Marks and Spencer Leadership and Operational Management Report

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Management and Operation
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INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................4
P.1, M.1 Characteristics and role of leader and management................................................4
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................7
P.2. Analysing the role and function of leader and manager in different situation in M&D
ltd............................................................................................................................................7
P.3, M2, D.1 Different theories and approaches of leadership with strength and
weaknesses.............................................................................................................................8
TASK 3....................................................................................................................................10
P.4, M.3 Approaches of operation management and role of leader and manager...............10
P.5 Significance of OM in M&S ltd to attain goals and objectives.....................................12
TASK 4....................................................................................................................................14
P.6, M.4, D2 Factors within organisation environment that impacts operational
management and decision making of leaders and manager.................................................14
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................16
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INTRODUCTION
Organisation must have control over its activities and functional department which helps in
manufacturing quality results in terms of customer satisfaction and profitability for firm. In
this regards, the present report will aims to understand different aspects of leadership and
management and operational management of M&S Ltd. Marks and Spencer is the British
multinational retailer. It has its head quarter in Westminster, London. M&S ltd is specialises
in selling high quality clothing, home products and food products. The organisation has
around 1463 stores around the globe. The present report will include characteristics and role
of leader and management. Report will include the role and function of leader and manager in
different situation in M&D ltd. Further, report will include different theories and approaches
of leadership with strength and weaknesses. The report will highlight key approaches of
operation management and role of leader and manager with significance of OM in M&S ltd
to attain goals and objectives. The report will include factors within organisation environment
that impacts operational management and decision making of leaders and manager.
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TASK 1
P.1, M.1 Characteristics and role of leader and management
It can be said that both management function and role of leadership are crucial for the growth
and success of M&S Ltd. Both the mangers and leaders have pivotal role in business to
efficiently manage and control the business activities and performance of all resources to
attain the goals and objectives effectively. Management are effective in supervising and
organising the resources and leadership are effective in influencing the work and performance
of employees to achieve the goals in profitable manner.
Definition of leadership and management
Management is the integral process in any type and size of organisation. Management is the
process of planning, organising, directing and controlling different activities of enterprise in
order to meet the organisational needs. Management can be defined as “The process
coordinating all the resources of business enterprises through the basic functions in order to
attain the business objectives (Bendell and Little, 2015).” Management can be referred as the
process of getting the wok and task done by others through organising and directing the
business activities and efforts of the employees and others efficiently.”
On the other hand, leadership can be termed as the ability and capability to influence a person
or group to attain specific goals. Leadership is an effective process or organising and
commanding all the business operations and efforts of the employees. Leadership can be
defined as "It is an integral aspect of the directing function of management that helps to
influence the behaviour of the employee to work towards the accomplishment of the goals of
the organisation”. Leadership is an essential concept which leads to encourage and motivates
the employee’s performance and different business activities in a profitable manner.
Definition of a leader and manager
A leader can be defined as the person who dominates their subordinates and control their
performance as per the demand of the situation. Leaders play an effective role in increasing
the morale and motivation of the employees at each level in order to accomplish a task in
more efficient and profitable manner. Thus, Leader can be defined as “The person who has an
ability to influence an employee to perform for the specific purpose” (Lorinkova and Perry,
2017). The characteristics of the leaders possess the characteristics of effective
communication skills, transparency, honesty, innovative thinking, critical thinking etc.
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Whereas, manager is the person who has authorised to supervise the activities and human
efforts of department, team or for overall organisation. Manager has the responsible to
formulate the strategies towards activities by different skills and knowledge. The managers of
organisation must possess the characteristics of communication, time management, technical
skills, flexibility, leadership etc.
Comparison between management and leadership
Table 1 Difference between leadership and management
Management Leadership
Management is the process of getting the
work done by others employees. it is the
process of planning, organising,
commanding, controlling etc.
Leadership skills are the ability and
capabilities of a person to influence the
employees to work towards the
accomplishment of specific goals.
Management focus on managing the
activities and performance of the employees
as per the set strategies.
Leadership focus in influencing and
encourage the workers need in organisation
and goals of the organisation in more
efficient manner (Shields, 2017).
Management relies on controlling different
operations and different resources of the
organisation.
Leadership depends on the trust of the
workers on their leaders.
It can be said that both role of a leader and function of manager is essential in the
organisation to manage and different activities of the firm in arraigning the aim in profitable
manner. A leader’s role is to encourage the employees and facilitate the strategies of the
management.
Role of management
Management plays an integral role in the M&S Ltd. As per defined by Mintzberg, there are
10 roles of management roles that are categorised in three main roles of manager which are
describe as under.
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Figure 1 Manager's Role
Informational role: The manager in this role is responsible providing information from the
external business environment, the performance report to the top executives so that they can
take information for future goals. The managers also convey the strategies to the employees.
The managers are also responsible in communicating to the outside business enterprises.
Interpersonal role: The role of the manager in interpersonal is give various opinion and
feedback to the people so that they can manage the business activities in more efficient
manner. The managers in M&S Ltd are accountable to act as representatives and
communicate with external and within the organisation.
Decisional role: In this role, the managers are accountable to use different information and
control the business activities through taking decisions and make strategies as per the aim of
the firm (Gotsis and Grimani, 2016). The manager has to make short term and long term
decisional role for the business activities.
Hard skill management and soft skill leadership style
The leaders and managers in M&S ltd must possess the hard and soft leadership skills which
are essential in order to influence the employee’s performance to accomplish the goals of
high quality products to attain profitability. Hard skills of management can be termed as the
knowledge and skills of leadership, communication, technical knowledge, time-management
activities. Where, the soft skill includes dependability, team-building, creativity,
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integrity, honesty which helps them to carry out their operations and roles in organisation
more efficiently.
TASK 2
P.2. Analysing the role and function of leader and manager in different situation in M&D ltd
Introduction to Marks and Spencer plc: Marks and Spencer is the British multinational
retailer. It has its head quarter in Westminster, London. M&S ltd is specialises in selling high
quality clothing, home products and food products. The organisation has around 1463 stores
around the globe.
Roles and duties of management in M&S Ltd department: It can be said that
management plays a crucial role in every department of the organisation. Management assist
in supervising the several business activities in order to manage and control the operations as
per the set strategies in attaining the goals of department and overall organisation. There are
several departments in the M&S Ltd which are performing their departmental activities.
Management assist in planning the performance sand activities of these department, organise
all the resources which are necessary for the operations. The management assist in directing
the performance of these departments and effectively coordinate them in order to manage and
control the business performance in effective manner.
It can be said that, as the organisation are operating in the business environment, there can
various situation which can arises in organisation. Such situation can lead to impact the
performance of the organisation. The role of a leader and function of a manager is effective in
handling such situation (Campbell, 2015). The role of the leader is effective as they
implement the strategies that have been formulated by the management in order to lead the
team to attain the task objectives.
The role of managers and leaders in handling situation in M&S Ltd
Financial crises: the M&S Ltd has witnesses the decline in profitability as the process of fuel
and raw material in UK which leads to increase the manufacturing cost of the and decrees in
profitability. The declining in sales also leads to create financial crises in the organisation.
The managers and leaders through applying different approaches and leadership style can
handle the situation. The manager’s can apply the contemporary theory that will help in
making plans to bargain with suppliers in order to reduce their cost. Managers can also apply
the theory of management by objectives and involve the employees to put their efforts in
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providing their feedbacks and opinion in order to lowering down the manufacturing cost. On
the other hand, leader’s can use different leadership style to influence the employees. The
leader can use the participative style and involve the employees in suggesting different ways
to increase the sales. Leader has to encourage the employees to use the resourcefully in order
to increase the efficiency and reduce the waste.
P.3, M2, D.1 Different theories and approaches of leadership with strength and weaknesses
Leadership and management have their own importance in M&S ltd in order to manage and
control different activities and performance of the employees to attain the aims of the
organisation. Leaders and managers are accountable to administer and supervise different
functional and activities with their skills and knowledge. In this regards, there are various
theories and approaches of leadership which are effective in applying to manage various
operational process in M&S Ltd. These theories are described with their strength and
weaknesses respectively.
Management by objectives: It is the theory which is effective in order to improve the
performance of the organisation. Through this model, the management and employees clearly
define the objective which they have to attain. Setting up of the action plan is effective to
encourage the employees to participate in different business affairs and increase their
performance in productive manner (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider, 2015). This theory helps the
management and employees to create a healthy work environment by creating the objectives
together.
Strength and Weaknesses: Strength of the management by objectives is that it is a result-
oriented process that focuses on creating the foals and motivates the manager to plan the
objectives in detail. Strength is that it assists the management and employees more aware of
the goals of the company which has to be achieved. However, the weakness of this approach
that is requires the full support and participation of the top level management. This approach
is time consuming for both management and employees,
Situational leadership: It is the adaptive leadership theory. This theory states that there is no
one best leadership style for the leader. There are various styles which a leader has to choose
which is best suitable for the current situation and goals of the organisation. It assists the
leaders in the organisation to be flexible who can adopt the different style as per the different
situations.
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Strength and weakness: Leaders in this situation has various styles to choose from different
available styles which effective for the present. This situation is essential for both manager
and leader within organisation in order to improve performance of organisation. However, the
situational leadership has weaknesses and leaders become confuse which style requires
choosing from different styles.
System theory: This theory assists the managers and leaders in effectively controlling the
attributes of employees so that they can communicate effectively related to different
circumstances to influencing their performance. It assists the employees to manage the
changes in activities with proper instruction of employees.
Strength and weakness: System leadership systematically handles all the internal and
external changes which assist the managers and leaders to make decisions efficiently.
However, the system lacks as it not possible to effectively apply in practical way.
Contingency theory: This theory states that there is no best style for a leader. As per this
theory, a leader in M&S Ltd requires to be flexible enough to choose the style as per the
changed situation in workplace (Boyle, 2017). This theory is effective to adopt in M&S Ltd
which assist the leaders to make effective decisions in organisation.
Strength and weakness: This theory is helpful in applying as it provides a broad scope for
the leaders to understand different styles of leadership. However, contingency theory has
weaknesses which lead to lack of proper literature of effective style for the appropriate for
different situation.
Leadership traits theory: It is concerned as the first modern theory of the leadership. This
theory assists in identifying the certain personality traits which leads to differentiate leaders
from others. This theory is based on the assumption that leaders are born, not made. Thus, as
per this theory, there are certain skills, knowledge which effective leaders possessed.
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TASK 3
P.4, M.3 Approaches of operation management and role of leader and manager
Operation management: It is the important part of M&S Ltd which includes the managing
and controlling the manufacturing process of the organisation. Operational management can
be termed as the process of transforming the raw material and human resources into the
finished goods of high quality in more profitable manner. It is important that M&SD ltd
should focus on the operation management in order to improve the efficiency in
manufacturing the products of high quality in profitable manner and meet the requirement of
the customer.
Transformational process
Transformational process in OM can be termed as the process and an activity which includes
input, transform and adding value to them and provides outputs to the customers as high
quality products (Schaltegger, Burritt and Petersen, 2017). The transformational process
includes changes in the physical characteristics of materials to customers, storage of
accommodation of materials, information or customers, changes of the location of materials,
information or customers.
Quality and cost of quality in OM
It can be said that Operation management is all about manufacturing a quality product ort
services. In M&D ltd, the quality is referred as the fitness for use. The quality of the product
in manufacturing process is the fitness of the products in effectively meeting the usages as
per the requirement of the customers. Cost of quality can be termed as the methodology
which assists the organisation in determining the extent to which the resources are being used
in order to prevent the poor quality. There are four cost of the quality which includes internal
failure which is associated with the defects that found before the customer gets the product.
External failure is found after the customer gets the product. Appraisal cost is cost that is
incurred to identify the degree of quality requirement (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018). And
the prevention cost which is incurred to keep failure and appraisal cost to minimum.
Both managers and leaders play an essential role in operational management in managing
different activities and influence the performance of the Operational process as per the
requirement of the customers in profitable manner. In this regards, there are different models
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of operational management which can be applied in M&S ltd to increase the efficiency of the
operation process.
Figure 2 Operations management
Total quality management: This approach is effective for the business in improving the
quality of goods and services thorough focusing on the various factors that are associated
with products. It assists in delivering the high quality products to satisfy the customer’s needs
and gain the competitive advantage. This approach is customer focused that analyse the
production process in developing the products. The managers play an essential role in
conveying the quality status to the employees and ensuring the quality products in
manufacturing process.
Just in time approach: It is an inventory strategy which aims to reduce the waste from the
manufacturing process. It assists in reducing the waste if essential resources thus increasing
the efficiency of the operation management. In this strategy, the inventory has been called
when the existing raw material has been utilised properly. It helps in saving the inventory
cost and the storage cost of inventory. It leads to minimise the waste of the raw material and
reduce the cost of the manufacturing process (Wright and Coyne, 2018). The manager has to
be ensuring that the sufficient inventory is three and analyse when to order the next stock.
The leader has to influence and motivate the employees to efficiently utilise the resources and
minimises the waste.
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Capacity management: It can be termed as the act of ensuring that a business maximises its
business activities and manufacturing output in every circumstances. The capacity of an
organisation measures how a company can achieve, produce or sell in a given time period.
This approaches are very much effective which can be well utilised by the leaders and
manager in M&S Ltd in order to enhances the quality of the manufacturing process in
producing effective products and provide satisfaction to customers. Thus, the role of manager
and leader is to ensure in providing the equipments, resources and positive working culture to
the employees and improve the business operation in attaining the business goals of M&S Ltd
in more efficient manner.
P.5 Significance of OM in M&S ltd to attain goals and objectives
Customer satisfaction is the most important reason to manage the operational process
effectively. Management operations have several issues which includes operational, design,
system management etc. It is effective in creating the quality level of manufacturing process
in organisation.
Importance of Operation management: it can be said that both manager and leader is
accountable for managing the manufacturing process and all the elements that are related to it
in order to improve efficiency of operations management. In related to this, M&S Ltd is
required to focus on improving the efficiency and provide the high quality products in
achieving the business objectives of customer satisfaction (Richards, 2017). These quality
products are the main elements that play an integral role in the success and growth of the
M&S Ltd.
In this regards, managers and leaders in M&S ltd are liable to build positive relation with
employee, other management and staffs in order to manage strategies and decisions for the
continuous improvement in operations. The managers and leaders must control and monitor
different factors associated with operations in order to attain the desired goals of the
organisation. It is also beneficial in increasing the customer satisfaction and attaining the
competitive advantage for the business over other competitors. In addition to this, there are
several leadership styles and management theories which managers and leaders can apply in
order to make the operations process more effective.
The role of manager and leaders in M&S Ltd is important in managing the effectiveness of
the business operations. The mangers and leaders are responsible to deliver sustainable
business operations. They are also essential in formulating different strategies and
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