Roles and Responsibilities of Leaders in Operation Management

In the following report, M&S and its management structure have been introduced deeply, and comparisons have also been made between managers and leaders. The below report also highlights the various external factors that affect the business along with approaches that have been adopted to overcome certain obstacles by M&S LTD.

TASK 1

1. Introduction to the organization and its management structure.

Marks & Spencer is a leading company of multinational selling. It is headquartered in City of Westminster, London. It has been listed on London stock exchange. M&S is specialised in selling cloth, home products, and luxurious food products (Brandon-Jones et al., 2016). It was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. The principal aim of this organisation is to achieve high revenue by fulfilling needs and requirements of high volume of customers.

M&S follows structure of Flat organisational structure. In this structure, there are few or no levels of management in between staff-level employees and management. It also refers to nature of distribution of units and positions involved in it. Here, there are a large number of people that are directly supervised by each member of the organization. In flat structure, the manager has much more responsibilities as compared to manager of Tall structure. This is because a number of individuals are involved below them whom they direct, help, or support. There are a limited number of supervisors above managers in M&S; therefore, they work on themselves without any guidance from others that are above them.

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2. Defining manager and leader and comparing their roles and characteristics.

The manager is termed as an individual who is in charge of certain groups or tasks. The y have a certain staff or group of people that reports to him (Haksever and Render, 2018). The leader is termed an individual that influences the workers in order to work hard by putting in maximum effort and achieve targeted goals. Thus, the roles of managers and leaders have been discussed as per below:

3. Analyzing differences between managerial functions and leadership roles by applying a range of management theories and concepts.

Managerial functions of M&S includes many functions as to plan, organise, staff, lead and control (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016). Therefore, the managers of a particular organisation have to function in an appropriate manner, as the amount of time given to each function that is involved in management depends according to the level of management and organization.

The role of leaders is to prompt workers of M&S Ltd. to perform so effectively that they can achieve the targeted goals or objectives that have been set by the business administration. The followers of a team has to follow the mission decided by leaders. Thus, the functions of manager and role of leader has been discussed as per following theory of management.

• System theory: This type of theory mainly depends on systems adjustment level in M&S LTD. The main aim or goal of system theory is to find the mechanics of systems, their restrictions, conditions, and ways that help in applying to the system that are available at every level of earthy target.
• Scientific management theory: It is the management theory that helps in examining the travel of work and has its focus on raising the skillfulness of every respective that is working in the organization and also helps M&S to use the increasing profit.
• Chaos theory: Chaos theory is a part of math and looks at definite systems' behaviour that is very sensitive. Thus, this study of dynamic systems is very complex.

4. Analyzing different situations and examining the roles of leaders and functions of managers in those situations.

The role of leaders and functions of managers in a particular situation of M&S LTD has been discussed as per the following:

• Budget cuts—this is one of the main and usual situations that has been faced by managers and leaders of M&S. Thus, to overcome these obstacles, both managers have to follow relevant ways in order to reduce wastage and inefficiencies in a particular department of production and clothing, and leaders have to follow the order or work assigned by the manager and also guide team members accordingly.
• Conflicts between team members: if such a situation occurs, the manager of a selected firm has to organise and distinguish the task and conflicts accordingly and try to manage the situation. Thus, they both have to work hard and clarify the issues between team members early in process of formation of a team. They must conduct fair discussion that will help them to resolve the disputes.
• Valued members leaving the company—one of the toughest situations that has been faced by the company. A manager must reward with some incentives so that it will motivate them to perform a particular task and also increase efficiency.

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5. Applying different management and leadership theories to support growth and sustainable performance.

The maturation and property of M&S depend on the functions and roles of managers and leaders, respectively. Thus, if a selected enterprise has continuity in growth, then they will have to follow leadership styles as follows:

• Situational leadership is the style where managers and leaders of M&S have to change their style of working as per the change in situation. The style in this change continuously according to situation, so it is known as having an adaptive nature (Jacobs, Chase, and Lummus, 2014). It is based on changing needs and requirements of customers rather than skills or knowledge.
• Contingency leadership: in this type of style, there is no single or best way to make decisions or lead a particular company. Thus, leaders are matched according to the situations by the skills they have to overcome those situations.
• System leadership is the most complex one that indicates leaders in organizations and people can work more effectively and efficiently according to skills they acquire so that they can achieve long-term profitability.

6. Assessing strengths and weakness of different theories and approaches.

1. Situational leadership

• Strengths: it is applicable and casual to realise and also applied easily in variety of settings. Members become more flexible and can easily accept the changes that help them develop innovative ideas.
• Weakness: here, manager has to recognise the limitations and presentation of workers in appropriate manner and has to make them do things that easily suit their skills and knowledge.

2. Contingency leadership

• Strengths: the employees in this are not dependent on others, and leaders also work accordingly in their own style without any guidance.
• Weakness: the state that can be taken in this style are not spelled out easily because of inadequate literature.

3. System leadership

• Strengths: this leadership style provides efficient action plan and control of good basis.
• Weakness: the work is done beyond the national boundaries, so it reacts very slowly in case of any change in situation.

7. Concluding on managers and leaders making impact on the organization and recommendations for future improvements.

From the above task, it has been concluded that the managers and leaders of M&S LTD are not best-known by knowledge and skills, but they are known by knowing among all the members that are involved in the cited company (Jiménez-Jiménez, Martinez-Costa, Martínez-Lorente, and Rabeh, 2015). Both managers and leaders have to look many challenges that can later affect the maturation of a particular business.

In order to get over the situations that have been faced by the selected company, they have to analyse the requirements of the potential customers and accordingly fulfil requirements. They must motivate followers that will later help them in pushing efforts in a particular task and increasing efficiency.

Recommendations in order for future improvements is that they have to maintain relationship between buyers and sellers by providing filtering and sorting options on websites that can help customers find their needs without any kind of trouble.

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TASK 2

1. Introducing operation management and explaining key approaches adopted.

Operation management is defined as a subject in business that helps in ensuring the operations that have been undertaken in business are effective and efficient that are mainly related to production of goods and services (Laudon and Laudon, 2016). It plays critical role in improving M&S productivity of goods and services and also maintains design and operations that are further used in attracting large volume of customers. The members are trained so well that it helps them in taking a sudden decision for sudden change that occurs in business.

The key approach that is used by M&S LTD is quality management approach. Due to increase in competition globally, the company has to increase the quality of foods and clothes so that large number of customers are attracted towards them. This leads in increasing brand image.

2. Identifying roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of operations.

The role and responsibilities of managers and leaders are discussed as per below context:

• Role of manager: the manager of M&S has to train staff and determine salaries as per the work done by the followers. They have to also assign schedule so that they work well with existing staff of a particular company. As it is a customer-oriented company, they have to direct their employees towards analysing needs and demands of customers so that they can easily fulfil needs by organising human as well as physical resources in order to attain business goals and objectives. They play a critical role as they have to perform various functions in organizations.
• Role of Leader: the main and important role is to motivate employees in order to perform particular work by putting their whole efforts that later help in high efficiency and good productivity. For this, they has to guide their team mates to perform in a particular direction without any hurdles. They set a vision for future and accordingly direct their subordinates to perform and achieve those goals. They have to communicate with every team member to avoid any type of conflicts.

3. Explaining importance and value of key approaches to operation management in achieving organisational objectives successfully.

The key approaches to operation management in order to achieve organisational objectives are discussed in the below context:

• Six sigma is a symbol of risk. This is used in order to reduce risk of misleading of decision taken by management (McCleskey, 2014). The basic principles that are followed by Six sigma are to have focus on customer and also win and modify the flow of process in a smooth way. The main principle beside this is to undertake activity of improvement in systematic way. The main aim of adopting this approach is to increase profits in innovative way that includes reducing waste of raw materials and eliminating variability.
• Total Quality Management: the workers of M&S LTD must have complete and unique knowledge about the policy of TQM. The main aim is to improve the quality of goods and services offered by them to the customers and meet their expectations as soon as possible for them. They have to look forward in meeting the needs and demands of the customers by improving quality. This will build loyal customer base that, in turn, will increase brand image in market.
• Lean production is a systematic process that helps in reducing waste of resources by making use of resources in an optimal manner. It is applied to all levels that are involved in M&S Ltd that include designing, production, and also distribution.
• Transformation of raw materials into finished goods: the manager of M&S plans transformation process and directs leaders to work accordingly. Further, leaders, along with its teammates, transform raw materials into finished goods that attract large number of customers towards them, that leads in achieving high-term profitability.
• Designing process: the process that is designed must be so well that it attracts large volume of customers so that they enjoy their journey right from selecting product till they purchase it (Nawaz and Khan, PhD, 2016). This helps them in being loyal, that leads in maximum profit. The process must be designed so well that customers can easily buy a particular product.
• Controlling inventory—this acts as the most difficult system in M&S. It plays important role because the time limit of desires of customers is sometimes less than the time of production and delivering that particular product.

4. Assessing impact of external business environment factors on operational management decisions by leaders and managers.

External factors affecting business are as follows:

• Political factors—this includes the policies of government and laws that mainly affect business dealings, both positively and negatively (Northouse, 2018). If government policy and laws changes, it will have direct impact on entire business operations that has direct impact on desire to trade internationally.

• Economic factors—the dynamic conditions of economy that are prevalent in market affect business environment of M&S Ltd. This factors include taxation, government spending, general demand interest rates, exchange rates, etc. recession is also an important factor, as if there is lack of economic growth in a particular country, it will affect the sales of M&S.
• Social factors: it includes beliefs of society, customs, practices, and also the behavior of an individual towards a particular product. If M&S operates in a society with various cultures, the decision of manager and leaders gets affected by unique values and customs.
• Technological factors: the cited company has to move forward and adopt the updated technology to avoid the affection of such factors. Thus, the trend of today is completely based on shopping online; the customers use different websites. M&S must ensure that their website is up-to-date and well designed, which attracts a large volume of clients towards the brand.
• Legal factors: M&S is a multinational leading company of foods and clothing, so they must have complete knowledge of legal formalities to trade beyond the national boundaries (Thompson and Glasø, 2015). This is because different companies have different rules and regulations that have to be followed.
• Environmental factors—the sale of a particular product is usually based on a season. Thus, change in climate affects the business environment in critical way. So it is important for selected company to produce goods as per needs and demands of customers as per the changing season.

5. Including critical evaluation of application of operations management to manage the factors.

It has been ensured from the above factors that the chosen institution should have accomplished psychological features about the needs of customers regarding goods and services so that they can produce it accordingly (Sallis, 2014). M&S acts as a multichanneler that makes it easy for customers to buy goods that they need. Thus, managers and leaders research on the requirement in deep manner and produce goods of well quality at fair price that attracts large number of customers.

As it is said, every positivity comes with some negative aspects with it. The stated company has to face various factors that affect the environment of M&S. They have to hold its honor by showing concern to customers in terms of promotion.

6. concluding and suggesting recommendations for future improvements.

It has been concluded from the above task that managers and leaders must maintain relationships with each and every employee to make them free in sharing their views and concerns regarding increasing productivity. They must also manage quality that helps customers remain loyal to a particular company.

The operations manager of M&S must establish various channels of communication through various methods that include meetings, events, and questionnaires (Scott, Jiang, Wildman, and Griffith, 2018). They must also train and develop the employees that are involved in order to resolve issues and also sharpen their skills to perform particular work.

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CONCLUSION

Thus, from the above report, it has been concluded that M&S is a top-leading company of luxurious foods and clothing. The above assignment discusses the roles and responsibilities of leaders as well as managers. Further, it has also been analysed from the above report that there are various external factors that affect business for which M&S has to undertake various recommendations for future improvements. These recommendations that have been undertaken will further help in increasing efficiency and high volume of profit.

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