Report on Management and Operations at Marks and Spencer: Analysis

This report provides an analysis of the management and operations at Marks and Spencer (M&S), a UK-based multinational retailer. It begins with an introduction to M&S, its organizational structure, and the roles of managers and leaders. The report then differentiates between the functions of managers and the roles of leaders, emphasizing their importance in achieving organizational goals. It examines how leadership and management functions are applied in different situational contexts, such as adapting to market competition and the rise of e-commerce. The report also explores various management theories, including situational, management by objective, classical, behavioral, and contingency theories, and their application within M&S. Furthermore, the report delves into key approaches to operational management, such as Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), and Just-in-Time inventory, highlighting the roles of managers and leaders in implementing these strategies to improve efficiency, quality, and overall business performance. The report concludes by summarizing how M&S utilizes these strategies to maintain its competitive edge and achieve its business objectives.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
1

Table of contents
2

Introduction
The "Marks and Spencer’s" (M&S) is a UK based multinational retailer, headquartered in
London. The company was founded in 1884 at Leeds and specializes in selling clothes, luxury
home, and food products. The company currently employs 85,000 personnel and operating
revenue of 10,622 million Euros in 2017. "M&S" operates in 978 stores throughout UK and 475
stores internationally (Bhat et al. 2014). There are various roles and functions of a manager and
leader in the organization which helps to run the business smoothly. In this assignment, the
organizational operation and various roles and functions of a leader and managers are going to
be discussed. "M&S" currently follows a flat organizational structure which has a pyramid shape
and fewer level of management between top and bottom of a pyramid. Further, the importance of
operation management in achieving the business objective and the factors that impact upon will
be discussed. Therefore, this report presents an overall analysis of management and operations
with the company.
Task 1
P1 Difference between function of a manager and role of a leader
Managers and leaders are one of the most important characters in an organization. Leaders are
responsible for innovating or inventing an idea upon which an organization sets its objective.
Managers are then responsible for planning, organizing, leading and controlling the operations
needed for achieving that organization's goals. A manager works on an organizational goal
which needs to be achieved and make strategies in order to meet the same (Rosemann, and
Brocke, 2015). The manager organizes, motivates and communicates with the people within the
operation so as to ensure smooth flow of work in every department.
Leaders involved in major decision-making process and also guide through the work process.
Whereas, a manager is held responsible for all the business operations and dividing the work and
responsibilities of the selected people. A managerial individual first determines the most
effective way to achieve a goal and then decide the roles and responsibilities for each employee
in order to meet the goal. Generally, "M&S" develops a chain of command within the pyramid
organizational structure to ensure every level of structure is efficiently working. "M&S" have
fewer level of management within the pyramid which increases the decision making process and
3

responsibility in the lower level of management. Hence, distribution of operations are fairly
divided and enables the employer to work independently based on own decisions. Leaders role is
specifically designed to build the morale of their employees and serve as a source of inspiration.
In addition, leaders take the major decisions affecting the business and decide the output of an
operation. On the contrary, managers lead within the organization to ensure various activities are
operating together for the benefit of the company. It supervises all the operations and employees
performance and identifies the situation or problem which needs to be improved or taken into
consideration. "M&S" have successfully implemented the managerial and leadership role which
enables the operation of manufacturing, development and distribution simple.
The characteristics of leaders and managers also significantly influence an organization. Being a
leader, the person must be honest with every member of the business organization. Everyone in
the business idolizes a leader and look for motivation. Hence, a self-motivated person with
excellent communication skills has a good leadership quality (Aitken et al. 2014). A leader is
one who is confident, carries a positive attitude, owns creativity skills and is able to motivate
everyone in the organization. However, characteristics of a manager also need to meet the same
of that of leader. A good manager must also have a great leadership quality as the individual will
be responsible for supervising and effective functioning of the employees. Therefore, a positive
attitude with a good communication and accountability skills are the ideal managers for an
organization.
P2 Function of a manager and role of a leader in different situational contexts
The role of leaders and functions of managers make the business operation to flow in the desired
direction and work collectively towards the achievement of goals. There are various
management functions, different traits and leadership styles which help in smooth running of
management. "M&S", is recently facing a lot of competition in the market due to the
establishment of its rival companies (Davenport, 2014). In order to cope with this situation, a
strategy needs to be developed and implement the same which will increase the sales and
revenue of the business.
"M&S" mainly sells cloth, food products, and luxury home product. This demands the customer
satisfaction of the selling products. Fashion plays a key role in deciding the sales of a certain
product. For instance, cloth and accessories sold by "M&S" were not up to the trend due to
4

which there has been a crisis of customer in last few years. While this served as a challenge, the
leaders and managers took it as an opportunity to invent and introduce different fashion in the
emerging market. Leaders proposed a survey in the market to know the fashion taste of major
population in the market. Managers implemented this idea by providing proper responsibility to
different personnel for conducting a survey. Soon it was discovered and according to the
feedback, the employers were instructed to operate (Hammer, 2014) . Managers here took the
initiative for developing all the strategies and implementing. New skilled designers were hired to
work according to the latest trends and fashion. This made possible for the "M&S" to capture its
market share in the clothing section.
Another competition faced by an organization is development and spreading of e-commerce.
“M&S” had an unimpressive approach towards e-commerce due to which online side of business
excelled in their field leaving behind the retail. Leaders took an initiative for reaching out online
customers worldwide by collaborating itself with e-commerce giant like Amazon. The products
are now available to the offline as well as online customers.
"M&S" mainly started its company by selling food products and past couple of years the sales of
the foods has shown a huge improvement. This was possible by maintaining the customer's
momentum and providing them with quality products. Managers and Leaders also proved to be
effective and their course of decision and managing the organization were also customer oriented
(Houy et al. 2014) . "M&S" foods expanded its business by opening 75 stores in the last year in
the UK which is contributing a major share in the revenue.
All the given situations and challenges were faced by "M&S" has been managed by the leaders
and managers which made possible for the organization to grow and continue to expand its
business globally.
P3 Different theories and model of approach
There are various theories related to management which implies with the leadership skills and
enhance the operational growth. The operational management of “M&S” focuses on the
management theory and efforts to increase the sale from its retail outlet.
The situational theory of management is applied in this context which will deal with the current
situation of competition in the market (Karagiannis, and Woitsch, 2014) . The theory suggests
5

developing new trends and fashion in the market so as to appeal to the customers. The cost price
must be set cheaper in respect to the rival companies and promote the brand to reach out
maximum customers. In addition to these, the "Management by objective" is another theory
which focuses on the efforts of both employers and managers for the achievement of an
objective. The employees work with managers and then set standards of performance to follow.
Leaders then convey the duties to its employees so as to provide the motivation needed to
perform the task.
Moreover, the Classical management theory is also implemented in "M&S". as part of its
application, the managers of "M&S" make policies or take decisions in order to enhance the sale
of their product (Luftman, 2014). Managers develop the strategy to implement in the
management and consequently increase the quality of product with minimum cost for
production. It improves the activities within the production and an active participation of
leadership can also be applied regarding decision-making process.
Behavioral theory of management is also applied in "M&S" and employers and managers follow
some policies outlined for effective operation. Mainly in this theory, the behavior of employees
with the customer, leaders with employee and managers are taken into consideration. The leaders
use transformational style of leadership to communicate and define policies with the employees
for an effective outcome.
Contingency theory is applied and focuses on the change in strategies according to changing
situations. The leaders influence employees and members to bring considerable changes in the
operations to meet the demand of changing situations (Markus, and Jacobson, 2014) . The
managers consider all the reason and market condition for growing competition and then this
theory is applied to implement changes in marketing strategy.
These theories provided an insight for managing and leading an organization when a certain
situation arises within.
Task 2
P4 Key approaches to operation management and role of managers and leaders in it
The operation management has a significant role in the organization in order to manage and
administer all the activities of the business and improves the quality of production in the
6

organization. It is a process for utilizing all the resources of the organization in an effective way.
The major function of the operational management is to maximize the productivity rate of the
company with an application of minimum resources (Schmiedel et al. 2013). This process is
limited to the activities which are required to process raw material into products and services. To
increase efficiency and improve the production process a methodology Six Sigma is applied in
"M&S". Six Sigma focus on the effort made by team in order to accomplish a task and as a result
performances are improved (Grabara et al. 2014) . The role of managers in the development of
strategy for business globally is to plan strategy which will bring effectiveness for the utilization
of resources. The role of leaders is to implement six sigma within the operation and maximize
the efforts of the teamwork and improve the overall performance.
In improving the quality of operational management in "M&S", six sigma methodologies is
applied. It basically works to eliminate errors and defects by saving time and reducing cost
process. "M&S" invested a great amount for six sigma as it demands high-end engineering and
technology for manufacturing. Since it is expensive to avail, "M&S" have strength over other
organizations for implementing six sigma. The technology involved gives an output of seven
defects per million which is relatively higher than any other in the market. Therefore, the
managers successfully improved the production efficiency.
There is another role of managers and leaders in utilizing total quality approach for development
in global business (Slack, 2015). "M&S" developed the TQM approach for assuring its quality
meets the highest standards. It fulfilled the objective for the efficient quality of products by
maintaining five principles of TQM, that are customer orientation, teamwork, continuous
improvement, quality maintenance and developing strategic approach to improvement.
In order To improve the system of manufacturing with minimum cost and improved process,
managers and leaders of "M&S" introduced Just in Time inventory process. This enables a
smooth flow of the operation without any lags. It refers to the process where order for the raw
materials is placed only at the time of production. This eliminates waste of inventory and
increases efficiency in the organization. Further, it results in continuous improvement in
services, products, and systems for the betterment of the organization. Role of a manager is to
direct the production and operational department and control the inventory by improving
production on a regular basis (Heizer, 2016). Leaders look after the employer's performance with
respect to time gaps and track of inventory.
7

Therefore, utilization of resources takes place efficiently and effectively through operation
management with a continuous improvement of the product and service quality. The operational
management overall converts the raw material into finished products in minimum cost and also
eliminates the wastes related to production.
P5 Importance of operations management in achieving business objective
Nowadays the importance of operations management is not limited to the manufacturing
industry. Since it mainly involves inefficient production, "M&S" do have a place for its role to
play. The production involves clothing, food and house products. There is a large scope for
operational management to take place in this organization. One of the significant roles it plays is
utilization of the resources effectively known as just in time process (Myers, 2013). The raw
material arrives just when it is necessary for production thus curbing the extra cost and material
waste. This ensures the operation take place smoothly without any delay or excess of cost. The
quality set by the competitive markets are high and thus to meet with such high standard of
quality, TQM in the operational management come into play. This makes sure every product is
thoroughly checked and is error free which in turn means a higher rate of customer satisfaction.
Another important factor that is related to the operational management is six sigma
methodologies which mean six factors are taken into consideration to eliminate defects and error
while reducing cost and time need for production. At all stage, the company can apply
operational management and the company must provide maximum efficiency related to the
production rate and product quality. In addition, the market survey is also conducted by this
management in order to get accurate feedback regarding their and rival companies products
(Cummings, and Worley, 2014). The managers in "M&S" are highly qualified and are capable of
handling operation processes effectively. Therefore, operational management provides a precise
plan of action to make sure every step taken is highly calculated and will provide the desired
result. "M&S" operates worldwide and it cannot afford to waste its time and money to determine
possible set of operations needed for each management area. Thus a general operational
management is important to run the organization effectively throughout the global.
8

P6 Factors within the business environment and impact upon operational management
The company "M&S" focus on the need of maintaining the ethics, values, and sustainability of
the organization for improving the relationship with the customer and provide satisfactory
services. The services of the organization follow strict ethical standards during the operation and
production. "M&S" is operating its business operation full of competition and in order to regain
the market lost by its rival companies, it adopted the concept of sustainable business. The
relationship between the styles of leadership and functions of management influence a corporate
responsibility in the organization. The managers adopt the strategies after considering the factors
which influence the social responsibility towards the society. The leaders of "M&S" ensure the
policies are conveyed through effective communication process and reach to every employee
and members of the organization. The business environment is impacted by various management
departments (Laudon, and Laudon, 2016). For instance, when quality management operation has
a weak supervision the product quality does not meet the provided quality standards. This drops
the quality and loses potential customers. Hence continuous efficient services are required by
operational management. Further, the factors can be classified into internal and external factor.
The internal factors on operational management are as follows:
a) Corporate objectives: According to this, operation objective should not collide with corporate
objective and avoid any conflict between this two. For example, operations objective for demand
of higher production rate should not collide with a corporate objective such as lower cost of
production.
b) Finance: Operational management involves a lot of cost and investment for its operation.
Hence, financial situation of the company like liquidity, cash flow, and profitability will directly
affect the operations involved.
c) Human resources: The capacity and quality of human personnel play a major factor in
deciding the output quality of the operational objectives. For business like "M&S" demands a
high quality of service from its workforce and an organization is affected by proper investment
in training and effective workforce planning.
d) Marketing issues: Promotion of the brand and its product are an important factor in deciding
the success of the business organization. Regular changes in the marketing strategy affect the
operations
External factors which influence the operational management are as follows:
9

a) Economic environment: The economic condition of UK largely influences the business
operations and has a direct impact on productivity, capacity utilization, etc. The changes in
interest rate also impact the financial investments in operations.
b) Competitor efficiency: One of the major factors which directly impact the sales of a company
is its rival companies. "M&S" suffered through the same and improved the efficiency of
operations. This was a result of the pressure created by the competitive market and deliver
services at least comparable performance (Aitken et al. 2014).
c) Technological change: Progressive innovation and advancement of technology are
contributing to the effective and efficient business operation and productions. This factor is
constantly affecting the “M&S” for betterment in the operations.
d) Legal and environmental change: Operation objectives are influenced by environmental
change and legal actions taken by the government. Any change in legal laws in business policy
directly affects the operational effectiveness. Further, the operations might get affected due to
the environment condition and places.
Conclusion
The management and operations with respect to the organization "M&S" have been studied in
this assignment. It can be concluded that leaders and managers are the prime factors for running
a business operation effectively. "M&S" follows a flat organizational method of the pyramid
structure and every level of designation is independent and required to make decision and act
accordingly. The organizational operation is highly influenced by the leadership and managerial
skills of the management. An effective operational management ensures maximum utilization of
resources with minimum waste and cost of production involved. Further, various factors are
discussed in the business environment which impacts the operational management. Therefore, it
can be concluded, there is an importance of operational management in a business organization
which assures effective and efficient production or business operation.
10

11

12