Difference between a Leader and a Manager - Tesco

TASK 1

P1 Definition and comparison of different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager

Each organisation needs a leader as well as manager so as to operate its business in an effective manner. They both perform their different activities in order to provide benefits to an organisation. Role and characteristics of both leader and manager is explained below for better understanding.

• Leaders: They are defined as the one who lead or command a team or a group of teams, organisation or a country. Leaders are very influential in nature and they motivate or encourage people in such a way that goals and objectives can be achieved in a speculated time frame. Therefore, main purpose of leaders is to visualise targets which are achievable. Individual who come up as leaders are work with the motive of accomplish attainable goals, inspiring other persons, measure activities whether these are quantifiable and sharing in nature (Chan and et. al., 2014). For example: Leaders of ASDA, are providing guidelines to team members such as assisting them in making appropriate strategies in order to execute the task in an effective manner. Therefore, it is enabling them in getting into a better position at market area.
• Managers: An individual who takes charge or responsible of a particular group within an organisation moreover, they have certain staff members who work under a manager and report to him/her for whatever things happen. Thus, it can be said that a manager holds a position from where he/she can control or administer all the activities that happen in a company. Furthermore, they can implement new strategies if company is not gaining any kinds of benefits. Managers and its designation can be different depends upon various organisation like line manages, staff manager etc., For example: Main task of managers is to assign and allocate effective resources to employees so that work can be done in a better way without any complication. Henceforth, managers of ASDA are doing the same they are allocating task according to the skills and knowledge acquired by them.

Characteristics of leaders:

• Positive attitude: Leaders without a positive attitude cannot assist them in achieving goals and objectives. Staying calm and composed always increase strengths in performing better in difficult situations (Choi, Chan and Yue, 2017). For example: Leaders of ASDA keep positive attitude as even in decrease in sales they boost the morale of employees and motivate them in performing their task with full enthusiasm.
• Focussed approach: Leaders do their activity with a specific vision and they guide their team mates with the same approach. With the help of this, leaders can ensure whether members of their team are working in a better manner or not. For example: While accomplishing any task leaders of ASDA, are very much focussed as they look out for one task at a time so that it can be done in an effective manner.

Characteristics of managers:

• Time management: This is one of the key factor that is incorporated by an individual and if a manager possess this quality that he/she can manage all the task and activities in an effective manner without any chaos or difficulties. For example: Superiors gave different task in order to increase sales and profitability so here managers should have the capability of time management by understanding the importance of which task is to be done on a prior basis.
• Experience: In relation to other employees within an organisation managers are experienced and know what kind of task can give them benefits or will be good of organisation's point of view (Dobrzykowski and et. al., 2014). For example: In situations like decrease in sales experience of manager will be very effective as they can use their experience in making proper strategies for attaining goals and objectives.

You may also like to read: Difference Between Leaders and Managers - Karl David

Difference between leaders and managers:

Similarities between leaders and managers

Both leaders and managers constantly work with the purpose of developing goals, mission, vision so that each and every employee can strive towards them in an effective manner. As a result, goals and objectives can be achieved in a limited time frame. Leaders and managers both show positive behaviour towards commitments in order to gain better outcomes.

TASK 2

P2 Role of leaders and the function of a manager according to different situations with an example

Henri Fayol was a French engineer who first created principles of management theory and he was classified as the founding father of these principles. The components of this theory are evaluated below as:

• Planning: Making an appropriate plan is one of the hardest function amongst five functions of management. In order to do this, it is important that entire organisation shows their active participation. Planning should be linked with different levels with respect to time and its implementation (Ghiani and et. al., 2014). Therefore, while company is making any kind of planning it is important that they consider all the resources that are available to them. For instance: manager of TESCO, while making strategies related to increasing sales and profitability they will go through the market situation so that the most effective plan is formulated accordingly.
• Organising: In order to function well it is important that all the activities are performed in an organised manner. For example: manager should look out that they have sufficient amount of money, skilled staff members and adequate raw materials which can be transformed into final goods so that better services can be provided. Other than this, managers must create or build a good working structure along with good division of functions. This will assist them in performing their activities in an effective manner. 
• Commanding: This is an important element because it is crucial for managers to give clear orders about the working instructions as a result, will guide workers and they will have an idea about what exactly is required for them to perform. Thus, for this, it is significant that managers use effective communication process through which they can make better decision on regular audits. 
• Coordinating: While working for a common goal it is crucial that a proper coordination is maintained as it will help company in performing activities in harmonised manner (Grant, Wong and Trautrims, 2017). Managers can conduct meeting on a regular basis so that issues and problems can be eliminated as a result it will assist firm in maintaining work in a coordinated way.
• Controlling: It is very necessary that managers have proper control over activities other than this, better guidelines can be provided to employees so that resources can be used in a limited manner.

Role of leaders with respect to different situations:

• Fast situations: There are some situations when leaders have to be very active and perform according to the current market situations. For example: with the change in course of time technologies are also changing with a rapid speed and companies are adopting these technologies in order to get better outcomes. For instance, here, leaders will use authoritative style of leadership and just guide employees for performing their activities.
• Moderate situations: In this situation leader guide and take suggestions as well for performing any kind of activity. This will enable company in providing goods and services according to the needs and wants of customers. As a result, company can sustain a better position at market area for a longer period of time.
• Slow situations: Under this, formulation of policies are considered as modifications are done at a very slow speed and moreover, opinions and reviews are taken from employees because change cannot be done in a fast mode as it requires lot of planning and other stuffs as well (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016).

P3 Different theories and models of approach including situational leadership, system leadership and contingency

There are different theories such as system leadership, contingency and situation leadership and these are useful in order to perform the operations according to situations in effective manner which are evaluated below as:

Situational Leadership: According to situational leadership theory, most effective leaders are one who can adapt themselves as per various situations. It is a timeless model and is basically based on a relationship which is between leaders and its followers as they have to work under a certain framework so as to give better performance. For example: Leaders of TESCO can implement situational leadership in order to adapt new technologies and according to this, leaders will consider these four steps like in

• Diagnose: leaders will understand different situations which is having an influence on the performance for example: whether introducing technologies in TESCO is improving the performance of employees and organisation. Moreover, it will provide leaders with an idea about things whether it will increase growth rate and profit of a company (Hoyos, Morales and Akhavan-Tabatabaei, 2015).
• Adapt: This stage depends upon what has been diagnosed whether it can be adopted by a leader or individual with respect to contingency to difficult situations. Furthermore, in this leaders of TESCO, will first adapt new technologies in order to know whether it is effective or not for gaining maximum benefits.
• Communicate: It is one of the important step under which leader tend to communicate things so that it can influence other individuals. This will help others in understanding and accepting things according to their situations and circumstances. Therefore, installed technologies will be communicated to employees so that they can understand and learn the mechanism of the same.
• Advance: Under this, things are managed so as to get higher performance. Moreover, the new strategies are finalised and further used for getting maximum benefits.

Henceforth, situational leadership theory can provide benefits for a particular situation and after adopting this TESCO can enhance its sales and profitability in a speculated time frame.

For example: In relation with TESCO, for instance a decrease in sales has been noticed from past two years thus, leaders thought of changing their leadership style so that benefits can be achieved but this didn't provide any results. Furthermore, TESCO changed its pricing strategies and in comparison to other firm they lower down its prices in order to attract large number of customers and to promote the same organisation adopted various platform such as social media, digital technology etc., As a result, this will assist company in increasing its sales and profitability. Thus, change in leadership style like moving from autocratic to democratic according to the situation will be ultimately turned to the best move for company of gaining competitive advantages.

System Leadership: As a leader he/she should understand about the unintended consequences which can arise and effect the entire process of business operations. Mainly, this kind of leadership style is incorporated by a leader in order to execute all the plans in a systematic manner. Moreover, in system leadership in order to perform the activity leader first take input from employees and then process the same by applying best fit strategies. For example: In relation with TESCO, managers can make strategies of having proper information about goods and products available. As a result, it will assist superiors in providing products as per the requirements.

Contingency: Under this leadership style, leaders adopt different leadership styles according to various situations such as company is going through decline in the sales so here, leaders will use authoritative form as a result, it will provide them with better results. Other than this, for some instance leaders can use democratic leadership style and include other individuals for better decision making (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). For example: Large number of errors and overlapping of work is coming from the side of employees that hampers the productivity and quality both. In this situation, the leader is required to change their styles as provides an opportunity to guide them effectively. The style which is most suitable in this scenario is contingency as they adopt the same according to situation arise.

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TASK 3

P4 Key approaches to operations management and the role that are played by leaders and managers

Operational management comes under the administration of business practice that is majorly concern with designing and controlling the entire process of production. In short, it helps organisation in redesigning their business operations in such a manner that goods and services that are provided are effective and according to the needs and wants of customers. Therefore, operation management assist company in converting raw materials into final goods . Furthermore, operational management has different models for managing operations and some of them are explained below:

• Just-in-time: It is an inventory system or a management strategy under which items are created in order to meet the demands rather than manufactured in surplus or in advance of need (Langabeer and Helton, 2015). Main purpose of JIT is to avoid waste that are related to overproduction, waiting and excess inventory. This model was first adopted by Toyota Production System so as to eliminate seven wastes. Just-in-time has some advantages over traditional model and company can follow this in order to produce goods in a better manner. For example: TESCO in order to distribute its products to its customer can use drop shipper's strategy so that time consumption can be reduced. This will assist company in delivering goods and products directly to its customers. Other than this, store manager will be able to manage its inventory by keeping reasonable storage but still providing effective services to its consumers. Duration of production remains short and manufacturers can move from one commodity to other in simple step and firms in terms of raw material their expenditure are low as they have to produce limited amount of goods.
• Total Quality Management: This is an approach in which company shows its continuous efforts in providing effective services so that customer's loyalty and satisfaction can be gained for a longer period of time. Furthermore, TQM can be divided into four categories i.e. plan, do, check and act and each division perform its activity for providing quality products to its customers. For example: TESCO, in order to check quality of the product can divide task into different groups like they can make a separate section who will check how may stocks are there in the warehouses and if there is a less stocks available then how it can be fulfilled. Furthermore, for quality approval company can hire six to seven person who can check the products before delivering the same.
• Kaizen: It is a Japanese term that is used for improvement in business it is used for the activities that are continuously improving the functions of employees from CEO to assembly line workers. Thus, Kaizens was developed in manufacturing sector to lower down the defects so that leaders can eliminate waste and enhance productivity. This can be done by providing better training and development skills to workers other than this, by promoting innovation in their organisation (Mahadevan, 2015). For example: Keeping a proper record by a store manager can eliminate the change of wastage as they will get an insight of how much products they are required in their warehouses or storage room.

P5 Importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives

• Role of Store manager: A store manager is one who is fully responsible for evaluating day-to-day activities. With all gathered information he/she reports to district/area or general manager. There are many roles and responsibilities that are performed by a store manager and some of them are stated below:
• Recruiting employees for store: This is store manager's prime responsibility as they can hire candidates according to the requirements. In addition to this, store manager provides appropriate training and development programme so that new employee can contribute best of his/her efforts so that things could be managed.
• Maintains overall image of the store: It is a responsibility of store manager to keep shelves and racks are kept clean other than this, merchandise products should be displayed sensibly so that customers can get the products easily according to the requirements.
• Ensure whether targets are meet or not: In TESCO, store manager had to look after the products whether these are in sufficient number. For example: if there is a shortage in grocery items than he/she can report to general manager for the same so that things can be available to them and all needs and wants of customers can be fulfilled on time (Schönsleben, 2016).

Importance of operations management in TESCO

Operations management determine how a company produce goods and provide services to its customers. This department works with a purpose of delivery products successfully in timely manner. Therefore, it is crucial that company enhance the overall productivity and this can be done when firm has adequate amount of raw materials. In terms of TESCO, which is one of the leading companies that deals in retail sector and they are known for giving best quality goods to its customers. In this company stores are designed so that consumers can get their stuffs easily without any problem.

Operation management in TESCO will help them in providing products that are of best qualities as it will enable manager in understanding the issues and problems that can further hinder the performance of business activities. So, with the help of total quality management firm will be able to give better results. Other than this,with the help of operation management company can cut down the prices because through which excess use of resources and raw materials can be reduced which can cost them higher than usual (Schwarz, Hall and Shibli, 2015).

TASK 4

P6 Factors within business environment that has an impact upon operational management and decision making process

Business environment refers to internal as well as external factors which impacts over operations function of the company. In order to evaluate business environment of TESCO, PEST analysis is conducted. All of the factors are described as below:

• Political Factor : It has been analysed that, government majorly encourages both international and domestic retailers (Bazargan, 2016). Therefore, this is being considered as one of the major factor. Government majorly formulates taxes, legislations and different courses and makes changes as well at the same time. Therefore, it may put impact on TESCO Plc and on its operations as well. For an example: In financial crisis period, TESCO Plc have developed a number of employment opportunities in United Kingdom which helped them in maintaining relations with government.
• Away with this, it has also impacted on decision making process of both managers and leaders because slight changes in policies related to employee legislations will increase work load of manager in order to update their knowledge for the same. As a result, fresh decision which are going to be taken by leaders will involve these updated regulations. This can be considered as a good example of alterations in decision-making.
• Economical factor: It shows economical condition of a nation, demand of customers at marketplace, fluctuation in taxation policies, trading laws etc. Therefore, all these factors create a large impact on decision-making policies of a company. For example: When per capita income of people is good, then it will give opportunity to TESCO to boost its sales performance and generate high revenues as well. In this regard, when economical condition is good then managers of this company are required to develop pricing strategies. For this process, they need to concern on price strategy used by its competitors also (Chan and et. al., 2014).
• Social factor: This aspect of business environment includes factors which impact on decision-making process of a company. As related to TESCO, due to increase in demand to make investment in CSR activities, assists managers to concern on the same. Along with this, social factors also assist this firm to conduct business in ethical manners. For example: Attitude of people towards intake of food products is rapidly changing. In UK, customers become more health conscious towards consumption of eatables. Therefore, managers of TESCO are required to develop policies by which they can convince people that it products are healthy and made under hygienic condition.
• Technological factor: This factor is helpful of organisation as it helps them in developing their products and services in effective manner. In context to TESCO, the company uses highly updated technology which helps them in producing high quality products. This enhances satisfaction level of customers as they are getting readily available product along with personalised services (Choi, Chan and Yue, 2017). It also avails more convenient shopping experience to customer. TESCO uses Electronic Point of Sale, electronic scanners, and electronic funds transfer system.

These systems are successful in managing operational activities of company in effective manner. It is important for manager and leader of TESCO to decide about most useful technology which are required to be opted by them so that company can function effectively.

CONCLUSION

From the above report, it has been concluded that operation management is one of the crucial department that can help company in delivering best quality products to its customers. In order to manage things, it is important that both leaders and managers use appropriate styles such as situational, system or contingency theory so that better outcomes can be obtained. In addition to this, different approaches such as total quality management, just-in-time and kaizen is included which moreover assist firm in providing goods and services which are of best quality by reducing waste and cost at the same time.

REFERENCES

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