How the Finance Manager of West Farmers Spends His Day, Week, Month - Case Study Example

Interview report Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Roles of the financial manager 4 Data collection methods 5 Observation 5 Findings of observation 6 Interviews 7 Findings of the interviews 7 Comparison of Research Findings and Theory of Management 8 Skills Needed for Interviews 9 Conclusion 10 Appendix 12 Abstract This report has discussed how the finance manager of West farmers spends his day, week, month and the year. The methods used to collect data in this report are observation and interview with the manager. According to this report, the roles of the manager in the company include finding sources of income for the organization, does profit planning, advises the company on financial decisions they are ought to take and finally allocates finance to various departments. From the data collected from the interview and observation, they can be compared. The manager can be concluded to be a good communicator, he is able to motivate the employees, able to solve conflicts and he is able to develop a good relationship between the employees. On the reflection of the skills that were needed in the interview process include the communication skills, language skills and ability to draft questions which are simple and clear. Introduction The aim of this paper is to unfold the various functions of managers in an organization. This report compiles the data collected from West Farmers Company located in Sydney Australia. It is one of the oldest companies in Australia which started as a farmers’ cooperative society. At first the operations were merchandising wool, distributing oil and exporting of products such as grain and fruits. Later in 1950s the company started supplying gas to the people of Australia and up to date operates major depots. The company was first listed on the stock exchange market in the year 1984 and in the same year, the company acquired a firm to manufacture fertilizer. The company further in the year 1989, it started to practice coal mining and it expanded the coal mining operations in the year 2000 when it acquired the Curragh mine (WestFarmers Company, 2013). The company also engaged in Agricultural activities which it expanded in the year 1993 and acquired the Dalgety farmers limited. In the year 2007, the company acquired Coles group limited which made it to expand its business the more. In this report we will interview and observe the financial manager of the company called Terry Bowen. The manager joined the company in the year 2009 and he holds a Bachelor of Accountancy. Terry is also a member of the Certified Public Accountants of Australia. Initially he had joined the company in the year 1996 but was appointed to the position of financial manager in 2009 (WestFarmers Company, 2013). I chose the financial manager because finance is the basic component of the organization and it determines its performance. The contact of the manager is shown in the appendix below. The interview was conducted in April 21st 2013 while the observation was done during between April 15th and April 20th. This report aims at understanding how the financial manager spends his time and his roles in the company. Roles of the financial manager First, the financial manager is responsible for raising funds for the organization (Hansraj 2003). For any organization to meet its objectives, it needs to raise adequate finance for its operations. It is the duty of the financial manager to identify the various sources of finance through which the organization can raise funds. The sources of finance available for the financial manager to choose from are the debt and equity financing. Therefore the manager should be competent in order to select the best source of finance for the business and to balance between debt and equity finance. The financial manager is also responsible for allocating funds in the organization. One the manager has raised the funds for the organization, he is responsible for designing strategies for allocating the funds (Hansraj 2003). He prioritizes the various needs of different departments for the organization. In order to allocate the resources effectively, the financial manager should consider the size of the organization and its growth rate. Finally, Terry Bowen advises the company on the financial market dynamics (Hansraj 2003). He understands the financial markets before making a decision to buy or sell shares in the securities exchange market. The financial manager assesses the various aspects in the markets and calculates the risks involved before making a decision on behalf of the company. In this regard, the financial manager is responsible for helping the organization to ensure it makes decisions which can generate profits and not making losses. Data collection methods Observation The data used in this report were collected through two methods of data collection which are observation and interviews with the manager (Wilkinson & Birmingham 2000). Through observation, the manager was closely monitored how he spends his day and week and this observation cab reflects the whole month or year. The reasons why I chose the observation method of collecting data include; it is so direct. Through observation, a researcher can collect data directly from the phenomenon which is being investigated. This ensures that the data is collected from first hand and does rely on somebody’s reporting or investigation. Through observation in conjunction with other data collection methods, the data can be said to be more reliable (Wilkinson & Birmingham 2000). The data collected from observation can be compared with data collected from other sources like interviews to determine the reliability of the data collected. In this regard therefore, observation helps the researcher to know the quality of data collected. It acts as a complementary source of data for other methods of data collection including interviews. Findings of observation The observation was structured in a way that it provides clear guideline which will help to collect the relevant data which is being investigated that is how managers spend their day, week, month or the year. To start with, the observation was made about the time the manager arrives in the office. The observation was done in one week that is from 15th to 20th April 2013. During this week, the manager arrived in the office between 6:50 and 7:10 in the morning. After arriving, the manager could go directly to his office and start the daily obligations. At 10:30 in the morning, the manager and his junior department employees could assemble in the tea room for tea break. During this tea break period, the manager could socialize with his junior employees and share some ideas concerning the department and this promoted tea building in the organization which motivated the employees as they felt recognized and part of the organization of Westfarmers Company. After the tea break the employees and the manager go back to work and break for lunch at 1 in the afternoon for one hour. During the lunch break the manager could meet with other managers of the organization. During this time, the manager could meet with other senior managers of the West farmers and socialize which promotes good communication network in the organization. After the lunch break, the manager could go back to his department and continue with his obligations until 5 in the evening when it is time for going home. According to the observation, the manager held meetings with his junior employees every Friday afternoon for one hour between 2 and 3. The main agenda of the meeting was to review the whole week and assess the various challenges that faced them and this was a practice for the whole year. This meeting enabled the manager to plan well for the operations of the following week by designing strategies that will solve the challenges faced. Interviews The reasons why we chose the interview to collect data from the manager himself include the ability to collect data which is more detailed. Interviews enable the researcher to ask many questions to extract more information. Interviews also give data from the first respondent without any alterations ensuring that the data is more accurate (Cohen et al 2007). Finally, the interview was selected because it could give the highest rate of response unlike other sources of collecting data like questionnaire where the response rate can be too low (Cohen et al 2007). The interview questions are shown in the appendix below alongside the interview procedure. Findings of the interviews From the interview, it was noted that the manager arrived at the work place at 7 in the morning. The manager then goes to the office and convenes a meeting with his junior employees and delegates the duties. After the delegation of the authority the manager then goes on to work with his duties and designing strategies on how he will motivate his team. The manager later goes home at 5 in the evening after the official duties. The manager also responded how he motivates other employees. The manager motivated the employees by designing strategies which helps the employees to advance their skills through training. The manager after designing the programs, he then forwards the programs to the top management recommending the programs for employee training. In this regard, the employees are motivated and can accomplish their skills better. The manager accomplished tasks by assigning duties and responsibilities according to various skills of the employees where the employees are best specialized. This helped to improve the performance of the employees alongside motivating them. In this aspect, the employees get satisfied with their job hence they will accomplish their tasks effectively improving the performance of the department. The manager applied the conflict resolution skills to solve any conflicts that arose in his department. First, he investigated the cause of the conflict by inviting both sides to explain their conflict. Then he investigates to determine the truth of the matter. Under his authority, he discusses the solution with both parties and asks them to forgive each other. About the conflicts with other managers, Terry Bowen responded that he always sought for top management intervention in solving the disputes. When conflicts arose with other managers, he reported the matter to the top management who then took relevant steps trying to solve the conflict. Terry Bowen admitted errors on his side and always ready to work with others. On the other hand, there are those issues which made it difficult for the manager in conducting his duties. For one, the top management sometimes did not cooperate in providing programs recommended by the manager for instance the training programs. The management could complain that there are no adequate funds to conduct the training. In addition, the skills hired to conduct the financial operations are not competitive, making it hard for the department to be effective in its tasks. Consequently, the manager found it easy in carrying out his operations when the employees were motivated. In this regard, they worked effectively with less supervision. Comparison of Research Findings and Theory of Management From the findings of the research, there are many qualities that a manager needs to possess according to the theory of management. To begin with, the manager Terry Bowen leads his employees in an exemplary manner. To motivate the employees, the manager organized forums where he and the employees shared ideas. Through these forums, the employees could offer ideas to the manager which he in turn presents as ideas when decisions concerning the organization are being made thus and this motivates the employees as they felt part of the organization. Among the qualifications of being a manager is the ability to solve conflicts. Throughout the observation period, there seemed to be no much conflict among the employees and the manager or among the employees. This showed that the manager was able to create a good relationship between the employees and him with the employees. Finally, time was well utilized among the employees and the manager. This is because through the observation, it was proved that each employee arrived at the work place at the right time. During the delegation of tasks, all the employees were present hence the manager was able to organize the department of finance effectively. According to the observation, various comments can be made about the manager Terry Bowen of Westfarmers Company. First, the manager can be said to be competent. This is in the sense that he was able to organize the department well by delegating responsibilities with less complaints. Secondly, the manager can be concluded to be a good communicator. Terry Bowen had the skills to communicate with employees during breaks like lunch and tea breaks. He was able to assign duties to each employee with less complains which means that he explained each responsibility to each employee. Skills Needed for Interviews Good communication skills are needed in order to collect relevant data from the manager (Stein & Susan 2001). Through good communication skills, we were able to express our questions accordingly to be understood well by the manager. The strength our group had in communication is that one of our members was fluent in English therefore could easily communicate with the manager. Another skill is the ability to plan for the interview. We managed to plan well for the interview and structured questions and how to ask them. However the weakness was that some questions were too long to be answered by the manager because of time. Some questions were also private and the manager could respond to them. Language skill was another skill that was needed in the interview with the manager (Stein & Susan 2001). Language should be well understood by both the interviewer and respondent. Our group had the skills to interview the manager. However, the language used could sometimes be conceived differently by the manager which led to biasness in response. On the other hand, there are some challenges that we faced during data collection. One challenge was that time was not enough to conduct the research especially for observation. This led to inadequate collection data. There was also biasness because the manager was aware that he was being observed and therefore could change the style of doing things. The manager may have not exposed the true picture because he knew was under observation. In order to have performed better in the field study, we could have allocated adequate time for collecting data like the observation period which needed some longer time. Further, financial resources could have been adequately allocated so that the relevant materials and expenses for collecting data from West Farmers Company could be met effectively. In addition, the questions should have been structured in a way that they could not be complicated instead be easy to be understood by the manager so that he could reply adequately. On the same note, the questions should have not been too long which could loose the meaning to the manager. Therefore, they could have been simple and clear. Conclusion The main roles of Terry Bowen the manager of West Farmers Company includes the planning of the profits made, identifying the sources of capital for the firm, allocating the profits made by West farmers company and advises the top management of the dynamics of the market. In this paper the two methods used to collect data include observation and face to face interview (Gummesson 2000). Observation was used because it could supplement the data collected from the interview while interview gave the opportunity many questions which needed clarification. On the other hand the skills which were needed in this research include good communication skills, effective language skills and ability to plan well for the interview event. However, there are some challenges faced during the research which includes inadequate time to collect data especially for the observation method, inadequate funds for the process and observer effect where the manager was aware of being observed thus could not show clear observations how he spends his time while at work. Finally, the manager could be said to be competent as he was able to organize his department well in terms of assigning duties, solving conflicts and motivating the employees. References Cohen, L. Manion, L & Morrison, K 2007, Research Methods in Education, New York, Routledge. Gummesson, E 2000, Qualitative Methods in Management Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Hansraj, I 2003, The Financial Management Role of Section 21 Principals; Med Thesis, Durban, UNISA. Stein, M.L. & Susan, P 2001, Talk Straight, Listen Carefully: The Art of Interviewing. Ames, Iowa State University Press. WestFarmers Company 2013, Director Profiles, Retrieved on may 5th 2013 at http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/about-us/director-profiles.html Wilkinson, D & Birmingham, P 2003, Using Research Instruments: A Guide for Researchers, London, Routledge. Appendix Interview questions I. How do you plan your workday? II. How far into the future do you plan for your job role? III. What is it about your job that makes it difficult to achieve goals, and what makes it easy? IV. How do you motivate your subordinates and how do you maintain your own motivation? V. How do you approach the task of leading others? VI. How do you achieve goals by working with subordinates and fellow managers? VII. How do you deal with conflict in the work groups you manage? VIII. How do you deal with conflict between you and other managers? IX. What ethical issues do you face in your management role and how do you deal with them? X. How important is it for you to be aware of workplace diversity? XI. Hoe do you spend the rest of the year? XII. How do you spend the whole of the month? XIII. What experience do you have? XIV. What are your goals in the next five years? Interview process I. Design the details of the interview II. Prepare the questions that should be asked III. Allocate all the resources required for the interview IV. Contacted the manager of the company V. Set the dates for the interview agreeable with the manager VI. Conducted the interview starting with easy questions. Terry Bowen’ contacts Westfarmers company: Terry Bowen, financial manager at, http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/about-us/director-profiles.html Read More