INTRODUCTION
Management and operations are defined as the most effective function of the administration to get highest efficiency of the employees in an organisation. In other words, It can be possible through converting goods and efficiently use of services in order to maximize the profitability of the organisation. Operations management is the field of management which allows employees to get involve in designing and production of business activities in order to producing quality products and services. The present assignment is based on Marks and Spencer which deals in retail organisation with headquarters in UK and it has a huge brand image in marketplace. This project contains description about the role and characteristics that a managers have in enhancing the performance of company through various concept and key approaches. Furthermore this report will discuss about the importance and value of operations management along with strengths and weakness of different models of approaches. This report will also discuss about the factors of environment and its influence over decision making and operation management.
TASK 1
P1
Marks and Spencer is a UK-based retail organization that deals in apparel, luxurious goods, home accessories, etc., and was developed by Thomas Spencer and Michael Marks in 1884 at Leeds. They have around 979 stores along with more than 80000 employees within country. Marks and Spencer follow a flatter organizational structure because it reduces the level of authority among lower level employees and higher management. Flatter organizational structure ensures that all the information circulate easily from top to lower level employees (Braman, 2013).
Leaders: It is connected with an individual and a group of individuals who have expertise in their field and they have ability to manage and guide the operations performed by employees within the organisation. Due to which they gave their maximum efforts for achievement of desired task in a systematic manner. Furthermore, they evaluates the action of employees along decision making power and higher control over them.
Managers: These are the key person of a management of organisation Who has a huge knowledge about handling the critical situations which happens often in the organisations. In addition to this, managers are the persons who have responsibility for controlling a group of staff members in the organisation. In M&S there are various departments which is directed by different type of managers such as line managers, product managers, quality managers, store managers etc. they are concerned with providing guidelines to staff members in order to completing the task in a given time frame.
Role of leaders
A leader plays different kinds of important roles in M&S in order to completing a task in systematic way they are explained as under:
Motivation; It is an important role which is played by a leader in order to build healthy relationship with their team members. Motivation is a true quality which improves performance and productivity of employees in the organisation. So that, in M&S their leaders has to apply essential policy and tools which encourage the members for contributing their maximum efforts.
Communication; It is an essential element due to which organisation can easily achieved their goals in time. In the context of M&S their leaders has to communicate effectively with their team members. They have to make strategies and policies in order to increasing performance of workforce. So that top authorities can easily evaluate the performance level of employees either they are performing in right direction or not (De Roover, 2017).
Team Building- A good leader focuses on team improvement rather than as individual which creates improved productivity. In M&S their leaders has to develop team and promote collective working. In a team, members can easily communicate their issues with each other in order to identifying strength and weakness of team members.
Role of managers
There are various important roles which are played by managers in M&S they are defined as under:
Implementing plans and policies: Managers work toward introducing plans as well as strategies which are formulated by higher authorities. In the context of M&S their Managers are responsible for informing employees about the plans and policies in order to make them work effectively as per the action plan.
Provide training - Managers must analyse the performance as well as progress of the employees that they improve throughout their work within the company. As per the demand, managers of M&S must develop a training schedule that helps in enhancing their skills. This also support in improving the knowledge as well as capabilities of workers through trainings and other programme.
Monitoring & controlling- Managers has responsibilities to monitor and control all the activities which happens in an organisation in order to achieving goals and objectives of the firm. So that, managers of M&S has authority in their stores they can also regulate and control all business activities due to which they can easily get their objectives.
Characteristics of managers and leaders:
Positive attitude:Both manager, as well as leader, plays a significant role in guiding the employees for achieving pre specified objectives. They both deals with clients requirements in order to achieve the future growth of a business. A positive attitude between the leaders and manager of M&S support them in solving the issues in an effective manner.
Creative: The managers as well as leader have creative skills which support them in bringing more innovative approaches and strategies that help M&S in achieving success and growth. So they must use their creative skills for attracting and influencing customers to make purchases (Diabat, 2015).
Confident: It is very essential for leaders and manager to remain confident while applying policies or strategy that help in bringing positive response for company. Lack of confidence among them may bring negativity in the work environment of M&S so they have to perform their duties with confidence.
Motivator: In an organisation, leaders and managers have responsibility to motivate their employees at workplace in order to getting better result. They both communicates with their staff members and collect their feedbacks and better suggestions for implementing new policies. In the context of M&S their managers and leaders has to consider opinions and feedbacks of employees due to which, they will work with motivation for assigned task.
M1
Difference between leaders and managers
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Leaders |
Managers |
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Leaders work for accomplishing the objectives of a M&S by aligning the work of team members toward goals. |
Managers generally sets the objective for leaders on which they work for achieving the goals of M&S. |
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Leaders perform operations along with their team members. |
Managers generally perform planning, and designing of work for achieving the goals of M&S. |
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Leader inspire employees to being hard worker and dedicated toward their work for improving the productivity of M&S. |
Managers guide the worker to work hard for accomplishment of M&S goals. |
TASK 2
P2
Every organisation faces several situations that can be happened at any time. In other words, it is uncertain in nature so every organisation should consider these which may arise in future and they will gave wrong impact on the business activities. So that, leaders and managers have to prepare for these situations along with improved productivity and performance of the employees. Here are some roles and functions of managers as well as leaders in different conditions which is explained in brief as follows:
Stable situations – Under this type of situations managers has to take their decisions with their efficiency for example there is a huge competition at marketplace in clothing sector so that manager has to make a proper strategy of plan so that organisation can beat the competition. Furthermore, managers and leaders are playing important role in the organisation in order to beating competition at marketplace they have to formulate a fit strategy so that they will gave a tough competition to their rivals. In marks and Spencer as they have capable managers and leaders so that, they have to planning according the situations and tries to encourage employees to perform their operations effectively in varied situations (Glasstone, 2012).
Stable to moderate situation- Under this situation changes happens less frequently in trend as well as external environment. Demand of the customers in clothing segment is generally stable to moderate managers when it offered them on seasonal basis. For this situation, leaders are required to take necessary decisions so that it can be applied by the managers at operational level. Managers of Marks & Spencer must formulate strategies for determining changes in taste or preference of customers .
Fast Situations- Under this type of situations managers and leaders have to prepared for this situations because market trends and demand of customers are modified timely so managers and leaders has to take actions according to the situations. Managers and leaders of M&S has to modify their plans and strategies with considering requirement of customers. For example- technological managers may launch a new mobile applications or adopt a digital platform so that, they can easily communicate with customers in order to improvement of quality and services of the organisation.
P3
There are number of theories as well as approaches of leadership that can be used by leaders of M&S in order to guide their team and ali9gning their work toward the accomplishment of organisational goals. Following are the theories of leadership:
System leadership: This theory can be applied by a managers for resolve all the problems that are related with business operation which help in achieving the desired goals and managers. For instance, if any issue arises in M&S stores then leader must try to resolve that in an effective managers. Therefore leader focuses over analysing such elements that can affect the business operations and then try to apply effective strategies for minimising such types of issues at the workplace. This also also support in establishing positive environment within company.
Situational theory: According to this theory a leader must try to adopt different leadership styles as per the various problems faced by them at workplace. As per situational theory, a same leadership style will not be helpful in each situation, instead the leader should try to apply different styles based on the issues. Managers and leaders of M&S should apply situational theory which support them in act as oper the demand of situation for solving issues(Sesonske, 2012).
Contingency theory: This theory state that the effectiveness of a leader is based on their own leadership style that they implement and which fits with the situations occur. In Contingency theory, the leadership style which is opted by a leaders is either people oriented or task oriented. People oriented is consists of building up strong interpersonal relationship with employees and on the other hand task-oriented is related to attain goals of a company. Managers and leaders of M&S are efficient in using this theory as they are highly experienced in determining the type of situation as well as providing solution for resolving the problem.
M2
Different approaches and their strength and weaknesses
System leadership theory
- Strengths:This leadership theory aims toward accomplishing individual as well as organisational goals.
- Weakness: This results delays in decision making process and is not always practicle to use.
Contingency leadership theory
- Strengths: It focuses on connecting the leaders and managers as per the situations arises. Because it does not required an effective leader in every situation.
- Weaknesses: This leadership style fails to provide the reason behind why some people are good leaders in some situations only.
Situational leadership theory:
- Strengths: It present within the managers and used by companies for providing training to leaders.
- Weakness: It have very few research related studies for justifying the assumptions as well as propositions.
These are number of leadership theories that are very crucial for development of a leader. Some of main theories related to leadership are contingency, situational and system styles of leadership.
TASK 3
P4
An enterprise plays a crucial role in the procedure of import and export. In other words, before launching a product in the market management should practice various managerial functions such as planning, organising,staffing, direction and regulating. An organisation is related with both type of environment such as internal and external which includes interaction of internal part with the external part (Hitt, 2017). Here are some key approaches that come under operation management along with the roles and responsibilities that a managers & leaders have in different functions like:
Total quality management: under this approach, management have to assume the best quality in services as well as products which is delivered to desired customers as per their requirements. Furthermore, this approach is based on producing quality products and services in order to meet requirement of the customers. M&S offers a variety of product with best quality due to which their number of customers are increased and it attracts more customers towards the company.
Just in time- It is connected with stock management of an organisation in other words, it is concerned with controlling stock in production process. Which increase efficiency of the workforce and reduce the cost. It will be helpful for M&S because they may control their stock management system through this approach.
Lean production – Under this approach, it helps to production department in minimisation of cost in order to getting better outcomes through effective utilisation of resources. M&S should implement this approach for manufacture product with quality with less waste material.
Six sigma – In this part, various tools and techniques are adopted by management in order to giving products with quality to their customers. In addition to this, every organisation wants to deliver their products without defect so, they may adopt a proper transportation system which helps in getting satisfaction from the customers(Duane Ireland, 2017).
P5
A systematic approach is an important part which helps in regular betterment of performance within the organisation. There are various methods and techniques are adopted by management for improving performance and results. It assists management to gave emphasizes on development and improvement of the products.
Following are the importance of operations management
Evaluations – It assists management to monitoring and controlling the activities in order to remove inefficiencies such as shortage of raw material, proper utilisation of resources.
Financial and Human resource department- These both departments are the lifeline of an organisation because without these management can't perform their activities properly. In M&S they can maintain these department at long time through giving them opportunities.
Enhance performance: It is beneficial for organisation and their workforce because it maintains the morale and confidence level of employees. Due to which productivity in employees will be increased. By the help of this, M&S can improve performance level and productivity of their employees.
M3
There are several methods through which the efficiencies of leaders and managers can improve the operational activities in order to meet business objectives they are as under :
Cost minimization- It enables the management to reduce cost at the time of production and helps in finding the various resources which will be used in various activities. M&S should take careful actions while producing a product because it may be costly and expensive.
Time management- It is an important factor because without it desired task will not done in specific time. Therefore, it influence on productivity and performance of employees negatively. In M&S, managers should adopt this in order to offer goods or services to consumer in a given time period (Hoyos, 2015).
TASK 4
P6
The environment is defined as the atmosphere of an organisation which influences the business activities in both way such as positively and negatively. Generally all organisations are affected from these environmental factors which is explained as under:
Internal environment
Under this type of environment, it can be controlled or regulated by the top level of authorities of an organisation. Basically these factors are mainly controlled by managers.
Managers – It may be define as an individual or a group of individual who is the founder of the firm or take shares in profits. Therefore they takes decisions which affects organisation internally
Board of Directors- This refers to the management bodies of the organisations which that were selected by the shareholders and are called as general managers in the organisations.
Employees- These are an important factor of organisation because, without them organisation can't get growth or sustainability at the marketplace. Employees work hard to get reward and success. Therefore, manager has to maintain a healthy work environment for them through solving their issues which may be result in failure of business.
External environment
This type of environment affects an organisation from outside. This type of environment is not handled by managers. An organisation can overcome from these cause by making proper plans and strategies. Pestle analysis is used to find out the impact of these elements(Hugos, 2018).
Political factors – It is connected with legislation and regulations that a country have and that are modified by legislative bodies time to time. This is essential for M&S to follow the laws and legislation for achieving sustainability of their product and improve brand image in various countries.
Economic factors – In this kind of factors it includes economic growth, inflation, interest rates, foreign exchange rates etc. which gave impact on the business performance of a firm. M&S should implement effective pricing policy at their stores in order to attracting more number of customers.
Social factors: This includes demands, taste and behaviour of customers that can effect the business or the sale of products. Managers of M&S must study about consumer behaviour and manage data about customer's demands before entering in a new market.
Technological factor: It involve factors like advancement and technologies that influence the productivity of a company due to obsolete technology. M&S must consider technological factor of the nation in which they are operating their business operations. Company should try to involve latest and updated machinery in their business for serving customer better.
Environmental factors: It includes factors like natural hazards, climatic changes etc. that affect the operations performed by a company. So, it is essential for a managers and leaders of M&S to take into consideration such environmental factors for the organisational growth. If company doesn't follow these regulations then the Government of country can take strict actions against them (Natarajan, 2014).
Legal factors: M&S must comply with laws related to business operatiosn that are required for sustaining in the country.
M&S is required to operate their business activities effectively without facing any issues relating to different internal as well as external factors. A company must follow all rules and standards in order to work efficiently.
M4
There are two major factors which gave direct impact on the business and its activities such as internal and external factors. They may influence as a barrier on the success of the organisation.
In External factors, they influence organisations from outside such as political, economical, environmental, technological, social and legal they may be different in size as per the atmosphere or size of the organisation. For example – If a country's inflation rate is high than how will an organisation get sustainability at that location (De Roover, 2017).
Whereas, in Internal factors it affects the organisation in various ways like decision are made by managers and board of directors without interference of employees, In order to getting growth of the firm. Due to which negative impact on the firm directly. For example If management of an organisation don't motivate their employees for their work it will builds dissatisfaction among them therefore it will gave wrong impact on growth of firm.
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CONCLUSION
From the above given report it can be concluded that operations management plays a crucial role within the development of M&S. The roles as well as operations of managers and leaders are interrelated with one another and inefficiency among them can affects the operations performed by an organisation. Different leadership theories and models holds value in operations management and also support in achieving business objectives has been discussed in the report. Further the internal and external factors also affect the operational management and decision-making by Leaders and managers. These elements affects the business environment and community at large that can be limit by proper management and by applying required strategies for improving the efficiency of employees within the organisation.
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