Analyzing Leadership and Management in Marks and Spencer Operations

This report delves into the core concepts of leadership and management within the context of operational management, using Marks & Spencer as a case study. It defines and contrasts the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, highlighting their distinct contributions to organizational success. The report examines how leadership and management functions are applied in various situational contexts, such as employee engagement and conflict resolution, emphasizing the importance of adapting strategies to specific challenges. Furthermore, it explores different approaches to operational management, including situational, system, and contingency leadership, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. The analysis extends to key operational management approaches, emphasizing their role in enhancing efficiency, maximizing productivity, and achieving business objectives. The report also considers the impact of the business environment on operational management and decision-making, providing a comprehensive overview of the subject matter.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager........3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P2. Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in
different situational contexts.......................................................................................................5
P3. Different approaches used in operational management........................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P4. Key approaches of operation management...........................................................................7
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving Business objectives............8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P6. Factors within the business environment that impact operational management and
decision-making..........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Operations management can be defined as administrations of business practices, that
helps in enhancing the efficiency level in a company. In other words, converting different sorts
of raw materials, within fine products or services can be considered as operations management
(Ozguven and Ozbay, 2015). It is required for every single business organisation to focus on this
type of management, as this helps a company in maintaining all the expenses and gains higher
profits. In this report, organisation which has been chosen i.e. Marks and Spencer. It is a famous
multinational retailer dealing in different sorts of industry like clothing, luxury food, home
products and so on. M&S is also listed within London Stock Exchange. Away with this,
assignment is going to show roles and characteristics of both leaders and managers of within
various situations. Report is also going to be enclosed with various leadership theories as well,
which will aid Marks and Spencer in reaching to new heights through attaining different goals
and objectives.
TASK 1
P1. Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.
Operations management is seen as effective management of all organisational activities
for managing business activities in effective way. It can be said that effective management of
business activities helps company in enhancing productivity as well as profitability of the
company in effective way. With reference to chosen organisation that is Marks & Spencer, it has
been analysed that the company is using flat organisational structure for executing its business
activities in effective manner with limited number of management staff (Nayak, 2015). The
appropriate organisational structure helps company in motivating its employees and influencing
their interest to participate into decision making process for attaining valuable output for the
company. The organisation contains both the leaders and managers who are contributing their
share into growth of the company in right manner. Both the leaders and managers are different
from one another but still their main aid is to to grow company in quick manner. Definition of
leaders and managers along with their differences are described below in effective way.
Leaders: Leaders are the individual who are capable of dealing with one group of people
and also makes them work in a common direction for attaining organisational goals and

objectives. They basically holds great influence over the individuals or employees which makes
them work in effective way for attaining organisational objectives with high efforts.
Managers: An effective business manager is the one who is accountable for his whole
team which works for the company. The main responsibility of every business manager is to do
effective planning, organising, coordinating and controlling all departments of the company at
regular basis without making any mistake. They mainly uses their high experiences for
executing business activities in effective way (Muller, CommVault Systems Inc, 2014).
With reference to present scenario, it has been analysed that Marks and Spencer has both
the managers as well as leaders which contributes differently towards the company's goals and
objectives. In this regard, difference between leaders and managers of Marks and Spencer are
described as below in detailed manner.
Leaders Managers
 Leaders owes influential personality
which attracts followers to achieve
specific organisational objectives in
quick manner.
 Manager owes high management skills
which contributes in managing all kind
of organisational work in effective way
by providing job work to employees
according to their skills and knowledge.
 Leaders of Marks & Spencer are
mainly giving preference to innovation
in executing organisational activities
for attaining more effective results.
They also develops innovative
strategies for accomplishment of their
own vision.
 Whereas, managers of Marks and
Spencer follows already existing
strategies as well as techniques in
order to perform all roles and
responsibility of their work.
Roles and responsibilities of leaders :
 Communicate all instruction to followers or team members
 Formulate effective strategy for attaining companies vision
 Take regular based feedback from employees in order to bring adequate changes for the
growth.

 Provide appropriate training to employees according to their job roles
Roles and responsibilities of managers :
 Maintaining working schedule of all employees
 Assigning work to employees in timely manner
 Provide healthy working environment to employees.
TASK 2
P2. Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in
different situational contexts.
Within a large business organisation, it is necessary to have both effective leaders and
managers, when it comes to gain competitive advantages. It is required for them (Managers and
Leaders of M&S) to deal with every single situation, while aiming to grab a good market share at
international level. In present context, if it is talked about Marks and Spencer, which is one of a
crucial retail business company, that is offering customers with quality products and services has
to deal with a range of situations that are linked with organisational activities. It is being found
that, situation can be anything from decision making, employee engagement or conflict
resolution that majorly occurs within working station of Marks and Spencer. Managers and
leaders has to play different role and function in order to handle situations, such situations are
described as follow:
Employee Engagement: This is basically being considered as a relationship, which is
basically carried by staff members within a business company. It is being found that, within a
business company it is required for them to offer customers with much healthy and positive
working environment. This helps in attaining various range of goals along with the objectives
both long and short term. In case of Marks and Spencer, employee engagement plays a crucial
role, for this leaders influence staff to put extra efforts in order to achieve goals (Meyer, Neck
and Meeks, 2017). Basically, these are the individuals (leaders) who carries various important
roles like developing ideas in regards to employees so that they could effectively manage their
own tasks and attain them as per the requirements. This kind of action taken by leaders, offer
staff members with motivation, higher productivity, high security, safety and support. This helps
subordinates in gaining higher experiences in a short span.

On the other side, if it is talked about functions of manager of Marks and Spencer, then
these are the individuals who plan, direct, coordinate and manage the overall situations that are
happening within the organisation. It can be said that managers carries direct link of
communication with their staff for engaging them. They can provide rewards and incentives to
their employees for motivating them to increasing productivity and profitability of organisation.
Managers of Marks and Spencer use their function of co-ordination to engage all employees.
Employees in an organisation have different ways of performing their task because they have
different culture and background. For this managers conduct training and development
programmes to train them for doing their work according to their organisational culture.
Conflict Resolution: Conflict is basically being created within a business organisation by
disagreements among staff, team members of a company like Marks and Spencer. If it is talked
about Marks and Spencer, it is said to be a crucial business firm that offer customers with quality
products and to sustain in the market for long, it is vital to have a much effective and efficient
conflict management system. They should first identify the reason of conflict and then make
open communication with all subordinates. Leaders influence follower to comply with all rules
and regulations so that level of conflict can be reduced (Ma and Sun, 2012). Managers of
Spencer & Marks also have important rule in resolving conflict as they use different way to
resolve it. They act as mediator for solving problems of their employees and identify cause of
conflict and to solve them they defining roles and responsibilities of their staff.
P3. Different approaches used in operational management
Situational leadership- It is one of the effective leadership style and it has been
developed through Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hershey. In this leadership style, leader of
company should make adjustments in styles on the basis of situation so that it can match
individual development of followers. Under this, leader or manager decide to execute this styles
at the workplace. In addition to this, it encourage the leaders to take the stock of team members
and weigh several variables at workplace. The situational leadership style is flexible and it adapts
to current working environment and requirements of company. In Marks & Spencer, leader use
this style at any time when there is requirement and its is applied at that place where the changes
are appear within short time period. The main benefit of implementing this leadership style is
that it is flexible to leadership and encourage collaboration between the team member sin an
effective or efficient manner and disadvantage is that its is complex for some kinds of managers.

System leadership- It has been developed by DR Lan McDOnald. This leadership helps
for leader in Marks & Spencer to develop situations where the people at all the levels can work
in a productive manner by use their potential. It mainly uses the sound principles regarding
human behaviour in order to develop good leadership models, system design, social process and
organisational strategies. It gives leaders with the tools which aids to predict behaviour of people
in organisation. On the other hand, it is helpful in develop better system that drive productive
behaviour and also lead effective realisation of purpose of company (Idris, 2016). In addition to
this, system leadership style gives various tools such as communication and feedbacks which
guess behaviour of a person at workplace. It will help a leader to develop a better system that can
enhance productivity of business within short period of time. The main strength of this style is
that it leaders to maximise productivity level of Marks & Spencer. On the other hand, main
weakness is that it is rigid in nature.
Contingency leadership- It stated that effectiveness of a leader is contingent with how or
her style of leadership matches to situation. It is developed through Fred Fiedler in year 1958. It
emphasises that the effectiveness of the leadership is dependent on matching style of leadership
to right condition. On the basis of this style, success of leadership is not based on abilities. The
contingency leadership provides information regarding leadership style that is beneficial for
developing plan for the human resource management. The strength of the leadership style is that
it changes on the basis of situation and allows managers to change policies on the basis of
situation. Its weaknesses is that individual managers many not properly skilled to make changes
in decisions and the leadership style in order to match in various situations.
Hence, Marks & Spencer mainly uses the situational leadership styles because the
situations are not same at every time and it fluctuate within short time period. So, this leadership
style is beneficial for company and leaders can make the decisions accordingly.
TASK 3
P4. Key approaches of operation management.
Operation management emphasis on administration of activities or operations that results
in building highest efficiency at workplace. Various approaches of operations management are
adopted by managers of Marks & Spencer for the purpose of improving operational effectiveness
along with maximising productivity level in order to generate higher revenues as to build

competitive position in the market place (Han and et. al., 2017). Some of the approaches are as
follows:
Lean Production: A systematic manufacturing process that is applied at workplace in
order to reduce wastage of resources is termed as lean production. It focuses on maintaining
standards as well as ensuring that organisation is produced quality products or services by
optimum utilisation of available resources. Using such approach, managers of Marks & Spencer
makes things better as well as involve work force for continuous improvements. It benefits
selected firm to reduce its production costs along with increasing products value. It also helps in
formulating procedures as to improve working plans for staff members. The procedures are
formulated in such manner that ensures proper communication among all levels of management
that results in enhancing productivity of the organisation (Beske and Seuring, 2014).
Total quality Management: The another operational management approach that is a
customer focused process and emphasis of maximising quality of goods or services of the
company. This approach benefits to managers of Marks & Spencer to upgrade standards in
context to quality of products that are to be delivered to end user via retail stores. Applying such
concept, store managers of chosen business will be able to attract as well as retain larger
customer segment that will leads towards building a financial position against competitor
companies. Various standards for quality are formulated and all the operations are clearly
monitored and controlled in order to achieve quality in manufacturing as well as finished
products that will provide more beneficiary results to the company. The leaders of the company
motivated departmental members along with team members to coordinate their activities and
maintain quality of standards (Glukhov and Balashova, 2015).
Six sigma: A quantitative approach that emphasises on establishing systems along with
procedures in order to improve operational activities. It reduces probabilities based on the
misleading of decisions formulated by management of a company. It defines symbol of risk.
Using six sigma approach, operational managers of Marks & Spencer makes critical decisions by
understanding the probabilities associated with failure of risks. Such understanding helps
managers to frame reliable decisions in order to smoothing the workflow of operations.
P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving Business objectives.
Operations management is considered as the effective business activity that helps
organisation in growing faster way. The specific area deals into integration of labour, raw

material in order to develop effective products as well as services which can give maximum
benefits to the company. It has been seen that there are numerous importance of the concept of
operations management which are described below by linking it with Marks and Spencer.
Optimum utilization of resources – The main importance of Operation management for
Marks and Spencer is that it helps company in utilising scarce resources effectively that reduce
chances of wastage of money. It has been seen that operational manager of Marks and Spencer
focuses on systematically using available resources that is cost, manpower, physical evidence,
time and raw material in order to execute business activities in effective way. They also uses
advance technology with new software which helps them in executing all business work in
effective way (Fredendall and Hill, 2016).
Maximisation of profit – It can be said that effective management of operational
activities helps business organisation in maximising their profitability in several ways. It has
been analysed that manager of Marks and Spencer is basically using Six Sigma approach for
maintaining quality of their products and services which is being delivered to customers (Boyd
and Dougherty, 2016). Furthermore, it has been analysed that main aid of this approach is
decline proportion of over usage of time, cost, etc. It can be said that this leads to generating
more cost with less costing. This ultimately increases profitability of Marks and Spencer.
TASK 4
P6. Factors within the business environment that impact operational management and decision-
making.
Business environment encompasses various factors that impacts on activities of any
company. PESTLE analysis is used to analyse factors that influences performance of a business.
Marks & Spencer uses such tool to analyse external factors. The analysis is as follows:
Political factors: Marks & Spencer operates its business in multiple countries and at the
same faces various changes in the political systems, rules and regulations and so on. It includes
taxation policies, unemployment rate, legislations, political instability that results in direct
impacts on Marks & Spencer operations,m decision making along with profitability of
organisation (Fan, Liu and Zhang, 2015).
Economic factors: It includes government activities, business cycle, interest rates, law
and so on that are very important as well as critical for the management of operations in effective

manner. If there is sudden change in laws or business cycle then drastic results are seen in
inflation or deflation rates. Changes in demand as well as supply impacts on organisational
productivity that impacts on rises of prices, taxation policies and so on aspects of Marks &
Spencer.
Social factors: such factors are associated with customer preferences, beliefs, attitude
and hence forth. If the preferences or attitude of potential customers shifts towards the
competitors products then it impacts on organisational operations as well as management of such
operations by taking effective decisions on appropriate time period (Eraki, 2015).
Technological factor: In this, technology plays a necessary role in keeping the
operations of an organisation and make up to date. The technology up gradation develops
positive impact on conduct the business operations effectively. In addition to this, high
technological change can affect on the product life cycle, production processes and innovation of
Marks & Spencer at high extent.
Legal factor: There are different legislations developed through government and it is
necessary for company to follow them in an effective manner. The different legislations such as
health and safety law, data protection etc., (Cook and Billig, 2017).
Environmental factor: It can be defined as the identifiable components within
economic, cultural, physical and demographic which impact on development, survival and
operations of Marks & Spencer. In environmental factor, government developed the
environment related laws in order to protect from any harm.
These all the factors are need to be taken in to the consideration for evaluate the process
of decision making of Marks & Spencer. It will help in minimize the future problems in
operational department. In this, political factor can be controlled through strength policies to take
the effective decisions for success of business (Ellitan, 2017).
CONCLUSION
Considering the above mentioned report, it is being concluded that both leaders along
with the manager basically plays crucial role when it comes to managing operations of a business
organisation. It is required for having effective leaders and managers in order to deal with
different critical situations. With the help of this, profit maximisation, increase in market share
and improvement within the business organisation can easily be seen. On the other hand, there

are a range of elements like legal, technological, economical along with strong competitors that
could directly aid in enhancing the productivity and profitability of a business company.

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