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Introduction - Unit 4: Management and Operations
It was found that executives and managers throughout the organization were involved in improving invention competitiveness and making high-value commodities successful, which might lead to an increase in company profits. Aston Martin, a vehicle manufacturer with headquarters in the United Kingdom, is one of the organizations mentioned. The research will look at different leadership philosophies and styles, as well as the expenses associated with high-quality leadership. A manager’s role in adjusting to change and managing capacity is discussed together with the administration and operations duty. Additionally, the report will provide important suggestions for enhancing management in the workplace.
LO1
Define and contrast the duties and responsibilities of a leader and a manager in your organization.
Managers: The managers of an organization plan and coordinate the organization's activities in order to accomplish the organization's set goals and objectives. Administrators are accountable for developing and executing successful strategic planning, as well as directing the work of the organization's employees and elected officials to accomplish the organisation ’s objectives.
Leaders: Employees follow leaders to complete their jobs and activities. Leaders are the individuals of the organization who have authority. Leaders play a critical role in inspiring their teams by instilling the organization’s goal in its employees via the use of their leadership and interpersonal abilities. The company’s leadership must be trustworthy in order to motivate its personnel to carry out their responsibilities (Li, 2018). Leaders have the biggest impact when they encourage and drive their teams to work more efficiently and profitably.
Managers
Leaders
Managers decide on the objectives.
Administrators are motivated to attain their goals by leaders.
Managers provide directions to their agents.
Leadership involves collaborating and guiding personnel to function in accordance with business policies.
The teams get instruction from the managers.
Leaders are in charge of organizing the directions given to the team.
Managers are responsible for making fresh ideas for improving the business.
It’s up to leaders to make such ideas a reality.
Managers are compulsive when it comes to information.
People are at the centre of everything a leader does.
The manager’s key tasks include dealing with party groups.
It is the leaders’ job to inspire and motivate their subordinates to do their jobs well.
Managers provide tasks to subordinates.
A leader is someone who motivates and inspires their employees to do their best job.
Manager: A manager’s job is to allocate resources in a company. To ensure that each group has the tools necessary to carry out actions that contribute to development, the manager’s role is critical. When we talk about a person’s traits, we’re talking about all of their actions. If a manager wants to be taken seriously, he or she must portray an image of maturity (Reina et al., 2018). You have to make decisions that aren’t guided by your hunger or wants. A good manager has a broad perspective and thinks beyond the box. Innovative strategies for keeping a corporation abreast of emerging technology must be developed by this person. As a result, the business is able to operate more efficiently.
Leaders: In order to connect with their subordinates, leaders undergo extensive training. Employees would be aligned with corporate goals as a consequence. For a company’s cooperative efforts to result in high-quality goods, there has to be a solid and well-aerated connection between them (Kosfeld, 2020). Leaders have confidence in their own talents. Workers benefit from this attribute since it fosters self-assurance. An effective leader is one who has the courage to address the issue at hand instead of postponing it.
Leadership and management responsibilities in the organization are described below, along with some characteristics of each:
Planning: Sales and product offers of vehicles by Aston Martin must be planned and identified by business management (Astonmartin.com, 2021). Enhancement is one of the techniques used by Aston Martin to achieve the organization’s objectives. This results to constant adjustments in the production process, which improves productivity. Leaders at Aston Martin have the responsibility of passing on the obligations allocated by managers to delegates while focusing on the efforts of employees to accomplish the company’s objectives.
Coordinating: The executives of Aston Martin assist in bringing the many parts of the recommendation together to get better results. Another advantage that comes with a large number of locations is being able to assemble low-cost, high-quality automobiles in a central location. In organizing exercises, leaders’ duties include fulfilling agreed-upon actions in building administration, using communications and having enormous imaginative potential.
Controlling: Managers and leaders at Aston Martin monitor and observe the procedures created by management as well as how these approaches are put into practice by managers. Leaders also examine the results of member operations using benchmarks set all around supervisors and direct staff as needed. By making this difference between managers and leaders, responsibilities may be split and completed more effectively, which has a positive impact on corporate development.
LO2
Evaluate examples on how a manager’s responsibilities differ depending on the scenario
Managers and leaders’ good intentions help the organization work well together to attain its objectives. Due to the rapidly growing costs of fuel, materials, and equipment, Aston Martin is being squeezed (Saisi, 2019). Strategy and leadership may be used in this circumstance to develop methods that reduce manufacturing costs while simultaneously improving the company’s sales and profits.
Some leadership theories also suggest that employees with a strong sense of initiative may contribute to the improvement of an organization’s operations. Aston Martin’s organizational leadership division concentrates on leadership assumptions and integrates the efforts of leaders in order to save production expenses. Aston Martin has linked the modern leadership philosophy to coping with increased purchase and production expenses (Kovach, 2018). It’s the managers’ job to put systems in place, such figuring out which vendors provide high-quality items at a reasonable price.
As a result of their ability to encourage their personnel, Aston Martin’s executives have been able to reduce assembly costs while also eliminating opposition to change within their workforce. Presumption that emphasizes teamwork to achieve objectives is referred to as leadership by goal is known as leadership by the goal In order to set standards of conformity, managers work together with lawmakers, and leaders allocate duties so that people are motivated (Oc, 2018). A procedure known as change has been devised by the management, in which the accomplishments of the company’s leaders and employees are regularly assessed in order to improve production operations (Kim, 2019). Workers and administrators may work together to minimize expenses and increase the business, as long as the collaborative style of competence is used.
As Aston Martin employs the behavioural theory of management. Management also uses tactics that take into account the talents and abilities of lawmakers and leadership, using the transformational innovation paradigm, which connects leaders with employees (Conser et al., 2018). The employees highly value the strategies.
Different methods to leadership and management are evaluated for strengths and weaknesses in order to develop findings that support leadership theories
Situational leadership: An organization that examines the market and adjusts dynamically will have a higher chance of surviving in an ever-changing economic environment. To increase prices, Aston Martin's current CEO must lower manufacturing costs to meet demand in today's challenging market situation (Leroy et al., 2018). Situational leadership has a number of downsides, such as the inability of employees to understand racial inequity owing to a scarcity of high-quality information. This may be done since they are connected to other factors including subordinate effort, cooperation, and cohesiveness as well as the ability of subordinates to clearly define their duties.
Strengths
It acknowledges the need of adaptability.
It helps to create a productive working atmosphere for the company’s staff.
It helps the leader become more conscious of their situation.
As a result, the team and workforce are more cohesive, and this leads to improved performance.
Weaknesses
It does not pay attention to the organization’s long-term goals.
Insufficient data and information are provided to the decision-makers as a result of this.
It instils a feeling of dependence in the recipient.
Figure: Situational Leadership Framework
(Source: )
Systems Leadership: “Aston Martin may embrace this leadership style since it is thorough and strategic”. Leaders just have to use Aston Martin to describe the strengths and limitations. Members of this leadership style are often in charge of ensuring that the organization’s goals are met (Podsakoff and Podsakoff, 2019). This structure can be seen in the diagram below.
Strengths
“It enhances the organization’s capacity to cope with changes in the environment”.
“The focus is on achieving both personal and organizational goals on a broad scale”.
Weaknesses
It’s not always rational, which causes uncertainty while making decisions.
Smaller organizations may find it difficult to compete with larger ones.
Figure: System Leadership
(Source: World Economic Forum, 2021)
Contingency model: A leader’s style is influenced by three things: circumstances, situations, and the interplay between those three things. According to this theory, leadership styles may be categorized as either mission- or people-oriented. Human-oriented governance promotes connections with employees above mission-oriented leadership, which prioritizes employee achievement (Jayaraman, 2020). The concept of contingency relates to adapting one’s strategy as circumstances change. When it comes to inspiring people to change with the times, leaders are important. They put the idea into practice by making a number of structural adjustments to their business.
Strengths
It gives managers the flexibility to adapt their strategy to changing conditions.
Models of contingency help managers become better at supervising and making decisions.
Weaknesses
The model’s reasoning is sound, but putting it into practice is more difficult.
The reactive nature of the model makes it challenging for managers to cope with unforeseen occurrences.
Management by Objectives (MBO): The managerial position is by far the most crucial in the Aston Martin environment. It is a management technique that tries to increase an organization's performance by clearly defining agreed-upon goals between management and workers. MBO's critics assert that it pushes employees to use any and all means necessary to accomplish their goals, usually at the cost of the business.
Strengths
MBO makes it possible to better understand the roles and structures of an organization.
It encourages managers to focus their efforts on achieving predetermined objectives.
Weakness
For MBO to succeed, goal-setters must be provided with realistic means to determining their objectives.
There is a tendency to stay focused on the objectives, even if they need to be revised.
Figure: Process of MBO
(Source: Gladisa and Susanty, 2018)
It is important for managers to be aware of their workers’ mental and physical states in order to lead them effectively, according to management behavioural theory. When it comes to most nations, Aston Martin does the process. Regardless of the area, managers should know what their employees are capable of as well as what they want to do.
An improvement plan was developed by Aston Martin’s management, and it refers to a never-ending effort to improve organizational performance (Gladisa and Susanty, 2018). Ultimately, the company’s success was only possible because of the dedication of the executives as well as the employees. They developed steadily but have now reached a point where some competitors are having difficulty keeping up with product development.
LO3
In the manufacturing process, operations management includes the procedures of providing raw materials for the production of consumer products. Programs to share ideas on how to improve the production process and save expenses are also included. In the industrial process, leaders and managers take choices that are crucial.
“An overview of the core operational functions and the duties and responsibilities of managers and leaders within each of the key operational functions”
Key operational operations need managers and leaders to do various tasks, such are as follows:
Designing: Creating a commodity is the primary goal of design, which starts with the idea of the product and progresses to the incorporation of other features and traits. In the design process, the preferences of customers are carefully monitored, and the product is then developed based on the results. Tracking and careful management are key in this approach for boosting productivity (Raut et al., 2020). When it comes to its cars, the Aston Martin design team goes above and beyond with their interiors, engines, and exteriors. They accomplish their design task by looking at the data collected from customers. The leader’s job is to make sure everything runs well, while the manager’s job is to seek for ways to improve things.
Preparation: Planned activity is focused with making the best use of a company’s resources. As a result, the company must plan ahead for a variety of situations, such as a reduction or increase in market growth (Cortellazzo et al., 2019). Leadership and management responsibilities include researching different scenarios that might affect the function and preparing a report on climate change and market growth.
Total Quality Management: Total Quality Management (TQM) is a method for keeping track of work processes and ensuring they are properly handled at the corporate level (Abbas, 2020). All Aston Martin actions must be developed, conducted, and qualitatively assessed in order to ensure consistency across all systems via the implementation of TQM. A leader’s or manager’s job is to develop and maintain a positive workplace atmosphere that encourages better work results from their staff.
Coordinating: Operational management would be incomplete without it. When people work together, different aspects of the overall goal get intertwined. People and operational teams have a role as well (LaVenture et al., 2017). In order to efficiently complete the whole process, the Aston Martin manager must coordinate many areas of the business.
Controlling: It’s impossible to overestimate the significance of control in operations. When there is no regulation, employees aren’t motivated to produce their best job. The executives of Aston Martin keep an eye on the performance of their employees and keep everything under control (Collins, 2020). The organizational team’s highest level of performance and dedication ensures control.
Key operational management approaches and their importance in accomplishing corporate goals for a successful company.
Operational management is a strategic aim of the organization since it helps increase profitability. Product and service production increases when operations management succeeds, resulting in reduced consumer unit prices. Business executives must think about all methods for increasing efficiency and profitability in their organizations. When it comes to business, Aston Martin is committed to doing things in a moral and intelligible way that is monitored by corporate authorities. Using public relations to promote prudent and long-term financial development, the “Second Century Plan” aims to turn Aston Martin into a long-term premium brand.
Operations management methods include the following:
Controlling and delivery systems: Controlling production and distribution ensures that corporate objectives are met by ensuring that customers are satisfied, which is the primary responsibility of operational control. “Aston’s management and distribution mechanism focuses on making the greatest use of the resource base and decreasing faults as one of its business goals to minimize costs”.
Operations management relies on the conversion of raw materials and component components into finished goods (Kumar et al., 2018). “Managers in this position make certain that the correct production processes are followed and that the right employees are allocated to carry them out”.
Design process: “In order to improve the company’s efficiency and profitability, operations management develops effective procedures” (Hollberg et al., 2019). “Processes like this are developed by leaders and managers to make the duties of their staff simpler while also meeting customer demand”. They also create procedures to match the quality requirements of the company.
Capacity Management: Increased inventory costs and wastage result from producing more than is required. “Customers are disappointed on both sides when supply does not meet demand” (Spring et al., 2017). “Production management is in charge of making sure that a company’s ability to meet customer demand for the appropriate number of items at the right time is handled” (Spring et al., 2017).
Logistics including inventory control: Logistics, particularly inventory control, is an essential aim of operations management since logistical carriers are vital in moving items to the customer. In order to make the commodity available to the customer these elements include storage, transportation, procurement, and other activities of this kind.
Scheduling: Operations control is in charge of allocating cash, dividing up work among personnel according to their qualifications, and calculating how long it will take to complete a job (Wang et al., 2017). To make sure work is finished on time, this strategy guarantees that it is done appropriately by the right personnel.
LO4
Environmental effects on leaders and managers’ decisions in the external business environment
Several operations at Aston Martin have been effectively upgraded, and this has resulted in increased industrial development throughout the UK. The following are external market environment factors that have an impact on decision-making:
Political Factors: Companies may be affected by a wide variety of political dynamics. Outside influences might create a risk component, which can lead to big corporate losses and bad business decisions. Companies must deal with government activities both at home and abroad since these factors might influence the final outcome completely. On Aston Martin’s vehicle operations and responsibilities for safety measures, the government applies restrictions and legislation such as the “Motor Car Act 1903”, the “Companies Act 2006”, and others (Achinas et al., 2019). Adding more interventions will assist track the market’s competitiveness and refine reform initiatives. As a result, Political Factors have an impact on corporate decision-making.
Economic Factors: Aston Martin has also been affected by changes in the market, where customers’ relative worth is high and the return on investment is determined by conductive analysis and consumers’ shifting tastes for high-end automobiles because of high customer expenses (Kabakova and Plaksenkov, 2018). It may help match consumer pricing and alter the processing effect, especially in the financial growth area where Aston Martin is very efficient. Aston Martin’s financial component is to boost development volume faster and establish a business plan to build production capacity and extend the expanding demand trend to meet these requirements. In other words, economics plays a huge role in decision making.
Social Factors: Aston Martin is aware of its customers’ social aspirations and caters to both their automotive needs and their societal desires (Mandhanya and Agrawal, 2017). The development of Aston Martin vehicles has a significant impact on the number of consumers and the growth of the company’s sales throughout the market. It has an impact on the firm’s judgment since the corporation must prioritize the interests of the client. Aston Martin must demonstrate its position as a leading brand to change people’s perceptions. Luxurious cars are being marketed with the intention that their owners would regard them as a way to connect the world. The bulk of the time, marketing methods show the social implications.
Technological Factors: Aston Martin engines lead to improved cars and take into consideration the most recent invention in the current environment, where technical progress is more competitive in the manufacture of models. Aston Martin. The demand for the new self-driving vehicle alternatives has been enormous for the business (Haseeb et al., 2019). Progress in technology may provide advantages and opportunities. Aston Martin’s new technology will, of course, lead to new goods and services as well as new market segments. Furthermore, improvements in processes and goods due to technological progress will increase efficiency while decreasing prices, which will have an impact on how the organization makes decisions.
Legal Factors: When it comes to recycled automobile services, Aston Martin has implemented a number of regulations that may help expand and strengthen the laws already in place, as well as setting industrial preparation criteria. To help with legal obligations, tasks, and creating communication tools, it will help implement this plan (Sengupta and Sengupta, 2018). Because of this, it has an impact on how the organization makes decisions and supports different reform needs and improves organizational rules as a result
Environmental Factors: An emission control requirement for Aston Martin plants must be measured in accordance with the 1994 environmental rules. The environmental strategy and structural reform movement are both being pursued. Because of environmental regulations, the company is restricted in its decision-making when it comes to automobile manufacture.
Evaluating what management and leadership techniques can be used to effectively increase operational efficiency in order to accomplish corporate objectives?
The following methods and theories of management and leadership may help leaders improve operational efficiency in operational management and so achieve company objectives more effectively.
“Entrusting remote employees to work productively”: Providing authorisation to workers may assist them in gaining access to valuable private networks. As long as workers have access to the internet, they may use these networks to continue working around the clock (Johansson and Thollander, 2018). This method of formulating managerial flexibility must be approved by the company’s executives and managers. With this, the corporation will have an easier time working together to achieve its objectives. An organization's and its employees' best interests are served when leaders use situational leadership theory.
“Clearing Labour redundancies”: Removing all the unneeded hierarchical duties from the organization’s current levels is quite important for a leader. Whenever there is a vital activity, the leaders talk about the organization’s aim with the other employees.
By removing intermediaries from communication between lower-level employees and upper-level management, employees can directly encounter the lower-level managers’ views and thoughts on the company’s judgment, which helps instil a positive attitude among employees and helps the company improve operational management efficiency in order to meet business objectives. Organizational and employee choices will be made easier for leaders who follow the objective theory of management. The contingency model is a useful notion for leaders and managers that want to use this strategy. Management can adapt plans based on changing conditions using the contingency model, which helps managers become better managers and decision-makers.
Conclusion
Operation management is in charge of ensuring that corporate procedures are administered correctly in order to maximize the efficiency of firm resources. Because operations control includes the utilization of resources including “commodities, people, equipment, innovation, and business strategy”, it should be given high importance by the company’s executives. The success of the operation management is totally based on the effective productivity of the organization. An organization’s performance is influenced by a variety of factors, including external and internal factors, as well as market conditions.
Recommendation for future improvement
Aston Martin can improve the relationship between the firm and its employees by fostering better communication inside the company's own walls. This will simplify operations management both inside the company and on a global scale. Gilakjani (2017) claims that the organization should provide new business opportunities to its clientele in order to enhance productivity. It should examine all of its marketing efforts in one location to improve operational management. The ability to provide proper counsel and instructions to staff may also improve leadership qualities by helping leaders to better serve consumers.
References
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