Management and Operations Report: Leadership Styles at M&S

This report delves into the intricacies of leadership and operations management, using Marks and Spencer (M&S) as a case study. It begins by differentiating between the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers, exploring their responsibilities and attributes. The report then examines the functions of a manager according to Fayol, providing examples of how a manager at M&S performs these functions, including planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Furthermore, the report analyzes various leadership styles, such as situational, systems, and contingency leadership, supported by scenarios from M&S. The report also investigates different approaches to operations management, focusing on the role of a store manager as a classic example of an operations manager, and highlighting the importance of operations management in achieving organizational objectives. Finally, the report identifies key factors influencing operations management at M&S and assesses their impact on the decision-making processes of a store manager. The report concludes with a comprehensive overview of the key findings and their implications for effective leadership and management within the retail context of Marks and Spencer.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
a) Differences and similarities between a leader and manager considering their roles and
characteristics..............................................................................................................................1
b) Functions of a manager according to Fayol and how a manager in your organisation
performs these functions using various examples.......................................................................4
c) Situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency leadership using various
scenarios in your organisation to support your explanation........................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
1. Various approaches of operations management and determining the used in store...............7
2. Role of store manager a classic example of an operation's manager......................................9
3. Importance of operation management in achieving the main objectives of organisation.....10
4. Key factors that affect operation management of M&S......................................................11
5. Impact of key factors on decision making of store manager................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Operation management is a branch of management and concerned with factors which
help in successfully managing and controlling the business activities. It is the process for
designing, controlling and managing business operations and functions. This process mainly
concerns about the organization to handle their business operations in a proper manner. It helps
organization to manage their goods and services effectively and efficiently. Marks and Spencer is
one of the leading retail stores across UK. This report will discuss about the leader and
manager’s role along with their characteristics. Further, it will mention the key factors that
impact on operational management system. It will also describe the importance of operational
management in Marks and Spencer.
TASK 1
a) Differences and similarities between a leader and manager considering their roles and
characteristics
Leader- A leader is person that hold the entire business process and also influence the employee
towards their goals and achievements. Leader has high degree of management skill to build an
effective team in effective manner. Leadership is the one of the stage that help for organization
to manage entire business operations in proper manner. According to definition, it can identify
that leader has management and convincing skill to handle the business activities. Style Leader
is person who influences the team members towards goals and their achievement. They have an
ability to visualize the goals according to facts and figures.
Manager- Manager is an individual person to handle the entire organization effectively and
efficiently. Manager is a person that controlling and administrating the company or group.
According to definition, it can identify that manager and leader are main part of organization and
have same role to achieve the goals and objectives of business. In Marks and Spencer, manager
is in charge of certain group that perform different functions and it is subset of company.
Basis Leader Manager
Role and responsibilities  Leader develops an
effective strategy for
achieving their goals
and targets.
 Manager performs
different roles to
welcome the clients and
professional visitors.
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 They also
communicate with the
staff members and
provide them the right
direction.
 Manager all the day by
day operations (Wang
and et.al., 2018).
 Monitoring the team
member’s work and
behaviour.
 Leader also creates
report and distributes
same to the manager.
 They provide the
services to their
employees.
 Manager also
encourages, motivates
and communicates with
the team groups.
 Manager disseminates
the data and
information that he
collects from various
sources for growth and
development of
organization.
Characteristics  Consistency- A
successful leader
always gains respect
from the organization.
This is important for
Marks and Spencer to
provide the better
opportunity for growth
and development of
employees.
 Honesty- Honesty is
also the main
characteristic of leader.
This is useful for
avoiding the obstacles
in the business
 Time management-
This is an essential
characteristic for
manager to manage
their process. They
have management skill
to complete their task
on time.
 Confidence-Manager is
confident about their
work and has ability to
take right decision
related to business.
 Respect for employee-
Manager is respect to
their employees. It is
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activities.
 Communication-
Communication is an
effective skill which
help for team working
on the right project. In
Marks and Spencer,
leaders has effective
communication skill
for managing the
business process.
directly communicate
with staff member for
determining their need
and requirement.
Authority  Leading by influence is
very hard. A leader has
authority to extract
efforts from employees
and get the results on
time.
 Manager has authority
to decide the task
assignments. They also
decide personal
appraisal according to
effectiveness.
Power  Leader’s power
includes taking
decision, implementing
policies, providing
reward, etc.
 Managers are
authoritative boss of
Marks and Spencer.
They have possessing
power to control the
staff and increase
productivity.
Leader- Leader is person who will handle all situation and condition in effective manner.
In Marks and Spencer, there are efficient leaders to determine the need and requirement of
business. Leadership quality provide the better opportunity to their customer as well as
organization. Leader always motivate or influence their team member towards their goals and
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achievement (Manzini and Urgo, 2018). It is important for Marks and Spencer to interact with
the employee and understand their needs.
Manager- Manager is an individual person who change their rule, regulation or their
business strategy. This is the main part of Marks and Spencer for managing the entire enterprise
process and planning. Manager can interact with client to provide the best quality of services
(Mazidi and et.al., 2017). Hard management skill- hard management skill is ability to understand the technical
problem. This skill will learn in classrooms and with the help of books. Leader and
manager learn this skill according to their qualification and education because it is
required for identifying the solution of particular problem. Soft leadership skill- Soft skill is based on specific evidence. For Example- Marks and
Spencer is hiring the employee who has ability and soft skill to convince the client and
customer. Soft skills includes communication, leadership quality, team work,
motivational and work ethics etc.
 Mintzberg managerial roles- This skill includes interpersonal, informational and
decision making, etc. These skills are required for handle the entire business process in
proper manner. Manager has all quality that's why they handle and control the business
operation and functions in effective manner (Álvarez-Santos and Nieto, 2018).
b) Functions of a manager according to Fayol and how a manager in your organisation performs
these functions using various examples
Manager is performing different functions in the Marks and Spencer which is describing
in followings:
Planning- According to Manager, it is planning an efficient strategy for increasing the
productivity and profitability of Marks and Spencer. This organization will promote their product
and services in marketplace. Planning is necessary for company to determine the need and
requirement of customer. Manager performs different function for managing the entire process of
customer and then produce product in marketplace. Managers develop plans for increasing the
performance, sustainability in marketplace (de São Pedro and Sakuno, 2018). Manager directly
interact with customer to determine actual requirement.
Organizing- Manager needs to plan the strategy and communicate with the team member.
They also organize team according to their skill and knowledge. Afterwards, manager assigning
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the project to the employee (Zhu, 2018). Manager is planning or organizing events and seminar
for employees to interact with them personally. They communicate with each other. It is essential
for providing the best services to their employee.
Commanding- In Marks and Spencer, Manager is commanding the leader to provide the
best facilities to their team members. Recruitment and selection process done by manager,
Afterwards, Manager provide the instruction to human resource department to conduct the
training and development program. It is necessary for organization to increase their team strength
(Hopkin, 2018). In this way, Marks and Spencer achieve their goals and objectives.
Coordinating Manager is playing role as leader in the organization because manager
handle the business operations and functions in effective manner. Leader is coordinate with their
staff member for providing the details and knowledge related the business. Manager and leader
always maintain the coordiation between them. Manager skill help for Marks and Spencer to
achieve their targets. Manager is playing role of leader to control and manage the enterprise
activities. According to manager, They always plan a new approach for increasing their
productivity and profitability in marketplace. It is important for marks and Spencer to develop
coordination with the help of communication. according to the demand of customer and users.
They main objective is to expand business all over the world.
Controlling- In marks and Spencer, Manager is controlling the business operations and
function after the execution. This is not an end for manager because they have responsibilities to
continuous check the results and business outcomes. Manager is controlling the business aspects
regarding budget, cost, production and manufacturing, etc. (Kolk and Rivera-Santos, 2018).
Marks and Spencer is leading brand and has efficient manager to handle any situation in a proper
manner.
c) Situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency leadership using various scenarios
in your organisation to support your explanation
Situational leadership, contingency leadership and system leadership are important role
playing in the Marks and Spencer. These leaderships applicable in the company according to the
need and requirement.
Situational Leadership- This leadership is a type of adaptive style and this style
encourage the leader to take stock of their staff member. In Marks and Spencer, leader has
effective leadership skill to manage the business activities.
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This leadership is flexible and it can adapt to their working environment according to the
organizations. Leader modifies the style and management by using situational leadership style.
For Example- (Mahmud, Zahedi and Mahmud, 2017). This leadership style depend upon the
situations. Situational leadership is the mostly based on the behaviour of leaders and how they
perform different task and operations in a proper manner.
In Marks and Spencer, this the perfect leadership style in particular situation where the
productivity in minimize in the marketplace due to competitive that's why, manager is planning
an effective strategy according to the situations. In this way, this leadership will help for manage
the business with the help of situational leadership.
Strengths
 In Marks and Spencer, this approach is used as it is simple to understand
 Leader is generally flexible in this approach to match their leadership style with the
situation. As per this approach, leader keeps on reminding that all employees are equal and need to
be treated equally.
Weaknesses
 This leadership approach is quite unclear as it is nowhere specified that how model
matches the style. Also, it is confusingly conceptualized.
Systems Leadership-System leadership style is create conditions in the organization
where all employee can work to increase the productivity and profitability in marketplace.
Leader can be understand the need and requirement of business operations. It is required for
Marks and Spencer to handle the system at every level of development. System leadership help
for implementing the new approach to improve the business environment. For Example- In
Marks and Spencer, leaders can understand the situations and modify the strategy and planning
according to the requirement (Akkermans and Van Oorschot, 2018). This approach will help for
increasing the performance of operations and maintain their complexity in proper manner.
In Marks and Spencer, Manager and leader both are work together to create condition where firm
provide the facilities at all level can work for increasing the productivity and profitability.
Strengths
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 In Marks and Spencer, system leadership helps in increasing the productivity, efficiency
and success of company.
 This approach helps in running operations is a systematic way in M&S. Also, it reduces chaos and any kind of confusion at the workplace.
Weaknesses
 This approach cannot be considered to be practical always. In small scale organisations, this approach cannot be applied.
Contingency Leadership- Contingency leadership is depended on the leader’s situations.
This theory will not concern about the leader because they adopt the situation. This is useful for
organization to create leadership profiles and also matched with the situations. It also helpful for
reduce the expectation from the leaders (Contingency leadership, 2018).
For Example- This leadership style is depended on the personality and behaviour of leader in
Marks and Spencer whereas staff member build good relationship with team members or group
this promotes the trust and faith among the team members which overall helps in generating
effective team members
Strengths
 It is a flexible approach and best suitable with every kind of situation in M&S. Leaders in Marks and Spencer give priority to their employee’s opinion first as per this
approach.
Weaknesses
 In Marks and Spencer, sometimes it is confusing for employees because of change in
leadership style as per the situation.
 Difficult empirical testing
 Inadequate literature
TASK 2
1. Various approaches of operations management and determining the used in store
Operation management is the activity which help in controlling the operational tasks such
is inventory management, sales, manufacturing of the products and services etc..
There are different key approaches in operation management to manage the business
process and their quality.
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Lean production- This can be considered as a methodology which helps in minimising the
wastes which manufacturing the goods and services within the organisation. Lean production is a
type of management approach which help for removing the unwanted waste product that affect
the entire enterprises operations and functions. This approach is useful for design new product
and also distribute the production. Marks and Spencer is a leading organization and they can use
this approach for reducing the costs by making business more efficient and flexible. Lean
approach managing the business operations discuss in followings:
 Improving the staff member in the continuous process.
 It also avoiding the waste product Increased the productivity and profitability in marketplace. Total quality management- Total quality of management system is the best approach for
organization to provide the customer satisfaction. This process is also useful for
improving the process, culture and product etc. TQM is termed as the method which
helps the mangers in focussing towards quality of the product that promotes satisfied
customers. The Total quality management is approach for long term business success. It
is important for Marks and Spencer to improve their quality and services in marketplace.
All the staff member of organization is participated to achieve their goals and objectives.
In Marks and Spencer, it is an essential part of management system to focus on the
customer’s needs and requirements (Paté‐Cornell and Keller, 2018). This management
system uses for planning strategy and effective communication that integrate with the
business activities and culture.
 Kaizen- Kaizen is a process that improve the business operations and function in effective
ways. It is requires for improvement of personnel outside of immediate work areas. This
refers to the activities which help in improving the functionalities of the employees. This
focuses towards the improved productivity of the firm. It is an approach to create
continuous improve the organization planning and strategy according to new ideas and
suggestions. Positive changes can improve the business functionality and operations.
Marks and Spencer can use this approach also to manufacture new product and provide
the best services to their customer. This approach is basically used for organization to
achieve all aspects for firms. Management and process should improve continuously.
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 Six Sigma- Six Sigma is statistical or data driven approach that help for eliminating all
the defects in the product or process. This process can be represented the specific
population standard of deviation that measure the variation in the form of dataset. The
Six sigma can describe the quantitative of business process. This approach is
implementing in business operations to measure the requirement of organization. Marks
and Spencer can use this strategy for improving the system and their existing processes.
Six sigma is help for achieving the goals to meet all requirement of customers. A flexible
and comprehensive system is required for Marks and Spencer to maximize the business
success such as statistical analysis improving operation functionality, understand
customer demand and reinventing business process.
 Just in time- It is basically inventory system for managing the management strategy in
order to supply the product and service directly with the production schedules. This
supply system can shift away from the other just in case strategies. This is the best
approach that controls ERP system of company. It provides the base or foundation for
implementing new techniques and approaches. This approach is to remove the source of
manufacturing when the produced waste material. They also producing the right the
product in efficient quantity. There are important goals and objectives of JIT in Marks
and Spencer as followings:
Zero defects
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Illustration 1: Six sigma approach
(Source: Operational management approach, 2018)

Break down
Zero handling
Zero inventories
Zero set up time
Marks and Spencer uses TQM (Total quality management) approach to develop new
strategies and planning. This approach is used for providing the best quality of product and
services in market place. Many customers attract towards the brand because of their effective
quality of services. Marks and Spencer is continuously changing their quality according to
demand of customer which is required for the growth and development.
2. Role of store manager a classic example of an operation's manager
Store manager is playing an important role in Marks and Spencer. They also manage the
entire store in proper manner. It also managing the raw material and personnel. Manager is
coordinate with their team member for providing the best quality of product and services to
customer. There are various stores open in UK. In this way, it is important for organization to
manage all their business operations and functions (Paté‐Cornell and Keller, 2018). Store
manager has many responsibilities to supply chain and also help for minimizing the cost of
production.
A store manager is a responsible person for managing the entire business process effective
manner. In Marks and Spencer, there are different roles playing in the organization as followings:
 Manager is managing the overall staff member and their requirements.
 Manager is planning an effective strategy for promoting their product and services in
marketplace.
 They also responsibilities to understand the demand of customer and then providing the
best quality of product and services.
 Manger always interact with the customer to solve their queries which is required for
Marks and Spencer to manage the business operations and functions.
Role of store manager
Financial Management- Manager plays an important role for managing the budget,
controlling cost and track financially. They also using different method for improve the
efficiency of production and cost. Financial management is required for Marks and Spencer
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