusses the scientific theory of Frederick W. Taylor, emphasizing resource utilization, balanced management, and decision-making processes. Furthermore, the report highlights the importance and values of management and operations, including the significance of organizational structure and collaborative approaches. By analyzing the roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers, the report provides a comprehensive understanding of effective leadership and management practices within the context of M&S, offering valuable insights for students studying leadership and management.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P.1.. Differentiating role and characteristics of a leader and manager in M&S.....................2
P.2. Examine the roles of leader and the function of manager...............................................5
P3. Scientific Theory by Frederick W. Taylor-......................................................................6
P.4 Discussing importance and values of management and operations.................................9
P.5. Importance and value of organisation management......................................................10
P.6. Specifying factors on operational management decisions by leaders and managers....10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations refers with organising and planning for production and
manufacturing of goods and services. It is also operated for redesigning products and controlling
the process of production. The report aims wide understanding in relation to the leadership and
management to students. M&S is a retailer company in clothing, food and home products. Role
and characteristics of a leader and manager within the organization of Marks and Spencer Ltd.
has been described below. Approaches and models are discussed in context of systematic
leadership in the business enterprise of M&S Ltd.
TASK 1
Introduction Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer is one of leading chain of clothing and retail outlet which was
founded in 1884. The company is meant to operate all around the world with about more than
84000 employees in 2017 and having 979 stores in UK itself (Organizational structure and
culture, 2015). M&S mostly specialise in selling of products like that of food, clothing and home
products with having branded goods. Management and operations helps in redesigning goods
and services in Marks and Spencer and also controls the same process in managing operations.
The main approach of operational management is to raise their standard in the market.
Collaborative approach is applied by Mark and Spencer that helps workers in working mutually.
However, the below report also aims in describing importance and values of OM in this
enterprise. This retail company is concerned with UK which performs to convert materials in
best goods and services to increase standard and profit of Marks and Spencer.
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Illustration 1: Flat organizational structure of M&S
(Source: Organizational structure and culture,2015)
M&S is having flat organisational structure as level of authority was reduced between
employees and administrative level. This will be helping organisation to encourage decision
making process to be more clear and transparent.
P.1.. Differentiating role and characteristics of a leader and manager in M&S.
Role and characteristics of a leader:
In the organisation of Marks and Spencer in UK, leaders perform various roles which
increase the efficiency of the business. As a leader they have a vital role in order to motivate the
employees of the firm and moreover this helps in increasing the productivity of the clothes, food
and home products (Jacobs and Chase, 2017). The leaders encourage the workers for performing
more effectively which helped in maintaining 979 stores of M&S over the UK country. Leader’s
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role is to act in managing different functions in the business enterprise. The main characteristics
of a leader are that they provide honest guidance to the workers which help in setting the best
example for increasing the credibility of the organisation. Leaders of M&S focuses on consumers
by delivering goods on proper time (Chevalier and et.al., 2015). They helps in providing goods
to customers in more advanced and modern ways. Leaders of M&S also focus on inventing new
ideas that helps in achievement of the company's objectives and goals.
Role and characteristics of a manager:
Mark and Spencer manager performs according to their directions permitted in the
operational management of UK (Wu, 2016). Managers also work as an allocator of resources and
entrepreneur which helps in maintaining performance level of business. They also manage in
controlling the risk factors of M&S. They also focuses on managing time factor and further looks
in delivering goods and services to customers at proper time. Manager must be kind and
deliberate which leads to high hopes and perspective about the management in Marks and
Spencer (Kumar and et.al, 2017). They helped in launching shopping service through online
basis of M&S.
Comparing different roles and characteristics of a leader and manager
Basis Leader Manager
Role  They are not dependent
on others and also
challenges to different
risks in M&S.
 Managers are always
depended on other
people in the company.
Characteristics  Leaders work in
making different
strategies to achieve
goals of M&S.
 They focus in attaining
all these strategies in
the company.
Management and Operations is significant in managing various functions efficiently. In
addition to Marks and Spencer, roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers in successful
management is reflected below. Their role is to measure the quality of goods and services (Choi
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and et.al., 2016). According to customer's need, leaders and managers helps in making sure about
effective use of resources in company.
Roles and responsibilities of leader:
Leaders identify and define problems and objectives of M&S management. Further, if it
is known clearly, it is beneficial in achieving more efficiency in the business. In successful
operational management, they solve issues at initiative stage which helps in designing the
process of production effectively. Leaders also have the responsibility of solving issues to meet
customer's demand. Data and information are collected by leaders through charts, graphs which
shows the status of M&S and make it as a successful management. Leader's role is to collect the
data and measuring it that develops team in advanced and innovative way. They also analyses
nature and behaviour of organisation to make it successful (Mahadevan, 2015). The customer's
needs are considered which helps in adding value of firm.
Roles and responsibilities of manager:
Managers are responsible in process of controlling and their main principles are flow,
value, pull and perfection which are focused in every organisation. Flow involves the process of
reducing waste from management. This refers to image of company which can increased by
fulfilling requirements of customer's (Anand and Gray, 2017). Perfection is a continue process in
which team needs to add the value in every process of the organisation. Pull principle includes
the customer's need which should be fulfilled by the M&S. Manager's helps in measuring the
standards which are important for maintaining the quality of goods and services. They unite one
team to gather data and information about company, but other group is assigned in analysing
same data of company. Problems are identified and also resolved by expert managers in
management. In this stage, solutions are found to organisational issues and it is implemented to
improve situation of firm by the managers. Manager roles in providing extraordinary quality of
products and services to make an operational management more strong.
The roles and responsibilities of leader and manager are totally different from each other as
 Leader invents or innovates while manager organize
 Manager relies on control while leader inspire trust.
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 Leader ask question what and why while manager learns more towards the questions how
and when.
 Leader set direction while manager plan the details.
 Subordinated are the followers of leader while employees are the followers of managers.
 Leaders follow transformational style while manager follow transactional style.
P.2. Examine the roles of leader and the function of manager.
Functions of manager-
Planning: Powerful and knowledgeable leader-managers help in planning the managerial
functions of Mark and Spencer. Planning can be done in terms of environmental factors and also
to manage the risk factors (Laudon and Laudon, 2016). For appropriate planning in terms of
future growth efficient leaders and managers are required.
Organizing: In order to organize the efficient and proper structure of the M&S and moreover to
achieve goals positively, leader-managers are important in the management. Further, to attain
higher profit level company must be well- organised.
Staffing: Leader-managers play an important role in managing the staff by fulfilling their
requirements in Marks and Spencer. When staffing in all the departments is performed with
efficiency, it helps in managing human resources of the business enterprise.
Directing: Next step in functional management is about directing the employees of the company.
The people in M&S are guided and directed by the honest and skilled leader-managers which
help in increasing the productivity of the company.
Controlling: The leaders and manager focuses in maintaining the staff efficiency by controlling
them and directing in the right directions (Ravindran, 2016). When staff is controlled, it helps in
achieving the aims and in completion of the clothing production on appropriate time.
Additionally, production of the home and food products is also deliberately completed.
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Budgeting: The budget of company is prepared which helps in controlling the finance that helps
in the future.
Role of leader-
Leader-Managers both are very important in Mark and Spencer as to achieve higher
performance level of the UK organisation. Leaders perform effectively and with advanced
techniques which help in higher productivity of M&S. Leaders are focused in making various
strategies to achieve goal of the company. To maintain core shops of Mark and Spencer, leaders
motivate their employee's for performing effectively (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016). They also
launched store of luxury food and home products in which leader had vital role in the
organisation. Main role of them is to improve operational functions which help in growing
values of company.
Managers of M&S perform to control various risks in the business. They select the
efficient suppliers who are eligible in providing goods and services at lower rates (Yabuki and
NEC Corp, 2015). The main role of manager is to coordinate employee's and team members to
achieve higher efficiency level of company in UK. Their role is to look in every departments for
directing every employees of the workforce.
Administrative management theory by Henri Fayol-
There are 14 principles of Henri Fayol that were guiding management of company to
interact with all employees. Fayol provided more broader and analytical framework that is
related to process of administration and overcoming drawback of management theory of Taylor.
P3. Scientific Theory by Frederick W. Taylor-
This theory was given by Taylor to analyses and synthesizes workflow which is having
the objective of improving economic efficiency to look for the productivity of labour.
1- Appropriate use of resources: Leader-Managers are responsible in making fund and
resources available in Marks and Spencer. They look upon using every resources in limited form,
which helps for maintaining future operational activities of M&S. This resources involves
statistical information and data, financial status and people in the workplace which are
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significant for business performances (Childe, 2017). It helps in managing various operational
functions as M&S is highly obliged in opening more stores with yearly turnover $10.622 billion.
2- Balancing and integrating management: Marks and Spencer performs as per the integrated
and balanced management which is entirely framed effectively and they work in one unit to
achieve the similar goal. Leader-managers are attentive in development of staff with creative
ideas (Haksever and Render, 2018). The people in workforce of M&S are mainly divided in
categories like quality, environment and safety of organisation.
3- Decision-making: Decisions are widely constructed in form of finance, planning and
organising the Mark and Spencer. Leader-managers also take decisions in controlling risk factors
of firm. These decisions help in providing clothes, home and food products to the customer's at
appropriate time. The effective decisions help in developing M&S to a great extent in UK and
also in other countries.
There are various theories which are helpful in effective leadership of Marks and
Spencer. People in this company are guided by efficient leaders that helps in better production of
enterprise. To achieve higher goals, leaders motivate workers to follow right direction. They
always perform in innovative and advanced manner which helps in maintaining status of M&S in
UK market.
Leadership Theories
Various effective theories and models are applied in management of M&S to provide
better and genuine leadership to workers (Khan, 2017). In this context, students must need to
understand various theories and models which are explained below:
Situational leadership: The main focus of this theory is to provide positive leadership in terms
to manage situational patterns which helps in solving problems in M&S. According to this,
effective leaders accept challenges and perform with best style of leadership with related
situation. M&S stores are opened in the market keeping in mind customer's choice, as they can
buy products easily.
Model: From various models, Blanchard and Hersey are mentioned as per this leadership style
which helps in indicating effectiveness of management situations.
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System Leadership: It is based in investing the managerial functions and also makes efforts in
creating better approach for production. This leadership also requires more potential in making
M&S more favourite store according to customer's viewpoint (Vashneya and Gupta, 2017).
System theory is necessary for maintaining role of leader effectively.
Model: In this style, Cognition-Systems Model of Organisation Performance is used by the
Marks and Spencer which helps in delivering goods to customer's on time.
Contingency leadership: This theory helps in making leaders more effective and in innovative
ways. It focuses on the style of leaders to make it more effective. Various factors like task, risks,
demand and choices are considered to decide whether this style is effective or not. The leaders
of M&S also follows contingency theories.
Model: The contingency model is constructed by Fielder which describes the performance of
team work and moreover it is focused on the performance level of Marks and Spencer.
Strength and weakness of above theories.
Strength:
Situational leadership-
This type of leadership refers to that type under which leaders are not having any set style
of managing or leading people rather to adjust their style so that they could be able to fit into
development going onto organisation.
In addition to this theory of situational leadership, the main strength is that this is very
effective in M&S and helpful for development of professional and learning process.
System leadership-
It is that under which all the progress made will be based on change which is occurring
socially. The main strength of system leadership is that, it helps in making effective relationship
between different parts of the management in M&S.
Contingency leadership
Contingency leadership strengthens in identifying the problems of M&S and helps in
achieving the better and healthy environment in management.
Weakness
Situational leadership-
The workers are dependent on this situational leadership in terms of working which is the
main weakness in managing operations.
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System leadership-
System leadership has the disadvantage of not being always practical and does not help
in making decisions on time.
Contingency leadership-
The positional power is not strong in contingency leadership which is not effective for
M&S.
P.4 Discussing importance and values of management and operations.
The management and operations is a continued process which involves the functioning of
activities by utilising various resources. It helps in setting standards of Marks and Spencer in
UK.
Importance and value of management and operations
Various functions and activities are performed under the M&O, which further includes
the planning, organising, directing, staffing, controlling and budgeting of the organisation.
Management and operations is significant in company from beginning till end of process in
producing superior quality of products and services. Management and operation is also important
in maintaining the cost and quality of the goods and services (Maylor and et.al., 2018). It looks
upon that products are delivered on time or not to the customer's. M&O is important in
identification of the company's status and standard in the market. Strategies are also made to
avoid wastage of resources in organisation.
The management and operations is also valued highly as it is performed in advanced and
creative way that helps in knowing extra costs of organisation. One of approach which includes
identification of management functions and development of same in achieving higher
productivity in market. Similarly, it helps in reducing the cost of production in Marks and
Spencer (Holweg and et.al, 2018). They care about customer's needs and in improving industrial
process.
Effectiveness of managers and leaders in improving operational activities efficiency
Here are some elements that helps to describe how managers and leaders are able to
enhance effectiveness of operational activities:
 Direction: People in management must be provided genuine and honest guidance which
helps in increasing efficiency of company. This impacts in business by motivating
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employees and also creates confidence in staff members. It affects in higher production
and profitability of M&S.
 Innovation: The managerial functions are performed effectively in management by
skilled leaders (Hill and Hill, 2017). Various activities are conducted with new
techniques and innovatively in the firm. By accepting risk and challenges, leaders are
mainly obliged to work in innovative ways.
 Trust factor: Leaders are main parameter in motivating the employee's and additionally
it helps in building trust among members in M&S. Issues in management must be
resolved which helps in maintaining positive relationships among workers.
P.5. Importance and value of organisation management.
 Communication process: The main factor is to make the process of communication
more effective and enhanced. It also impacts in making the people communicate at every
levels which help in making Marks and Spencer wider and more effective. Skilled leaders
can make this more effective.
 Influence: The staff members are majorly influenced by leaders and helps in
achievement of higher objectives and aims of M&S (Jacobs and Chase, 2017). It helps in
motivating employees for better production of Marks and Spencer.
 Technological factor: In order to improve efficiency of company, leaders must use
various innovative techniques and methods. The efficient leaders help in improvement of
solving problems of management (Ravindran, 2016). Innovation ways must be
implemented in resolving issues which affects in decision-making process.
P.6. Specifying factors on operational management decisions by leaders and managers.
Factors that impact on operational management decision by leaders- managers:
This external factors can be described by PESTLE analysis in Marks and Spencer
organisation:
 Political: The political stability of Marks and Spencer also impacts on leaders and
managers in making managerial decisions. Global changes in the organisation also
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