How Personality of the Owner and Manager Might Impact on Their SME - Term Paper Example

Small Business Management – Explain how personality, capabilities etc, of the Owner and Manager might impact, positively or negatively on their SME. In the world of present times, the role of principle position holders with management is of utmost significance. Business leadership and business management look at the pertinent aspects that come under the organizational domains. Both look to stabilize the manner in which an enterprise carries out its activities, processes and undertakings on a consistent basis. Same is the case with leaders, managers, employees, workers, third party members and so on. The role of a manager is a difficult one. This person has to take with him the whole company and mesh the different processes so that he could get instant results. He is a team leader right from the onset of his job. He needs to get work done from the different people who are working under him. The end result has to be a single goal, one that drives their efforts towards the financial success of the said company. In doing so, the manager encounters a lot of hindrances, difficulties and hurdles. He has to face a lot of pressure from the top most management, the people who are senior to him even. He has to be accountable to the publics of the enterprise, which could include the customers and the stakeholders as well since the latter are the people who have invested within the company’s shares and they want a quick buck out of the whole investment drive. The terms entrepreneur, manager and owner are very much similar in meaning yet exhibit different representations of business people who are present within the top management. To start with we will define each one of these and then establish comparisons amongst all three as we describe them along. In this paper, the discussion will center on the small and medium enterprises or SMEs for short. Entrepreneur is a person who sets up a new SME or enterprise and accounts for accountability on his part of the risks that could come onto his shoulders for one reason or the other. When the discussion is of the for-profit SME, the entrepreneur term replaces itself with founder. This person is responsible for establishing a new entity or unit so that the establishment could provide an existing product or service into the form of a single new market, which could have a profit or non-profit result. The entrepreneurs have strong insights as regards to the opportunities that exist within the market and the threats that come as a result of the very same. The risks that could arise in the wake of these include personal, financial or professional ones so that opportunity could be grabbed with both hands. In societies found within United Kingdom, the business entrepreneurs are regarded as the pivotal components of a social order. Entrepreneur manages and runs an SME and manages the different undertakings of the enterprise. This enterprise could be a business which is normally associated with peculiar initiatives and foreseeable risks. An entrepreneur is also an employer of productive work or in other words of labor. He is also the contractor who deals with or initiates the process of entrepreneurship. The entrepreneur is the person who is responsible for running the system which is in place in a normal process. He is the one who organizes the whole process. Entrepreneur creates or sells a product and/or service so that he could earn a considerable profit/benefit. The entrepreneur is the risk bearer and an organizer within the business enterprise. More than anything else, an entrepreneur is a leader by sheer definition. An entrepreneur wants to achieve high since his ambitions are always at the top. He is a person who believes in dedication and hard work. These people like to work for their own selves rather than working for some other business. They believe in quality of work and take acceptance for responsibility which is a hallmark of a true leader. These entrepreneurs believe in a positive approach and give rewards whenever they deem fit. Their thinking is more on the lines of providing excellence towards work and they are good organizers as far as work ethics are concerned. They want to make a profit and this profit helps them to accomplish more and more in their passage towards success and achievements. Some of the well known entrepreneurs have included names like Ben Cohen of the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Elisha Otis related with elevators, Ted Turner with the media field, Sam Walton concerned with the departmental stores and lastly Alan Sugar with the science of computers. On the other hand managers are in a position where they can help their employees with their family responsibilities. Whether the personal affairs of an employee’s family is the government’s job or not is a debatable issue however we are noticing a responsive attitude on the part of the manager. In human resource management related workplaces, managers specifically cater to the needs of their employees. The role of a manager is a difficult one. This person has to take with him the whole company and mesh the different processes so that he could get instant results. He is a team leader right from the onset of his job. He needs to get work done from the different people who are working under him. The end result has to be a single goal, one that drives their efforts towards the financial success of the said SME. We need to define further how the job of a manager is made even more troublesome and how he copes up with the very same. With that, we will also touch subjects that bring attraction to the post of a manager in the first place. These could include his leadership traits, his team building tactics, getting the work done out of individuals who might have pretty different backgrounds and diverse educational capabilities, smoothening of the whole process of business management within several units spread across the company’s horizon, motivating the employees and being accountable for their tasks and activities, living up to the values of the SME and doing all that could be done in the honor of the very same and lastly, the manner in which he copes with the external factors which could come out of the blue and haunt the manager like anything. To start with, team building is one of the most significant aspects that come under the functions of a manager and he needs to make sure that he is the leader for all the activities and tasks that are happening under his vigilant eyes. Team building is all the more important because the manager needs to take decisions in line with the knowledge that his team can deliver under crunch situations and also because he has to take the company forward all this while. Thus it is imperative on his part to understand that the strengths and weaknesses of the team members are equally crucial and his requirement takes more ground in this whole equation when a difficult situation crops up. Thus a good team is only built when the leader knows his team members pretty well and turns the weaknesses of different individuals within the team into their strengths and not only that but also in the strength of the team overall. A manager can only be termed an effective one when he understands his resources and what his team members can possibly do to their maximum in those available resources. Only then there is a sense of empathy and understanding amongst the team members and consideration towards the leader of the team which in this case is the manager himself. Thus, a good team is developed when there is complete harmony in the activities of the team members and there is basically a synergy amongst all of them. This synergy can only be encouraged by the team leader, which in this case is through an effective and considerate manager. An owner is a person who has exclusive possession and control of some kind of business and property. Ownership is the fundamental ingredient of the capitalist society and it helps develop the economic basis of the capitalist socio-economic system in place. Ownership gives rise to other concepts which are part of the old age as well as modern day societies that include money, the trade linkages, the debt procedures and bankruptcy to state a few. Ownership could be in the form of a personal business or an ownership that is controlled by corporations and legal entities. The communal ownership is another kind that comes under the heading of ownership. Being labeled as an owner is a social stigma, more so in the West where the same is attached with social injustice and immoral etiquettes. In addition, being called as an owner of some business or corporation asks for the person to be termed as a tyrannical ruler who is ruling the lives of the employees and workers working under him. Oppression and ownership thus end up being each other’s synonyms. On the other hand, being called as an owner of an enterprise would be looked upon at in a very esteemed and reputable manner within a third world nation. There are differences in the cultural mechanisms so as to speak. A conflict within a SME can take place due to differing personalities of the employees or in their attitudes that lead in their linkage with each other. This could also happen due to their norms and behaviors which might not be liked by any one party (person) and thus lead to a conflict of thoughts, ideas, actions and eventual behaviors towards each other. There is a degree of power when we speak of the entrepreneur/owner/manager in terms of the same over his subordinate or the employee who is working under him in a direct or an indirect capacity. Different conflict handling styles include avoidance of the conflict in the first place which will ensure that the two persons within the SME set up remain at peace and understand each other’s personalities. The second one is that of accommodating where each of these persons would accommodate the personality traits of each other and thus listen to one another. This can lead to understanding which can be reached between the two of them. The third conflict handling style encompasses collaboration which asks them to shed their differences and work in unison with a common goal, preferably of the company, in mind. The fourth conflict handling mannerism is that of compromising where each of these can just forgive and forget and thus move on for the betterment of each other’s relationship amongst the set up of the SME. The last one is forcing which can make matters even worse since it could even be of physical and at times verbal nature. This is the least desired of the five conflict handling measures. The comparisons and contrasts of business leadership and management provide benefits as well as drawbacks to the realms of any SME and it is for the betterment of the SME itself if it comprehends how the two processes mesh along with each other and work hand in hand to produce results, both from the short term perspective as well as in the long term. In the end, it would be wise to suggest that the differences between business leaders and business managers is a marked one and it is because of these very differences that the business leaders have more say in the affairs of the task at hand than the business managers. Business managers are more into ‘managing’ people, the resources and the link between these people and those resources which are available at their disposal. Business leaders have more of a visionary role whilst the business managers look at the basics of those very steps which accumulate to become a goal or objective at the very end. Within the domains of the SMEs, leadership and management are connected with each other in more ways than one. The need of the hour on the part of any SME is to understand how the two link with each other. BIBLIOGRAPHY Author Unknown. BUSINESS OPTIONS; When Is a Manager a Manager? Manila Bulletin 7 July 2005 Author Unknown. Hilton’s Manager is the Best in UK. 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