Waitrose Limited Leadership and Management Analysis

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................2
P1, M1 Roles and characteristics of a manager and leader within Waitrose Limited...........2
P2, Describing the roles of a leader and functions of a manager within various situations in
organisation............................................................................................................................4
P3, M2, D1 Various theories and approach including strength and weakness of different
approaches to leadership within working environment.........................................................6
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................8
P4, M3 Operational management approaches and role of leader and manager.....................8
P5 Importance of operations management in Waitrose to achieve goals...............................9
P6, M4, D2 Analysing factors within business environment that has impact on operations
and decision-making............................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.....................................................................12
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Every organisation requires effective control over its operations and other functional units to
produce quality results in terms of customer satisfaction, production and profitability. In this
regards, for this current report a British supermarket organisation ‘Waitrose Limited’ is
selected. The report will cover roles and characteristics and functions of a manager and leader
within various situations in organisation. in addition, various theories and approach including
strength and weakness of different approaches to leadership within working environment and
operational management approaches and role of leader and manager will be discussed.
Finally, it will demonstrate importance of operations management in Waitrose to achieve
goals and factors within company environment that has impact on operations and decision-
making.
1

TASK 1
P1, M1 Roles and characteristics of a manager and leader within Waitrose Limited
Waitrose: The organisation has one of the most popular supermarket chain which forms the
retail division. The British supermarket is known for its quality products and services divided
in categories such as groceries, luxury food items etc. the vision is to become the best
supermarket chain in UK by delivering fresh and quality products. There are almost 52,600
employees working with firm and has satisfied within its working environment.
Management structure: The management structure of Waitrose consists of quality
employees. They have capability to manage operations and other functional units of business
effectively.
Figure 1 Management structure of Waitrose
Definition of Manager and Leader
Leader has a dominant role within organisation to control various activities related to
operations and human resources. Leader always try to put efforts in increasing morale and
motivation of employees to achieve something (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2017). Leader leads
operations, business and people. On other hand, manager has responsibility to administer and
2

formulate strategies towards operations through skills and knowledge. Managerial functions
help in managing people and business activities.
Figure 2 Roles and Responsibilities of A manager and Leader
BASIS LEADER MANAGER
Traits A leader should have passion towards
work, communication skills, creativity,
innovative thinking, delegation,
honesty, empowerment, integrity etc.
A manager require traits such as
effective communication, time-
management, flexibility, leadership,
reliability etc.
Roles and
responsibilities
A leader has many roles such as
assisting in work, leading a group of
people, developing strategies, providing
training and development programs to
workforce and management of day to
day activities within organisation. In
addition, they are mainly responsible
for managing performance of
employees to increase efficiency.
Manage is the person who lead and
oversee work of teams within
business. Manager also formulate
strategies and planning towards
performance management,
recruitment, managing procedures,
structure and resources (Artto, Ahola
and Vartiainen, 2016). In addition,
the main role of a manager is to
translate corporate aim into
functional and individual aim.
Authority and
power
Leader has power to influence work of
others in order to enable them to work
more effectively and efficiently. The
provide direction to team by managing
their roles to achieve a common goal.
Manager has power to influence
beliefs and actions of others. The can
recruit, dismiss and hire employees as
per the need of organisation.
Both manager and leader of Waitrose playing a major role in improving and developing
business capabilities to accomplish aim and objectives as per the need
Manager functions include planning, staffing, organising, controlling and managing to
manage various departmental functions and their activities (Mintzberg's Management Roles,
2016). Leader provides direction and guidance to people to achieve goal. In this regards, both
must have hard and soft skills such as leadership, communication skills, integrity, and team-
work, innovative and creative thinking etc. to perform their roles and responsibilities.
3

Management and leadership: There is a major difference between manager and leader that
manager have people who works for them and leader have people follow them. Leadership is
guiding and setting vision or direction for a group of people that they follow to achieve goals.
On the other hand, management direct and control resources and people according to values
and principles of organisation.
P2, Describing the roles of a leader and functions of a manager within various situations in
organisation
Management and leadership both plays different roles and responsibilities in managing and
controlling organisation operational and other activities. Roles of a leader and functions of a
manager helps business in making necessary changes to face any difficult situation
effectively. They perform their best in different situation to formulate and implement
strategies to provide solutions and progressiveness. In this context, manager functions are
provided below which are described by Henri Fayol:
Figure 3 Key Functions of a Manager
Planning: Manager has responsibility to plan business functions and activities as per the
required flexibility (Maliwan, 2014). It is one of the most difficult part where manager looks
for planning towards organisation.
4

Organising: Manager organises and manage resources required to complete business
operations such as employees, raw materials and funds. Manager plays an important role in
organising business structure and functions.
Commanding: Manager command people and provide direction to them to focus on work
carried out by them individually. In this regards, manager requires integration,
communication and effective decision making.
Coordinating: Coordination is very important for a manager with management and staff to
maintain the discipline and behaviour at workplace. Effective management skills are useful
here in promoting positive environment.
Controlling: Manager requires effective control over business and employee’s performance
in order to increase productivity (Ventura and Saenz, 2015). In this regards, outcomes
comparison, actual performance measurement, performance establishment and correction is
made by manager within Waitrose.
The roles of a leader are clear that they implement strategies formulated by management to
lead group of people to achieve task. They influence work of others in a way such as guiding,
motivating, encouraging, communicating and commanding them to accomplish the
objectives. In this regards, an interview is conducted with leadership team member John Alia
and line manager Steve Waugh working with Waitrose in order to analyse their roles and how
they respond to different situations within organisation.
John Alia Interview: In the process of interview, it is asked to John to share his working
experience in Waitrose regarding any different situation that he faced. In this regards, John
said that during the starting period of 2015, Waitrose faced issues regarding employees such
as conflicts and motivational issues. For that particular time period, the production process
was also affected which was decreasing business performance in market. In this regards,
there are some crucial activities such as application of motivational theories, arbitrator to
manage conflicts and other communication issues etc. implemented by John. This helped in
managing team behaviour and performance and the issue resolved effectively.
Steve Waugh Interview: In the process of interview, it is asked to Steve to share his
working experience in Waitrose regarding any different situation that he faced. In this
regards, Steve said that during the end of 2012, the firm was facing financial crisis which was
affecting its growth and development. In this regards, Steve took step towards implementing
5

management theories such as KAIZEN, TQM and Lean production to improve efficiency of
operations to save cost and time. In order to make proper utilisation of resources, quality
team was assigned to complete major tasks. In addition, old stock is sold on discounts to
boost the revenue and profits. In this way, Steve come up with solution to have effective
management of financial crisis.
P3, M2, D1 Various theories and approach including strength and weakness of different
approaches to leadership within working environment
Leadership and management both are important aspects within organisation to achieve the
goals. They have responsibility to manage various functional and activities with effective
leadership and management skills (Cascio, 2015). In this regards, different approaches to
management and leadership are described below along with their strengths and weaknesses
using theories:
Situational leadership
In this leadership style, leaders within Waitrose work according to the situation and
requirement of worker’s capabilities, skills and knowledge. Every business must require
effective strategy to manage situations such as financial crisis, management and other issues.
Thus, leader selects the appropriate leadership style according to the situation.
Strengths and weaknesses: Leader has choice to choose the effective and appropriate
leadership style as per the need of situation. This approach is beneficial for both manager and
leader within organisation to improve performance by providing solutions. However, it is
difficult for them to become flexible in some situation which influences the choice.
Systems leadership
This approach is beneficial for manager and leader in order to control behaviour of workers
so that they can communicate effectively regarding issues and situations that is influencing
performance (Venkataraman and Pinto, 2016). For example, effective use of KAIZEN
strategy will help in managing a peaceful environment for employees so that they can
promote positive attitude to achieve goal.
Strengths and weaknesses: The approach is systematically handle all the changes such as
internal and external so that manager and leader can make their decisions. however, it is not
applicable in a practical way as it is not possible for manager and leader to make correct
decisions.
6

Contingency leadership
The approach is very effective in managing different difficult situations. In this regards,
manager and leader needs flexibility and acceptancy to make selection of leadership style that
can manage decisions regarding external and internal organisation environment. They must
be adoptive in nature and behaviour to plan strategies accordingly.
Strengths and weaknesses: The approach establishes relationship between leadership style
and situations within organisation that increase chances of selecting suitable style. However,
the theory is not able to justify the best selection for leader and manager as per the situation.
Hence, it can be said that various approaches to management and leadership has both good
and bad sides in terms of managing business operations and performance. It all depends on
the knowledge, skills and flexibility of manager and leader to select the best leadership style
as per the situation and to increase profits and production. In this regards, these leadership
theories are useful to improve overall performance of Waitrose in different situations. In
addition, there is a great impact of leader and manager on business in terms of their roles,
responsibilities, behaviour, skills and capability to perform well (Meyer and Xin, 2018).
Thus, they should be passionate and flexible enough to make bold decisions to achieve
desired goals and objectives. The functions and roles must be performed with effectiveness to
provide values to both business and customers.
7

TASK 2
P4, M3 Operational management approaches and role of leader and manager
Operation management: It is an effective process includes administration of business
practices to produce high quality services. In simple word, the process helps in converting
raw materials into final goods. It is crucial for organisation to focus on improving efficiency
and capability of operations to deliver high quality and effective products to meet needs of
customers and market effectively.
It can be said that every organisation key operations are divided and categorised as per the
requirement. Although, there are four key operational areas of Waitrose such as location,
process, labour and equipment (Basu, 2017)
In this regards, it is important for them to manage these key operations to improve production
and profitability. Factors and functions associated with these operations are managed and
controlled by manager and leader. In this regards, the key approaches to operations and role
of leader and manager is described below:
TQM: Total quality management approach is beneficial for business in reducing factors that
has impact on quality of products. Here, the manager and leader is responsible for
communicating with employees to improve operational process and to be committed towards
work. This also helps in determining the need for continuous improvement. The approach is
focused on quality, customer orientation, strategic management and continuous improvement.
JIT: This approach is effective for leader and manager that it helps in eliminating
unnecessary elements such as wastes from the operational procedure to increase
effectiveness. Here, both leader and manager has role to ensure availability of resources to
manage the inventories within Waitrose.
Six-Sigma: Six-sigma approach is also focused on eliminating wastes and other useless
elements involved in operational procedures. This helps in developing quality services that
are capable of satisfying need of consumers. Leader and manager by implementing this
approach can identify defects in inventory, transportation and operations.
These approaches are very must effective and can be used by leader and manager of Waitrose
to improve quality of their operations to produce effective products and services capable of
providing satisfaction (Winterhalter, Zeschky and Gassmann, 2016). In this regards, role of
manager and leader is to ensure that the equipment are placed effectively and other functions
8

such as coordination, resource’s control etc. are working properly to improve overall
performance of business. This provides reliability to operations and helps in accomplishing
operational goals.
P5 Importance of operations management in Waitrose to achieve goals
The most common reason behind managing operations effectively is to produce quality
services that it capable of satisfying needs of customers. It handles several issues such as
operational, design, system management and production of products. It helps in creating
adequate level of efficiency required within business.
Importance of OM: Both manager and leader are responsible for managing operational
activities and factors associated with it in order to improve efficiency of production process
to deliver high quality services and products. In this regards, Waitrose must focus on
improving its quality of services by managing their operations as per the situation and
requirement of strategies and plans (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018). There is a vital role of
OM in business that the success of Waitrose is depended on its quality of products and
services.
In this regards, manager and leader are responsible for creating bond with employees and
other management staff to manage strategies to provide continuous improvement in
operations. They also control and monitor factors associated with Waitrose operations to
according to the requirement to achieve desired goals. This is helpful in enhancing customer
base and competitive advantage for organisation to compete other in market effectively. In
addition, several leadership styles and management theories are applied by them to make
operations more effective in terms of performance and quality control.
Transformational leadership: This leadership approach is useful for leader working within
Waitrose to manage the roles related to operational activities. It allows to focus on certain
changes that are required to solve issues within production procedure. In this way, issues are
identified and changes are implemented. Employees and other staff member must be guided
to accept existence of changes to enhance market share, profits and position in market.
In order to manage reputation of Waitrose in market and towards customers, it is important to
have products that are capable of delivering values. In this regards, manager and leader must
have logistics management on design, quality and sustainability to implement strategies to
achieve quality and desired goals (Forsgren, 2015). The roles and responsibilities of manager
9

and leader are clear within Waitrose and they must consider this as important work to help
organisation in achieving success.
P6, M4, D2 Analysing factors within business environment that has impact on operations and
decision-making
It can be said that both external and internal factors have great impact on business and its
environment including decision making of leader and manager and operational activities. In
this regards, business must require strategies to reduce impact of external factors specially to
ensure proper growth and development. In this regards, the external factors that has impact on
business operations and decision making are provided below:
Figure 4 PESTEL Analysis of Waitrose
Political: It can be said that every business internal environment is affected by the external
factors which also influence the decision making of leader and manager (Editorial, 2018).
Political factors such as trade policies, regulations, rules, considerations and uncertainty in
export and import have great impact on business and its environment. It also has impact on
decision making as leader and manager need to manage policies according to the political
environment.
Economical: Economic condition of UK is affected by the major impact of Brexit. The up
and down in economy level has a great impact on business and its operations. In this regards,
Waitrose has its own suppliers and other facilities which is helping in holding strong position
10