Unfolding the Secrets to Successful Management - Assignment Example

Unfolding the Secrets to Successful Management 1. I would like very much to start by asking how you try to manage the cultural diversity at your store when not being able to deal with it raises serious concern for the organization. The good thing is that I inculcated this thing about how not being able to relate with cultural diversity can wreak havoc for an entire organization very earlier on in my mind which is why today you would find it very hard to find a single issue about mismanaged cultural diversity at the store I work as a manager at. At this Starbucks store, there are undoubtedly a lot many employees recruited here to work and they come from many different racial and ethnic backgrounds. They drag along their cultures with themselves too and if I do not step in to look where one culture might crush the values of another culture either by mistake or with intention, big problems can result and the blame would obviously be laid on me in the end. So, I made it my responsibility almost from the starting period to create the right kind of environment at my store in order to manage a culturally diverse workforce. Creating the right kind of atmosphere means enabling the workers to understand and respect different cultures and consider all opinions in a manner free of cultural prejudices and biases. Things which might be acceptable in one culture might appear to be truly inappropriate for working coming from a different cultural background. So making the workers realize the subtle and sensitive differences between different cultures by providing them with increased means of intercommunication can help a manger immensely in handling a culturally diverse workforce. 2. What tools do you employ to handle the workplace conflicts which can be disastrous for the work environment? You might have noticed that many times conflicts originate due to every worker appearing to be involved in his/her own world, presenting ideas that antagonize ideas introduced by other workers, and refusing to genuinely collaborate with others. Therefore, for one thing I try handling workplace conflicts by laying stress on the importance of teamwork and mutual collaboration which is all teamwork actually is about. Conflicts also arise between employers and employees when low level of creativity is consistently maintained by employees. So I have taken it upon myself to encourage my workers to be innovative and creative in whatever job they do here. I happened to be quite authoritative in my initial days which led to low level of creativity and less production which is why I changed my management style and became more involved to avoid conflicts. 3. What strategies do you follow to address the confusions and prejudices which result due to less communication between managers and employees? I understand that less communication between managers and employees is a grave issue and raises serious concern for the organizations. As I mentioned before, many changes came in this store I work as a manager at during the authoritarian management days like workplace related stress, conflicts due to cultural diversity handled in the wrong way, less communication, and myriad confusions. I could not realize these bad and harmful changes until I became involved with my workers and began to take interest in what issue they were facing and how they could be solved. When there is less communication, workers begin to feel confused about certain orders as they are not explained in a more enhanced way by the managers and certain jobs are left undone consequently. I take care to hold meetings and lectures in order to ensure that there more and more communication happens between me and my employees now. 4. In what way do you prefer to address the issue of work related stress which can inflict both physical and emotional harms on the employees? Again, by creating the right kind of workplace environment and putting less burden of myriad jobs on workers, I try to handle the work related stress which can seriously interfere with the professional and private lives of workers. Actually, many problems or issues can be handled effectively if one who happens to be in charge of the workforce realizes the nature of the consequences of a certain issues. Once I realized and researched about how gravely workplace related stress can influence a worker, I decided to put a stop to it by ensuring no person working under me is assigned more work load than could be handled by him/her in an appropriate manner. Also, I take care to ensure that the professional lives of my workers do not get so overpowering that their families would drift away from them by assigning no job to any worker once the work hours finish. 5. What options do you always keep open for your employees in order to ensure them an easy access to you whenever they have any questions in their minds? I take care to organize monthly meetings with my workers and every meeting ensues for no less than 3 hours so that every worker would have good chance to ask me any query he/she might have in his/her mind and talk about it at length with me. I also try a lot going in person to my workers so that they would not think of me as some sort of a planet existing far, far away. I make it possible in every way to remain accessible to my workers because when a manager remains uninvolved or authoritative, the workers either trust him/her less enough to confide their work related problems in him/her or they shy away from sharing any issues they might be experiencing at the workplace due to the staggering amounts of fear they develop for their strict bosses who absolutely refuse to allow any room for arguments. Analysis: Considering the answers given by Mr. Nicholson and the opinions he shared for handling workplace issues like conflicts, cultural diversity, less communication, stress, and prejudiced assumptions, this much becomes clear that this man happens to have quite an experience and wisdom in context of managerial skills and the best thing is that he does not hesitate in transferring or unveiling those skills. Better understanding of managerial concepts is gained when experience based stories are shared by those who themselves work as managers as the managing concepts can never be understood completely by reading books alone. Another interesting thing mentioned by Mr. Nicholson is that no manager should ever try transforming himself into an unreachable planet or developing a kind of reputation that would effectively scare off those working under him as this leads to confusions and biased assumptions which create much pandemonium at the workplace. To whom can the workers turn for answers when they face issues and misunderstand instructions when those in charge at the workplace remain absent or feel too superior to converse with all employees? When the managers remain uninvolved, absenteeism level among workers also peaks as they become less motivated in working, fulfilling the tasks assigned to them, and presenting new ideas. Mr. Nicholson, in contrast, heavily lays stress on involved managing style so that the gap between managers and workers could be thinned. Read More