This report is regarding the management and the functions of the telecommunication corporationVodafone UK. The organization is the market leader in the UK in the telecom industry. The registered office of the company is situated in Newbury, Berkshire, England and the international headquarters is situated in London, England. The Vodafone has its networks in approximately 25 countries along with the partner network in 47 countries. This report will highlight the roles as well as the traits of the leaders and managerswithin the company. Different situations will be explained highlighting the tasks of managers and leaders. The leadership theories will be discussed in this paper and at the end of this paper, the concepts of OMwill also be described. Different aspects will be explained in this report which influences the wider community and the business environment.
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P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager
The administrators and leaders play a very important responsibility in Vodafone UK through managing the teams and functions of the company. These are two diverse designations having different roles as well as functions. These leaders and managers help the company in achieving the organizational goals and keeping the employees as well as customers satisfied. Following is the table contrasting the roles and traits of the managers and leaders within Vodafone UK:
Basis
Leaders
Managers
Definition
The leader within Vodafone UK is a person who encourages the employees of the company to accomplish their tasks by adopting the right path of work. They help their followers or team members in increasing their performance as well as their productivity at the workplace. Leadership is a quality that helps a person in managing agroup of people and guiding and motivating them to complete work within the given deadline.
Managers are the people who have the responsibility of carrying out the administration of thepeopleworking for him. In Vodafone UK, managers plan, build as well as direct the system of the company in order to attain the organizational objectives in every situation (Miner, 2015).
Role
The role of leaders within Vodafone UK is to influence their subordinates in order to achieve their specific objectives. They motivate their followers and set the right direction for the employees to complete their tasks in the right way. A leader facilitates the decisions made by the manager of the organization. The responsibility of a leader is to bring the people together and guide them to work effectively and work for enhancing their performance as well as productivity (Zinovieva, et. al., 2016).
The functions of managers aredistinguished from the leaders. The administrators plan for the organization. They create the objectives and take the responsibility of managing each task. They do not have the followers but the employees who work for them. The role of the manager is to administrate and organize the people and the majorfocus of the manager remains on process and objective rather than the people.
Characteristics
Following are the characteristics possessed by the leaders:
· Vision
· Ability to encourage and motivate
· Open-minded
· Communication skills
· Positive attitude
· Confidence
Following are the traits possessed by the managers in Vodafone UK:
· Etiquette
· Commitment to work
· Intelligence
· Patience
· Decision-making
· Discipline
M1Differentiation between the function of the manager and the role of leader by using theories and concepts
Manager's functions
The functions of the manager are to administrate and organize the people within Vodafone UK and making the effective utilization of the available resources. The managers function in the organization applying the theory of human relations. The managers make efforts to maintain the relationships with the employees through understanding their desires as well as the requirements. There are also other theories tobe applied in the context of the manager's functions such as administration theory, X and Y theory as well as a scientific theory (Wu and Chen, 2014).
Leader's role
The majorfunction of the leader is to guide and motivate his team members in order to make them complete their tasks in an appropriate manner and to increase their productivity and improve their performance. A variety of theories is used by leaders such as the transformational theory, traits theory, behavioral theory, and transactional theory. The leaders ensure that their followers are giving their efforts to accomplish the organizational goals (Meng and Boyd, 2017).
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts.
There are several situations which are faced by the managers and leaders within Vodafone UK. Following is the table explaining the job of leader and the functions of the managers in such situational circumstances within Vodafone UK:
Situation
Manager's Function
Leader's Role
Changes in the use of the latest technologies and the employees are resisting to the change
The managers will inform the employeesregarding the benefits of the change. The managers will organize the growth and training programs for the workforce of Vodafone UK to make them understand the new procedure and introduction to these latest technologies will be provided to them in such a situation.
The leaders will motivate the team members to work with these latest technologies and will help them and guide them wherever there will be a requirement of guidance. They will explain to the employees the benefits and requirements of the change in the business and convince them to work hard.
In the situation of heavy workload in the organization
The manager's function will be to prepare a plan for the employees to manage their shift hours and effective decisions will be made by the manager in terms of work management (Parker, et. al., 2015).
Here the responsibility of leaders will be to motivate the workforces to work hard to complete the work within the timelines and to encourage the employees for the overtime as per the plan made by the managers of the company.
Poor customer satisfaction due to the changes in their expectations from Vodafone UK
Here the role of the manager will be to make the effective plans and strategies to make the improvement in providing the customer services effectively to fulfill the customer's demands (Miner, 2015).
The role of the leader will be to explain the situation to his followers and encourage them to give their best at the workplace The strategies and plans will be informed to the employees and the right path will be shown to them to accomplish the goal.
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including situational leadership, systems leadership, and contingency.
Managers and the leaders of the Vodafone UK help the employees in achieving the organizational as well as the personal goals with the assistance of distinguishedmanagement models and leadership theories. These theories provide perfect guidance to the employees to achieve their objectives. Following are these theories and approaches:
The approach of contingency: According to this approach, the functions and managers and the role of leaders should depend on the situations prevailing within Vodafone UK. There are 2 effective styles of leadership are included which are task-motivated and relationship-motivated. This theory is somewhere related to situational leadership but it is quite different from that (Fiedler, 2015).
Hersey and Blanchard's Situational leadership theory: This theory was developed in 1969 which is dependent on the theory of the management style. This theory application is considered useful within the organization when the employees are experienced and have a good degree of knowledge about their work. The employees can help their leaders in making the decisions at such time and can also guide as per their expertise and knowledge. As per this approach, the leaders of the company Vodafone UK must be participative, directive as well as supportive.
System approach: It is very important for an organization to perform the tasks and activities according to the system in place in order to enhance the manager's functions within the bureaucraticenvironment. There are four important components included in this theory which are basic assumptions, innovative strategies, actionable methods, and overall organizational strategies. This approach is helpful for the business of Vodafone UK in order to understand the interdependency between the internal and external environmental factors. The effective elements in the market can be recognized with the help of this theory to increase the profits of Vodafone UK.
Traits approach: This is an effective approach of management used by the administrators and leaders of Vodafone UK to determine the characteristics, behavior as well as the personality of the employees working within the company. This theory helps in aligning the tasks to the employees as per their skills and competence.
M2 Examine strengths and weaknesses to appraise different approaches to situations within the work environment.
There are different capabilities and weaknesses of different modelsused within the companies. Applying the contingency leadership approach in Vodafone UK can be helpful for the company in dealing with the situations within the company. There is a drawback or weakness of this theory that it is not possible to switch every time the style of leadership as per the situation as it can make the functions of the organization rigid.
On the other side, the system theory can be used by the managers in making effective decisions about the organization but this theory is quite complex in nature and it becomes quite tricky for leaders to follow the system to motivate the employees to work. The situational model also has its strength and weaknesses in place. This theory will be helpful in achieving effective and quality results but sometimes this theory leads to conflicts among the followers which makes the situation critical within the company (Ren, et. al., 2017).
D1 Critically Analyse and Evaluate the different theories and approaches to leadership in given contexts.
As per the analysis made on different leadership theories, there is no particular style that can be used by the leaders to manage the team. It completely depends on the situational contexts within the organization that which theory or leadership style should be used. The theories that can be used by the leaders in Vodafone UK are the contingency theory and traits theory which can be helpful in effectively managing different situations in the company and motivating the employees of the company to work hard to achieve their objectives. The leaders will be able to analyze the situation and according to use the leadership style to manage the situation and understanding the traits and personality of employees can help them in building good trust and interaction with them. The Situationalleadership theory and systems theory can be quite complex for the leaders and managers to apply in critical situations(Parker, et. al., 2015).
P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play.
There are several approaches utilized by the Vodafone UK organization to manage the functions of the company. Following are these approaches discussed:
Total Quality Management
This model is an effective and long term process used to attain and maintain the standards by detecting the errors and reducing them in the manufacturing of supply chain management. The concentration of the company is on bringing the effectiveness in services offered by the company to its customers. The company considers the demands and desires of the customers to make improvements in the services it offers. There are 5 principles of this approach which are quality, customer orientation, teamwork, continuous improvement as well as the maintenance of the improvement. There are different strategies applied by Vodafone UK in this approach. These strategies also include the KAIZEN which mainly focuses on the improvement of the products as well as the services. The company more effectively can be able to attain its goals of offeringhigh-quality products and services to its consumers. The Vodafone UK consists of the leaders which encourage their employees in maintaining the peace among the employees and effectively managing the change within the organization through motivating their employees.
Six Sigma
This is also one of the important approaches used by the company which mainly focuses on team performance so that the tasks can be accomplished in an appropriate manner and the performance can also be enhanced. This technique is helpful in avoiding waste such as the defects in the production, inventory, motion, over-processing of the material as well as transportation.
The managers of the Vodafone UK can effectively utilize these sources of the company by utilizing a good strategy. The application of this approach can prove to be very effective and useful for the company because it will be helpful in eliminating the wastage from the process. This willhelp in reducing the cost of production and the improvements in the process will be seen. The role of leaders will be to encourage teamwork among his followers to effectively utilize this technique (Kindström and Kowalkowski, 2014).
Just in time Inventory
This is an effective approach used by the companies to enhance the efficiency of the business and eliminating the wastage from the process by receiving the inventory at the correct time when there is such a requirement. This will be a great tool to make improvements in the operations of the company through effectively making the improvements in the products, services as well as processes of the company.
In Vodafone UK,the services and production departments are ordered by the managers to keep control over the inventory as well as make improvements in the services on a regular basis. The company leaders can evaluate the performance of their employees by keeping a track record with them.
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives.
The operations administration is considered as the procedure of making plans, organization the resources, organizing everything, controlling and monitoring the outcomes, and directing the production and manufacturing processes. The main objective of the operations manager remains to produce and deliver the goods as well as services at the right time ensuring the quality. In order to complete the projects successfully, the operation managers play a very important role through their functions.
With the assistance of efficientOM, there can be made the effective utilization of all the available resources with the company. This helps in cutting the unnecessary costs of production. The operations management is also helpful in bringing the quality in the services offered by the Vodafone UK to its customers. There are different techniques used in operations management which is helpful in eliminating the wastage in the process. This helps in reducing the cost of production and efficiency is also gained by the company in managing the operations of the company.
The techniques used for the operations management also ensure effective customer satisfaction which helps in increasing the profitability and the customer base of the company. These benefits such as quality management and effective customer satisfaction help in building the great reputation of the company in the market among all other companies. Through this, the company can maintain an effective competitive edge. One of the most effective components of utilizing the approaches of operations management is the reduction of wastage and improve the quality of production. The application of TQM and Six Sigma can help the company in increasing the overall production of the company by reducing the wastage (Sunder, 2016).
Another function of the operations management is capacity management which is helpful in producing the right capacity of the products as per the demands and necessity of the customers. OM is a very crucial part of any company as it is helpful in managing the functions to be completed within a company. In Vodafone UK, OM plays an important role in improving the performance as well as the capacity of the company. There are numerous benefits arising out of OM which helps in building the value of the company in the market.
M3 Evaluate how leaders and managers can improve efficiencies of operational management to successfully meet business objectives.
The efficiency of the OM can be increased in Vodafone UK bythe utilization of effective approaches. The managers can use the most effective and suitable technique in their business to manage productivity and eliminate the wastage within the process of production. There are techniques such as TQM, Six Sigma, Lean project management as well as Just in time, which can be helpful in humanizing the productivity and performance of the organization. Effective OM is also helpful in building the importance and the value of the organization. Through using these approaches, the leaders of the company can successfully achieve their organizational objectives. The company can achieve the goal of offering good quality products to its clients at affordable prices. Apart from that the customer satisfaction level also increases with the help of efficient operations management (Thompson and Glasø, 2015).
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers.
The environment of business is consisting of several factors that can have anforce on decisions made by the managers andon the operationalmanagement of Vodafone UK. There are not only internal but also external factors influencing the functions of a business. The external aspects that impact the management of the company are technological, economic, political, social as well as the legal factors.
CSRis one of the useful business approaches contributing towards the ethical and the sustainable business development through the delivery of the environmental, social as well as the economic benefits to the people associated with the organization. The leaders play an crucial role in the effective implementation of the CSR policies through the business (Wheelen, et. al., 2017).
It must be guaranteed by the leaders of the company that Vodafone UK is contributing towards the sustainable development of such a community in which the company is operating. The operations of business led to many causes due to which the communities require to suffer and this CSR policy is helpful in contributing to the betterment of such community.
There isa requirement of maintaining Ethics, sustainability as wells as the value of the organization by Vodafone UK to maintain the goodwill of the company in the market. The operations of the company can be affected in case the company fails to maintain these standards of the business in the community. The company requires operating its business by following the necessary standards of ethics.
Culture is referred to as social behavior and the custom of the place where the company is operating its business. These have a social influence on company's performance. The company should focus on the culture and preferences of the people and should accordingly design its products as well as the services.
The company is required to focus on its Values while serving its customers. The company is required to provide quality and sustainable products to its customers so that the company can build an image in the community for its business (Eruemegbe, 2015).
M4 Analyse how these different factors affect the business environment and the wider community.
The inner and outsider factors affecting the activities of the companycan have a direct impact on the wider societytoo. The company is required to focus on its CSR policies, its value, sustainability, ethics as well as culture for the benefit of the company as well as the whole community where the company is operating. The effective implementation of the policies can help the business in building its reputation in the market. The political, economic, andtechnological factors affect the activities of the business which pressurize the production of the company. This directly impacts the excellence of the manufactured items which is to be delivered to the community. These factors not only distress the operations of the business but also impact the people who are being served such products by the institution. The company is required to focus on such factors.
D2 Critically Evaluate the application of operations management and factors that impact on the wider business environment.
OM is an important part of the business and different approaches are used by the companies in order to implement effective OM. There are several techniques such as lean management, six sigma, and TQM which can be used by the business to improve the operational performance of the company. These techniques ensure the effective utilization of the resources of the organization and also ensure cost reduction through the elimination of the wastage.
There are several factors demonstrated which have not only impacted the OM but alsothe community in which the business is operating. The factors related to the external environment have a direct influenceover the matrix of the company. There is a requirement of handling these factors in an effective manner and accordingly, the strategies should be built by the company make is successful
Conclusion
The above study revealed the position of manager and leader in Vodafone UK by illustrating the technological changes that have occurred in the outside world. The study provided a brief overview of the organizational scenario, which included problems and difficulties faced during procedures and operations. The study examined and described administrator and leader traits by providing different examples in many ways. It implemented models relevant to leadership situational, contingency and system strategies to learn how the leader manages the company facing functional challenges. In addition, primary strategies related to operation management have been addressed to bring about change in operating styles along the successful direction of producing performance.The study has demonstrated Vodafone's need for management service to achieve business goals. Finally, multiple factors that decide the effect on the process of making decision, as well as the operations performed by leaders, have been evaluated.
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