This sample will let you know about:
- What is operations management?
- Discuss the role of leaders and managers.
This report has detailed study of impact of leaders and managers on operations of Marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer is a multinational clothing brand which have its stores all over world. In addition, report provides understanding about roles and approaches of leadership and management in company and different business environmental factors which helps to increase productivity of company to achieve competitive advantage and increase profitability.
Roles and Characteristics of Leaders and Managers
Leader is an individual or group of individual who has the ability to influence employees to increase their willingness to achieve objectives of business organization effectively. Leader helps employees in Marks and Spencer to increase their interpersonal skills by providing them task which involves moral, ethics and values to develop each employee to become loyal to company.
Manager is a person who is responsible for supervising and controlling activities according to policies and guidelines of company to maintain efficiency. Marks and Spencer appoints managers to evaluate performance of employees and supervise them according to their work and skills.
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Leaders |
Managers |
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Planning |
Marks and Spencer analyses the role of leaders in company as they are responsible to ensure the efficiency of employees to achieve objectives which are formulated by managers. |
Managers of Marks and Spencer use their management functions to develop new objectives for company which help to increase productivity of business. |
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Organising |
Leaders are responsible to integrate skills of employees with work by influencing them. They help to increase performance of employees by communicating with them. |
Managers are responsible to identify the effectiveness of leaders and communicate with them about performance of employees of company. |
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Leaders have focus on employee’s efficiency and attaining objectives with lower cost and in less time. |
Managers are more focused on all resources of company which can provide better growth opportunities in the future. |
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Directing |
Leader of Marks and Spencer have characteristics to work in effective teams to provide proper guidance to all employees and help them to achieve objectives effectively. |
Manager provides policies and regulations to employees to follow company's ethics and business culture. |
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Leaders are having ability to innovate the ideas which are provided by managers for employee’s efficiency. |
Managers have the ability to invest new policies and ideas to expand companies into new market (Wincott, 2018). Manager of Marks and Spencer have ability to improve efficiency of employees by formulating different strategies. |
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Leaders have skills and knowledge to influence employees of company effectively. |
Managers have provided proper information about factors which can help leaders to increase motivation of employees to increase productivity of Marks and Spencers. |
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Coordinating |
Leaders are responsible to implement change in organization by influencing employees to accept change and improve quality of products and services. |
Managers have responsibility to analyse external and internal factors by various management tools and techniques to identify market trends for change implementation. |
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Leaders have the skills and knowledge which is unique from everyone and helps them to influence employees to increase their efficiency. They follow rules and uses their skills to lead employees to reduce disputes in Marks and Spencers. |
Managers are made with specific rules and principles of management which decrease the differentiation of each manager, and they have same skills and knowledge. They make coordinating environment easy with effective rules and regulations. |
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Controlling |
Leaders have the tendency to take risks and formulate outcomes on their will according to available resources. Leaders have responsibility to ensure employees are on right path to achieve objectives with effective leadership approaches and styles. |
Managers use principle, tools and techniques of management to reduce threats and risk from Marks and Spencers to achieve objectives and increase profitability. They also have responsibility performance determining strategies to maintain efficiency of workforce of company, |
Role of Leader and Functions of Manager
Managers and Leaders are very essential resource of Marks and Spencer as they help to improve the efficiency of employees and provide effective skills and knowledge to achieve objectives. Role of managers and functions of managers are interrelated in Marks and Spencer which help to improve performance to manage and influence employees effectively. They also help to evaluate internal and external factors of business environment to facilitate effective strategies which help Marks and Spencer to compete in clothing retail industry in different market. Get assignment writing help from our experts!
Emergencies
Managers of Marks and Spencer have the responsibility to identify and analyse all the internal and external factors of market to formulate objectives, policies and strategies to increase market share of company and supervision to employees in accordance with policies and regulations. Whereas leaders of marks and Spencer are responsible for motivating employees and focusing on performance to achieve the objectives of company to increase efficiency of Marks and Spencer. This help to reduce risk at any emergency.
Inventory management
Inventory management is the main aspect in retail industry and managers need to adopt management information system to obtain accurate information about available stock all over world. This also helps manager to understand the current stock value to increase purchasing power and decrease cost and improve profitability (Turban and et.al., 2017). Leaders of Marks and Spencer have obligations to follow the policies and appoint right person at right job at right time to increase efficiency of company.
Training and Development
Managers of Marks and Spencer are responsible to provide commands to their subordinates in order to accomplish the tasks and increase productivity of company. Manager helps to identify the factors by effective tools and techniques which help to increase efficiency of motivation in employees. Leaders are responsible to deal with employees by influencing them to increase their efficiency in form of high performance teams. Managers identify scale of training required by employees and leader guide them to achieve those skills with effective practices.
Effective Communication
Managers of Marks and Spencer are obligated to evaluate the performance of company as whole with help of key performance index and benchmark techniques with competitors. This also helps managers to facilitate healthy work environment and decrease disputes between employees. Healthy work environment provides leverage to organization culture to reach objectives effectively. Role of leaders of Marks and Spencer is to provide proper communication channel between employees and management to solve the issues and motivate them to achieve objectives effectively.
Management Audit
It is the last stage of managerial function which managers have to perform in order to increase productivity of Marks and Spencer and compete in market (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018). Controlling of resources helps to provide standards and high quality products and services from company to customers. Managers have to ensure the efficiency of leader to influence employees to achieve objectives effectively this also helps to increase customer satisfaction and sales of company. Need Assignment Samples?Talk to our Experts!
Theories and Models of Leadership Approaches
Leadership approaches helps Marks and Spencer to implement change in organization which provide increased productivity to compete in market. Marks and Spencer is using many leadership theories which provide better perspective to increase the efficiency of employees of company.
Situational leadership
Leaders in this strategy change their styles continuously according to needs and wants of employees to achieve objectives of company. In This strategy leader can adopt style according to telling and direction situation, selling and coaching situation, participating and supporting situation, delegating and supporting situation. Marks and Spencer uses this theory by analysing skills and knowledge of employee to integrate with vision and mission of company. This strategy helps to achieve the objectives within time limit according to skills and ability of employees. This leadership styles is more flexible to adopt and help to improve performance effectively. Team members are also more effective in understanding each other and achieving their objective. Strategic planning is considered in this style to facilitate better working of company. This leadership styles also helps to implement organizational changes effectively and compete in market with better market share. Situational leadership also provides better opportunities for business organization to grow and expand in new market to increase customer size and profitability of Marks and Spencer.
Systems Leadership
Systems leadership is a leadership styles which help managers and leaders to formulate effective system in which every employee increase their efficiency to achieve objectives according to their skills and Knowledge at every level of company (Reid and Sanders, 2019). Marks and Spencer helps to improve the quality of products and services in different situation. This helps to develop systematic skills to reduce cost of operations of Marks and Spencer and helps to increase core competency in market. This leadership approach is very effective to increase innovative ideas by communicating very easily, however maintaining all groups in organization is very difficult and also lead to inefficiency in long run.
Contingency Leadership
This theory states that success of leader is not only dependant of skills and knowledge but also on many internal and external factors. Contingency theory helps leaders to identify those factors to increase their efficiency to motivate employees to achieve their objectives. This theory helps leaders to evaluate their skills and knowledge which are effectively suitable for one style. Contingency theory provides better understanding about factors which are available in Marks and Spencers to achieve objectives. Leaders need to analyse their potential and skills which can be implemented to increase efficiency of employees. Contingency style facilitates leaders to formulate effective methods and techniques which help employees to discover their hidden skills to improve their efficiency in Marks and Spencer. This theory helps leaders to motivate employees as no one is best in contingency theory which also helps employees to increase their potential to be best.
Administrative Theory
This theory helps to analyse skills and knowledge of employees to accumulate the in one department. This theory helps to reduce management efforts and increases efficiency of employees to reach common goals of Marks and Spencer. Segregation of employees in different groups increases the efficiency of each group thus helps to increase productivity.
Key Approaches to Operation Management for Managers and Leaders
Marks and Spencer is using different approaches to increase productivity of operations to reduce cost and maintain quality of products and services. These approaches help to provide effective strategies to increase customer satisfaction with help of effective leaders and managers. Leaders and managers are responsible to provide effective environment to adopt these approaches and analysing all the factors which helps to motivate employees in reducing cost and improving performance. Training and development is provided in Marks and Spencer by leaders and managers to make high performance teams.
Six Sigma
Six sigma is systematic and quantitative approach which provides effective operation within the organization to improve and develop quality of products and services and reducing cost of production and services. This approach follows four factors measure, analyse, improve and control. It is the process which put emphasis on building high performance teams which reduces inefficiency in Marks and Spencers and promotes quality of work.
Leaders and managers are responsible to analyse the skills and knowledge which is required to develop effective teams and formulate effective recruitment and selection process (Mahmassani, 2016). Managers are responsible to evaluate resource planning to identify feasibility of new talents in organization. Leaders are responsible to analyse inefficient employees and faulty resources to reduce cost of operation. Leaders are responsible to provide training to inefficient employees to help to gain effective skills and knowledge in Marks and Spencers.
Total Quality Management
TQM is a process of identifying and resolving errors and which occurs in supply chain management. TQM is a system of management which helps to develop an effective policy in which all employees have to be effective in achieving their objectives according to standards of company.
Marks and Spencer is using this approach to improve the quality of human resources and reduce all wastages. It is a standardized improvement process which helps to increase the innovative ideas and skills to achieve goals of company (Loukopoulos, Dismukes and Barshi, 2016). Marks and Spencer is a multinational company, and they need to adopt consistency in maintaining their quality of products and services to increase brand value and market share. Focus of this approach is needs and wants of target customer and managers are responsible to analyse external and internal factors which to understand quality standards of competitors and formulate effective benchmarks. Leaders are responsible to influence employees to more efficient in achieving their objectives.
Just in time
Just in time is an effective inventory strategy which helps managers to analyse ordering process of raw materials which are used in production process. Role of managers of Marks and Spencer is they are using the pull approach which helps company to reduce risk and maintain the inventory effectively. This also helps to reduce cost of production of company by adopting strategies which help to collectorate with transport companies and suppliers to reduce risk and increase quality of final products. This also helps company to analyse the non-moving stock and formulate effective marketing strategies to increase sales and provide effective market share to increase quality of Marks and Spencers products and services with increased profit margins.
Kaizen
Kaizen is the change process which helps to analyse the new trends in market and implement in the company according to the available resources in Marks and Spencer. This process helps to improve the operations and activities to transform organization by innovation. This operational approach helps to increase productivity of business organization by effective leaders (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016). Leaders are responsible to develop effective style which influences employees tom understands the importance of organizational change. Marks and Spence analyses changes in technology which have impact on the sales of company. By the help of management of Marks and Spencers will analyse the factors and leader will help to fulfil those strategies made by managers.
Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
Importance of operation management
Operation management plays vital role in the organization because they perform various roles i.e. planning, organizing, coordinating, controlling and monitoring of production and manufacturing procedures. Operation management helps Marks and Spencer to achieve their objective by executing various strategic tactics (Heizer, 2016). Operation management performance-
Product quality: Marks and Spencer focuses on product quality along with varieties which attracts customers and improves their buying behaviour. Operation management introduces strategies for improving product quality and their services. Management gives assurance to customer about product quality and forces quality management to offer product services effectively. Thus, operation management gives value to customer money and builds customers loyalty for company. The quality of the products can help Marks and Spencers to get a better image for themselves in market. Quality of products will help the organization to get more customers and loyal to the company as well.
Customer satisfaction: Customers are main stakeholder of the organization because it helps company to influence brand power in global market. Operation management plays significant role in customer satisfaction. For example operation management focuses on customer requirement and their expectation for the products. On the basis of customer's need meets their objectives that build good relation with them. It leads satisfaction in employees for company services which is main objective of Marks and Spencer.Satisfaction is very important for Marks and Spencers because they want loyal customers so that they can achieve the aims and objectives the company has for themselves.
Revenue increase: Marks and Spencer has aim to generate high revenue by influencing product quality and customer's satisfaction. Consumer satisfaction influences brand image in business market which attracts other customers. Thus, organization expands market share as result generates high revenue. Product quality and customer satisfaction strategy conduct by the operational management. Both operation of the management helps organization achieve business objective. Revenue increase will help the company to have further expansion in the future which is going be very beneficial for Marks and Spencers.
Waste reduction: It is an important operation of the operation management. To reduce waste introduces various techniques i.e. lean manufacturing system which is organized to reduce waste of products. Lean manufacturing technique manages inventory cost and saves unnecessary money as result improves gross product quality along with quantity (Grant, Trautrims and Wong, 2017). Thus, operation management supports organization to generate high income in company. The company wants to be environment friendly and so are the production in Marks and Spencer which is making the company reach their objectives in market effectively.
Impact on Operation Management Decision Making By Leaders And Managers
Political Factors
The biggest political factor that could influence the operations of a large company like Marks and Spencer depends upon the decision of United Kingdom to leave the European Union, termed Brexit. This impact the leaders to analyse change in market trends and adopt that to increase efficiency of Marks and Spencer.
Positive
When Brexit is over, UK will no longer be a part of European Union and the emerging country would be like a new uncharted market, full of possibilities and potential, for companies to capture.
Negative
Most analysts and economists maintain that the changes post-Brexit wouldn't be ideal for UK retailers, as many of the free trade policies with European suppliers would shut down, increasing operational and management costs.
Economical Factors
These are the factors that are determined by an economy’s performance, which directly impact the workings and profits of a company, such as inflation, taxation, trading policies. UK has a booming economy that ranks as 5th highest in the world. The government has now announced a reduction to the corporation tax levied at industry's profits from 19% to 18%. UK has also been able to garner large sums of Foreign Direct Investments.
Positive
High Foreign Direct Investment improves Marks and Spencer's operations and facilitates international trades (Gibson and Parkman, 2018). It also gives the company additional foreign income increasing profits. The reduction in corporation tax will also generate revenue. This helps leaders to increase their efficiency to make more effective planning and grow business more effectively.
Negative
While the above factors are beneficial to Marks and Spencer, they can also aid numerous budget competitors who lower their mark up price, thus further increasing market competition. This can result in drastic changes being made in Marks and Spencer's operations to continue competing.
Social-Cultural Factors
Marks and Spencer is an old internationally recognized brand, one that holds the perception of selling 'premium value for money' products in households. But the current social trend is changing towards new more trendy retail chains and online shopping, both of which target the youth, something which Marks and Spencer has neglected. Change in customer buying patterns helps leaders to make proper training and development programs to attract more customer's according to their wants and needs.
Positive
Expanding into e-commerce market will surely help Marks and Spencer's business grow, gain new customers and expand its operations. This hugely impacts operational management as training to run an online store would be completely different to traditional management training.
Negative
As more trendy retail stores and e-commerce websites keep opening up, Marks and Spencer runs the risk of its reputation getting less trendy, particularly amongst the youth (Gao and Su, 2017). If the trend is not accounted for, Marks and Spencer risks the possibility of closing down many of its retail stores and hurting reputation in the future.
Technological Factors
Many technological factors help lower the manufacturing costs and influence the efficient productivity of Marks and Spencer. The current technological trend of self-checkout guided by AI at retail stores is definitely here to stay. E-Commerce has also increased the number of popular online stores that adapt to changing technologies instantly. This increases ability of leaders to understand market trends and make effective changes in organization's information structure to increase communication in the Marks and Spencer.
Positive
Installing self-checkout counters will surely increase profits, as the number of employees Marks and Spencer has to hire reduces drastically. Expanding into E-Commerce will also prove beneficial as there is a large market to operate in. Self-checkout systems also have a huge impact on Marks and Spencer's operational management, as completely different training would be required to manage these systems.
Negative
Cybercrimes and logical errors in the self-checkout system will lower brand reputation. Marks and Spencer also faces tough competition from popular online stores that provide more features (scheduled delivery) to the customer at competitive prices (Fontainha and et al., 2017). Management would also have to be trained in how to maintain these complex systems.
Environmental Factors
Marks and Spencer is considered to be one of the most sustainable retailers in the world. This includes various different processes of acquiring food, materials, home products or land. One of Marks and Spencer's special programmes charging their customers 5p per plastic bag in an effort to combat plastic pollution, earnings of which are donated. Fresh milk is also resourced from RSPCA assured dairy farms. This factor help to provide clarity in information and increase customer engagement by performing corporate social responsibilities.
Positive
These measures certainly have been received well by the public, resulting in increased brand image and reputation. With the rising concerns over climate change, these efforts are widely appreciated.
Negative
Many competitors have also pledged to do the same. Adhering to these restrictions can increase operational and management costs of Marks and Spencer. Order Cheap Assignment Help Now!
Legal Factors
Every industry has to comply with standard legislative conditions to function efficiently. These include obeying taxation, labour and employment laws (Dhingra and et.al., 2016). With Brexit on the horizon, several of these legal factors are set to be modified. Employment policies and laws are being regulated by managers and leaders of Marks and Spencer.
Positive
Adhering to legislation helps to maintain productive, satisfied workforce, where no individual is taken advantage of.
Negative
Following and practising multiple regulations for multiple processes makes the duties of management arduous. Failure to do so can result in legal court cases and this can have adverse impact on operational efficiency of the organization.
Conclusion
This report concludes the brief study role and characteristics of mangers and leaders in operation management of Marks and Spencer. Report had explained how managers and leader contributed in increasing the efficiency company in operation. With helps of contingency, situational and systems theory of leadership it helped company to maintain employees and increase their efficiency effectively.
Report also explained approaches to operation management with help of just in time, kaizen, TQM and six sigma. There is a brief discussion about importance of value of operation management in achieving objectives of company and factors which impact the operations and decision-making of company. Report concludes that Marks and Spencer has effective leaders and managers which has ability to increase efficiency according to situation and improve quality of products and services according to business environment.
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