Leadership and Management in Marks & Spencer: A Comparison

This report delves into the core concepts of operations management, focusing on the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers within Marks & Spencer. It begins with an introduction to the company and its organizational structure, then differentiates between leaders and managers, highlighting their distinct responsibilities and impacts on organizational goals. The report explores managerial functions such as planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling, alongside the leadership roles of motivating and guiding employees. It examines how leaders and managers navigate various situations, including employee engagement and conflict resolution. Furthermore, the report analyzes the application of leadership theories, including situational, systems, contingency, and transformational leadership, offering insights into their practical implications within the context of Marks & Spencer. The study concludes by synthesizing the key findings and implications for effective leadership and management practices.

Management Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1..........................................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2 .......................................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
Operations management refers to business practices to manage higher level of efficiency
and effectiveness within an enterprise. It includes planning, designing, organizing and
controlling process of manufacturing products and services in organization for increasing
productivity and profitability (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus, 2014). It is also concerned with
reforming business operations for providing better results to achieve competitive position in
market. The current study is supported on Marks & Spencer which is public limited British
retailer headquartered in Westminster, London. It was founded by Michael marks and Thomas
Spencer. It deals in clothing, luxury food products and home products to its potential and target
customers. This project includes difference of leaders and managers along with their roles and
characteristics in different managerial situations.
TASK 1
1. Introduction of Marks and Spencer and its organizational structure
Marks and Spencer is a United Kingdom based company in Retail industry, it is listed on
London Stock Exchange. Company provides wide range of products and services to its potential
consumers for satisfying their needs and demand. It offers clothing for men, women, children
and newborns, it also provides home care & decor products and food items. M&S is also
indulging in social work like it distribute returned cloths and on Christmas it gives food items to
charitable trust for helping unprivileged individuals. Marks and Spencer use flat organizational
structure as it has limited management levels among administration and front-line staff.
2. Difference between leaders and managers
Leaders and managers play important role in operations management. As they take
various decisions and actions for achieving organizational goals. Managers ensures that all tasks
are achieved in an efficient manner by developing strategies to get desired results. Leaders
implements strategies made by managers and influence employees for performing their duties
and responsibilities and motivate them by offering benefits and investors for successfully
attaining objectives (Rajan and et. al., 2012).

Leaders: These persons hold superior position in an organization as they have expertise
in their field. They manage group of people, influence them and exercise control on them.
Leaders give directions to their followers for performing task effectively to enhance productivity
and profitability. They motivate subordinates as it increases level of efforts for achieving desired
output.
Managers: Managers are the person who perform different task like planning,
organizing, starring and controlling to manage their special departmental tasks. There are number
of managers in a company depending upon size of organization. They are responsible for task
and performance of employees and have staff who reports to them (Galloway, Rowbotham and
Azhashemi, 2012).
Marks and Spencer requires leaders and managers, having various roles and
characteristics which they execute accordingly. The following are some differences of leaders
and managers on basis of their roles and characteristics:
Basis Leaders Managers
Meaning  Leaders are the person who
influence their subordinates.
For example, leader may
encourage workers to
perform well at workplace to
attain set goals and
objectives. This will help in
enhancing overall
performance.
 They are responsible for
managing the
organization by
planning, direction,
coordinating and
controlling. In this
manager ensure that all
the activities and task of
the employees should be
done in systematic
manner.
Purpose  They facilitate decisions and
set directions for their
followers. Leader is
responsible for including
their team members in every
 They make decisions
and plan details for their
employees. In this
manager set all the
activities as per

decision making process so
that they can easily get their
innovative ideas and views
for taking right decision.
employees skills and
abilities that help them
in performing best.
Aim  Aim of leaders in Marks and
Spencer is to provide growth
and development to
subordinates.
 Managers are aims
towards
accomplishment of
desired results.
Role  Leaders lead and motivates
peoples for achieving goals
and objectives. For this
leader use effective
leadership style like
democratic to motivate and
encourage workers at
workplace.
 Role of manager in
Marks and Spencer is to
hire and fire candidates
for vacant job vacancies.
For example, manager
can easily hire employee
as per vacant place
within the organization.
3. Managerial functions and leadership roles
Managers and leaders have different roles and functions for fulfilling their task and duties in
an effective manner. Functions of managers are described by Henri Fayol are as follows:
 Planning: According to Fayol creating a good plan of action is very hard and important
for organization. It needs active and equal participation of all employees. It helps
managers in drafting road-map for achievement of goals and objectives of company (Five
functions of management (Fayol), 2018).
 Organizing: After planning, managers organize their employees, capital and materials as
per their plan of action. By performing this function manager creates organizational
structure which helps in division of task and functions. Commanding: Managers gives order and instructions to employees which are required
for performing task and duties. By this they become capable for motivating and
encouraging initiatives of employees.

 Coordinating: This will in harmonized all activities for smooth functioning in
organization. Good coordination among employees creates positive behavior in
management for achieving objectives.
 Controlling: This ensures that everything is going according to plan and it control the
activities by estimating standards for performance on basis of business goals. Measures
actual performance with standards, compare results and take corrective actions.
In M&s while launching a new product and services leaders and managers plan by evaluating
opportunities in market to launch a new product and then organize potential resources and
mechanisms to effectively launch product. After that leaders and managers command its
subordinates and distributes their work and responsibilities according to their roles and
responsibilities. Moreover it coordinate all subordinates and their activities then control and
evaluate results and then reform in it.

Figure 1: Five functions of management

Leaders’ role is to influence and motivate employees to do their jobs by describing vision for
achieving output. The following are major roles of a leader in an organization: Motivating employees: This role of leader includes finding out needs and desire of
employees, providing what they want and acknowledge their good work. Good leaders
communicate well to know their needs, and this motivates individuals to perform well. Guiding employees: Leaders guide their followers by defining roles and responsibilities
and providing them necessary tools and material which are needed for performing duties
with full efforts.
 Building morale: It involves efforts that all employees put together for achieving
common objectives. They let employees know that how much their efforts for work is
acknowledge (Swink and et. al., 2017).
In that scenario when M&s launches a new product into the market for accepting changes and
bring innovation in company there is need to motivate employees so that they contribute their
best to organization. While launching a new product managers and leaders have to guide their
employees about upcoming changes and trends so they ready according to circumstances. In that
situation leaders have to build morale so that they Specify and comparison between various
roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager. ready to adopt changes and happily
give their best in accomplish goals.
4. Managers and leaders in different situations
Leaders and managers react differently in different situations to solve them. Marks and
Spencer is a large company so they also have to face various situations and managers and leaders
act accordingly to make smart decisions related to organization. In different situations like
decision making, employee engagement and conflict resolution etc. These situations are
explained below:
Employee engagement: It describes efforts of both organization and employee to create
and manage relationship with each other. It includes providing right working conditions and
environment to all staff members for motivating them to help in organizational success by
achieving objectives (Hajmohammad and et. al., 2013). Managers of Marks and Spencer create a
culture of engagement and provide clear guidelines and directions to employees. They find better

ways to recognize and acknowledge good work of subordinates and provides challenging
opportunities to employees in which they can use their skills, knowledge and expertise. Engaged
employees are highly loyal towards their enterprise and they are more productive and profitable
as they work with full enthusiasm. Leaders provide necessary or required training and
development opportunity to employees for increasing their efficiency, so they can be more
engaged towards their work.
Conflict resolution: Conflict arises when all parties have different views & opinions and
do not agree with other individuals. Marks and Spencer being a large organization faces conflict
among employees. Managers of company plays vital role in solving these issues as they
investigate reason by talking to them, meet employees who are involved in conflict and
communicate with all individuals, in last coming to a mutual decision. Leaders also have
important role in conflict management as they are trained in managing this kind of situations.
They come with unique and innovative solutions to their problems. They develop different
training and development program for enhancing skills and maintaining cultural difference
among staff. As all employees have different cultural backgrounds.
5. Management and leadership theories
Actions of leaders and managers are influenced by some theories as these helps them to
do multiple activities to achieve goals and objectives.
Situational leadership theory: This concept was developed by Paul Hersey and Ken
Blanchard (Gunasekaran and Irani, 2014). According to this theory best leadership style depends
upon current situations. Effective leaders of Marks and Spencer adopt their style as per the need
of situation. It categorized leadership styles into 4 behavior types described below: Telling: In this style leader tells their manager about what they need to do by making
decision in order to maintain growth of organization. Selling: Leaders communicate their ideas and views to other members of group. Participating: In this style leaders allow employees to participate in making decision
and welcome their innovative ideas.
 Delegating: Leaders are less involved in decision making process as they delegate all
responsibility to members of team and oversees work.

Example of situational leadership consist of taking decisions according to the situation
sometimes many types of conflicts arise in organization in that situation leader have to take the
appropriate step and according to change its previous actions and according to demand of time
they have to mold their decisions.
Systems leadership theory: This theory allows leaders to create conditions under which
employees can perform their duties productively with full potential. In Marks and Spencer, it
promotes innovation and promotes creativity in organization, encourage subordinates to think in
a different way for approaching to a task. This kind of leadership focuses on welfare of
employees by providing them growth and development opportunity. It will provide sustainability
development in Marks and Spencer as leaders follow vision and plan all their actions and
resources accordingly to achieve them.
Contingency leadership theory: It explains that there is no leadership style which is best
suitable for an structure. Decisions taken by leaders of Marks and Spencer are dependent on
various external and internal environmental situations. Nature of leader is also involved in
decision making, one leader can be task oriented by quality and another is relationship oriented
in nature. Task oriented leader are only concerned for competition of task and this results in high
productivity. Relationship oriented leaders are focused on employee relations, it results in high
team spirit and enhance organizational communication. Thus, overall it results in increasing
sustainability and development in organization (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger, 2017).
Transformational leadership: This model of leadership was introduced by James
V.Downton in 1973. It is a type of leadership, where leader use to motivate, encourage, and
inspire their employees, so that they can introduce some changes in their organization. This also
help employees to work better in order to achieve organizational goals and also help them in
achieving personal goals.
6. Strengths and weaknesses of leadership theories
The following represents strengths and weaknesses of leadership theories which are
described below:
Leadership Theory Strengths Weaknesses
Situational It recognizes need for flexible It focuses on immediate

leadership theory working environment in Marks and
Spencer, as in there are not
specified rules and regulations.
requirements rather than focusing
on long-term objectives.
Systems leadership
theory
It provides leaders to Marks and
Spencer who focuses on long-term
vision of company and their
strategies helps in achieving them.
This theory is not popular and
widely accepted as it is lengthy by
nature and complicated.
Contingency
leadership theory
This approach increases
productivity and develop work
culture in Marks and Spencer.
Determination of situation is very
complex as it involves various
managerial actions.
These theories will help Marks and Spencer in increasing quality of work as Situation
leadership provides motivating and supportive environment for work hence it upgrades
productivity and efficiency. System leadership encourages innovation and promote creativity
among employees for providing sustainability in organization. Contingency approach ensures
efforts of employees to increase performance (Hill and Hill, 2017).
7. Impact of managers and leaders on Organization
Leaders and managers in Marks and Spencer helps in achieving goals and objectives of
organization. They both perform their roles and functions to influence and motivate employees to
perform their duties in an effective and efficient manner which can increase productivity and
profitability of company. Managers and Leaders analyses all perspective related to future growth
of company and help company to make sustainable development and growth.
TASK 2
1. Key approaches of operations management
The following are some key approaches which are adopted by organizations:
Just in time inventory: This approach helps Marks and Spencer in enhancing efficiency
and reducing wastage by receiving goods and material when they are needed, hence it reduces
inventory cost. This approach in operations management reduces storage space of company
because products are stock at time of usage. It needs less investment in inventory as ordering

gods all the time needs higher investment in inventory. It decreases the wastage as goods are
ordered by company when need arises (Jones and Robinson, 2012).
Six sigma: This approach is data driven and eradicates defects in process of converting
unprocessed into processed products. In case of operation management of Marks and Spencer it
attains maximum consumer satisfaction as it reduces defects, improve return on investment and
sales, improves manufacturing processes, Growth in stock value, realize employment growth and
identify errors in production processes. It focuses on continues improvement in organization.
Lean production: It is defined as systematic approach which eliminates wastage in
manufacturing system. Implementation of this process helps operations management of Marks
and Spencer by improving product quality and visual management, enhance efficiency in process
of manufacturing, reduce manpower, provides easy management in entire production procedure.
In this, entire organization removes problem of enterprise, provides safe working place and
increase moral of staff (Gunasekaran and Ngai, 2012).
2. Roles and responsibility of Managers and leaders
Leaders and managers of Marks and Spencer have following roles and duties in above
mention key approaches of operations management:
Approaches Role of leader Role of manger
Just in time inventory They ensure that goods are
utilized in productive way.
Leaders of Marks and Spencer
make sure all staff are alert of
roles and responsibilities in
process.
To place order to suppliers at
needed time.
To maintain healthy relation
with suppliers.
Six sigma They invest in training and
resources of six sigma.
Identify and support in
employee participation.
They give reviews and support
to subordinates and top
management.
Monitor and implement six
sigma approaches in company.
Lean production They assist employees to They analyze effectiveness of