Managers Job in Context - Sedovic Limited - Case Study Example

Manager’s Job in Context Name Institution Manager’s Job in Context The paper herein, analyses the job of Lewisa Vidic, the marketing manager of Sedovic Limited, which is a company involved in manufacture and distribution of toothpaste and toothbrush. Lewisa Vidic’s role will expansively be discussed and forms of interaction with personalities working closely with him expounded. The position of the marketing manager at Sevidoc entails many duties, responsibilities and requirements. Generally, the individual is required to develop and drive the marketing services strategy. This entails devising long-term direction of the marketing department in line with overall corporate strategy. Specific details of the plan need to be formulated in such a way that they fit the organizational mission and vision. Since the position involves managing processes as well as individuals the incumbent provides leadership, develops and motivates team members. The standards in human resource management are such that, the manager has to be sensitive and responsive to feelings and desires of employees. Intra-competition should be avoided at all costs hence creating team work is vital in attaining departmental goals as well as eliminating sub-optimization. The position is charged with the duty of creating a good relationship between organization and customer base. The manager provides a readily available, service-focused, knowledge and experienced point of contact for new and existing customers. This is achieved by undertaking both persuasive and informative advertising campaigns. The incumbent also develops and manages strategic relationships with customers for mutual benefit of both parties. The marketing manager has a duty to ensure that the organization does not contravene ethical standards of performance and business practice. As a rule of thumb every entity must at all time maintain high levels of integrity and ethical standards commensurate with the requirements of market best practice (Argandona, 1998). An assurance has to be made that products and services provided are of high standards. The manager also takes steps to mitigate all risks, such as dispatch of faulty products, which could result to products recalls. To be effective as a manager one must possess certain attributes. Some of these traits may be inherent within the personality of the manager but most of them are learnt or acquired in formal or informal ways of work. Organizations can help to stage a setting that transforms its employees from the potential managers they are to become movers and innovators in the corporate world (James & Cecil, 2009). The position of Lewisa requires certain personal attributes that enable the incumbent to perform stipulated duties to precision, some of which are hereby discussed. Leadership – the most central role of manager is to give direction to activities of the organization. Thinkers of organization management contend that without leaders as organization is a muddle of machines (Edwards & Wright, 2001). It is through leadership acumen that the goals of the organization are optimized by ensuring that efforts are not duplicated, not conflicting but are complementing one another. Creativity – an effective manger is able to venture into new undertakings. This involves devising ways of reorganizing the resources of the organization to generate something of value that can be marketed to generate revenues. Such a figure is always needed by the organization to take the tough decisions of tasting the waters where others shy away (Petra, Nieves & José, 2012). Motivation – employees want to be supervised by somebody who rejuvenates their morale. It starts with self motivation where the manger is able to keep sprits high even when things are not working out (Edwards & Wright, 2001). Organization – this entails use of expert power to arrange activities in sequential order such that they do not overlap or conflict (James & Cecil, 2009). The ability to do this is coined form the expert power that a person gains out of formal training and on the job experience. Positive attitude – it is virtually important for a manger to demonstrate positive attitude towards people and work. Positive attitude towards work implies that the manager enjoys assignments and has passion to continue. Having the right attitude towards employees means willingness to offer facilitation to those who need it and can assist junior employees solve problems related to their tasks (Gilley & Eggland, 1989). Team player – organizations are run through teams of people with different types of training and expertise. This is what forms the human resource function. Employees must be viewed and treated as the most important resources of any organization and managers must create a corporate culture that respects that fact. People management is tricky enough since they are susceptible to emotions and perceptions (Edwards & Wright, 2001). A manager who wants to succeed must have tactics of making them work in teams while he/she also acts as a team player. Problem solving skills – this entails the ability to make decisions in tough circumstances. It would be imperative for manager to effectively resolve conflicts quickly so as to restore order and mitigate losses (Edwards & Wright, 2001). There are five key personalities who work closely with Lewisa Vidic. These are the local sales representative, regional sales representative, head of promotions department, head of public relations department and head of strategy. The marketing department also transacts with suppliers and other partners but these parties will not be discussed since the interaction is not done directly by the marketing manager but through the public relations department. The head of public relations is forty two year old lady with vast experience in public relations practice thanks to her two decades of service to the company. Her sociable nature and professional ability to establish business links has helped Sevidoc create phenomenal business partnerships. She is responsible for collecting vital information about the market with respect to raw materials as well as finished products. She then feeds the marketing manager with information regarding customer feelings and perceptions. Acting on that information, the marketing manager formulates strategies for product development or improvement with the help of head of strategy. The head of strategy is a thirty eight year old gentleman with wealth of business planning and strategy formulation experience both in the public and private sector. Having worked with the government treasury, he understands the economic demographics of the country and region, an attribute that the company benefits from. He assists the marketing manager to forecast aggregate demand given presumed economic conditions. He undertakes environmental analysis and advises the marketing manager of the right quantities of product to release to the market over a period of time. He is the central technocrat of all marketing strategies. Since all product development strategies should be preceded by proper feasibility study and environmental scanning, (Goldenberg, Lehmann & Mazursky, 2001) past market data is therefore analyzed and relevant trends identified and this helps to advise forecasts. New strategies translate to new products or change in design of existing products (Griffiths-Hemans & Grover, 2006). This information is made available to the customer base by the head of promotions department. The work of this position revolves around devising new market penetration strategies and designing of promotional campaigns. This is done in conjunction with the head of strategy and approved by the marketing manager. Information gathered by the public relations department is incorporated in the process. This position is held by fifty three year old professional marketer with decades of business experience. He is highly creative and enthusiastic about crafting unique and unprecedented designs of adverts. Both the local sales representatives and regional sales representatives administer sales and distribution of company products in their areas of jurisdiction. The regional sales representative, a fifty one year old lady represents the marketing manager across country’s geographical borders. She possesses wealth of business acumen having worked with a multinational beverage company for many years. She highly charismatic and has helped to expand the regional market over the years. She works closely with the head of promotion department whenever a new business unit is opened to formulate the logistics. The local sales representative is forty five year old gentleman. He holds a record two and half decade experience in marketing besides a masters degree in customer relationship management. His is aggressively ambitious in establishing new business relationships and entering new local markets. He advocates for maximization of sales volume as the best strategy to maximize shareholders wealth – this position is informed by the vastly low income customers who are the majority served by Sevidoc Limited. Diagrammatic representation of these interdependencies Marketing Manager Local Sales Representative Regional Sales Representative Head of Promotions Head of Public Relations Head of Strategy Department Department Direct Sales Public Relations Officers Strategy Personnel Formulating Personnel Various steps should be taken to enhance the efficiency and satisfaction of the interdependent groups. For instance, having a corporate strategy framework would help to clarify duties. This helps to ascertain what the organization should be doing at any one time and who should do what. It also clarifies the goals and objectives that the team should focus on. The other important source of such information is the job description for a particular team, and probably the specifics for each position. This would help to clarify roles and determine sources of flaws (Meredith & Mantel 2006). The reports of management audit should also be vital in giving information on what is not working right. The minutes of the board of directors as well as those of shareholders’ annual general meeting are equally important in giving details of what is expected of each team or management function. Giving regular feedback on the performance of each unit is equally important. The most effective means of giving feedback to the team would be through team meetings. This forum, not only allows giving the feedback to the team members, but also provides a chance to give their response and feelings (Karp & Helgo 2008). Where figures and computations are involved it would be prudent to circulate memos to the team members so that they can have an in depth analysis of the data and react on it. A team leader can even choose to apply the two methods whereby the memos are circulated few days before team meeting. The manager should use position power to influence the workers to a certain way of working. Due to the power that goes with the position, employees usually like to identify themselves with their leader. It is therefore likely that they will assess their leader’s way of working and then make a decision based on what they find out. If they realize that their leader in a person who maintains high standards, they will find it easy or even compelling to adhere to company policy (Oswald & Crompton 2009). Anything to the contrary will invite resistance and workers will generally be demotivated to attend to tasks or directives given by the leader. References Argandona A. (1998). The Stakeholder Theory and the Common Good. Journal of Business ethics, 17; 1093-1102. Edwards P. & Wright, M. (2001). High-involvement work systems and performance outcomes: the strength of variable, contingent and context-bound relationships: International Journal of Human Resource Management. 12(4); 568-585. Gilley J.W. & Eggland, S.A. (1989). Principles of Human Resource Development. Addison: Wesley: NY. 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