Relevance of Katzs Three Managerial Skills - Coursework Example

Running Head: MANAGEMENT ESSAY QUESTION Management essay question Student Name Institution Date Introduction Much of the management skills are needed for any manager to be successful in his or her work. The study is based on the relevance of Katz’s three managerial skills and the influence of Taylor’s principles of management on the managerial work of the manager of one of the branches of the company American Express located in Sydney Australia. His responsibilities are to ensue that the workers do the right thing at the right time but still have a good relationship with the workers for effective production. He makes decisions on behalf of the entire organization and strategizes good ways of implementing them. He manages over a hundred workers to ensure that all their operations are towards meeting the general goals and objectives of the entire organization. Relevance of Katz’s three managerial skills Managerial roles are complex and varied therefore the managers require major skills to perform duties associated with the profession. After carrying out a research on this area, Robert Katz found that the managers require three managerial skills: technical, human and conceptual skills. Technical skills entails the knowledge and proficiency in a specialized field especially the one under his management, for example, managerial accounting, computers or engineering. Human skills are the abilities to relate or interact well with the other human beings working in the organizations, either as individuals or as a group. Conceptual skills are those that enable the managers to make decisions on behave of the organization, especially those entailing complex situations (Robbins et al, 2009). The report of the interview that I had with the manager of one financial services offering companies-American Express in Sydney, Australia shows that the skills of Katz are relevant in the managerial profession. This is a multinational company which started in New York and offers financial services like credit cards or traveler’s cheques. There are many processes that take place in the company hence there are many workers required to offer man-power. According to the final analysis of the report, the respondents of the manager are based on the three managerial skills; for his leadership to effective the manager is expected to have knowledge on the operations under his control, he is aware of all processes involved to offer the services. This is because as a leader he is considered as the role model to the junior workers and also be able to work together with them for motivation. He will also be able to make wise decisions on the operations of the company especially on the necessary resources or facilities to boost the performance (Anbuvelan, 2007). Human resource skills are necessary to able to relate well with other workers either individually or as a group. This helps to create a rapport or good relationship between the management and the other workers. The mood of any working environment is set by the manager based on the relationship between the management and the junior workers hence they are able to create a negative or positive perception at work. The manager will be able to mould the working skills of the other workers hence enable them recognize their own attitudes, assumptions and beliefs and those of their colleagues to enable them work together as a team. The manager should be sufficiently sensitive to the needs, interests and motivations of the others so that he can be able to judge the reactions of the individuals towards the decisions he makes. To acquire these human resource skills, the personnel has to first develop his or her own individual point of view toward the activities of human beings so as to recognize their feelings, be able to evaluate his own operations, develop abilities to decode what others tries to communicate to them and develop ability to enable him communicate and implement his ideas to others (Stephen & Stuart-Kotze, 2004). Conceptual skills enable the manger to see the company as a whole and be able to make decisions on its behalf. He should be sensitive on the possible outcome of the decisions made on one situation or the other related departments. This means that the manager should be conversant to all the activities taking place in any of the departments in the entire organization or the relationship between individual activities to that of the organization, for example, the operations of all the workers who print the cards. All the decisions made by the manager should have positive effects on the performance of the entire company. To acquire the conceptual skills training should be done to develop the existing skills so as to fit in the highly changing business world. All the workers irrespective of the position should be involved in the process of improving the performance of the company; this is so as to create an opportunity of the individuals to learn from each other. The mangers can also acquire some of the managerial skills by listening and analyzing the ideas of the junior workers (Anbuvelan, 2007). The influence of Taylor’s principles of management on the managerial work of the manager Taylor is one of the most influential thinkers especially in the improvement of the scientific management. The theorist formalized four scientific principles of management; he had done a thorough research on the work of some earlier theorists as well as the operations of the managers in various firms and came up with his principles which guide the professionals in their field. Taylor carried out his research when managers played minor roles in the operations of the organization but their duties were to delegate responsibilities to their juniors and keep a distance to monitor them. What was necessary was the acquired end results without bothering about the procedures involved (Kreitner, 2006). These principles have influenced the work of the manager of American Express Company especially in the way he influences the other workers to improve their individual performance and that of the entire organization and development of good relationship between the workers in the firm hence enhances group work. The first principle was to replace the rule of thumb with improved methods based on current scientific management. He developed the science of each element of personal or individual work in order to motivate the workers to work hard from the individual level to group. Each of the individual staff is assigned some duties and responsibilities in the service offering Company, thus there is need for each to be well managed (Parkhouse, 2010). The second principle enables the manager to select and train to improve the capabilities of workers individually instead of leaving them to train themselves. As a services offering company which is much attached to the customers, there is need for the skills of the individual workers to keep up dated in order to survive the stiff competition the manager should be keen to supervise his or her workers so as to know their abilities and inabilities hence identify ways of developing their skills based on their area of specialization and general goals and objectives of the organization. The most necessary skills to be considered should concern the new technology which is so flexible. It is the responsibilities of the manager to make decision on behave of the entire organization. He also has to find ways of implementing the decisions so that the workers can consider them in their activities. The most necessary thing is for the manager to ensure that he creates a rapport with the workers thus they will find it ease to embrace any change on the decisions made. With the development of the technology across the world, the shopping or payments services offered by American Express are affected; there is need for reforms so as to fit in the changing world (Koontz & Weihrich, 2006). The organization has many activities taking place therefore there are different duties to be allocated to various workers. Schermerhorn, (2009) argues that the responsibilities should be equally distributed among the workers such that the manger will be able to apply the necessary principles or scientific management while planning the work and the workers will be in position to effectively perform their duties. The workers will work hard to improve the performance of their specified activities and the mangers will be able to monitor the operations of the individual workers guided by the allocation of duties. Conclusion Management especially of large firms like American Express Company is one of the most sensitive areas of operation which requires good skills to operate. The performance or the activities of the workers depends on the existing leadership. Some theorists like Katz and Taylor provides some principles which acts as guidance to effective management. Good managers should be able to make effective decisions on behalf of the entire organization, those which can help to boost its general performance. This is possible if they relate well with other workers, he should also have knowledge to master all the operations of the organization so as to be able to monitor the activities of the workers and correct them where necessary. He should also be keen on the operations of the individual workers so as to be able to identify the abilities and inabilities of each one hence determine the action to take against each (Anbuvelan, 2007). Reference list Anbuvelan, K., (2007). Principles of Management MG-1351. Firewall Media: Dubai. Koontz, H. & Weihrich, H., (2006). Essentials Of Management. Tata McGraw-Hill: New York. Kreitner, R., (2006). Management. Cengage Learning: New York. Parkhouse, L., (2010). The management of sport: its foundation and application. University of Virginia: Virginia. Robbins, S. Bergman, R. Stagg, I. & Coulter, M., (2009). Management. 5th Edition, Pearson: Australia Schermerhorn, R., (2009). Exploring Management. John Wiley and Sons: New York. Stephen P. & Stuart-Kotze R., (2004). Management. Pearson Education: Canada. Read More