Analysis of Leadership and Management Operations at Vauxhall Motors

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Management and Operations
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
LO3................................................................................................................................................10
LO4................................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................17
Reference list...............................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
Management Operations encompasses all those activities that help in increasing the
productivity and output of an organisation so that more products and services are
created, which enables a company to earn higher revenue and profits. It is important for
an organisation to who provide their operations with the best resources so that high-
quality commodities are produced into the market. Within this particular study, the case
of Vauxhall Motors has been chosen. Vauxhall Motors is a British car enterprise that
operates from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The company sells both automobiles and
commercial vehicles and the production of the output of the company is 118,182 as per
2016. The revenue of the company is above £3,837 million as per 2014 and the
enterprise has around 4,029 Employees as of 2011 (Vauxhall.co.uk, 2019). The key
managerial heads of the organisation include people such as Stephen Norman who is
the chairperson and managing director of the company. The management structure of
Vauxhall Motors is hierarchical structure whereby which there are several layers within
the organisation through which managerial heads on the top and there are sub
employees below them. This report will focus on the leadership and management
operations that are conducted by Vauxhall Motors in the United Kingdom market.
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LO1
Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a
manager
Management is the process of organising and controlling resources in an effort to
accomplish goals. As per the scientific management theory derived by Henri Fayol,
managers of an organisation have four different roles. They manage, organise, control
and lead the people working under them (Shafritz et al., 2015). The managers of
Vauxhall Motors set goals and determine actions for employees. They allocate tasks
and define who will accomplish which tasks. Directing and motivating are two other
roles of managers that enable them to contribute to Vauxhall Motor’s goal achievement
process. They monitor overall performance, identify deviation between the planned and
original results, and take preventive actions in case of challenging conditions arose in
the automotive industry.
With implication of scientific management theory, Vauxhall Motor is able to introduce
modern approaches and best practices of work. It is important for dealing with problems
associated with improving product quality and production efficiency. The organisation
applies Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne Effect of behavioral studies to the workplace, where
employees modify or improve their behavior concerning the awareness they observe.
Vauxhall accepts the workplace as a social system in which employees are given
freedom to use skills to carry out directives provided by supervisors. Both theories have
supported sustainable performance of the organisation by improving quality and
focusing on employee behaviour.
Leadership is the art and ability to influence human behaviour to carry out a mission by
setting a vision for everyone (Northouse, 2018). Mintzberg has identified three types of
leadership roles including decisional, informational, and interpersonal that every
manager posses. As part of the interpersonal role, the managers manage the
relationship with clients, suppliers, subordinates and other key stakeholders. They
collect and information and convey to stakeholders of Vauxhall Motor under
informational roles. A manager’s sole responsibility is to process all the gathered
information and reach a final decision.
Difference
Leaders Managers
They are responsible for bringing change
in existing organisational process, systems
and practices (Stacey, 2012).
They are responsible for bringing
consistency in organisational practices and
policies.
They establish direction by creating a
vision, setting strategies and clarifying the
vision.
They develop a plan and create a budget
by establishing agendas, allocating tasks
and setting a timetable.
They take the responsibility for aligning
people by seeking commitment,
communicating goals and building
They establish new procedures, policies,
and rules to organise people
systematically.
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alliances among team members.
They motivate people by satisfying the
unexploited needs of employees and
empowering them through training
programs.
They act as problem-solvers for
employees by generating innovative
solutions and taking preventive and
corrective actions.
Some great business leaders are Warren
Buffett, Stewart Butterfield, and Tim Cook.
Some great business managers are Sheryl
Sandberg, Harriet Green, and others.
Table 1: Characteristics of leaders and managers
(Source: Created by the learner)
Similarities
Leaders and managers entail working with individuals, as they believe in teamwork.
They develop the foundation for the functional, organisational and managerial structure
of Vauxhall Motors. Both of them influence the work environment, work structure, and
organisational practices. They concern with processes and practices concerning goal
achievement. The foremost concern of both leaders and managers is to allocate
resources effectively to achieve efficiency.
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LO2
Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager
apply in different situational contexts.
In the case of Vauxhall Motors, through three types of situations in context analysis, the
roles of a leader and a manager in terms of their functionality within an organisation like
this will be illustrated below and how they get affected and help the the output of an
organisation to increase. These three types of situations are stable situation, slow to
moderate moving situations, and fast-changing situations.
Stable situation
Within an organisation like Vauxhall Motors when the employees face the least degree
of change when it comes to market demand, resources and other key factors of the
market, then a stable situation prevails in the industry. Within and automobile industry a
situation like this is very common as there is a growing need for vehicles around the
world and more individuals are considering making these purchases (Endsley, 2018).
This causes when there are more preferences and needs present in the market owing
to which there is more stability in an organisation like Vauxhall Motors.
Slow to moderate situation
When the automobile industry is in a lull and there is a low degree of demand from the
side of the consumers then a source situation occurs within the car manufacturing
industry. At the slow stage, there is less supply of work and more recession is spread
throughout the industry (Miller et al., October). This stage is steadily subverted with
marketing efforts are put into the industry and the degree of demand rises over a period
of time which results in there be more output and the situation becoming moderate for
Vauxhall Motors stabling the operations.
Fast changing situation
These situations encompass of the circumstances where the demand of the consumers
changes rapidly, because of which the type of commodities, which are required to be
filled by companies such as Vauxhall Motors, alters. This changes the usual force of the
operations within Vauxhall Motors resulting in their being more commodities of varying
qualities causing there to be several products existing in the market (Salas et al., 2017).
Managerial accountability
Inside Vauxhall Motors the managerial heads of the company make sure that the
operations of the company are being recorded at every stage. This is done so that an
evaluation of the different slow, moderate and fast-changing situations can be accessed
and be better prepared for in the future (Lægreid, 2014). It is the duty of the existing
employees with Vauxhall Motors directly report to the managerial heads of the company
so that better compliance and record of work performed is collected. This situation
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enables the managerial heads to know which subordinates are putting higher effort and
which ones are giving less.
Roles of Leaders
In all of these varying situations, which have been discussed above, it, is important for
leaders to be present within Vauxhall Motors. The role of the leader within the
operations of the business functions as helping others to be motivated so that they can
produce and perform better. In addition to that, the leaders of the enterprise also
function as the individuals who give others direction and objectives through which
operational goals are managed and set out (Northouse, 2018).
Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership,
systems leadership, and contingency
Situational Leadership
The leadership approach encourages analysing situations in depth and direct people in
a most suitable and appropriate manner. The leadership style has four integral
components such as delegating, selling, telling and participating (McCleskey, 2014). In
the case of delegating style, leaders participate in decision-making but pass the
responsibilities of performing tasks to subordinates. The situational leaders involve in
monitoring and reviewing the process. Participation is another style in which leaders
seek participation from employees and establish approaches to how tasks should be
accomplished. Selling style makes use of two-way communication that ensures team
members report regularly on the progress of a task that has been assigned to them.
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Figure 1: Situational Leadership
(Source: Thompson and Glasø, 2015)
The telling style involves directing team members minutely and instructing them how
and when to perform tasks (Thompson and Glasø, 2015). For example, Vauxhall faced
miserable loss in early 2000. The models were criticised in the automotive industry for
being unimaginative. The top executives of the firm decided to integrate marketing,
sales, and after-sales operations to conduct an in-depth analysis of the situation. They
succeeded in bringing changes in the engineering and production process and Vauxhall
came with new models with great designs. With the effective application of the
situational leadership model, the leaders earned success by considering three aspects
including the complexity of the task, employee’s competencies, and their maturity. The
leaders have applied the participative style of situational leadership that allowed them to
take a view of team members and make a decision carefully.
Contingency Leadership
The practice of leadership depends on how to match a style to a situation in the right
way. The theory has defined three factors necessary for adopting contingency
leadership approach. The factors can be positional power, task structure, and leader-
member relationship (Cherry, 2012). Task structure is the practice of defining tasks and
clarifying the roles of every individual. For example, leaders of Vauxhall present clear
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guidelines to carry out the manufacturing process effectively. Employees in each level
understand roles and know how to do tasks. Positional power is the ability of a leader to
influence the performance and productivity of employees. The leaders decide when to
punish and reward employees as per their individual and group performance. If
members will not report the team leader directly, positional power can become weak. In
such cases, leaders cannot influence people directly. The extent of the leader-member
relationship determines the leadership acceptance between different hierarchies of
Vauxhall. If the team members have trust in the leader, the relationship is found to be
positive and strong. Leaders of Vauxhall used to apply participative or directive
leadership style in case of accomplishing low structure tasks. When they have low
positional power, they use people skills to influence the overall outcomes. A strong task-
effective leadership works well when situations are critical and poor. For example,
Vauxhall is going through a damaged financial performance. In this case, task-oriented
leadership practice can be effective to identify the activities leading to poor performance
and taking remedial actions to get quick recovery from the financial crises.
System Leadership
System leadership describes the ways that managers need to work when they face
difficult and complex problems (Senge et al., 2015). It is suitable to juggle multiple
uncertainties that an organisation may come across. Systems leadership ensures that a
lot of people are being benefitted from different things. For example, Vauxhall launched
a new employee scheme indicating employee wellbeing. System leaders try to focus
that everyone in the workplace can get advantages from that scheme. The organisation
keeps individuals at the top of the system, as they are important resources to take the
business to a new level. The leaders of Vauxhall create a learning environment, where
team members can grab new things every day and work as per their highest potential.
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LO3
Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders
and managers play.
The major focus of operation management is on the effectiveness and efficiency of
processes. Therefore, some approaches are used to measure and analyse internal
processes. The core activities controlled by operation management approaches are
inventory control, storage, quality control, logistics, and others. Some of the key
approaches used in the field of operation management are as listed below.
Continuous Improvement
The philosophy behind continuous improvement encompasses the implementation of
incremental changes. Quality is the central focus for the automotive industry. The basic
guideline of continuous improvement is the identification of the core processes of the
automotive operation (Sanchez and Blanco, 2014). Large changes feel destabilising
and frightening to organisations. The speed of improvement increases with small and
incremental changes. The model relies on employees’ ideas, not on top management.
The bottom-up approach in every stage of the business is effective for continuous
improvement, as employees are close to organisational problems for which they are
better equipped for resolving problems. Vauxhall considers the value of engaging
employees while making a decision. It empowers employees to put new ideas that can
develop the production process. Employees take ownership of the work and involve in
improvement practices. Constant feedback is another major aspect of the continuous
improvement model that starts with the implementation of open communication within
the organisation. The use of continuous improvement software within Vauxhall helps to
improve team collaboration and visibility.
Total Quality management
The principles of quality management used in Vauxhall are employee empowerment,
commitment from top managers, customer focus and continuous improvement. Senior
executives of Vauxhall follow a systematic process of ‘plan’, ‘do’, ‘check’ and ‘act’ or
PDCA that enables employees to get proper direction and support from them.
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Figure 2: PDCA Cycle
(Source: Oakland, 2014)
They review working styles and performance of employees continuously, which
develops their ability to maintain a standard in their work. Employee empowerment is
the focus of Vauxhall. The company gives the opportunity to develop knowledge and
skill that are required to survive and excel in the automotive industry. Highest standard
of training and professional development opportunities are designed to equip
employees with relevant skills (Oakland, 2014). In order to measure and evaluate the
performance of employees at each level, the organisation uses a 360-degree appraisal
method that examines employees from all directions and let them know how to perform
well. Histogram and Cause-effect diagram are two major TQM tools used by Vauxhall to
identify the linkage between problems and their causes. Problems can be resolved
recognised and analysed through these tools.
Lean Production
Lean manufacturing is a management model that helps in creating maximum value for
consumers utilising minimum resources and eliminating waste materials. Seven types of
waste generated from the production of vehicles are reduced through this approach.
Over-production, waiting time, wasted motion generated from poor processes,
conveyance waste generated from poorly designed systems, raw material wastes and
others can be eliminated through the lean manufacturing process. Lean manufacturing
leads to less production space, human effort, time, and investment that improve
production efficiency. In the ever demanding and fast growing marketplace,
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organisations spend the maximum cost to manage their inventory. Vauxhall is able to
attain competitive edges among the top companies in the automotive sector.
Six Sigma
Six-sigma is a collection of tools that are helpful in measuring and reducing variation in
production of vehicles (Rinehart et al., 2018). It is connected to crucial customer
requirements including higher product quality and affordable price. It fulfils specific
improvements targets such as a reduction in cycle time, reduction in scrap, increasing
customer satisfaction, and others. In order to implement six-sigma in the business
process, Vauxhall develops a problem statement that can support a detailed process
map. It identifies all possible causal factors that lead to a problem and determine root
causes to resolve that problem completely. The potential solutions identified through a
six-sigma approach are helpful to ensure higher efficiency and quality of vehicles.
Just in time
The foremost objective of JIT is to improve inventory turnover and decrease all
connected cost. With adopting JIT, Vauxhall is able to deal with voluminous inventories
and reduce the cost. Synchronisation has been developed between the production cycle
and delivery of vehicles. The approach requires an understanding of suppliers’ capacity
and customers’ demands. Vauxhall is able to manage a strong supply chain in which
suppliers deliver raw materials only when it requires the manufacturing of vehicles. The
principles of JIT can be zero inventories, relationship with reliable suppliers, effective
material handling, reduced purchasing cost and others (Alippi et al., 2013). The stock
holding cost of Vauxhall becomes low and space utilisation becomes high with the
application of JIT. Continuous communication with consumers increases customer
satisfaction. Vauxhall is able to achieve greater customer satisfaction, eliminate over-
production, reduce inventory cost and improve efficiency through the JIT approach.
Roles of managers and leaders
Leaders of Vauxhall inspire workers to overcome workplace issues of their own and use
new ideas to suggest better approaches to production. They support engineers in
designing innovative and efficient vehicles for clients. They direct workers on how to
maintain the quality of their duties (Ghasabeh et al., 2015). Efficiency is one of the
critical issues that every automotive company faces during the production process.
Therefore, leaders convince and teach how to utilise Vauxhall’s internal resources and
capabilities to avoid waste and gain ultimate efficiency.
Operation managers of Vauxhall prepare schedule when to start a production cycle and
what tasks to be prioritised to meet future customer demands. They review the use of
resources and ensure minimal utilisation of key resources. They evaluate current
processes and procedures to suggest a better version of work. Ensuring the safety of
each worker during production is another key role of operation managers.
Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving
business objectives.
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