UNIT 4 MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

UNIT 4 MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

Activity 1

Introduction

This report is based on the Debenhams where the leaders’ roles and managers’ functions are described and differentiated. It also describes the structure of management of Debenhams. It also includes the diverse theories as well as models to explain about the leaders as well as the mangers approaches. The theories like systems theory, contingency theory as well as situational theories of the leadership is applied to the company selected. Even the chaos theory and the MBO- Managementby Objectivesare also used for this report. It also analyses the strength areas and weakness areas of all these diverse theories with respect to the company selected.

Introduction to Debenhams and its management structure

The organization ‘Debenhams’ is one of the UK based retail company which operating on the UK, Denmark and other economies. It has also many different stores which are working as franchise in different countries. It was established in the year 1778 in London. It is operating in 178 different places across the world – wide. The structure of Debenhams management involves the chairman, CFO, MD, CMO and Directors. The current chairman is Mark Gifford and MD is Steven Cook. Its organizational structure is flat and department is segregated into different functional groups like Finance, HR, Marketing and IT (Debenhams, 2020).

LO1

P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager.

Difference points	Managers	Leaders
Definition	Managers are those who manage the organizational work in different conditions and assists in reaching the set goals as well as objectives of a company.	Leader can be defined as the individual who encourages as motivates its staff to enhance the performance as well as the productivity.
Roles	The manager’s role is to decisions at the Debenhams. Manager at Debenhams directs the whole company and its functions. Managers at Debenhams use their intelligence and knowledge for planning. The managers of Debenhams maintain the current culture in organization and fear of changes. The managers of Debenhams emphasize on the goal achievement.	The leaders’ role is to carry out the work and implement the decisions of managers in work by making it easier. Leaders of Debenhams motivate and encourage the staff to work properly. Leaders of Debenhams have the competency to think about the future(Bush, et al., 2019). The leaders at Debenhams are working towards bring the healthy changes to company. Leaders of Debenhams focus on the improved results and staff’s development.
Features / Characteristics	Managers avoid the risks. Managers at Debenhams works towards reducing the risks. Managers are accountable work the organization at Debenhams. The managers are not flexible at decision making (Pravin, 2019). The managers at Debenhams take the decisions related work as well as goals.	Leaders of Debenhams take the challenges and risks. They are risk takers. In Debenhams, leaders are the motivator to the staff and team. The leaders are more flexible in work and decisions. The leaders are responsible for the activities to be done on time to achieve the goal.

M1 Analyse and differentiate between the role of a leader and function of a manager by effectively applying a range of theories and concepts.

As leader’s role and manager’s functions at Debenhams are what similar but there are many differences that exists between them which can be seen below:

Manager’s Function at Debenhams	Leaders’ Role at Debenhams
The manager at the Debenhams does the administrative work and take various decisions related to store operations	While the leaders in this company Debenhams work towards management’s decisions as well as the strategies by guiding the followers or staff
The manager’s function in the Debenhams is to emphasize on the company’s structure as well as its system.	While the leaders work towards getting the result from the staff by motivating and guiding them at Debenhams.
Debenhams’ manager’s functions are to plan the diverse strategies, allocate the diverse resources to staff, work towards the goals and evaluate the strategy success.	The leader’s role involves the motivating the staff of Debenhams and ensure the performance of the staff.
The management theories that Debenhams uses are the scientific and systematic theories at their stores.	The leadership theory that Debenhams uses are the transformational leadership theory at their stores (Gürlek and Çemberci, 2020).

Thus, it can analyzed from the above that the different roles as well as functions are performed by the leader and the managers at the Debenhams. The cooperation between management and leaders are important for better result and meet the objectives of the company.

LO2

P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts.

The manager’s function and roles of the leader are vital for the achievement of the goals and work towards the objective’s attainment. The leader as well as managers uses their different styles and skills to function in different situation and conditions. Forexample, Debenhams is currently facing the issues in the sales and operations due to the pandemic as the stores closed during the period of lock down and now the Debenhams is operating but it needs to ensure the social distancing and other precautionary measures while running the stores. Here, the leaders and managers play the different functions and roles by using the theories of management and theories their respective skills.In the above situation, the theory of MBO - Management by Objectives can be utilized as these ensures that the both leaders and the managers of the Debenhams working in coordination and together to meet the objective of increased sales and recover business from the pandemic. The Debenham’s managers needs to work with its staff members and even set the performance standards that are need to be met while its leaders can delegate the work and duties that staff needs to perform and encourage the staff to meet the set target of sales(Francis, 2018).Even the chaos theorycan be used where the adaptability and initiative are used for future situation which not known. the managers can make a plan for increasing the sales of the products at its store after lock – down and how its services can be design to ensure safety during this pandemic situation. The Debenhams’ leaders can motivate their staff to ensure best performance and provide services to the customer coming to their stores by ensuring safety and precautions like checking the customer’s body temperature and proper sanitization before permitting the customer to enter the store (Goulielmos, 2019).

P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency.

• System theory of leadership: Debenhams’s leaders are prepared towards the adaption to the new changes within the company related to process in order to ensure the profits in the stores and staff productivity in collective. The leader work towards the changing the organization’s overall system at Debenhams.

• Situational theory of leadership: It is based on the four different styles like telling, participating, delegating and selling of leaders. At Debenhams, leaders at their stores tells staff to work, selling consists of telling to others about work, participation consists of allowing others to play a role and delegation consists of minimal involvement of leadership which give space to grow others.

• Contingency theory of leadership: Using this leadership approach at Debenhams, the leader does not believe that there is perfect style of leading as leader. On the basis of the situation required, the leader moulds and work as well as take decisions as per the requirements (Salihu, 2019).

M2 Examine strengths and weaknesses to appraise different approaches to situations within the work

Strengths of approaches

System theory:

• This style helps the leaders of Debenhams to enhance the efficiency of their staff at store and work as per the company’s need.

• It ensures that the decisions that are taken have certain precisions as well as the trustworthiness at Debenhams.

Situational theory:

• It is useful for different situations where leader’s decisions are based on the condition requirement which help to take effective decisions.

• It helps in adaptability and change in organization structure at Debenhams (Thompson and Glasø, 2018).

Contingency theory:

• This approach of leader gives the extraordinary result in the flexible organization or culture.

• This approach will help leaders at Debenhams to improve their competency of resolving the problems.

Weaknesses of approaches

System theory:

• In Debenhams, the utilization and implementation of this approach quite difficult and not suitable as it is a large company.

• It is not effective to enhance the functions of the Debenhams’ managers.

Situational theory:

• It is not suitable for company, if it focuses on the task.

• Using this approach may create over-dependency among the staff members at Debenhams.

Contingency theory:

• This approach of leadership is not easy to implement at Debenhams.

• It provides the temporary solutions to the mangers for taking decisions.

D1 Critically analyse and evaluate the different theories and approaches to leadership in given contexts.

It can be said that at Debenhams, if the leader use of the situational approach will help in growing the business in other countries. The leader will be able to understand the new market and serve it by encouraging staff to work towards the goals. Using the system approach by leader will help this company to bring new change in company like adaption of new technology at the stores. By using the different styles like tell, sell, participate and delegate will help staff to perform well. Using the contingency approach at Debenhams will help to find the solutions to any problem that company is facing (Rosenhead, et al., 2019).

Conclusion and Recommendations:

It is concluded that managers and leaders perform the different roles & functions at Debenhams. The utilization of theories of leadership& management are vital for effective management and accomplishing the goal of company. The theories like systems theory, contingency theory & situational theories of leadership are very useful. It is recommended that the leaders at Debenhams must use the contingency theory for tackling any situation and take decisions on the basis of it.

Activity 2

Introduction

In this report the diverse operational management that are performed at the stores of the Debenhams are discussed. It investigates the approaches of the operational management at the Debenhams. The different approaches for the operation management like TQM, Six – Sigma as well as JIT are explained and how it is used in the Debenhams. It also explains and identifies the importance of the management of the operations for finding the leaders’ role as well as their responsibilities. It also shows which the external issues affecting the decisions.

Introduction to key operational function of Debenhams

Debenhams is the retail brand which the different stores were products are sold to customers. The main operational functions are as follows:

• Sourcing the suppliers: For purchasing the products that to be sold to the buyers, the company needs to take the decisions related to finding the reliable supplier, the products price must be cost – effective and can supply the require quantity on time at Debenhams stores.

• Storing the products in the stores as well as warehouse: After purchasing the items and products, some are stored at the stores for the sell and remaining are kept in the warehouse in order to refill after the sale of certain items.

• Managing the Inventory: In order to ensure the regular as well as continuous flow of the products and items from suppliers to Debenhams’ stores, this inventory management is used. It helps to meet the buyer’s needs in the prevailing market. It ensures unnecessary stocks at the store (Mou, et al., 2018).

• Ensure the staffing at the stores: Another operation is to hire and retain the staff at the store in right number for providing the services to the customers.

• Serving and handling the customers at stores: The main operation at the Debenhams is to serve the buyers coming into the stores. It involves the customer services as well as their satisfaction.

LO3

P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play.

The operation management can be explained as the process in which planning as well as controlling is done from the manufacturing, processing to the developing the products and the service. In retail business, the operation management involves sourcing, buying, storing, managing an inventory, ensure proper staffing and serving the buyers. The main approaches that can be used at the stores of the Debenhams are given below which involves J-I-T, Six -sigma as well as TQM.

• Just - in – Time (JIT) method: Using this approach at the Debenhams, the orders of the products and items can be ensured on time and it also makes sure that items are available in the store. It also saves the time as well as the cost of the company. It is helpful for the enhancement of the efficiency of the stores located in different areas of the Debenhams. For an illustration, the Debenhams might look for producing the products, this method of Just - in – Time (JIT) will be useful to ensure timely acquiring the needed raw – materials and help in maintaining efficiency.

• Six – Sigma method: Using this approach of Six – Sigma, the Debenhams can reduce the certain defects into their products as well as their services they provide to their customers coming to a store. It is help in maintaining the quality of their products as well as their services at the store by removing some of the possible defects. For an illustration, the retail store of Debenhams can provide the customers their best quality product which will be free of defects or any faults.

• Total Quality Management - TQM: Using this approach of TQM, the Debenhams can emphasize on maintaining the quality standards at its stores. The standards as well as benchmarking can be sustained of a quality (Dadi and Azene, 2017).

Role of the managers at Debenhams:

• To motivate its staff: The managers need to motivate and encourage the staff to ensure the quality standard is maintained in the stores. By motivating the sales target are achieved and retain the staff for better operations in long term.

• To train its staff: The Debenhams’ managers need to train the staff for TQM, Just - in – Time as well as Six – Sigma at the store operations and serving the customers well. The training help to make the operations easily and improve the productivity and efficiency of staff (Al Mannai, et al., 2017).

• To manage the inventories: The managers at Debenhams need to ensure the inventory management at the store for time filling the shelves at the store and provide the customer their desired products.

P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.

The significance as well as value of this operation management into the attainment of the objectives of Debenhams business are as follows:

• Assist in the attainment of the set goals: As the proper planning as well as management is done of the different operation at the retail stores of Debenhams, so all actions and operations can be done in an effective manner. This assist into the goal’s achievement of this company.

• Improve the staff’s productivity as well as efficiency: At Debenhams, with the help of the effective operations management, staff and managers will be clear about the activities and functions. The trainings of JIT, Six – Sigma as well as TQM will help in improving the performance which directly result in increased productivity and the efficiency at work (Krause and Miller, 2020).

• Improve company’s good-will and reputation: As the Debenhams will be able to serve the customer coming at the store with quality products as well as services. This will create good image among the customers.

• Staff’s motivation: As the staff will be able to work in the effective manner by meet the company’s set goals, they will be motivated to work hard at the Debenhams. The highly motivated staff at the store helps in effective operations also.

• Optimal use of the available resources and reduce wastage: Using the operational management at the Debenhams stores will help in proper utilization of resources and reduce the unnecessary purchase and storage at the stores.

M3 Evaluate how leaders and managers can improve efficiencies of operational management to successfully meet business objectives.

The managers as well as leaders at the Debenhams can enhance the overall efficiencies of their operation management to achieve the goals set by the management. The managers of the Debenhams try to match the staff’s skills to the different work and operations of their stores. This directly affects the staff motivation and they are encouraged to use their own skills in a better way to complete their operations as well as work. This encourages the staff to give their full attention leads to increase in their respective productivity as well as the efficiency which leads to increase in sells and proper management of inventory. The staff is motivated and provided with the incentives which encourage them to work hard and achieve the set target and respective goals. The leaders at the Debenhams give the rewards, appreciations as well as the recognition to staff for their effective contribution to the goals (Judge and Talaulicar, 2017). The leader welcomes the new ideas and ensures the environment at Debenhams is the best from continuous improvement. These help in the adaption top new approaches in the future and meet the needs of the customers easily. This is how the Debenhams’ managers and the leaders improve and work on the operation management.

LO4

P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon operational management and decisionmaking by leaders and managers

The diverse factors affecting the operations management as well as the decisions of leaders as well as managers of the Debenhams which involves the following:

• Internal Resources: With the help of the resources, the staff at Debenhams work, so their leader and manager’s decisions are affected by the availability of the needed resources in the company. If the resources lack for the management of operation, the leader’s decision is affected and result lower efficiency as well as productivity of staff.

• Financial position of Debenhams: If the required finance is not available for implementing the approaches like TQM or inventory management, then the Debenhams’ manager’s decision will be influenced associated to different cost of their products and the services they provide to buyer at store.

• Trend in the market: As Debenhams is into the retail, the buyer’s preference keeps on changing, thus managers work at its stores need to analyze the market and stock of their products. This influences the decision related to stock and market demand of the different products which is ever – changing.

• Stake – holders’ influence: The manager’s and leader’s decisions are also affected by the stake – holder’s influences. If the investors are not happy with the certain operations of the management at Debenhams, they need to change it (Rimita, et al., 2020).

• Political environment: Even the political environment of the UK as well as other countries are required to be analyzed before taking the decisions by the managers at Debenhams and the government’s laws also impacts the operations of the retail.

• Technological advancements: As the competition has increased into the retail, the Debenhams’ managers and leaders are required to adapt to latest or new technologies at the stores. Thus, they need to take decision to adapt which kind of technology.

M4 Analyse how these different factors affect the business environment and wider community.

The internal resources as well as the financial position impact the Debenhams’ business environment as well as the whole community in many ways. If there no resources available staff will not be able to work while the society will also be affected because of improper operation and lack of finance of this company. The changing trends of the buyers are directly impacting the mind -set of the society and forces the company to meet the consumer’s requirements. The stake – holder’s influences affect the decisions of the business at Debenhams and the society as stakeholders needs benefit from organization (Mintz and Adamsky, 2019). The political influences are impacting operations and business decisions and which influences the community in many ways. The advancement of the technology also helps the society as well as the company. The company involves into the ethical practices as well as the corporate social responsibilities – CSR for betterment of society and creates the reputation in market.

D2 Critically evaluate application of operations management and factors that impact on the wider business environment.

The Debenhams’ operation management is directly associated with the overall cost, maintaining quality as well ensuring the productivity using Six Sigma, TQM as well as JIT approaches. The positive effects on this company involves the enhancing its staff’s performance and proper usage of their resources without any wastage. It helped the leaders as well as the managers of Debenham’s to meet their targeted goals. This help to enhance the operational excellence at the stores by maintaining proper inventory. The negative impact on this company is that company need to be totally depended on their resources. The improper management will create the coordination problems and challenges to managers and the leaders of Debenhams (Abubakar, et al., 2019).

Conclusion and Recommendations

Thus, it can be concluded that the Debenhams’ operational management at its diverse stores can be improved. The Six Sigma, TQM as well as JIT approaches will help their managers and their leaders at this company to ensure the reduction of waste and time inventory management and ordering to meet the need of the customers. It is recommended that this company can use the Kaizen as well as Kanban system for effective operation management at their stores. The leaders and managers need to understand their operation and factor impacting the business and its decision for increasing the profit and meet the goals.

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