A Comprehensive Study of Leadership and Operations at Marks & Spencer

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership and operational management within Marks & Spencer (M&S). It begins by differentiating between the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, outlining the functions of management such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling, and coordinating. The report then delves into the application of leadership styles, including transactional and transformational leadership, and provides examples of how leaders and managers function in different situational contexts, particularly in response to challenges like increasing raw material prices. Furthermore, the report explores the application of situational, system, and contingency leadership theories, detailing their advantages and disadvantages. The report also outlines key approaches to operational management, such as Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), and Just-in-Time inventory, and examines the roles of leaders and managers in implementing these approaches. Finally, it emphasizes the importance and value of operations management in achieving organizational objectives. The report draws upon relevant theories and examples to illustrate how M&S can navigate operational challenges and achieve its goals.

Management & Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1
L 01..................................................................................................................................................1
P.1 Comparing the roles and characteristics of a leader and manager...................................1
L 02..................................................................................................................................................3
P.2 Providing examples of role of a leader and functions of manager in different situational
context....................................................................................................................................3
P.3 Applying theories of Situational, system and contingency leadership.............................3
LO3..................................................................................................................................................5
P4 key approaches of operational management and the role of leaders and managers..........5
P5 Importance and Value of Operations Management in achieving the organizational
objectives................................................................................................................................6
LO4..................................................................................................................................................8
P6 Factors of business environment that impact on the operational management and decision
makings...................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Managing and operations is all about designing, executing and controlling the operations
in such a way that organisation can easily convert resources in to the desired good and services.
In this present report Marks and Spencer has been chosen for assessment. M&S is a British
multinational retailer whose headquarter is situated in London, United Kingdom. It was founded
in the year 1884 by Michael Marks. Establishment has 979 stores in the entire world. This
present assignment will focus on roles and characteristics of a leader and manager. In addition to
this, key approaches to operations management will be described in brief. Other than this,
importance and value of operations management in attaining business objectives will be covered
in detail. Furthermore, different
theories of
situational
leadership, systems leadership and
Contingency will be explained in depth.
L 01
P.1 Comparing the roles and characteristics of a leader and manager.
Definition of Leader: The person who give commands and holds a higher position in its field
where the work is majorly to influence and motivate others. It is done so that employees or
followers can help in achieving organisational goals.
Definition of Manager: A person who is in charge of a group of people. Everyone who is
working under manager is required to report to manager (Render and Haksever, 2018). Activities
are required to be controlled and managed properly by manager of the organisation.
Management functions: Management is essential for every organisation and it is important for
the companies to manage all the activities in appropriate manner. There are five functions of
management which are defined below to make understand the role of manager.
Planning: It is the most common function where it has been decided in advance that what
is required to be done and how it will be done. It bridges the gap between where we are standing
today and where we want to reach. This step is persuasive which means that it is required to be
carried at all the level of the organisation.
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Organising: It is the function where manager provides everything useful so that all the
work can be carried out effectively. Like Raw material, capital and other things. All the activities
will be determined here so that goals of Marks and Spencer can be achieved.
Staffing: Here at this, candidates are hired for the vacant position by the human resource
manager. Here the proper training and development is provided to employee so that they can
perform their duties in well manner.
Directing: Here the employee are motivated by the manager for working more
effectively and efficiently (Schönsleben, 2016). Providing direction to employees is really
important because new joinee requires guidance for working and carrying their duties.
Controlling: It is necessary to set standard for performance and compare them with the
actual performance. This is the major role of manage to do and take corrective actions for better
performance of employees. This is to get the best result from the different employees and
achieve goals of Marks and Spencer.
Coordinating: In this function, managers have to assure regarding the communication
problems between the employees. In addition to this, managers have to motivate for group
dynamics and different coordination techniques are required to be adopted by managers.
Transformational and Transactional Leadership.
There are various kinds of leadership but two of them are taken here to define the
leadership roles in Marks and Spencer.
Transactional Leadership: These style majorly focuses on maintaining the operation of the
organisation in normal flow. Here the leaders follow different techniques to motivate the
employees so that they can provide maximum to the . Leaders perform their role by giving
rewards to employees and motivating subordinates for better productivity.
Transformational leadership style: Here in this leadership style leaders have major
concentration on team building, motivation and coordination of employees. This will help in
change for betterment and goals are also shared by leader that if the same will be achieved than
different incentives and opportunities will be provided to them.
So from the above mentioned function of manager and roles of leader it has been
determined that manager control the risk and perform their duties of managing the things. On the
other hand, leader take the risk and motivate employee for achieving their own and organisation
goals.
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L 02
P.2 Providing examples of role of a leader and functions of manager in different situational
context.
In every organisation, leaders and managers plays a very important role in attaining the
goals and objectives of the organisation. The different functions of management and leadership
skills and styles makes possible to motivate employees and provide the path to employees for
their work. Marks and Spencer, is currently facing the situation of increase in the price of raw
material in food sector and clothing sector as well (Laudon and Laudon, 2016). In such
condition, managers has to implement the different function of management and leaders to
follow different strategies. It should be such that increase in prices can be deal and sales of the
Marks and Spencer does not get lowered down. There are certain theories which can be used for
make growth and dealing with the situation. The operational department of Marks and Spencer,
is concentrating on applying such strategies that overall cost of the products can be maintained
and does not go high.
Here the Contemporary theory will be used to deal with the situation of increase in raw
material prices. Planning on dealing with different suppliers can be made who can provide the
raw material at relatively lower cost (Turner, 2014). Along with this, managers and leader will
motivate the employees for adopting higher technology so that overall cost of the product can be
lowered down.
Another theory which can be adopted is management by objectives which says that the
focus should be on overall efforts for accomplishment of objectives. This will allow the
organisation in dealing with the situation of dealing with the raw material. So it can be said that
managers and leaders play an important role in dealing with different situations. They apply all
the theories and strategies so that situation can be properly managed in most effective manner.
This will help in dealing with such sudden situations and ensures that leaders have various ideas
which can be used at the time of such different situations that arises in the .
P.3 Applying theories of Situational, system and contingency leadership
To understand the same different theories of leadership and functions of manager are defined
below:
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Situational leadership: In this leadership style, leaders have to match their behaviours as per the
requirement and the needs of the situation. Here the leader will change their style, not the
followers have to adopt their style. So it can be said that it is a flexible style of leadership which
get changes after understanding the requirement and need of the organisation. For the same
leaders have to check that what is the best style will suit to achieve the goals and employees
needs. There are certain advantages and disadvantages of Situational leadership which are
defined below:
Advantages :
 This leadership style is very easy to use as per the different situations. Hence, a fix and
rigid concept is not required to be followed (Ravindran, 2016).
 It gives freedom to employees and help in brining out the best from the people.
 A comfortable environment is provided to the employees as per the different situations
that comes in the way.
Disadvantages :
 In this leadership style, leaders have more focus on current situation than long term goals
and needs.
 Leaders need to very understanding in order to know and analyse the situation. Hence,
different skills of understanding need of people are required.
 This leadership is not much useful in task oriented environment.
Systems leadership: Here the leaders forms such condition that people at all levels in the can
work in the best possible manner and use their entire potential (Harrison and Lock, 2017).
Different models of leadership are made applicable by leaders for developing different strategies
for the same. This will be defined in knowing that these systems has helped in building more
productivity of employees in different situations. Leader assures that this leadership style will
ensure the employees in handling different situational context.
Advantages :
 This leadership style has major concentration on achieving the goals of the Marks and
Spencer.
 Here leaders make decisions in such a way that no special treatment is given to any
employee. No preferential treatment will be given to employee in any case.
Disadvantages :
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 This leadership style is such that it leads to delay in decision making.
 Nature of independence is not defined under system leadership.
Contingency leadership: This theory says that effectiveness of leadership is entirely depends on
leader's style to right situation (Cherrafi, Elfezazi and Batista, 2018). This theory says that
leadership styles are something that can not modified. It is just opposite to situational leadership
as here the leader do not deal as per the situation.
Advantages:
 The biggest benefit is that in this leadership style employee opinion is taken in to
consideration.
 It is very flexible and can not get changed as per the situation (Bazargan, 2016).
Disadvantages:
 This leadership style is very straightforward and hence sometimes it hurt the employee
morale
 It is very risky for the complex situations in the organisation.
LO3
P4 key approaches of operational management and the role of leaders and managers
The principles as well as the concepts of the operational management differs from
industry to industry. The Various approaches of the operational management in Marks and
Spencer are as follows:
Six Sigma: Six Sigma is the disciplined methodology of the business to increase the profitability
and customers satisfaction by designing better operations, quality improvements and reducing
the defects in the organizational process (Grant, Trautrims and Wong., 2017). By using this
methodology M&S can strategize the plan of actions and will help to increase the revenue, helps
in cost reduction and also will help in the improvement of the processes in different parts of an
organization. By using Six Sigma M&S can set a stringent goal and also helps in working
towards its achievement during a given course of a time.
Total Quality Management: TQM is a approach the helps an organization to focus on the
quality improvement of the organizations output that includes goods and services through the
process of continuous improvements in the internal practices of an organization. Through this
approach M&S can improve the quality of its products and also will result in the quality culture
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in M&S (Schwarz, Hall and Shibli., 2015). This approach will help M&S in the continuous
improvement in the process of an organization.
Just in Time Inventory: It is the kind of a strategy which will help M&S to increase the
efficiency of the organization, helps in cutting of the operational costs and helps in the reduction
of wastages that too by receiving the goods as they are needed. As JIT is the inventory
management system this will help M&S in effective management of stocks which are kept in
storage. It helps in receiving of the items from the suppliers as and when they are required by
Marks and Spencer rather carrying out a huge inventory at once.
Role of Leaders and Managers:
Six Sigma: Leaders and Mangers plays an important role in driving a six sigma in an
organization as leaders and managers helps in the successful adaptation of the six sigma within
an organization, they communicate the importance of six sigma in an organization, they help in
the driving six sigma projects in the organization.
Total Quality Management: For implementing and initiating the total quality management
programs in an organization requires a great deal of proper planning and research. Managers and
leaders have to act as a facilitator of TQM in an organization and it the duty of the managers and
leaders to help the employees for TQM implementation.
Justin-Time: Role of leaders and managers in JIT inventory is to provide appropriate direction
and support, to solve the problems related to the inventory (Anderson, Sweeney and Cochran.,
2018). Leaders and managers of M&S have to design as well as to execute the supply chain
strategies in order to maximize the productivity, minimize the risks and respond effective to
different fluctuations in the demands.
P5 Importance and Value of Operations Management in achieving the organizational objectives
Operations Management have a great importance in an organization as it involves in the
planning, organizing, controlling as well as in supervising the entire production and
manufacturing process of an organization. The importance of the operations management in
achieving the objectives of MGrant, Trautrims and Wong., 2017&S can be explained as
 Operations management helps in the improvement of the overall productivity of an
organization, it helps M&S in measuring the efficiency of the leaders as well as the
employees of an organization and their efficiency will help achieving the objectives of an
organization (Harvey, Heineke and Lewis., 2016). Since operational management will
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increase the overall productivity of the organization so it leads the organization in
achieving objectives.
 Operational management is the kind of the management of various business activities
which are taking place in an organization and helps in developing a product to meet the
needs of the customer requirements , so it helps in achieving the objectives of an
organization as it controls the overall operations from the product development till its
distribution process.
 Operational management helps in achieving the organizational objective of optimum
utilization of resources in an organization and this will lead to the increase in the profits
of M&S. Operations management improve the efforts of the employees in the conversion
of raw materials in the end products that are required by the organization. It also helps in
achievement of the objectives by proper designing, proper maintenance of the system and
operations that are used for the production of goods and services in an organization
(Choi, Cheng, and Zhao., 2016).
 Operations management is important for M&S in managing the daily activities of the
business without any restriction and problems. With the help of operations management
M&S is able to make effective use of raw materials, labour, finance and other resources
of an organization which helps in achieving the objectives of an organization (Simpson,
Meredith and Leong., 2015).
 Operations management not only helps in the manufacturing of the goods and services
but also help in the management of the sales of these products and services to achieve the
organizational objective.
 Operations management helps in the evaluation of the progress of M&S business
activities towards the desired outcomes of an organization and also helps in achieving the
quality objective of an organization by ensuring that the goods and services are produced
in the pre-set quality specifications.
 Operations management helps M&S in achieving the capacity utilization objective by
maximizing the utilization of manpower, machines etc in the organization.
 Operations management helps in achieving the cost objectives of an organization
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 Operations management helps the organization in producing the right kind and right
quality of goods and services that helps in satisfying the customers needs and hence helps
in achieving the effectiveness objective of an organization.
LO4
P6 Factors of business environment that impact on the operational management and decision
makings
There are various business environmental factors that have an impact on the operations
managements and decision makings of the organization.
1. Informational inputs: It forms an important part in operations management and decision
makings. Having a accurate and adequate information about any situation helps in the
operations management and decision making (Hübner, Holzapfel and Kuhn., 2015). Lack
of information will effect the quality decisions. So the leaders should have proper and
adequate information to make a conservative decisions.
2. Social responsibility: Organizations social responsibility towards the customers is also
the factors that have an impact on the operations management and decisions makings, a
business is should act for the common good and interest of the general public so this
factors have the impact on the organization.
3. Corporate social responsibility: It is the concept that M&S need to be concerned more
than a profit of an organization. An organization have the responsibility towards the
environment and to protect the environment is one of the aspects of the social
responsibility and another responsibility of the corporate is to address the social problem
in the society like poverty, unemployment, hunger etc so these issues have an impact on
the operations management and decision makings of an organization (Anand and Gray.,
2017). By following the CSR an organization can improve their relationship with the
stakeholders and helps in meeting the stakeholders expectations.
4. Sustainability: This has an impact on the decisions makings and the operations
management of the organization as the sustainability helps in maintaining the change of
the organization that too in a balanced form. To meet the needs of the present without
compromising with future needs of the organization have the impact on the organization.
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Proper sustainability programs will help in maintaining the relationship with the
stakeholders as sustainability defines chances of the growth of an organization.
5. Culture: Organization culture of an organization also effects the decision makings of the
organization as it represents the beliefs, practices, ideologies and policies in an
organization and culture plays an important role for decision making and operational
management (Hazen, Skipper and Hill., 2018). It is the culture of the organization that
help in developing a relationship between the company and the stakeholders.
6. Values and Ethics: Values and ethics helps in determining good from bad. An
organizational values and ethics have an impact of the decision making and operations
management of an organization. The decisions made should be ethical and should not
hurt any kind of values in an organization.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarised that leaders and managers play a very
important role in managing and operating business organisation. There are various function of
management which are performed by manager in organisation. In addition to this, In situational
leadership leaders have to match their behaviours as per the requirement and the needs of the
situation. Here the leader will change their style, not the followers have to adopt their style.
Furthermore, operations department of Marks and Spencer has also followed the leadership and
manager styles in dealing with the situation of increase in prices of raw material. Other than this,
total quality management helped Marks and Spencer in providing the best quality to the
customers. It has enhanced the sales of the organisation and retaining customers for long term
due to its quality product and services.
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