Improving Leadership and Management Effectiveness at Soft Company

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Management and Operations
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Executive Summary
The organisations have to focus on betterment of their employees so that they can be able to
increase their productivity. From this study it is found that the production head of Soft Company
is unable to motivate their employees due to her current management style. Joan Pearson can
influence her staffs to take participation in internal business process and understand their job
roles in a better way. Use of lean production can help the company to perform waste
management successfully and maximise its productivity by ensuring high quality of products.
Training on communication skill along with time management skill can be given toi the leaders
of Soft company for improving their performance.
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Part one:...........................................................................................................................................5
Part two:.........................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................19
Reference list.................................................................................................................................20
Appendix:......................................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
The managers of the organisations need to focus on making effective management strategies to
ensure success of their business. On the other hand, leaders have to concentrate on guiding and
influencing their subordinates for better performance. In this study, a comparison between the
roles of managers and leaders has been done in context of Soft Company. Moreover, the
functions of a manager in different situational context have been highlighted here in reference to
Joan Pearson, the production head of Soft Company. Different models and theories of leadership
style including systems, situational and contingency have been applied here for the better
understanding of leadership roles and responsibilities. The roles played by managers and leaders
in operations functions have also been analysed here along with the impact of business
environment on decision making of the management and leaders. Principles of Total Quality
Management along with lean production and six sigma have been discussed in this context.
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Part one:
TASK 1 (LO1): Differentiate between the role of a leader and the function of a manager
Definition and comparison between characteristics and roles of manager and leader
Managers of an organisation are responsible for managing all the business activities efficiently
by getting the work done by the internal staffs of their workplace. From the given case study it
can be said that Joan Pearson has to perform planning, controlling along with organising and
directing business process of Soft Company to reach the goal. However, the role of a leader can
be defined as the quality of encouraging individuals by setting performance objectives.
As per trait theory of leadership, an organisational leader should be confident and a great
influencer so that employees never lose motivation from work (Amado, 2018). They should
know how to influence others and setting performance objectives for them. Pearson has to
maintain integrity and honesty towards her work so that she can be an example for her
subordinates. Moreover, the leaders need to know how to react on different situations and
balance their emotional state at the time of guiding people (Linnenluecke, 2017).
Figure 1: Trait theory of leadership
(Source: Amado, 2018)
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According to Ghasabeh et al., (2015), organisational leaders should be creative and have the
ability to generate new ideas for product and service development (Refer to Appendix). As per
the case study, Pearson has to influence her employees for creativity by sharing her own
knowledge related to their business. Moreover, Pearson has to involve herself in development
her leadership skills to become more confident and flexible at her workplace. Pearson needs to
try to encourage her employees by providing proper direction rather than de-motivating them. As
a manager it is required to give proper direction to the subordinates while they are performing
their activities.
Pearson should have effective hard and soft management skill. For example, the manager should
have good communication skill as well as knowledge on own field (Thaler and Levin-Keitel,
2016). After that they can be able to share their knowledge with their workers and help them to
perform their best by collecting more knowledge and enhancing their skills. Furthermore,
Pearson should improve her time management skill to ensure that she is managing all her duties
on time. It would lead to improvement of the product quality and also the products can be
delivered within deadline.
Comparison between the roles of leadership and management:
Leaders of any organisation should know how to guide and direct the employees to achieve team
goal by fulfilling their individual basic requirements. As commented by Amankwaa and Anku-
Tsede (2015), it can be said that leaders need to encourage changes within their organisations by
providing a creative and innovative working environment to the staffs. On the contrary Uhl and
Gollenia (2016) argued that managers need to perform the formulation of policies and produces
so that business objectives as well as satisfaction of the employees can be achieved.
As per the case study it can be said that instead of only instructing Joan Pearson can help the
employees to understand their roles and responsibilities in Soft Company. The military style of
management of Pearson is de-motivating all the staffs and as a result organisational productivity
is also decreasing. Pearson has to give priority to the thoughts of her employees by enabling a
two way communication within the organisation.
Management by objectives indicates that the organisational employees and managers can work
together to set performance objectives and fulfil business objectives for a limited time frame
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(Bulatova, 2015). The staffs are responsible here to set measurable individual goals whereas
managers help them in alignment of their personal goals with company objectives. From the case
scenario it can be said that Pearson needs to help her employees to set their objectives and
improve their performance. In case if the employees of Soft Company would not have clear goals
then they would be unable to perform well and fulfil their organisation’s expectations.
Furthermore, clear vision can help in planning and implementing the business activities.
Providing performance based rewards can help the workers to be motivated.
According to Bolden (2016), Taylor’s Classical management theory, the managers have the
responsibility of analysis every portion of any task and then select only the best workers for
performing the tasks. For this reason, the managers should be aware of the skill set of the staffs.
However, it is seen that Pearson is unable to build good relationship with her subordinates hence
it can be difficult for her to identify strengths and weaknesses of the staffs. This inability can
lead to poor performance of the employees and decrease in business profitability. Pearson has to
give clear instructions to employees and make sure that the activities are in progress state.
On the contrary, as per behavioural theory, the leaders can observe behaviour of their employees
and then they can make necessary decisions for encouraging those workers (Chatzoudes et al.,
2015). In case of Pearson, she can observe the preferences of her subordinates and after that
make changes in her leadership style. As her current leadership style is not effective in this field
hence it is her responsibility to change her style of management and provide a comfortable
working environment to the staffs. In addition to this, Pearson has to maintain equality among
the employees and prioritise their thoughts.
Transformational and transactional style of leadership
In case of transactional leaders, they have to maintain discipline and provide rewards to the
employees for their better performance. In reference to the given case, Pearson can give rewards
to the staffs and motivate them for the improvement of productivity. Rather than making
strategic plan for future Pearson needs to focus on balancing day to day operations within her
organisation. On the contrary Garavan et al., (2016) argued that transformational leadership
allows a leader to think strategically and keep balancing the workflow to get expected working
position. If Pearson would adopt this leadership style then Soft Company would easily achieve
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the expected position in target market and increase its productivity. Collaboration with the
employees can be seen in this type of leadership that also motivates the employees (Laureani and
Antony, 2018). Furthermore, through this type of approach Pearson can be able to improve her
team building skills and perform all the operational activities of business successfully. However,
there is a chance that Pearson does not have each and every small details of the organisation as
some of the decisions can be taken by her staffs to avoid working delay.
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TASK 2: (LO2): Apply the role of a leader and the function of a manager in given contexts
Roles of leaders and managers in different situations within the organization
In order to manage different situations, the leaders and managers at first need to analyse the
current situation rather than getting worried. For example, if the productivity is decreasing then
management can make modification in their working procedures (Laureani and Antony, 2018).
On the other side, leaders can focus on how to direct and manage team members in a better way.
According to the case stud, Pearson can revise the operational procedures of Soft Company and
adopt more new technologies so that her staffs can perform the business activities in quick and
efficient manner. Besides that, direct interaction with the workers can help Pearson to recognise
their issues related to the working environment and make expected modification.
As influenced by Ghasabeh et al., (2015), in case of Situational leadership, a leader should
know how to deal with uncertainties and make sure that all the staffs are going on right direction.
In context of the current situation it is beneficial for Pearson to understand that it is impossible to
encourage the employees of Soft Company by only commanding. The staffs need to be provided
with freedom and space for introducing creativity in production work and meet customers’ need.
As commented by Kark et al., (2018), Systems leadership requires the leaders to build an
effective system by observing the behaviour of team members and giving them opportunity to
work freely. In order to survive in present situation of the organisation Pearson can create an
effective working atmosphere where the employees can be able to present their opinions without
any hesitation.
Fiedler’s Contingency theory states that internal as well as external environment of any
organisation is responsible for the decision making of the managers and leaders (Laureani and
Antony, 2018). Management can introduce changes in organisational culture and structure to
ensure good performance of their employees. As the employees of Soft Company are not
performing well hence Pearson can allow her employees to participate in decision making
process and feel connected with business. Moreover, use of new technology in mobile
production units can make the wok process easier for the workers.
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Introducing relationship oriented approach can help Pearson to increase productivity by
enabling good interpersonal relationship with all the workers. According to Macdonald et al.,
(2017), betterment of the staffs has to be on top of the priority list of the managers rather than
focusing only on productivity and profitability. In this way, the employees of Soft Company
would be able to get back their motivation and work hard for their business development.
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Part two:
(LO3): Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders and managers play in the
operations function
Key approaches to operations management along with the role of managers and leaders
In case of business operations the managers need to deal with financial management as well as
maintaining staffing. The managers need to create along with administrate the budget of their
business process so that all business activities can be performed with efficiency. The leaders
monitor this created budget on regular basis and also perform benefit analysis to complete the
production work successfully (Pardey, 2016).
As Soft Company is seeking to lower its production cost and improve product quality hence
Pearson has to prepare an efficient budget so that the mobile production units can be
manufactured with low cost. Besides that, Pearson needs to monitor business expenses on daily
basis. Inventory tracking has to be performed by the managers to ensure effectiveness of the
production team. Pearson is also responsible for getting the supply of raw materials from the
suppliers on time. She can build contacts with many suppliers so that the company does not have
to face any supply of raw materials related issues.
Pearson has to oversee the entire mobile units manufacturing work and ensure that all the
departments are meeting their given deadlines. Pearson can hire efficient workers with the help
of HR department of Soft Company in order to offer their customers with high quality of
products. As stated by Rezvani et al., (2016), it can be said that the leaders of the organisations
should communicate with each employee individually to identify their skills and abilities.
In context of Soft Company, Pearson can communicate more with the staffs to know about their
problems. As she was in different filed hence it becomes difficult for her to analyse the
requirements of the individuals working here. Due to this reason, team outings and weekly based
team meetings can be beneficial. If Pearson would be able to fulfil employees’ requirements then
it would become easy for her to make improvement in job quality and cut production cost.
Six sigma
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Management can get their expected out from production process by adopting six sigma principal
(Kark et al., 2018). Consistency as well as cost efficiency can be achieved by adopting six sigma.
Higher authority of Soft Company can be able to discover weaknesses of their manufacturing
process and after that they can apply productive and consistence solution.
Figure 2: Six Sigma
(Source: Thaler and Levin-Keitel, 2016)
As commented by Thaler and Levin-Keitel (2016), here, the managers need to perform statistical
variations to get effective solution for the error and achieve high quality outputs. After defining
the current problem it is necessary to analyse current performance and find ways of
improvement. As a result, quality of the products of Soft Company would be improved.
Lean production and queuing theory
As suggested by Thorpe (2016), management can decrease waste and increase productivity by
using lean production. At first Soft Company needs to evaluate the requirements of market and
then it has to make strategies to use resources less and get effective results. By valuing needs of
the customers Soft Company can bring perfection in its manufacturing process. The waste related
to travel cost; workers as well as raw materials can be reduced through this methodology.
Moreover, organisational management can deal with the operations related issues like logistics,
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