Handbook of Leadership and Management - Assignment Example

Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Class Name: Date Assignment is due: Answers to take home final Part I It was enjoyable and interesting to learn new terminologies, theories, as well as new concepts in management. My MGT 330 class marked one of the most remarkable experiences in class. Throughout my learning in this unit, I managed to take away several valuable ideas that will have a great impact on my life today and in the future. However, I will online outline three of the most remembered ideas for the purpose of the assignment instructions. Management functions, levels of management, and business ethics are the three ideas I will discuss below. What are functions of management was the most puzzling question before I entered into management class. Managers are one of the most vital personnel in any organization, and their functions tell it all. A manager will get things moving in an organization, get employees working, as well as oversee a number of activities. All the functions according to Henri Fayol are summarized under 5 functions of management, which are Planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin and Cardy, 20). It is the function of the management team in any organization to plan for actions either for long term or short term periods, organize all the resources, position the right people at the right time and place, communicate and coordinate all the activities, as well as monitor and evaluate the progress. I believe I was born a leader the knowledge of the functions of management will help me build my career further since leadership involves management. It was also interesting to discover that management is structured into four different levels known as hierarchical levels of management. Top management is the top most level in this hierarchy, which entails all the members of the board of directors responsible for setting organizational goals and strategies. It is followed by senior management, which includes all the head of departments. Middle level is the next level downwards, which includes all managers concerned with the operational management. The last and the lowest level in this hierarchical is junior or lower management, which include the supervisors, team leader just to mention but a few. Deep understanding of these levels of management will be of use to me as a future leader to categorize myself and understand what is expected of me under different levels of management in an organization (Junega). Business ethics are fundamental concerns for any business since they involve profits of a business and its reputation. Organizations set their own business codes of ethics that must be followed by all employees in the organization in order to avoid actions that may lead to legal problems or that may tarnish the reputation of a company. The knowledge of some of the most common business ethics will help me in my career as a future leader to avoid legal issues. Part II Wallingford Bowling Centre A). Financial statement of a business helps the business to know its performance for the period. The analysis of financial Wallingford Bowling center helps in identification of the problem. For instance, in this case the problem lies in operating costs. Benchmarking is also another way of identifying the problem that exists in a certain business. For example, James one of directors of this organization agrees that in comparison with the other businesses in the same industry, the organization operation costs are on track. Analysis of departmental performance also can help in identifying an existing problem in an organization. Wallingford bowling men leagues does very well and thus forms the biggest percentage of income as compared to other sections. This will assist management in recognizing areas that require improvement in order to enhance the overall performance, and reduce operational costs. B). One of the issues the group should deliberate on is how they can increase their revenue base. The organization should look for other alternative sources of revenues to boost the organization’s revenue. The other issue affecting the organization is increased operating costs, which reduces the profit margins. Therefore, the group should deliberate on how they can reduce the operating costs of the business. For example, from the case the company has room for expansion since sometimes the facilities are underutilized. The group should consist of employees of the company. This is because; employees understand the company and the operations of the company well more than anybody else. Additionally, they understand their customers well and their preferences. Also, the group should consult few loyal customers to represent all the customers since they may have ideas on what should be changed as well as how it should be changed. For example, some customers may have prior knowledge on the management such business, which could be of help to this business. C). Organization itself could be one of the constraint in decision making process. For example, managers must shape their decisions to be reflected in the organization. Time constraint, group thinking, and previous organizational decisions may act as precedents to constrain present decision making. For example, in the case of Wallingford Bowling, the organization is a collaboration of several investors who might have different views concerning the management of the organization. Before they come into consensus, a lot of time might be wasted (Kotter and Cohen 30). Part III Question one (a) I agree with this statement. A smart company, the adage goes, learns from past mistakes. Organizations learn new techniques and new ways of dealing with problems. For example, in every start up or new innovations a lot of mistakes are made companies learn from such mistakes. Studies done on the website shows that many SMEs and other upcoming small firms learn from the mistakes they made in the past. Coca-Cola Company is a living example of such companies, which has matured and developed to where it is now. Coca-cola in 1985 suffered one of its greatest and worst sales drop in history when this company offered a different carbonated drinks’ formula without giving customers a choice. The company did an intensive research to discover and correct their mistakes. The company corrected its mistake eventually and learnt new techniques in the process. Another company was Apple Inc. this company had in the past neglected consumers by not giving them the first priority. This was reflected in their financial statement. They later learnt the importance of giving consumers the first priority. Another reason why I agree with this account is because; past mistakes will always leaves us with a new thing to learn. Many organizations discover or innovate as a result of previous mistakes made. b) Nordstrom has an effective way to run its company. This technique can act as a way of motivating employees in this company. If employees are motivated at the work place, they get things done faster and easier, which enables the company to realize it goals and objectives faster and effectively. Another reason why this is an effective way of running this company is because the there is an exercise of democracy in this company. Employees are at liberty to make decisions on their own which motivates them towards achieving the organizational goals. Additionally, employees become more innovative when they are allowed to make decisions on their own without commands. Question three A). In my own opinion I believe planning is the most crucial function. Planning is the most crucial and fundamental project management and time management techniques. It involves preparations of a sequence of events to achieve certain goals or objectives. First, Planning will always come first since it is the most initial thing to do before further actions are taken. Secondly, without a planning manager cannot direct, control, or motivate they need to plan first before they embark on the other functions. Planning others would say it is like a make to show an organization where it is going. Organizing as a management function determines who, how, and when a certain activity should be done. Organizing may be considered as a secondary role in an organization where employees are led by their behaviors. Employees are able to tactically organize the activities on their own. Leading as a management function can be delegated, and carried out by other employees such as seniors employees in the organization. Many organizations with well laid down rules and regulations, along with guidelines, the managers need not to be present to control the activities of employees. B). It is advisable to keep teams together to work on different projects rather than forming new teams. This is because, forming a team is a process which undergoes several stages and takes time to form a complete and concrete team. Also, existing team have members that know each other well, and who understand each other’s abilities and talents better. Question four A) The organization is rapidly expanding its operations and setting its business in new geographical areas. The company should adopt a decentralized structure that will help it accommodate all the cultural differences in the areas that the company is setting businesses. In the contemporary world we are living in today, the society embraces diversity and thus the organization should come up with ways of managing such diversity. Decentralization of the systems will be one way of achieving this objective. Since the organization is setting up business in different geographical regions that is diversified in terms of cultural beliefs, languages among other diversities, it should adopt a divisional corporate structure. Divisional corporate structure will help the organization in choosing effectively through make a comparison between numbers of organizational divisions. B) The company in an effort to address the issue of diverse cultural culture that it faces, the company should employ employees of the host country. This will make the local community be loyal to the company and consider the company as their own. In addition, the company should practice corporate social responsibility to lobby the community and the authorities in those areas. Question five a) Environmental scanning is one of the ways that an organization can respond to micro environment. Environmental scanning involves carrying out business SWOT analysis, as well as PESTEL analysis. It is a tedious process and involves many uncertainties due to the nature of the external environment. Since the firm does not possess any direct control to the external environment, the management of a firm should be extremely observant. Benchmarking can also be used by firms as a way of responding to its macro environment. However, the firm should only benchmark with other firms in a similar industry and whose performance is excellent. A good example is Pepsi and Coca-Cola Company which are in the same industry of producing beverages. Lastly, a comprehensive analysis, which refers to collection of information regarding the competitors, can also be used as a way of responding to macro environment. Apple Inc. has been seen to collect information that concerns one of its rivals Microsoft. B) Leadership models helps one understand why leaders behave the way they do. As a leader, it is ideal to realize that every situation call for a different leadership approach or behavior to be taken (Elearn, Pergamon Flexible Learning 39). A four frame approach is a leadership model that suggests that leaders portrays leadership styles in one of the following types of framework namely; structural, human resource, symbolic or political (Gold, Thorpe and Mumford 90). A leader will adopt either of the strategy depending on the circumstance; some may work effectively while others may not. As a leader, I prefer using all the four approaches depending on the situation. For instance in a situation which requires change, I apply structural leadership approach. The diagram below shows the four different approaches in leadership and how they can be applied. Fig1. Four Frame Work Approach Works cited Bateman, Thomas S and Snell, Scott A. Management, 2nd Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print. Elearn, Pergamon Flexible Learning. Leadership and Management in Organizations. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 2007. Print. Gold, J, Thorpe, R and Mumford A (Eds). Gower Handbook of Leadership and Management Development, London: Gower, 2010. Print. Gomez-Mejia, Luis R, Balkin, David B and Cardy, Robert L. Management: People, Performance, Change, 3rd edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print. Junega, Himanshu. Idea marketers: different level of management. n.d. Web. May 21, 2012. . Kotter, John P and Cohen, Dan S. The Heart of Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2002. Print. Read More