Report on Leadership, Management and Operations at Marks & Spencer

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership, management, and operations within Marks & Spencer (M&S). It begins by introducing M&S, its organizational structure, and the roles of managers and leaders, contrasting their responsibilities and characteristics. The report then delves into the differences between managerial functions and leadership roles, applying various management theories such as contingency, situational, and system leadership. It evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of these theories. The report further examines operational management, key approaches adopted by M&S, and the roles of managers and leaders in ensuring operational success. It explores the importance of these approaches, how managers and leaders can improve operational efficiencies, and the impact of external business environment factors on operational management. The report concludes with recommendations for future improvements in operational management at M&S.

Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1) Introduction to organisation ...................................................................................................1
2) Manager and leader and compare their roles and characteristics...........................................1
3) Differences of managerial functions and leadership roles by applying a range of
management theories and concepts.............................................................................................3
4) Various situations and roles of leader and functions of a manager apply in different
situations.....................................................................................................................................3
(5) Different management and leadership theories.....................................................................4
6) Strengths and weaknesses of different theories and approaches............................................5
7) Conclude on how managers and leaders make impacts on organisation................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
1) Operation management and key approaches adopted by organisation...................................6
2) Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of operation 7
3) Importance and value of the key approaches to operations management...............................7
4) Managers and leaders could be effective in improving operational efficiencies....................8
5) Impact of external business environment factors on operational management......................8
(6) Application of operations management to manage the factors that impact on business
environment...............................................................................................................................10
(7) Conclude and suggest recommendations for future improvements....................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations refers to the activities which includes designing, executing
and control of operations that transform raw materials into final products and services according
to which business strategy has been formulated to achieve organisational goals and objectives. It
is the responsibility of operation management to utilise available resources in an optimum
manner which in turn minimising wastage and increase profitability of company. The present
assignment is based on M&S which is one of the largest retailer organisation in UK engaging in
providing wide range of clothing products across worldwide. The project report discusses the
roles of manager as well as characteristics of leaders along with an appropriate approach that
may applied by operation management to bring profitable outcome to company.
TASK 1
1) Introduction to organisation
Marks and Spencer is UK-based retailer company having headquarter is in London. This
firm was established in year 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. It is a huge size firm
and furthermore recorded on London Stock Exchange. This firm is well known for its offering of
luxurious food items, clothing and furniture products. Marks and Spencer has around 979 stores
in United Kingdom including 615 stores offer only food items. Under this organization around
84,939 staff individuals are working with in various divisions and their fundamental spotlight is
on achieving the desired gaols and objectives within a given time-frame. The hierarchical
structure of Marks and Spencer organization is flat (Childe, 2011).
2) Manager and leader and compare their roles and characteristics
Manager is a person who is in charge of administrating or monitoring staff or group. It is
responsible to formulate business decisions and suitable plans for the betterment of employees as
well as all stakeholders. Therefore, It is accountable for division and execute the strategies and
plans at working environment. Whereas leader is one who is having an ability and skills to guide
and motivate employees to work hard and perform its allotted roles and responsibilities that will
be further support them as well as organisation to achieve desired objectives within limited time
period.
Roles of managers
1

Implement policies: In Marks and Spencer organization, the main responsibility of
manager is to formulate and implement policies by involving employees in decision-making
process so that each employees can easily understand its roles and responsibilities.
Monitor business activities: Manager is an individual who controls and monitors each
business activity in order to ensure organisation to achieve maximum profitable outcome in near
future. It makes easy for manager to identify the deviations if any, which can restricts its policies
to implement successfully and resolve by bringing optimum solutions (Gimenez, Sierra and
Rodon, 2012).
Provide training: It is a duty manager to provide training and learning programs to their
staff so that they can play out their jobs and capacities in a compelling way that will bring
easiness for company to achieve its desired goals and objectives.
Roles of leader
Solicits support: Under this, leader is a person that welcomes and engage participation
of the subordinates. It can do anything with his identity, development, experience and insight
which can be give the positive results.
Supportive: Leader bolster the team mates in their activities and work with an objective
supporting them to not confront any sort of trouble. It makes positive impact on working
behaviour of employees which increases their performance level as well.
Empower team building: In this, the crucial role of leader is to propel the representatives
to work in a group at work environment. In Marks and Spencer, leaders brings motivation and
self confidence among the employees so they can work with one another, bolster them in a viable
way. It is useful in build up the trust among representatives and furthermore asses in make the
positive workplace. It will build up the positive effect on mind of customers (Grant, Wong and
Trautrims, 2017).
Characteristics of a leader and managers of Marks & Spencer
Communication: It is essential for managers to create a good communication channel in
order to communicate with its staff directly without facing any interruptions. In Marks and
Spencer organization, managers speak with their representatives and propel them so their
execution level can be improved.
2

Leadership-In setting to be a successful leader or manager, it is important that they
should lead their staff individuals in a huge way. They manage their workers regarding playing
out allotted roles and responsibilities in more effective and desired way.
Confidence: It is an essential factor that must be develop by managers and leaders in
their employees so that they can able to deal with future contingencies in more effective way. It
motivates them to work in a team by sharing its ideas and innovative methods of working more
freely Ham, Hitomi and Yoshida, 2012).
3) Differences of managerial functions and leadership roles by applying a range of management
theories and concepts
The growth and success of business organisation is very much depends on the decisions
and plans formulated by the management as they have an appropriate skills and knowledge about
execution of different business functions in more effective way. They performs several functions
for the betterment of an organisation which is further understood as under:
Planning: It is a primary function of managers in which they prepare an effective plans
and policies after analysing the mission, vision and objectives of company. It forecast the
business functions and on the basis of which making plans in advance so as to prevent company
from any future mis-happenings.
Organising: In this function, manager sorts out all activities of firm in a successful way
so that staff individuals can know about their jobs and perform in a viable way.
Leading: Manager of Marks and Spencer requires to lead and inspire others through
making plans in advance which direct other to perform its allotted task in more effective way. It
requires managers to communicate, motivate etc. employees to deal with issues that may arises
anytime due to future contingencies (Hoi, Wu and Zhang, 2013).
Coordination: It helps in uniting all staff individuals through building up a viable
relationship and furthermore feel them more agreeable to share issues and perspectives.
Controlling-In this, manager of Marks and Spencer examine and control business
activities at work environment so that there will be not issues emerge and efficiency of firm can
be easily upgraded.
4) Various situations and roles of leader and functions of a manager apply in different situations
Both leaders and managers performs distinctive role in Marks and Spencer that guarantee
accomplishing particular goals. Staff individuals play out their roles and responsibilities and
3

leaders gives an appropriate guidance to them. There are distinctive circumstances in which
managers and leaders perform their roles:
Change management: In this, the management is required to establish an effective
strategies and plans in order to accept changes which will be further supported by the leaders
through providing motivation to the staff members to take participation in business activities and
cope up with the changes in favourable way of company.
Training and development: Under this, the managers act as a developer of employees
through enhancing their skills and capabilities by providing suitable training and development
programs at workplace. It will be supported by the leaders who is required to conduct skills
audit of employees which makes easy to identify the requirements of training programs. It will
be further communicate to managers to develop training session at workplace (Khan and Lund-
Thomsen, 2011).
(5) Different management and leadership theories
Leadership refers to the action implemented to enhance the capabilities of individuals and
group. It motivates the people to inspire others in order to increase their performance and
productivity level. For this, leaders have different leadership theories which can be adopted at
workplace of Marks and Spencer for the betterment of employees as well as an organisation:
Contingency theory-This theory contends that there isn't any single driving way and
furthermore every leadership style ought to be founded on a few conditions that meant that there
are numerous individuals which can perform at abnormal level. It stresses that the viability of a
leaders in Marks and Spencer and that depends on style of leaders to the correct condition.
Situational leadership-It implies when manager or leader of organization ought to alter
its leadership style with the end goal to fit improvement dimension of followers to impact. Based
on circumstance, leaders of Marks and Spencer implement this style and it is useful in upgrade
confidence between staff individuals and furthermore create profitable condition. By embracing
this leadership style, firm can continue its business operations in market and achieve growth rate
(Laudon and Laudon, 2016).
System leadership-This style of leadership enable leaders to develop circumstance where
individuals at the all dimension can be work in beneficial way to potential. This theory is useful
for managers or leaders in Marks and Spencer to oversee and in addition take care of issues of
team members. And if at working environment, staff individuals confront any issue or
4

complexities, leader give the optimum solutions for them so as to resolve issues that makes
adverse impact on their performance level.
6) Strengths and weaknesses of different theories and approaches
Contingency leadership
Strengths Weaknesses
Enhance fallibility in the task structure. It is reactive not proactive in nature.
It supplies data on leadership styles. It is complex and also present issues in testing
theory percepts.
System leadership
Strengths Weaknesses
This leadership provides better framework for
interpretation and presentation of realities as
well as phenomenon.
It is complicated and lengthy in nature.
It provides many teams with which the leaders
can be understood.
In this leadership, more risk is involved.
Situational leadership
Strengths Weaknesses
It asses in enhancing motivation as it included
staff members in process of decision making.
It tends to be emphasize short term strategy
because its main focus on current scenario.
It increase awareness as staff members monitor
situation in context to aware of leadership
style.
It develops confusion with in groups as
situations are interrelated and interconnected.
7) Conclude on how managers and leaders make impacts on organisation
In Marks & Spencer, both managers and leaders play equally important role in the growth
and development of business functions. The leader act as a motivator to bring self confidence
5

among employees to work hard and perform in an optimum way so as to achieve desired target
within given time frame. On the other side, managers formulate an effective plans and policies in
order to direct and monitor the business activities so as to ensure that it can be executed
according to the plans and policies of an organisation (Pedrycz and Chen, 2015).
TASK 2
1) Operation management and key approaches adopted by organisation
Operation management is held responsible to maintain the quality of products and
services through utilising limited resources in an optimum manner during production process. It
will results in increasing sustainability of product and profitability of company. They always
tried to maintain the balance between the cost and revenue in order to ensure about achieving
desired outcomes. It performs crucial functions which includes planning, organising,
coordinating, controlling etc. which enables organisation to meet its desired expectations as well
as of customers. There are various approaches of operation management which are determined as
under:
Six sigma: It is an approach which assist organisation to enhance the quality in
production process which can be possible through eliminating defects and errors, saving time and
reduction of cost. It promotes improvement in activities of operation management. Reducing
wastage directly makes positive impact on the quality and price of products due to which the
Marks and Spencer can afford to sell its products at a reasonable prices to their targeted
customers in the market (Rosemann and vom Brocke, 2015).
Lean production: It is another approach that put attention on improving quality and
minimising waste. Marks and Spencer uses this approach to deal with all business elements exist
from design by production to the distribution. This methodology is useful in lessen the wastage
from production process without giving up any unit of product.
Continuous improvement: It is considered as an effective approach which is used by
almost all large sized organisations. It directs the company to make their continuing efforts in
enhancing the services process and products. For this, the management of Marks and Spencer
motivates its employees to develop new and innovative ideas that will help company in
enhancing their offering list. It will be more helpful for Marks and Spencer to make improved
changes in their production process so as to improve the quality of products on continuous basis.
6

2) Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of operation
Managers play a critical role in managing operational activities of an organisation to
maintain the quality and quantity of products by creating better relations with suppliers and other
departments. On the other hand, leader also play a valuable role in managing the workforce to
perform their best in production process through providing them training and learning programs
and directs them to work according to the plans and strategies framed by the managers. Here are
the some roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in operation management:
Resources management: The managers of Marks and Spencer always tried to manage
the personnel and raw materials so as to minimise its wastage. With the help of this, the
production cost has been decreased and increase quality of products as well as profitability of
company (Steurer, Martinuzzi and Margula, 2012).
Financial management: This is another functions that is performed by operation
manager to continuous production activities without facing any interruptions such as lack of
funds. They are required to maintain better relations with suppliers and investors in order to
receive adequate support on time. For this, leaders also supported them to guide employees to
utilise resources in an optimum manner. The managers of Marks and Spencer should use cot-
benefit analysis method to make improvement in efficiency.
Communication: It is the responsibility of operation manager to communicate and
coordinate with the employees regarding their allotted roles and responsibilities. It requires
support of leader to bring motivation among them to work in team to achieve better result.
3) Importance and value of the key approaches to operations management
Operation management is held liable to manage and monitor the daily business activities.
With the help of this, Marks and Spencer is more capable to utilises available resources such as
funds, labour, raw materials etc. in an optimum manner which directly makes positive impact on
the productivity of business. Lean production is more beneficial for company in order to enhance
the efficiency in their operations, maximising productivity and reducing wastage of resources. It
is business philosophy which become more successful that help in reducing wastage and
increasing productivity. Whereas, continuous improvement is another effective approach which
drives company to achieve competitive advantage in market through making continuous
improved changes in the quality of products which can easily grab an attention of maximum
7

number of customers. Therefore, key approaches of operation management play a significant role
in enhancing efficiencies of production process of company.
4) Managers and leaders could be effective in improving operational efficiencies
The managers and leaders both are responsible to maintain the productivity level at
workplace by managing and motivating employees to utilise limited resources in an optimum
manner that will bring profitable outcome to company in near future. It requires managers and
leaders to prioritize the work on the basis of which decision has been made. Here are the some
way through which leaders and managers can bring improvement in efficiencies of operations:
Quality control: Quality easily attracts targeted people as it maximise their satisfaction
level. Thus, it is important for Marks and Spencer to focus on improving quality so that its
existence in market may strong and achieved loyalty of customer for longer period of time.
Therefore, Quality can be the most priority while making decision regarding execution of
operational activities (Tummala and Schoenherr, 2018).
Set right efficiency measurement for continuous improvement: It is essential for the
management of Marks and Spencer to use advanced equipment in their production process which
help in minimising wastage and improves quality of products. Making suitable changes in
products on continuous basis help company in achieving competitive advantage in the market.
Document control: It is also important for managers of operation management to
maintain documents which contains all the details regarding resources utilised in production
process so that further decisions of charging prices can be made in order to earn huge profits.
5) Impact of external business environment factors on operational management
External business environment consists of several factors such as political, economical,
technological, social etc. which largely influences the business organisation operated at global
level. To analyse such factors, the management of Marks and Spencer should conduct PEST
Analysis which are done as under:
8

Illustration 1: PESTLE Analysis
Source: PESTLE Analysis. 2017
Political: It consists of factors such as political stability, changes in taxation policies,
regulations etc. which can impact the business operations of an organisation. If the political
conditions are changes in nation where the Marks and Spencer is operated then it forces them to
make changes in their existing policies to comply with new rules and regulations. Thus, it
adversely affect the decision making process of company.
Economical: It consists of economical stability which influences the buying power of
individuals of nations, These all impacts the decisions made by management of Marks and
Spencer regarding charging pricing policies or expansion of business to some other nation.
Social: It consists of interest and buying behaviour of individuals and society as a whole.
It affects the demands of products and services in the market which can be overcome through
bringing new and innovative products into the market on continuous basis. Thus, Marks and
Spencer should make continuous changes in their existing offerings so as to attract interest and
buying behaviour of customers (PESTLE Analysis, 2017).
Technological: It consists of technological changes that will affect the cost of operations
either in positive or negative manner. Investing money by Marks and Spencer to introduce
advanced technology in production process enhances the quality of products and minimises the
cost of production which in results increasing profitability of company.
9

(6) Application of operations management to manage the factors that impact on business
environment
There are several factors existing in business environment can affect the business
decisions made by the managers and leaders. Marks and Spencer is largest retail organisation
which is operated at global level thus can be affected on large basis. For this, managers and
leaders should develop an effective strategies in order to analyse such influencing factors with
the help of SWOT and PESTLE Analysis. This will be more helpful to identity its negative as
well as positive impact on business operations which makes easy for managers and leaders to
adopt suitable strategies to deal with such factors more effectively.
CSR- it is a concept that is very broad and include many forms depending on the
company and industry, under CSR activity business aim to benefit the society with advertise
their own brands. As it is mutually beneficial for both community and company. Marks and
Spencer are running their five year eco plan with completion of three years successfully. Under
this plan they recycled their 1.8 million items in clothes industry. Similar they reduce the supply
of their bags by charging them from customer.
Culture- An organizational culture is powerful because it design the internal environment
as they see their world. Every culture is different from their value and belief and it is stable in the
company if they hold in internal environment of a company for a long time. Marks and Spencer
have to face difficult time because of their they are giant in retail industry so it is very hard to
change because they are already successful and this develop a barrier that is resistant to change
because of inflexible policy.
Ethics- It is called moral belief like discipline, what is actually good and bad. It also
include the value and principle that have been followed by the company to run their business.
These are the fundamentals that can be an issue in practical decision-making if company cannot
follow the ethics. As plan a is already discussed in CSR activity now in favour of ethics Marks
and Spencer make products of high quality with environment friendly resources. By 2020 M&S
committed that they reduce their water use.
Stakeholder- It refer to the group, individual and organization that has interest in a
company. The stakeholder are affected by a companies action, objective and rules. Creditor,
owner, customer etc. are known as stakeholder of a company.
Expectations of stakeholders:
10

 Shareholder expects from company the maximum return on their investment. Government expects company to make tax payments to them on consistent basis. Suppliers expects from company to maintain an effective pricing policy so as to ensure
their sustainability in market. Employees expectations are to get equal rights and payments for the services they
provided to the company. Customer's expectations are to get optimum quality products and services offered by an
organisation so as to increase their standard of living.
 Competitors have expect to provide new range of products in the market to give tough
competition to their rivals so as to increase the buying options of customers.
(7) Conclude and suggest recommendations for future improvements
It has been concluded from the above discussions that Marks and Spence have different
options and techniques in order to enhance the quality of production as well as process. It
increase capability of company to brings their improved products into market with an affordable
prices which can easily attracts large number of customers. On the other hand, it has been
recommended for organisations such as Marks and Spencer to upgrade their existing techniques
and equipments used in production process in regular basis so as to minimise the wastage and
increase productivity of company.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above project report that operation management play a
significant and valuable role in the growth and development of an organisation through making
their efforts in reducing business cost through utilisation of resources in an optimum manner. For
this, managers and leaders play equally important role in managing the business activities in
different situations. Apart from this, external environment is also required to analyse using
PESTLE and SWOT Analysis in order to identify the positive and negative impact on business
operations of company.
11

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Childe, S. J., 2011. What are the hot topics in the management of operations?.
Gimenez, C., Sierra, V. and Rodon, J., 2012. Sustainable operations: Their impact on the triple
bottom line. International Journal of Production Economics. 140(1). pp.149-159.
Grant, D. B., Wong, C. Y. and Trautrims, A., 2017. Sustainable logistics and supply chain
management: principles and practices for sustainable operations and management.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Ham, I., Hitomi, K. and Yoshida, T., 2012. Group technology: applications to production
management. Springer Science & Business Media.
Hoi, C. K., Wu, Q. and Zhang, H., 2013. Is corporate social responsibility (CSR) associated with
tax avoidance? Evidence from irresponsible CSR activities. The Accounting Review.
88(6). pp.2025-2059.
Khan, F.R. and Lund-Thomsen, P., 2011. CSR as imperialism: Towards a phenomenological
approach to CSR in the developing world. Journal of Change Management. 11(1).
pp.73-90.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Pedrycz, W. and Chen, S. M., 2015. Granular computing and decision-making. New York:
Springer.
Rosemann, M. and vom Brocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process
management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer
Berlin Heidelberg.
Steurer, R., Martinuzzi, A. and Margula, S., 2012. Public policies on CSR in Europe: Themes,
instruments, and regional differences.Corporate Social Responsibility and
Environmental Management. 19(4). pp.206-227.
Tummala, R. and Schoenherr, T., 2018. Assessing and managing risks using the supply chain
risk management process (SCRMP). Supply Chain Management: An International
Journal. 16(6). pp.474-483.
Online
PESTLE Analysis. 2017. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.mbaskool.com/business-
concepts/marketing-and-strategy-terms/7249-pestle-analysis.html>.
12