A memo discussing an issue at work from the perspective of an employee - Assignment Example

? 26 January, Memo The Manager The Employee 25 January : Notification of a problem I am writing to notify you of a problem I am currently having at work. I was hired in the company on the post of Senior Operations Manager. I had chosen to join this company among others from which I had received offer letters fundamentally because I thought it would provide me with the opportunity to practice my Management skills that I had formerly acquired through studying Management at the undergraduate level, and managing work in the jobs that precede my current job. The title of “Operations Manager” seemed to assure me that by joining this company, I would make a nice addition to my existing experience of management, that would be both beneficial for me in my professional career, as well as for the company I join. I thought that being a Senior Operations Manager, I assumed a responsibility to identify the loopholes in the current framework and culture of this company, and devise and implement ways through which they could be precluded. In order to materialize my plans, I first studied the culture of this company, and identified the stakeholders in addition to studying the contract, bill of quantities and all other documents. I also had discussions with employees from various departments in order to study issues that they had that had a significant role in hindering the progress of work. One thing that I particularly found out as a result of this survey and study was that this company lacks flow of communication between individual functional departments. The lack of communication gives rise to lack of awareness. This in turn, causes disparity in the knowledge about status of work between different departments that are fundamentally involved in the operations. The disparity of knowledge results in lack of preparation for the on-going works in the departments. For example, last Monday, I expected the Administration Department to have set a car ready for me and the Consultant so that we could visit the site and I could get the approval of withheld payment against Non Conformance Reports (NCRs). I had indicated the Administration Department about the same one day in advance through a notification memo. However, when the time came, there was no car, and the Administration Manager said that he expected the NCR visit to be due on the following Monday. I had to face embarrassment in front of the Consultant and also, the payments that could have been released last Monday might take another month to be considered for release now. Also, I often experience great difficulty in drawing cash from the Finance Department, as they tend to do a lot of paper work before considering the release of payment, and even after that, feel reluctant to give me the cash. This causes delay in the flow of operations and as a result, progress of the work lags behind schedule. This fundamentally happened so because no one in the company assumes the ultimate responsibility to keep the departments notified. Even if some one takes the charge, the departments would not listen because they would not acknowledge the superiority of any one department over others. In my view, the Senior Operations Manager should have extreme power and rights over other departments because he assumes a central role in the flow of work. But it seems like the functional organization structure is too strong in this company and the functional departments would not listen to my instructions or notifications unless you declare the superiority of Operations Department. Therefore, I request you to arrange a meeting in which you openly declare that all departments are to abide by the instructions of the Senior Operations Manager. The way things are running presently does not let me exercise my abilities as a manager. As a result of which, both the company and I are suffering. Memo 2 To: The Employee From: The Manager Date: 26 January 2011 Subject: Re (Notification of a problem) I am glad to learn your perspective and realize your concerns. I appreciate that you take this job as an opportunity to polish and further enhance your Management skills, and that you see it as a nice addition to your previous Management experience. However, I have a lot of reservations in approving your request of investing more power and authority in the Operations Department as compared to the rest. The reasons why I can not approve your request are as follows: The organization’s structure does not favor allocation of extreme power to one of the functional departments. The matter is not just about changing the organization’s structure. The whole decision making process has been designed in accordance with the present organization structure. If I allocate supreme authority to the Operations Department, I would first have to acknowledge that the Operations Department assumes share in the decision making process of the company. You can realize this yourself. For example, you have mentioned that you want the Finance Department to issue you any amount that you ask for without all the paper work that is involved in the process and without my approval on the Pay Order (PO). I grant that this would serve to enhance the speed of work as the time you presently waste in collecting the cash would instead be utilized in proceeding with the work. However, I maintain that this would not be a nice decision on my part as the Operations Department might start over with any task without my consent. It has happened before you were employed, so you might not know this. At that time, Operations Department did assume more authority than other departments. However, this only complicated the works further. The Operations Department made contracts with expensive petty contractors that had significantly larger fees than what an average petty contractor would ask for. Likewise, in all other works, cash was used quite imprudently. As a result of that, the extra power given to the Operations Department was retreated. The decision was taken by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company and hence, can not be altered without his consent. However, there is something I can do for you. I can provide you with an assistant. The assistant would help you with such matters of daily occurrence as issuing memos, getting the requests for cash approved, informing other departments about the progress of work, adjusting the work schedule as per the progress on site, checking and assuring the availability of facilities before time for the operations, and serve as an instant connection between you and me. You could tell the assistant any time you want the delivery of cash to come to me and explain me the reason for urgency of issuance. I would immediately grant the cash if the reason is justified. In addition to that, the assistant would get the memos signed by the recipients so that they may not be able to deny the receipt of memos. Even the recruitment of an Operations Manager Assistant would be a big deal given the present conditions in which the CEO is reluctant to hire more employees in the present financial crisis. In this last, I would like to comment on the role of this post as a professional development opportunity for you. Management is not only about directing, staffing and organizing. It is also about planning. The four functions join work to make a manager’s work perfect. In order to excel in the field as a manager, you need to plan things well in advance. Management is never a well defined route. On every bit of it, it is for you to decide, how you would go about things. So I would advise you not to be put off by these petty issues, and instead, take them as a challenge. Thankyou. Read More