Levels Of Management example essay topic

Management Planning and Ethics Paper Planning, as mentioned in the text, is concerned with the future impact of today's decisions. Usually, the need for planning is apparent after decisions have been made in The company I work for. I always find that it's easy to postpone planning and because of it, constant short-run solutions are put into place. In our organization, planning is usually what takes the most time, which we are not given much of when it comes to projects. Even when we get to plan, we don't get to plan as much as we'd like, usually. On the same token, I believe that there should be a cutoff point for planning as it can definitely suck up all of the time needed to execute a project.

I as a manager attempt to plan things as well as I can with my staff, but find that my requested timeline in accordance to the timeline given by my upper management, and to the timeline promised to the executives, find it very difficult at times. It is mentioned in the text that organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling functions in management stem from the planning function. This would explain another tribulation we have at work. We find that we are sometimes disorganized and understaffed.

For the most part I maintain the leading and controlling function with what resources I have. This is really never accomplished up to par because of what is lacking in the other areas. Goals and plans to reach them has been the main project on my plate, because of how difficult it is. For the most part, I've used my own management instinct to lead the group, and have been successful, to certain degree. But my influence on the group is quite limited as I struggle to plan for goals and methods of achieving them.

My measurement of the completion of our goals has hap hazardously been reported on Monday mornings as second priority to certain tasks that need to be completed before I could even call my group successful. Sometimes this act is confusing and doesn't appear to serve a purpose to me, immediately. Although, I know that it does in the long run. I have grown to understand how important planning is at all levels of management. I've also noticed that its characteristics vary with every level of management. Sometimes it appears as though the higher level of management isn't really putting the planning function of management into use, causing just as difficult a time for me to plan as I'm currently having.

In the text I understand that planning terminology from general to specific lies in the following order: vision-mission-objectives-goals. The "vision" is the nonspecific directional and motivational guidance for an entire organization. The "mission" is the organization's reason for being. It distinguishes the organization from others and reflects the values of the top management.

The "objective" refines the "mission" and addresses issues such as market standing, innovation, productivity, physical and financial resources, profit, management, and efficiency. The "goal" is a statement of anticipated results that further defines objectives. "Goals", as I find in my performance reviews constantly, coincide with the acronym, SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Rewarding, and Timed. In writing these performance reviews and attempting to discover measurable goals, I've found that one of the most difficult tasks I've ever had to do is to equate the work someone does into metrics. This task alone has taken me days to accomplish. All in all, I've found that right now I am a much better tactical planner than I am a strategic one.

But all hopes are to learn things I don't know to continue to expand my own horizons. Another side of management that has begun to appear in my everyday life is that of the legal and ethical one. It began with my first employee on the 1st day of my promotion into management; one of my staff members was electrocuted while working (so she says) and so became the beginning of a year long paid leave and a lawsuit. She deemed herself disabled and collected, while working in her personal business as a masseuse (a fact we cannot prove). When I went to HR and said, "Just cut her off", they looked at me and said they couldn't. She had become a protected class member and had become immune to being let go.

Legal issues continue to assist and at the same time, prevent me from doing what I think is just. Law is like a book I keep in front of me at all times when I'm making most of my decisions. When I ask someone to carry something, I make sure the task exists in the staff member's job description. When I say someone can't take time off, I make sure they are requesting vacation time, not Personal or Illness Time used for stress related issues in some cases. This also taught me a valuable lesson on business ethics and the level of ethics I could expect from other employees or future ones. The principles I have been raised with turned out to be accurate to the proper principles of right and wrong in the workplace.

I've also learned that others were obviously raised differently also portray it in the business ethics they display, sometimes causing tension and conflict. I've noticed that people who have been raised to watch their own neck and to make sure they survive (not a bad thing) also do so in the workplace. There is obviously no right and wrong, which also makes this part of the job difficult at times. Who am I to question or try to correct a parallel person's ethics in business?

The use of ethics has become one of my strongest qualities as a manger. I have learned to treat people as humans that need to accomplish numbers, instead of just numbers. This is a trait I value greatly in myself, and it has been noted in my own performance reviews. Corporate Social Responsibility has not affected my group directly, as we are not customer affecting and none of us hold any stakes in the organization. However, we are constantly audited for technical procedure, and intended projects annually which include all of the ways we will be improving our internal system of communications.

This in fact keeps us on our toes and prevents us from lacking in documentation, process, and procedure..