Managing People and Organisations - Literature review Example

Reflective Journal: Managing People and Organisations Name Institution Lecturer Course Date Reflective Journal Management Description During the first week, our first lesson our lecturer asked us to read and identify the difference between management and leadership. I always thought management and leadership were the same but on reading several books on management and leadership, I discovered that the two aspects are very different. After learning that the two were different I sought to understand each of the aspect starting with understanding what management is. Interpret From Samson and Daft (2015), I learnt that management is broad and its nature is to coordinate and motivate individuals to be able to cope with diverse challenging them. Management concentrates mostly about allocating and controlling resources in accordance to organisational authority that includes planning, commanding, coordinating and organising. Management is always undergoing changes the organisational environment changes. Previously, managers would do less and give instructions to their employees on what they want done. However, as I was reading I noticed that the responsibilities of managers had changed and now manager are expected to do more despite of scarce resources (Darr, 2010). Evaluate According to Samson and Draft (2015), the changes in organisational structures have led to changes and uncertain challenges. The demand for the change in management responsibility can be attributed to the increase in competition, environmental impacts, technology, change in employees expectation, legal and policy requirements, outsourcing , safety and motivation factors that possess great challenges. However, managers should learn how to take approaches that are less traditional by being flexible, developing cultural values and visions, enhance collaboration and encourage employee to embrace change (Darr, 2010). Plan After reviewing Samson and Draft’s idea on what management is, I now have more insight on the topic, which I can use in my future career and studies. I will also apply the same knowledge to manage my team members, which I was given the responsibility to lead; the team is working on a school project. I will also apply the knowledge and insight to try to develop other ways to deal with challenges facing management. Leadership Description Following our first lesson when our lecturer asked as to read and identify the difference between management and leadership. I happened to read many books on both aspects after realising that my thoughts of both being the same were wrong. I was able to read about leadership and I got more insight and understanding of the difference between the two as well as understand what leadership is. Interpretation Leadership as explained by DuBrin (2012, p. 4), can be defined as a partnership where responsibility is shared and as a relationship. Leadership involves the use of interpersonal influence to achieve certain objectives and goals. I learnt that leadership involves the creation of shared visions and goals and making changes by inspiring followers. I learnt that while management is about planning, controlling and commanding, leadership is about both informal and formal personal power, which can inspire people toward achieving shred visions and goals. Leadership influences others behaviour, attitudes and beliefs creating positive relationships that allow people work together to achieve set goals (Northhouse, 2015). Evaluate In reference to DuBrin (2015), leadership is about creating partnership with followers, sharing responsibility and creating strong relationship. A closer understanding of these two aspects, my opinion about leadership is that it should create partnerships where every employee or follower can be trusted to define the values and vision for the organisation. I also understand that leadership allows people to express their opinions concerning issues that affect them and allows shared decision-making. Just as the responsibilities to lead are shared between the leader and his followers so do they share accountability. From this insight, I believe that trust and strong relationships where the leader works with his followers and not commanding them are crucial virtues of leadership. Plan This insight on what leadership entails will give me a platform on which I can use in my career. If in any time I am to manage a group of people, I will incorporate the aspects of a manager and those of a leader to inspire and drive them towards achieving the organisational goal. I will also the knowledge to lead my team members, I will allow them to air their opinions, inspire them by sharing leading responsibilities with them to achieve the projects goals. Planning and Goal Setting Description During our third week first lesson, our lecturer gave us an activity to identify a problem in the institution and come up with a project. The main activity was to plan and set goal for a new business. At first it seemed difficult, however, after doing my research on the best way on how to plan and set goals, I could easily plan and set goals for the new business. I realised that understanding the problem and identifying the expected results made the planning process easier. Interpretation Planning and goal setting is entirely based on the values, mission and vision of an organisation. Planning process includes stages that an organisation has to follow to define goals and the organisation’s future direction. From my research, I learnt that planning helps allocate resources and time so that the set goals are achieved as expected. A good plan gives employee a sense of direction, goals and values. I also learnt setting good goals one must set SMART goals. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time bound and should be linked to rewards. My conclusion is that one needs to plan to achieve the set goals despite any changes (Cassidy, Kreitner & Susie, 2012). Evaluate In reference to Cassidy, Kreitner and Suisie (2012), I understood that an organisation’s vision, values and mission form the bases on which planning takes place. My experience helped me discover that the goals I set for the new business created the basis for my planning. During my planning process, I discovered that each planning step was to be set to achieve those specific goals, making these two processes very crucial for the new business. I also learnt that all stakeholders need to be involved in the planning and goal setting process Plan After reviewing all my findings from different literature on the topic, I gained a lot of insight on how to set good and achievable goals. I also learnt how to go through the planning process that would direct the organisation to achieve set goals in case I start my own business or am in a management team in the course of my career. Self-Perception Inventory Description During our fourth week, the lecturer asked us to fill a self-perception inventory (SPI), which was gauging our contribution and perception while working in a team. I was excited to take this assessment and I took my time to read each of the questions and answer it honestly, since I wanted to know if I am or am not good in teamwork. At first, it was hard to understand how to make the assessment but with the help of my lecturer, I was able to do it. Evaluation In reference to Aritzeta, Swailes and Senior (2005), a self-perception inventory is an assessment that guides one to understand their starting point in relation to their personalities, the point they are in and how to ensure self-development in relation to ones competence in teamwork. SPI help one relate themselves to the a particular task competence, be able to provide evidence of acting out that competence and helps one develop and plan that competence so that it helps in self-development in relation to that task. Interpretation According to Aritzeta, Swailes and Senior (2005), SPI assessment is importance since it helps one identify their level of competence to certain tasks like teamwork. The experience of assessing my competence in teamwork allowed me to identify my weakness and strengths while working in a team, which allowed me to be able to come up with a plan for self-development to improve on my competence weaknesses in teamwork. My opinion about the SPI assessment is that it is a perfect tool to asses and improve one’s competence in teamwork tasks. Plan Given the knowledge on SPI and its importance, I will use this assessment to identify the level of my competence while working on team roles so that I am able to identify the strengths and weaknesses and work towards improving my competence level. I will also in future encourage my team members to carry out the same assessment so that we are able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each of the team members be able to identify how to share responsibility depending on one’s competence level. Communication in Organisation Description The fifth week our lecturer asked us to form groups among ourselves and assume that we were part of an organisation and we were supposed to prepare an act representing a communication process in an organisation among the employees and among the employees and their superiors, both formal and informal. I was confident about the activity and was excited to do it. To prepare for this act, we had to do some research on what communication in an organisation entails individually and as a group. Interpret According to Spacho (2013), organisational communication is sending and receiving information among individuals who are interrelated and are within certain environments so as to achieve some common objectives. We learnt from Hahn that for communication process to be complete there must be a sender a message and a receiver. There must also be a through which the message can be sent, this include face to face communication, electronic messages, letterers, memos, reports, bulletins ad telephones. Communication can be written, verbal or nonverbal depending on the content of the message. In an organisation communication can be horizontal or vertical, in recent organisational environment horizontal communication is highly emphasised since it helps employees accomplish their roles, enhance creativity and adaptation to change and develop relationships based on trust and encourages collaboration (Martin, 2006). Evaluate From our literature review, I discovered that communication is one of the important aspects in an organisation. According to Spacho (2013), the success of an organisation depends on competent and effective communicators. This gave our group direction on which we based our communication act. We learnt that competent communicators need communication skills including being good listeners, precise and clear and we used this in the act. Plan After reviewing several literatures on communication in organisations, I gained a lot of knowledge on the process of communication, what channels are best to use under certain situations, the importance of effective communication and effective communications skills. This insight will help me to be a more effective communicator now and in the future as my career advances. Individual Differences in the Workplace Description During week six, we were given an activity to identify people within our institution who are of different races and identify how different they are in terms of their beliefs, emotional intelligence, attitudes, learning styles, perception of certain issues personality and diversity. Finding people from different races were not hard since the institution is diverse. However, I was anxious about communicating with people from different races due to our differences. However, the communication skills I learnt from week five helped me interact with most of them. Interpretation According to Samson and Daft (2015), understanding the differences in people in the work place is a crucial part in good management. Today’s workplaces consist of people from different cultures and traditions making them differently in terms of their diversity, personality, perception, attitudes and learning styles. If these differences are not identified and understood, it may lead to hostility, miscommunication, disrespect among other things. I learnt from my research and my reading that to be able to understand other people it is to observe them have self-awareness and learn to have trust, empathy and to relate with them well. Evaluation Insight from Patrick and Kumar (2012) indicate that to manage differences in the organisation it is important to have self-awareness which consequently helps one understand others. I learnt that to manage this differences is a skill that every manager and leader should have. It was interesting to learn that people perceive the world differently, have different emotional differences and learn using different styles. This makes it important for the Human Resource Management to understand how to match the organisational needs to the contribution of employees and the company’s inducement to the employee’s needs, which helps have an effective workforce where all cultures and differences are accommodated without any discrimination. Plan From the insight gained during this week’s activity and learning process, I can now be able to interact with people of different cultures and diversity within the school and even around my neighbourhood, which is highly diverse. I also learnt self-awareness is crucial while trying to understand others and this will help me understand people’s difference in the workplace when I start working in diverse workplaces. Teamwork in Organisations Description Our week seven-class activity was to form teams of ten people and do specific activities that each of our teams were given. Our team was given an activity to come up with a strategic plan for an upcoming company that will help the company market itself in the highly competitive market that it is engaging in. At first, I thought it was hard since the lecture assigned us the teams and I found myself in a team of people I was not familiar with. However, I sought to learn more through literature review on how to work in a team. Interpretation Referring to Tarricone and Luca (2002), teamwork is process that consist ordinary different people who come together to corporate to achieve specific goals. A team’s contribution can include creativity, productivity, speed, quality and satisfaction. Teams unlike groups have shared leadership, have visions and purposes that are specific, frequently meet, share the decision making process and are all accountable of each other, which creates high levels of collaboration. Teamwork is a more modern trend in management and despite the type of teamwork that an organisation, there are always positive results from a good, well-managed team. Evaluation From what I have learnt from Tarricone and Luca (2002), effective teamwork requires that the team members are committed to the success of the team, interdependent on each other, engage in healthy conflicts and are able to have open communication with positive feedbacks. My opinion about teamwork is that it is easy if the team members share common goals and are committed to the success of the team. I also now understand why it is important for team members to have open communication since it helps them learn from each other understanding each other making collaboration and interaction much easier. Plan The experience and learning process I had during the class activity, helped me be able to work well in a team. The activity also helped me understand myself more in relation to how I work in a team and understand the self-perception assessment I took during week or activity. I will also use this knowledge to work well in a team in future. References Aritzeta, A., Swailes, S. & Senior, B. (2005). Team Roles: Psychometric Evidence, Construct Validity and Team Building. Hull: Centre for Management and Organisational Learning. Business School University of Hull. Cassidy, C. Kreitner, B. & Susie, Y. (2012). Administrative Management Setting People Up For Success. Stanford: Cengage Learning. Darr, K. (2010). Introduction to Management and Leadership Concept, Principles and Practice. John & Bartlett Learning LLC. DuBrin, A. (2012). Principles of Leadership (7th ed.). Stanford: Cengage Learning Martin, G. (2006). Managing People and Organizations in Changing Context. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Northhouse, P. G. (2015). Introduction to leadership Concepts and Practice. California: SAGE Publication Inc. Patrick, H. A. & Kumar, V. R. (2012). Managing Workplace Diversity: Issues and Challenges. California: SAGE Publication Inc. Samson, D. & Daft, R. (2015). Management. (5th ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Spacho, K. (2013). Organisational Communication and Conflict Management. Management, 18(1): 103-118. Tarricone, P. & Luca, J. (2002). Successful Teamwork: A case Study. Perth: Edith Corwan University Read More