Marks & Spencer: Management and Operations - A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the management and operational strategies employed by Marks & Spencer (M&S), a leading UK retailer. The report begins by introducing M&S, exploring its organizational structure and focus on innovation and customer service. It then delves into the roles of managers and leaders, differentiating between their functions and responsibilities, and providing examples of how they operate within the company. The report discusses various leadership theories, including situational, system, and contingency leadership, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it examines M&S's operational management, the roles of leaders and managers in this context, and how they can improve operational efficiencies to meet business objectives. The impact of external business factors on the company is also assessed, along with applications of operational management to manage these factors. The report concludes with recommendations for future improvements, emphasizing the importance of a strong supply chain, customer-centric approach, and the adoption of new technologies. The report is based on information available to be published on Desklib, a platform offering AI-based study tools, including past papers and solved assignments for students.

Management and
Operations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction of M&S..........................................................................................................1
2. Presenting roles of manager and leaders............................................................................1
3. Difference between managerial functions and leadership..................................................2
4. Example of different situation in M&S .............................................................................3
5. Different theories of management and leadership .............................................................3
6. Presenting strengths and weaknesses of theories...............................................................4
7. Conclusion and Recommendations....................................................................................5
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................6
1. Operation management of M&S........................................................................................6
2. Roles and responsibilities of Mangers and Leaders in Operational management..............6
3. Presenting importance of operational management for M&S............................................7
4. Evaluating how managers and leaders could be effective in improving operational
efficiencies to meet objectives ..............................................................................................7
5. Impact of external business factors on business.................................................................8
6. Presenting how applications of operational management to manage external factors.......9
7. Recommendations .............................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations plays an important role in an organization. Management is a
process that deals or controlling things while operational concerned with redesigning operations
of a business. The project is based upon Marks and Spencer (M&S) which is one of leading
retailer store in UK and provide best food products and clothes at low rate to their customers.
Report present roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders and describe different theories
of leadership such as situational, system and contingency with their advantages and
disadvantages. Project describe different recommendation for company's future improvement.
Further the report also describe operational management of M&S and roles of leaders as well as
managers in operations. It evaluate how managers and leaders could be effectively play their role
in order to meet the business objectives and describe some external factors that could affect
company environment. Report critically evaluate the applications of operations management to
manage all factors that impact on wider business environment.
TASK 1
1. Introduction of M&S
Marks and Spencer is a multinational retailer store in UK who has more than 900 stores
and among them around 615 stores are only selling food products. The company has best and
planned management as well as operational system that makes it different from all others.
Quoted firm also work at global level and also launched its online shopping service from last so
many years (Crouzy and et.al., 2016). Company has strong financial status and serve best quality
of food products with low rate as compared to other firms.
M&S follows flat organizational structure It is because this is mostly followed by
those firms, which has limited levels of management between their administration team and
employees and this flat structure helps to encourage employees to keep involving in company's
decision making system. That is why M&S follow flat structure. The company mainly focus on
innovation and customer service's quality and because of its different organizational management
system, it always concerns with customer’s needs and behaviour.
2. Presenting roles of manager and leaders
1

Basis Mangers Leaders
Definition Managers of M&S are those person
who manages a firm and they are
responsible for planning, directing as
well as coordinating with control
(Lindqvist and Faber, 2018). The
authority hire managers to monitor all
activities that are been done in
prescribed way and can hire or fire
employees too.
Leaders are those person who
influenced employees to achieve
defined goals and motivate them by
giving guidance and aid to improve
working performance of employees
and M&S leader also have strong
vision that help to provide proper
training to employees.
Characteristics  Mangers can lead employees in
an effective manner.
 They have a good time
management skills with strong
confidence to do difficult task
in easy way.
 Managers of M&S are result
and process oriented, means
they know about processes of
how to run an organization in
an efficient way.
 Leaders are vision oriented
and motivate staff to deal with
different situation and do not
hesitate while taking decision
(Xiang and et.al., 2018).
 They are also staff oriented.
 Leaders are more practical and
emotionally connected with
employees.
Roles The main role of managers of M&S is
to monitor entire work and keep
assigning work to employees and
execute strategies of leaders into an
organization (Yu and et.al., 2018).
Leaders of M&S produce strategies in
order to achieve aims and objectives.
Moreover, they promotes change by
motivating staff members and tries to
solve issues of employees.
3. Difference between managerial functions and leadership
Managerial Functions: By applying Transformational leadership theory, it has been
analysed that both managers and leadership functions are quite different from each other and
2

they both collective identify goals of an organization. In the context of M&S managerial
functions basically involve controlling, directing and organizing and even measure performance
of employees and managers can also take corrective steps in order to improve employee’s
performance. Managerial functions are depend upon manager’s skills, abilities and
communication skills.
Leadership Roles: Leadership roles involves setting goals and policies and by
establishing different strategies they shape up an organization (Manzini and et.al., 2018). Leaders
decision are not depend upon others, they motivate employees and giver directions to do best in
achievement of desired goals as per transformational theory. Leaders work as a link between
management and workers in order to attain all defined objectives of M&S. leadership functions
depends upon leaders which include lead a team in better way and developing new strategies that
help to solve issues and managers use those strategies into working environment in order to take
a business in further level of success. Overall, managers and leaders both work for the welfare of
a company.
Hard Skill: Hiring, firing and bullying are consider as hard skill of Leaders.
Soft Skill: Emotional intelligence, vision and ability of communication are consider soft skills of
leaders.
4. Example of different situation in M&S
 New Strategy development: While implementing new strategy or adopting new
methods, the quoted company's manager will be assigning duties to employees on other
side leaders will be motivating workers to adapt this strategies into a working area in
order to do better work and can raise their working performance (Malano and van
Hofwegen, 2018).
 Adapting new management system: Recently, M&S tried to adopt new hierarchical
management structure and in this situation, leaders created vision whether the structure
will be helpful or not. While on the other side, managers of a company gives direction
and make plans to execute this new structure into working area.
 Innovation: For outdated products in M&S, leaders will making strategies how to
renovate those products and make them running in market again while managers
3

assigning duty to marketing team of an organization to promote this product into market
and raise its profitability (Adela, Vasilica and Dan, 2018).
5. Different theories of management and leadership
Situational Leadership: It depends on a situation that which type of leadership is best
suited to a task. As per this theory, effective leaders are those who adapt their style in order to
face the situation . It is based upon four primary leadership styles such as:
 Telling
 Selling
 Participating
 Delegating
By using this theory into working area leaders create better working performance and
operate business with effective solutions in their management system. Further this theory help
managers and leaders of M&S to give direction, coaching and supports employees which aid to
motivate to attain well defined objectives (Debroux, 2017). If leader follow this situation, then
4
Illustration 1: Types of Leadership theories
(Source: Leadership theories, 2018)

they provide right decision to employees to deal with issues and also support their team members
to get fast result.
System Leadership: According to this theory, organizational structure is consider as a
complex system in which organizational functions are being carried out accordingly. In this,
leaders of M&S creates system where people of all level can increases their productivity and
even help to predicts people's behaviour. According to this theory, if one system has been
changed that it will affect entire system and overall raise in company's performance. By using
this theory, top authority can easily build strong system and helps leaders to accept challenges in
an effective way. This leadership style also assist to build strong system which lead to more
effective realization of an organisation's aim.
Contingency Leadership: This theory show that the effectiveness of leadership is
depend on leadership style and it also emphasizes the importance of leaders personality but
match with situation. This mostly consider two style :
 Task Motivated : it related to task clarity
 Relationship Motivated: build strong relations between subordinates and peers.
This theory helps managers and leaders to work under different external factors and
provide best solutions in order to face those by using different strategies and help to improves
company's decisions power that further lead to success. Using this theory, leaders of M&S will
tries to support employees and even motivate them for better performance and they even reward
for the same (Lindqvist and Faber, 2018).
6. Presenting strengths and weaknesses of theories
Theory Strength Weaknesses
Situational Leadership  Simple and easy to use
than others
 Help to determine
behaviour of
employees.
 Lean towards a task
oriented management
style (Crouzy and et.al.,
2016).
 Difficult to define and
quantify maturity.
5

System Leadership:  Aid to raise M&S
adaptability.
 Main focus on
achieving individual
and overall's goals.
 Dynamic in nature
(Mohammed and et.al.,
2015).
 Leads to delay in
decision making.
 Does not focus on
single style.
 Not applicable for
small companies.
Contingency Leadership:  So flexible to use and
adapt.
 Help to identify best
among all.
 Does not help in
leadership
developmental process.
 Hard to understood.
All leadership theories are helpful to upgrade quality of work in M&S. Such as, by using
situational leadership theories into working area will be helpful to raise performance of
employees whereas contingency leadership theory will help to identify best employee among all
Apart from this, system leadership theory help to maintain strong relationship between
employees and management in order to achieve all defined goals of a company. Overall, theories
help leaders to take better decision for the welfare of a company so that it leads to further level of
success.
7. Conclusion and Recommendations
Both, managers and leaders will make their best efforts in order to attain all defined goals
of a company. Such that, it creates positive impact on company's performance and always try to
develop new strategy in order to gain more competitive advantage and raise its profitability as
well as productivity (Santoro and et.al., 2017). Therefore, both managers and leaders depends
upon each other and by using different management and leadership style, they face different
situation and tries to resolve those because these creates direct impact on company's productivity
level.
Recommendation: For future improvements, it is recommended to leaders of M&S not
to decrease their positivity and always motivate employees to achieve all defined goals while on
6

the other side, managers give direction to their subordinates to groom themselves. Both should
work collectively in order to take a business to further level of success. They must develop good
supply chain system and always be result and customer's oriented. Even they can take feedback
from customers and try to improve those points into job area. To save users and company's time,
company must cope up with latest technologies and try to implement those. They can even
develop their own online system of payment and introduce new products and services which will
help to draw attention of different types of customers.
TASK 2
1. Operation management of M&S
Operational management system is that area of management which deals with designing
and controlling process of production of goods and services. Quoted company has not so strong
operational management system (Debroux, 2017). Firm always adopt effective ways in order to
fulfil all needs of customers. Departments such as research and development department of M&S
and production department try to produce best quality of products while marketing section focus
how to increases sales in market. In this way, all these departments will be performing their
function in well-developed manner and even they also analyse current situation and find better
solutions to improve the effectiveness of different sections of M&S.
Key Approaches:-
Six sigma Theory is a key approach that is used by M&S in order to improve quality of
output and help to removing causes of defects and minimizing changeability in manufacturing
process. This six sigma method help to identify errors that are used at a time of manufacture a
products and by eliminating them will help to improve quality of manufactured products.
Lean Production theory: This theory is based upon minimizing waste material from
manufacturing system and maximizing productivity of a company. The theory is based upon:
 Determine values from customers point of view
 Eliminate functional barriers and identifies ways to improve hose.
 Uses pull system instead of push system.
 Move with a perfection process improvement system.
7

2. Roles and responsibilities of Mangers and Leaders in Operational management
Role of manager: Managers of M&S plays a crucial role in operational management
system especially in budgeting, marketing, controlling cost and aid to keep a firm on track
related to finance (Kyriakarakos and et.al., 2017). They also find different ways to maximizes
profitability and finds resources to minimize cost of productions. They even set goals and
objectives and establish different policies to departments. The main responsibility of managers
related to operational field is to communicate well to their employees and creates positive culture
for employees so that they feel comfortable in working area.
Role of Leaders: Leaders are the pillars of M&S and they even provide guidance to
managers and employees to do work for the welfare of a company. Their main duty is to keep
tracking company's financial status and even fulfil firm's financial status that help in company's
growth and development (Hannan and et.al., 2017). They always justify whether the applied
strategies are helpful for a company's growth or not. It is the responsibility of a leader to keep
employees trained and inspire new candidates in order to attain all defined objectives for a
company.
3. Presenting importance of operational management for M&S
Importance: Operational management system plays a vital role to run a project in
successful way. In the context of M&S, operational management system helps to manage all
activities in an organized way and by using good resource, labour and material they improve
overall productivity. It deals with different departments who have their own roles and
responsibilities such that they all work collectively in order to run a company in smooth way.
The management mainly convert all input into output and help to measure the efficiency of
managers as well as employees. It also deals with different issues related to product designing,
operations and maintenance of system that are used for production of goods (Thomas, Deblecker
and Ioakimidis, 2018).
Time Quality Management: Time quality management (TQM) is consider the best key
approach in order to focus on continuous quality improvement of products and services by taking
feedback regularly. TQM is basically work to determine the quality of products and keep
employee involvement in development of products and services of M&S. Moreover, it is a
process centres principle that help to link mission, vision and strategy in order to attain all
8

defined goals of a company. Further TQM is help in decision making within organization that
help to take right decision for a company.
Lean Production: it is a method that cutting off waste material from manufacturing a
product and it is based upon principles of Kaizen or continuous improvements, further help to
amend overall customer’s value in a business. M&S used this in its operational system because it
help to identify values from customers point of view and eliminate functional barriers in order to
improve ways that lead to minimize time for production.
4. Evaluating how managers and leaders could be effective in improving operational efficiencies
to meet objectives
 In order to meet all objectives of a company, it is necessary to improve operational
management of M&S and to do work in more effective way, managers and leaders of a
company continue improve their communication skills and must know how to guide
employees in order to develop themselves.
 In order to maintain positive environment for employees they must motivate their
employees and further they understand how the leverage information and data can be
taken in better way to solve some problems related to business issues (Adela, Vasilica
and Dan, 2018). On the other side, managers must develop new promotional tools that
help to raise company's sales.
 Leaders must develop new strategies and six sigma and lean production theory in order to
minimize waste. Managers execute those by designing, executing and controlling process
that help to convert inputs into output. By applying this into work area will help to
increases productivity.
 Managers also uses TQM key approach in order to improve quality of products and
services. By using this key approach managers and leaders can easily identify or
minimizes cost of production and maximizes profitability of a company.
5. Impact of external business factors on business
Technological change: Sudden change in technologies is the most important factor that
affect external environment of a company. Such that it creates negative impact of company
9

profitability so it is quite necessary to adopt different strategies into work area (External factor
affecting Operational management, 2018). To cope up with advance digital technologies will
help to raise productivity and even increases overall performance of a company.
Competition: Strong competition is another external factor that affect company's
operational management system. To present best performance, different companies try to provide
products at affordable rates due to which competition increases and as a result it affect
operational management system (Malano and van Hofwegen, 2018). Tough competition always
creates pressure and in the case of M&S, it also have so many rivals and to maintain its brand
image, listed company offers best quality of products in low price.
Economic Environment: It is another most important factor that affect company's
internal performance. Sudden change in tax rate will direct creates impact on company's financial
capital. Even short term change in demand or customers will lead to decrease in company's
productivity. Change in government policies also affect company's overall environment and thus
it lead to reduce in its performance.
6. Presenting how applications of operational management to manage external factors
Technological change: In the context of M&S, application of operational management
system i.e. supply management chain can be improved by using latest technologies and it also
help to saves time and raise employees efficiencies that creates positive effect on company
however it is critically evaluated that adapting advance and latest technologies into work area
will increases the cost of products. Listed company also uses different mode of channels as an
application of operational management system such as online mode and develop its market
supply chain in order to deliver best result to their customers. In order to improve quality of
product, company also uses TQM techniques which help to raise company's productivity.
Performance improvement: To manage competition factor, M&S should provide best
and affordable price of products to their customers so that it help to gain competitive advantage
and further help to wider up its brand image in market (Manzini and et.al., 2018). It has been
critically evaluated that quoted company can also cut cost by using internet to sell their product
on online mode direct to their customers and not to pay too much to retailer or others. In this
way, some external factors can be minimizes and applications of operational management can be
helpful by raising its profitability as well as productivity. By using this, operational efficiencies
10