Management Skill Perspective - Lab Report Example

Responses to Independent Learning Tasks Table of Contents Week One: Management and Communication 3 Week Four: Communication Networks 5 Week Nine: More on Managing Change Related Communication 9 Week Ten: The Integration of Strategic Planning and Communication 9 Week Eleven: Communicating in Difficult Times and Crisis Situations 10 Week One: Management and Communication Independent Learning Task 1 MOSTLY TRUE MOSTLY FALSE Statement 1 √ Statement 2 √ Statement 3 √ Statement 4 √ Statement 5 √ Statement 6 √ Statement 7 √ Statement 8 √ (Source: Samson and Daft, 2012, p. 3) According to Samson and Daft (2012), odd numbered questions are representing long term success as manager while even numbered questions are representing short term perspective of managers. In such logical cohort, while filling the questionnaire, I have ticked in more than 3 odd numbered statements which represents that I might be ready for a management position. From management skill perspective, I need to work on improving communication skill in order to encourage collaborative approach and knowledge sharing with other organizational members (Dwyer, 2011). Therefore, from communication perspective, I cannot rate my management skill with high score. It is evident from the questionnaire that managers need to incorporate certain behavioural characteristics to achieve long term success to spend maximum possible amount of time with subordinates in order communicate with them frequently, gather feedback from them regarding existing process, use collaborative decision making process, coordinate activities of team members, use participative leadership style to engage team members etc (O’Hair, Dixon and Friedrich, 2005). Week Two: Management Ethics and Social Responsibility Independent Learning Task 2 Consideration of research works of Lagan (2000) reveals the fact that behavioural trait and personality of individuals play vital role in directing whether he/she perform social responsibility and ethical norms within organization or not. According to Lagan (2000), communication skill of individual may be directed by his/her exposure to behavioural ethics and responsible behaviour. While going through study material, the researcher has found that third level of human trait & behaviour called post-conventional has close link with trait of the supervisor in previous workplace. In the previous work place, I had worked under the supervision of that person (my supervisor and his name will not be revealed for confidentiality reasons) in three projects. Trait of the person can be qualified as post-conventional due to three reasons, 1- the person used to donate money for social causes and perform necessary social responsibilities, 2- my supervisor used to talk to every team members and treat every team member in different manner as par situational requirement and 3- the person had the characteristics of showing concern for common good and he used to collaborate activities. Post-conventional characteristics of manager are being complemented with engaging communication and interpersonal skill (Samson and Daft, 2012). Week Three: Evolution of Management Thinking Best manager qualities and behaviours: decision making capability during contingent period, ability to communicate ideas to team members in clear manner, participative leadership style and engaging team members during decision making, visionary, ability to take responsibility for actions. Worst manager qualities and behaviours: impatient, using autocratic leadership style, incapable of decision making during contingent period, inability to take responsibility for actions, poor communication skill and inability to coordinate activities of team members. My feelings and performance resulting from best manager: I felt empowered under the supervision of good manager and my motivation level also increased due to transparent performance management, ability to speak mind mid to manager, opportunity to work in team and cross functional knowledge sharing. My feelings and performance resulting from worst manager: I felt intimidated and I also felt working under pressure which negatively impacted my performance level. I never got the chance to work in team and my motivation level decreased due fear of abusive language from manager and lack of direction in work. These answers can be classified as data points and from the answers; I can infer that leadership principles of management play vital role in directing performance and motivation of employees. Differences in the best manager–worst manager behaviour can be best explained while using behavioural sciences approach to management. According to behavioural sciences approach to management, organizations are being classified as socio-technical systems and employee motivation is being directed not only by meeting physiological needs but also by fulfilment of psychological and social needs. Week Four: Communication Networks Independent Learning Task 4 In this task, the researcher will review Figure mentioned in Cheney et al (2011) book plotting the intensity and intentionality of workplace incivility. According to the diagram, with increase in intentional misbehaving or antisocial activities like rudeness, bullying, harassing, profanity etc within workplace, intensity of harm gets increased. The diagram represents a continuum that shows all types of incivility as anti-social. In the previous organization, I have experienced that some senior employees showed intention of harassing new recruits or trainees by assigning impossible tasks, using foul languages on any mistakes, discouraging any activity of new recruits. These type negative actions have been clearly targeted to new recruits due to two intentions, 1- showing superiority over new recruits in order to get full command on them and 2- simply for sick mental pleasure. I also had experienced similar kind of harassment for first three months but at the end of third month, I approached to supervisor in order to state my poor condition and my supervisor warned senior employees from doing such kind in future occasions. Yes, warning of my supervisor worked and senior employees started behaving in right manner to me. Week Five: More Communication Networks During work life, I have encountered with some heroes and knowledge workers who not only use their skill in workplace but also use intellectual capital to motivate other team members (Mouritsen and Boedker, 2009). In my previous workplace, line manager and team lead can be identified as knowledge worker and workplace heroes. These two individual have certain abilities and characteristics such as high level of intelligence, open mind to learn new things and apply gathered knowledge in work practices, devote maximum time of the day in work front, take responsibility for their actions, never sacrifices interest of others in order to materialise own interest, expertise in own domain and ability to help team members through knowledge support during crisis situation etc. Due such valuable characteristics, these two individuals used to enhance power and reach of work team networks by showing qualities like coordinating activities of other workers, providing work direction to team members, handling project related queries of team members, providing valuable knowledge to team members, communicating interactively with team members. Due to integration of above mentioned qualities, these two individuals might be key members of work team networks because their presence can improve overall confidence level, coordination and bonding among team members in significant manner. Week Six: Managing Communication and Diversity Independent Learning Task 6 MOSTLY TRUE MOSTLY FALSE Statement 1 √ Statement 2 √ Statement 3 √ Statement 4 √ Statement 5 √ Statement 6 √ Statement 7 √ Statement 8 √ Statement 9 √ Total Score 2 (Source: Samson and Daft, 2012, p. 469) My score is close to zero (actually, value of 2) and such low score shows that amount of ‘passive bias’ is pretty less in me. However, I still have the scope to reduce ‘passive biases to further extent so that I would be more open to expression and interaction. Low score is also showing that I am pretty open to learn to actively include diverse views and people and such quality increases my potential to be better new manager in future. Week Seven: More Managing Communication and Diversity Independent Learning Task 7 TRUE FALSE Statement 1 √ Statement 2 √ Statement 3 √ Statement 4 √ Statement 5 √ Statement 6 √ Statement 7 √ Statement 8 √ Statement 9 √ Total Score √ Total Score (1+1+1+1+1+1+1)=7 (Source: Samson and Daft, 2012, p. 490) My score torches the threshold score of 7 or more and therefore I can consider myself as perceptive and observant about gender behaviour. I do not carry male chauvinistic ego and believe that gender diversity in the workplace is necessary for ensuring greater organizational dynamics. I believe such personal belief will help me to manage diversity in the workplace better manner. Week Eight: Managing Change Related Communication Independent Learning Task 8 MOSTLY TRUE MOSTLY FALSE Statement 1 √ Statement 2 √ Statement 3 √ Statement 4 √ Statement 5 √ Statement 6 √ Statement 7 √ Statement 8 √ Total Score (1+1+1+1+1+1) = 6 My score is 6 (acceptance score level is 6 to 8) that indicates that I am very innovative and probably the first person to support changes within organization. As a new manager, the high score is indicating that I will go innovation, new idea and changes within organization. The high score is also indicating that I may go checking the functionality of established methods and might take harsh decisions to support restructuring and internal resource transformation (Hartel and Fujimoto, 2010). Week Nine: More on Managing Change Related Communication Independent Learning Task 9 If I were a manager at Samsung, I would take following steps, 1- communicate the urgency of change to employees, 2- select change agents from work group, 3- develop innovation lab where change agents encourage engineers to come up with more innovative product idea, 4- enrol engineers to yearlong technical courses in order to improve their skill set, 5- develop change implementation plan to achieve innovation capabilities and encourage cross functional knowledge sharing and creativity idea generation from external sources, 6- implement the change initiatives and 7- institutionalize benefits of change process implementation. To avoid change resistance, I will use communication and education technique where I will communicate urgency of change to employees and even conduct knowledge session for employees in order to make them familiar with change ideas (Samson and Daft, 2012). Yes, the response substantiates my answer because in the response, concept of Innovative Design Lab (IDS) has been which similarity with my idea has presented earlier. As mentioned in response, I have also suggested that the company should encourage knowledge gathering from external sources. Week Ten: The Integration of Strategic Planning and Communication Independent Learning Task 10 MOSTLY TRUE MOSTLY FALSE Statement 1 √ Statement 2 √ Statement 3 √ Statement 4 √ Statement 5 √ Statement 6 √ Statement 7 √ Statement 8 √ Total Score (1+1+1+1+1+1) = 6 (Source: Samson and Daft, 2012, p. 255) My score is 6 (critical score range is 5 to 8) that indicates that I have positive level for good preparation and goal setting behaviour. I have learnt from the test that new managers need to be goal oriented, meticulous when it comes to goal setting or measuring process result or estimating progress of subordinates. Therefore, high score increases my probability to achieve success as new manager when it comes to produce better performance. Week Eleven: Communicating in Difficult Times and Crisis Situations Independent Learning Task 11 From work experience, I can recall event of financial scam took place in my organization. Financial scam was performed by one of the top level executives of the company and millions of dollars were misrepresented in the balance sheet. Due to such level of financial scam, crisis situation was created and in such context, both most pessimistic and most optimistic situation emerged. Most pessimistic- due to financial scam, reputation of the company touched its nadir and shareholders started putting pressure to return their money. Most optimistic- employees showed strong loyalty towards the company and none of them left the company. Employees were even ready to work under low wages due to their understanding of the crisis situation. I conducted meeting to communicate the situation to internal stakeholder and asked for their support and tried to answer their questions in minimise confusion or disorder. As a contingency plan, financial risk control and corporate governance codes implementation in the organization might be appropriate. Week Twelve: Understanding Public Relations Independent Learning Task 12 Consideration of research works of Samson and Daft (2012) reveals the fact that audiences are being considered as trivial and individualized set of social people while publics are being considered as more active and politically engaged set of people. I can identify publics as people attended a political meeting, customers in the retail store or people in social gatherings. On contrary, I can identify audience as people presented in personalized product demonstration, people presented in music concert etc. Recently, I attended a social responsibility program as member of non-profit organization. In such context, I behaved as one of the public individual. On contrary, while attending music concert, I behaved as one of the member of audience. Reference List Cheney, C., Christensen, L. T., Zorn, T. E Jnr. and Ganesh, S., 2011, Organizational Communication in an Age of Globalization, Issues, Reflections, Practices. Illinois: Waveland Press. Dwyer, J., 2011. Communication in business: Strategies and skills, 4th ed. Australia: Pearson Education. Hartel, C. E. J. and Fujimoto, Y., 2010. Human resource management. 2nd ed. Frenchs Forest, Sydney: Pearson Australia. Lagan, A., 2000. Why ethics matter: Business ethics for business people. Melbourne: Information Australia. Mouritsen, J. and Boedker, C., 2009. Intellectual capital statements and the development of organizational knowledge management strategies. in Baxter, J. and Poullaos, C (Eds). Practices, profession and pedagogy in accounting – essays in honour of bill birkett. Sydney: Sydney University Press, Chapter 8, pp 207-234. O’Hair, D., Dixon, L. and Friedrich, G., 2005. Leadership and management skills, strategic communication in business and the professions. 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Samson, D. and Daft, R. L., 2012. Management. 4th Asia Pacific Edition. Australia: Cengage Learning. Read More