Principals of Management - Essay Example

Lecturer 04 April 2006 Principals of Management Situational Overview A newly appointed service centre manager of a prominent bank is experiencing a low level of cooperation from service centre staff, even though they have tightly defined job descriptions, and are controlled by strict procedures and conditions of service. The service centre staff's function is to answers questions of customers who phone in with queries on the banks products and services. Most of the answers are on terminal screen and can be read to the customers, and if the customer is happy the transaction is complete. If customers needs more detailed information not covered on the terminals, service centre staff needs to refer customer to the service centre manager who have a greater knowledge of services and products to ensure customer gets the correct information. The new customer service manager experience a increase in calls referred to her by service centre staff, even though they could have answered some of the questions themselves. This resulted in increased delay for customers as the manager will have to address more queries than necessary. This is supported by rising customer complaints about the time they have to wait on the phone. The manager is concerned and requested some guidance on the possible use of McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y to motivate staff. Problem Statement Firstly it is obvious that the service manager are new and may have taking the position over persons who have been with the bank a longer time, persons with more experience and skills. These persons may feel that they are not seen as good enough and that is why they where not considered for the manager position, influencing them negative and this they retaliate by acting as if they are unable to address the customers queries. Then the tasks these service centre staff have to perform has been designed in a monotonous and boring manner, offering no real challenge or a opportunity for staff to use their own initiative. This combined with strict control of staff's movements and restrictive job descriptions allows no flexibility, resulting in repetitive work without any break will be enough to reduce the employees willingness to perform. Furthermore, the strict control seem to only penalise staff and that there is very little in rewards for above average performance or dedication, giving staff no reason to improve their performance, or to help customers with little more complex questions. With only the service manager to help customers with more complex queries, staff will refer any customer to her if they ask questions only slightly deviating from the norm, without even trying to clarify what the customer wants to know. Five Functions of a Manager Before looking at motivational theories we need to look at the functions of a manager. Management is management in any organization and the principals of management are general and not specific to any business environment. "However, management is universal only if the manager has become familiar with the specific situation in which it is applied. Production technology, customer characteristics and the culture of the industry are examples of specifics that managers need to learn to be effective in applying their generic management skills," (James Higgins, 1994). The main goal of a manager is to reach the organisations mission and objectives through the five functions of management; planning, organizing, staffing, directing and control. It must be stressed that even though a manager have the ability to apply the five functions of management to accomplish the organizations goals, it is no guarantee that he or she will be successful. Managers also need to be effective and efficient, effective in achieving goals and efficient in allocating resources. Below the functions defined as: Planning Planning is the continuous process of developing business objectives and determining how they will be accomplished. Planning can be broad, as in designing the mission of a organisation or narrow, as in planning objectives and tactics to accomplish a departmental goal. Organizing Organizing focus on the division, coordination and control of tasks and the flow of information within a department or organisation. Staffing Staffing can be seen as the recruitment, hiring, training, evaluating and compensating activities. Directing Directing is giving direction to staff's efforts and energy to accomplish the organisations mission and objectives, through reaching the departmental goals and objectives within his working environment. Controlling Controlling is a four-step process of establishing performance standards based on the firm's objectives, measuring and reporting performance, comparing the two, and taking corrective or preventive action as necessary (Bernard Erven). Even though leadership abilities are important for management, a manager first needs to be able to apply the functional traits of management effectively. This the customer service manager must be able to effectively plan, organize, staff, direct and control. In her current position it is assumed that most of the planning organizing and staffing have been in place when she started, even though it must be questioned if this was effectively done. The problems she is currently facing can possibly be addressed by applying staffing, directing and controlling traits of management. In short she can analyze and evaluate the current training, job descriptions and task allocation within the set standards and procedures of staff members. Training as part of staffing is important to ensure staff has the abilities and skills to service customers and to effectively analyse there queries to be able to realise with what they can and cannot help the customer. Next it is assumed that most of the conversations between staff and customers are recorded, and the manager can sample some of these recordings of customers that were referred to her. She can then decide if the staff member referred the customer without grounds and then speak to the employee to find out why. This will be part of the directing and controlling functions of a manager, to direct them in how to perform their tasks and evaluating staff's performance against expected results. Through the investigation she can also find out if staff know and is working according to set guidelines, standards and instructions, and if these are adequate to give staff the necessary support, guidance and directions. Managers can through management principals and functions insure that work is done to certain standards and will be able to maintain some degree of productivity. But it must be realised that depending on management functions alone will not deliver the best results. Humans by their very nature will not stay content for long. So even though staff member are paid employees the environment they work in will influence their performance. This includes working practises, job design, place of work, working culture, management style, and pay and reward systems. Taking the customer service centre as an example, staff are required to arrive on time or loose pay, the strict policies indicate that they work in a very stringent environment, allowing them very little in a way of interaction, innovation, communication or participation. This is where the sixth function now recognised by most philosophers comes in, called leadership through humane treatment of employers, which is proven to increase cooperation, production and job satisfaction. Leadership and Leadership Theory Management can be seen as the planning, organizing, staffing, directing and control of employees to meet the mission and objectives of the organization, where leadership is seen as the ability of a person to motivate peers to willingly use their abilities and energy towards achieving the set goals of the organization. Leaders are not always managers, and managers are not always leaders. We can find leaders in any part of the society, from our own neighbourhood, church or within any organisation we belong to, private or work. But for organizations to become competitive in today's global world, it has become necessary for managers to understand human behaviour and to become leaders in their own right. Where do leaders come from and can leadership be learned According to leadership literature the four main theories where leaders come from can be seen as: Natural Leaders - some people become leaders by using their physical or mental ability they where born with to lead other. Traits Leaders - Some people become leaders due to their skill and knowledge they accumulated in the trait they are in, and is this seen by other as specialist in that field and the best person to lead. Great Events Leaders - During certain events such as wars or disasters some people come forward to lead others, called heroes by us. Behavioural Leaders - This is the most excepted theory and it states that any person have the underlying ability to become a leader through learning the behaviours, characteristics and skills of a leader and applying it in his environment. Leadership theory have become a very debated subject by academics and philosophers such as Hersey and Blanchard, Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor, Thornely and Lees, Elizabeth Kanter, Victor Vroom and John Adair. Many of the leadership theories have evolved and are being used in one or other form by various managers across the world. Maslow in his hierarchy of needs state that a person has certain needs he wants to satisfy, starting with basic safety needs such as food and shelter, moving to the next levels of social, esteem and self actualization needs. The most important fact derived from Moslow's theory is that people will not only be motivated by money. As soon as a person earns a living wage he or she will try to satisfy other needs that have become more important. This once a need is satisfied, it will no longer be a motivating factor. Next it is important to look at motivational theories such as McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y. These theories analyze human behaviours in different circumstances and give predictions of what approaches can be used to motivate and move people towards doing what you want them to do. Motivational theories have evolved through the century and some of these motivational theories available today are the consistency theory, cognitive dissonance theory, and attitude and behaviour theory and acquired needs theory. Theory X and Theory Y The theory the customer service manager are interested in was proposed by Douglas McGregor in 1960 in his book, The Human Side of Enterprise. In this book he proposed two motivational theories, theory X and Theory Y. "Both of these theories were based on the assumption that the managements role is to assemble the factors of production, including people, for the economic benefit of the firm. Beyond this point the two theories of management diverge," (Bernard Ervin, 2002 - 2005). Theory X In theory X McGregor assumed that the average person dislikes work, has no ambition, only care for himself, resist change and is not very intelligent. In essence Theory X states that people are only interested in money and security. McGregor further suggested that within Theory X there are two approaches. The hard approach relies on coercion, threats, close supervision, and tight controls. The soft approach is permissive, seeking harmony and hoping the in-return employees will perform. The problem with Theory X is that the hard approach will result in hostility, low output and unionism. The soft approach results in increasing demands for more rewards with a ever decreasing work output. As stated above Moslow argued that satisfied needs no longer motivate, and Theory X is based on payment and benefit to motivate employees. This it is clear that within the customer service centre where the manager works the hard approach is actually the current management approach and it is not working. Theory Y McGregor the proposed his second theory, Theory X, which state that a person needs of esteem and self-actualization will never be truly satisfied, and is a higher level of need that can be used to motivate employees. In this theory McGregor assumed that work can be as natural as rest and play, and if people are self-directed to meet objectives they will commit to them. He went on to argue that people whose higher needs are addressed through adequate rewards will commit to objectives. Within this theory is the opportunity for a manager to align personal goals with that of the organization by using the persons own quest for fulfilment as a motivator. The customer service manager can broaden staff's responsibilities by training them to understand the banks services and products better in order to help customers with more complex inquiries. She will then be able to delegate the task of service to referred customers to those staff who are willing to take the responsibility. Through this she can reduce her work load, giving her the opportunity to address any other concerns staff may have or improve the working environment to a more humane one. Cited Page Higgins, James. The Management Challenge. Second edition. Macmillan. 1994 Ervin, Bernard. The Five Functions of Management. Ohio State University. 2002-2005. NetMBA. Accessed 04 April 2006. http://extension.osu.edumgtexcel/function.html Owston, TJ. Motivation and Leadership Theories. Updated June 2005. Accessed 05 April 2006. http://freespace.virgin.net/owston.tj/motiva.htm ChangingMinds. Leadership Theories. 2002 -2006. Accessed 05 April 2006. http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/leadership_theories.htm Read More