Tesco Leadership and Management Concepts: A Comprehensive Analysis

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Leadership and Management Concepts
Tesco

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................2
LO1 DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE ROLE OF A LEADER AND THE FUNCTIONS OF MANAGERS..................3
LO2 APPLY THE ROLE OF A LEADER AND THE FUNCTIONS OF THE MANAGERS IN GIVEN CONTEXT...........7
LO3 DEMONSTRATE AN APPRECIATION OF THE ROLE LEADER AND MANAGERS PLAY IN THE OPERATIONS
FUNCTIONS OF AN ORGANIZATION...........................................................................................................11
LO4 DEMONSTRATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT IN A CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT............................................................14
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................18
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INTRODUCTION
Leadership and management concepts play a vital role in an organization. The success is not
possible without Leadership skills and Management concepts. Therefore, successful companies
mainly focus on the management structure and leadership qualities in every individual in order
to develop the company (Saeed et al., 2018.). Tesco is one of the British multinational grocery
and general merchandise retailer in the UK which is well known for the services related to
grocery shopping and merchandising. This assignment is completely based on the Leadership
and Management concepts of Tesco Company of the UK in which the role of leaders and
functions of managers will be discussed with different theories and models including their
characteristics. The roles and functions of leaders and managers will be examined with the help
of a model of approaches and different theories and the strengths and weaknesses will also be
assessed. The leaders and managers should also be appreciated for their roles and functions in
an organization as they are giving their best of contribution in an organization and hence the
demonstration of appreciation for managers and leaders will also be done in this assignment. At
the end the factors which are affecting the operational management system and decision
making within the organization and the wider community is getting affected will also be
assessed.
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LO1 DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE ROLE OF A LEADER AND THE FUNCTIONS OF
MANAGERS
Leader- A leader plays a very important role in an organization in order to follow the business
strategies of made by a manager and delegating the tasks to subordinates in order to get things
done on time. A leader is a person who carries the ability to convince and insist on the
subordinates to perform their duties to get the desired result of an organization (Northouse,
2017). The roles of a leader in an organization is crucial where a leader is required to manage
managerial activities as well as they are required to delegate the work to team members as
well. They provide a great hand in the development of an organization. Leaders communicate
with managers for business policies and strategies and delegate the same to subordinates for
getting work done. Leaders motivate and encourage the employees also in order to make them
feel energized at the workplace so that they can perform their duties in the best effective
manner.
Manager- a Manager is a person who is responsible to manage all the organizational activities
in order to achieve the organizational goal with the help of leaders and employees working
within the organization. Managers take the help of leaders to make strategies by keeping
certain things in mind like the work will give the desired result or not, the employees will be
able to perform the task or not and so on (Block, 2016). Managers mainly focus on 5 major
functions such as-
• Planning- Planning is a very important function to keep things systematic during work
performance. Planning is all about pre-deciding the activities for the attainment of
future goals. Tesco mainly focuses on the planning of sales maximization and increasing
the number of customers. Tesco should more focus on effective decision making for
operational activities in order to take the benefits of the organization.
• Organizing- Organizing function is all about making changes for the effective structure
of the organization. It involves the design of individuals, positional roles, co-ordination
between Responsibilities and authorities and so on. Ultimately the organizing is
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important for an organization to achieve the business goals. TESCO mainly organizes the
number of customers to whom they are offering the services.
• Staffing- Staffing is all about Recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding them as per
their performance. This is important to maintain the systematic work culture in an
organization. Tesco Company hires the employees and trains them in order to have a
satisfactory result from their work in an organization.
• Directing- Directing is all about leading the team and members working under a
manager in the best possible manner. This function of manager especially works to
motivate and to encourage the employees for maximization of productivity (Abdeen and
Sandanayake, 2018).
• Controlling- This function for managers is crucial. The managers are required to monitor
and review the performance of the team members to achieve the business objectives.
Roles of a leader and manager
• Interpersonal Roles: The interpersonal role of a leader is based on personality, trait and
lifestyle of an individual. This leadership doesn't require any guidance and these leaders
are aware of their task and perform their activities accordingly. They just work according
to the communication with higher authorities in order to achieve the organizational
goals.
• Informational Roles: Every organization is required a proper flow of information. The
informational role is all about co0nveying the information to each and every person of
the organization who is working with the same motive. Tesco is very focused on the
proper flow of information within the organization as well as the information which are
required to share with the public outside of organization also do that.
• Decisional Roles: These roles play a crucial role in an organization where a manager and
a leader are required to be an entrepreneur, disturbance handler and resource allocator
as well. Tesco plays the decisional roles for the attainment of the benefits for
employees so that they could work effectively and efficiently within the organization
(Samantara and Sharma, 2015.).
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Difference between a Leader and a Manager
Manager Leader
• Managers manage the business
activities for by setting the roles of an
individual.
• Leaders lead the employees for the
achievement of business goals.
• The managers communicate with
leaders to make strategies and
regulate the policies.
• Leaders communicate with team
members to make them aware about
business strategies and policies and
they are required to perform
accordingly.
• Managers only manage business
activities.
• Leaders lead the entire team in order
to complete the task on time.
• Duties and works are allocated to the
employees by managers.
• Leaders mainly focus on motivating
and encouraging the team members
to complete the work on time.
• Managers look for betterment by
generating more ideas (Gilley et al.,
2015).
• Leaders work to implement the ideas
into action (Dumitru et al., 2015.).
The managers and leaders both play an important role in their place. A business can't run
effectively without understanding among leaders, managers and employees. Tesco Company is
the top company in the UK because of its leadership and management strategies. The Tesco
doesn't ignore the efforts which are putting by the leaders and employees and hence the
management of Tesco appreciate them for their work performance and reward them as well
that ultimately motivate the employees to work hard for achieving the organizational goals.
Tesco Company has great for the company so that they can perform their duties individually in
the best effective manner. Tesco's leaders mainly follow the authoritative style in a democratic
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form that provides encouragement to employees for participation in business activities and
decision making. The employees of Tesco are enough motivated to provide the highest result in
the form of the return of investment. In addition, these roles of managers and leaders are
divided as per their skills and expertise which helps the organization to perform the activities in
a systematic manner in order to achieve the goals.
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LO2 APPLY THE ROLE OF A LEADER AND THE FUNCTIONS OF THE MANAGERS IN
GIVEN CONTEXT
The leadership styles and management function of Tesco Company could be more effective
with the help of making certain changes in policies and strategies. For example, Tesco Company
can make strategies in order to reduce the production cost that will help to maximize the
profitability of the organization. There are certain Concepts of management and leadership that
can help to analyze the best possible ways to make changes in an organization such as-
Stable Situation- When a company determines that the situation is stable and no changes are
required. For example, the market inflation, boom or recession is same and these are not even
affecting the business activities so it means that the market situation is stable and there will not
be any fluctuation in the business activities.
Slow to the moderate changing situation- there are situations when the little bit of market
fluctuation impact the business activities and that fluctuation brings moderate changes in an
organization. For example, the inflation rate has risen then it will directly impact the business
operations but the changes are only in inflation rate so the impact will be little less and the
changing situation will be impacted moderately (Gatenby et al., 2015).
Fast changing situation- these situations impact the organization in a wide range. There are
certain situations which drop down the business due to Fast changing situation. For example,
Share markets are the one where the fluctuations are constant and impact the investors in a
wide range in terms of BSE, NSE and so on.
Tesco is a well-known company of UK and it takes decisions by taking care of future benefits
and hence it follows the concept of Slow to moderate changing situation so that the important
decisions could be taken by analyzing the situations properly. This concept also includes the
methods of handling and provides the safeguard to business activities. It doesn't even impact
the result in a negative sense. Tesco is overall earning the benefits in an organization with this
moderate changing situation.
Leadership styles
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Directive Style- directive style is based on the situation when the leader is aware of the
advantages and disadvantages of managerial activities. A leader mainly works to provide the
proper direction and guidance to the employees in order to achieve the business objectives. It
is especially helpful when the employees are not skilled and experienced (Iqbal et al., 2015).
Supportive style- This style is quite helpful to reduce the stress & frustration of the employees
within an organization. Here leaders support the employees emotionally by hearing their
problems properly. It also involves training in order to prepare the employees to deal with a
task appropriately. These leaders also train the employees to handle the issues on their own in
the best possible manner. Tesco is very focused on this leadership style. Therefore, it has best-
trained employees within the organization those results in the most effective way.
Participative style- this leadership mainly works to develop business strategies in order to
achieve business goals. This leadership is also called democratic leadership where team
members are involved in terms of identifying necessary objectives that create more possibilities
of decision making with the help of team members. It allows each and every employee to
participate in business decisions so that they can share their opinions and perception in order
to perform the activities more effectively and efficiently (Punjaisri et al., 2016).
Achievement oriented style- This leadership style is very focused on achievements and goals of
the organization and things are very clear between leaders and team members about the
business objectives which are required to be achieved in particular time period. And also these
leaders are always available for their team members to provide the proper guidance in case of
any difficulty and reward the employees for their better work performance. The reward system
encourages the employees to work more effectively that ultimately give the benefits to the
company.
Participative leadership is very effective in comparison to other leadership styles and it has
found that the Tesco has acquired the participative leadership style where every employee gets
the opportunity to share their opinions for the better working environment and their decision-
making process also impact the business in a positive and significant manner. Overall it has
analyzed that this method is quite helpful for Tesco to improve the productivity and strength of
team members.
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Situational leadership style- This theory argues a leadership which could be adapt according to
the situation. No single leadership style can handle all the situations and hence leaders are
required to change their style as per the situation for the better results. Tesco Company allows
the leaders to opt the different style to lead the team according to the situation ( Samantara
and Sharma, 2015).
The system theory- System leadership is all about a leader who takes the responsibility to make
the task successful with his team. It involves the design of the tasks, a delegation of the duties
as per the team member's skills and knowledge. Leaders also take care of development and
improvement of quality of the work in order to deliver the best output to customers. Tesco
especially motivates the employees so that they can perform their task in the most effective
manner and leaders guide them in a very effective and efficient way (Coward and Ellis, 2016).
Contingency theory- This theory is all about the style of a leader or manager to lead the team in
a changing environment. Every organization faces certain situations where the fixed variables,
rules and regulations don't work and hence the managers or leaders required to take the
certain decision in order to resolve the problem and to make the workflow smooth for
achieving the business goals. Tesco is one of the leading companies of the UK which has a
flexible working environment and managers mainly focus on achieving the goals instead of
working as per the rules and regulations. This reduces the stress level of the workers and the
leaders as well (Halen et al., 2016).
Strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
Strengths
1. It helps in increasing productivity.
2. It helps in the maximization of profit.
3. It also provides a stable environment to work.
4. It ensures the return of investment as well.
Weaknesses
1. It controls the business operations,
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2. It increases the range of competitors.
3. There are constant fluctuations in demand of customers.
4. Achievement-oriented leadership reduces the feedback opportunities for employees
(Sandberg and Mena, 2015.).
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LO3 DEMONSTRATE AN APPRECIATION OF THE ROLE LEADER AND MANAGERS
PLAY IN THE OPERATIONS FUNCTIONS OF AN ORGANIZATION.
Key approaches of operations management and roles of leaders and managers
There are several approaches which have gripped in the management of operations where
leaders and managers play a role to increase productivity in a more efficient way.
Operation management: The main motive of operation department is to design and control the
activities and technical procedure in order to obtain the desired result and operation
management is also responsible for providing the effective return of investment as well. There
are certain approaches which help to maintain the operational productivity which has described
below-
Total Quality Management: This aspect mainly focuses on implementing the standard of result.
This is a long term process and this aspect also builds forces in a more effective and innovative
way in operational department. Tesco is doesn’t compromise in the quality of the product and
hence the leaders and managers of Tesco are well trained in order to provide the best quality of
output (Aquilani et al., 2017).
Just-In-Time: This is a methodology which aims to reduce the time in order to respond to the
suppliers and customers on time. This approach helps to increase the efficiency of the
employees so that the task and duties could be performed on time as per the demand of the
customers. Tesco especially takes care of customer's demand so that the volume of sale could
be increased and making sure that the response is positive from the customers (Lukinskiy et al.,
2017).
Continuous improvement: Organizations are very focused on goals. And in order to attain the
business goals, this is very important to have continuous changes in the operational
department. This is also important to ensure that the continuous changes are effective and
profitable for the company. Continuous improvement approach is quite helpful to keep
company's activity smooth and effective. This approach develops the efforts of employees and
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