Management Principles - Essay Example

? Management Principles The report describes the meaning of management and management principles. Itfurther explores the difference between management and leadership supported with a real life example of a business manager and a business leader belonging to Folio3 Incorporation. The report discovers that leadership is motivational in nature and management is mere organization. In the end, it also discusses on best practices on how to become an effective manager or leader in the current era. Table of Contents Management Principles 1 Abstract 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Differences between a Business Manager and a Business Leader 4 Folio3, Software House: An Incorporation of Management and Leadership 5 Mr. John Tray and His Managerial Activities 6 Mr. Usher Paul and His Leadership Activities 8 Critical Analysis of a Manager and a Leader 10 Leaders and Managers in Today’s Changing World 11 Conclusion 12 13 References 13 Introduction Management is a term that is interpreted and viewed in different ways by people belonging to different fields. This is why the term does not have any precise definition. There are management practitioners and thinkers who have made their definitions in accordance to their area of concern. For example, Henry L. Sisk said, “Through the process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling, all the resources can be coordinated in order to achieve the desired objective. This is called management.” In another definition, James L. Lundy said, “People can be made to achieve a specific objective by management which is principally the task of planning, coordinating, motivating and controlling the efforts of the people.” Furthermore, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers described management as, “a science an art of directing and organizing the efforts of human that are being used to control the forces and utilize the material of nature in order to benefit the mankind.” (Murugan, 2007, p. 2). According to the definitions stated above, we can see that management involves four basic activities: planning, organizing, directing and controlling. These activities can be effectively and efficiently performed if abided by certain fundamental rules of management. These fundamental rules are called management principles and are applied by managers and leaders belonging to different organizations. For example, under the ‘directing’ activity of management, a manager should show equity, that is, he should be fair and kind to the employees working under him. We will further understand the meaning of management, management principles and related terms as we continue with our report. Differences between a Business Manager and a Business Leader Management and leadership are misunderstood to be the exactly the same thing. These terms are related; however, there is slight difference between the scopes of these terms. If we consider leadership as being a set of activities, management is, hence, a subset of leadership but not a proper subset. This suggests that leadership has a larger scope of activities of which management is also a part. The manger’s job is to plan, coordinate and organize and the leader’s job is to motivate and inspire. The difference between a business manager and a business leader can be listed as below: 1. A leader innovates whereas a manager administers. 2. A leader inspires trust whereas a manager controls 3. A leader focuses on people whereas a manager focuses on structures and systems. 4. A leader has a long range of view whereas a manager has a short range of view in terms of the objectives. 5. A leader develops whereas a manager maintains. 6. A leader works with the questions of what and why whereas a manager uses the questions how and when. 7. A leader is original and natural; hence does the right things whereas a manager imitates; hence does the things right. (Murray, 2010, as cited in Bennis, 1989). Folio3, Software House: An Incorporation of Management and Leadership Folio3 is a software house helping and providing a software development presence expertise to business entrepreneurs and enterprises offshore. It was a tier-one-venture funded Silicon Valley startup which gradually brought its marketing activities offshore. When it started providing offshore services, it faced many challenges especially communication issues. In order to tackle the challenging issues, Folio3 established new business processes and refined its old business processes including management and leadership processes as well. With the changes in business processes, Folio3 was able to advance and now is successfully working with a large number of clients offshore. The number of projects that Folio3 receives from its clients determines the number of project teams that are established in the Company. Each project is assigned to a group of teams. These teams are concerned and work on different areas of the project. For example, banking management software is assigned to a project group which has the following teams: analysis team, development team, design team and others. A project group is supervised by a manager. Each team inside a project group is in charge of a team leader or a head in other words. For example, the development team is run by a single leader or head under which programmers are working as sub-ordinates. The size of a project group depends on the size of the project. In this way, a manager is supervising the project group having a number of teams each in charge of a leader or a head. We have studied the management and leadership activities of a single group in the Company from the time it was assigned a project. The group was assigned a project titled “Web Messenger”; hence, the name of the group was “Web Group”. Mr. John Tray was the project manager of Web Group. We observed his activities and interviewed him occasionally to get answers to our confusions and queries. Mr. Usher Paul was the team leader of the development team working in Web Group and was under our observation so that we can understand the leadership activities involved. Mr. John Tray and His Managerial Activities Generally speaking, a project manager of a project carries out the basic functions of management: planning, organizing, directing and controlling. These basic activities are described in detail as follows. Planning: This activity mainly involves the setting of objectives. The manager sets goals for the group and decides what work is to be done in order to achieve the goals. Organizing: In this activity, the manager looks at the overall work and divides it into manageable activities or tasks. Each manageable activity is handed over to a sub-ordinate who is best capable of doing the tasks. Directing: In this activity, the manager is deciding on how a work or task is to be conducted and in how much time. He also coordinates with all the members in the group. Controlling: In this activity, the manager is monitoring the activities and progress of the group and the tasks they are performing. In this way, any mishap if happens can be taken care of more easily. (Murray, 2010). At the start of a new week, when Tray used to enter into his office, he would find all the team leaders in his office ready with their weekly reports. They had a printed report in their hands and they verbally told the summary of the activities done in the previous week, the milestones achieved, if there was to be any delay or extension needed for a task it was requested. Cost, time scheduling, labor and infrastructure issues were told to him and handled by him. Tray would hold a meeting with any team if any of the following issues arose: 1. The team needed more time for completing a task. The reasons why the drawback had occurred were told by the team to Tray. He would then change the course of action or provide extension after doing the costing. 2. The team urgently required more people for completing their task. Again after costing, Tray would engage in hiring new employees. 3. If there was a need for more infrastructures to conduct a task, the team would inform Tray with reasoning. Tray would then make arrangements. Other meetings occurred with the team leaders only in which Tray discussed with them weekly tasks, milestones to be achieved and progress of the team. Tray also did all the budgeting of the project before hand. He monitored the progress in order to make sure that the budget is not being exceeded and in case it is, he used to tackle with the problem strategically such as salary deductions, strict monitoring on performance, bonus cuts and the like. So basically Mr. John Tray was a budgeter, organizer and controller of his group. He was a strong communicator as well. Tray also instructed his team leaders to observe the performance of their respective sub-ordinates so that they can be given bonuses, salary increases or any other kind of reward. Mr. Tray was usually concerned with the output. He would give a general outline of tasks, how they are to be performed and when they are due. The rest was the job of the team leaders as in what is to be done and why it is being done. Mr. Usher Paul and His Leadership Activities Generally speaking, a leader is a manager as well. But he has some other tasks that make him a leader and give him leadership qualities. The main quality of a leader is that he focuses on the needs of the people rather than the needs of his own self. A leader looks at the requirements of the people, organization as his own requirements and faces the challenges as his own challenges. The basic qualities of a leader are described as under: 1. Visionary: A quality which makes a leader unite a group into sharing a common dream and making that dream into a reality. The leader does not instruct how the dream is to be achieved. He leaves it onto the people to innovate, experiment and take calculated risks. 2. Coaching: A leader helps his sub-ordinates grow by showing them how to improve their performance. He helps his sub-ordinates to connect their goals with the goals of the organization. 3. Motivate and Unite: A leader makes the working spirits of his team members high through motivation. Motivation can also just be a small phrase of appreciation. The leader makes his team work in harmony with each other. 4. Inspirational: A leader acts as a model for his team members by showing his dedication and hard work. (Murray, 2010) Mr. Usher Paul was the leader of the development team working for Web Group. He showed his utmost qualities of being a leader. At the start of everyday, Paul would gather all the developers working under him and would conduct a meeting with them. There were two kinds of meetings he would conduct every alternate day. In one kind of meetings, Paul would discuss with the developers the work that is to be done or he would take a feedback from the developers of how much have been done and if any issues that were encountered. He would assign each individual with a module in accordance with their capability. Paul knew all about his team members, their performance and had a friendly relationship with all. In another kind of meetings, Paul would motivate his team members through motivational and inspirational speeches and discuss his experience and know about his team members’ experience. In such meetings, he would announce any bonuses, salary increases or give any word of appreciation to his team members to arouse them with motivation to do work. Mr. Paul believed in the concept of learning. So he would arrange different seminars not only technical in nature for his team members. He would coordinate with Mr. Tray about his ideas and implement them so that his team members can learn more, get trained with relevant material required for their project. In this way, the team members grew in skills, knowledge. Mr. Paul also promoted and encouraged the idea of team members interacting with each other, helping each other out with problems encountered and learning from each others successes and failures. In order to achieve this, he used the community of practice concept. He made an online community for his members where they discussed their experiences. Mr. Paul kept a check on his team members in regard to their performance. Their performance was evaluated every now and then. In case if any employee had a critical performance, he would be communicated with in order to solve the problems that are causing a downfall in his performance and everything would be kept confidential so that the employee’s self morale is not hurt. In case if any employee had an exceptional performance, Paul reported it to the manager and that employee was given a raise, bonus or made the employee of the month. He would also throw a party for the exceptional employee. Mr. Paul also acted as an inspirational model. He would come to his office on time. He used to be present at the office regularly. He did holidays very occasionally. In times when the work load was high, he used to do late sittings and inspired his team members to do so. He would keep his communication consistent with every member of his team. He had to communicate with his manager as well as team members. Hence, Mr. Paul was an aspirator, motivator, and evaluator and did some management as well. Critical Analysis of a Manager and a Leader After noting and observing real life examples of a manager and a leader, we discovered that a leader is a manager with a few extra qualities. A manager is just a manager. Following is the critical analysis: 1. A leader, along with doing the basic management activities, is emotionally involved with his sub-ordinates while a manager is just carrying out his managerial tasks without any emotional involvement. Emotional involvement comes in due to the fact that a leader thinks about the needs of the people in the work involved rather than the work outcomes he desires from the people. A manager looks at the work outcomes and considers his success accordingly. 2. A leader directs his people with motivation and inspiration. He wants his people to work with high spirits. He monitors their performance as a measure of their motivation and deals with them in case they are loosing their motivation. A manager demands work to be done at any cost. No matter whether his subordinates are motivated or not. In order to keep motivation high, a leader assigns work to his people in accordance with their interests in mind. He keeps his behavior and acts in order to inspire his people to work. 3. A manager is involved in budgeting, organizing and controlling and desires that every of these aspects should be met accordingly. Whereas a leader does not worry his people of costs and other issues as that would add to their own needs and problems. Leaders and Managers in Today’s Changing World In her book “More Than a Minute”, Green writes down the original secrets of effective managers and leaders. She herself has remained a manager, leader and organizational consultant and has had lots of experience in these areas. She writes in her book the initial tools and training they need to develop in order to become effective managers and leaders for today’s workforce. She has written real life experiences and practices used by companies world wide. She talks that managers or leaders should engage in motivational activities, make employees achieve the desired results and help the organization to strengthen. She mentions that managers and leaders should engage in the use of strategic planning, setting of goals and objectives which meet the organizational goals and objectives, inform, inspire and motivate employees towards these goals and objectives, continue learning themselves and help their subordinates learn and lastly, align personal goals and objectives of employees with the organizational goals and objectives. (2008). Conclusion The concept of management and leadership is changing as the world is advancing. Their activities are separated as well. Leadership is mainly categorized by activities of motivation and inspiration of the workforce while management is mainly categorized by organizing and monitoring the activities of the workforce. References Green, Holly G. (2008). How to Be an Effective Leader and Manager in Today’s Changing World. In: More Than a Minute. Murray, Alan. (2010). Leadership Styles. The Wall Street Journal [Internet]. Available from: < http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/how-to-develop-a-leadership-style/ > [Accessed 25 May, 2011]. Murray, Alan. (2010). What do Managers do? The Wall Street Journal [Internet]. Available from: < http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/what-do-managers- do/ > [Accessed 25 May, 2011]. Murray, Alan. (2010). What is the Difference Between Management and Leadership? The Wall Street Journal [Internet]. Available from: < http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/what-is-the-difference-between-management-and-leadership/ > [Accessed 25 May, 2011]. Murugan, M. Sakthivel. (2007). Management Principles and Practices. 1st ed. Smit, P. J. (2007). Management Principles: A Contemporary Edition for Africa. Juta and Company Ltd. Young, Susan and Blagg, Deborah. (2001). What Makes a Good Leader. [Internet], Hardvard Business School Bulletin Online. Available from: < http:// www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/ 2001/ february/leader.html > [Accessed 25 May, 2011] Read More