Principles and Practices of Management - Essay Example

Assignment of Principles and practices of management Question 1 A group of workers in a medical examiners office informally agreed that they wouldnot wear blue jeans to work because such casual wear seemed unprofessional. The office did not have a dress code. The workers created a(n): (B) norm 2 A virtual team1 is defined as a team composed of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task. 3 An understanding of which of the following would help waiters at a restaurant understand the positive consequences of working hard to be courteous and agreeable to each other and to customers? (A) Organizational behavior 2 4 Individuals with an (B) external locus of control tend to believe that outside forces are largely responsible for their fate. 5 During his first year of working at a law firm, Danny earned the respect of his supervisors by consistently producing very high quality work. Though the quality of Dannys work declined in his second year of employment, his supervisors continued to view his work very positively. This is an example of the (B) primacy affect. 6 A celebrity has fired several of her personal assistants because each time she asks them a question about her appearance or how her performance was, they always tell her how great and wonderful she is. She is looking for a more honest personal assistant. What should be a quality she looks for in her next employee? (D) Low on self monitoring 7 Revlon was once the worlds biggest cosmetics company. But over the past few years, its brands have lost sales and struggled through a series of management setbacks, but still it was reluctant to give up divisions that were no longer profitable. Which grand strategy does Revlon need to implement if it is to stay in business? (C) Retrenchment3 8 Players in the cosmetics industry include Procter & Gamble, which owns Cover Girl and Max Factor brands, LOreal, which owns LOreal and Maybelline brands, Revlon, which owns Revlon and Almay brands, and Estée Lauder. According to Porter, (C) threat of substitute products4 has the most influence on these companys profits. 9 Which of the following is a major concern of managers (as opposed to leaders)? (A) maintaining the status quo5 10 Herman is the coach of the city football team. As a successful coach, he has to schedule structured practices, emphasize careful planning, and assign tasks. He also has to show the players that he genuinely cares about them as people. According to the Blake and Mouton’s managerial grid, Herman would be characterized as: D team management Question 2 (30 marks) a Planning is one of the four management functions, and it is often called the primary management function because it establishes the basis for all the other things that managers do. What types of planning do you do in your personal life? Describe these plans (with examples) in terms of being: i strategic or operational; As any other person I have both strategic and operational plans. For example, strategic plans will be – graduating the University and getting a good well-paid job. Operational plans will be studying well the subjects and earning good marks in order to become well-qualified specialist. ii short or long term; Short term and long term planning is also part of my life. For example, long term plan will be starting my own business in 5-10 years, while short term plan will be graduating the University by Summer, 2015. iii specific or directional Specific plan, which I have set is to visit Germany, France, and Italy by July 2015, while a directional plan will be – travelling to several European countries during this year. b An airline company had received more customer complaints such as delay flights and mishandled baggages, than any other major airline companies. If you were the operations manager of this airline company, how might you apply management by objectives (MBO) to solve these problems? Discuss. The company has two problems that are caused because of gaps within an organization. The fact that the number of customer complaints because of delay flights and mishandled baggages is greater than any other major airline companies indicates that the company either can’t solve relevant problems or customer service is low (or both reasons). If I were the operations manager of this airline company, I would apply MBO in the following way: 1. Set objectives related to improvement of operations and customer service and communicate effectively these objectives to the employees. These objectives should be to precise, realistic, measurable, and verifiable. These objectives would be: -to decrease number of customer complaints related to mishandled baggages by 10% within the next 3 months (assuming that there is a human factor and not a problem with technology). In order to do this it will be necessary to identify gaps in the process or identify the causes of baggage mishandling and to improve the procedure providing employees with clear instructions and training if necessary. - to identify the reason of flight delays and to try eliminate human factor. As sometimes flight delays occur because of weather conditions or other external factors, it is important to implement effective external customer service. For example, contact center of the airline company could inform customers about flight delays as soon as the information is available. Also, there could be developed some ideas smoothing customer’s experience (for example, free lunch or bonuses in case of flight delays). Therefore, the key result areas will be customer service excellence and service quality. 2. Match objectives and resources The objectives set above should have special resources, especially human resources. As the reason of the customer complaints is not known, it is possible to assume that there might be some technical issues. Also, there might be a necessity to allocate more people during business hours. 3. Set up effective monitoring process of the improvement progress. This process can be achieved by establishing clear objectives and monitoring its achievement. 4. Evaluate/measure the performance improvement by surveying the customers There could be developed surveys for the customers, which could cover questions related customer experience. Also, these surveys could generate some other ideas for customer service improvement. 5. And finally, reward the employees based on their performance and success There can be introduced both financial and non-financial rewards for the employees. Financial rewards will more likely include bonuses, miles for flights, etc. Non-financial rewards will include recognition, career promotions, etc. Question 3 a Nestel may need to change its organization structure as it expands into new products and new markets. Under what circumstances would some forms of departmentalization be appropriate for the company? Explain. There can be defined few forms of Departmentalization that could be appropriate for the company, namely: Product departmentalization This type of departmentalization will be appropriate for the company if it is planning to expand into new products. As it is not specified what will be these products, it is possible to make an assumption that these will be different categories of products. Therefore, for the development of new products and managing the existing products it might be reasonable to have separate product departments. Geographic departmentalization As the company is planning to expand into new markets, and more likely, into new geographic areas, geographic departmentalization is another form of departmentalization appropriate for the company. Assuming that the company will expand into different geographic areas where people have different cultures, social backgrounds, preferences, tastes, and other characteristics, departments based on geographic area will be appropriate. For example, the company might create several departments: Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Europe, etc. b Assume that Nestel is purchasing a well-established beverage company with a tall structure stressing top-down control. What are some of the problems that management might face in integrating the acquired firm into the existing organization structure of Nestel? Explain. Some of the problems that the management might face in integrating the acquired firm into the existing organization structure to Nestel are more likely to be associated with a conflict between different approaches to organizational structures. This scenario is more likely to occur as Nestel has adopted decentralized organizational structure and allowed flexibility within an organization. Also, based on the information given in the case study, it is possible to assume that the company has flat structure where the number of management layers is limited (as the President has many managers reporting to him). As the acquired firm has tall structure is more likely to be centralized company with multiple management layers. In result, different types of control, reporting, autonomy, differences in corporate culture all might facilitate the conflict6. The employees might face significant challenges in communicating with each other and in communicating with management. Managers also might face challenges in communicating and delegating tasks to the employees. Question 4 (30 marks) Required: a What challenges would there be to creating an effective team in an organization staffed by independent contractors? How could managers deal with these challenges? Explain. While working with the independent contractors the firms gain many obvious benefits as they do not have to pay fulltime workers, they do not need to have offices and they are more flexible. It s a very cost-effective way of doing business. However, the firms also face significant challenges while creating an effective team in an organization staffed by independent contractors. Independent contractors might provide the material (in case of Lonely Planet) later than planned or they can miss the deadline substantially, thus making other team members work harder because of tougher timescales. Also, it is critical to ensure that Commissioning contractors produce materials of high quality and according to the set standards. Therefore, for effective teamwork there should be trust and reliability among the team members. In order to deal with these challenges management has to ensure that there are developed and clearly communicated policies, processes, and procedures. Also, there should be set up effective communication process between all team members. b Why do you think teamwork is crucial to Lonely Planet’s business model? Explain. Teamwork is especially crucial to Lonely Planet’s business model because the company employs people from different parts of the world who have to produce a specific product. All they need to work together in order to produce a guide. c Using Exhibit 14-10 of your textbook, what characteristics of effective teams would be most important to Lonely Planet’s guidebook teams? Explain your choices. References: Keith M, and Glaister, W, ‘Determinants of performance in international joint ventures’, Journal of Strategy and Management, vol. 3, no 3, 2010, pp. 188 – 214. Kinicki A, & Williams B K (2008) Management: A Practical Introduction, 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill Irwin Robbins, S P & Coulter, M (2009), Management, 10th edn, Prentice Hall. Robbins, S P & Coulter, M (2014), Management, 12th edn, Prentice Hall. Read More