Analyzing Operations Management: Leadership and External Influences

This report provides an in-depth analysis of management and operations from a store manager's perspective. It begins by differentiating between leaders and managers, highlighting their roles and characteristics. The report then explores Fayol's managerial functions, including planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling, with examples of their application in the store. Different leadership styles such as situational, contingency, and systems leadership are discussed with relevant scenarios. The report further delves into various approaches to operations management, such as Total Quality Management and Six Sigma, identifying the approach used in the store. It also explains the role of a store manager as a classic example of an operations manager and the importance of operations management in maintaining a competitive advantage, managing profits, complying with regulations, and improving productivity. Finally, the report identifies and assesses key external factors, such as changes in the labor market, government policies, raw material prices, and innovations, and discusses their impact on decision-making as a store manager.

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MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION
Student’s Name
Code + Course Name
Professor’s Name
University Name
City, State
Date

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Contents
Task one:....................................................................................................................... 3
b. Managerial functions according to Fayol.............................................................5
Planning.................................................................................................................. 5
Organizing............................................................................................................... 5
Commanding............................................................................................................ 5
Coordinating............................................................................................................ 5
Controlling.............................................................................................................. 6
Situational Leadership................................................................................................ 6
Contingency leadership............................................................................................... 6
Systems leadership..................................................................................................... 7
Task Two:...................................................................................................................... 7
.1. Explain different approaches to operations management and identifying what
is used in your store................................................................................................ 7
Total Quality Management Approach..............................................................................8
Six Sigma Approach................................................................................................... 9
2. Explain what makes your role as a store manager a classic example of an
operations manager.............................................................................................. 10
Resources Management............................................................................................. 10
Facilitating effective communication............................................................................11
Setting Targets........................................................................................................ 11
Maintaining the overall image of the store......................................................................11
3. Explain the importance of operations management in your store.....................11

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Maintaining a competitive advantage............................................................................12
Managing profits..................................................................................................... 12
Complying with regulations........................................................................................ 13
Improved manufacturing process.................................................................................13
Operations management plays a role in improving productivity............................................13
Optimum Utilization of resources................................................................................ 14
4. Identify and assess the key outside factors that can have an effect on the operations management for
your organization........................................................................................................... 14
Changes in labor market....................................................................................... 14
Changes in Government policies...........................................................................14
Changes in prices of raw materials.......................................................................15
New Innovations and competition.........................................................................15
Natural and manmade disasters...........................................................................15
5. How are these factors impact upon your decision making as a store manager?
.............................................................................................................................. 16
Conclusion................................................................................................................... 17
Introduction
According to Peter Drucker, a leader is simply anyone with a follower (Cohen, 2009).
Gaining this followership requires both influence and integrity. (Koontz, 2010) defines a leader

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as someone who gets things done through others and with groups that are organized formally.
Based on these two definitions, it can be seen that differences between leaders and managers
exist. Most successful entrepreneurs are both leaders and managers. The main difference
between these two is the fact that while leaders have followers, managers have people who work
for them (Go2HR, 2018).In an organization, managers are known to give direction in all tasks
and projects, on the contrary, leaders delegate and maintain less control over assigned tasks and
responsibilities. While leaders are happy when their juniors excel in their assigned tasks and
responsibilities, managers may perceive it as a threat to their positions (Lucas, 2016).
Task one:
a) Differences and similarities between a leader and manager considering their roles and
characteristics.
Differences exists in where the focus of a leader and a manager lies. While managers are
focused on the moment, leaders focus on the future. The focus of the manager is always getting
the current job done. On the contrary, leaders always have a picture such as ensuring that the
current tasks are in alignment with the individual employee and organizational goals. They will
always try to interrogate how, various tasks are in alignment with the wit the overall plan of their
organization (Lucas, 2016).
While leaders may play a contributory role, leaders perform their duties by playing a
supervisory role. By being contributors, managers act as people that subordinates can look up to
for guidance. Through their contributory role, leaders naturally win the hearts of their followers.
Managers have to play an active role in ensuring that all tasks are carried out as they would want

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them to be carried out. In addition, while leaders are focused on establishing relationships in
their organizations, managers create processes and system. Leaders believe that all they need
only their influence is what is needed in the realization of organizational goals. By maintaining
positive relationships with their subordinates, they can influence them. On the contrary
manager’s efforts are centered on ensuring that the necessary systems are available in an
organization for the realization of the desired outcome.
The two differ also in that while managers have employees, leaders have followers.
Leaders inspire their subordinates to act in a certain way. They focus on making them their
number one fans. They work in collaboration to achieve organizational goals. The realization of
organizational goals brings some sense of fulfillment and satisfaction for both leaders and their
subordinates. On the contrary, employees create directions to be followed by their subordinates.
In their everyday schedule, employees seek ways of pleasing their managers by following
directives (Koontz, 2010). Its therefore evident that while leaders lead subordinates towards
success, managers constantly tell their subordinates what to do to meet targets. Managers always
want to be in control while leaders can sometimes let things evolve without their involvement.
Managers focus on numbers while leaders focus on people. Managers will do anything to
ensure that their employees hit the targets agreed upon including overworking them. To them,
numbers are the most important aspect of organizational success. For leaders, however, numbers
are not the only thing that matters. Leaders take their actions with their people in mind. For
example, while a manager might fire employees whose numbers do not add up, a leader many
approach the issue by trying to understand the issues that could have led to the underperformance
and trying to resolve them.

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b. Managerial functions according to Fayol
Henry Fayol devised a management in which he identified various ways in which the
management interacts with subordinates. In his model, he described the 14 principles of
management out of which he identified five ways in which the management should interact with
employees. He summarized these ways of interactions into5 functions of the management,
namely planning, organizing, controlling, coordinating and commanding (Răducan and
Răducan,2014).
Planning
This function involves creating plans of actions for various levels of the organization.
They schedule all parts of the organizational processes. Planning has been viewed as one of the
hardest managerial functions. In creating a good plan, the management is required to involve all
levels of the organization. The realization of the plan should be preceded by effective
coordination across all levels. Planning acts as a bridge between where an organization is and
where it intends to be in the future. It defines what needs to be done, by whom, where and when,
and how it needs to be done (Bârgău,2015). An example of how this function is carried out in my
organization is the creation of quarterly sales forecast plans
Organizing
Managerial organizing function precedes planning. It is the process through which the
management brings together organizational resources such as physical, human and financial
resources. Fayol perceived it as the process of providing a business with resources necessary for
its effective functioning. Organizing also involves establishing an effective relationship between

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these components of the organization for the realization of organizational goals. Under this
function, the management identifies activities that need to be carried out, classifying these
activities, assigning duties and responsibilities for completion of the activities, delegation of
authority.
Commanding
After plans have been created and necessary resources channeled towards their
implementation, the third managerial function comes in. Commanding is the process through
which the management gets things done. It involves instructing employees and ordering them to
carry out certain activities needed for the realization of the plans. Employees need to be provided
with clear instructions on what they need to do; when they are needed to do it and how they are
required to do it (Renz,2016). Effective communication is key to this process.
Coordinating
For organizational goals to be effectively realized, various activities need to be carried
out harmoniously. Coordination is the process is the process of streamlining group efforts by the
management to ensure all parts of the organization work harmoniously towards a common
purpose (Lunenburg, 2011). Better functioning is achieved when organizational activities are
harmonized. This function is aimed at achieving group discipline and motivation.
Controlling
For organizational functions to be realized there is a need to ensure that all plans are
carried out as anticipated. Controlling function involves setting standards, comparing
performance against standards and taking necessary corrective actions. It is meant to ensure that

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the performance meets the agreed-upon criteria. Performance can be controlled through
appraising performance, crosschecking financial statements, rates of customer satisfaction
among others (Whitehead, Weiss and Tappen, 2010).
c) Situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency leadership using various
scenarios in your organization to support your explanation.
Situational Leadership
Situational leadership is a leadership style that depends on the situation at hand. It is
based on the assumption that no single leadership style is best. Situational leadership style
involves putting to work strategies that are best suited to address the current task or situation.
Situational leadership involves managers adjusting their style to accommodate the needs of their
subordinates and the organization (Bush, 2008). For example in a situation where an employee is
highly committed to the organizational course but lacks critical skills a manager may adapt to
situational leadership by directing the employee and giving them specific instructions to ensure
that they understand what they are needed to do.
Contingency leadership
This style of leadership is based on the assumption that the alignment of a leader’s skills
with the situation at hand is what determines their effectiveness. It involves solving the right
problems in the right way. Contingency leadership the success of a situation does not depend on
the manager’s skills but how these skills are used in different situations (Bolden, 2016). It is
therefore dependent on the situation at hand based on its specific factors such as the task, the
composition of a group and the individual leader. Prediction of success is therefore difficult.

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Maximizing the potential of success, therefore, requires leaders to adapt to different situations.
For example, a leader may adopt different approaches when dealing with two employees with
different attributes.
Systems leadership
In the organizational context, a system refers to a whole organization that is made of
different parts, interacting together. This in kind of interaction, a change in one part would
necessitate a change in the other. A system leadership is, therefore, a type of leadership where
the management creates a system for the whole organization. The system is developed to
maximize the productivity of business units, teams, individuals and an entire organization
(Briggs, Morrison and Coleman,2012). This approach can be used by leaders across the different
level and in different organizations. System leadership needed in order to maintain high
performance within an organization. An example of this includes establishing departmental
targets aimed at achieving a single organizational goal. This approach ensures that all parts of an
organization work together towards a single organizational goal.
Task Two:
.1. Explain different approaches to operations management and identifying what is used in
your store.
Operations management entails organizing; planning and overseeing organizational
processes. It also involves making necessary changes to organizational processes to improve
profit levels in an organization. These adjustments are made in everyday operations and need to

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be in line with an organization’s strategic goals. Operations planning occur after a detailed
analysis of current processes. This analysis ensures that no deviation from an organization’s
strategic plan is caused by changes to organizational processes. Successful operations
management requires a number of skills. These skills may include organizational skills, Analytic
capabilities, and ability to coordinate processes, high level of creativity, effective people skills
and a deep understanding of technology.
Total Quality Management Approach
Total quality management approach is an approach centered on a continuous
improvement of an organization as a way of bringing effectiveness in organizational processes
and improving the quality of products. This approach emphasizes teamwork, maintenance of a
strategic approach for improvement, maintenance of work quality, teamwork and client
orientation. This approach is aimed at improving quality and performance in order to meet the
expectations of customers. Organizations that adopt this approach incorporate quality aspects in
all organizational processes and functions, across different levels (Russell and Taylor-Iii 2008).
All quality measures are taken into account trough collaboration will all employees and across all
levels of an organization. This approach, therefore, analyses organizations quality measures such
as quality assurance, quality improvement, and quality maintenance and control and quality
design.
Total quality management is founded on several principles. The first is total management
control which stresses the role of the top management as the driver of the process. Training is
also an integral part of the approach. Employees should be trained regularly. It also emphasizes
that decisions should be informed by measurements (Foster and Ogden, 2008). The total

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improvement should also be focused on improving the satisfaction of customers. Organizations
are also required to work on improving the quality of processes on a continuous basis.
Employees across all levels should also be fully involved in the identification and finding
solutions to quality problems. Finally, a collaborative culture should be adopted to ensure
employees can work together to address quality concerns.
Six Sigma Approach
This approach is used by organizations to identify and eliminate defects in a bid to
improve services, products, and current processes. This Approach is majorly used by large
organizations in managing quality in their operations, products, and services. Its central focus is
on finding out and eliminating any defects attributed to quality variations. It achieves this by
defining a set of steps around the various targets (Peng and Lai, 2012). The assumption here is
that errors and defects in the processes are likely to have a negative impact on the quality of the
final products or services. Six Sigma approach works on the principle of Smaller is better, which
specifies the upper limit; larger is better, which specifies the lower limit and Nominal is best
which focuses on the middle ground.
My Store uses the total quality management approach because of its various attributes
identified above
2. Explain what makes your role as a store manager a classic example of an operations
manager.

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The role played by an operations manager is one of the most important roles in business,
government or any other organization. Although their role depends on a range of factors
including the size and nature of the organization in which they operate, organization’s success is
to a large extent depend on their ability to perform their duties and responsibilities (Lewis and
Brown,2012). My job as a store manager is to a large extent similar to that of an operations
manager. It is my duty as a store manager to ensure that to oversee day to day operations in my
retail store. In broad terms, these roles can be classified into the following
Resources Management
Just like an operations manager, I play an integral role in the management of both human
and financial resources in my retail store. One of my primary roles as a store manager is the
recruitment of human resources. Not only do I hire them but also train and develop them in order
to improve their productivity and ability to work in the retail store efficiently. It is my role to
ensure that the store functions correctly by facilitating all employees to record optimum
productivity (Johnston and Clark, 2008). This responsibility requires me to keep them updated
on the latest trends in the industry, keep them motivated and provide ongoing support. In
addition, I am also responsible for monitoring financial performance and ensuring the
employee’s customer service meets the expectations of customers.
Facilitating effective communication
An operations manager plays a great role in enabling different parts of the organization to work
together. This is the reason why they need to possess interpersonal and good communication
skills. This is basically what I do as a store manager, I create a culture founded on positive