Management & Operations at Tesco: Leadership Theories and Applications

This report provides an analysis of management and operations within Tesco, a British multinational retailer. It explores the roles and characteristics of managers and leaders, highlighting the differences between them. The report examines how these roles apply in various situational contexts, such as employee engagement and introducing new offerings. It delves into different leadership theories and models, including situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency theory, and their application within Tesco. Furthermore, the report discusses key approaches to operations management, emphasizing the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives. It also identifies factors within the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making. The report concludes with recommendations for Tesco, such as applying contingency theory and focusing on motivational factors for employees, to improve overall organizational performance. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a range of study tools and resources for students.

Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Role and characteristics of manager and leader together with its comparison...........................1
How the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts?
.....................................................................................................................................................3
Application of different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency...........................................................................................4
Conclusion and recommendations..............................................................................................6
PART 2............................................................................................................................................6
Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play. ........6
The importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives. .........7
The factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision-making by leaders and managers. ................................................................................8
Conclusion and recommendation................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
References:.....................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management is defined as a 5 step process which include planning, organising, staffing,
directing and controlling which are performed in an organisation for the purpose of achieving
common goals and objectives. The operations of a business organisation leads to the upliftment
of economy of a country. Managers and leaders plays an important role in smooth functioning of
an organisation. The respective report is based on Tesco founded by Jack Cohen in 1919 (Tesco,
2021). It is a British multinational retailer of groceries having headquarter in Welwyn Garden
City, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. This report will cover the various functions of
leaders and managers with their differences, several approaches and theories of leadership.
Furthermore, it will include the key approaches of operation management along with their values
and importance which they played while achieving the organisational goals and objectives.
Business environment implies positive and negative impact over the business operations. Those
environmental factors which effect the business operations of Tesco are going to be discussed in
this report
PART 1
Role and characteristics of manager and leader together with its comparison.
In 1919, a British multinational retailer was founded. Tesco continuously work for the
expansion of their business and they got success in 1960s when they started business in retaining
cloths, toys, books, software and many more. At that stage, they were working internationally
and now a days more than 7000 stores are performing business operations globally. Hierarchical
organisational structure has been followed by Tesco which make the division of levels according
to the levels of management (Ryan 2020). This structure of organisation form a chain of
command and communication which flow from top to lower level of management.
Leaders and its role
Leader refers to the people who perform the function of leading and motivating the
employees to get the work done from others so that the organisation can achieve their common
goals and objectives. Along with this, leaders also have to perform the responsibility of
controlling and monitoring the performance of their team members and subordinates. Some of
roles of leaders of Tesco are given below:
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 Provide Direction: Leaders of Tesco are performing role of providing directions to their
subordinates so that they can complete their task in an effective and efficient manner.
For the purpose of providing directions, they have to make and develop several
strategies as well which contribute in the success of organisation.
 Execute Strategy and monitor result: Leaders have to execute the strategies, which
they made earlier. In addition to this, leaders of Tesco have to continuously monitor the
performance of each and every employee so that they can make necessary changes in
the strategies if required.
Characteristics Self Awareness: It is necessary for leaders to have proper knowledge and skills so that
they can improve their area of performance. Leader of Tesco are constantly work on
their skills and always ready to gain the knowledge.
 Focused: In order to achieving the team and organisational goals and objectives,
leaders have to make focus on their task (Oc 2018). Leader of Tesco have the feature of
maintaining focus on their task along with managing the group of people.
Managers and its role
Managers perform the function of motivating and supervising the employees at work
place. In order to improving the performance of employees, it is necessary for the managers to
create a feeling of motivation in employees so that they can attract towards the organisation.
Role of manager of Tesco are explained below: Setting Objectives: Managers have to set the goals and objectives for teams and the entire
organisation. They have to set the goals for employees according to their skills and
motivate them to perform better so that the objectives can be achieved effectively.
 Monitoring the performance: The managers of Tesco provide proper guidelines to the
employees so that they can perform well (Naderi, M., and et. al., 2019). Along with this,
they also monitor the performance of employees and provide several rewards to motivate
them for improving their performance.
Characteristics Time management: managers have to manage their time as per their tasks. Manager of
Tesco communicate all the important aspects related to the task to their employees on
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time, so that the employees can prepare themselves for completing their assigned task in
an appropriate manner.
 Communication: Manager of Tesco have the feature of communication as they use the
proper channel of communication in order to make an effective culture of
communication at work place. All the employees in the organisation require a clear
structure of objectives and managers have to communicate the same to them.
Distinction of leader and manager
Basis Manager Leader
Meaning The person in the organisation,
who have the responsibility of
planning strategies, direct the
employees and monitor their
performance.
The person who leads the
group of people in order to get
the work done from others,
defined as leader.
Aim Managers work for the
purpose of achieving goals and
objectives of organisation
(Lawrence 2017).
Leaders work with the aim of
growth and development of
organisation.
Change They react to the change. They promotes change in the
company.
How the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts?
The managers and leaders of Tesco are playing an important role in achieving the
organisational goals and objectives. But sometimes, the organisation face several challenges such
as ineffective work done by employees. Hence the managers and leaders are required to build
strategies so that the employees can work effectively without any disturbance. Role of leaders
and functions of managers of Tesco in several situations are given below:
Employee Engagement
Growth of organisation is the only result of effectiveness of work performance of
employees. Constant communication among the seniors and subordinates result in the better
employee engagement as it develop a relationship among the management and employees
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(Visser 2020). It has been found that there is lack of employee engagement at the work place of
Tesco. If the management of Tesco wants to improve the employee engagement, they are
required to create positive and healthy working environment. For the same purpose, manager and
leader of Tesco have to perform below mentioned role and function:
Role of leader: Employee engagement at work place can be developed with the
development of positive and healthy working environment (Hill and et. al., 2019). Leader of
Tesco will provide the complete and proper directions to the employees which result in the
involvement of employees with their work.
Function of manager: The manager of Tesco will arrange several activities which leads
to the engagement of employees such as work place parties, learning lunches, employee games,
sports event and many more. Along with this, the manager can also motivate the employees by
satisfying their needs.
Introducing new offerings
Innovation is the best way to attract the customers towards the organisation as it leads to
the growth and success of organisation. In order to growing the market share, Tesco is bringing
various new products of clothings and groceries. This innovation leads to the growth of business
organisation by generating revenue. Roles and function of leaders and managers regarding this
situation are given below:
Role of leader: In the context of Tesco, leaders will properly communicate all the
strategies and ideas of innovation for the purpose of getting the best contribution from their
employees. At this stage, communication is an important factor for leaders (Hill 2017).
Functions of managers: In the situation of innovation, all the innovative ideas and plans
are developed by the managers of Tesco. They do discussion on the several ideas and then result
in the final innovation.
Application of different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership,
systems leadership and contingency.
Leadership is defined as a process of leading employees to get the work done in an
effective and efficient manner. It is necessary for leaders to select any style of leadership which
is appropriate for the organisation. Below mentioned is the explaination of leadership style of
Tesco:
Situational Leadership Theory
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The situations at work place get change by time. Hence, no any single style of leadership
is suitable for every situation. This theory works on assumptions which are not same for all the
situation. This theory state that the leaders should analyse the situation first and then they can
select any of leadership style which is suitable for the current situation. Four elements have been
covered under this theory, which are explained below:
 Directing: Under this approach, directive and authoritative powers has been
provided to the leaders under which they provide complete direction to the
employees in order to performing any specific task (Haksever and et. al., 2017).
At the work place of Tesco, leaders provide guidelines to the subordinates which
help them in completing the task.
 Coaching: This approach state that the leaders are the decision makers. Leaders
of Tesco share all the concepts with their subordinates which result in a debate on
the same for the purpose of getting the better clarity at work place.
 Delegating: This approach establish a limit on the participation of leaders as they
provide the guidelines to their employees. Leaders of Tesco giving the authority
to their employees to make their decisions by their own.
 Participative: Leader of Tesco allow the subordinate to participate in giving niew
ideas. It create the feeling of motivation in the employees which result in the
effectiveness in the performance of employees of organisation.
Strength Weakness
 Flexibility in this style of leadership
can be seen as it allows leaders to adopt
the style as per the situation.
 Sudden shifting in the styles leads to
the creation of confusion in the mind of
employees.
System Leadership Style
Change in the working environment of organisation bring the flexibility in work force.
System leadership style is related to bringing the environmental changes at work place. This
style is useful for the organisations which are working on huge level (Glock and et. al., 2019). It
also include several aspects which provide the guidelines to the leaders of Tesco for leading the
people at work place. This style of leadership also suggest the ways through which the proper
utilization of resources can be done. In the context of Tesco, application of this leadership style
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implies the result through proper utilization of resources and skills of employees which result in
achieving the organisational goals and objectives.
Strength Weakness
 This style of leadership offers holistic
approach to the organisation which
result in the increment in adaptability
of organisation to the environmental
changes.
 It will be difficult to handle all the
employees under this style as some of
employees will agree and some will be
disagree with any point which also
leads to the creation of communication
gap.
Conclusion and recommendations
The growth and success of an organisation is depend on the actions performed by the
managers and leaders. Leaders have to select the best leadership style as it leads to the
performance of employees. In addition to this, it is recommended to Tesco:
 The leader of Tesco should apply contingency theory of leadership as it leads to the
development of several dynamic strategies which state that it is easy to adopt changes
(Ferkins 2018).
 Managers of Tesco have to look on the motivational factors of employees as the
development of motivation of employees result in the improvement in the performance
of employees.
PART 2
Key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play.
The operation management is the significant part for the organisation in directive to
administer the organisation activities and improves the production quality of the company. The
operational management is defined as a process to utilize the organisation resources in the
effective way and to increase the productivity of the company (Wilson 2018). It involves the
activities of converting raw material into final products and services. TESCO deals in retail
industry which includes various operations such as production, sales, marketing etc. In the key
approaches to the operational management the manager and leader of TESCO has an important
role.
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Total quality management- It refers to the process of bringing efficiency in the
organisation production which has a continuous focus on the improvement of quality products
and services offered by the organisation by considering customers needs and demands. It
includes the five principles such as consumer orientation, continuous improvement, teamwork,
maintaining quality work, and keeping strategic approach for improvement. In TESCO the role
of leader and manager are given below-
Role of leader- The role of leader in TESCO is to motivate the employees to perform the
working in team and adopting new measures to improve the quality of the products by
eliminating resistance to change between employees (Dutta 2017). To ensure the effective
involvement and utilization of the entire workforce.
Role of manager- In total quality management the role of manager is to apply the
strategies like KAIZEN so that management can focus on continuous changes to bring the
improvement in the production. The manager treat the suppliers as business partners. In TESCO
the manger is responsible for developing several policies such as ethical code of conduct and
plans to improve the product quality.
Just in time inventory- It definers the process of ordering the material from the supplier
at time of requirement for the production. This approach helps in eliminating the waste of
inventory and increases the efficiency. The continuous improvement in the process improves the
products, system and process for the TESCO. It helps TESCO in reducing the storage space as
goods can be stored at he time of need.
Role of leader- In the TESCO the leader evaluates performance of the employees in time
gaps and keep the track of inventory. It ensures the goods received are properly utilized without
having wastage in the production process. It make sure employees are aware of their roles and
responsibilities.
Role of manager- The manager in TESCO directs the production and operational
department to keep inventory in control and production is improved on the daily basis. The
manager also ensures to order the goods from supplier at right time after analysing the demand.
The importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.
The operational management includes the designing, overseeing, and controlling the
process of production of goods and services. The resources of the organisation is used effectively
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and efficiently with the help of operational management which leads to improvement in quality
co continuous basis. The function and importance of the operational management are as follows-
Control and distribution system- In operational management it is very important as it is
responsible for controlling production process and to fulfil the organisation objective by ensuring
the proper distribution of the products (Duke 2020). By adopting the strong control system the
efficiency can be improved and concerned with the proper control & distribution of resources.
The organisation objective of the TESCO is fulfilled by following the proper utilization of
resources.
Capacity management- It specifies the capacity of the production process so that excess
goods cannot be produced otherwise the quality will hampered and pressure of production
process will increase in TESCO. The organisation objective is fulfilled by developing sustainable
development for the product. It also helps in producing the right capacity of the product for the
customers in accordance to the market demand.
The factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and
decision-making by leaders and managers.
The business environment gets affected by the various number of internal and external
factors which affects the business operations and decision making of the organisation. The
company focuses on the needs to maintain the value, ethics and sustainability to improve the
relationship with the customers and providing the satisfaction for the services. The internal and
external factors influencing the operations management are as under-
Internal Factors
Corporate Social Responsibility: It is a business approach which contributes in
sustainable development. The leadership and management have the great role in the organisation
which adopts the short term goals (Dimitrov 2020). The CSR policy is towards the betterment of
the local community where they operate their business in directive to help in the individual
growth of local community. The decision making of the TESCO is also affected by the CSR
Policy as the decisions are ethical in nature and beneficial for the stakeholders welfare. The
manager and leader of TESCO takes the decision to fulfil the social responsibility.
Sustainability- It is an approach which focus on to meet the demand of present
generation. For the organisation it is very important as they want to promote themselves as a
responsible organisation in the general customers. The manager and leader of TESCO ensures to
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have sustainable objectives and strategies in nature and not to harm the cultural and social ethics
of society.
External Factors
Social- It defines to those factors which have the affect on the organisation working
because of the customer demand for the product on the basis of culture, age, preferences. Several
products are provided by the TESCO to cover the demand of the several groups. The managera
and leaders in TESCO evaluates the demands and preference to take the step for covering all rthe
customers.
Technological- In this competition world, TESCO makes the use of proper technology at
the workplace to reach the customers. The company uses technological innovation, automation to
improve the product quality (Alexander-Wright 2020). The manager and leader of the TESCO
works on technology efficiently to achieve the organisation goals and objectives. It also helps in
improving the decision of leaders and managers.
Conclusion and recommendation
To meet the business objectives successfully the operational efficiency can be improved
as managers and leaders can make the strategies which helps in reducing the waste and profits
are increased. The resources must be utilized in the efficient way. There must be strong
communication to communicate the team members.
The recommendation is provided that to have gain the high level of satisfaction of
customers the managers and leaders can improve the product quality. The organisation must
evaluates the micro and macro factors so that working of the company can not be affected
adversely.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that the managers and leaders are responsible
for introducing several goal oriented activities at work place which leads to the growth and
development of organisation. It is necessary for leaders to choose an appropriate style of
leadership for Tesco. Some of leadership style are contingency, system and situational.
Leadership style help the leaders to manage and lead the employees at work place. Along with
this, it is also analysed that the operation management is responsible for managing all the tasks
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related to the business operations. In order to making the decision at work place, it is necessary
to analyse all the factors which affect the decision.
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References:
Books and Journals
Alexander-Wright, D.L., 2020. Follow the Leader: Middle Management and Supervisors’
Impacts on Work-Life Balance Practices (Doctoral dissertation, Regent University).
Dimitrov, A., 2020. The Concept of Leader and Leadership in the Proto-Studies of Leadership.
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Duke, A., 2020. Clinical leadership in the dental profession: Approaches to becoming an
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Dutta, K., Ghoshal, A. and Kumar, S., 2017. The interdependence of data analytics and
operations management. In The Routledge Companion to Production and Operations
Management (pp. 291-308). Taylor and Francis/Routledge.
Ferkins, L., Shilbury, D. and O’Boyle, I., 2018. Leadership in governance: Exploring collective
board leadership in sport governance systems. Sport Management Review. 21(3).
pp.221-231.
Glock, C.H., and et. al., 2019. Applications of learning curves in production and operations
management: A systematic literature review. Computers & Industrial Engineering. 131.
pp.422-441.
Haksever, C. and Render, B., 2017. Service and Operations Management. World Scientific
Publishing Company.
Hill, A. and Hill, T., 2017. Essential operations management. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Hill, P., Korczak, A. and Wang, S., 2019. The use of earnings and operations management to
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Lawrence, R.L., 2017. Understanding collaborative leadership in theory and practice. New
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Naderi, M., and et. al., 2019. Sustainable operations management for industry 4.0 and its social
return. IFAC-PapersOnLine. 52(13). pp.457-462.
Oc, B., 2018. Contextual leadership: A systematic review of how contextual factors shape
leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly. 29(1). pp.218-235.
Ryan, I., Myers, B. and Mooney, S., 2020. Leader development: A pathway for social
change?. Leadership, p.1742715020980295.
Visser, W.F., 2020. A Blueprint for Performance-Driven Operations Management. Mining,
Metallurgy & Exploration, pp.1-9.
Wilson, S., 2018. Understanding bottlenecks: An operations management experiential learning
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Online
Tesco, 2021 [online] Available Through <https://www.tesco.com/>
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