Financial Times Management - Case Study Example

Working with and leading people By student’s name Course code+ name Professor’s name University name City, state Date of submission Scenario 1 Recruitment procedure for a business tutor at LSBF- The aim of this recruitment procedure is to set out the minimum requirements for the recruitment of a business tutor for HND Business programme.The minimum requirements are meant to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly. At LBSF, the following is the recruitment process to be used in the recruitment of a business tutor: Identification of recruiting panel- Our recruitment panel is composed of five people who are involved in each step of the recruiting process. This is to ensure fairness in the selection of the candidate to fill the vacancy. Two members of the recruitment panel have received training on how to ensure a safe and fair recruitment process. Advertising- This job vacancy at the institution shall be advertised through the use of local newspapers as well as on our website. The adverts shall include a recruitment policy statement providing details in regard to safe and fair recruitment procedures. All job applicants are subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. Job application materials- Any person willing to apply for the post must visit the institution website and download the application requirements comprising of; a job description and person specification form, an application form and a copy of the recruitment policy. Shortlisting- All candidates shall be shortlisted against the person specification set for the job. All candidates will receive communication whether or not they are shortlisted for the interview stage. Considerations for the post will be made across all sections of the community with no discrimination as to age, sex gender, race or ethnic origin.Candidates must however, have legal work permission in the UK. (The University of Sheffield 2015, 1) Interview stage- Interviews will be conducted face to face before a panel comprising of five people. This will include the recruitment manager as well as other four people. The overall decision on the recruitment will be made by the panelists.Candidates will be required to produce their passport, driving license or a birth certificate in order to prove their identity and accompanying documents to show that they are eligible to work in the UK. The same criteria will be used to assess the candidates and marks awarded depending on their performance. Every candidate will be required to practically demonstrate their teaching capabilities on top of their qualifications. Employment checks and induction- The successful candidate must submit a list of two references who will give testimonials and references directly. The successful candidate is also subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check before taking up the position. An induction programme is put in place for the candidate for training as well as education on policies of the institution. Job description Job title: Business tutor Purpose of the job: To provide high learning opportunities in Business to the students in the HND program. Participate in the achievement of the aims of the school. Responsibilities- To convey energy as well as passionin students for business studies. This will require the use of different teaching methods in order to meet the different needs of the students. The tutor will also be required to set and maintain high standards of student participation in the class including ensuring that good behavior is maintained in the classroom. The tutor is also required to assess the students in accordance with the statutory requirements and the school policy. The tutor will also be required to show compliance with the National Standards for teachers and engage in continue professional development. Attendance of staff meetings is mandatory as well as adherence to the school’s Health and Safety policy. The job description is up to date at as per the date provided but may be changed by the institution, with consultation, to reflect the changes in the jobrequirements. This description does not, however, form part of the employment contract. September 2015 Business tutor Person specification The candidate should be able to meet the following criteria: Qualifications- Should have a master’s in business studies and have knowledge of the current educational developments in business studies. Experience- Should have the ability to teach business effectively and have knowledge of the curriculum. Should show willingness to learn, develop and contribute to quality teaching. Should also show experience in previous teaching experiences. Skills and attributes- Should have high quality teaching skills and demonstrate good interpersonal and communication skills. Personal attributes- Be committed to teaching and the provision of high quality teaching and learning for all students. Should have strength of character and be motivated. Must be committed to ensuring that the well-being of the students is safeguarded. Impact of legal, regulatory and ethical considerations of the recruitment and selection process The recruitment process must be in compliance with the Sec Discriminatory Act to ensure that no discrimination on basis of gender in the course of the recruitment policy. The Race Relation Act requires the recruitment policy not to show discrimination as to race or nationality. As a result all qualified persons are required to apply so long as they have legal work permission.The interview panel has to refrain from asking questions affecting a person’s religious position. All candidates shall be treated equally and effort shall be made to eliminate any incidences of biasness. The law on advertising requires that the advertisement should show no discrimination on any basis. The advertisement must be in compliance with the law. The recruitment process is open to both the young and the old in accordance with the Equality(age) regulation.(The University of Sheffield 2015, 1) Report on the selection process The recruitment process began with the selection of the panel members which included the recruitment manager as well as other heads of department in the institution qualified to take part in the selection process. After the applications made by the candidates were received, the recruitment and selection panel evaluated all the applications and made a list of applicants to proceed to the interview stage. The short listing was based on the person specification and other criteria as stipulated in the particulars for the advertisement of the job opportunity. The recruitment manager was responsible for arranging the interviews. During the interviews, each candidate was to be answer questions asked by the panelists. The questions revolved around the educational background, experience and knowledge of the candidates. The performance of each candidate was recorded. From the shortlisted candidates, the panel came up with three candidates who had met the minimum requirements and had passed in the interview stage. The names were submitted to the recruitment manager in order to make the final appointment. Once the decision had been made and the successful applicant found, correspondence was made to all the participants. Evaluation of contribution As the recruitment manager I was responsible for preparing the recruitment procedure, job description and person specification as the documents to be used in the recruitment and selection process. I was also responsible for notifying the shortlisted candidates and set up the day and venue for the interviews and inform the candidates. The coordination of the whole process of recruitment was my responsibility and this was done as effectively as possible. I also took part in the interviews as a panelist. With the help of the other panelists, I came up with the name of the successful applicant. Correspondence was made through my office to all the candidates who had participated in the interview. (Campbell et al. 1993, 76) Scenario 2 Skills and attributes needed for leadership Leadership is the ability to know oneself, having a well communicated vision, building trust from your colleagues and taking action in order to realize one’s own potential to lead. To be a leader, certain skills and attributes are necessary. To begin with, a leader needs to have a good understanding oneself as a step to self-awareness. This allows the leader to have an understanding of the leadership potential within as well as to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Leaders need to be able to inspire those around them and make them have confidence to do what they are supposed to do in order to achieve the set goals. Leaders need to be trustworthy, trusting and people of integrity. People around the leader should be able to trust the leader which makes it possible for them to work together and inspire them. This includes honesty and fairness. They need to be open and respectful to those below them. (Batchelor et al. 2003, 9) On top of these attributes, a leader needs to have effective communication skills. This is to enable them inspire as well as be able to connect with their audiences. This requires clear communication. Leaders need to have strategic and systems thinking skills in order to be able to assess situations and provide the way forward in those situations. A leader needs to be able to have foresight in order to see opportunities and take risks in the achievement of the set goals. Engagement and collaboration skills are necessary for a leader. They make the leader admirable by others, makes the leader open and respectful and makes them able to effectively resolve disputes and conflicts. Difference between leadership and management Leadership and management are two inseparable concepts despite the fact that they are different. Leaders basically have followers while managers have people who work for them. Leadership involves development and innovation while management involves maintaining a set system. The leader is concerned with coming up with new ways to bring change and make things more effective through cooperation with the followers. A manager on the other hand is concerned with maintaining a system or a structure that has already been set. Management is mainly concerned with maintaining the status quo, that is, how things have always been done, while leadership is all about challenging status quo and finding new ways of doing things. (Armstrong 2009, 92) Management is concerned about the system while leadership focuses on people. Managers seek to control while leaders work to earn the trust and the support of the followers in changing the status quo.Management is concerned with perfecting the structures and fitting people in to those systems while leadership is all about inspiring people to do more and to effect change. The responsibility if a leader is to inspire and motivate followers while managers plan, organize and coordinate. Comparing the leadership styles of Mr. Worthy and Ms. Hogan Mr. Worthy’s leadership style is one that is concerned about maintaining the structures and the system of work that is already existence. Mr. Worthy is only concerned with ensuring that every person knows their roles and responsibilities and that these responsibilities are discharged. Mr. Worthy was involved in coordinating the work of the workers to ensure that they did what was required of them. The focus of his style of leadership was not on the people but rather on what the people were supposed to do. Ms. Hogan’s leadership style on the other hand is not only concerned with ensuring that people are doing the work assigned to them but is also concerned with motivating and inspiring people.Her leadership style involved organizing people to work effectively and to cooperate better at the work place. Ms. Hogan’s style was concerned with setting structures to change the status quo and at the same time motivating the people to set goals and work to attain them. Unlike Mr. Worthy, Ms. Hogan was interested in both creating structures and mobilizing the people to ensure efficacy at the work place. (Beardwell 2003, 208) Motivation of the staff The new way of doing things at the work place introduced by Ms. Hogan has received opposition. In order to motivate the people under her, Ms. Morgan needs to restore the worker’s confidence in themselves. Due to the fact that the workers are used to a certain way of doing things for quite a long time, change seems uncomfortable. This therefore requires that their confidence be restored such that they look at the changes as a way to achieve the goals for the company. Rewards for the outstanding workers are a good way to motivate them. (Markowich 1994, 70) In order to motivate the staff to achieve the objectives, Ms. Hogan needs to inspire the staff such that they do not look at the new structures as supervising others but rather as creating efficacy at the work place. Further, Ms. Hogan can motivate the workers to achieve the objectives through creating interdependence between the workers and also between the groups. This will create cooperation between them. Creating healthy competition between the groups can also be used to motivate the staff to achieve the objectives. This will act as an incentive for the workers to work harder in order to be better than the other group and in the process; they strive to attain the goals that have been set. (Markowich 1994, 70) Scenario 3 Benefits of team working Team work in a customer service department is essential to ensure that customers are satisfied by the quality of service that us being delivered. The service level for the organization is only as good as its employees. Team work in the customer service department is essential in order to make it easy for one employee to follow up on another employees work in case of absence. This means that the employees in the organization need training in order to ensure that they think and work as a team. Therefore, the organization has to ensure that all employees, including those working in other departments are trained in basic customer service. (Meredith 2011, 23) Team work in the organization will ensure that there is no breakdown of communication between the employees which will affect the quality of service delivered to the customers.It will also ensure that there is no breakdown of communication between the employees and the customers. All the employees need to be able to work together to ensure that the customers are satisfied. Team work will ensure that the employees not from the customer service department can be able to refer enquiries to the correct departments and ensure follow up. Team work will ensure that the employees in the customer service department work together to ensure that either of the team members can pick up from where the other team member left off. Team work fosters cooperation such that every employee is able to work towards the goals of theorganization, which in this case is improving customer satisfaction by 15%. (Business Case Studies 2015, 1) Difference between working as a team leader and working as a team member Team leaders are in charge of setting goals that are to be achieved by the team members. A team leader is responsible for monitoring the work of the team members to ensure that they are discharging the responsibilities assigned to them. The team leader is responsible for formulating the goals that are to be achieved. In this case, for example, the team leader will come up with the goal of ensuring that customer service delivery improves by 15%. The role of the team member, on the other hand, is to ensure that these goals are achieved. The role of the team member is to work hard to ensure that the goal is achieved. The team leader is in charge of issuing instructions to the team members and issuing deadlines as to when something ought to have been completed. The role of the team member is to obey the instructions given by the manager to the letter and ensure that everything is done according to the instructions. In regard to dealing with conflicts and difficult situations, the team leader is responsible for coming up with the required strategies and policies to deal with conflicts in the work place. The team leader will be involved in mediating between employees or team members engaged in a conflict. The team member on the other hand is responsible for ensuring that they obey the policies set out in regard to conflicts. The team member is required to report any incidences of conflict to the team leader. (Meredith 2011, 23) Team leaders are responsible for evaluating the work performance of every team member. From the evaluation, the team leader is then required to come up with ways to ensure that the work performance of the team members improves. The team member is supposed to implement the strategies set out by the team member in order to improve the work performance. Working as a team leader means that one is responsible for making the decisions while working as a team member involves implementing the decisions as set out by the team leader. In regard to achieving the goal of improving customer satisfaction, where the team leader decides that the team members have to undergo training on customer service delivery, the role of the team member is to ensure that they undergo the training. In ensuring that conflicts at the work place are resolved efficiently, the team leader will formulate the conflict resolution policy. The team member will be required to obey the terms of the policy. How to review the effectiveness of the team in achieving the set goal Reviewing the effectiveness of the team in achieving the goal set towards achieving an improvement of 15% in customer satisfaction, it is important to look at the number of customer complaints as well as the nature of those complaints. Customer complaints will enable the department manager to review how effective the team is in improving customer satisfaction. Where the number of customer complaints has increased, the team leader will know that the customer satisfaction has not improved and that the team is not effective. Where the number of complaints have decreased, it is easy to tell that customer service delivery has improved and that the team’s effectiveness has improved. (Hatry 2006, 45) The nature of the complaints made can also be used to review how effective the team is. Complaints made in regard to the quality of service shows that the team needs to work harder to ensure that the quality of service improves.Communication between the team members can also be used to review the effectiveness of the team. Where the members of the team cannot effectively communicate and there exists a breakdown of communication in the course of work, this means that improving customer satisfaction is far from being achieved. The achievement of the goal is dependent on the improvement in communication between the team members. The effectiveness of a team is also measured by looking at the mode of resolving disputes between the team members. In this case, this can be used to review the effectiveness of the team. Unless the team members are able to resolve conflicts effectively, they cannot be able to work together in order to achieve the goals that have been set. Scenario 4 Factors involved in planning the monitoring and assessment of work performance In planning the monitoring and assessment of work performance of the vocational school staff, one needs to look at the position, that is, the work performed by the individual and not focus on the individual. The plan and monitoring of the assessment of work performance focuses on the way the vocational staff discharges his responsibilities and duties. This means that the assessment should be based on their work and not on the individual. This helps to ensure that there are no conflicts or victimization that arises from the work performance assessment. (Campbell et al. 1993, 65) It is also important to ensure that the assessment is reasonable such that the goals or the objectives for such assessment are attainable. Once work performance has been conducted, there are objectives or strategies that are set out. Such strategies or goals need to be attainable.The assessment should be based on a certain assessment period. During the planning of monitoring and assessment of work performance it is important that such assessment be restricted to a certain period, for example, with in the last one year. This ensures that it is easier to track the progress made in the work performance of the vocational staff. It also makes it easier to formulate strategies that can be achieved before the next work performance is conducted. (Campbell et al. 1993, 65) It also important to consider factors that were beyond the control of the vocational staff. This involves the influence by the policies of the school or the school culture which influences the way of work of the staff. Such factors should be considered differently from the ones that the staff had control over. Other factors that should be considered revolve around ensuring fairness to the staff in order to ensure that they are not demoralized as a result of the assessment. Plan to assess the development needs of the individual In order to assess the developmental needs of the staff, it is important to review the job description of the team member. This involves looking at the skills that the staff may need to work on. The job description must be consistent with what the staff does. The plan also involves meeting with the individual in order to have an open talk in regard to their training and development. This provides an opportunity to understand the kind of challenges that the individual is going through as well as in identifying the type of training that would help them work more effectively. This includes finding out the personal goals of the individual in order to determine whether they are consistent with those of the organization. (Hatry 2006, 54) In order to assess the development needs of the individual it is important to observe the individual while at work. This will focus on the way the individual discharges their responsibilities. In planning for this, it is important to have an understanding of the scope of work of the individual. This will ensure that once the assessment is conducted, it will be fair to the individual. It is also important to gather data that may be relevant to the assessment of the development needs of the person. This is important in order to come up with an accurate assessment of the individual. This data may be gathered through other workers as well as internal and external clients on the work performance of the individual. In order to implement this plan, it will require working closely with the rest of the workers at place of work in order to help in the gathering of information that is relevant for the assessment. It also requires holding meetings with the individual to ensure that they participate in the assessment. Implementation also involves the formulation of an accurate job description to ensure that it contains the relevant information pertaining to the individual. (Kuvaas 2006, 375) Evaluation of the assessment process The success of the evaluation process will be determined by the accuracy of the information collected in regard to the development needs of the individual. This will be seen in the strategies that are set out in order to address the development needs of the person. Where these strategies are reflective of the needs of the person, then the assessment is accurate. The fact that the information gathered during the interviews with the individual matches with the data collected from the colleagues and the observation of the individual means that the assessment is fair and is reflective of the needs of the team member. Assessing the success of the assessment process with respect to the goals will be done through looking at the development needs of the individual that will contribute to the effective discharge of responsibilities that will lead to achievement of the goals. The success will be measured through looking at the implementation of the strategies formulated to help in resolving the development needs and how those strategies are consistent with the goals. (Kuvaas 2006, 375) References Batchelor H J, Abston K A, Lawlor K & Burch F 2014, The job characterlistics model: an extension to an entrepreneurial motivation, Small Institute Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1-10. Business Case Studies 2015, People, Available at: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/case-studies/by-topic/people.html#axzz3kfuOErbJ [Accessed 3 September 2015] Campbell, P, McCloy, A, Oppler, H & Sager, E 1993, A theory of performance,Personnel selection in organizations, 3570. Hatry, P 2006, Performance measurement: Getting results, The Urban Institute. Ian Beardwell2003, Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach, 4 edn., : Financial Times Management. Pg. 205-212 Kuvaas, B 2006, Work performance, affective commitment, and work motivation: the roles of pay administration and pay level,Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(3), 365-385. Markowich, M 1994, Does money motivate?Compensation & Benefits Review, 26(1), 69-72. Meredith Belbin, R 2011, Management teams: Why they succeed or fail,Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(3). Michael Armstrong 2009, Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 11 edn.: Kogan Page, Limited.Pg.81-98 The University of Sheffield 2015, Key legislation regarding recruitment and selection, Available at: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/hr/recruitment/guidance [Accessed 3 September 2015] Read More