business Operations management

Introduction

Leadership indicates inspiration in the organisation and the management is about proper planning and tactics to fulfil the leader’s strategy. Leaders have the tendency to drive success and people in the workplace and on the other hand, the managers are trying to focus on strategy proposed by the leader, develop effective planning to fulfil the organisational aims and objectives as well as set and measure the goals by controlling the situations at the organisation (Ghasabeh, Soosay and Reaiche, 2015). The study focuses on the role of the leaders and the functions of the managers in the organisation which in turn helps to understand the contributing of the leaders and the managers in the organisational context. The role of the leaders and the functions of the managers in the company Pret-a-Manger will be evaluated which helps to analyse the contribution of the leader and the managers in the company to run the business efficiently. If you require business dissertation help, exploring the leadership dynamics and managerial functions within Pret-a-Manger can offer the most valuable insights.

Organisational background and management structure

Pret-a-Manger is an international sandwich shop chain based on the UK and it is known as Pret. The organisation has been founded in the year of 1983 and it is successful in expanding their chain through more than 450 locations. The areas served by the organisation are such as UK, USA, Hong Kong, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Netherlands, Dubai, China and France. The company provides quality products including sandwiches, salads, sushi, soups, snacks and coffee. The quality products and efficient supply chain are effective to meet the customer’s requirements in the market where the company Pret-a-Manger focuses on creating the customer’s values by fulfilling their personal needs and preferences towards the food items. In the last 30 years, the company is efficient to serve more than 300000 customers every day throughout 50 locations and the company provides delicious and healthy menu which are effective to meet the customer’s needs and preferences (Pret-a-Manger, 2019a).

Figure 1: Official logo of Pret-a-Manger

The mission of the company is to create good, freshly prepared food to maximise the values for the customers. The management structure follows the hierarchy of the organisation, where the CEO or the leader is responsible for developing effective strategy and vision and mission of the company and communicates this with the managers and the employees in the organisation. The supply chain is also strong, where the suppliers and distributors are under the proper supervision of the managers, who are also efficient to run the green supply chain across the international countries. In addition to this, considering the operations of the company, the leader focuses on managing sustainability by preparing the healthy food with proper utilisation of the fresh fruits, sustainable farming and organic vegetables. The strategy of mitigating the use of plastic in packaging the products, making the business 100% recyclable, compostable and reusable as well as helping the customers to make effective purchase decision for the products and services of the company Pret-a-Manger are important to run the business proficiently in the food retail chain across the globe (Pret-a-Manger, 2019b).

Role of leaders and the functions of the managers

There are major differences between the role of the leaders and the functions of the managers. Considering h role of the leaders, the leaders are responsible to develop appropriate vision and mission of the company where the other stakeholders can follow the organisational aims and objectives. Creating the values for the stakeholders as well as maximising the organisational values is also the role of the leader (Ghasabeh, Soosay and Reaiche, 2015). Leading the people towards achieving success, inspiring and influencing the followers in the organisation are also the responsibility of the leader, were the leader tries to run the organisations by inspiring the workforce and leading them towards achieving the future success. Moreover, the leader is also responsible to be proactive and set proper directions so that the followers can run the business in right directions. The leader also aims to raise expectation and establish the business in the market by managing risk and change seekers, where the leader always focuses on change management and developing effective strategic planning for enhancing the organisational innovation and creativity.

On the other hand, the functions of the managers are different from the role of the leader in the organisation, where the develop policies and practice in the organisational workplace to handle the workers in the company. Apart from that, the managers are also responsible to develop value and mange power and control at the workplace, having subordinates and focusing on the working activities are also the functions of the managers where the managers are trying to maintain stability in the workplace and develop suitable plan to fulfil the vision and mission of the company, set by the leader in the organisation. In this regard, the leaders follow charismatic style, where the leaders gather the followers through their personality and charm and the qualities of the charismatic leaders include proper strategic vision, inspirational speech and high principle which are effective to restructure the workplace and develop suitable organisational structure and culture were the managers and other followers can run the organisational activities efficiently. On the other hand, the managers follow authoritarian style, where the mangers strongly focus on the command by the leader, clear separation between the leader and the employees and work efficient with high organisational structure and culture (Ford and Harding, 2018).

In understanding the role of the leader in the workplace, the situational leadership style is effective where the leadership style is related to supporting, coaching, directive and delegating. The supportive leaders try to support the workers where there is low directive and high supportive behaviour. Under coaching, the leaders are highly directive and have highly supportive behaviour (Dugan, 2017). Under delegating, the leaders are high directive and low supportive and in directing, the leaders are low directive and low supportive. In this regard, it would be beneficial for the organisation to have coaching leadership style as per the situation in the organisation, where the leaders must be directive and supportive in the workplace.

Figure 3: Situational leadership

Additionally, in the system leadership style, the leader develops personal leadership by managing creativity and innovation as well as focuses on reality bridge the cultures and learn to manage the workplace by managing the internal conflicts and resistance to change. Additionally, the leader is also able to improve strategic engagement by supporting the employees and enhance collaboration and communication in the workplace or better management of the working force of the organisation (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, 2019).

As per the management style, there are four types of styles which are autocratic, paternalistic, democratic ad laissez-faire. In the autocratic management style, the subordinates are bound to follow the instruction of the managers and there is proper control in the workplace and the laissez fare style is totally different from the autocratic, where in the laissez fair style, the manager has not control and the subordinates can make own decision to fulfil the organisational goal and objectives (Renz and Herman, 2016). In the democratic management style, the managers encourage participation and share information and the data with the team members and provides opportunities for them to influence the decision making practice in the workplace.

Hereby, the role of the leaders and the functions of the managers are effective for the organisations to follow proper instructions and mange the hierarchy structure of the company to fulfil the vision and mission of the company, set by the leader.

Applying the role of leaders and the functions of the managers in Pret-a-Manger

The role of the leader in the organisation Pret-a-Manger is crucial where the leader is responsible to manage the structural hierarchy in the organisation and develop proper vision and mission in the organisation. The leader of Pret-a-Manger develops the vision to be a successful company in serving the customers with best sandwiches and snacks. The mission of the company is to maximise good and healthy food where the leader focuses on creating values for the customers. In this regard, as per the situational analysis, the leader follows the coaching style, where there is high directions and high support of the leader in the Pret-a-Manger and the managers try to cooperate with the CEO of the company for better performance. In this regard, the functions of the managers in Pret-a-Manger are to maximise the vision and mission of the organisation by creating effective policies and practice. In this regard, in order to maximise the strategic vision and mission of Pret-a-Manger, set by the leader, the managers try to develop the strategy of utilising fresh fruits and ingredients, organic vegetables and maintain the effective farming which are beneficial to maximise the good and healthy food and quality of the products including the sandwiches, snacks and sushi. The manager of the company also focuses on the use of organic and fresh coffee which is effective to maximise the values of the customers. The vision of maximising the organisational values are also managed by the managers where the managers try to maximise the environmental footprint of the company and in this regard, the use of plastic is banned in the company and they develop the strategy of paper packaging for enhancing their recycling and reusable resource management (Pret-a-Manger, 2019b).

On the other hand, as proper the leadership style, the leader of the organisation focuses on system leadership style where the alder in Pret-a-Manger enhance communication and cooperation in the workplace, where the staff members and the managers can interact with the leader positively. Proper cooperation and open discussion further provide a scope to the leader to empower the followers in the company and develop collaborative decision for the benefits of the organisation. In addition to this, to maintain the supply chain of the company, the leader also incorporates the strategy of building strong corporate relationship with the suppliers and the distributors who are also playing curial role to run the organisational operations efficiently. Moreover, the leader balance the workforce, develop suitable organisational culture by managing harmony and freedom to work as well as mange the internal conflicts by improving cooperation and trust among the followers, where the followers can rely on the decision of the leader in Pret-a-Manger (Pret-a-Manger, 2019a).

Additionally, the managers of the Pret-a-Manger are also efficient to follow the leader and develop suitable working culture with managing transparency and accountability and apart from that, the managers also provides a scope to the followers and the staff to have proper training and development program for enhancing their capabilities and giving them the scope of personal and professional development. The leader and the managers work collaboratively to encourage the workplace by providing monetary and non-monetary rewards to the employees. Hereby, the strategy of providing structured salary to each of the followers, suppliers and distributors, maintain health and safety of the workers, empowering them in the workplace for decision making behaviour, proper performance related pay and rewards system through incentives and bonus are effective to support and direct the workforce towards achieving future success and fulfilling the strategic vision and mission of the company in long run (Pret-a-Manger, 2019b).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, the role of the leader and the functions of the managers in the organisation Pret-a-Manger are crucial to handle the workplace and develop suitable management structure and organisational culture, where the employees and the supplier are efficient to manage the product quality and maintain the green supply chain to maximise the values for all the customers across the international countries. The leader and the managers are efficient to work as a partnership basis and collaborate with all the employees in the workplace of Pret-a-Manger so that the collaborative decision can be made for enhancing innovation and creativity as well as the leader can inspire the workforce to run the organisational operational activities more creatively to maximise the organisational values.

Reference List

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Pret-a-Manger, 2019a. About us. [online] Available at: https://www.pret.com/en-us/about-pret [Accessed 9 December 2019].

Pret-a-Manger, 2019b. Sustainability. [online] Available at: https://www.pret.com/en-us/sustainability [Accessed 9 December 2019].

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