The Fundamental Principles of Organizational Management - Assignment Example

MANAGEMENT Assignment Answer Management occupies an important place in the modern world. The term management has varying perspectives, the understanding of which helps to ensure that the organization treats its employees and customers the way the organization would want to be treated. The four fundamental perspectives are as follows: The organizational context - This perspective throws light on the fact that management is inseparable from the organization and is a distinct activity of any organization. Human factor - The perspective emphasizes on the importance of human element in the organization, without which the objectives cannot be achieved. Managing paradox - This perspective stresses on the complexity involved in the management function. There should be consistency in its operations even though there will be interruptions in the internal as well as external environment of the organization. Entrepreneurial mindset - This perspective highlights the need for innovation. New ideas should be created and innovation is the watchword to face the competition The other metaphors used to describe management are as follows: Management is a science as well as an art - Management is a science as it has a systemized body of knowledge. It involves personal know-how and skills required for the accomplishment of concrete results and thus can be considered also as an art. Management as a profession- Management can be considered as a profession as it has an organized body of knowledge and a person need to undergo rigorous training through case studies, group discussions and practical training. Management is change- The management is the capability for change. It is added to the traditional managerial functions of control and planning. The examination of the above mentioned perspectives helps to be more rounded and able to see everything outside the box. Effective management thus refers to the specific and distinguishing organ of all organizations that manages business, leads managers and workers and manages change. Answer 2. A manager is the most expensive resource of an organization. He is responsible to supervise and take charge of the activities and productivity of their workers. Becoming a manager means being the one who is responsible for the bigger decisions of daily life in a company. Many times a manager will get a pay increase, and also find a rewarding new place within the hierarchy of workers in the company. Managers are responsible for hiring employees, making schedules, and solving interpersonal issues within the workforce. The biggest reward of a manager position is the satisfaction that the manager derives from his work. This can be sometimes taxing.The downside or disadvantages of managerial work is that if something goes wrong, or if the company is short handed, its usually the managers job to take the reigns. Also, because organizing a workplace takes many hours of detail oriented planning, many managers work longer hours than regular employees. Answer 3. To understand the nature of work performed by a manager it is necessary to understand the dimensions of the job, namely; demand, constraints and choices. The two types of managerial jobs chosen for analysis are Computer and Information System Manager and Purchase Manager and the jobs are analyzed. as follows: The job of a Purchase Manager has limited scope for development as now most the business is done through the Internet. The role of this position will diminish in the future. Therefore Job A- Computer and information systems manager is preferred. Answer 4. A manager is to be skilled to perform the functions of management and to assume multiple roles. The three managerial skills that are essential to successful management are (Robert Katz, 1974): i. Conceptual skills: the ability to analyze and diagnose a situation and find the cause and effect. ii. Human skills: the ability to understand, alter, lead and control people’s behavior and thereby interact effectively with people. iii. Technical skills: the job-specific knowledge required to perform a task. A managers level in the organization determines the relative importance of possessing technical, human, and conceptual skills. Top level managers need conceptual skills in order to view the organization as a whole. Supervisors need technical skills to manage their area of specialty. All levels of management need human skills in order to interact and communicate with other people successfully. Skill type needed by management level Top managers Middle managers Line managers Conceptual Human Technical Human element of any organization is very important as it is impossible to achieve the objectives with out the support of this factor. Therefore the inter-personal skill is to be worked on the most and the organization should give training, which should include topics such as: How to measure the quality of personal communication. Develop behavior to enhance the working relationships. Understand the importance of non-verbal communication. How to develop active listening skills. As the pace of change accelerates and diverse technologies converge, new global industries are being created (for example, telecommunications). Technological change alters the fundamental structure of firms and calls for new organizational approaches and management skills. A manager has to have a mix of the three skills. Assignment 2 Answer 1. Making changes in one’s behavior which has been shaped over a long period of time is not an easy task. Pessimism is one of main problems that may force a person to avoid things. It leads to fear, as we habitually forecast that we will fail or that bad things will happen to us. Because we can never fully forecast the future, we may live in a permanent state of fear. To change this behavior, an attempt was made to believe in myself. Self-confidence is to be developed by making friends with own subconscious. The next important step is to have self-esteem. If one has sound self-esteem and a strong self-confidence, then this will naturally appear in everything you do. For instance, a sales man needs to believe that the product is truly valuable and worthwhile. If not, he will not be able to persuade the potential customers in making the purchase. Confidence in the product can be build up by studying it in detail. This will also help you to explain it to the person to whom you are selling. Answer 2. Work and family issues have become increasingly salient to any organization, primarily because of an increasingly diverse work force and labour shortage. ABC Ltd is a telecommunication company where changes where implemented to solve these issues. I was appointed as a trainee in the office of the Executive Director of Human Resource Staffing and Development. The programs introduced were: Assistance in locating and obtaining child care. Elder care consultation and referrals. Flexi-time. Part- time working schedules ranging from 17 to 20 hours. The changes made had a positive impact, but had its share of weakness also. The results were as following: Results of change implementation Strength Weakness Support from top level management Regular assessment and review of policies Increase in productivity and morale of the employees Lower absenteeism Lack of knowledge of the competitors’ policies Cost. No support from the supervisors. Employees prefer financial assistance. Even though the change implementation had some weakness, the efforts taken to resolve a legitimate issue like work and family is very relevant. The initiatives taken by the organization will have a positive impact in its future operations. Answer 3. Being part of the Human Resource Staffing and Development Section, it was easy to know what were the problems faced by the employees. The interview with the employees gave an idea about their requirements. I was involved in the Employee Assistance Program. Counselling was provided to the employees. Seminars on various aspects of balancing job and family responsibilities were conducted. The efforts taken by the organization was to improve the productivity of the employees. There was also the support of the top level management. But the role of the supervisors was ignored. They were against the flexible work schedules. So the organization should gain the full support of the supervisors by: Communication of the objectives of changes to each and every person in the organization. Right to participate in the decision making process Train the supervisors to be more accommodating when family needs arise. Employees come under the direct control of the supervisor and so a supervisor’s support is a must to solve the issue of work and family. A supervisor needs to be more concerned about the problems faced by the employees in striking a balance in work and family life. This is a change that should have been included in the changes implemented in the organization. Answer 4. Change indicates any act of making something different. The factors that necessitate change in organizations are broadly categorized into people, technology, information processing and communication, and competition. The changes initiated by the management are often resisted by the employees. The three stages to overcome this resistance are as follows: a) Unfreezing – In this step, individuals are encouraged to replace old behaviors and attitudes with those desired by management. b) Changing - This stage entails providing employees with new information, new Behavioral models, or new ways of looking at things. c) Refreezing- Change is stabilized during refreezing by helping employees integrate the changed behavior or attitude into their normal way of doing things. The aspects of change management that need to be strengthened are as follows: i. Developing Political Support- This phase of change management is often overlooked, yet it is the phase that often stops successful change from occurring. Politics in organizations is about power. Change often means shifts in power across management levels, functions and groups and so it requires the support of all key power players, for example, senior management, subject matter experts and others who are recognized as having strong expertise and integrity. ii. Communicate the Facts- Employees view the change process as disruptive. A successful change program requires that the employees should understand the need for change. Communicate only the facts. Not communicating to employees when implementing change programs is the worst mistake a company can make. Of the above mentioned, power is a factor that can be leveraged to implement the changes successfully. In modern organizations, the “refreezing” stage is often rather tentative as the next change may well be around the next corner. This is where employees struggle to master what they now know. This is usually the most awkward of the three stages where they feel the stiffness and strangeness of trying something new or different. The danger with this that many organizations have found is that people fall into a state of change shock, where they work at a low level of efficiency and effectiveness as they await the next change. Its not worth it is a common phrase when asked to improve what they do. The strategy to meet the challenge is to reassure people that it takes time to develop new skills and that mistake are acceptable as long as people are learning from them. Therefore the “refreezing” stage is to be emphasized on when a change is to be implemented. Solution for Case study Oracle Corporation (Oracle) is an enterprise software company, which was started by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates in 1977 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California. Oracle’s mission is to support the customers in creating information-driven activities based on the company’s values such as job satisfaction, results, skills and responsibility. The company is the worlds leading supplier of software for information management, and the worlds second largest independent software company. Oracle is organized into two businesses: software and services. These businesses are further divided into five operating segments. Its software business consists of two operating segments, new software licenses, and software license updates and product support. Its services business consists of three operating segments, consulting, On Demand and education. Oracle technology can be found in nearly every industry, and in the data centres of 98 of the Fortune 100 companies. The key strength of its technology is the breadth of its offering. The success of its products and services is based on three principles: a. Simplify - Enterprises must increase the speed of information delivery with integrated systems. b. Standardize - Enterprises must reduce cost and maintenance with open, easily available technology. c. Automate - Enterprises must improve operational efficiency with technology and best practices. The Company develops, manufactures, markets, distributes and services database and middleware software, as well as applications software that help organizations to manage their businesses. The Oracle has customers in the UK, ranging from the NHS to British Airways and Lloyds TSB. Although its usual customers are typically large enterprises, the company is beginning to focus more aggressively on the mid-market. The goal of Oracle is to continue to innovate and to lead the industry—while always making sure that the company is focused on solving the problems of the customers who rely on their products. Oracle is the first software company to develop and deploy 100 percent internet-enabled enterprise software across its entire product line: database, business applications, and application development and decision support tools. It is innovation that drives Oracles success. In trying to keep pace with the competition from other software suppliers, Oracle had to face the management challenges of: increased understanding of customers’ needs, reinforced innovative strength and increased sales through partners. To meet these challenges, CEO Larry Ellison and his top managers had to do the following: a. Widen the range of products for managing business data, supporting business operations, and facilitating collaboration and application development and offer business applications for data warehousing, customer relationship management, and supply chain management b. Expansion of business by purchase of PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Hyperion Solutions c. Employ a geographically dispersed workforce that allows Oracle to continue to drive innovation. Oracle is a very well-structured organization, with clear business processes that are global business processes and so there should be blending these global business processes and local cultures. The sales force of Oracle resisted these changes. They had the fear of inability to meet the sales target. To solve these problems, Oracle used the following: Training and Development- Programs to support employee knowledge and skills development were designed to help the sales force to perform productively and effectively in current job roles as well as prepare them for future challenges. The Oracle’s “Sales Readiness” training program offers four weeks of formal training to the sales employees. Oracle offers a variety of technical, professional, and personal development training through a number of learning media such as: i. Oracle University’s global internal training Web site provides online Oracle technology training courses. Courses are free for employees and are offered both as live and archived presentations. Technical Training for all current Oracle product offerings is available in a number of formats. ii. Instructor-led classes are taught in Oracle Education Centres throughout America. iii. The Oracle Channel delivers a series of regularly scheduled interactive satellite broadcasts on Oracle product training at Headquarters, field offices, education centres, and 3rd party sites. iv. Course-in-a-Box is up-to-the-minute video-based training for new products, new releases, and product overviews. Sales Training - Sales skills, product sales and positioning, and business practices training programs are available for sales reps and sales consultants. The sales man has to first look at how the customer wants to be sold to. So there should be a blend between product selling and relationship selling. Efficient sales management team - In order to maintain growth, and to keep staff motivated, Oracle employed a strong and competent sales management team. These are people that understand the salesmen, the culture of the salesmen, and probably grown up with them as well. Motivation of sales force - In Oracle, apart from salary, bonus and on-target earnings, the sales force is motivated by making them part of cross- country project teams - so people who do the right things get to go on these project teams, work with other smart people around the countries, get to know people, build networks, and get to go to interesting places to have these meetings. Like- wise there is a quarterly customer centricity award, which is about who is the person who has shown the absolutely best attitude towards giving customer satisfaction, and at the end of the day it’s an email of thanks and a meal for two. The result of these changes in Oracle’s operations is the change in the company’s vision and direction of its activities towards maintaining excellent relationships with customer. As a sales man working for Oracle, initially there would be resistance towards the changes. The resistance is due to the fear about how the work will be like after the changes in the company. The company is having lots of programs to help the sales persons, especially the “Sales Readiness training”. The training helps to be up-to-date of the recent developments in technology. It enables the sales person to have an idea about how to deal with the potential and their doubts about the products. So gradually the changes will be acceptable to every sales person. Books referred 1. Burnes, B. (2004b). Managing change (4th Edition). Harlow, England: Prentice Hall. 2. Carnall, C. A. (2003). Managing change in organizations, (4th Edition). Prentice Hall. 3. Hitt, M. A, Black, S. & Porter, L.W (2007), Management, Second Edition, Prentice Hall. 4. Lewin, K. (1951) Field theory in social science; selected theoretical papers. D. Cartwright (Ed.). New York: Harper & Row. 5. Paton, R. A & McCalman, J. (2000) Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation, SAGE. 6. Robert Katz, "Skills of an effective administrator," Harvard Business Review, September-October 1974, pp. 90-101. 7. Rothwell, W.J (2000) The Manager and the Change Leader, Published by American Society for Training and Development. 8. Senior, B. (2002). Organizational change (2nd Ed.). Harlow, England: Prentice Hall. 9. Stewart, R. (1982). Choices for the manager, Prentice-Hall. 10. The reality of management. San Diego: Elsevier Science and Technology Books. 11. Taylor, F.W. (1917) The Principles of Scientific Management, Harper & Brothers New York, London. 12. htpp://www.oracle.com/ viewed on 1st October 2008. Read More