MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION

INTRODUCTION

While working as an operation manager in Aston Martin, UK the report is made for CEO of the company. The aim of the report is to investigate the impact of leaders and managers on the operations performed by the growing organisation. The report is divided into four sections in which the first section will discuss the roles and functions of leaders and manager and difference in their characteristics. The second section will discuss the theories and models that leaders and managers can apply in Aston Martin organisation to support the growth. The third section will discuss the importance of leaders and manager in meeting the business objectives and in the organisation and the last section will discuss the relationship of leadership and management. Further, it will discuss the factors which affect the operation and decision making of the organisation.

INTRODUCTION TO ORGANISATION

Aston Martin is a British independent manufacturing company of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. The company was founded in 1913 and in 1947 the company has become associated with expensive grand touring cars. Aston Martin sells its cars worldwide and it has headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England UK. The revenue generated by the company is 997.3 million euros by the end of 2019 and its operating cost is 5.4 million by 2019. The number of employees working in the organisation are 2,450 by the end of 2019 (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017).

LO1 FUNCTIONS OF LEADER AND MANAGER

DEFINITION OF LEADERS AND MANAGER

Leaders

A leader is someone who creates a vision and inspires people to follow the vision. This helps the people to more forward to the aim and achieve it (Walsh et al., 2018).

Manager

A manager is a someone who takes the control of the administration by directing the employees and ensure that the employees must operate the daily activities properly. A manager is also responsible for providing the resources to the employees which they require to achieve the organisational goals (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017).

From both the definitions, it has been concluded that the main difference in the roles of leader and manager is that manager is someone who has people working for them and leader is someone who is followed by people (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017).

COMPARE THE ROLES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADER AND MANAGER

The difference between in the roles and characteristics of leaders and managers are discussed below-

Leaders	Manager
Leaders provide direction to the employees by developing the organisational vision and communicate it to the employees to help ensure proper meeting of vision (Walsh et al., 2018).	Mangers lay down the structure and delegates’ authority and responsibility (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017).
Leaders are always focused on the organisational objectives which are developed by the manager (Walsh et al., 2018).	The manager is responsible for developing the business objectives for the organisation which helps the company to grow.
Leader interacts with the employees and identifies their needs and demands in terms of completing organisational goals (Walsh et al., 2018).	Managers interact with the leaders and provide the resources to meet the organisational objectives (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017).
A leader works with the team	Manager gives instructions to the groups.
Leader implement the idea of manager in the workforce	Manager invent the new idea
Leaders are responsible for inspiring the employees	Managers are responsible to develop plans.
Leaders motivate employees to improve their performance (Walsh et al., 2018)	They provide rewards to the employees for their performance (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017).

LO2 ROLE OF LEADER AND FUNCTION OF MANAGER

ROLE OF LEADER AND FUNCTIONS OF MANAGER ARE APPLIED IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS

In Aston Martin, a leader performs various roles and managers is involved in various functions of the operations. The role of leader and function of manager are applied in different situational context (Baltaci and Balc?, 2017).

Planning- planning is the predetermined schedules which are developed to handle the various situation of Aston Martin (Heizer et al., 2016). The manager of Aston Martin develops plans and objectives in terms of improving their manufacturing process. They plan for reducing the cost of manufacturing and increase the revenue. So, the role of a leader in Aston Martin is to bring out the best performance of the employees by communicating with them about the Aston Martin’s organisational objectives (Heizer et al., 2016).

Organising- manager of Aston Martin is responsible to provide the resources to the employees which they utilise in the manufacturing. On the other hand, leaders of Aston Martin help the employees to use the resources in an effective way to reduce waste of resources and increase their performance (Nawaz and Khan, 2016.).

Directing- the direction in Aston Martin is very important as it gives the right direction to the employees. Leaders of Aston Martin direct and motivate the employees in terms of their roles and responsibility. Which also improves the performance of both employees and organisation (Heizer et al., 2016).

Staffing- employees of Aston Martin are the assets. The role of leaders and managers in Aston Martin is to make the staff efficient in work which improves the productivity of the organisation (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017). In Aston Martin, the manager recruits the candidates by knowing their skills and abilities for the right position in the organisation. On the other hand, role of leaders is responsible to help employees to improve their work capabilities and by providing them training sessions (Nawaz and Khan, 2016.).

Co-coordinating- coordination between the employees is very important as it allows employees to perform according to the plan of manager and leaders (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017). Leaders and manager of Aston Martin are responsible to improve the bond of the employees which also motivates them to work effectively in the organisation. It improves communication between the employees and gives extra benefits to the employees (Nawaz and Khan, 2016.).

Controlling- controlling is the other main function of the manager in Aston Martin (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017). Leaders and manager of Aston Martin control the situation and the employees which helps the manager and leaders to proper implement the plan and work according to the needs (Nawaz and Khan, 2016.).

THEORIES AND MODELS WITHIN ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT

There are various leadership and management theories are applied by Aston Martin which helps the organisation to work smoothly and grow in the market. The theories and model are discussed below-

Situational leadership

According to this leadership theory, leaders takes various decisions according to the different situations. Leaders of Aston martin uses this strategy which helps them to choose the right leadership style for the employees (Nawaz and Khan, 2016.). According to this theory leaders have ability to identify the situation and take actions in order to solve the problem. The strength of this theory is it recognizes the need of flexibility which motivate employees (Istianingsih et al., 2020). This theory creates a comfortable environment for the employees. It also increases the awareness in the leaders of Aston martin in terms of various situation and behaviour of employees. The weakness of the situational leadership theory is it can be ineffective in task-oriented environments. It can be challenging for leaders to define maturity (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017).

System leadership

System leadership theory is a set of skills and capacity that leaders can use to catalyse, enable, and support the employees to improve their performance (Macdonald et al., 2018). This leadership theory is implemented by the leaders of Aston Martin to control the employee performance and to communicate them within different situation. This theory helps the employees of Aston Martin to perform according to the needs of organisation (Macdonald et al., 2018). This theory helps employees to understand the importance of business objectives and relationship with the environment. This helps the employees to complete work accordingly (Jabbar and Hussein, 2017).

Contingency leadership theory

According to this theory leaders form various strategies after analysing the situation (Fiedler, 2015). This theory helps the leaders of Aston Martin to understand various situation in the organisation and behaviour of the employees. According to which leaders plan the strategies to meet the organisational needs (Otley, 2016). The leaders of Aston Martin implement this theory to minimize the risk from the changes occurs in organisation and meet the demands of the situation. The strength of this theory is it helps leaders and managers to form the policies according to the situation (Fiedler, 2015). This theory also improves the decision-making skills of the leaders in the organisation. This theory allows manager to change the organisation structure according to the needs but it is a complex process and employees generally resist to change. Sometimes handling the situation in Aston Martin becomes difficult (Otley, 2016).

Behaviour theory of management

Behaviour theory of management shows the concern on how manager manages the productivity of employees and organisation by motivating employees and meeting the needs of the interested group (Baltaci and Balc?, 2017). This theory is implemented by Aston Martin in its operation management. According to this theory leaders of Aston Martin observe the skills and abilities of the employees which are effective for the leaders and managers to communicate with the employees and identify their needs. The strength of this behavioural leadership theory is that it believes the leadership traits can be developed in a person through the experience (Baltaci and Balc?, 2017)s. The weakness is identifying the needs and observe the behaviour of every employee is the difficult task of the leaders and managers.

LO3 ROLE OF MANAGER AND LEADERS IN OPERATION FUNCTION

KEY APPROACHES TO OPERATION MANAGEMENT AND ROLE OF LEADERS AND MANAGERS

The key approaches to operation management and the role of leaders and managers in Aston Martin are discussed below-

Six-sigma

Six-sigma is the method which provides a tool to the organisation to improve the capabilities and business process in order to increase the performance and decrease the variations and defects from the process (Baltaci and Balc?, 2017). This helps organisation to improve the performance of employees and their morale towards the work. In this key approach role of a manager is to make a plan for the employees to ensure the proper utilization of resources globally. This also reduces the wastage of resources and money (Laureani and Antony, 2019). The role of leader is to use the six-sigma strategy to improve the bond of the employees with the organisation. This helps employees to understand the needs of the organisation and work accordingly. Leaders in Aston Martin ensures the effective performance of employees by implement six-sigma (Laureani and Antony, 2019).

Total quality management

Total quality management helps the organisation to ensure the good quality of services provided to the customers. This strategy is implemented by all the multinational companies. It is the key approach for Aston Martin to improve the efficiency of the production process of cars (Laureani and Antony, 2019). Aston Martin uses this approach to improve the product quality and services to meet the demands of the customers. This approach ensures that the cost of production must be lower than the cost of production (Heizer et al., 2016). In this approach both leaders and manager play crucial role in encouraging the employees and give their best performance to improve the quality of product and services in Aston Martin. This strategy helps Aston Martin to satisfy their customers and contribute in the growth of the organisation (Heizer et al., 2016).

Just in time inventory

Just in time inventory system is a management strategy in which raw material orders from suppliers directly with the production schedules (Lai and Cheng, 2016). It includes strategy in which producers hold sufficient inventories to have enough product to absorb maximum market demand. It is the popular strategy used by Aston Martin in which the organisation orders limit resources and raw materials just before the production process (Mahadevan, 2015). This approach reduces the waste of raw materials and also ensures the efficient use of inventory for the long time (Lai and Cheng, 2016). In this approach the role of manager is to check the inventory time to time and order the raw material when it is required. The role of leader is to maintain the schedule of using and checking inventory time to time which reduces the wastage of time during production process (Lai and Cheng, 2016).

Continuous improvement process (kaizen)

Continuous improvement process is the strategy where employees work together to improve the product or services of the organisation to achieve profit by satisfying the needs of customers (Heizer et al., 2016). This theory helps Aston Martin to improve the production efficiency. In this approach the role of manager is to develop the strategy to increase the efficiency of the product in Aston Martin. The role of leader is to provide flexible working hours to the employees in the workplace of Aston Martin which motivates and encourage them to contribute effectively in the improvement of cars (Heizer et al., 2016).

ITS IMPORTANCE AND VALUE IN ACHIEVING BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

Management operation plays crucial role in the organisation so it needs to be maintained properly (Abubakar et al., 2020). The operation management helps the Aston Martin to meet the business objectives which are discussed below-

Production efficiency

It is the primary area in which company minimize the cost of production and increase the cost of product (Heizer et al., 2016). Aston Martin calculates the production efficiency of the product to avoid the high costing manufacturing material and ensure the use of good quality of manufacturing material.

Profit maximization

The main goal of Aston Martin is to increase the profit generation of the organisation by meeting the needs of the customers (Heizer et al., 2016). This is only done by using efficient management process in the organisation. Aston Martin must be focused towards the needs of the customers according to the demographics which would be effective to implement the technologies in the car during manufacturing which can increase customer satisfaction and maximize the profit of Aston Martin (Heizer et al., 2016). Implementing a good operation management process in the organisation provides a good level of satisfaction to the customers. Satisfied and happy customers increase the satisfaction level of the company (Abubakar et al., 2020).

Effective utilization of the resources

The operation management of Aston Martin ensures that the employees must utilise the resources in an effective manner to reduce the cost of waste. Everything that is invested by the organisation needs to plan and rescheduled properly (Abubakar et al., 2020).

Management of inventory

Operation management is also important to ensure the proper use of inventories in the organisation (Mahadevan, 2015). The key approach is used by Aston Martin is total quality management in which manager and leaders check the efficiency of the inventory time to time and keeps the limit of the resources in it to reduce the time of searching of raw material during the production process (Mahadevan, 2015).

Capacity management

The operation management of Aston Martin manages the investment of capital properly (Mahadevan, 2015). It checks the proper utilization of resources and capital for the improvement in the product or process. Operation management plays crucial role in reducing the wastage of resources. It finds the effective methods of utilizing the resources in Aston Martin (Abubakar et al., 2020).

Improvement in the product quality

Aston Martin knows the quality of the services provided by the cars to the customers. Aston Martin takes care of the maintenance of the cars time to time which helps Aston Martin to identify the needs and improvement in the product model (Mahadevan, 2015). The operation management has prime concern in which it focuses on the improvement of the car to satisfy customers (Abubakar et al., 2020).

Create strong operation skills

Operation management of Aston Martin plans to improve the skills and abilities of the employees work in every department of the organisation (Mahadevan, 2015). For this operation management plan training and development sessions for the employees after identifying the skills gap and improvement required with the changing trends. This helps operation management to build the strong career of the employees which is effective to meet the business objectives (Abubakar et al., 2020).

LO4 RELATIONSHIP OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

FACTORS THAT AFFECT MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS AND DECISION MAKING OF LEADERS AND MANAGERS

There are various factors which affects the operation management and decision making of manager and leaders of Aston Martin are discussed below-

Global competition

Global competition is the crucial factor which affects the working of operation management. As it is a multinational organisation of manufacturing cares, the company needs to focus on the rival’s strategies and products to stay in the competition (Alyammahi et al., 2020). Without competition, the improvement in the products is difficult (Istianingsih et al., 2020). The global competition allows Aston Martin to do a proper market research due to which decision making of the higher authorities affects. Aston Martin takes decision carefully in order to eliminate negative impacts of the technology on the customers globally (Alyammahi et al., 2020).

Quality, customer care and expenditure challenge

Customers look for the better quality of products and services with in their preferable range. But maintaining three of the needs of the customers could be expensive for the company (Istianingsih et al., 2020). So, providing cars in a preferred range could be difficult for Aston Martin as it includes best technology in the cares which is unique to the customers. This affects the decision making of the people in Aston Martin (Alyammahi et al., 2020).

Social responsibility

Every organisation has some social responsibility in which they contribute for the welfare of the society which helps the organisation to maintain good relationship with the customers and local community (Nguyen et al., 2017). As Aston Martin is the car manufacturing company, it has to take care about the limited range of carbon emission or pollution regulations. Failure in following these regulations affects the company badly. This factor strongly affects the operation management and decision making of Aston Martin (Alyammahi et al., 2020).

Expansion of technology advancement

Technology plays crucial role in the care manufacturing company. The technologies installed by Aston Martin provides comfort to the customers (Nguyen et al., 2017). Also follows some regulation which reduces the health effects of customers. The new technologies allow Aston Martin to expand the business but the failure of the technology can also ruin the reputation of the company badly (Istianingsih et al., 2020). To eliminate this Aston Martin takes decisions very carefully which affects the working of operation management in the organisation (Nguyen et al., 2017).

Legal consideration

There are various legal considerations that Aston Martin needs to follow (Nguyen et al., 2017). This helps the organisation to maintain the relationship with the government and customers. As the company serves globally there are various legal considerations which affects the decision making of the organisation such as tax, export- import, vat, tariff, and government policies (Istianingsih et al., 2020). Any disobedience in following the government policies or regulation creates a negative impact on the business and its reputation. So, the decisions are taken by Aston Martin included all the factors which affect the decision-making process and working of operation management of the company (Nguyen et al., 2017).

Business ethics

Business ethics plays crucial role in the organisation (Istianingsih et al., 2020). The organisation which follows business ethics maintains a good relationship with their customers. Aston Martin practices codes of ethics in the business which includes policies and does not affects the smooth working of the organisation (Nguyen et al., 2017).

CONCLUSION

It has been concluded that operation management is the administration of the business practices which helps the organisation to create the highest level of efficiency possible in the organisation. The branch of operation management is a concern with the converting materials and labours into goods and services as efficiently as possible to increase the profit of the business. The role of operation management is plan, organise, coordinate, and control the resources which the company requires to produce profit and grow in the market. From the report it has been found that the operation management provides various benefits to the organisation such as improves the product quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, reduced the cost of manufacturing and etc. The report has discussed the roles and functions of leaders and managers in the organisation. The main difference in the roles of leader and manager is that manager is someone who has people working for them and leader is someone who is followed by people. The report also discusses various theories and models based on leadership and management styles used in Aston Martin such as contingency, behaviour theory, system leadership and etc with their strength and weakness. This would be helpful for learner to use effective the theories according to the situation. From the report it has been found that Leaders of Aston martin uses situational strategy which helps them to choose the right leadership style for the employees. According to this theory leaders have ability to identify the situation and take actions in order to solve the problem.

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