Report: Leadership, Management, and Operations at Sainsbury (2024)

This report provides an in-depth analysis of leadership, management, and operations within Sainsbury's, a major UK retail organization. It explores the functions of leaders and managers in various situations, including conflict management and employee turnover, and examines different leadership theories such as situational, systems, and contingency theories. The report compares the roles of managers and leaders in improving productivity, fostering innovation, and managing change. Furthermore, it delves into approaches to operations management, including total quality management and capacity management, and discusses the factors that impact operational decision-making within the company. The report utilizes Sainsbury's as a case study to illustrate practical applications of these concepts within the retail industry.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
L O 2................................................................................................................................................3
P2) functions of a leader and manager in different situations...............................................3
P3) Different theories of leadership.......................................................................................4
L O 1................................................................................................................................................6
P1) Different roles of Manager and Leader............................................................................6
L O 3................................................................................................................................................8
P4) Approaches to operations management...........................................................................8
P5) Importance of operations management............................................................................9
L O 4..............................................................................................................................................11
P6) Factors that impact upon operational management.......................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Operations management refers to developing and managing the process of producing
goods or services and planning the operations of the company. It also deals with planning,
controlling the manufacturing of goods or services. It helps the organization to ensure that the
operations of the firm are economic in terms of utilization of the resources (Wu, Olson, D.L. and
Wang, 2019). The Report will be based on Sainsbury. It is one of the biggest retail organization
in UK. The company belongs to Retail industry and it was founded in year 1869 in London,
United Kingdom. Sainsbury operates various Superstores, Convenience shops etc. It has various
subsidiaries like Argos, Sainsbury Bank etc. The Report will outline functions of Leader and
Manager in various situations, different theories of leadership and comparison between the
functions of Manager and leader. The Report will also describe the methods of operations
management, value of operations management in business, different factors that can affect the
decision-making.
MAIN BODY
L O 2
P2) functions of a leader and manager in different situations.
Leadership- It refers to the function of leader for influencing the workers so that, they will make
efforts for achieving goals of the company.
Management- It is a function of Mnager of the firm. IT involves manging the human resource
by performing different managerial functions.
Situational context explains the reasons behind occurrence of something and the types of
actions and behaviour required for facing thesituation. Leader and Manager of the firm have top
play various types of roles according to different situations of the company. Role of Manager and
Leader in different situations are as follows-
Managing conflicts –
Conflicts in the business occurs due to the deviation between the attitude, beliefs of
employees. Management of conflicts is essential to maintain the stability of the company. Leader
and Manager of Sainsbury should possess the required hard skills as well as soft skills for
managing the conflicts between the individuals or group in the firm. So that, conflicts in the firm
will not negatively impact the performance of staff (Hasegawa, NEC Corp, 2017).

Role of Leader –
Leader of Sainsbury helps in managing various leadership styles according to different
situations. Leader make efforts for influencing the employees of the firm so that conflicts
between two parties can be resolved. One of the major role-played by Leader of Sainsbury is of
investigator. Under this, Leader make efforts for evaluating the reasons behind the conflicts
between employees. So that, conflicts can be resolved in the organization (Dale, B.G. and
Plunkett, 2017)..
Functions of Manager –
Manager of Sainsbury plays an important role in managing the disputes in the firm. They
help to create a healthy environment in the organization so that, conflicts can be resolved.
Human Resource Manager of the firm is responsible for various functions like operative and
managerial functions. Example – Recruitment and selection etc.
Employee’s Turnover –
It refers to the percentage of the employees that are leaving the organization and replaced
by new workers. There are two types of employee turnover that is voluntary and involuntary
employee turnover. Leader and Manager of Sainsbury plays an important role in reducing the
level of employee turnover in the organization (Mehrotra, 2015).
Role of Leader –
Leader of Sainsbury allocates the task to team members on the basis of knowledge, skills
and ability of workers. Therefore, it helps to improve the job satisfaction level of workers and as
a result they do not leave the firm. Leader of Sainsbury influences and motivates the workers by
allocating the work equally among the team members. In this way, Leader helps to improve
retention of staff in the company (Parisio, Rikos, E. and Glielmo, 2016).
Role of Manager –
Manager of the company plays an important function in reducing labour turnover in
Sainsbury. Management make efforts for determining the causes behind conflicts in the
organization, and they motivate the employees so that morale of workers will improve. This will
help to cut down the level of employee turnover in the firm. Manager of Sainsbury make efforts
for clearly explaining all the details related with career development planning of workers that
helps to improve the level of motivation of employees. In this way, Manager helps to reduce the
level of labour turnover in Sainsbury (Mahadevan, 2015).

P3) Different theories of leadership.
Leadership theories explain the types of attributes and behaviour Leader of the firm
should possess so that, the leadership abilities of the Leader will improve. There are various
approaches of leadership such as -
Situational Leadership -
The theory says that, Leader of the company must change its leadership style according
to the changes in the situation in the organization. Leader of Sainsbury must have knowledge of
when to change the style of management, and which type of leadership strategy will be suitable
in different situations. Leader of Sainsbury can adopt different styles under situational leadership
such as Democratic, Coercive, Affiliative etc.
Strengths -
 Situational Leadership style is very easy to interpret. It can be applied by the Leader in
different situations.
 Leader of the firm considers the ability and skills of workers before taking any decision.
Weaknesses -
 In Situational Leadership style, consumption of time and efforts of the Leader is more
due to which Leader may not be able to give attention on other important things (Higuchi,
2016).
Systems Leadership -
It enables the Leader of the firm to generate such type of situations in the organization
through which the employees that are working at different levels will contribute maximum
efforts according to their potential. System Leadership Theory helps the Leader of Sainsbury to
develop the systems that can help to promote the improvement in behaviour of workers of the
organization.
Strengths -
 The theory helps the firm to adapt the changes that are happening in the micro as well as
macro environment.
 The theory focuses on different prospects of management.
Weaknesses -
 Systems Leadership approach may not be appropriate in case of small scale organization.
 The inter-dependency in this theory is not properly defined (Ross, 2017).

Contingency Theory -
The theory says that the effectiveness of the Leader is dependent upon the style of
Leadership chooses by the Leader in a particular situation. Leader of Sainsbury will adopt the
type of leadership style on the basis of LPC scale. This scale will help the Leader to determine
the type of employees with whom Leader will like to work. Contingency Theory also cover some
portion of other theories. The attributes of the Leader of Sainsbury will be directly related with
leadership style and the type of situation in which Leader is guiding the employees.
Strengths -
It focuses on the combination between the style of leadership and the kind of situation in the
firm.
It has provided a well-defined approach like- LPC Scale for evaluating different situations.
Weaknesses -
 The theory does not clearly explain that why some Leaders are more effective in
particular situations and some are not.
 Contingency Theory becomes difficult when it is applied in practical situations (Wild,
2017.).
L O 1
P1) Different roles of Manager and Leader.
Leadership –
It is one of the important function of Leader of the organization. It is a process through
which Leader directs the actions of team members so that, goals of firm can be achieved.
Leader is the person that possess ability and skills for influencing the subordinates to work hard
(Wild, 2017).
Hard skills – These are mainly technical skills. Leader of firm should have hard skills like
proficiency in different language etc. There are various examples of hard skills such as
motivation, flexibility, patience and communication (Wild, T., 2017).
Soft skills – These skills are difficult to quantify. Leader should possess interpersonal skills etc.
There are various examples of soft skills such as problem solving and communication skills etc.

Leadership Traits Theory – The theory is based on different features of the leader for
predicting the effectiveness of leadership. Examples of Core traits of leader are motivation to
lead, integrity etc.
Management – It refers to the procedure of managing and coordinating various activities of the
firm. So that, aims and objectives of the firm can be achieved. Manager of the firm is responsible
to perform various managerial functions (Hirano, 2016).
Management by objective process – It is a process that contains various steps for integrating
different managerial activities so that, objectives of individuals and firm can be achieved in
effective way. According to Peter Drucker, it contains 6 different steps like setting goals of
individual and organization, monitoring the progress, evaluating performance, feedback and
appraisal of performance (Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, 2018).
Henry Mintzberg Model – According to Henry Mintzberg, Manager of the firm plays different
roles like informational role, interpersonal role, decision role etc. They are also responsible to
motivate the workers to perform better.
Roles of Leader and Manager according to J. Kotter.
Heading Leader Manager
Improving Productivity-
Productivity refers to
producing more products with
fewer inputs.
Leader of Sainsbury helps to
provide clarity to employees
regarding the expectations of
company from employees.
Due to clarity of objectives
workers perform better as a
result their productivity
improves (Androniceanu,
2017).
Manager of Sainsbury helps to
improve the productivity of
employees by clearly;y
defining the job roles to the
employees and also p[provides
necessary tools to perform the
task (Schönsleben, 2016).
Innovation-
It refers to developing new
products, process to improve
Leader of Sainsbury plays a
major role in supporting the
efforts of workers so that, they
Manager of Sainsbury
communicates the reasons and
benefits of modifying the

the growth of the company. can innovate new products or
services of the company (Dale,
B.G. and Plunkett, 2017).
existing process and products
of the company to employees.
In this way, Manager of firm
plays an important fy.unction
in promoting culture of
innovation in the company
(Ross, J.E., 2017).
Change Management- It
refers to the process of
managing the change in
process or products of the
company.
Leader of Sainsbury influences
the team members for
accepting the changes that are
happening in the business
(Ross, 2017).
Manager of the firm plays an
important role in
communicating the advantages
of implementing the changes
in the company. Manager
provides proper mentoring to
workers during the process of
change in the process of
manufacturing products of
Sainsbury (Ross, J.E., 2017).

L O 3
P4) Approaches to operations management.
Operations Management involves various concepts that can be applied in the company.
Some important factors in Operations Management are Capacity Management, Just-in-time etc.
Leader and Manager of Sainsbury plays a major function in implementation of these approaches
in the organization for minimizing the decrement of raw material during the process of
production of goods or services (Parisio, Rikos, E. and Glielmo, 2016).
Total Quality Management –
It is a method of reducing the errors that may happen during the development of goods or
services of the organization. Total Quality Management helps to improve the process of supply
chain management so that, company can satisfy its customers in effective way.
Figure 1 : Total Quality Management
Source : Total Quality Management, 2017

The Manager of Sainsbury plays an important function in arranging sessions for training and
development of the employees. So that, the workers will be motivated to perform their task in
more efficient way. In this way, Manager of the firm helps to improve the quality of goods and
services of the company. Leader of Sainsbury influences the workers through various leadership
styles so that, they will easily adopt new methods for developing products and services of the
firm.
Just-in-time -
It is a method of managing the inventory of the organization under this method, the firm
purchases the raw material on the basis of their need in manufacturing process. The method helps
the organization to reduce the level of wastage of raw material (Mehrotra, 2015). The leader of
Sainsbury plays a major role in influencing the staff that are involved in production department
of the company so that, the utilization of inputs in production process can be controlled. Manager
of Sainsbury helps to determine the quantity of raw material required for developing goods for
the customers. In this way, Manager helps in reducing the wastage of inputs in Sainsbury.
Capacity Management -
It refers to management of capacity of the company in respect of producing or selling
goods and services within a particular period. Capacity of the organization can be influenced by
demand of products, changes in industry etc. Leader and Manager of Sainsbury supports the
workers of the firm to adopt new tools and methods for improving the capacity of the company
for developing goods or services. Manager of Sainsbury also helps to evaluate the past sales and
demand of products by reviewing the past records. So that, in future capacity of the firm can be
improved (Mahadevan, 2015).
P5) Importance of operations management.
Operations Management plays an important role in achieving the goals of the
organization. It helps to deliver the products to the customers on right time. Operational
Management aims to reduce the level of wastage of inputs that results in improvement in the
productivity of the employees (Lai, K.H. and Cheng, 2016). Operations Management helps to
ensure the development of high quality products or services of the company that helps to satisfy
the demands of buyers and loyal customers will not shift towards the products of other firms.
The process of Operations Management helps to modify the quality of goods and services of

Sainsbury due to which the level of satisfaction of buyers also improves that results in
improvement in reputation of the firm.
Improvement in brand image of the company helps the organization to improve its market share.
As a result, company can easily achieve different objectives such as increase in the level of sales
of the firm etc.
The process helps to achieve the organizational objectives of Sainsbury in different ways such as
Strategic level decision-making -
Management of operations related with production and distribution of goods or services
helps the strategic level management in decision-making related with strategies of Sainsbury.
Operations Management helps to evaluate the present condition of the firm for bringing
improvement in the process of developing goods or services of Sainsbury. Therefore, Operations
Management helps to accomplish strategic level objectives of the business.
Tactical level decision-making -
Organizations are divided in different departments and each department have their own
targets. The process of Operational Management helps the managers of Sainsbury that are
working at middle level management of the firm in effective utilization of the resources. It also
helps to achieve the targets that are set for different departments in Sainsbury (Hirano, 2016).
Example – Taking decision regarding the timing of receiving raw material from suppliers.
Operational level decision-making -
Operations Management helps the business to take decisions related with the operations
of the company such as decision related with production or distribution of products or services. It
also helps to improve the performance and productivity of staff working at operational level in
Sainsbury. There are various approaches for managing the operations of the company such as
Capacity Management, Just-in-time, Total Quality Management, etc. that helps to improve the
level of productivity of the firm by reducing the level of wastage of raw material.
L O 4
P6) Factors that impact upon operational management.
There are various types of factors that can affect the management of operations in the
organization and these factors will also impact the decision-making of Leader and Manager of
the firm . These factors are divided in two categories that are internal factors that exists in micro

environment and external factors that exists in macro environment (Hasegawa, NEC Corp,
2017). Factors that may affect the Operations Management in Sainsbury are as follows -
Micro Factors – These factors exists in internal environment of an organization and directly
affects the Operations Management of the firm.
Human Resource – The ability and skills of workers to perform their task will directly impact
the process of production or distribution of Sainsbury. The quality of training provided by
employer to employees will also affect operations management of the firm.
Macro Factors - These factors exists in external environment of an organization and indirectly
affects the Operations Management of the firm.
Technological factor – Technology is one of the major factor that can indirectly impact the
operations of the organization. Whenever there is a change in the technology of developing
goods or services, Sainsbury also need to implement such technological changes in the process
of producing and delivering goods or services to the buyers. So that, company will get
competitive advantage over other firms (Dale, B.G. and Plunkett, 2017).
Economical factor – Economical factors can also impact the management of operations in
Sainsbury. Changes in the economy happens on regular basis such as change in tax rate, change
in rate of inflation etc. All these will indirectly affect the process of production and distribution
of goods and services.
Legal Laws – Government rules and regulations in respect of quality of output of the firm will
also impact the decision-making of Sainsbury regarding management of operations in the firm.
Environmental factor -
Sainsbury has to comply regulations of Government in respect of protecting the environment
from negative impact of process of production or distribution. Company should adopt advance
techniques for environmental protection (Androniceanu, 2017).

CONCLUSION
The above Report has outlined that Manager and Leader of the firm plays an important
role in different situations in the organization for managing the disputes, in improving retention
of workers etc. The Report has also described that Leader should adopt different leadership style
on the basis of situations and each leadership theory has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Moreover, the Report has described that roles of Leader are different as compared to roles of
Manager of the firm in respect of managing change, improving productivity etc. The above
Report has also outlined that there are different approaches of managing the operations of firm to
reduce the level of wastage. The Report has also explained that Operations Management is very
important for improving productivity of business, there are micro and macro factors that can
impact management of operations in the business such as human resource, technology etc.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals -
Androniceanu, A., 2017. The three-dimensional approach of Total Quality Management, an
essential strategic option for business excellence. Amfiteatru Economic. 19(44). pp.61-78.
Dale, B.G. and Plunkett, J.J., 2017. Quality costing. Routledge.
DiFazio, R.A. and Chitrapu, P.R., InterDigital Patent Holdings Inc, 2016. Bandwidth
management (BWM) operation with opportunistic networks. U.S. Patent 9,313,766.
Hasegawa, H., NEC Corp, 2017. Operation management device, operation management method.
U.S. Patent Application 15/340,487.
Higuchi, Y., NEC Corp, 2016. Operation management apparatus, operation management
method, and program. U.S. Patent 9,389,946.
Hirano, H., 2016. JIT Implementation Manual--The Complete Guide to Just-In-Time
Manufacturing: Volume 2--Waste and the 5S's. Productivity Press.
Lai, K.H. and Cheng, T.E., 2016. Just-in-time logistics. Routledge.
Mahadevan, B., 2015. Operations management: Theory and practice. Pearson Education India.
Mehrotra, D., 2015. Applying total quality management in academics.
Parisio, A., Rikos, E. and Glielmo, L., 2016. Stochastic model predictive control for
economic/environmental operation management of microgrids: An experimental case
study. Journal of Process Control. 43.pp.24-37.
Ross, J.E., 2017. Total quality management: Text, cases, and readings. Routledge
Schönsleben, P., 2016. Integral logistics management: operations and supply chain management
within and across companies. CRC Press.
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and
practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Wild, T., 2017. Best practice in inventory management. Routledge.
Wu, D., Olson, D.L. and Wang, S., 2019. Finance-Operations Interface Mechanism and
Models. Omega.
Online -
Total Quality Management. 2017. [Online] Available Through :
<https://www.smartsheet.com/total-quality-management>

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