Principles of Management Practice - Assignment Example

Principles of Management Practice Executive Summary Effective management is the key to ensure organizational success. It is a way that guides managers to improve their duties. It is imperative for the entire organization to follow the principles framed by the managers. In this regard, framing managerial practices properly is of utmost importance. The purpose of this paper was to highlight three key activities mainly the guiding principles of effective management, study the ways in which subordinates can be motivated and finally focus on reflective learning as a managerial practice. The findings of this paper suggest that the four principles that had been identified by Fayol (1949 cited in Wren and Bedeian, 2009) are quite important as a novice’s guide to effective management. The characteristics of managers as mentioned by Mintzberg (2004) have also been found to be important determinants effective leadership and managerial quality. Leaders have been found to be a driving force in motivating the subordinates and helping them to achieve desired results. Characteristics of leaders and the organizational environment framed by charismatic leaders are also important for achieving desired results. Reflective learning has also been found to be a key way that improves the learning process of the managers (Gray, 2007). This is because reflection allows an individual to explore the mistakes that have been made by following the conventional norms and allows coming up with more productive outcomes. Finally, promoting teamwork has been found to be a key motivational factor for the subordinates (Tsoukas, 1994). Teamwork has also been found to improve the overall performance of the individuals (Tsoukas, 1994). My personal experiences from my college days as a project coordinator and my first job as an assistant lecturer in the college have helped me to reflect on these observations. I have realized the importance of reflective learning and the power of motivation to improve the efficiency of subordinates. Reflection on my activities has helped me to come up with a new interactive way of teaching. Contents Introduction 4 Discussion 4 Guiding principles for effective management 4 Motivating the Subordinates 6 Leadership and team skills 8 Conclusion 10 Recommendation and Development Plan 11 Reference List 14 Introduction Learning is a dynamic process which never stops. Good management is an art and has to be developed consistently over time through hard work. The general consensus that has been reached among researchers are planning, organizing, leading and control (Wren and Bedeian, 2009). Researchers are of the view that a manager must have the ability to plan activities in a manner which allows them to articulate the vision of the organization and make them as key players to accomplish organizational goals (Rodrigues, 2001). The second most important activity is organizing which involves creating an organizational culture and aligning the resources in the organization to achieve the planning objectives. The third objective is leading which involves leadership qualities, motivation and ability to create group cohesion and the fourth objective is controlling. Controlling is like a corrective action to ensure deviations are minimized (Rodrigues, 2001). I want to analyze these four principles and relate it with my personal management practice to comprehend my strength and weaknesses as a manager. This paper can be described as a learning portfolio that has been described by Jacobson, Sleicher and Burke (1999) which involves planning, documenting and reflecting on a student’s learning objectives. Developing portfolios have been identified as a tool for professional development for prior learning and accreditation. Discussion Guiding principles for effective management The general administrative theory of Fayol (1949 cited in Wren and Bedeian, 2009) had introduced planning as a guiding management practice. Researchers have shown that planning is the most crucial step of effective management as this step involves identification of short-term, long-term and regular needs of the organization. This is important because managers should be completely aware about the environment in which the business operates (Wren and Bedeian, 2009). Complete understanding about customers and competitors are also required to formulate plans. Organization is the second step which involves effective allocation of resources that are important for achieving organizational goals. It involves a coordination of a number of resources which ranges from physical capital to human resource and the way managers employ them to reach organizational outcomes (Huband, 1992). Similarly, coordinating and controlling had also been identified as key characteristics of managerial qualities. A divergent view was presented in the works of Mintzberg (2004) who had identified characteristics that are required to become an efficient manager. Mintzberg had identified ten characteristics that can be placed under three broad headings namely interpersonal skills that include characteristics like being a figurehead and maintaining a well developed resource network. The second broad head is informational characteristic which involves functioning like monitoring, playing the function of a disseminator by transmitting information to all organizational departnments. The third broad function played by the manager is that of being a decision-maker which involves characteristics like being an entrepreneur, disturbance handler, negotiator and resource allocator. Though these views appear quite divergent yet they propagate two very similar line of thinking according to the research of Lamond (2004). Lamond had explained that the views of Fayol portray the optimal approach that should be adopted by managers and Mintzberg had shown the actual practices that are adopted by managers. It is therefore beneficial to build a theoretical base that involves the ideology of both the researchers. In my opinion integration of divergent views should be integrated because it helps to develop a complete understanding about any topic. Focusing heavily on the opinion of one particular researcher can lead to biased results. I wanted to avoid this so I decided to integrate multiple angles. I think group projects are one such activity in student curriculum that requires all the steps as has been mentioned by both Fayol and Mintzberg. Conducting a project efficiently requires planning in the first hand. All the group members had to be active regarding the information that had to be collected about the project, the way it is to be implemented and the way in which it is to be executed. Most importantly there were multiple options in which information or data could be collected. Planning helped in identifying the best possible outcomes among the chosen alternatives. After the planning was made deploying the manpower and financial resources were of the chief concern as both the time and money were limited. Few group members had particular skills which were suitable for doing a given task and they were employed in doing those work. For instance, one of the group members was from Nigeria and did not have enough command over English so she was assigned only administrative jobs like searching data and making reports. On the other hand there was a student who had previously worked as an intern at a leading bank and so he was given duties to manage the financial resources. I was the project lead and had to take a number of final decisions. Taking the decisions and motivating the fellow group members was indeed a very challenging job. I had learned that reaching final decisions require a significant amount of self-regulation. Self-regulation relates to the management of one’s own emotions and temperament so that he can become a better regulator. If leaders are able to manage their emotions and impulses then they become more efficient (Covino and Iwanicki, 1996). According to the research conducted by Covino and Iwanicki (1996) self-management of leaders are helpful for not only their own development but also helps their subordinates to work more efficiently. I had closely identified the principles that have been propagated by Mintzberg. Mintzberg had pointed out that effective leaders must be able to handle difficult problems in an effective manner by being able to handle unexpected circumstances (Mintzberg, 2004). Organizing resources have always been a tough challenge for me and I had to greatly rely on innovative ways in coming up with new solutions. Though Fayol’s theory particularly does not incorporate improvisation, I found Mintzberg’s managerial practice useful in this regard when I was employed as a part-time lecturer at the university. I found by following the attributes mentioned by Mintzberg I could perform in a better manner. Finally, control was also a very challenging task as in most of the situations few deviations were observed. The most important step was to ensure that the deviations were well within control. My personal experience has taught me that though Fayol’s style of management is indeed theoretically good in practice it is Mintzberg’s principles of managerial practice that were practically closer to reality. This is because Fayol’s principles of management act as a source of guide to comprehend which practices can be considered as best ones to follow. However, in a practical setting I found the attributes of a manager as mentioned by Mintzberg like interpersonal skills and communicating transparently with the team members as practices which are indeed very helpful. Motivating the Subordinates Being the project lead of my academic group project I faced certain situations where I had to motivate my subordinates. Researchers have stated that effective management of subordinates and helping to integrate the organizational goals with personal goals actually improves the efficiency of the work done (Tsoukas, 1994). Leaders are key actors who ensure that all the managerial actions are met according to specification standards. Mullins (2008) had pointed out that though leadership may fall outside the four essential managerial practices but it is indeed an effective tool which can be used to motivate the subordinates to accomplish their duties. In this regard the research of Sarros, et al. (2014) is notable as they had pointed out that motivation is one of the key components of leadership. Leaders have the responsibility to describe the purpose of an organization, its culture and strategies to the subordinates so that they can align their values according to the organizational culture (Ali, 2001). The existing literature on the theories of motivation is extremely rich. Some of the well established theories are Maslow’s need hierarchy theory, two factor theory of Hertzberg, goal setting approach of Locke and Latham and social cognitive theory of Vandura to name a few (Lunenburg, 2011). According to the theory of Maslow which had later been reworked by Alderfer three basic requirements are needed for motivation namely existence relating to psychological needs, relatedness referring care and sympathy desired by subordinates and growth related to personal development of the employees (Lunenburg, 2011). The main departure of Alderfer’s idea from Maslow was that Alderfer did not consider any strict hierarchy and confirmed that needs. The paper of Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman (2011) had on the other hand identified two opposing views that can either motivate or depress the employees. Hertzberg had pointed out that factors like advancement, nature of job, responsibilities and recognition are related to job satisfaction whereas supervision, company policy, payment structure and working environment can cause dissatisfaction (Omar, 2006). Finally, the works of Locke and Latham (2013) had been formally called goal setting theory in which behaviour of the agents is regulated by individual goals. Their theory had identified that high commitment towards goals improve the performance of the individuals and self-efficacy of the person is also a major determinant in achieving the goals. I had particularly realized the importance of motivating the subordinates during the years of my lectureship in the college. As a lecturer I assigned certain works to my students based on the curriculum. Some of the students were particularly difficult to deal with and they specifically required motivation. I could relate to the Maslow’s theory of motivation because some students required to boost their self-esteem and talking to them had particularly helped them to be more attentive. As Maslow had pointed out enhancing the self-esteem of the individuals had allowed them to become more confident and began to appreciate the work. During my job I had found that transparent communication helps to connect with individuals effectively. I had found the idea expressed by Locke and Latham particularly beneficial because setting easy goals for the individuals had actually helped my students to become committed towards the goal. I had particularly found the idea of transformational leadership relevant for the purpose of motivating my subordinates. According to this form of leadership, leaders exert idealized influence on their subordinates only when they have impressive behavioural attributes. These leaders are also able to elucidate the requirements of the organization (Avolio and Yammarino, 2013). In my case discussing the course details, the exact requirements of the course and benefits of the course had helped me to motivate them. I had to particularly focus on the aspect of individual consideration of the students. I often had to listen to the personal problems of the students, understand their problems and empathize with them (Bono, Hooper and Yoon, 2012). This had also helped me to understand the exact requirements of each candidate and help in setting individual goals. Leadership and team skills Reflective learning has become the core of learning organizations because professional development has been considered as a part of self-reflection. Researchers have pointed out that reflective learning of managers is essential to for self-discovery and exploration (Gray, 2007). The research of Boud (1985 cited in Gray, 2007) had pointed out that the reflective and experiential learning acts like a bridge between experience of individuals and their learning abilities. Doing so helps the managers to question limiting assumptions regarding previous practices and helps them to approach problems in a better manner. In an empirical research conducted by Greenall (2004) the experience of a pharmacist manager has revealed that reflective management practices have allowed the person to become a better manager. According to the manager developing a better understanding of people in his organization allowed him to improve his managerial orientaton. Higgins (2011) had pointed out those mere experiences does not allow a person to become a better learner unless the person reflects on these actions that had occurred. This allows him to avoid the mistakes that were made by him previously and avoid the same in the future. The concept of reflective learning in the management scenario had gained momentum only when it was understood that taking age old assumptions like hierarchal organizational structure and stern regulations had adversely affected organizational performance. Høyrup (2004) had shown that criticizing and questioning assumptions is the first step of reflective learning and this brings innovative problem-solving techniques in the organization. In my case I have found that promoting team spirit through leadership is a crucial process that had helped me to improve the performance of my class. When I had initially joined the teaching job I was keener on a “top down” approach of teaching in which I was highly driven by the organizational norms and resorted to disciplinary actions when there was any deviation from the expected standards. However, my actions were met with limited success as students were not responding. In order to improve my interaction with the students I had to focus on reflective learning myself. According to researchers like Brockbank and McGill (2000 cited in Ghaye, 2010) this type of a reflection can be termed as transformative reflection. I understood that mechanical teaching to the students was not producing desired results so I had began to take regular notes of the incidents which were particularly causing dissatisfaction among students and changed them accordingly. One such practice was taking individual tests at regular intervals which often made students to bunk classes. I had knowledge about the reflective cycle that was introduced by Gibbs (1998). It simply states that reflective process begins when the individual ponders about a particular incident minutely and evaluates the correct and incorrect things about the experience and creates a plan to eliminate such an incident from happening in the future mainly by reflecting on self-behaviour. As I had experienced that the individual tests were not quite successful so I dropped the idea and promoted group projects by creating groups of five students. Creating teams had drastically altered the performance of the class. I understood that it was teamwork that had allowed the individuals to achieve extraordinary results. I could closely relate to the work of Gallie, et al. (2012) who had conducted a research on teams and found that people work collaboratively in a team so that they can achieve a common goal by sharing common knowledge. Working in a team allows an individual to increase his knowledge and skills by interaction with one another. The students who were initially reluctant in joining the individual assignments readily accepted this new development and had started to attend classes. I would not have been able to come up with the idea of building teams and question the organizational policy which included taking tests on an individual basis. I relied on critical self-reflection and collected information from within the classrooms to understand the ways in which I should modify the existing teaching methods. In this regarded my learning process could also be regarded as guided reflection as I had considered inputs from the students in matters relating to enhancing their interests. Majority of the students had come up with the idea that an interactive teaching would be more beneficial. Different researchers have stated that if leaders include their subordinates in the decision making process then the outcomes can be improved (Hackman and Johnson, 2013). Transformational leadership calls this property intellectual stimulation where motivation is mainly inculcated by involving members in the decision-making process. I could also relate motivational theories with the teamwork effect. I learned through the research of McCallin (2001) that teamwork is also motivational to a certain extent as members in a team would be more motivated to reach the desired outcome. For instance, when some of the fellow team members had shown reluctance to work or were lethargic then the other members forced them or influenced them to work better. Conclusion Effective management can be evaluated on a number of grounds like reaction, learning, behaviour and results. The guiding principles of management as suggested by Fayol (1949 cited in Rodrigues, 2001) are based on four main pillars namely planning, organizing, motivating and controlling as has been observed from the works of previous researchers. Based on my experience, I can say that apart from these four managerial practices the quality of mangers as pointed by Mintzberg is equally important. I have also found that motivating the subordinates is an equally important factor as it indeed improves the productivity. I have found that the traits of transformational leadership like intellectual stimulation and idealized influence are key factors that motivate the subordinates. Finally, I have understood the importance of reflective learning booth as a tool of self-management and organizational management. Learning cannot ever be complete unless the existing standards are questioned. My personal experience has taught me that critical reflection is a key deconstructing existing ideas and create new attitudes and belief. In this regard I can say that creating teams and interacting with them has been particularly helpful and the experience appears to support the work or findings of McAleese and Hargie (2005). Working in a team have particularly improved the performance of the team members and allowed to be more productive. Recommendation and Development Plan I am a hard working person who has always focused on enhancing my learning. As learning is a continuous process so following a development plan improving the personal skills is always constructive. The following table shows my personal development plan. Issues Solution Target Date Planning In order to improve my planning abilities I will have to focus on both long-term and short-term needs of individuals. I have to develop the ability to choose between alternative options by focusing on multiple alternative options. I intend to improve these drawbacks in my characteristics by preparing elaborative plans before I start a project. This will include not only information regarding the current task assigned to me but also information regarding the steps taken by the competitors to capture a better idea of the competitive environment (Gibbins-Klein, 2011). This is also likely to improve my evaluation regarding alternatives. Three months from the date of start Organizing My previous experiences have shown that I have a tendency to exceed the planned financial budgets. This implies I have to obtain a better understanding regarding the management of financial sources. I have to take up a journal and make a detailed projection of all my financial activities. I intend to take up domestic works which includes budgeting and try to complete my work within the budget. This will help me to take up bigger projects in the future and complete it in an effective manner by staying within the budget. Six months from the start date. Motivating I have to improve my linguistic skills in order to communicate with my subordinates so that I can effectively motivate them. Managing cultural diversity within an organization requires a better command over other languages. I intend to join language classes to learn Chinese, Japanese and Arabic as many of my current classmates are natives of foreign countries. I need to develop a better understanding about cultural norms to motivate employees of different cultural origin (Gibbins-Klein, 2011). Eight months from the starting date. Controlling In my previous experiences I have been experiencing certain weaknesses in my monitoring standards. This is primarily because I have not used customized performance standards. Building a robust framework of corrective actions Maintaining journals of performance indicators and measuring actual performance against benchmark performance. Corrective actions like interacting with the subordinates and understanding their psychological needs are also going to be helpful. Comparing the planned journal entries with actual expenses every four weeks to mark the extent of deviation and re-plan activities to stay within budget. Enhancing my interaction with people from different ethical and linguistic origin to find the progress I am making. If the results are dissatisfactory then I need to focus on my knowledge regarding cultural diversity Should be in place from the starting till the end of the project. The basic recommendations are: Improving planning and allocation of financial resources. Improving the language skills to communicate with others effectively. Obtaining a better knowledge about cultural diversity. Creating performance standards for improving control activities. Reference List Ali, Y., 2001. The intranet and the management of making and using skills. Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(4), pp.338-348. Avolio, B. J. and Yammarino, F.J., 2013. Transformational and charismatic leadership: The road ahead. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing. Bono, J.E., Hooper, A.C. and Yoon, D.J., 2012. Impact of rater personality on transformational and transactional leadership ratings. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(1), pp.132-145. Covino, E. A. and Iwanicki, E. F., 1996. Experienced teachers: Their constructs of effective teaching. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 10(4), pp. 325-363. Gallie, D., Zhou, Y., Felstead, A. and Green, F., 2012. Teamwork, skill development and employee welfare. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 50(1), pp.23-46. Ghaye, T., 2010. Teaching and learning through reflective practice: A practical guide for positive action. London: Routledge. Gibbins-Klein, M., 2011. Winning by thinking: how to create a culture of thought leadership in your organization. Development and Learning in Organizations, 25(1), pp.8-10. Gray, D.E., 2007. Facilitating management learning developing critical reflection through reflective tools. Management Learning, 38(5), pp.495-517. Greenall, P., 2004. Managerial process: the reflective practitioner. Leadership in Health Services, 17(3), pp.8-12. Hackman, M. Z. and Johnson, C. E., 2013. Leadership: A communication perspective. London: Waveland Press. Herzberg, F., Mausner, B. And Snyderman, B. B., 2011. The motivation to work. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Higgins, D., 2011. Why reflect? Recognising the link between learning and reflection. Reflective Practice, 12(5), pp.583-584. Høyrup, S., 2004. Reflection as a core process in organisational learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 16(8), pp.442-454. Huband, E.A., 1992. Developing effective management skills. Management Accounting, 74(1), pp.44–47. Jacobson, W., Sleicher, D. and Burke, M., 1999. Portfolio assessment on intercultural competence. International Journal of International Relations, 23(3), pp.467-92. Lamond, D., 2004. A matter of style: reconciling Henri and Henry. Management Decision, 42(2), pp.330-356. Locke, E. A. and Latham, G.P., 2013. New developments in goal setting and task performance. London: Routledge. Lunenburg, F.C., 2011. Expectancy theory of motivation: Motivating by altering expectations. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 15(1), pp.1-6. McAleese, D. and Hargie, O., 2005. Five guiding principles of culture management: A synthesis of best practice. Journal of Communication Management, 9(2), pp.155-170. Mintzberg, H., 2004. Managers, not MBAs: A hard look at the soft practice of managing and management development. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Mullins, L. J., 2008. Essentials of organisational behaviour. Harlow: Pearson Education. Omar, M.A., 2006. Filling the assessment gap: using a learning portfolio in international development courses. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 20(1), pp.74-80. Rodrigues, C. A., 2001. Fayol’s 14 principles of management then and now: A framework for managing today’s organizations effectively. Management Decision, 39(10), pp.880-889. Sarros, J.C., Luca, E., Densten, I. and Santora, J.C., 2014. Leaders and their use of motivating language. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 35(3), pp.226-240. Tsoukas, H., 1994. What is management? An outline of a metatheory. British Journal of Management, 5(4), pp.289-301. Wren, D.A. and Bedeian, A.G., 2009. The evolution of management thought. [pdf] John Wiley & Sons. Available at: [Accessed 6 December 2014]. Read More