Management and Operations Report - Business Management, Unit 4

This report, focusing on Management and Operations, begins by defining managers and leaders, comparing their roles and characteristics, and exploring leadership styles like situational, system, and contingency theories within the context of OC&C Ltd. The report then delves into the operational functions of SMEs, examining key approaches to operations management and the roles of managers and leaders in achieving organizational objectives. It further assesses internal and external factors impacting decision-making, emphasizing how operational efficiency can meet business goals through appropriate management and leadership approaches. The report also covers quality, change, and conflict management within the organization. The analysis includes recommendations and a concluding evaluation of the application of operations management theories and their impact on the business environment.

Management and Operation
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Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.........................................................................................................3
SECTION 1:.....................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Defining manager and leader and comparing them based on roles and characteristics..............4
Similarities between a manager and a leader..............................................................................5
Difference in the role and functions of manager and a leader....................................................5
Roles and functions of manager and a leader in different situation within organization............7
Different leadership theory: Situational, System and Contingency. ..........................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
SECTION 2....................................................................................................................................12
Operational functions of SME:.................................................................................................13
Key approaches to operation management and roles managers and leaders play to achieve
organiztional objective through these approaches. ..................................................................14
Ways in which operations management is helping to achieved SME business objectives.......16
Factors that impact operation management and decision-making by leaders and managers....18
Operational efficiency can be achieved to successfully meet business objectives using
appropriate management and leadership approaches................................................................19
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................20
Recommendations:.........................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Management and their operations are an integral part of the organization and OC&C Ltd
considers it as an area of their administration functions in which they redesign and control the
process, operation and structures of their organization to increase efficiency and productivity. In
the further report the following points are touched upon : section one explains about OC&C Ltd
and its management structure, definition of manager and leader and difference in their roles and
function in different organization situations. Different theories and models of approach in
situation, system and contingency leadership applied in the given environment and also assessing
their strength and weakness. An evaluation on contemporary theory is also done. Sections two
talks about key approaches of operational management which managers and leaders adopt to
achieve objectives and their roles. Assessing internal and external factors of business
environment and their impacts on manager and leader's decision-making. Proper evaluation of
operational efficiencies to meet business objective using management and leadership approaches.
In the last part evaluation of application and factors impacting business environment of
operations management theory and approaches is done .
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SECTION 1:
INTRODUCTION
Operations management is the area of management which is concerned with controlling
and administrating the processes, practices and redesigning and recreating them. It is a tool by
which all the production, manufacturing or the services are planned, organized and supervised.
Oak Cash and Carry Ltd. is a food wholesaler company incorporated in 2000 and it's
registered office is in Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. The management structure of Oak
cash and Carry is a hierarchy structure. At the top there are various boards of directors, followed
by CEO and general manager, then comes assistant managers or the departmental manager and
lastly subordinates. They have a well-coordinated chain of command and plan of control. In the
further report there will be detailing on the following points: difference in the role and
characteristics of manager and a leader, applying their roles in various organization situation and
different theories of leadership. Also, the focus will be on assessing the factors within the
business environment that impact decision-making by leader and managers.
Defining manager and leader and comparing them based on roles and characteristics.
Manager: A manager is a person who manages all the activities and undertake, controls
and administrating the affairs of the organization or group of staff. Managers of Oak cash and
carry are good at delegating the tasks to the employees and sets clear expectations. They also
follow SMART methodology to do the work.
Management: It is the process of making plan, organize resources for the firm, staffing
suitable candidate for the job, directing their efforts and controlling their performance. A group
of people when perform these functions it is called management. Management of Oak cash and
carry have the following characteristics: their management is goal-oriented, multidimensional as
in it focuses on people, process and operation. They adapt according to the changing
environment. The management of Oak cash and carry is intangible as its presence can't be seen
but it can be felt from its operations, success and growth (Rosenbach, 2018).
Leader: A person who influences others, their actions and helps them do the right things.
They are visionary and strive to achieve goals. Leader of Oak cash and carry have many
followers because they have the following qualities in them such as: integrity, empathy, courage,
self-awareness, gratitude, learning ability. They are the risk takers and are resilient.
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Leadership: It is the art of motivating and influencing people and is the action of leading
others. There are basically three styles of leadership autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. In
autocratic style all the authority and decision-making power rests with the top-level. In
democratic decision-making power is with all the level and in laissez-faire the power rests with
the lower level. Oak cash and company applies a combination of all these according to the
situation.(Bratton, 2020).
Similarities between a manager and a leader
Need of human resource- Both the manager and the leader needs people to fulfil their
goals and objectives. Without people, they both will not be able to achieve what they want.
Evaluation and control- Managers and leaders both supervise, evaluate and control the
employee performance to reach at the desired results.
Group responsibility and objective fulfilment – Managers have the responsibility to
assign task and see the work of group of people to achieve certain objective. And the same is the
case with leaders they also have responsibility of a group of people which they lead, direct and
look for the ways to improve and attain objectives.
Goal-oriented – Both the managers and leaders are goal-oriented and work with people
to achieve them with efficiency and effectiveness. The only difference is managers plans for
short term goals while the leaders plans for long-term goals.
Influence – Both the leaders and managers have an influence on the work and
environment and strive to create better foundation of the organization.
Communication a tool – managers considers communication to be an effective tool for
managing conflicts, achieving goals and to carry out the tasks and same in case of leader, it also
considers communication as an effective tool (Western, 2019).
Difference in the role and functions of manager and a leader.
Basis Manager Leader
They create goals or vision The role of manager is to create
goals and attainment of them. Oak
cash and carry managers make
different goals like implementing
While the leaders create
vision and aims for growth
and development. Oak cash
and carry leaders is having a
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change in the value chain of the
organization etc.
clear vision on where they
have to take the company.
Goals Manger's of Oak cash and carry
generally plan for short-term goals
While the leaders of Oak
cash and carry plans for the
long-term.
Change aspect The role of manager is to react to
the changes and promote stability.
If any change occurs, manages
reacts to that. Oak cash and carry
managers develop plans to
overcome that change (Lazarov,
2017).
While the role of leaders is
to press and promote
changes. If any changes
occur, Oak cash and carry
leaders promote these
changes as they believe
changes are constant it helps
in the development of
employees and organization.
They have employees or
followers
Managers are characterized by the
employees that works for them,
that are hired and trained by the
manager of Oak cash and carry for
doing a particular job.
While the leaders are
characterized by their
followers as they have
people who follow them, as
Oak cash and carry leaders
frequently interact with the
employees and listen to their
interest, needs and conflicts.
Conflict management The role of managers of Oak and
cash carry Ltd is to avoid conflicts
in as they do not see the
opportunity of leadership in that
conflict situation.
Whereas the role of leaders
of Oak cash and carry Ltd is
to treat conflicts as healthy
conflicts and use them as an
asset.
Quality they posses The characteristics posses by the
managers at Oak cash and carry ltd
While the leaders of Oak
cash and carry Ltd have
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is intelligence. foresightedness
characteristics in them.
Functions they perform The role of Oak cash and carry
managers is to plans, organize,
control and coordinate activities
and goals in the organization. The
managers at Oak cash and carry
focuses on operational results by
performing these functions.
While the role of leaders is
to give direction, align
people, motivate people to
strive for better. Therefore,
the leader of Oak cash and
carry focuses on achieving
strategic results by
performing these functions
(Tyler, 2020).
Roles and functions of manager and a leader in different situation within organization.
There occurs number of situation in an organization when a manager and a leader has to perform
various roles and functions to deal with that situation. Some are explained below:
Quality management: It is the process of managing the overall quality of products and
organization to fulfil the desired excellence. The manager of OC&C Ltd performs the
following functions: sets standards for the product, monitor the quality, measure them against
the standards and then advise on the difference and acts as a facilitator. But their leaders
perform the following roles: they identify the difference in the quality and puts efforts to
overcome it. Leaders of Oak cash and carry Ltd provides unity of purpose and also establish
direction of the process needed to be undertaken and motivates the people involved in it. They
create and maintain such internal environment in which people could carry out the various
techniques needed for the quality management.
Change management: It is systematic dealing with the changes and the transformation
in organizational goals, processes, projects or technologies. Managers at OC&C Ltd performs
the role of advocate by demonstrating the support for the change, they communicate the changes
to be taken, coach employees through the change process, liaison with employees and provide
support to project team and helps in identify and manage resistance. The leader of the
organization performs the role: acts as a role model as employees watch leaders for
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consistency between words and actions to see if it's happening in their case too. Leaders
constantly communicate with their followers, look for the resources needed for the change. The
role of convincing people and eliminate the sources of fear of change is all performed by the
leader. (McAdam, Miller. and McSorley, 2019).
Conflict management: It is the practice by which the conflicts at the workplace can be
identified, handled and managed and reducing its negative outcomes effectively.
Manager at OC&C Ltd adopts contemporary theory to manage conflicts in the organization as
they believe that conflicts are natural and cannot be avoided in the organization. Managers use
the following methods to manage conflicts: they use freezing method, by using power and
authority they try to manage changes, by punishing in some cases, they also perform the role of
mediation, they also manage by changing certain persons. The leaders at OC&C Ltd. Listens to
all the parties carefully to manage changes, they don't hesitate to discuss the changes to be
undertaken by the people. Leaders also does it firstly by allowing the conflicts to resolve at
employee’s level, if not then they opt for accommodating technique in which they fulfil other's
concern and ignore theirs and give priority to team success and employee safety.
ways.
Different leadership theory: Situational, System and Contingency.
Leadership theories are the school of thoughts that various researchers and academicians have
conducted various studies to discover the theories. There is a need to know these theories for the
contemporary organization. These theories and approaches tells the traits of a leader.
Situational theory: This theory is based on the assumption that leadership style changes
from situation to situation and there is no single leadership style which is best. As per this theory
an effective leader is one which is able to adapt their leadership style according to the situation,
task to be performed. It is also termed as Hersey-Blanchard Situational Theory as it was
developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard.
OC&C Ltd believe that there are four styles in a particular situation. Telling approach works best
for the employees which have low competence and low commitment and the members lack
knowledge, skills, and willingness to complete the task. Selling approach works which have low
competence and high commitment and the members are willing to work and are enthusiastic, but
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they lack in ability. Participating approach works when the employees have high competence and
low commitment and the members have required skills and capability but are not willing to take
responsibility. And lastly delegating approach applies when the employees have high
competence and high commitment, members of this type are highly skilled and willing to
complete the task. Oak cash and carry Ltd believes that people achieve more when they do not
recite about what they have to do in a specified situation. The advantage of this theory is that it
analyse the situation effectively, allocate resources properly, analyse skills and talent of the
employees, theory recognizes the need for flexibility, it creates comfortable environment for
workers, it also increases awareness of the leaders as they step into their shoes and it's
disadvantage are there is lack of funds and resources for market evaluation and staff is
sometimes unqualified, focuses more on immediate needs than long-term needs, it can be
ineffective in task-oriented environment, based on skill level of the leader. (Dugan, 2017).
System theory: This theory of leadership defines a that there is a system in the
organization and there are various leadership networks in them at different levels and at different
places. This theory helps in understanding and analysing the organization and its various parts or
the subsystems that must work together for long term success of the organization. All the
departments, groups, units etc form the subsystem of the organization.
OC&C Ltd believes that the synchronization, interconnections and interdependence of these
subsystems paves the path for organizational success. The most important aspect of this theory is
communication mechanism which means there should be proper flow of information among all
the subsystems and it is ensured by the leader. OC&C Ltd has a proper structure, system and
framework where the leaders can exercise their leadership. Advantage of this theory are it offers
a unitary approach and helps in achieving organizational with individual goals. There is
uniformity in decision-making and offers more than one way to tackle an issue. ,. It is dynamic
and adaptive in nature and the disadvantage are it has a tendency of offering generalized ideas
and is not always practical. It does not apply to smaller organizations,this theory is hard to apply
to specific situations, creates stable self-reliant systems, it is not prescriptive.
Contingency leadership: It is the ability of a leader to only deal with the pre-defined
situation but also with the contingent one. It is some-what same as situational theory. The
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success of this theory depend on the following factors such as: the leader, it's style of leadership,
the followers and the situation. The most common contingency theory is given by Fielder which
gave three dimension for a favourable contingent situation. If all the dimensions are high, then
the situation is favourable. Fielder believed that leadership is effective if at the right situation
right leadership style is applied (Otley, 2016).
Oak cash and carry Ltd believes that successful leader is one who can control any situation even
if the leader has not known the cause and effect relationship of a particular situation and the
skill-set of the leader. They believe that skills and abilities of a leader remains unchanged but the
situation keeps on changing so no one set of leadership style is applicable to all situations.
Therefore, a leader should be able to handle that contingent situation. The advantage of this
theory is that it is an innovative approach and is an open-minded activity, there are number of
solution to a single problem, This theory is dynamic in nature, helps mangers to enhance their
skills, helps to design management structure and plan information decision system. It also has
certain disadvantage such as high cost for research, the employees are less trained and unskilled,
It is a complex approach, reactive in nature and sometimes suffers inadequately of literature.
Management by objective theory
This theory was popularized by Peter Drucker in which he defines MBO as a strategic
management tool in which objectives are clearly defined by the management and agreed by the
members. After defining the objectives the process through which these objectives can be
achieved is defined. The aim of this theory is to improve the performance of the organization.
OC&C Ltd believes that goal setting and action plan encourages employee participation and
commitment. The organization compares actual performance of employee with that of the
defined one. Objectives are sometimes laid out with the help of employees, feedback on their
work is received. The focus of the firm is on personal development and growth.
Advantage : It focuses on improved performance of the employees by reducing cost and
harnessing the opportunities, greater sense of identification with company's goal, maximum
utilization of human resources etc.
Disadvantage : Costly and time-consuming process, mainly emphasis on short term goals,
sometimes it is inflexible etc.
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Chaos theory
This theory suggests that in case of any change, chaotic situation may occur and
management should emphasis on adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurial creativity to cope up
with the future. It is the study of complex, non-linear and dynamic systems. OC&C Ltd believes
that small differences in initial conditions yield widely diverging outcomes. This can also be
termed as butterfly effect. It works on the following principles like non-linearity, determinism,
sensitivity to initial conditions, order is disorder and long term prediction is mostly impossible.
The chaos in OC&C Ltd can be controlled in the following ways: altering the organizational
parameters to limit the range of fluctuations, applying small perturbations, changing the
relationship between organization and environment.
Advantage : Applicable in modern science and technology era, communication and management
may see a pa
Disadvantage : it is not as simplistic to find an immediate and direct application in the business
environment. The methods to compute these parameters depends on dynamics which is complex
and not always accurate.
Scientific management theory :
This theory was given by Frederick Taylor, it emphasis more on productivity of the labour and
economic efficiency. He gave four principles which are :
Science not the rule of thumb- which suggests thinking before doing.
Harmony not discord – which suggests mental revolution which means change in the attitude of
both employees and management. Give and take attitude should be there in the organization.
Cooperation, not individualism – management should appreciate the employees and at the same
time employees should also cooperate with the management.
Development of each and every person to his/her greatest efficiency and prosperity – employees
should be properly trained for this many techniques were arranged like work study, time study,
motion study, fatigue study etc.
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OC&C Ltd also applies these techniques in their organization because of the following reasons:
to prevent wastage of time to reduce cost, increase efficiency of the workers and develop
relationship between managers and workers.
Advantage : It seeks to introduce a mental revolution in the ideas, reduction in cost of
production, proper selection and training of employees,elimination of wastage etc.
Disadvantage : Not suitable for small firms, ignorance of other aspect of management like
finance, marketing etc,
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that a manager and a leader are similar and sometimes used interchangeably
but there are some difference between them. So organization should strive to build managers
with good leadership skills. Leadership is much broader term than management. Various
situations occur in an organization and it has be dealt with but managers and leaders deals with
the situation in different ways. Leader responds to such situation or changes in much broader
perspective than the manager. There are various theories of leadership which must be applied
according to the situation and the effectiveness of the leader is also determined by the skills of
applying different styles in different situation.
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