Question :
Operation management plays an essential role in increasing the revenue of the company through a reduction in the production and operation cost by utilizing the resources in an optimum manner. This project aims the learner to understand the importance of management together with the importance of leader and manager. It includes the following outcome-
- Explanation of the role of leader and function of a manager.
- Difference between the responsibilities of a leader and the work of a manager at M&S.
- Examination of the leader’s role and the manager’s function in different situational contexts at M&S.
- Assessing the role of leaders and managers in various approaches of operations management.
- Analysation of connection between leadership and management in a present business environment.
Answer :
INTRODUCTION
Management and operations are the two key elements of any organization. The management of a company refers to the leaders who direct their managers to accomplish a task with definite operations and activities. It refers to organize and manage the production of a company at the highest level of efficiency. In this report, Mark and Spencer cover the management and operations activities. Mark and Spencer are one of the British multinational retailers of clothes, home products, and food products. The firm came in inception in the year 1884 by Sir Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. Its headquarter is situated in London, United Kingdom. The report includes roles and characteristics of roles and managers, functions of managers, theories and models of leadership approaches, key approaches to operation management. Along with this, it underpins the importance and value of operations management and factors of the business environment that impacts decision making (Ale and et. al., 2010).
TASK 1
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager
Mark and Spencer one of the most largest retailer in the United Kingdom which was founded almost one hundred thirty four years ago. It has almost 979 stores across the country and approximately 615 stores among that sells food products only. The company is running by Archie Norman (Chairman) Steve Rowe (Chief Executive). There are two key people who plays an important role to run a business with prosperity. Managers and leaders are the two most essential bodies who set the objectives and show a path to accomplish the goals.
Leaders :
Leaders of an organization leads a company such as Mark and Spencer. They establishes a a clear vision and shares their vision to achieve its. In fact, they have the ability to take the risk in order to attain the objectives and goals to make M&S top company. The leaders can take step ahead to overcome the crisis and build a path creatively that is followed by their employees to attain the target (Baboli and et. al., 2014).
Managers :
The manager is an individual who takes charge of a group or team through which it achieves the goals that are given by the leaders of a company. In order to accomplish the task successfully managers develops the strategies, policies and plan that needed to work for the staff with an effective manner. The manager has subordinates who aid to reach out to the goal by the completing the task within time. It is manger's responsibility to assign the task in a team equally and according to the efficiencies of subordinates to attain the objectives. It is a prime responsibility to manage a team with guidance so that the employees can reach towards the goals. For an example, the manager of Mark and Spencer assign the task to the sales force to sell the products with predetermined target. The managers manages the sales force to increase the sales with maximum profit
(Burke, 2013).
There are some key differences between leaders and managers according to their roles and characteristics and that are given below -
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Leaders |
Managers |
|
A leader innovates or invent the new ideas to kick-start their organization and has an ability top think forward. Leaders always keep their eyes on the horizon to develop new strategies and techniques for the company. As they are already has an immense knowledge of the current trends, advancements and skill sets and they also has the clear purpose and vision to attain the objectives. For an instance, the leaders of M&S has the ability to develop the innovate the products like the it has the food products to sale and then it comes with the clothing to increase the profit. |
On the other hand, manager only follow the instructions of the leaders and they maintain the work for the process which is already established. They needs to watch the bottom line process to control the employees and workflow in Mark and Spencer to prevent chaos in working. Such as the production manager in Mark and Spencer needs to generate the apparels with a particular process and through managing the employees. |
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Leader of M&S pushes their employees to put their effort and give the best performance and they also know to set appropriate pace and coordination in rest of the group. For an illustration, the leaders of Mark and Spencer has various kind of products and for this they need to push their employees to put their effort to meet the desired objective. |
Whereas the managers at M&S needs the job description to establish the control on their employees which helps them to bring out the best output. The managers requires to be aware about the capabilities of subordinates to perform effectively while working in Mark and Spencer (Casolino and et. al., 2012). |
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Leadership is refers to the dignity to lead the people through encouragement. |
On the contrary, the managers follows a process to manage the activities of Mark and Spencer. |
Leaders and managers both plays a crucial role for Mark and Spencer as leader sets an objectives and to meet that vision the manager needs to establish strategies and plans.
TASK 2
P2 Role of a leader and the function of a manager
Leaders are the most dominant personality who holds the superior power and position in an organisation. They have the ability to influence the people over time whereas are assigned the tasks to manage the work among employees with smooth workflow that can meet the goals. There are different roles of leader and functions of employees that are mentioned below -
Roles of leaders
Establish objective
A leader have a fair outlook without any bias towards an individual. They has the capability to develop their own opinion and give the judgement on the basis of logical thinking.
Encouragement
Leaders has self – confidence to attain the task and they motivate their subordinates to meet the aim. The leaders of Mark and Spencer has the capability handle the situations with a strong will power (Chen and et. al., 2011).
Create a vision
The leaders establishes a vision that needed to support by the M&S employees in order to reach out the objectives. For an example, the leaders of M&S sets vision to open 800 stores across the country and it needed to support by the employees in order to achieve this vision and that is why it accomplish the goals to be a successful business with the support of employees.
Functions of managers
According to Henri Fayol there are five basic functions of management which manages the activities of an organization that are given below -
Planning
Planning is the basic function it shapes the appropriate actions to achieve the task. Planning refers to plan the activities what things are required to accomplish the task, when the activities will be performed and in what way the actions will be done.
Organizing
An organization functions on the activities which are well defined to attain the goals. Mark and Spencer is able to achieve the goals because it has sufficient capital, raw material and staff that manages the work in smooth manner. It has a good structure of work to manage the work in appropriate modules is very important. Managers recognize the activities, distribute work in groups, assigns duties to people. They also manages the coordination in team to complete the task (Chen and et. a
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