Analyzing Leadership, Management, and Operations at Tesco Store

This report provides an in-depth analysis of management and operations at the Tesco Great Yarmouth Caister Superstore. It evaluates the responsibilities of managers and leaders, elaborating on the functions and skills required for effective management. Different leadership theories, including situational, systems, and contingency leadership, are discussed with examples from the Tesco store. The report also highlights the significance of operations management, detailing various approaches such as lean production, and examines external factors influencing the business and decision-making processes within the store. It references Henri Fayol's five functions of management and explores how these functions are applied in the Tesco context, providing a comprehensive overview of the interplay between leadership, management, and operational strategies in a retail setting.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 – (LOs 1&2).........................................................................................................................4
Task 2 – (LOs 3&4).......................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19
Reference List................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
Tesco is a large retail organization of UK; this report will assist in evaluating the responsibilities
of managers and leaders of Tesco store located in Great Yarmouth Caister Superstore. The
functions and responsibilities of managers that help in ensuring the success of a business
organization have been elaborated. The different type of leadership theories that will help in
incorporating the most suitable leadership style according to the situation of a business firm will
be discussed in a detailed manner. This assignment will illustrate the significant of operation
management and the different type of operation management techniques that helps in improving
the business of Tesco store. There after number of external factors that plays important role in
influencing the business of various organization will be analyzed. The impact of the factors on
the decision making process of the store manager will be discussed in this assignment.
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Task 1 – (LOs 1&2)
Introduction
This report will evaluate the required skills for efficient management and leadership with
reference to Tesco Great Yarmouth Caister Superstore. The situational, system and contingency
leadership skills deployed in the company have been discussed in a detailed manner.
a) Differences and similarities between a leader and manager considering their roles and
characteristics.
Leaders: Leaders are those individuals that hold superior positions within a leading business
organization (Robin and Raveleau, 2017). They have the duty of encouraging as well as
motivating their staffs so that the employees can improve their services and achieve the goals
and objectives of the organization.
Managers: Managers are those individuals that have the responsibility of controlling as well as
administering a group of employees in a particular organization (Lawrence, 2017). The managers
have the duty of overseeing the overall business activities of a business organization by planning,
organizing, directing and controlling for ensuring that the firm is able to meets its objectives and
goals.
Comparison between the managers and leaders of Tesco as per the roles and characteristic:
Manager Leader
The managers of Tesco have the power and
authority of controlling and directing the
activity of the employees due to their superior
position in the organization.
The leaders of Tesco do not possess any sort of
authority over their employees; however, they
motivate the employees to work towards their
targets.
Managers of Tesco are expected to plan the
day-to-day tasks and activities of their
employees so that the business is able to
achieve its daily target.
The leaders of Tesco store provide guidance to
the employees and help them in overcoming
the issues regarding their tasks and
performance.
The managers of the business organization are The leaders of Tesco must have great
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expected to have proficient decision-making
skill so that they can take accurate decisions
and allocate tasks to their staffs based on their
skill, knowledge and experience (Bolden, 2016).
communication skill because they are required
to interact with their staffs and inspire them.
The managers of Tesco are expected to organize
the plan as per the activities of their staffs in such
a manner so that the productivity and efficiency of
the firm is increased.
The leaders of Tesco use various types of
leadership styles like transformational leadership
in order to support and enhance the performance of
their employees.
The managers of Tesco incorporate the hard
management method and focuses on enhancing and
developing ideas that will be beneficial for the
business of the company.
The leaders of Tesco utilize soft leadership skill
and try to enhance their communication with their
employee in order to influence and encourage
them.
Table 1: Difference between leaders and managers of Tesco Company
(Source: Created by the learner)
b) The functions of a manager according to Fayol and how a manager in your organisation
performs these functions using various examples.
Henri Fayol was well known for setting 5 basic functions defining the role of a successful
manager. The functions set were based on the responsibilities and roles that are expected to be
carried out by the manager so that they are able to manage the overall business activities of the
business firm in the most efficient manner.
The 5 management functions as stated by Henri Fayol that is used by the manager of Tesco Great
Yarmouth Caister Superstore have been mentioned below:
Planning: As per this role, the manager of a business organization are required to develop a plan
or strategy that will allow them in carrying out their day-to-day activities and guide them in the
right direction so that the employees can achieve the overall goals of the organization
(Managers.org.uk, 2018). The manager of store plans the schedules of their employees in
alignment with the company targets. They ensure that their policies as per the business
environment so that they can sustain in the competitive market areas.
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Organizing: The managers of a business organization are bounded by the responsibility to
analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their employees and allocate tasks as per their skills.
The manager of Tesco is aware regarding the knowledge, background and skill sets of their
employees. For example if an individual possesses a good sales experience, then the manager
allocates the individual the target of achieving a desired sales volume target. This helps in
organizing the daily task and enhances the outcome of the firm.
Commanding: The managers are required to be authoritative in nature so that employees follow
their orders strictly. This helps in enhancing the outcome of the tasks. The manager of the store
commands certain instructions to their employees to ensure that every member of their firm is
following the policies and regulations of the organization. The authoritative nature helps them in
ensuring that all the targets are achieved and the quality of the wok is not compromised.
Figure 1: Five functions of management by Fayol
(Source: Fayol, 2016)
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Control: The managers of an organization are required to monitor the performance and services
delivered by the staffs and if they find any conflict or divergence then they are required to
control it and enhance the efficiency of the business. The manager of Tesco store monitors the
performance of their employees and provides them with feedback for improvement.
Coordination: Managers are expected to cooperate with all the other members of the firm so that
they are able to synchronize all the activities of the organization and the operation is maintained
in an effortless manner. The manager of Tesco ensures that all the members are satisfied with
their job and are capable of achieving the targets that are provided to them. The manager
interacts with the leaders and employees in order to help them with their difficulties.
c) Situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency leadership using various
scenarios in your organisation to support your explanation.
The leaders of Tesco store follow various types of leadership theories in order to ensure that they
are able to support their staffs in the most accurate manner. Some of the most basic theories
followed by the leaders of Tesco store have been stated below:
Situational Leadership: Paul Hersey’s and Kenneth Blanchard have proposed this leadership
theory. As per this theory, the leaders of Tesco store keeps changing and modifying their
leadership style so that they are able to provide better assistance to their employees. They
analyze the requirements and needs of their employees and based on the current organizational
culture they adopt the most accurate leadership style to support ns encourage their employees.
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Figure2: Situational Leadership
(Source: Obolensky, 2017)
The strength if this particular theory is that the leaders adopt the most suitable and accurate style
that helps in boosting the morals of the employees and encourages them to perform better
increasing the business of the store. The weakness of this theory is that while performing the
stated duties in order to achieve their targets the consistency of the employees according to this
leadership theory can be vindictive and can result in confusing the employees. The employees
will not posses any idea what they are going to expect from managers or their leaders (Thompson
and Glasø, 2015). For example, if the managers notice that the sales volume of their company is
decreasing, the leaders of the firm adopt supportive leadership style and motivate their
employees to work harder and introduce products that will help in increasing their sales volume.
They make use of social media tools to advertise their services in order to increase the customer
base of their organization.
Systems Leadership: Ludwig von Vertalnffy is credited for introducing the system theory in
1954. The leaders or manager of Tesco store uses this theory so that can resolve their conflicts
and issues after they have understood the basic present structure of the current system of their
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organization in which they are working. It is observed that the managers as well as leaders of the
company have a number of responsibilities such as training, planning, designing, marketing and
more (Macdonald et al., 2017). According to system theory, the overall output of Tesco store is
completely depended on the general input of the store. The major strength of this leadership
theory is that it helps in describing the ideal and most appropriate process of Tesco store as
congregative distribution encompassing the transformational, output and input processes. The
major weakness of implementing this leadership is that it is completely focused on generated the
end result and does not pay attention to the means that are used so that the stated results can be
achieved. For example, if the leaders of the store find that the communication of their store is not
so efficient and is hampering the operational activities of the store, then the leaders take initiative
of adopting communication practices for their firm that allows in improving the communication
among the employees.
Contingency leadership: Lorsch and Lawrence are credited for introducing this theory in 1967.
According to this theory, a particular leadership style that can be implemented by a business firm
that will assist them in handling various types of situations does not exist (Fiedler, 2015). The
leaders of Tesco analyze the present business environment and after understanding the situation,
they chose the most accurate style to help them in dealing with the situation.
Figure 3: Contingency leadership
(Source: Shao et al., 2016)
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The strength of this leadership theory is that it assists the leaders to work as per the requirements
of the current situations. That assists them in putting more potential towards the business of the
store. The weakness of this leadership theory is that if the leader is not capable of understanding
the situation and selects inappropriate style then there can be a lot of confusion that will hamper
the work of the store. For example, if the leaders of the company observe that the employees of
the company are unable to cope up with any change such as technological implementation, then
they try to help and guide them. They try to provide training to their employees so that they are
able to use the technological advancements in and efficient manner.
Conclusion
This report helps in understanding about the roles of leaders and the responsibilities of a
manager. The idea regarding the importance of leadership style has been elaborated in a detailed
manner. The different types of leadership style that are used by the leaders of Tesco store have
been analyzed.
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Task 2 – (LOs 3&4)
1. Explain different approaches to operations management and identifying what is used in
your store.
Operational management refers to the entire operational process of a company, which includes
the day-to-day management and maintenance of organization’s resources and activities
(Krajewski et al., 2015). There are a number of approaches that are used by different
organization in order to manage these operational activities. The different approaches of
operational management that is used by Tesco store have been mentioned below:
Lean Production
The managers of Tesco store utilize the lean production theory of operational management by
applying lean thinking so that they are able to enhance their productivity with the help of limited
resources (Dennis, 2016). Lean production increases the value of products by eliminating other
aspects such as reducing the manufacturing of certain services that is failing to generate required
revenue, making use of various resources to increase the manufacturing of services and products.
Figure 4: Lean Production
(Source: Jasti and Kodali, 2015)
This is considered as one of the most beneficial theory used by the managers of Tesco as it helps
them in managing the cost of their production by making efficient use of available resources.
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This theory helps them in getting more flexibility and enhances the quality of their products and
services.
Six Sigma Approach
This theory was introduced in the year 1986, this is considered as one of the most commonly
used quality control program. This program makes use of statistics, project management and
financial analysis of the company in order to help the management of the company to improve
their business functionality (Ramesh et al., 2016). The managers of Tesco store use this
technique in order to improve the quality of services of provided by their store. The different
steps that play a significant part of this approach are known as DMAIC: D-define, M-measure,
A- analyze, I-improve, C-control.
Figure 5: Six Sigma Themes
(Source: Albliwi et al., 2015)
The managers of Tesco store use this method in order to identify the faults in their products. This
technique helps in reducing the defect rate that helps in increasing profit revenue. Six Sigma
theory is effectively used by finance managers in order to reduce the excess expenditure of the
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company. This method is beneficial in increasing customer satisfaction rate as it helps in
reducing the manufacturing defects and improves the quality of the services.
2. Explain what makes your role as a store manager a classic example of an operations
manager.
The roles of a store manager are similar to the responsibilities of the operation manager. Some of
the duties of store manager that are aligned with the responsibilities of operation manager have
been stated below:
Recruiting employees: The managers of store are responsible to recruit employees as per the
requirement of the store. They also assist in providing training to the employees so that they are
able to carry out their responsibilities in an efficient manner. Similarly, operation manager is
responsible to recruit capable employees that are able to increase the production of the company.
Achieving targets: The store managers are responsible to ensure that their store is able to meet
all the targets and goals and is generating the stipulated revenue. Additionally it is observed that
the operational manager is required to ensure that all the tasks of the firm is working in
coordination and are achieving their stated targets so that the firm is able to achieve their overall
objectives.
Maintaining brand image: The store manager is responsible to increase the brand awareness of
their store and have the responsibility of maintaining the image of their firm. They must ensure
that all the customers are satisfied and they help in increasing the brand popularity of their brand.
Similarly, the operation managers are required to ensure that their products and services are of
superior quality and they are able to satisfy their consumers and increase the brand awareness of
their organization.
3. Explain the importance of operations management in your store.
Operation management is essential process that helps in improving the overall operational
factions of Tesco store. Some of the most essential function of operation management that assists
the managers in achieving the goals of the store has been discussed below:
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Operation management helps in distribution and controlling systems of the store that is
beneficial in maintaining the supply management. It is considered as one of the most significant
process that transforms raw material into finished goods in the most effortless and efficient
manner. Operation management helps in process designing and allows the store to introduce new
products to their consumers that are in high demand. It assists in developing new facilities to
manage the production networks as well as supply chain management, which helps in improving
the capacity of the store (Shikano et al., 2015). The store makes use of Just-In-Time technique
that helps in managing the cost of the inventory. All the resources that are required are analysed
and scheduled in a timely, manner so that the products can be delivered within the stipulated
time.
The approaches of operation management used by the manager of Tesco store that allows them
in achieving their goals have been mentioned below:
Total Quality Management (TQM)
TQM is one of the most popular approaches of operational management that is based on the
significant principle that the staffs of any business firm are required to be dedicated at
maintaining the high standards of work within their workplace according to the requirement of
their company or organization. The manager of Tesco store implements this technique and the
employees of the store participate with full potential in order to improve their services,
processes, products, and culture. This is customer-focused approach that plays significant role in
enhancing the quality of services and increasing customer satisfaction rate. According to the
theory, the employees of Tesco work in coordination in order to improve their performance and
increase the productivity of their store.
Just-In-Time
Just-in-time is an approach of operation management that is used by the Tesco store in order to
maintain and manage their logistic and inventory (Cottam and Ranson, 2017). This approach
helps in minimizing the waste generation by receiving the products only when they are required
in the production unit. This also increases the efficiency of the company and assist in saving
inventory management costs. As per the approach, Tesco manufactures or offers product only as
per the requirements and demands of the market that helps in increasing the sales volume of the
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company. The funds that are saved due to the utilization of this technique are used in an effective
manner in order to enhance the revenue of the Tesco store.
Continuous improvement (Kaizen)
Kaizen is a popular Japanese term that means “improvement”, similarly this approach aims at
improving the ongoing processes, services, products and other organizational functions. The
manager of Tesco store monitors the activities of their store and tries to improve areas that lack
standards. They identify different problems and issues and try to find a solution for it so that the
efficiency of the store.
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4. Identify and assess the key outside factors that can have an effect on the operations
management for your organisation.
A number of external factors affect the operation management of Tesco store. Some of the most
basic factors have been mentioned below:
Political: The governmental policies have significant influence on the operational activities of
Tesco store. The free trade policy of UK government helps the company in exchanging resources
from various countries at a lower price. However, the proposal of BREXIT might disrupt the
operations of Tesco store as due to its implementation, the regulation will change and it might
affect the free flow of labour and resources. BREXIT might also have some effect on the price of
production.
Economical: Economical stability is vital for the development of Tesco sore. According to the
statistical data it can be observed that from the year 2000 to 2017 the household income of
United Kingdom have seen and overall increment of around 5.1 thousand British pounds
(Statista.com, 2018). This indicates that the people of UK have the freedom to purchase more as
per their requirements and that helps in increasing the revenue generation of the store. The GDP
of UK showed an increment of around 0.4% between the 3rd and 4th quarters in the year 2017
(Ons.gov.uk, 2018). This encourages the stores to introduce more products as it will help in
increasing the sale of the company.
Social: The changing trends of the people of United Kingdom influence the production process
of the company. As it is evident that majority of citizens are inclined towards healthy eating
habits the managers of the store want to bring in more organic and healthy products that will
allow them in enhancing their sale.
Technological: Technological advancements of United Kingdom helps in enhancing the
operational activities of the store. With the help of technology, the managers are able to take
valuable feedbacks from their consumers that allow them in improving their services and
increasing the customer satisfaction level. Technology allows the firm in advertising about their
services in a cost effective manner with the help of social media. Social media allows the
managers to reach out to potential clients and attract them towards their organization with the
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help of attractive offers. Technology helps in reduces the chances of manual errors of the
organization and help in increasing the efficiency of the firm.
Legal: The legislations of UK government such as Health and Safety Act, Equality Act and more
are abided by the Tesco store so that their operational activities are in accordance with the legal
framework of the country. These regulations help in enhancing employee relation of the firm.
Environmental: Tesco store must ensure that their operational practices do not have any
negative impact on the environmental condition of United Kingdom. They are requires to follow
eco friendly and sustainability practices so that they are able to attract increased customer base
towards their organization.
5. How are these factors impact upon your decision making as a store manager?
Apart from influencing the operation management of the store, the external factors are also
responsible to influence the decision making process of the store manager.
Political: The proposal of BREXIT can result in price fluctuation that affects the sales of the
store. So in order to overcome the situation the store manager must try to export their products
outside United Kingdom. This will help them in maintaining their sales volume and enhance
their business.
Economical: The GDP and household income provides stability to the people of the country; this
is beneficial for the sale of the organization. The store managers should try to introduce more
luxurious products and services that will help them in earning more revenue.
Social: The store manager must conduct market analysis in order to gain knowledge regarding
the current trend and preferences of the consumers. This will help them in introducing products
that are high in demand among the consumers so it will contribute towards increasing the sales
volume of the company.
Legal: The store managers follow the legislations during the recruitment of their employees.
They ensure that employees are provided with all the legal befits. The firm ensures to implement
the legislations while formulating their policies and strategies.
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Technological: The managers make use of internet and social media in order to communicate
with their consumers and understand their requirements. They advertise about their services and
offers and attract consumers towards the store.
Environmental: In order to maintain the environmental conditions of the country the managers
of Tesco store has implemented a number of CSR activities that helps them in benefitting the
local community and enhancing the living standards of the people. The firm is also making use
of a number of sustainable practices in order to work in the most eco friendly manner that helps
in reducing the environmental stress.
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Conclusion
This project helps in gaining information about the basic difference between the characteristics
and role of leaders and managers of Tesco store. The functions and responsibilities carried out by
the manager of the store have been identified. The details regarding the significance of various
leadership theories have been elaborated. The theories that are implemented by the leaders of
Tesco have been discussed. The importance of operation management for the growth and
development of business organization can be understood. The managers of Tesco store
incorporate different approaches of operation management such as Lean production, Six Sigma
and more in order to improve the business. The external factors that influence the business of the
organization have been assessed. The impact of these factors on the decision making process of
the managers can be understood with the help of this assignment.
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