Universal Fiber and Textile Company: The Practice of Public Administration - Research Paper Example

? The Practice of Public Administration I. Summary of the case Charles Turner was promoted as manager of the Electrical Insulation Materials Sales Department of the big Universal Fiber and Textile Company. He had his reservation about his ability to lead the department not to mention that his predecessor Frank Spofforth did not give him much time to be acquainted with his new responsibility that he found himself in sole command just days after his promotion. Turner was also worried that the new plant was too big for him for him to adequately increase the sales of its output. Jim Ferris, a brilliant salesman of industrial products who could have been a likely candidate for his job became extraordinarily helpful to Turner that Turner started depending on Ferris. Ferris proved to be an abundant source of ideas and could draft reports for Turner in a breeze and could deal with awkward customers effectively. Ferris influence on Turner grew to the point that he could make decisions in Turners behalf. Other managers particularly Blackham became resentful of this alleging that Turner abdicated his leadership to Ferris because it seemed that it is Ferris who is running his office. Soon, Ferris demanded to be promoted as Deputy Sales Manager which Turner agreed. Upon asking the Director of Sales for the position to be created, he was asked why so when his department is small to warrant a deputy. Turner was forced to disclose that he had been depending on Ferris to get things done that much of the responsibilities in his department is already headed by Ferris. The Sales Director was dismayed and is now considering whether or not he should intervene and impose changes. II. Appraisal of the situation Charles Turner dependency towards Jim Ferris finally took its toll when Ferris demanded to be his Deputy that made the Sales Director consider whether or not he should intervene and impose changes. Initially, Jim Ferris was subtly taking over responsibilities from Charles Turner which Turner gladly acceded because it relieved him from the trouble of responsibilities and work. What used to be a delegation to Ferris’ initial role on consultative and advisory capacity gradually turned to be a decision maker that the department’s organizational chart was even revised according to Ferris plan. Ferris also begun building his “own empire” in the department placing his own people in key positions while he taking over the majority posts. Ferris growing dominance in the department will of course not go unnoticed. Other managers are beginning to notice it and Turner is slowly beginning to lose respect from them as he “abdicated” his responsibilities to Ferris. The delegation turned into dependency that also created friction in the organization. Obviously, Turner had lapses g from the beginning he assumed office because he was not able to gain confidence in leading and managing his department since he was promoted. The managerial lapses or lack of managerial capability of Turner is best summed up in the lecture prepared Dr. Abdul M Baksh that while “consulting subordinates is often regarded as delegation of authority, and the manager may receive a decision rather than advice . . . the manager must bear in mind that such advice may also have the undesirable effect of not only putting pressure on him but also expose him to conflicting alignments of forces within his own ranks”. This was exactly what happened to Turner’s over dependency towards Ferris or in Blackham’s terms, abdicated his function to Ferris. Now, other managers are also becoming jealous of Ferris and are also demanding greater responsibility and are now being resentment of Turner’s seeming favoritism towards Ferris. Ferris now has huge bargaining leverage towards Turner because he knows that Turner depends on him and so he asked to be his deputy even if the position does not yet exist and that there are other more senior manager than him in the department. The Sales Director is dismayed knowing this because this showed Turner’s lack of leadership skills and managerial competency. Leadership and managerial competency is necessary for every manager to effectively run their business units. Leadership is different from management because it concerns more on providing direction, creating environment that brings about the best among employees, motivating, encouraging teamwork and enhancing the organization and individual performance. Managing on the other hand is concern more on the administrative aspect of running an organization. It involves establishing systems and procedures, monitoring performances, allocating budges etch. In both aspects Turner failed that he cannot even write a report immediately while Ferris can do it in a breeze. Such, if the Sales Director intervenes and impose changes, it will not be surprising if Turner will lost his job. Unless of course he will do something for the Sales Director to be satisfied with his performance. III. Alternative strategies and consequences of proposed strategies and decisions There are several things that Turner has to manage to be on top of a “delicate” situation. It is delicate because his own job is already in jeopardy with the Director already thinking of “reconsidering”. To save his job, he has to display competency that indeed he is effective as a Sales Manager. The issues he has to contend are; “Containing” Ferris without antagonizing so as not to affect his performance in the office. Ferris has also people in the department who could be sympathetic to him if he becomes resentful. Pacify Bentham and other managers who are already showing animosity over Ferris’ increasing scope of responsibility. Implement the change in leadership without disruption in performance Turner himself has to display competency in leading and managing the whole department to earn the respect of his subordinates and superior so that he can keep his job. Certainly, there will be differences that will be created in settling this issue. Turner himself is in a dilemma on how to turn down Ferris request to become the Deputy Sales Manager when he had done so much for Turner that this might antagonize him and affect his performance in the department. Differences with other manager’s such as Blackham is relatively manageable to handle because all they are asking for is greater involvement and more responsibility which is relatively easier to give. To settle this differences, “The manager may find it necessary to make compromises” (Baksh, 2012). There are several strategies available to Turner in dealing with a dissatisfied boss. The most obvious course of action is to continue what he does best, that is, To ask Ferris what to do and how to deal with it their Sales Director. Or, he would let the Sales Director intervene and impose changes so that he will be relieved of the trouble of resolving the issues but that might mean removing him from his post. He could also hide the problem to his boss and lie that the problem has been adequately dealt with and go ahead in giving Ferris his desired promotion and let Ferris deal with Blackham’s dissatisfaction. Either way, this does not solve the problem but only avoiding or hiding it until it catches up on Turner. Or, Turner could start exercise leadership and learn to manage his division as the official Sales Manager of the division and face the issues squarely. It has to be emphasized because Turner might not realize it at this point that his relationship with Ferris is becoming personal because he is already dependent on him that he in turn, cannot deny him whatever he asks for. Turner has to be reminded that this “may often interfere with the efficiency of an operation and [it is his job to] act to limit the power of the manager” (Baksh, 2012) for him to decide on what course of action to take objectively. IV. Chosen course of strategy In choosing a strategy, it has to be mentioned that Turner’s job is in jeopardy because the Sales Director is now considering whether or not he should intervene and impose changes and that is a subtle threat against Turner. Turner must display leadership and managerial capability if he has to keep his job. In addition, he also has to maintain the performance of his division after he has settled the issues with Ferris, Blackham and other managers to validate his competency as a manager. In dealing with this issues, Turner has to do a “balancing” job between the conflicting actors in his department that he may be able to settle these differences amicably. In dealing with Ferris, it is important to stress that Turner did what he could do to grant his request only that the Sales Director would like it “deferred” because he is still too young to take the job and it would be awkward for him to advance over older managers. He has to communicate with Ferris that his contribution were all appreciated only that now is not the time. Turner has to set the line that he is the manager and that he should not let personal relation affect his decision so that this could be done (Baksh, 2012). In settling the differences with other managers, particularly Blackham, compromises has to be made (Baksh, 2012). But in forging compromises, Turner has to be careful that in striking compromise with Blackham and other manager’s that it would not antagonize Ferris who could retaliate by underperforming which could do severe damage due to the scope of his responsibilities in the department. Possible compromises that could be forged would be assigning of new responsibilities to them. And with regard to the scope of Ferris’ responsibility that they are complaining about, Turner has to negotiate that such responsibilities will be given to them if Ferris fall short of expectation of such responsibility. It would be risky to take away responsibility from Ferris that he has handled well because it will breed resentment. It would be tantamount to solving a problem by creating another problem. This strategy is favorable to Turner in three terms. First, it does not antagonize Ferris who has a huge scope of responsibility, second, the complaining managers would be able to see where Turner is coming from and that he would like to accommodate them under the right circumstances. Lastly and most importantly, this stratagem would also provide a fall back for Turner in case that Ferris will retaliate by underperforming stressing his importance in the department. Instead of being threatened when Ferris underperforms, he could turn it around to an opportunity to distribute responsibilities to other managers to have a balanced distribution of power in the organization. Lastly, Turner has to decide to take real responsibility in the office and know the ropes of the job so that he can become a leader and manager whom his subordinates could respect. Sure he could delegate but he should resort to over delegation that tantamount to dependency. V. Analysis of generalizations There are several important management concepts that are highlighted in this case. The most obvious is the concept of delegation and over-delegation. Second is leadership and lastly, management competency. The cliche that anything excessive is bad also holds true in management such as over delegating responsibility and dependency to a certain person. While an effective manager delegate responsibility for him to focus more on his executive functions, concentrating delegation to one person at such magnitude creates power concentration and alignment in an organization which could later become an issue. Among the issues that will be created as illustrated in the case is the resentment among other mangers and in a certain degree, professional jealousy. Whichever is the case, it is still not healthy for the organization. The issues brought by too much delegation is universal and not only in the case of Turner. In any organization, if power and responsibility is concentrated too much in one person, other people in the organization may feel that there is favoritism and rightfully so, would feel resentful towards the leader. Either by luck or whatever circumstance that a person may be promoted to a managerial post, he or she has to have a leadership and managerial skill to begin with. Without which as shown in the case of Turner will lead into dependency or over delegation which is not healthy for the manager’s image and department as a whole. Reference Baksh, A (2012). THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. EMPA 510 Lecture Read More