Theories of Educational Leadership and Management - Example

Running Head: MANAGEMENT REPORT Management report Student Name Institution Date Executive summary The study below considers two of the four managerial functions considered in the organization and management of the processes of production and distribution considered by management group of American Express. The two considered funcions are: organizing and controlling both material and human resources for the achievements of the set goals and objectives of the entire organization. Organizing is the second function in the order of occurence while controlling is the last in the list. The two function are most considered because they keep recurring all through the process and are also considered together with the other functions.For example, before planning on the activities to consider, the management organizes the available resources both human and material. The study will also consider the POLC (planning, organizing, leading and controlling) management theories. These are useful in the understanding of the rapid changes in the present business world and why they are considered in the management of large firms like American Express. These theories include: Contingency Theory which is concern about the aspects to be considered in making decisions of the entire organization, Systems Theory which focuses on the organization of firms into various unified parts and Chaos Theory which considers the necessity of the managers to make decisions on behaly of the entire organization especially in complex situations. Introduction Strategic management is a sensitive area which is concern about the major emergent and intended initiatives undertaken by the general managers on behalf of the owners of shareholders of large organizations. This mostly involves the utilization of both human and material resources to enhance performance in the surrounding external environment. The purpose of this report is to identify, discuss how ideas from any two management functions like planning, organising, leading or controlling can be used by varioyus managers in large organizations like American Express located in Sydney Australia. It will also consider any two of the POLC management theories and their related concepts that managers can consider to ensure an innovative culture. The innovative culture is relevant in the success of the organization because it enables it to have a well specified mission statement, vision, objective, policies of development and plan. Thus it is able to avoid cultural barriers such as environmental changes which may affect the general performance of the entire organization. The study considers organizing and controlling as the main functions of management. These enables the management to plan for the operations of the organization and monitor the activities involved during the implementation process (Bessie & Huston, 2008). The study will first consider the two management function: organizing and controlling and their effects on the managerial work of American Express based in Sydney Australia. It will also consider the POLC (planning, organizing, leading and controlling) management theories which enables the managers to implement their managerial functions. Organizing as a function of management American Express located in Sydney Australia is one of the large firms in the nation. The managers of this company struggle hard to ensure that their operations are efficient. This means that apart from possessing high quality managerial skills which entails: technical, human and conceptual, the personnel has to come up with a good strategy of carrying out its duties to ensure that the set goals and objectives are achieved. Organizing is one of the most essential management functions as it enables the concern to plan on how to implement their management skills in their work. Robert Katz’s three managerial skills are highly reflected in the operations of the entire management of companies-American Express in Sydney Australia thus it is considered as one of the largest firms in Australia. The human skills enables all the members of the organization to relate well amongst themselves either as individuals or as a group as guided by the leaders (Robbins et al, 2009). Technical skills involve the skills and knowledge of doing things. Various managers at all levels should have proficiency in their area of specialization. For example, those in the department of formulating and printing credits cards should possess all the skills required hence they can be great role models of their juniors or subordinate. Conceptual skills facilitate the mangers to make decisions on behave of the entire organization. Some of these decisions may be difficult especially those involving complex situations and those concern about the performance of the entire organization. American Express is a multinational organization whose foundation is in New York and offers financial services like traveller’s cheques or credit cards. To ensure that general goals and objectives of the entire organizations are achieved, the organization has to undergo many processes of production hence more man-power is required either individually or as a group. According to the analysis of the managerial report, the mangers of the organizations are the key influencers of all the activities taking. By considering organizing as a management function, managers are able to plan the operations of both human and material resources. American Express located at Sydney in Australia is a large firm with over 200 permanent workers and more casual labourers. It is the duty of each manager to ensure that all the workers under his or her supervision perform as expected. They should also ensure that all the necessary resources are available and in a position to perform all the duties. For example, there are many workers required to in the printing department and many other casual workers for simple duties like, packing and storage. To ensure that all the workers perform their duties as expected, the mangers should assign various duties to individual workers or a group of workers depending on their abilities and capabilities. This means that the mangers should first take time to analyse their workers with the intention of identify their abilities and disabilities hence determine whom to assign various duties and responsibilities. Some workers may also have some managerial skills such as human skills hence can be delegated the responsibilities of supervising the others like the assistance workers or the casual 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 (Wansburg, 2006). Having technical skills ensures the managers to know the number or workers who can complete certain responsibilities within the identified time. This is necessary in American Express because their services are 24 hours therefore; the workers are required to work in shifts. For efficiency at work and the managers should be able to know the proper number of workers needed for particular shifts and the material resources that they require. The plan on the utilization of the material and human resource is the key determinant of the level of organization in the entire organization. It can also be used to predict the future performance of the company. To ensure that all stages involved in the entire production process, the general management of the company should organize their operations into departments such that each department is assigned certain duties and its management are questionable in case the set goals and objectives are not achieved as prescribed. The process of organizing is supposed to be continuous, that is, it is a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly task for all managers. In today’s business world, things are changing at a high rate and many companies offering services similar to those of American Express are coming up resulting to stiff competition in the market. This means that the managers of this organization should remember that organization component is flowing and forever changing. The flexible managers should be able to make wise decisions on the changes of the operations where necessary but still the needs of the clients. These changes may involve adding new position such as advertisement to improve operations of creating public awareness of the services offered by the organization or eliminating some of the processes which are found not necessary in the current business positions (Terry, 2008). Good organization makes it easier for the managers to supervise the operations of the workers as well as account for the resources used because they have a record of how the duties are allocated and the resources provided for each responsibility. Thus the organization with well organized management is likely to achieve more than the disorganized individuals. Controlling as a function of management Controlling is a managerial function which involves the process of monitoring or supervising the operations in an organization. It consists of the process of verifying to check whether everything happens in conformity with the strategies adopted, directives issued and principles set. The managers of various departments in American Express are concern about this fourth function of management to ensure that the resources of the organization are effectively and efficiently utilized for proper achievement of the set goals and objectives. It measures deviation of the real performance from the intended performance discovering the causes of the deviations and leads in the best actions to take. Although considered as the last function of management, it has three basic purposes especially in ensuring proper management of large firms like American Express. It facilitates co-ordination of its operations and helps in strategizing its future plans by considering the five major functions of controlling (Mylonas, 2007). Five major functions of controlling The process is considered as the end function after the workers of the company have performed their duties so it confirms whether they are accomplished in accordance to the plans. It is also considered as pervasive function in the operations of the entire company. This means that managers should consider it at all levels and in all areas of concern, the role of all the managers is to ensure that all the activities undertaken in an organization are aimed to achieve the general goal of the entire organization. The managers in the company also consider this process as forward looking by determining the future of the performance of the organization depending on what is currently happening. The process has helped in decision making of the entire organization because it is a dynamic process which involves reviewal methods thus changes can be made where possible. Management of the entire organization considers controlling to be correlated with planning because the purpose of each is implemented by the other. The managers plan the processes to be controlled and how to control them. The process is cyclical meaning it is never finished and is applied at all levels of operation including other three functions of management (Donaldson, 2005). Two types of standards considered in the process of control. Output standards is one of the standards which are considered by the managers of American Express, they help to measure the results of the final performance in terms of quality of services offered, quantity, time or cost. These gauged compared to the number of people that they reach, the duration they take and the money spent. Input is the other standard that is considered by the managers of the organization when controlling the operations of the organizations. These help to gauge the efforts that go into performance task. A good controlling process ensures that the performance of the entire organization does not deviate from the set standards. The managers establish the standards of performance, compare the actual performance against the set standards and hence take the necessary action afterwards. These are considered as the three necessary steps of controlling the operations of an organization. The measurement of the performance of American Express is done in terms of the financial statements, the production reports, sales report and customer satisfaction based on their report. POLC (planning, organizing, leading and controlling) management theories There are many theories which enhance the explanation of the rapidly changing of nature of the present organizational environment. They are preferred by the managers of large firms like the American Express. Contingency Theory This theory discusses that before a manager has made a decision concerning the operations of the entire organization he or she should consider the aspects of the current situation. For example, the decision on the improvements of the services offered by American Express depends on the current desires of the public. He should also give the public an opportunity to give their views regarding the kind of services tgat they expect to be offered (Stewart et al, 2007). Systems Theory Systems Theory theory has an important effect on the science of management and and understanding of the organizations. It explains that the organization works as asystem, it is a collection of the unified parts in which each has an identified role to play in the achievement of the general goals and objectives of the entire organization. According to the perspectives of this theory,the inputs includes resources, both material and human, money and technology. They go through planned, organized, motivated and controlled process to achieve goals and objectives set to be achieved by the whole organization. The outputs are the products which are released to the market, for example, the credits cards and the travellers cheques or any service that the organization offers to the public. This theory helps the managers to look at their organizations from a broader perspective. It enables the management of large firms percieve their organization in terms of various unified parts hence they are able to apply the four functions of management such as planning, organizing leading and controlling. They also recognize the each of the departments since each unit is necesary in the process of achieving the general goals and objective of the entire organization (Morrison, 2008). Chaos Theory This theory explains that not all events in the organization can be controlled. Some of the fevents can become complex so the systems of the organbization becomes volatile thus the managers requires technical skills to make decisions on behalf of the entire organization. This is well achieved through the function of control because the managers will be able to identify the mistakes and hence come up with the best action to take to solve them. If this is not handled carefully the organization might end up collapsing or certain parts splitting hence affecting the performace of the entire organization (Bush, 2003). Conclusion Management in all business organizational activities entails the acts of bringing material and human resource together in order to achieve the general goals and objectives of the entire organization. The management of the American Express can be considered as one of the well organized especially because of its implementation of the four functions of management. The study above considers the organizing and controlling as the two most important functions of management because they are considered at all levels of operations. Organizing involves the process of organizing material and human resource with the intention of achieving general goals and objectives of the entire organizations. Controlling is also necessary because it involves the process of monitoring or supervising the operations in an organization. It consists of the process of verifying to check whether everything happens in conformity with the strategies adopted, directives issued and principles set. Various managerial theories should be considered at all levels of management. These theories are necessary in the understanding of the set up of the organization so as to identify the best decision to consider for good performance of the entire organization. References Robbins, S. Bergman, R. Stagg, I. & Coulter, M., (2009). Management. 5th Edition, Pearson: Australia. P 157 Bessie, L. & Huston, J. (2008). Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins: New York. 2(4): p 137-139 Beinat, E. (2001). Wansburg, C. (2006). Management and leadership for nurse managers. Management in nursing. Jones & Bartlett Learning: New York. 1(3): p 247-248 Terry, G. (2008). Principles of management. Business Management University of Wisconsin – Madison: Chicago. 2(3): p 345-349 Mylonas, A., Harvey, J. & Hodges, J. (2007). Business Organisation and Management for Queensland. Macmillan Education Aus: Sydney. Stewart, J., Rigg, C. & Trehan, K. (2007). Critical human resource development: Beyond orthodoxy. Financial Times/Prentice Hall: New York.1(2): p 123-127 Morrison, K. (2008). Management theories for educational change. University of Michigan: Michigan. Bush, T. (2003). Theories of educational leadership and management. Sage Publications: Oliver's Yard, 55. Donaldson, L. (2005). American anti-management theories of organization: A critique of paradigm proliferation. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. 4 (2): p 132 Read More