Introduction
The report is based on GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) which is the British international pharmaceutical company which headquarter is located in Brentford, England. It is established in 2000 and merges with Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK was the sixth biggest and leading pharmaceutical company as per the Forbes of 2019. GSK is the 10th largest pharmaceutical organization and it ranked 500 according to Forbes. An organization has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and it is the constituent of the FTSE 100 index. The company had a market capitalization of £81 billion and the fourth largest on the LSE. In 2012, GSK plead culpable to promote drugs for unapproved uses and collapse to account for security information in the United States and agreed to pay a US$3 billion settlement. The main purpose of the assignment is to analyze the roles and characteristics of a leader and manager in an organization. Also, understand the different models and theories of the approach which includes situational leadership, system leadership, and contingency.
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P1 Compare the different roles and characteristics of a leader and a manager
Management is the coordination and collaboration of various resources with the help of processing of organizing, planning, controlling, and directing to gain defined goals or targets. It is the administration of tasks to reach the desired goals and objectives. Such type of management activities and functions includes the setting of the company’s strategy and coordinate the efforts of employees to accomplish such targets through the use of available resources (Saucedo-Martínez, et. al., 2018).
Leadership is such art of encouraging and motivating a huge number of groups of individuals to act towards reaching common targets and goals. In business settings, leaders need to focus on maintaining and managing business operations.
Four Management Functions:
Henri Fayol proposed five elements which include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. These management functions are described as follows:
Planning: The main role of the manager is to develop a plan to achieve goals and targets in a better manner. It involves allocate staff resources and delegating roles and setting realistic timelines and completion standards. Along with this, planning needs such as management accountability check on team progress to make small adjustments when requires. GlaxoSmithKline needs to plan whole business operations and helps them in achieving desired goals and targets. If the company prior plans entire resources and events then this is helpful for them is to reach the potential goal that is set (Gillen, et. al., 2016).
Organizing: The manager’s organizational capabilities can assist in making sure the company runs smoothly and also regulate business operations. By developing internal procedures and structure to understand which staff members and teams are best appropriate for the particular works and keep all the employees organized throughout the regular business operations. GlaxoSmithKline focuses on organizing their business functions and helps in maintaining major tasks in a better manner.
Leading: It is important for managers and leaders are to develop confidence among team members and through which they can easily perform regular tasks and works effectively (Ferguson, et. al., 2017). It involves projecting a strong sense of path and leadership when set targets and interacting with new procedures. GSK managers and leaders can lead a large group of people and provide the right direction to get desired goals and objectives.
Controlling: In this, functions are working towards the success and growth of an organization, managers should consistently control and check the staffs’ performance, quality of work, reliability, and efficiency of completed projects. Controlling is management regarding the goals and targets of the business that are being reached and formulating any changes. GlaxoSmithKline’s managing and controlling business operations to achieve desired goals and objectives in a better manner.
Ten Leadership Roles:
There are various roles and responsibilities of leadership which includes:
Intrapersonal roles:
Figurehead: The company manager has social, legal, and ceremonial accountabilities. The manager is the source of inspiration and motivation which encourages staff members.
Leader: The main role of a leader is to manage the team members and workers and keep the focus on completing their task within a time (Ferguson, et. al., 2019).
Liaison: Managers must interact with internal and external connections. The managers require being able to communicate effectively on behalf of the company.
Informational Roles:
Monitor: In this, managers are seeking to collect important information related to an organization and industry, looking for accurate alterations in the environment.
Disseminator: This is where the manager can easily communicate regarding the potential data and information to the colleagues and with their team members.
Spokesperson: Managers’ work is to presents the information for their company. In this role, they are accountable for transforming the required data and facts about a firm.
Decisional roles:
Entrepreneur: Manager’s main role is to develop and control changes within an organization. This helps in resolving issues, problems, generate new ideas, and execute them.
Disturbance handler: When a company hits an unexpected roadblock, then it is the manager who should take charge. They need to solve conflicts and disputes within an organization (Baxley, et. al., 2016).
Resource allocator: In this, the manager’s role is to evaluate and determine where company resources are best applied. It includes distribute funding and assigning employees and other organizational resources.
Negotiator: This may require taking part in and directing and it is important to negotiate within a team, division, and organization.
Difference between Managers and Leaders:
| Managers | Leaders |
| The main goal of a manager is to develop and set the company’s goals and objectives | Leaders major role is to provides accurate direction and guidance to their team members |
| Manager interaction is done with the help of strategies and policies | Leaders are responsible for communicating and interacting with employees as per their strategies and policies by an organization |
| The main function of managers is allocating tasks and works according to their staff’s members competencies | Leaders’ role to motivate and encourage their employees for performing the best work for the company. |
| Managers are important to manage functions and perform activities effectively | Leaders are an emphasis on entire employees |
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P2 Examples of how the role of a leader and the function of a manager apply in different situational contexts
Organizational situational: In this, organizational situational awareness associates with the collective state of a large group of a person which involves in making decision procedures and high levels of organizational functions. The role of a leader is various from the role of the managers (Ravinder, et. al., 2017). The leaders assist in taking accurate decisions and encouraging staff members. The decision is being taken after examining the market situations and trends in a better manner. An organization can go through different conditions such as slow, stable, and fast. Along with this, various leadership styles are being applied in the GSK. In different situations, the main function and role of managers and leaders are varied and implement differently within an organization. There are different situations which are being described as follows:
Stable situation: At this stage, the development and growth of GSK are stable and moderate. In this, a stable market does not alter a lot. Along with this, market changes do not affect the company as no major changes can be done in a large market area and take quick decisions. This will assist in examining the market in correct regards as there are no certain alterations that occur in the business surroundings.
Slow to moderate changing situation: In this, the growth and development of the GSK are slow. The slow change in an organization resultant in delay in projects and get outcomes reduces the profitability. It is analyzed that changes are developed in the internal company’s structure are the results of alterations developed in the external changes (Faruk, et. al., 2018). For example, the slow level of profits is being gained by the GSK is the outcome of slow market development and success. It does not affect the organization’s negative way.
Fast-changing situation: It plays an important role and majorly impact on GSK Company. The rapid alterations in the firm bring and carry out new trends and innovation, on the other hand, fast changes Impacts Company to take wrong decisions and alter estimating the business environment.
Various changes arise in the external and internal business environment in a better manner. The internal alterations can be changes in the company’s structure, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, controlling, leading and communication and so more. Such changes are developed as per the alterations arise in the external surroundings (Shevchenko, et. al., 2018). Controlling such factors assist in gaining accurate profit share and placed in a market. It also assists in diversifying a variety of goods and facilities and expands the whole marketplace.
Certain changes occur in the external environment which cannot control and manage the GSK. Such changes include legal, economic, political, social, and technological, and many more. Along with this, these types of alterations carry out new opportunities for effectively growing business and plan operations to reduce risks.
GSK’s supportive leadership style is used as it helps in performing business tasks in a better manner. In such a style, staff members are being supported by leaders so they are making proper changes in the company (Enyinda, 2017). The decisions can be taken as per the needs and requirements of employees and GSK can easily achieve set goals. As per the skills and capabilities, the projects and works are allotted to gain potential results.
P3 Apply different theories and models of approach
Situational leadership
It is the leadership that adapts to the working environment which works for the achievement of the needs of the organization. Situational leadership is not focused on the particular skills of the leader in which they work for the style of management which will benefit the organization to meet the requirements. Situational leadership is very comfortable for the employees in the company in which the leadership style is implemented in a way to suit the needs of the firm. This type of leadership has various applications as per the level of development in employees which address the needs and skill level of the employees in the organization (Dekker, et. al., 2018). There are various strengths and weaknesses of situational leadership in a GSK. This is advantageous for recognizing the need for flexibility creates a comfortable atmosphere for workers, considers various developmental levels, enhance leader’s awareness, enhance & improve teamwork, and boosts training routine. There are some weaknesses such as it focuses on short term goals, less impactful in task-oriented working, works on skill levels of leader, and increases the corporate dependency of the organization. GlaxoSmithKline plc is a British based multinational pharmaceutical company can use the situational leadership in the company for improving the performance of the teamwork, enhancing flexibility in the firm. The company can use situational leadership to enhance the working capacity of the GSK with the help of leaders to work for the needs of the organization. The managers in GlaxoSmithKline plc can identify the needs of employees and provide them with a comfortable environment to enhance their performance.
System leadership
It is a group of skills and capacities that can be used by the organizations or individuals for enabling, catalyzing, and supporting the whole system-level change process in the organization. The collaborative leadership, systems, and coalition building can be combined for innovating mobilized actions for decentralization of work in the organization. The system’s leadership has various strengths and weaknesses which can impact the performance of GlaxoSmithKline plc such as systems leadership help in identification of the needs of the firm and the employees based on the skills and capacities of the workers to use in the performance and working environment of the company (Abou-Senna, et. al., 2018). This leadership is impactful for the group of workers in the organization. There some weaknesses of the leadership in which the organization may suffer from the changes as they will not fulfill the goals of the GSK in terms of performance and skill set. The GlaxoSmithKline organization can use the system’s leadership for dealing with the development of changes in the company according to the skills and capacities of the firm which will group the workers of the same skill set in one unit to produce the results in a better manner and enhance the effectiveness of the production of medicines as the combined efforts of the workers will be more beneficial in the form of implementation of systems leadership in the GSK.
Contingency
Contingency theory is the theory which depicts that there is no certain procedure for organizing a corporation or leading any company or making decisions for the organization but there is the optimal course of actions which are dependent (contingent) on the internal and external situations of the matter. The leader can be effective in one situation and ineffective in another based on internal and external situations (Gupta, et. al., 2019). There are various strengths of contingency theory such as it is dynamic which can vary based on the situations in the firm, helps the manager in decision-making skills, enhance employees’ motivation for sharing ideas and growing in the company, and helps in designing of organizational structure and plan for systems of informational decision. The contingency leadership is very complex in approach when it comes to the practical approach, reactive as becomes hard for the manager to handle situations sometimes, and not completely sufficient for the manager to depend on the situation which is a major weakness. The GlaxoSmithKline plc organization can use this leadership theory in the understanding of the lowering employee performance which will benefit in acknowledging the factors which are affecting employees for the improvement in performance contingent on the situation of their needs and wants.
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P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management and the role that leaders and managers play.
Operations management is the management of business activities for creating an enhanced level of efficiency in the organization. Operations management is focused on the conversion of labor and materials into services and goods efficiently. The operations management is mainly involved in the planning, organization, and supervising of the production, manufacturing, or provisional services. It focuses on the conversion of inputs into outputs in an organization in the most efficient manner.
Total quality management: total quality management is the process of achieving success through the long term planning in the firm. The success will be retained for a longer period and will provide benefits for the organization. The quality will also be maintained at the same time for the planning of the actions on the products and services of the company (Fisichelli, et. al., 2016). GlaxoSmithKline plc can use this approach of operation management which will help in earning long-term benefits in the pharmaceutical field of business and maintaining the quality of the drugs produced for medicinal usage along with the price of the products and services.
Lean production: this is the approach in operation management in which the best methods for getting output or results are shown. The results will be impacted by external factors. According to the capacity and potential, the wastage should be reduced for getting the desired output. The managers and leaders in the organization can aware of the employees in GlaxoSmithKline organization for efficient usage of resources and reducing wastage which will improve the working productivity of the company using the approach and the skills of employees will be enhanced.
Just in time: this is an approach in which the full focus is on the process of production of goods and services. The targets are achieved on a particular time which helps in gaining results on the prior basis with planning. The full potential of the process will be helpful as the process will complete just in time. The GlaxoSmithKline Company can use this approach which will help in getting the desired results from the services and products in the field of medicine.
Continuous improvement: this is the approach that focuses on improving continuously in the processes, working culture, strategies, planning for the improvement in business development and growth (Neelakandan, et. al., 2019). The GlaxoSmithKline Company can use this approach in reaching customer satisfaction which requires changes in the strategies and planning of the services and products of the company. This will help in gaining business growth for the organization.
Role of leaders
The role of a leader is to motivate the employees based on their needs and desires for the organization. The leader has to work in the direction of increasing the productivity, performance, and potential of the employees. The leader has to show the right path to the employees which will become the path of success for employees to be followed.
Role of manager
A manager is an important person in the company who is responsible for the hiring of new talent and skilled candidates who will take the vacant place in the organization. The manager manages the resources in the firm according to the skills and potential of the employees. The manager also works in the direction of keeping an eye on the activities completed by the workers and checking the desired results expected from the processes. The manager plays an important role in the efficiency of working processes as the employees are monitored by the manager for their performances and skills on a given task.
P5 Explain the importance and value of operations management in achieving business objectives
In an organization, the value and importance of operation management are understood so they can easily achieve desired goals and targets. GSK Company has to evaluate and examine the significance and value of the operation manager in reaching business objectives effectively. There are five common company objectives of the GSK which are described as follows:
Survival: It is important for GSK is to maintain the operation administration of the company which helps them survive in the new market and gain the attention of customers as well (Calais, et. al., 2017).
Increasing sales: Operation management helps in higher the sale of goods and facilities with the assistance of investigating the new technology and understand competitive benefits.
Maximizing profit: It is analyzed that operation management assists in developing a high ratio of the profit and measure it. The maximization in the profit helps in expanding business in various areas and captures another region of the market place. Enhancing profits are providing results in developing new goals and reached them.
Satisfying customers: GSK also works for attracting several customers which helps them in increasing the goodwill and reputation of an organization.
Growth: OM assists in analyzing the growth factors and how to implement changes that need to be understood by the company for enhancing development and success level.
Operation management is important for the company which assists them in evaluating the whole marketplace and satisfying their buyers’ needs and wants properly. There are five main functions of OM which develops operation management that is discussed as follows:
Control systems: It is such a system which helps GSK to collect and use required data to evaluate the performance of various organizational resources such as physical, financial, and human resource.
Distribution system: It is the procedure of supervision the movement of products from supplier at the point of sale. GSK distributes required goods to the final users at the correct place.
Process design: This is the act of transforming a company’s goals, mission, and visions in achieving the organization’s objectives. With the help of this, GSK concentrates on customers’ choice as per this they are developing designs of their new commodities.
Capacity management: This is such an act that makes sure about business growth and increases its desired activities. GSK helps in managing the capacity of the products and analyzing the procedure of business operations.
Logistics: It is an important function and activity of operation management which helps GSK to easily flow necessary goods and services from one place to another.
Operation management is an important process which helps in increasing the sale of the company and focus on enhancing growth and development level. This helps analyze and examine the business goodwill and understands the customers’ choices or preferences in a better manner.
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P6 Assess the factors in the business environment that impact operational management and decision-making by leaders and managers
Some factors affect the operational management and decision making of the GSK. Such factors affect the company in reaching the goals and objectives adequately. As per the changes, the negative and positive decisions are taken by the managers and leaders. Such factors are described as under:
Corporate social responsibility: It is the management concept where an organization combined the social and environmental concerns in their business operations and communicates with its stakeholders. Operation management requires concentrating on developing the highest quality of goods at a reasonable rate without harming the surrounding (Radnor, et. al., 2016). CSR activities need to conduct by businesses for increasing the goodwill and reputation of an organization in a large marketplace. For example, GSK should develop environmentally friendly pharmacies and medicines for their people which assist in enhancing their growth.
Sustainability: It is that process that helps in managing their financial, social, and environmental issues, opportunities, and duties. GSK focuses on and awareness of environmental practices and not just gaining income but they are considering their impact on society and the environment. The business is sustainable as it contributes to the health of structure and helps in making external surrounding effective. For example, GSK concentrates on analyzing the positive and negative impact of sustainability on the decision-making process and operation management in a better way. The positive impact of sustainability is that this helps in saving costs, gain competitive advantages, and attain support, and identifies their communities. The negative impact of sustainability on business concerns are spreading diseases and environment-related risk create issues in front of the company.
Stakeholders: It is a party that has an interest in an organization and it can affect or affected the business operations. The company’s stakeholders focus on operation management and perform a role to invest money in a smoothly run of business functions in a better manner (Radnor, et. al., 2016). Stakeholders also affect the operation management and decision-making process by managers in which they are making decisions regarding the company activities and also provides funding to grow and start up the functions.
Organizational culture: It is the gathering and collection of expectations, values, and practices which guide the activities of team members. In GSK, culture impacts the functional areas of marketing, sales, and distribution. It can also affect the organization’s analysis and take decisions regarding how to enter in the new market place. For example, GSK maintains a culture in an organization in which all the employees perform better work and reach desired goals and targets.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The report concludes the use of a centralized organization structure by GlaxoSmithKline for the distribution of power among employees. The roles and responsibilities define the power distribution among employees of the company. The role of a leader is defined using various models and theories in GlaxoSmithKline. The importance of operation management is analyzed in the report for finding the relations in the various approaches and models of leadership and its importance in GlaxoSmithKline. The report also concludes the role of leaders and managers in enhancing the efficiency of the firm.
It can be recommended that GSK can improve their management and leadership activities which help them in increasing the goodwill of an organization. Along with this, they need to conduct training and development sessions for their employees so they can easily use different types of technologies and methods.
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