A Comprehensive Management Analysis

Introduction

The management and operation of an organisation are related to controlling and designing the production process and redesigning of business operation in goods and service production. This includes the responsibility to ensure that business operations are efficient and effective to meet the needs of the customers. In this assignment, the role and function of leaders and managers in relation to operation management in Morrisons are to be discussed. The theories and models for leadership approach are to be explained. Moreover, the importance and value of operation management for the achievement of business objectives is to be discussed. Lastly, the factors related to the business environment that influence the role of leaders and managers in Morrisons is to be assessed.

P1 Definition and comparison of different roles and characteristics of leader and manager (M1, D1)

Morrisons is regarded as the fourth largest supermarket in the United Kingdom with its headquarters located at Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (morrisons-corporate.com, 2019). The Manager within an organisation is referred as the person who has the responsibility to control as well as administer the employees to work individually and as a group to meet determined work goals and objectives (Rahimi et al. 2016). This is to inform that work policies and strategies are developed by the managers which the employees have to follow for meeting the business goals and objectives in the organisation. The managers at Morrisons have the key role to direct, manage and control activities of employees as well as interdepartmental process to ensure the effective work environment is created that supports the proper running of the organisation through productive working by motivated employees (morrisons-corporate.com, 2019).

The leaders within the organisation are referred to the individuals who are provided with the authority to ensure work is done properly by the engagement of concerning employees to meet objectives of the business (Gao, 2017). The leaders in the organisation relate the vision and mission of the business to the employees to inform the employees the things to be achieved by them through work activities. The leaders at Morrisons have the key aim to influence the employees to follow the vision and mission of the organisation so that effective productivity is achieved in the industry of operation (morrisons-corporate.com, 2019).

P2 Application of role of leader and function of manager (M2, D1)

The role of the leaders within an organisation is to act as an individual who invites and entrains support as well as the cooperation of the subordinates to ensure effective change and management of productivity of the organisation (Hamzah et al. 2016). This is because collaborative participation of the subordinates and the employees help in sharing different ideas that are to be implemented at work to create change and improve productivity so as to make the leaders run the organisation in properly. In Morrisons, the leaders follow the principle of forming collaboration and sharing ideas from the subordinates to involve them making successful change and ensure better productivity for the organisation. This is evident as the playing of the role has led the leaders at Morrisons to incur 8.6% more profit in 2019 compared to the previous year (retailgazette.co.uk, 2019).

The function of the manager is to develop ways in which motivation to the employees can be provided to make them work effectively (Harmon, 2019). This role is established by the managers at Morrisons by developing better salary packages for the staffs. As mentioned by Jun et al. (2017), improved salary to the employees makes them develop financial security. This, in turn, helps the employees to feel motivated to work out of the value that their efforts are properly remunerated as well as they are able to arrange things for themselves and family. The role of the leaders within the organisation is to envision the future market strategies for the organisation (Wesselink et al. 2015). The leaders at Morrisons are seen to follow the role as they have envisioned ensuring environment-friendly management of the selling of their products so that they can take part in controlling pollution and lower carbon-footprint in saving the earth.

P3 Application of leadership model and theories (M2, D2)

The leadership theories and models are to be used by the leaders to systematically perform their role and duties for the organisation. The Situational leadership theorises that managers are to adjust their style of executing activities so that it fits the improvement of skill and knowledge of the employees and subordinates to accomplish a provided task (Thompson and Glasø, 2015). The implementation of situation leadership in Morrisons is going to help the leader change the way of working of the employees based on the market situation to ensure the objectives of the business are properly met. For instance, the consumers in the retail market in the UK prefer to buy products through online services and e-commerce websites to receive products at the doorstep (deloitte.com, 2019). Therefore, in this condition, the leaders at Morrisons by using situational leadership would guide the employees to develop skill and knowledge regarding the way to support the purchase of customers from their website in such a way so that they are able to influence the increased amount of consumers to prefer buying from them. The strength of situational leadership is that it provides the leaders to be flexible in changing activities within the organised based in the market trends (Meier, 2016). Thus, use of the leadership would help leaders at Morrisons to maintain the productivity of their organisation by changing activities to support changing needs of consumers based on the market trends. The limitation of situational leadership is that it leads the managers to create short-term wins (Bosse et al. 2017). Thus, using this leadership would lead managers at Morrisons to create better productivity for short-term in the company whereas managing activities for long-term improvement for the organisation would not be developed.

The System Leadership theorises that managers and leaders are to form an effective work environment where the proper amount of resources are available to the employees to work effectively (Senge et al. 2015). The use of the leadership in Morrisons would lead the managers to ensure adequate resources to be present in the company to support effective work activity of the employees. The strength of systematic leadership is that it helps to develop an impartial working environment (Senge et al. 2015). Thus, the use of leadership in Morrisons would help the leaders create diverse working environment where each employee is equally treated and no discrimination is made. The limitation of systematic leadership is that it does not allow the leaders to take practical decision (Boylan, 2018). Thus, use of the leadership in Morrison may lead the managers to be unable to develop proper solutions for the problems being faced within the organisation, in turn, hindering their business progress.

The Contingency leadership informs the leaders to match their way of working based in the surrounding and market trends. The strength of the style is that it allows leaders to be dynamic (Fiedler, 2015). This informs that the use of the leadership style would leads managers at Morrison to create changes in work policy according to the market situation. The limitation of contingency leadership is that it involves a complex leadership approached (Fiedler, 2015). Therefore, the use of the leadership in Morrison may create difficulty for the leaders to establish the theories mentioned in the style to manage and support their followers.

P4 Explanation of main approaches to operation management and the role played by leaders and manager (M3, D2)

The key approaches of operation management used in Morrisons are KAIZEN, Just-In-Time Inventory and Total Quality Management. The Just-In-Time Inventory is the strategy which is used to lower the production of wastes and improve efficiency by receiving products in the form needed during the process of production (Lai and Cheng, 2016). The Just-In-Time Inventory is to be implemented by Morrison so that cost in storage and management of extra goods in the inventory can be avoided. This would result the organisation to create deduction in their overall management and storage of goods, in turn, assisting them to incur more revenue through savings. The KAIZEN is referred to as continuous improvement which informs that regular improvement of products is to be made by the organisation to ensure their improved performance (Pinto et al. 2018). The managers at Morrison to implement KAZEN is to resolve gaps in services and presentation of products in the stores through regular monitoring of employees and continuous change in skills along with knowledge of employees to work.

The Total Quality Management (TQM) is a structured operation management approach in which the quality of output of products and services of the organisation is improved by implementing continuous improvement of internal practices (Obeidat et al. 2016). The implementation of TQM is to be made by the managers at Morrisons so that high-quality services and properly managed products are able to be provided to the consumers to improve their satisfaction during and after purchase. The principle of TQM informs that customer focus along with effective leadership is required to implement it within the organisation (Honarpour et al. 2018). This informs that to implement TQM in Morrisons the managers have the role to identify the needs and demands of the customers to develop quality services and products to be provided by the employees so that it exceeds the expectation of their consumers during purchase.

P5 Explanation of significance and value of operation management (M3, D2)

The significance and value of operation management in Morrisons is that it helps the managers to frame and strategise work activities in such a way so that they are directed to fulfil business objectives. This is because operation management makes managers design the way work activities are to be controlled and framed by analysing organisational performance (Chen et al. 2015). The value of operation management in Morrison is that helps managers to develop goodwill of the organisation in the market as well as develop principles of having competitive advantage in the market. This is because effective operation management leads the organisation to understand the way changes in business activities are to be made so that they are able to fulfil their business objectives as well as their image in the market (Henrique et al. 2016). As argued by Salam and Khan (2016), ineffective operation management leads the organisation unable to understand regarding the way to utilise resources in supporting fulfilment of business objectives. This is because ineffective operation management leads the manager design hindered management strategies and work activities that are unable to direct ways on which resources are to be used by employees in accomplishing business objectives. Therefore, the value and significance of operation management for managers in Morrison is that it helps them to properly design the use of resources in fulfilling business objectives. The operation management is able to allow the development of positive relationship of the organisation with the suppliers (Hitt et al. 2016). Thus, it is valuable and important for managers at Morrison as it would lead them to maintain proper supply of products and reduce inventory cost of personally storing products in the warehouse. This, in turn, has already helped Morrisons to cut down unnecessary production cost, allowing them to offer discounts on 1000 products enabling them to attract more consumers towards them (theguardian.com, 2016).

P6 Assessing factors in business environment which impact in operation management and decision-making by managers and leaders (M4, D2)

The rapid expansion of advanced technologies is seen to impact on operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers of the organisation. This is because the advancement of technologies leads the managers and leaders of the organisation to use various database for drawing information in developing a complete picture to make decision regarding the design of management and operation in business (Roberts, 2018). Moreover, advanced technology influence the managers to identify, select, examine and manipulate data in the format required in each stage of the decision-making process in operation management (Li and Wu, 2016). Thus, advanced technologies allow the managers in the processing of data in a better way to develop effective redesigning of business activities that allow highest efficiency of the organisation in market fulfilling the effective establishment of operation management in a positive way. For instance, managers and leaders at Morrisons use advanced technologies to draw in current information regarding the business strategies and performance of their key competitors such as Marks and Spencer, Aldi and others. This allows them to understand changes in their management practices to be made such as automating ordering, day-today delivery and others so that the organisation can develop better position in the market through improved services compared to its competitors. Thus, advanced technologies influence easier decision-making by managers and leaders to implement successful operation management in the organisation (retail-week.com, 2017).

In business environment, the global competition influences operation management of an organisation (Dereli, 2015). This is because competition in the global market creates new challenges in products and services to be faced by the organisation based on which they are to develop changes in their business operation to manage their position in the industry. For instance, the global competition in the retail market at the current position is that there is surplus of suppliers of retail products (deloitte.com, 2019). In this condition, the global competition would impact the decision-making of the managers and leaders at Morrisons regarding operation management to develop redesigning of business operations in such a way so that they are able to offer different services and products of high-quality in comparison to their competitors in the global market. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) influences operation management and decision-making of managers and leaders of the organisation to develop and framework strategies that allow the company to deliver environment-friendly services and products (Tran, 2019). For instance, the operation management of Morrisons is influenced by CSR to avoid the use of black plastic in packing so that they can develop an environment-friendly image in the market (morrisons-corporate.com, 2019).

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that managers have the role to motivate and inspire employees to work in an effective manner. However, the leaders have the role to determine the future vision of the organisation. The use of situational leadership in Morrison would help the managers to develop short-term wins for the company by changing the operation management according to the changing situation. The systematic leadership use in Morrison would help the managers to develop an impartial working environment. The Morrisons uses operational management approaches such as Total Quality Management, Just-In-Time Inventory and KAIZEN to manage and operate their business. The factors influencing operation management of Morrison include advanced technology development, global competition and others.

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