Effective and Efficient Manager - Assignment Example

EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT MANAGER Name Course Tutor University Department "To be effective, a good manager need not always be efficient". Discuss Introduction Due to the increasing complexity of the working environment as a result of globalization, social, demographic, and technological changes have made management complex than ever. A manager is more concerned with getting things done, as well as finding approaches in on how things will be accomplished. For this reason, corporate success is tied to its ability to highly values its people well and manage them properly. Research indicates that firms that do so have increased their sales, profitability and the stock values per workers compared to firms that do not. According to Robbins (2000) a company performance is measured by efficiency and effectiveness. These two words may look equal, however, according to Harris (2000) efficiency is not always effective and these terms have a distinct meaning. For managers who focus on effectiveness, they emphasize on meeting goals, mission and vision of the organization. In other words, a manager should ensure that the job is correctly done irrespective of whether it was done at a higher cost or on time. On the contrary, efficiency refers to the ability to maximally of the available resources to attain the desired output (Chavan 2009), that is, a job is accomplished at low cost and on time but may not be very thoroughly or impressively accomplished. Various studies have acknowledged that when the workers leave, they are leaving the managers rather than the firm. Following, we can say that that great manager create competitive advantage regarding building an excellent workplace environment. A manager acts as a medium through which organization policies are given to the staffs, and thus should maintain a balance between effectiveness and efficiency. Both are crucial when it comes to managing an organization, and it is essential to recognize that an organization cannot survive with efficiency or effectiveness alone. This paper will discuss effectiveness and efficiency in organization and how it is linked to organizational behavior, and then a case study of Software Company to understand why a manager should balance both effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness and Efficiency in Organization Lu and Hung (2011) stated the variation between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is doing things right by achieving outputs with minimum inputs level. Efficiency can also mean utilization of resources, which is labor, machine, capacity, and energy (Keh, Chu & Xu 2006). He added that using the resources as best, saves money and time, and thereby increasing a firm's performance. According to Porters total productive system, to maximize out a business should eliminate several losses including yield reduction from the initial stage of production, process defects, slow speed, idling resource or process stoppage, set-up and modification during the production, and apparatus failure. If the firm used fewer input to produce results, it is said to have greater the efficiency. Therefore, an efficient organization means it has a carefully planned and functioning framework that assist the manager in meeting a specific level of performance when an equal amount of resources are applied to a particular objective. An efficient manager utilizes limited resources, that is, time, money, and people to get a particular task done in a professional manner. Most importantly, the manager secures productive and profitable outcomes for a short period by using the funds or resources that have been allocated in a clear yet smart and evaluating the employee performance. This kind of manager would keep the business running no matter the circumstances. On the other hand, effectiveness is doing the right things. Also, effectiveness measures a business ability to achieve its goals. According to Zheng, Yang & McLean (2010), it also It defines the policy objectives of a company. In simple words, an organization is said to enumerate effective when it attains its goals. Superior organization performance helps to transform the workers attitude towards the way they perceive the organization from a lower to a higher level of maturity; thus human resource management is bound to the concept of effectiveness (Shiva & Suar 2010). A firm's effectiveness helps in evaluating progress towards attainment and fulfillment of its mission. Therefore, to continuously improve effectiveness, a manager should strive to achieve better interaction, communication, leadership, direction, flexibility and positive working environment. An effective manager should thus lead, coordinate all activities of the sub-ordinate staffs and decide on which is the most appropriate mechanism to use. Since under this type of management, there are no resource constraints such as money, manpower, and. Rather the focus is emphasized on better management practices to achieve the best higher output. In fact, effectiveness is a requirement for the success of managers, but it depends on the fixed variable set by the operational business environment and their capability to make right decisions that will suit their resources in the long run. The firms' resources such as technology, manpower, and money are built up over time and are not flexible. Effectiveness and efficiency are said to be complimentary, however, at the same time, they affect each other. Therefore, it is necessary for a manager to assure that they achieve success in both areas. Efficiency, in most cases, depends on a lower level management and culture, while effectiveness is a top management variable. Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior is defined as the study of how and why people act how and why people act, think, and feel in an organization. The study enables to interpret people-organization relationship as whole concerning an individual, group, and social system. As a result, it helps build a good relationship by achieving individual, group, organization, and social system objectives. Management of an organization depends on its vision, values, and philosophy. Consequently, these core concepts determine its culture that comprised of both formal and informal organization. The business working environment is very crucial as it determines the degree of the employees' motivation, job satisfaction, professional growth and overall performance. Therefore, understanding of organizational behavior is the key to effective and efficient management Importance of effective and efficient Manager in an organization In the current competitive business environment, a firms sustained success depends on the managers' skills and abilities to manage a diverse workforce and implement complex business strategies. In the search for effective and efficient management in today's globalized world, a cross-cultural manager should be able to manage diverse workforce efficiently (Rausch et al. 2001). Global managers should appreciate work diversity that they face in their organizations. Research indicates that operating in an effective and efficient way is crucial to good performance and facilitating in reaching the business goals. While both have desirable characteristics on the organizational behavior, each one of them is only attainable at the expense of the other. Analyzing the relationship between them can give a clear guideline of the skills of an ideal manager, who can accomplish a task quickly, but also ensure its objectives are met. As no organization can be successful in the long run without effective and efficient management. Thus, management plays a significant role where managers perform various tasks. Global managers should understand that globalization affects people in various countries differently (Swanson & Holton 2009). A global manager has more complex functions and responsibilities are more complex than before than before, therefore, flexible managers are required. To maintain sustained performance, manager should have the required skills. A Case Study of Software Company The company was facing a product supply problem of software as the demand for the products was very high. The manager is thus forced to increase the volume of work. The strategy may work very well, but for a short period. However, it was quite a good approach for a couple of weeks or say a month; however, the company is the faced with quality issues resulting in rejection by the customers. Consequently, the firm will start losing its customers, and this translates to losses and its image will also be ruined. The manager might have been convinced that ending the gap between supply and demand require only increase in production. In other words, the manager had no clearly outlined customer oriented policy, and thus emphasized on efficiency alone. As a result, there were excess product rejections, the loss of customers, and the firm's performance was decreasing. Therefore, a manager has to be effectively efficient by doing right things and doing things right. Overcoming Competition In today's business environment business is not localized but it has also assumed even international dimensions. Similarly, due to globalization competition has also increased as business area widens and dimensions become larger. A modern firm faces competition not only from the local industry but also from international level. In the current competitive, the only firm that can survive is the one that avail to its customer's goods and services at the cheapest prices and high qualities. In this case, the manager should have analyzed and planned strategically to not only close the demand gap but also produce the products that meet the needs of the customers to ensure the products last longer in the market. An efficient and effective manager will make this goal a reality and helps to save the company's reputation. Weiss (2004) argued that effective manager should have self-assurance to help staff build self-confidence and passion. This can only be achieved by understanding the competitor's culture, business strategy, and performance enhance their competitiveness in the international market and increase the firms' outcomes. An effective manager will also emphasize on understanding international business knowledge and technical skills which are crucial for management practice. If a manager able to manage a firm's resource effective, but fails to recognize the business long-term goals it will be bankrupt in the long run. An efficient manager uses cost-efficient strategy, yet fails to innovate and create value. Consequently, the managers do not set clear customer oriented policy that result in a constant focus on firms' efficiency. Therefore, the company emphasizes on the implementation of resource allocation strategies that lead to employees' wages control and cost reduction in training. This result to low workers morale that translates to low customer satisfaction. In other words, either effective or efficient manager cannot be competitive, and the organization will not fail. Decision-making Decision-making is an important component of the management system. It involves a conscious consideration of one behavior from another. In this case, the managers understand the general demand and thus increase the work volume. However, the manager failed to analyze the market to put more time and efforts to ensure the needs and wants of the customer are met. To make the right decision, the manager should analyze the situation to make the choice. Decision-making is one of the core functions of a manager. Thus, it is an imperative role of management. A decision is said to have two values, that is, a premise value and factual value. A factual value is merely a reality statement while a premise may be perceived as an expression of preference. A manager makes a decision based on either of the two. An effective manager would prefer a factual value because it can be empirically measured. Effective managers are result oriented, forward thinking and achievement driven. They also have the ability to respond to proper and make proper decision making. They can also identify opportunities quickly and turn challenges into opportunities. More importantly, operating at an international level require a manager who take initiative and enthusiastic of performance (Dalton et al. 2002). On the contrary, an efficient manager would consider premise value as it can determine factors such employee satisfaction, profit, loss, and cost-cutting. An efficient manager is willing to redefine their work continually due to ever-changing business conditions. They find ways to solve problems at earlier stages of production to ensure that fewer resources are utilized. Better utilization of resources and reducing meaningless expenses ensure optimum use of resources. It means all available resources in the company have been linked to allow proper utilization. In fact, the most efficient utilization of resources is paramount to the success of a business. Create Appropriate Motivational Techniques Since the manager was using all his effort to focus on strict resource allocation, and thus leading to strict staff control. Such actions may lower the morale, as well as low customers' satisfaction. Motivation is also crucial in management because it activates the workers to achieve business objectives. A manager acts as a driver of motivation. To such extent, effective and efficient managers must motivate the staffs to exploit their full potential and perform their best. Effective global managers must thus establish trust, and foster a team spirit. This is achieved by creating appropriate motivational techniques such as compensation and recognition to stimulate the workers performance, as well as feeling that they belong to a caring company (Roy 2012). Some motivational technique such as reward must be used appropriately and changed with time so that the employees will not lose interest in pursuing the reward (Ventrice 2003). Furthermore, effective global managers can motivate staff by promoting their cultural background values and identity. This can be done by appreciating different values and beliefs to motivate them. Furthermore, without labor efficiency an organization cannot achieve more profits. Nevertheless, an efficient manager will put more effort to understand the workforce and make them feel they are part of the organization. They focus on training to increase their efficiency in the organization. An efficient manager also offers the employees an opportunity to be part of process management through profit sharing, establishing their personal identity, and emphasizing on conflict management. Training and Development Additionally, the firm could have received excess rejection due to the quality of the available resources. Another suggestion noted is to introduce training and development to ensure the workers have the required skills to perform the work. A Recent study has found that those firms that are constantly taking an interest in training and development can improve overall output by more than 200% (Meyer & Herscovitch 2001). In the business context, the training program should cover both hard and soft skills to enable the manager to cope with possible challenges. An outstanding manager thinks about the global market. An effective manager looks at the bigger picture to determine current situation and anticipate future challenges. An effective manager looks at challenges and opportunities in a long term for the growth of the organization. They also look business environment from a global perspective to assess and predict future, and an effective manager looks beyond the current situation end engage in continuous learning, as well as self-development as one of the strategies to look for solutions and staying alert to opportunities (Dubrin 2004). Conclusion Due to the rapid globalization, international organizations are seeking effective and efficient to manage their diverse workforce. Global managers need to possess skills that are demand at international level. Various skills for effective and efficient management of global organization for those who intent to overcome competition, motivate workers, and implement training and development. Effective and efficient companies have high performance since they show excellent operational performance and strategic planning. As a result, they can achieve various outcomes such as cost management, high production, and timely project completion. In most cases, the workers are motivated and have a high commitment, resulting in a high-quality production of goods and services. Each understands their roles, and management informs them about the indicators that will be used to assess their results. Their individuals' goals are aligned with company's long-term goals and vision. Therefore, a good manager should work both efficiently and efficiently concurrently. The manager should thus perform work in a systematic manner, and at the same time adapt depending on the current business environment. For a firm to be successful, it requires an effective mechanism and efficient output. Both effectiveness and efficiency are mutually exclusive, but dependent on each other. In other words, an organization cannot survive with either efficiency or effectiveness alone. For a firm to gain competitive advantage, it must strive to achieve to increase both efficiency and effectiveness to guarantee success. An effective manager helps a company to move in the right direction while an efficient manager helps to move faster in that path. Thus, a manager with both qualities will eventually lead the firm to success. References List Chavan, M. 2009. The balanced scorecard: a new challenge. Journal of Management Development, 28 (5), 393-406. Dalton, M., Ernst, C., Deal, J., Leslie, J. 2002. Success for the New Global Manager, Centre for Creative Leadership and Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Dubrin, A. 2004. Leadership: Researching findings, practice, and skills (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Harris L. A. 2000. Theory of Intellectual Capital. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 2 (1), 22-37. Keh, H. T., Chu, S & Xu , J. 2006. Efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of marketing in services. European Journal of Operational Research 170, 265-276. Lu, w & Hung, S. 2011. Exploring the efficiency and effectiveness in globale-retailing companies. 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