Tasks And Responsibility O People Skills example essay topic

The Importance of Effective Management Management is a process concerned with coordinating and integrating work activities to achieve the goals of a business, with and through other people. Successful management is about achieving goals. Effectiveness is management is about achieving goals. Efficiency is concerned with the relationship between inputs and outputs. Effective management invariably results in business success, while ineffective management often results in business failure. Management Roles Management can be described in terms of roles which are organized sets or patterns of behavior.

There are three main groups: o Decisional: based on work planning, goal setting. e.g. Entrepreneur, Negotiator, Resource Allocator. o Interpresonal: positive agreement and cooperation of workers. e.g. Leader, Liason. o Informational: only when junior personnel handle routine tasks, according to established rules and procedures. e.g. Monitor, Disseminator, Spokesperson. The role of management is one of responsibility to the owners of a business. Management is entrusted with the responsibility for: o determining the business objectives in line with the vision of the business, o proactive planning for future growth, o anticipating and planning for changes in the business environment, o integrating all the human, physical and informational resources available, o administering and controlling business activities, and o accountability for the business operation and results. Skills of Management o Strategic thinking: Highly developed conceptual skills; Capacity to view organisation as a whole; Product-related and technical knowledge; and Understanding of what can be done now. o Vision: Clear focus on the big picture; Able to perceive opportunity; Clear foresight; Able to integrate component parts into an interacting whole; and Knowledge of support services. o Decision Making: Awareness of alternatives through ability to assemble data; Ability to assess alternatives and decide; Creative and lateral thinking skills; Clear understanding of the competing interests of stakeholders; ability to maintain a balance between competing goals; Highly developed conceptual understanding of all interacting parts; and Ability to communicate decisions clearly. o Self Managing: Time management skills; Capacity to stay focused; and Understanding of the role of support services in the organisational framework. o Team Work: Providing networks for effective information flow; Coach, teacher, mentor roles in creating and developing groups; and Delegation of team roles, tasks and responsibility. o People Skills: Understanding how people think and act; Ability to motivate workers; Creation of a harmonious workplace; Effective written and oral communication skills; and Successful delegation. o Complex Problem Solving: Ability to gather and assess data to isolate a problem; Sensitivity to the needs of others; Procedures for dispute resolution; and Negotiation skills learned and practised. o High Ethical and Personal Standards: Generally agreed qualities of decisiveness, consistency, responsiveness, trustworthiness, friendliness and approachability. o Flexibility and Adaptability to Change: Willingness to move in a new direction; Constant evaluation of decisions taken in the light of subsequent performance; and Consistent monitoring of the changing external environment. Responsibilities to Stakeholders A stakeholder is anyone with a vested interest in a business. Stakeholders are not simply the owners.

Stakeholders and their major interests include: o customers and clients: interested in fair pricing, safe products and after sales service o employees: interested in fair pay, safe and pleasant working conditions, training opportunities and career paths o owners and shareholders: interested in a reasonable return on funds invested o government: interested in standards and in receiving taxation o society: interested in conformity to morals, customs and beliefs o environment: interested in protection of air, water and soil o future societies: interested in ecologically sustainable practices. Reconciling Conflicts of Interest o Confrontation: face to face problem solving. o Collaboration: requires full cooperation of each party. o Compromise: giving up something. o Reorganization: altering organizational structure. Understanding Business Organizations with Reference to Management Theories This is the pattern of behaviour of managers in performing their functions and in their dealings with employees. A manager's style reflects a response to a number of variables in the external and internal environments, as illustrated below: o Manager's personality and value system, e.g. education, experience. o Nature of workers, e.g. skills, needs, attitudes. o Nature of the internal environment, e.g. structure, stability, physical site. o Immediate situation, e.g. nature of problem, time and cost constraints. Management styles can be classified as: o Autocratic: a leader who exerts a large degree of control over a group and allows little participation from group members. o Democratic: where managers encourage a high degree of employee participation in decision making as well as open communication channels. o collegial, o laissez-faire. Classical Scientific: hierarchical organizational structure based on division of labour, which is highly centralized so major decisions would be used through a chain of command.

Autocratic leadership style. Approach Specialised efficiency-oriented systems of management Timing From the turn of the century, well into the 1930's. A legacy of the Industrial Revolution and the social structure of the times: a potentially large workforce of relatively uneducated dis empowered people. Management principles Hierarchical systems based on principles of specialisation, centralisation and formality. Specialised tasks exist in specialised departments, with responsibility formally designated. Span of control is narrow and a unitary line of command is in place.

Relevance Great benefits from a consumer viewpoint, with the availability of a wide range of consumer goods. Problems centred on the dehumanizing, autocratic nature of the efficiency-driven system and the assumption that the needs of workers matched those of management. Behavioral: initially characterized by human relations, the idea being that higher morale would lead to grater productivity. Approach Changed approach to the way the work situation was seen. Managers dealt with "people" aspects of their organisation. The "group" played a more significant role.

Timing Became important following the 1922 to 1937 Hawthorne studies of the Western Electric Company and the Great Depression of the time. Continued to the 1970's. Management principles Supportive leadership. Managerial focus on group support and wide spans of control in a flat organisational structure, consisting of a hierarchy of interlocking groups.

Relevance The conflict of interest between management and workers was recognised. Practices appeared to work as prosperity continued into the 1970's, with growing domestic markets and high family incomes in Western economies. Behavioural management practices were overwhelmed by the application of systems models of management. Political: Power refers to the ability of a person to influence the beliefs or actions of other people. It is not granted by a superior. It comes from a number of sources or bases. o Legitimate Power: similar to authority. o Expert Power: power a person has because they possess knowledge or expertise that others value. o Referent Power: personal character traits or desirable characteristics that other admire. o Reward Power: arises from the ability of someone to grant rewards. o Coercive Power: forcing someone to do something against their own will.

Approach Approaches relate to empowerment in the external environment through loosely structured networks and alliances. Timing The current economic environment, which is characterised by high levels of social, economic and technological discontinuity. Political approaches recognise the speed-up in the rate of change and complexity of the current external environment. Management principles Empowerment and collaborative individualism.

The creativity of management and its capacity to innovate are challenged. Management is increasingly willing to experiment with new strategies and cultures in search of solutions to unstructured problems. Alliances are developed inside and outside the organisation. Relevance The use of political power and influence in the creation of alliances is recognised. Organisations have moved increasingly towards decentralisation and chunking.

Political approaches are more deliberate strategies to deal with complex and discontinuous environments. Strengths and Weaknesses of Classical Scientific, Behavioral and Political Approaches: Classical Scientific Strengths: used scientific method to determine the best way of doing something. Managers provided managerial functions to increase efficiency and productivity. Weaknesses: workers were treated as machines.

Problems with quality of goods because jobs were so specialized they were monotonous. Behavioral Strengths: forced managers to reassess the simple machine model, in doing so they made important contributions to our understanding of leadership, employee motivation and job design. Weaknesses: no unifying framework for managers. Political Strengths: provided insight into understanding power, conflict and organizational design. Weaknesses: focused on one aspect of management.