Leadership, Management and Operations at Marks and Spencer

This report delves into the operational management of Marks and Spencer (M&S), examining the distinct roles and characteristics of leaders and managers within the organization. It highlights the differences between leadership and management, emphasizing how leaders inspire and guide, while managers control and direct operations. The report analyzes how leaders and managers function in various situations, including crisis management, technological changes, and sales declines. Furthermore, it explores different leadership theories and approaches applied within M&S, such as situational, system, and contingency leadership, and their impact on business operations and employee engagement. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of effective operations management and its influence on achieving organizational goals, using examples like Apple to illustrate the application of these concepts. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the interplay between leadership, management, and operational strategies within a retail context.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS..............................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 : Different roles and characteristics of a leader and manager in the Marks and Spencer LTD. 3
LO.2 The role of a Leader and the function of a manager in Marks and Spencer................................4
P.2 Roles and functions of a leader and manager in different situations within the Marks and
Spencer Ltd...........................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2 ................................................................................................................................................6
LO.3 The role of leaders and managers play in the operations function of an organisation................6
LO.4 The relationship between leadership and management in a contemporary business
environment.........................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................9
Books and journals...............................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
In this study, Operation's Management has been discussed briefly. In the discussion the roles
and responsibilities of an Operation Manager has been included(Bernardelli,Mangueira and
Ruiz2014). The Operation's Management is an area of an organisation which is concerned with the
production of the products and services. It focuses on the effective utilisation of the resources. The
report also defines the various roles and responsibilities the leaders and managers plays within the
Marks and Spencer Ltd. It also includes the different theories and approaches applied within the
operation's management. The report also consist the study of the factors affecting the operational
management and the decision making in the Marks and Spencer LTD.
LO 1
P1 : Different roles and characteristics of a leader and manager in the Marks and Spencer LTD.
As a Management consultant for the Marks and Spencer, It is easily observed that the business
operations within the organisation is organised and controlled by various leaders and managers at
different level. Both the Managers and the leaders plays a vital role in the operations within the
Marks and Spencer Ltd(Cooper,Dowsett and Rogers,2013). A leader is one who inspires the
followers to increase their willingness to perform various task to achieve a goal and a Manager is
the person who is responsible for the managerial functions within the organisation and the manager
is a ling between the organisation and its stakeholders for example – shareholders, customers,
employees etc. There are many differences between the roles and characteristics of a leader and a
manager which are stated below -
BASIS LEADER MANAGER
Definition Leaders the one who provide
direction to the individual and
they guide in carrying out the
duty in the Marks and Spencer
Ltd. It is responsible only for
the team.
A manager is the person who
control as well as direct the
whole organization. He is the
one who assign the work to the
employees in Marks and
Spencer Ltd.
Focus The leader focus on attaining
the goals and objectives. They
focus only on their team
members which they are
The focus of the manager in the
Marks and Spencer Ltd is to
develop skilfulness among the
individuals so that the task can

leading as well as directing. be completed in an impressive
way.
Decision making process In the decision making
process, the leader sometimes
take part in decisions. But in
case of democratic leader if
any decision is made for the
team, then he considers all the
team members in the decision
making
process(Evangelopoulos,Geor
gilakis and
Hatziargyriou,2016).
The mangers are included in
every decision of Marks and
Spencer LTD because they are
the one who know the actual
position of the organization and
even the situation in which the
company is carrying out its
operations.
Power The Power is given to the
leader of Marks and Spencer
Ltd by their followers. If he
has a good leadership qualities
he gets the support of the
people.
Power is in the hands of
managers by default because
the position only has given
power to him to coordinate and
manage the operations of Marks
and Spencer Ltd.
Personality The personality of the leader
is magnetic and he has the
power to influence the
behaviour of the employees.
Managers are the one who are
calm in nature and their focus is
on maintaining and
coordinating the activity of the
Marks and Spencer Ltd.
Risk The leaders are considered to
be the risk taker, they always
choose the challenging way
and always takes the risk to
obtain them.
They can be considered as the
risk averse because in Marks
and Spencer Ltd they follow the
rules and regulations of the
organization which is made by
the firm.
M1
Situational leadership theory states that there are many situations in which leaders have to

react hard and also some situations are there when leaders have to react soft with employees. Hence
leader is the person who is responsible for analysing situation and react accordingly. Leader plays
the roleof relationship builder in which individual is responsible for build healthy relations with
staff members so that they support the firm. On other hand managers play the role of trainer, they
trin employees so that they can understand their work and complete effectively.
D1& M2
Situational leadership
The advantage of this theory is that managers have vary styles which helps in handling each
situations effectively. It is simple and intuitive method of leading people in organisation. But
drawback of this theory is that leaders do not pay much attention on long term goal and also this
leadership does not really define maturity.
Contingency leadership
The advantage of this method is that it is dynamic in nature hence leaders can change their
behaviour as per the requirement of situation. Furthermore, another positive aspect of this
leadership is that it supports in designing structure of organisation in systematic manner. But
drawback of this leadership theory is that it is reactive and complex approach as well.
System leadership
This approach pays more attention on improving moral of employees so that they become
loyal towards the brand. It is helpful in saving commuting time hence productivity of the firm get
increased. But drawback of this approach is that it is unable to deal with crises situations effectively.
LO2
P.2 Roles and functions of a leader and manager in different situations within the Marks and
Spencer Ltd.
The leaders as well as managers both plays their specific roles and functions within the Marks
and Spencer Ltd. In order achieve the effectiveness and efficiencies in the business operations
within the organisation. This helps the organisation to achieve the goals and objectives in the best
possible way(Lim,2015). The managers in the Marks and Spencer performs their respective
managerial functions by adopting various theories of management whereas the leaders inspire the
employees to develop a willingness to work. The different situations within the Marks and Spencer
in which the managers and leaders perform their specific roles and functions are as follows -
 Handling the situation of crisis, The managers within the Marks and Spencer Ltd provides
effective situational strategies to deal with the situation or issues. The Managers are
responsible for the effective planning for overcoming a specific situation or hurdle. The

leaders on the other hand plays a role of the medium. The leaders understand the team
members and their perspectives therefore the leader can easily interact with the team
members and provides them the information and techniques of performing then operations
within the organisation.
 Technological changes: For example: if company plans to make changes in its technologies
then leaders and managers of company must ensur to fulfil their responsibilities effectively.
Leaders are required to lead team well and making them understand the task whereas
managers must train them so that all people fulfil their responsibilities effectively. The
operations within the Marks and Spencer depends upon the production of goods and
services. The change in business environment or production operations and functions
depends upon the strategies and plans developed by the managers in the Organisation. The
managers develop the best management strategies in order achieve the goals and objectives
in the changing business environment. The leaders on the other hand help the managers to
impose the plans and strategies in every level or team within the organisation. The leader by
inspiring and motivating the employees helps them to adopt the strategies of
operations(Abbou,Dillet and Lottin,2015).
 Sale decline: For example if sales of the firm is getting down then entity might get fail to
sustain hence leaders have to motivate workers by creating healthy culture so that people
work hard and support firm in such kind of complex situations whereas managers have to
give rewards, incentives so that people run to sell more products for getting such financial
benefits.
 Introducing rules and policies – Managers in the Marks and Spencer are responsible for
regulating various rules and policies within the organisation, they need to take care about the
employees as well as the organisation while doing so. The leaders are responsible for
ensuring that their team are adopting the rules and policies.
P3 Theories and approaches applied within the Marks and Spencer
There are various theories and approaches applied within the Marks and Spencer
considering the Leadership in the organisation. The Leaders are important for every
organisation in order to manage the business operations and the employees. The leadership
states that an effective leader performs the following tasks -
 Develop an inspiring vision with future concern.
 Guides and develop a team, so that the vision can be achieved effectively.
 Inspires or motivate people to pursue with the vision.

 Manage the delivery of the vision.
There are various approaches of Leadership which are mentioned below -
 Situational Leadership – This leadership style states the leaders and managers within an
organisation should adjust or mould their leadership style according to the followers. In
order to fit the development level of the followers the leaders should adjust there leadership
styles. With regard to the situational leadership its upto the leader to change or manage his
leadership style, not the followers to adapt the leadership style. The situational leadership
often changes to meet the needs of the organisation in order to achieve the objectives and
goals(Bhattacharjee and Bandyopadhyay,2015).
 System Leadership – This leadership approach has been defined as the cooperative
leadership of a network of people at various places and at different levels in the organisation
creating a shared task and cooperating to make an important change. The system leadership
is completely different from the other approaches. The System leadership focuses on the
following -
1. Recognising that all the stakeholders of the organisation have a true interest in the improvement
of the organisation.
2. Concentrating on the outcomes or results.
3. Clearing the aim or goals.
4. The leadership should be clear about the needs and need to match the response itself.
 Contingency – This approach of the leadership states that there is no effective or best way to
manage and organise an organisation, decision making and to lead the business. The
operations or functionality of an organisation depends on the internal and external situations.
The contingent leader applies their style or approaches of the leadership according to a
situation in an effective manner(Hildebrand,2014).
LO 3
P.4 Key approaches to operations management
Operations management is a crucial field in managing a firm. Operations management can
defined as the field of management related to plan and business process operations in the production
of services and goods. Operations management provide the managing function procedure of
changing inputs in condition of labour, materials, energy and strength into outputs in the form of
services and goods. A good example of effective operations' management is Apple. It is an

international business firm which designs and markets computer and related services and products.
Operations management relates planning, organizing, leading and controlling
procedures(Ding,Sarikprueck and Lee,2016). Approach of operation management is described as
below:
Lean approach
it is a systematic approach to eliminate or reduce activities that do not add any value to the
process. It focuses on removing useless steps in a process and taking only those which are effective
and useful. The lean method ensures customer satisfaction and high quality, it assists in decreasing
process cycle time, improving service delivery time. It is the approach in which company
concentrates on minimising wastage and improving the process continuously. Leaders of the firm is
responsible to make people understand their task and managers have to monitor their work so that
issues in operations can be identified and all these things can be resolved on time.
Six sigma approach
Six sigma is a data driven problem-solving method, the focus is mainly on process
variations and importance is given to customer satisfaction. Continuous process improvement with
low defects is the main goal of this particular method. There are five stages in this framework –
Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control. This approach always ensures to raise quality by
defining the actual problem and finding proper solution to resolve that issue. Leaders measure the
work of each team members and guide them well whereas managers motivate them so that people
feel happy and share innovative ideas to improve operational quality.
Planning:-planning is a function which involves goals setting objectives and determining a suitable
action for achieving settled objectives. The manager of operations management requires to be aware
of environmental conditions that he can face his organisation problems and future forecast
conditions. The manager also requires to be a good in decision making abilities. The planning
procedure begins with some environmental study which means that planner should aware of such
critical things of the organisation including their competitors, customers and economic
environment.
Planner must evaluate various alternatives which help him to make the best action decision for
achieving the objectives. There are some types of planning which involves strategic planning,
operational planning and tactical planning(Jamaludin and Yusof,2016).
Organizing:- organizing function of operational management includes development of
organisational structure and finding resources (human) to accomplish objectives. Efforts are
coordinated into the framework of organisational structure. Decisions of an organisation is generally

known as organisational designing decision. Organizing also include jobs for individual within
organisation. Decision making process depends on responsibilities and duties of individual jobs. At
a level of organisation deciding how a best departments can coordinate their jobs and cluster to give
the best efforts in the organisation. Particular jobs of an organisation involves how best they can
design jobs individually to meet effective use of human resources.
Leading:-In this function the informal and social sources of influence included which is used to
motivate actions taken by any other. If the team leaders are effective, then their under control
subordinates will be inspire from this and give effort to attain objectives of organisation. Studies of
personality research and job attitudes can provide relevant info for managers to lead subordinates
effectively. Communication studies provide managers a direction to communicate persuasively.
Finally, the study of leadership and its style provide important information to become a good leader
and learn appropriate and effective styles of leadership(Liu,Wang and Zhang,2015).
Controlling:-Controlling function includes assuring that performance can not define by standard.
Normally controlling involves three steps which are standards of performance, difference between
actual performance and standards and last taking correct decisions or action when needed. The
performance measurement can be done in many ways, it depends on the performance standards
including report of sales, financial statements, production result, satisfaction of customers and the
formal appraisal performances. A impressive controlling requires existing plans which provide
necessary action or objective.
The management elements of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are broadly considered
to be the best meaning of the manager job, also the best mode to sort out accrued knowledge about
management studies.
M3
Leaders and managers play significant role in business unit, they are responsible for raising
operational efficiency. Leaders make long term planning which supports in implementing effective
strategies through which work efficiency can be improved. Managers always give training and
guidance to staff so that they use six sigma, lean manufacturing approaches in significant manner.
By these way workers efficiency of work get increased which helps business sin become more
productive and more efficient which helps in raising satisfaction level of consumers hence objective
of business can be achieved significantly.
D2
Culture is the factor which influences business environment as healthy culture make people
positive and all the person work hard to meet the organisation goal. but poor culture enhances crises

which affect business environment negatively. Sustainability is another factor wich impacts on
business environment. Ethical operations help the firm in performing well but if firms do not follow
ethics then it would decrease its brand image which will affect business environment negatively.
P.5 importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
Operations management works as a backbone of any business formation which keep it
straight and provide support for achieving organisation's goals and targets. The main and important
role of operation management is to provide effective and efficient product or services. It may also
affect profitability of any kind of small or large organisation significantly. There is no success for
any business without operation management. It appropriately uses the resources to make products
and services which full fill the market requirements. Product and service development work for
maintaining speed, quality, cost and flexibility of service and product is done by operation
management. Operation management is responsible for keeping strong relationship with suppliers to
ensure the raw material being supplied in time. Human resource management has a task to bring
new and fresh people who have appropriate skills, knowledge and abilities to accomplish the
organisational targets. There are so many companies spending millions on mailing costs. Postal
service rates are rising and with widely global business operations, managers paying a close
attention towards mailing costs and their alternatives. Operation management is very important for
at least two reasons for an organisation and its manager. First it is useful for product improvement,
which helps to improve financial status of an organisation. Second it helps to meet customers for
competitive priorities (Miyanabe and et.al., 2015).
Operation management always ensure to identify the lacking areas and work to improve
these areas. It ensures that company concentrates on minimising wastage which help the M&S in
reducing operational cost and enhancing overall production ability of organisation. Apart from this,
operation manager is helpful in raising quality of products by this way firm can offer satisfactory
goods to consumers that supports in attracting more consumers and meeting objective of business
unit.
Lean manufacturing approach of operation management emphases on improving efficiency
itself at a large scale process, it directly affects the measures of efficiency and productivity. The
whole process of activity manages a careful plan, leads and control for the organisation's operation.
That minimises cost and help the firm in utilising that resources for further development of business
unit. It is beneficial in productivity increases and time management to make sure the production
cost is low. Operations management involves planning, controlling, staffing, directing, organising
and motivating to their management for assure business growth and goodwill with competing the
other companies. By proper planning entity can utilise is resources well and organise all business
activities in systematic manner so that M&S can manage its operations well and individual can

perform their duties well and perform it with quality (Morimoto,Nomura and Yoshino,2014).
LO4
P6 Factors within the Marks and Spencer affecting the Operational management and the decision
making by the leaders and managers.
There are various factors which are affecting the business environment of an organisation. This also
leads an impact on the operational management and decision making of the leaders and managers.
These factors can be internal as well as external and can affect the business environment negatively
or positively. The management within the Marks and Spencer needs to focus on these elements in
order to overcome the factors in an effective way. The different factors which influence the
operational management and decision making are as follows -
 Mission and objectives – With respect to changing business environment and competition
the Marks and Spencer needs to change their goals and objectives. The change in goals and
objectives needs a replaced business strategy and plans of the operations within the
organisation which is a major impact on the overall management of the firm.
 Value System – This factor is based on the norms and culture of the organisation. The
various policies, rules and regulatory framework of an organisation affect the business
environment has a great impact on the operational management as well as the decision
making procedure of the leaders and managers. The policies of a business often changes
according to various situation and needs, this change also greatly affect the organisational
structure and functionality(Helleno,Pimentel and Simon,2015).
 Financial factors – Every organisation in order to perform the business operations and
functions requires finance or investment. For example production of goods requires raw
material, machinery and human resource, These requirements can not be fulfilled without
the availability of finance. Therefore, the organisations operations and decision making
procedure are greatly affected by the financial factors.
 Political factors – These are factors which are related to the laws of the government which
are imposed on the organisations, The government policies are important to be followed by
each and every organisation as its illegal to do ignore the government policies and laws. The
government order or laws can have a positive as well negative impact on the operations as
well as decision making by the leaders and the managers of an organisation (Ming,Kun and
Daoxin,2013).
M4

There are various factors that impact on wider business environment and community both.
Couture, values, sustainability are the major factor that have high impact overall working of
business environment. Companies have to understand the value of business and have to take
care of ethics which helps in improving working of business and also support in contributing
well in community. CSR aids in working well for society and get commercial benefit as well
which is beneficial in order to manage the work in effective manner.
D2
Operation management is the tool which is helpful in managing operations and ensuring the
efficiency level of operations. Values, ethics, CSR are considered as essential factors which
influence the working of operations. In the absence of effective CSR activities and poor ethics
entity will not be able to meet the standards and it will affect its brand image badly. Enterprise
always require to follow ethics carefully so that it can serve well to consumers and sustain in
market for longer duration.
CONCLUSION
The above report concluded that the operation management is very important for each and
every organisation. The operational management is responsible for the effective functionality of the
organisation. The report includes the various roles and functions played by the leaders and
managers within the Marks and Spencer with respect to the various theories and approaches of
leadership. The Leadership helps an organisation to achieve the goals and objectives of the
organisation effectively by developing the cooperation and coordination among the employees. The
study analyses the difference between the role and responsibilities of the leaders and managers
within the Marks and Spencer Ltd. Furthermore, The report determined the various factors that has
an impact on the operational management and decision making by the leaders and managers.

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