Management & Operations: An Analysis of Leadership and Management Theories in ASDA

Management & Operations

Introduction

Management theories are essential to effectively manage the various activities of an organisation and help ensure maximum productivity and profits for the firm. Different theories of management will be discussed in this assignment. The key differences between a leader and a manager along with the explanation of the four management functions will be covered next. Four different leadership theories and action centred leadership are covered after that. At last, this assignment will talk about transactional and transformational leadership strategies along with the differences between hard and soft skills in the employees of ASDA are discussed.

ASDA is the UK’s third-largest retailer’s chain of supermarkets founded in 1949 in Leeds, UK. ASDA have 145,000 employees and records a footfall of 18 million customers every week (corporate.asda.com, 2021).

L01

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

Management theories: Concepts that surround the management strategies which include frameworks and guidelines that are implementable in organisations are called Management theories (businessmanagementideas.com, 2019).

Two such management theories are Classical Management Theories and Behavioural Management Theory.

• Classical Management Theories: Management theories that are long-established and traditionally accepted worldwide are called Classical Management Theory. For example, Bureaucracy Management Theory and Scientific management theory.

Bureaucracy Management Theory: As per this theory, each employee of ASDA is assigned to a specialised task and that provides a sense of predictability in the organisation. Its main features are a strict hierarchy, clear division of work, rules, regulations, impersonal relationships among the workforce and an administrative class that coordinates the workings of the organisation. On the other hand, the inflexibility of the rules and restrictions promotes dissatisfaction in the employees which can reduce motivation and resultant productivity.

• Scientific Management Theory: As per this management theory, the workers are scientifically selected and trained to ensure maximum productivity from them. Then, the tasks are analysed and assigned to the employees based on their skill sets which match the best with the requirements. Moreover, the management and the workforce need to cooperate with one another to maximise the efficiency of the workplace. This theory ensures proper utilisation of the skill sets in the workforce. However, this theory also produces boredom and monotony in the work lives of the workers which lead to job dissatisfaction.

• Behavioural Management Theory: This theory emphasises that managers need to make the employees feel like an integral part of the team which would promote their efficiency and performance. This theory increases the loyalty and job satisfaction of the employees which motivates them to work harder. On the other hand, this theory takes time to show effect and is unsuitable against time restraints.

Leader: Someone who finds how things can be improved and rallies the workforce to work toward achieving that vision is called a Leader.

Manager: Manager is an employee who is held accountable to manage the working of an organisation or a department of the organisation.

Difference between a Leader and a Manager

Table1: Difference between Leader and Manager

(Source: forbes.com, 2021)

Different management Functions

• Planning: It is the determination of the targets that are to be achieved and the action coarse that are to be followed for the same. Planning is crucial before taking any action and can be categorised into single-use plans and standing plans. Objectives, procedures and methods are examples of standing plans; on the other hand, projects, budgets and programmes are single-use plans.

• Organising: This involves bringing together the workforce of ASDA and the material resources that are needed to achieve the targets. The material resources can include tools, capital, personnel and raw materials.

Figure1: Functions of Management

(Sources: economicdiscussion.net, 2021)

• Directing: Directing is the art of getting things done. While planning and organising are preparatory steps, directing involves the act of performing the task. This involves leading the employees of ASDA to perform a given task.

• Controlling: This involves measuring the current performance of the team members and guiding them towards the pre-determined goal that benefits ASDA. If required, the management would have to take corrective measures so that the performance improves.

Leadership Theories: Theories that help identify leaders from non-leaders in an organisation.

Different Leadership Theories:

• Great Man Theory: As per this, some people are born with certain traits, which make them inherent leaders. ASDA can apply this theory to observe the workforce and identify the leader-candidates with traits like quick decision-making, critical analysis and inspiring attitude. Applying great man theory is very fast, but on the other hand, it does not take account of environmental factors that influence an individual's values and behaviours. This theory also lacks any scientific reality and rigour and has a gender-based prejudice.

• Trait Theory: This theory is similar to great man theory but predicts that excessive expression of certain leadership traits can make them unsuccessful leaders. Some of the leadership traits are integrity, ability to delegate, self-awareness, learning agility and most importantly, communication. However, overexpression of self-confidence in the managers of ASDA can lead to ego issues within the company and result in unsuccessful leadership.

• Situational Theory: As per this, none of the leadership theory supersedes another. A successful leader needs to take different approaches to leadership as per the nature of the task and nature of subordinates at ASDA in terms of their response to different modes of feedbacks (coproratefinanceinstitute.com, 2018).

Action Centred Leadership

Action Centre Model proposes that there are three fundamental components of management and leadership. They are achieving tasks, managing individuals that make up the team and managing the group which makes up the team.

Figure2: Action Centre Model

(Source: expertprogrammanagement.com, 2018)

According to this task, an effective leader or manager must have a good command and good use of all three components of the model.

Firstly, the manager would have to identify the resources required to achieve the task and then formulate a plan which specifies the measurements, deadlines and the tactics involved. After directing the team, the manager would also have to monitor maintain and control the overall performance of the team as per the plan. Next, the manager would have to establish the standards of behaviour as well as the performance of the team. The manager also has to maintain the discipline and resolve conflicts within the group while ensuring teamwork and cooperation within the team. An ideal manager would also have to connect with the team members by communicating daily.

Transformational Leadership

This leadership is defined by a leader who works with the followers to identify the need for a change, create a vision to implement by inspiring others and execute the change with commitment of the team members (Anderson, 2017). An effective leader or line manager can thus inspire the subordinates to incorporate the change in the organisational culture of ASDA and improve the working environment and efficiency.

Transactional Leadership

This leadership involves rewarding the subordinates on the merits of their good performance. This theory is largely based on the exchange of rewards on the performance of the subordinates (Khan, 2017). This motivates the employees of ASDA to perform better in hopes of rewards which can be in terms of acknowledgement or monetary awards.

Hard Skills and Soft Skills

Hard Skills of Management are mainly related to knowledge and skills that are easily trainable and are easily measurable. They include specialised task skills like accounting in the stores of ASDA, software engineering and efficient driving by the deliverymen of ASDA.

Soft Skills are more closely associated with internal traits of a person such as his background, personal experiences, physiological traits and communication skills. These skills are not easily measurable as there are no specific guidelines to check them and are hard to incorporate them in the employees of ASDA as it requires regular practising for a long time (Balcar, 2016).

Conclusion

This can be thus concluded that management theories help the company to identify the leaders from the non-leaders and the four functions of the managers are to be applied together in order to ensure efficient utilisation of the resources of ASDA. Action Centred leadership can also prove to be an effective model for the managers and leaders at ASDA to improve the overall efficiency of the operations. It was seen how the transactional management can help the employees to improve their performance and the way in which transformational leaders at ASDA can inspire the workforce to incorporate new essential changes to improve customer satisfaction in the stores of ASDA.

Reference List

Anderson, M., 2017. Transformational leadership in education: A review of existing literature. International Social Science Review, 93(1), p.4.

Balcar, J., 2016. Is it better to invest in hard or soft skills?. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 27(4), pp.453-470.

businessmanagementideas.com 2020 Management Theories [Online] Available at: https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/management/classical-theory-of-management/classical-theory-of-management-3-answers-theories-management/18261 [Accessed 12 February 2021]

chieflearningofficer.com 2020 What is leadership, and who is a leader? Chief Learning Officer - CLO Media. [Online] Available at: https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/2020/01/06/what-is-leadership-and-who-is-a-leader/ (Accessed: 11 February 2021).

corporate.asda.com 2021 Our History [Online] Available at: https://corporate.asda.com/our-story/our-history [Accessed 12 February 2021]

corporatefinanceinstitute.com 2021 Leadership Theories - Learn About Key Leadership Theories Available at: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/soft-skills/leadership-theories/ (Accessed: 12 February 2021).

expertprogrammanagement.com 2021 Expert Program Management Available at: https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2011/08/action-centred-leadership-john-adair/ (Accessed: 12 February 2021).

Khan, N., 2017. Adaptive or transactional leadership in current higher education: A brief comparison. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(3), pp.178-183.