Interview with First-Line Sales Manager at David Jones Department Store - Essay Example

Management Essay: Interview with First-Line Sales Manager at David Jones Department Store BY YOU YOUR ACADEMIC ORGANISATION HERE HERE DATE HERE Management Essay Summary of Business and Management The first-line sales manager interviewed hails from David Jones, Ltd., a large, long-standing department store in Australia. The organization maintains a wide variety of different consumer departments including clothing, household goods, and electronics. David Jones’ main competitor is Myer, an organisation which offers similar consumer and household products in a department store setting. The role of this manager includes using contemporary management theory as a means to motivate subordinate effort as well as setting specific, organisational targets for the manager’s sales team. Further included in this management role is a variety of technical skills, including computer software and hardware proficiency, as well as maintaining positive interpersonal skills in order to facilitate a well-organised and well-structured system of operations. These job roles, compared to several management theories, will be described in this essay. Managerial Technical Skills Technical skills are best defined as “the understanding of, or proficiency in, specific activities that require the use of specialized tools, methods, processes, techniques or knowledge” (Peterson and Van Fleet, 2004, p.1299). The interviewed manager at David Jones must maintain a strong understanding of logistics, including how best to coordinate deliveries based on actual sales volumes and expected consumer sales. Logistics in this role include maintaining contact with external vendors and ensuring that there is an adequate supply of consumer-related products on the shelves to meet with consumer demand. These logistics skills include not only proficiency in scheduling deliveries and stock ordering, but also maintaining a well-developed understanding of the software systems necessary to facilitate stock delivery and stock scheduling. Training skills are also part of the technical skills required of this job role, as transmittal of information between manager and staff often takes the form of meetings and training sessions. Far beyond policy and procedure is the need to understand how to effectively present information and also handle disruptive employees or those who might be resistant to different change strategies. Thus, human resources skills are some of the most foundational management skills needed in this job role, by ensuring that information is properly presented, takes relevant form, and also assesses individual productivity based on sales or performance targets. These are presentational technical skills, however they still fit the generic definition of technical skills related to knowledge, process, and technique. Technical skills do not appear to be the most primary talents required of the position of front-line sales manager, largely due to the fact that this position requires more interpersonal communications with consumers and with the internal staff. Katz’ management model identifies interpersonal skills as being one of the most fundamental management skills in order to run a successful organisation. In the role of sales manager, the interviewed subject must consistently engage the internal sales team, highlighting the importance of “talking with your team and not talking at them” (Personal Interview, 2009). This interpersonal skill, in the role of first-line sales manager, might actually be classified as a technical skill since it is a foundational requirement in order to lead a successful team. This represents a form of technical knowledge about management theory which builds trust in the leader and motivates the subordinate sales staff. The Systems Perspective The role of sales manager in this organisation requires many skills which can be classified under the systems perspective of management. A system can best be defined as “an organized collection of parts that are highly integrated to accomplish an overall goal” (managementhelp.org, 2009). The system most noticeable at David Jones is a social system, which, again, requires very strong interpersonal skills in order to relate to the subordinate staff members and also to meet sales requirements and divisional goals. For example, taking the responsibility to motivate employees was listed as a very important element of the sales management job role during the interview. Further, routine transmittal of information received through various management channels is conducted in order to inform lower-level staff of changes within the organisation. At David Jones, coordinating the exchange of knowledge between management and subordinates is the foundation of the systems model which drives manager activities and communications. For example, the organisation has a well-developed social culture and it is the role of the sales manager to ensure that all staff understand this culture so that they can be more active participants in the systems framework at David Jones. Additionally, the manager must take responsibility for the allocation of various organisational resources to ensure that all members of the organisation are well-trained and knowledgeable about internal and external changes to the existing business model. This system of knowledge exchange, based on interview responses, appears to be the most important aspect to ensuring a well-coordinated business and as a management activity necessary to achieve sales targets. The ideal manager, theoretically, is: “One who guarantees the operational integrity of decision-making, goal-setting, and planning processes by asserting his or her authority whenever needed, whilst retaining the capacity to motivate his or her subordinates by trusting their capacity for initiative” (Parker and Ritson, 2005, p.187). This theoretical ideal manager strongly characterises the interviewed sales manager as motivating performance from employees is a top priority in this job role. The goal is to create an entire system of knowledge-capable workers who are equipped to handle a variety of customer-related or management-related scenarios effectively, which is generally accomplished through oral communication. Oral communication “provides clues to the validity of information and how managers involved feel about the subject” (Carroll and Gillen, 1987, p.44). This is highly regarded at David Jones as an important first-line management skill as the subject must resolve a customer complaint or a disagreement with the sales team using empathy and understanding. Thus, motivating lower-level subordinates to act professionally with customers and also handle disagreements with tact is a strong focus of the sales management role, giving subordinates the specialised knowledge necessary to build an effective internal system of customer support and worker/manager camaraderie. The role of empathic supporter for customer needs or disputes reinforces that David Jones managers cannot possibly rely on one specific management theory or philosophy in order to be successful. Customers generally create daily, unique scenarios which require professionalism and tact in order to satisfy. For this reason, the manager must govern her organisational division using elements of contingency theory, which states that there is generally no best method to manage and that the environment, itself, creates unique situations which require adaptive leadership (valuebasedmanagement.net, 2009). The interviewed manager indicated that she must seek, routinely, special information to understand the organisation and its environment. This shows an adaptive leader with a variety of conceptual skills who, after reviewing the ever-changing internal and external business environment, must use contingency theories as new approaches for handling unique business scenarios. For example, the manager indicated that innovation is a regular job role function in many different business area, thus this is another contingency approach where unique strategies must be formulated in order to build a more successful team, internal system, and also satisfy customer needs. Customer perceptions of the organisation were also highlighted as being important elements involved with how the staff and manager perform their frontline sales work (Personal Interview, 2009). Thus, interpersonal conduct between subordinates and customers must be routinely monitored by the sales manager as well as developing the necessary corrective actions needed in the event of poor sales or social performance. Though this is often considered a generic administrative function for all managers, the fact that the external customers strongly regulate how staff performs their work illustrates that contingency planning is a necessary function of the first-line sales management role. Thus, this creates the need for the manager to explore alternative methods of training staff in order to improve productivity related to positive sales performance and also delighting customers who, by their nature, create unique business scenarios on a daily basis. “A successful leader not only gets people involved, but keeps them involved by empowering them” (Entrepreneur.com, 1993). This is another aspect of the sales manager’s routine management activities, as she highlighted her ability to coordinate coaching plans to boost total staff performance. A coaching plan indicates that the company is strongly concerned about the career path of employees and is willing to create the tools necessary for low-level staff to succeed in their sales job roles. This, in reference to Katz’ management model, involves technical skills, interpersonal skills, and even conceptual skills in order to create fair and balanced coaching materials. Thus, it can best be said that the role of the David Jones first-line sales manager is multi-dimensional, requiring a systems-thinking approach as well as a contingency approach in the event of unexpected changes to the organisational environment or even the organisational culture. References Carroll, S. And Gillen, D. (1987). Are the classical management functions useful in describing managerial work? Academy of Management Review, 12(1), pp.38-51. Entrepreneur.com. (1993). A hierarchy of management training requirements: The competency domain model. Retrieved 18 Sept 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/13689974.html. Managementhelp.org. (2009). Systems Thinking – Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development: Collaborative and systems approach to performance change and learning. Retrieved 17 Sep 2009 from http://www.managementhelp.org/systems/systems.htm#anchor5518. Parker, L. and Ritson, P. (2005). Revisiting Fayol: Anticipating Contemporary Management. British Journal of Management, Vol. 16, pp.175-194. Personal Interview. (2009). First-Line Manager at David Jones Ltd. Conducted September 2009. Peterson, Tim and Van Fleet, David. (2004). The ongoing legacy of R.L. Katz. An updated typology of management skills. Management Decision, 42(10), p.1299. Valuebasedmanagement.net. (2009). Influences of constraints on organizations: Contingency theory. Retrieved 18 Sept 2009 from http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_contingency_theory.html. Read More