RMNN+ UNIT 4: Leadership and Management Roles in Operations Context

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the roles of leadership and management within the operational functions of an organization. It begins by differentiating between the roles and characteristics of a leader versus a manager, using the example of Mark Zuckerberg's leadership at Facebook. The report then examines how these roles apply in various situational contexts, applying theories such as situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency theory. Furthermore, it demonstrates an understanding of the role leaders and managers play in operations management, explaining key approaches and their importance in achieving business objectives. Finally, the report assesses the factors within the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers, concluding with a discussion on the relationship between leadership and management in a contemporary business environment.

RMNN+ UNIT 4 MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
Difference between the role of a leader and the function of a manager..........................................3
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader as manager...................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................5
Apply the role of a leader and the function of a manager in given contexts...................................5
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of manager apply in different
situational contexts..........................................................................................................................5
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including, situational leadership, systems
leadership and contingency..............................................................................................................7
LO3..................................................................................................................................................8
Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders and managers play in the operations function of
an organization.................................................................................................................................8
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers
play..................................................................................................................................................9
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.
.......................................................................................................................................................10
LO4................................................................................................................................................12
Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between leadership and management in a
contemporary business environment.............................................................................................12
P6 asses the factors within the business environment that impact upon the operational
management and decision-making by leaders and managers........................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
Reference list.................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
The operational process of an organization is the foundation of the functionality of an enterprise.
Therefore managing the operational process of a company is imperative. In this context,
management and operations are interrelated and serve a pivotal purpose to an organization.
Management and operations is referred to the administration of business practices for creating
the maximum level of efficiency within the firm in order to develop the overall structure of the
organization. Management and operations have the aim of enhancing the profit of an
organization to the maximum level. Managing all the activities within the organization and lead,
those to achieve the business targets are included in management and operations. A leader has
great significant and he has the ability of increasing the rate of production and profitability of an
organization.
In this case, the leadership case of Mark Zuckerberg is underpinned. Mark Zuckerberg, who is
the CEO and Chairman of the board of Facebook Company, has great types of leadership quality.
Mr. Zuckerberg is renowned for his great visionary and effective leadership style that he used for
the excellent growth of the Facebook Company. Moreover, he is an entrepreneur of INTJ
(Introversion, intuition, thinking, judgment) personality type. Keeping this on mind, this
assignment will outline the several differences between the role of the leader and manager’s
functions. Moreover, discussion over the role of a leader and managers play in the operations
functions of a firm will be included in this assignment. At the last, the relationship between the
management and leadership in a contemporary business environment will be included for
offering a clear idea about the importance of the management and operations.
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LO1
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader as manager.
A leader has great responsibility of leading the whole organization to achieve the business targets
of the organization. Several roles and responsibilities have to play a leader for gaining the best
business outcomes. Mr. Zuckerberg, the CEO of the Facebook Company has visionary
leadership styles that are very effective in leading all the employees to the right direction. He is
the person, who has made a revolution in social media networking. Millions of people daily use
Facebook and social networking in their various purposes (Daft, 2014). On the other hand,
managers are responsible for managing all activities within the organization accurately. Through
managing all the business activities properly within the organization, a manager influences the
organization to gain the maximum success in the business.
Role of a leader The function of manager
1. Team leader of an organization has the
responsibility of providing,
instructions, direction and guidance to a
group of individuals (Northouse, 2018).
Team leader plays a crucial role in
leading all the employees to achieve the
business objectives.
1. Managers has the roles of managing all
the activities within the organization for
performing all the organizational
activities in a specific way that it can
help the organization in increasing the
rate of production and sales of the
organization.
2. The leader of an organization develops
the strategy of an organization. leader
develops the strategy to improve the
overall performance of the organization
to achieve the business objectives
(Johnston and Marshall, 2016).
2. Mangers are not responsible for
developing the strategies of an
organization. leader develops the
strategies and mangers implement those
developed strategies within the
organization successfully for gaining
the best business outcomes.
3. Encouraging all the employees within
the organization is very important in
4. A manager is also is an administrator,
who has the role managing all the
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order to get the best performance from
the employees. Encouraged employees
can provide more effective and efficient
working performance within the
organization.
activities accurately within the
organization. Reporting of issue,
requiring financial requirements is also
managed by an administrator of an
organization to achieve the success in
the business.
5. A leader should have the great quality
of supervision quality. Observing the
employees daily performance and
measuring the development of their
performance is very crucial in order to
reach the maximum level of
performance in all activities within the
organization.
5. A manger of an origination has the
ability of changing the whole
system of an origination to make a
revolution in the industry.
Moreover, a manger is able to
delegate a group workload
effectively in a more specific way.
Manager manages all the activities
within the origination for meeting
the business objectives by
increasing the performance level
across the firm.
Table 1: Difference between Leader and Manager
(Source: Created by Author)
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LO2
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of manager apply in
different situational contexts.
It has been seen from the different situational aspects that some people have the ability to inspire
others while some people have very good management skills. In the organizational aspects all
these skills plays a vital role in order to improve the entire wok efficiency and for self-
development purposes (Northouse, 2018.). However, the role of a leader and the function of a
manager can be described as follows:
Role of leaders:
Developing strategy:
This is the most imperative task for the leaders of an organization. Leaders need to come up with
effective strategies based upon which they can lead the organization and can complete the given
tasks within the specified time interval. Hence, the leaders must be aware about the entire
business objective along with the probable outcome if the implemented strategies for them.
Having visionary leadership styles, Mark Jukerberg has managed to implement all those suitable
strategies that gave effective outcome for the organization.
Communicating the vision and implementation of effective strategies:
An effective team leader is always capable of increasing cohesion in the team so that the team
members can work efficiently. Mark Jukerberg used to keep a dairy called ‘The Book of
Change” in which Mr. Jukerberg used to keep all the visionary planning’s and the strategies that
he wants to incorporate in the Face book platform. However, these innovative skills and the
visions are effective for an organization. Apart from this, there should be an effective
communication among the team members so that the effectiveness of the social media platform
can be enhanced (van Gils et al., 2015).
Function of a manager:
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Balance:
The prime responsibility of a manager is to maintain proper balance in the entire organization.
This balance should be maintained for the personal and the professional aspects of the employees
itself. In order to implement a planning adopted by the leader, the manager should be responsible
enough in choosing the appropriate organizational skills (Miner, 2015.). The managers should
abide by the company rules, regulations and involving effective team members for completing
specific tasks. Hence, Facebook organization is incorporated with responsible managers who are
giving continuous support to successfully implement ideas for the organization.
Disciplinary:
The prime responsibility of a manager is to create an effective time schedule along with
monitoring the sustainability of the organization. Managers need to be fair and strict at the same
time to maintain the disciplinary factors in the organization. The manager’s behavior should be
same for all so that all the employees in the organization feel the same to work under the
manager. Hence, the managers of the organization are being lawful to their employees and are
providing effort to maintain a good relationship with the subordinates. Thus, the organization is
getting success to implementall the necessary planning in the real life scenario.
Maintaining proper organizational cultures:
In any large organization, they key responsibility of the managers is to maintain proper
organizational culture so that employees can work efficiently. Hence, it can be justified that
while the managers are getting enough scope to maintain proper organizational culture for the
organization, eventually the organizational efficiency increases. Hence, in case of Facebook
organization the managers are coming out with numbers of strategies based on which they can
nurture their organizational cultures effectively.
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including, situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency.
Situational leadership
Situational leadership defines as the leader or manager of an organization, who can adjust his
style for fitting the development of the followers those he wants to influence. A manager or
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leader with situational leadership takes decision of changing his leadership style as per the needs
of followers (Miner, 2015). There are four types of leadership styles in situational leadership
model that are,
 Coaching
 Directing
 Supporting
 Delegating
The situational leadership model is based on management of organizational behavior. There are
mainly two fundamental concepts within the situational leadership model; one is individual or
performance readiness level of the group and another one is leadership style. These two are very
crucial in situational leadership model.
Contingency
Contingency approach or situational approach focuses on building up strong teamwork quality
among employees and influences the leader to encourage and motivate his employees to perform
better within the firm. Through this process, it is also possible to increase the rate of production
and sales of the organization. Consequently, the overall structurer of the firm can be developed
through this contingency approach. Path, situational theories, goals etc. are related in the
contingency theories.
Path goal model
Path goal model is based on various styles of the leaders, which best fits the work environment
and employees for achieving the business goal. The main goal is to enhance the employee’s
encouragement, motivation and satisfaction that can help to become the members more
productive within the firm. Through this model, an organization can easily increase his business
model to the maximum level (Lussier and Achua, 2015).
Situational theory
Situational theory refers to the manager or leader of a firm. This theory is flexible and focuses
on taking actions depending on the situations. It also encourages a team for becoming more
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confident in performing their job roles within the firm (Glaser et al., 2016). Moreover, a
situational leader also coaches his team for getting best outcomes from the business. It refers to
take appropriate decision considering factors such as the organizational culture and structure,
goals and objectives that are to be achieved.
systems leadership
system leadership is based on management and organizational behavior. system leadership
allows a leader of an organization to create the perfect conditions, where all types of employees
can work more productively within the organization to their maximum potential. Moreover,
system leadership provides leaders special tools, which can help to predict the behavior of the
employees within the firm. The most interesting thing about this model is that the model uses
sound principles about the human behavior for creating the models of good leadership.
Furthermore, it also influences the leader build an effective system within the firm that drives
the productive behavior of the organization.
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LO3
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and
managers play.
Key approaches to operations management
Operational management refers to the group that are undertaking primary business activities
within the organization for achieving the business objectives and goals of an organization.
Inventory control
Inventory is considered as one of the most difficult systems in any firm. Effectively managing
inventory has great importance in increasing the rate of sauces of the organization. Moreover,
inventory of an organization decides the future of an organization (Sosik and Jung, 2018).
Therefore, managing inventory of an organization is very essential and this tough task is done by
the operations management in order to gain the best business outcomes.
Supply chain management
Another important function is managing the supply chain properly to maintain the success of the
organization in a more specific way. Purchasing of a product, procurement, storage,
transportation and the delivery all are included in the supply chain management. Supply chain
management refers to the whole process from the beginning to the delivery of the product or
service (McCleskey, 2014). Operations management controls the supply chain management of an
organization and plays a crucial role in increasing the growth of the organization.
Quality control
Controlling the quality of the product or services is very crucial for increasing the overall
structure of an origination. Drop in quality of a product can harm an organization and can reduce
down the company’s revenue. Therefore, operations management of an organization takes the
responsibility of controlling the quality of the product if an organization to maintain the revenue
of the company in the market.
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Leaders have the role of leading and directing the whole organization to achieve the business
goals and objectives. Moreover, leaders encourage the employees within the organization for
increasing the working performance of all employees. A leader should have the visionary
leadership style to overcome the every difficulty within the organization (Van Wart, 2014). Mr.
Zuckerberg, who is owner of Facebook Company, has all these qualities of leadership.
Consequently, Mr. Zuckerberg the CEO and Chairman of the Facebook Company has become
renowned across the world for his quality and effective leadership style that has really changed
the overall structure of the organization. Mr. Zuckerberg is a great leader, who creates vision,
inspires, directs and inspires all the employees of his organization to make a revolution in the
social media networking.
On the other hand, manger refers to the job title, which is used in firms for denoting employee
that has certain responsibilities and duties for leading functions or employees within the
organization. Mangers are responsible for managing all the business activities within the
organization for achieving the business targets. Managers measure the improvements of the
performance of the employees to understand the improvement of the overall performance of the
organization. Managers seek; receive internal and external information for understanding the
working environment within the organization, where employees work together. Thus, manager
implements changes to create a better working environment within the organization. Through
creating better working environment, it is possible to increase the rate of production and sales of
an organization. Moreover, the manager is a creator also, who influences creating new product to
increase the market revenue of the organization. Manager seeks improvements that are required
to improve the performance of the organization. the manager of an organization has the aim of
increasing the profitability of the organization by making positive changes within the
organization.
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business
objectives.
Operations management has vital role in achieving the business objectives through implementing
various positive changes within the organization. Operational management has several effective
and essential roles within the organization that are followed below,
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Financial management
Financial management is one of the most important functions of an organization. Budgeting,
costing, controlling and keeping the firm on track economically are all included in financial
management (Laudon, and Laudon, 2016). Operational management plays a key role in pursuing
all those functions of an organization. Managers mainly use cost benefit analysis for improving
the efficiency of the overall financial management of the organization.
Management Resources
Operation management has the responsibility of managing the both of personnel and raw
materials to develop the overall structure of the organization. Managing all the resources and
supplying as per the requirement is very effective in increasing the profitability of an
organization (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). Moreover, operational management controls the
inventory, purchasing and supplies of an organization to improve the overall performance of the
organization.
Goal setting
Setting of a goal is very essential in order to gain competitive advantages in the market. Manager
set goals of an organization for achieving success in the business. Sales promotion and sales
forecasting are also included in the responsibilities of a manager. A manger decides the goal of
an organization to get success in business (Monczka et al., 2015). Moreover, setting of a goal of
an organization is essential in order to accelerate the growth of the firm.
Communication
A good communicator has the ability of motivating and encouraging the employees that can help
all the employs to improve the working performance within the firm. This kind of good
communication skill helps in making high level of decisions. A manager also plays a crucial role
in managing all the employees and maintaining a good relationship. This good relationship helps
to improve the performance of the activities of all employees within the organization.
Understanding the business
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