Management One Protective Security - Essay Example

? Management One Protective Security BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Management One Protective Security Improving Performance Interactions with high profile and valuable clients requires both a humanistic approach and a logical approach to supporting ongoing relationships and ensuring the security and integrity of the company’s financial expectations. The inter-linkage between customer relationship management and the protective security officer is undeniable and in a private security company it is necessary to maintain team posturing in all leadership function to ensure staff and subordinate cooperation toward meeting the long-term strategic goals of satisfying and retaining clients. In this particular Iraqi private security company, the structure that guides leadership and follower hierarchies include positions of Country Manager, Regional Manager, Operations Manager, Team Leader, 2ic Deputy, driver support staff and a translation expert. Reis & Pena (2007) identify that vertical hierarchies are ill-prepared for empowering workers and will not be ready to accept change. Therefore, to improve performance, it is first necessary to examine the structure that guides interoffice activities and also those impacting client relationships to determine which type of structure is most effective in gaining support from the team members and also at the individual level. Communication, in this type of industry, requires a 360 degree movement, therefore establishing a structure where information moves across the entire employee and manager network instead of merely being elicited from the highest layers of leadership. Delegating is not a difficult managerial task for fostering more support for a project initiative or the basic routine of ensuring quality customer relationship management. Reinstein (2007) identifies that there are three types of individuals that will either support or resist change practices. There is a small support group at 25 percent, undecided varieties that sit on the proverbial fence on issues at 50 percent, and another at 25 percent who are adamantly against change efforts. The key is to first understand the cultural dimensions that drive each member of the team and understand their personality type. In some cases, this can be accomplished through consultation with generic human resources staff to locate or distribute a personality profile testing using reputable models for this research effort. Further showing the inter-linkage between motivation and knowledge, support for more team-based efforts can be accomplished by creating an interpersonal relationship with team members to build support for future efforts involving client relationships. Delegating in the face of change resisting personalities requires an authoritarian approach whilst delegating with undecideds or supporters is merely creating a team-focused environment with a quality blend of social and authoritarian skills. “The first phase of development in teams is membership” (Bushe & Coetzer, 2007, p.187). Delegation occurs effectively when members are already committed to achieving a project or client-related goal. 2. Teams Having already identified the structure of this particular team, there are three specific features that create the need for a progressive and transformational manager to gain support and commitment: 1. It is exposed to conflicting and radically unique cultures with each client interaction. 2. Job roles change significantly with each client scenario, thus it requires flexibility from group members. 3. Management and subordinates are empowered to innovate and work independently from the group. A key player in this group is the translator who functions as a logical and cultural bridge to clients of all varieties. This individual is relied upon by each member of the team as a liaison for client needs and there runs the risk of much being lost in translation both verbally and in terms of expressive body language. “The study of business is afflicted by confusion between the results of a survey of what people think about the world and the survey of what the world is really like” (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2007, p.4). As the receiver, there are often messages occurring and the decoding process requires those handling client needs to be responsive and satisfy client demands. If assumptions are occurring, the long-term result of lost client revenue or satisfaction can be detrimental to protecting the security of the company’s financial expectations. This inter-reliance on understanding social and culture needs requires a leader to ensure proper training and message decoding practices related to non-verbal and verbal cues in order to be successful in the client matters. This type of team requires a transformational leadership style: one that takes into consideration multiple dimensions of human behaviour in order to gain higher commitment. This type of leader is one that “champions a long-term vision”, uses self-modelling behaviours for others, and “reimagine purpose, vision and strategy” (Adams & Adams, 2009, p.17). There is a higher emphasis on training that is associated with understanding human psychology in this role and expressing knowledge of this important element in sustaining client-based revenues to those involved in team projects. This style shifts from conflict management when identified to ensuring that people in the group understand they are appreciated and have purpose. The role must shift back and forth from aggressive control tactics to autonomy as the situation involving the client changes; an ongoing realism to this type of environment focused on client satisfaction and protection. Conflict management in this particular group is accomplished by first establishing group membership, as has been identified. It is necessary to create a psychological connection with team members in order to help them identify with the group and experience a quality sense of belonging (Bushe & Coetzer). Abraham Maslow, a 20th Century psychologist, theorized that individuals all require a sense of belonging in order to become fully actualized in their capabilities and develop self-esteem within a team or group. Conflicts in this group only occur, generally, when there is a miscommunication about team member importance or there has been a noticeable breakdown between individuals in the team at the social level. Thus, conflict management begins with building commitment through cohesive strategies at the psychological level and ensuring the sense of belonging is ever-present and emotional responses from membership are attended to promptly. The guiding principle in the group is ensuring equality in most instances rather than strict control methodology. 3. Budgeting Excellence in project leadership requires understanding how to control costs effectively, in all areas of operations. The diversity of clients in this environment requires making significant assumptions as they relate to mobile personnel within the business; i.e. the driver staff and translation system already in place that moves outside of just labour costs. In a typical industry with controllables associated with varying pricing in production and other associated activities, variance analysis is conducted when considering the manufacturer’s product costs (accountingcoach.com, 2011). Standard costs are considered as part of this analysis that considers standard costs associated with production inputs and then measures actual costs that were incurred during real time operational/production activities. When examining this particular business that has unpredictable and mobile personnel, unfavourable variances require analysis for issues of pricing and other financial protective security concerns. For instance, if historical records in accounting identify that internal inter-office costs of conducting business should have involved ?20,000 of inputs but actual price of these inputs exceeded that volume, variance between raw materials used in business versus tangible cost records identifies a problem somewhere within the production system cycle. Research identifies the individuals in production that are causing this issue, tracks the source back to purchasing, or otherwise identifies the system/staffer that has contributed to variance per unit or associated with NPV expectations. The following diagram illustrates a typical variance analysis report for this environment: Source: http://www.mccsokinawa.com/files/po/enc_6.pdf In this example, it has been identified that a variance of 36 percent exists when considering a variety of costs. This is typical for the company as it is not a production-based system and many of the costs are associated with high profile client protection. The miscellaneous costs would be presented and considered differently depending on whether payback ratios are demanded or whether it is net present value analysis being conducted for other strategic purposes. The budget works as both a risk management tool and also a proactive system of accounting. Management functions independently of certain key systems in the business as most of the labour associated involves direct client interaction. However, cost control analysis is necessary in this situation when direct involvement in other operational systems if forbidden by job function and title. It serves as both a refresher of knowledge management regarding the systems that control finance and familiarizes the manager with changes that are occurring in a rather transparent environment. It is a system-wide control system, variance analysis, that produces necessary inter-dependencies that were necessarily present in the leader’s routine operational function. Such analysis is very much a knowledge-sharing system that allows for proper future planning associated with costs of operations and keeps the manager on focus and target with real-time costs throughout the business. The advantages of this type of monitoring accounting system is that it prevents financial risk, which is a fundamental principles guiding this business environment, and secures knowledge of key cost systems that change internal methodology of running the business. “The aim of budgeting is to gain greater control over the business so large positive variances can be indications that control is being lost” (blacksacademy.com, 2011, p.1). Control is necessary when, as previously identified, it is necessary to balance an authoritarian posture in management and also social contributions in order to have an effective team. When systems create social interdependencies at the company, control systems can break down when personality traits associated with diverse individuals takes liberties for granted or there are other team problems. Having a costing system that is available for the team to review and having real-time data associated with assumptions versus actual expenditures assists in breaking down the barriers of social versus authoritarian leadership style. 4. Project Appraisal The business acquires fixed assets that are used in the production of customer-related service. Integrating a new fleet of transportation trucks is one example of capital expenditures that are associated with long-term revenue gains from image and also client-related mobile flexibility. In this event, the discount rate associated with a new burden of payment on the business is incurred when the choice is made for leasing or postponed tangible ownership through payment. Consider the following example: Year Payment Formula Calculation DiscountFactor(MYDF) Present Value (PV) 1 $12,000 1/(1.056).5 1/1.0276 .9731a $11,677b 2 $12,000 1/(1.056)1.5 1/1.0852 .9215 $11,058 3 $12,000 1/(1.056)2.5 1/1.1459 .8727 $10,472 Total 2.7673 $33,207 Source: http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/cpf/docs/contract_pricing_finance_guide/vol2_ch9.pdf Net Present Value of the payments considers a discount rate of 5.6 percent using a generic NPV calculation of PV = MYSF(CF) , with MYSF the mid-year sum factor and CF actual cash flow. 2.7673(12,000) = $33,207. Investors or other associated stakeholders in the business will consider the new transportation to be long-term capital expenditures that contribute to the future financial health of business. Thus, it is necessary to identify the present value of the payments, which can be calculated as they occur by month by simply changing the discount rate or other associated costs. A secondary capital expenditure for the business are new computer software or hardware necessary to facilitate operations or upgrade existing information technology systems. NPV analysis requires recognizing the actual costs of the purchase and/or its installation, especially if there are leasing payments associated or other short-term costs directly related to operations. For stakeholder examination, understanding the net present value of this purchase dictates the long-term financial viability of the investment that improves the emergence of venture capitalists or other stakeholders that can contribute to business financial stability. Most of the capital expenditures in the business have senior-level authority and are assessed at the highest layers of the business. However, initial costs associated with transportation as a capital expenditure include logo creation and design costs (costs of goods sold is the typical accounting system for identifying these costs). It is uncommon for net present value analysis to be conducted on these costs as they are not significant burdens associated with most capital expenditure programs. In scenarios where the business is conducted renovation for internal improvements, costs associated with this include lost client interaction that is forbidden by the activities. They are generally considered as losses in NPV analysis (or other accounting systems) and are recognized in different management financial analysis. However, they are assumed costs as well as actual costs that can be identified by thorough examination of the costs associated with the systems driving the new capital improvements (such as the data systems). It is largely related to investment and maturity rates when NPV is conducted at this environment and does not directly impact team performance except when the capital expenditure is necessary for improving or sustaining team function. The difficulty in this business related to conducting NPV analysis is the methodology by which the senior-level authority is separated from mid-tier management, thus the calculations used are not available readily. However, the complexity and infrequency of capital expenditures in this business does not require an advanced NPV analysis equation as the model since the revenue costs and initial outlay costs do not exceed budget by any significant amount. Once the few small costs have been identified, NPV = PV – I, with I representing costs, can be utilised effectively and produce results that give the manager a quality idea of what is driving future value compared to actual or assumed present value. 5. Self-Management Career development is generally an internalized function that is related to goal-setting, personality and also environmental. Having examined many different models of management, the transactional manager that once drove personal ambitions for control has been replaced with a transformational style. Authors see this role as being one that can align the organisation, champion a vision, motivate, build new behaviours in others through modelling, and also offer more decision-making authority to subordinates when long-term risk is not present in this action. It is a style that blends social harmony with a deeper relationship that moves beyond simple authoritarian. 5.1 Strengths Strengths associated with this leadership style include logic as related to strategy bred through education and also experience, influence that has been built in the current business environment, and innovation. These are considered valuable management philosophies at the business since client protectionism is a fundamental business purpose, thus requiring one that can be adaptable based on client-driven cultural preferences. It is about the quality and depth of relationships that supersedes concentrated control models or other authoritarian postures closely associated with Theory X management of moderate oppression. Having an extroverted personality developed over time and through self-reflection is a considerable development resource. 5.2 Weaknesses Weaknesses in career development have been identified as a lack of empathy necessary to become fully-actualized (on Maslow’s Model) as a leader or manager. In order to influence and ignite charismatic passion in others for a specific goal, transparency of emotional response must be indicated. Surface assumptions and attitudes are easily identified by those familiar with a group leader or member, however under such an inter-dependent relationship with a team philosophy lays the need for familiarity. Therefore, a deeper emotional intelligence is necessary in order to achieve a fully-capable leadership role in an environment that supports the transformational leadership style. 5.3 Opportunities Opportunities lie in advancing technical skills associated with the current job position that can be considered transferrable and valuable in the event that a change is required. These skills can be absorbed by different programmes offered by the company related to education to act as a proactive foundation for advancement or promotion within another company. Further opportunities can be identified in areas of education related to sociology and psychology in order to better identify with staff members or managers to understand their deeper assumptions or personality traits blended with visual cues to be more responsive and belonging within an organisation where teams are a requirement. 5.4 Threats Threats to career development are internalized and involve motivation to perform and exceed current expectations for performance. There is a cliche stating to thine own self be true and the self is often a difficult de-motivator for a variety of different goal attainment strategies. Having a high locus of control, meaning a belief regarding self-control over destiny, creates a realistic self-assessment of requiring more ambition to achieve. 5.5 Self-development Auditory learning is the preferred learning style after consultation with several learning inventories. It is effective in an environment where social interaction is commonplace and also a requirement for business/client success. Despite moderate improvements to transformational modelling as a management tactic, self-managed learning is most effective for a personality with an authoritarian lean associated with control for subordinate staff. 6. References Accountingcoach.com. (2011), What is variance analysis?. [accessed May 18, 2011 at http://blog.accountingcoach.com/what-is-variance-analysis/] Adams, W. & Adams, C. (2009), Transform or reform?, Leadership Excellence. 26(11), p.17. Blacksacademy.net. (2011), Example of budgeting and variance analysis. [accessed May 17, 2011 at http://www.blacksacademy.net/content/3603.html. Bushe, G. & Coetzer, G. (2007), Group development and team effectiveness: using cognitive representations to measure group development and predict task performance and group viability, The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 43(2), pp.184-210. Reinstein, D. (2007), Results matter: unlocking value through Avaya’s business transformation, Organization Development Journal. 25(4), pp.55-63. Reis, D. & Pena, L. (2007), Focus on management history, reengineering the motivation to work, Management Decision. 39(8), pp.666-675. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2007), Research Methods for Business Students, 5th ed. Harlow Pearson Education Limited. Read More