The Role of Leader and Functions of Management

Different theories and models or approaches of leadership like System and Situational Leadership and how it's applied by M&S Marks & Spencer a multinational British Company that deals in home products, luxury food items, and clothing for men and women. It was established in the year 1884 and it operates worldwide including prominent markets of Asia and Europe.

TASK 1

1. Introduction of Marks & Spencer and its management structure

Marks & Spencer was originally established with the “M & S” name; the company gained its reputation after it made a strategy of selling only British-made products. Marks & Spencer used to sell only food and clothes under the name of “St. Michael”. It slowly gained popularity and became a popular clothing brand in the UK and Europe.

It follows a flat management structure. In this form, there is less or a limited number of management between front-line employees and upper-level management. Flat organizational structure is of pyramid shape but due to the limited level of management between employees and top management, this organisation structure is flat and broader.

Marks & Spencer has different department heads and managers managed by different executive managers. This structure is followed by the company to reduce bureaucracy and involves employees to make decisions and improve their skills. It helps make communication between baseline employees and top-level managers easy which promotes faster changes and quick solutions to the company's problems. This form of structure help in getting loyal and dedicated staff, which help the organization to achieve its goals and objectives in a given time (Jacobs and et. Al 2014).

2. Define managers and leaders and compare their roles and characteristics

• Manager: A person who is responsible for administering or guiding a group of people or an organization. He is responsible for completing a certain group of tasks with the provided skills.
• Leader: Any individual or person who leads or commands a group, an organization, or a country. In an organization, the term leader refers to any person who influences a group of people to achieve the goals of the organization (Song and et. al 2015).

Characteristics of Manager and Leader

Role of Manager and Leader

3. Roles of a leader and functions of a manager apply in given situations

Situation 1:Sales of the company are drowning due to intense competition in the market.

In the above case, the manager of Marks & Spencer would make strategies to boost sales. He will assist employees on how to achieve goals. However, the leader of the company would motivate employees to achieve set targets. He will act as a guide and mentor to people to overcome the above situation.

Situation 2 company has decided to close its 100 stores all over the UK.

The function of manager will be to formulate plans to open new stores in other parts of the country to increase sales and earn revenues. Managers will help in delegating roles and responsibilities to employees for a new market. However, the leader would solicit support from employees and also ask for their reviews on this decision.

4 Different theories and models of approach to support growth and sustainable performance

• Situational Leadership: In this form of leadership, the leader adjusts his development level to an individual whom they want to influence. Changes in style are based on the circumstances or situation (Ng and Sears, 2012).

There are four types of situational leadership:

1. Directing: The leader makes decisions and informs employees about the same. Employee performs in the same way as they are been told. This applies when a new person joins the company.
2. Coaching: Employees are involved in the decision-making process. This helps in creating self-confidence and esteem in employees. This style is followed in M&S Ltd to motivate existing employees.
3. Participating: More authority and responsibility is given to followers in this style. Leaders also provide feedback and guidance in relation to tasks. The company involves the participation of employees in matters related to operational activities.
4. Delegation: This is done at a lower level of management, where employees choose which task they want to perform and directions they will take. This helps to reduce the burden on leaders in relation to small matters prevailing in the company.

• Systems leadership: It means creating a condition where all members of the organization work effectively. This means leaders need to perform certain duties beyond the set limits of authority and responsibility. How they perceive particular information and evaluate gathered data. M&S has made a new leadership approach to improve the functioning of its clothing department (Giltinane, 2013).
• Contingency leadership: It is the opposite of situational leadership as it states that the effectiveness of leadership is achieved when the style of leaders should be matched with a given situation. According to this theory styles of leadership cannot be modified or influenced (Plambeck,2012).
• Transactional leadership: it is a traditional theory where leadership uses punishment and rewards to motivate employees. It is an effective tool that helps in getting nonperforming employees to work, and achieve the short-term goals of the organization.

5 The strengths and weaknesses of different theories and approaches

Situational leadership:

Contingency leadership:

Systems leadership:

Transactional leadership:

7 How managers and leaders make impacts on the organization

The manager and leader play a crucial role in an organization. They are important tools through which performance of the business can be improved. Managers set targets and help each individual to effectively contribute towards achieving the goals of the organization. Poor performance can affect the perception of employees, values, and vision of the business which results in a high turnover of staff. But, if managers perform their duty effectively it will help in attracting top talents to the company(Cuadrado, Navas, Molero, Ferrer and Morales, 2012).

Leaders directly influence an individual, it determines culture, and values and motivates employees to achieve both organizational and individual goals. They help in evaluating the gathered information and applying different approaches to improve the thinking skills of employees. It helps subordinates to create a vision and achieve them.

TASK 2

1. Introduce operation management and the key approaches adopted by the organization

Mark & Spencer gain popularity not only in its home country but internationally. Large operation of the country all over the world shows a great success to the company. But in late 1990's company saw a downfall and business went on decreasing. To improve the situation company has opted for strong operation management i.e. Company has decided to improve its clothing production line by introducing a plan to focus on core customers who want to spend money and are interested in classic fashion. It has introduced changes like simplifying the ranges, and focusing on the quality and uniqueness of each food item produced by them. It has included three supply chain strategies i.e. lean, hybrid, and strategic, due to different product lines. Key approaches adopted by Mark & Spencer are:

• Budgets of the company should be made operationally and not centrally.
• Marks & Spencer is shifting its focus to integrated products.
• Innovation in practices of operation management.
• The company has adopted a key approach to lean strategies.
• It has adopted a strategic approach and improves sustainability at every level of operation.
• The company has introduced sustainability in its values and mission.

2. The roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in the successful management of the operation

The roles and responsibilities of managers are as follows:

• They are linked to individual customers and serve products/services of a company to them. It acts as a bridge between customers and the organization, managers tell about the needs and demands of consumers to business, and in turn company acts and produces according to it (Tahan and et. al 2015).
• It serves as a link between top-level authorities and baseline employees, Managers translate all the higher-level strategies into operations which results in achieving of set target.
• Managers are directly related to front-line employees thus they act as guides, mentors, and support systems. Also, they help top-level authorities in order to know the needs of employees (Luria, Cnaan, and Boehm, 2017).

The roles and responsibilities of a leader are as follows:

• The leader in the organization is responsible for formulating strategies to achieve the objectives/ goals of the company.
• Company leaders effectively managed day-to-day operations within the business.
• They listen to the feedback of employees and support active participation.
• Provide any training required by subordinates to operate or conduct specific jobs.
• They influence employees through their skills and time management techniques (Lian and Tui,2012).
• The leader of M&S Ltd uses a proper motivation technique for individual employees.

3. Importance and value of the key approaches to operations management in achieving organizational objectives successfully

The key approaches adopted by Mark & Spencer help organizations achieve great success in their operations. Importance of key approaches are:

• By adopting the value chain process company has earned back the loyalty of its customers. They are attracted to company products.
• Adopting of strategic approach helps the company to reduce its costs increase its productivity and achieve sustainable development. It helps in achieving the desired results.
• It has made changes in its supply chain by introducing a lean supply chain which ensures the company gets products at lower costs with high quality and sells them to customers at low prices.
• M&S has adopted the approach of carbon neutrality. This helps the company reduce its food wastage by up to 40% and improves its energy efficiency by 26%. This innovation in operation management helps the company to produce eco-friendly products.
• Introducing sustainability in companies' values, and services helps them to produce accordingly. Achieve its mission successfully.

4 how managers and leaders could be effective in improving operational efficiencies

The leaders can improve operational efficiency by:

• Quality of work: To check how well employees are working, and what impact it has on business. If an employee is doing poor quality of work then it should be checked and informed the employee about the same.
• Knowledge of Employees: A leader should know about their subordinates it should have basic information regarding them. It will help to address the leader properly.
• Developed effective Communication: To get to know about the work of employees and to make them aware of business objectives it is important to have effective communication with them.
• Know about their Skills: Leader should know about the skills of their various employees. It will help leaders to know their abilities and make the best use of them. If a subordinate lacks certain skills he can assist or train them for the same.

The managers can improve operational efficiency by:

• Keep a check on performance: Managers should check the performance of employees, this would help in appraising good and competent employees and punishment to unskilled employees.
• Provide Information: They should provide employees with all the information in relation to their work. It will help in responding quickly to any threats or to strategies of competitors.
• Quality Standards: Managers should set a quality standard to measure the performance of employees. These standards will help the company to know what changes can be made to reach these standards (Hilton and Sohal, 2012.).

5. The impact of external business environment factors on operational management

There are various factors that do affect the business environment of Marks and Spencer through its operational management and these are described below:

• Global Competition: Marks and Spencer has increased the global market in the existing market because the company expanded their business to foreign markets. In order to survive in this global world, Marks and Spencer must have more than one competitive and with the rise in the global economy.
• Quality and customer service: this is the main factor that creates a great impact on a company. As operational management focuses more on the quality of goods supplied and processes in creating the best customer experience (Shahdany and et.al 2018). This is done by customer flow making them aware and establishing good relations with customers.
• Rapid expansion of advanced technologies: the development of new technologies and applications to the business activity will help to expand the business because there is a wide scope of technologies and the operational management of Marks and Spencer has used this from the development of products to design and help to improvement in many operational systems. Using this in a business will help to reduce costs and improve the quality and delivery process by creating good value for the customers (Chandra and Wella, 2017).
• Cost challenges: Marks and Spencer provides products at such a low rate as compared to its rivals but it may affect the profit of the business as operational management provides direct supply to the customers but fixing prices for that product is quite difficult and that is why consider it the biggest factor.

6. Critically evaluPlambeck, E. L., 2012ation of the application of operational management

It is evaluated that Marks and Spencer must have more than one competitive and with the rise in the global economy the company must make or buy their products from Europe by combining two locations and should not produce less than 15 countries from all over the world. According to quality and customer service sometimes Marks and Spencer does not fulfill the needs of customers and sometimes it may provide good quality products at lower rates (Nakajima and et.al 2018). It is evaluated that rapid expansion of the latest technologies would help to attract more customers and selling that product at a lower price will attract more and more customers and maximize sales.

7. Suggest recommendations for future improvements

• Provide training to managers: Training should be provided to managers in order to increase the operational efficiency of the organization. Managers should be trained through the actual situations so that they can apply them afterward in the organization.
• Utilization of Resources: It should be seen that the resources of the organization should be properly utilized so that maximum benefits can be achieved.
• Effective Plambeck, E. L., 2012Communication: Adopt an effective and strong communication mechanism so that employees are well aware of decisions of top-level authorities. Also, quick decisions can be made in relation to any problem.
• Proper Allocation of Resources: Available resources within the organization should be properly allocated to each department. It will help in reducing conflicts within different departments.
• Improve Marketing Strategies: The manager should work to formulate new marketing strategies to increase the productivity and sales of the organization.

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CONCLUSION

From the above report, it is concluded that management and operations play a vital in business. To sum up the above report, it analyses that leaders and managers of Marks and Spencer have different roles and characteristics. It also examines the role of a leader and the functions of a manager in various situational leadership. The report also presents different theories and models such as situational, system, and contingency leadership, and assesses their strengths and weaknesses. The report also evaluates how the leaders and managers can improve their efficiencies of operational management in order to meet the objectives. The report shows the importance and value of operation management at Marks and Spencer. The report assesses all the factors within the business environment that impact operational management and help in decision-making. It also evaluates the application of operation management to manage the factors in order to expand the business.

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REFERENCES

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• Giltinane, C. L., 2013. Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard (through 2013), 27(41), p.35.
• Hilton, R. J. and Sohal, A., 2012. A conceptual model for the successful deployment of Lean Six Sigma. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management. 29(1). pp.54-70.
• Jacobs, F. R and et. Al 2014. Operations and supply chain management (pp. 533-535). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
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• Luria, G., Cnaan, R. A. and Boehm, A., 2017. Religious Attendance and Volunteering: Testing National Culture as a Boundary Condition. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 56(3). pp.577-599.
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