To What Extent Has AC 346 Prepared Me for Working Life after Graduation - Essay Example

TO WHAT EXTENT HAS AC 346 PREPARED YOU FOR YOUR WORKING LIFE AFTER GRADUATION The AC 346 is basically a on management, which touches on different work theories. Management insists of policy making by policy makers such as the Chief Executive, General Manager and major omission Executives. Formulation of short and long teams objectives along with corporate strategy ray for an organization are the major covers in management by the policy makers. Management is also an art of directing the activities of people who are willing and able to lead. It plays no small role in harnessing human and material resources. Management can also be referred to as a collection of people who formulate or influence policies, Executive decisions and Direct the Affairs of an organization. The major functions of management include: planning, organization, controlling leading staffing etc. The effect of planning in facilitating management decisions cannot be overremphasises. It is an art of deciding in advance what to do, how to do it and who is to do it. It is normally a mental work which is intellectual in nature. It involves determining the goals, policies procedure and other plans needed to achieve organisational objectives. In planning, it is important that policies procedures, standards and methods of accomplishing goals are established. Also important is the ability to anticipate problems and money plans. Organizing on its own part is the grouping of work and workers by job and department, allocation of space equipment and resources in organizing it is important to break down work into operative units, select and place individuals on proper jobs with adequate provision of personnel, facilities and resources. Leading has to do with providing direction for subordinates and being responsible for the actions taken by them. Staffing involves filling vacant position in the organizational structure. It helps in defining manpower requirement and recruiting qualified personnel it also involves the selection and training of employees, prompting and appraising staff performance. Most, if not all, of these skills was what I was consciously trained to imbibe in the course of taking AC346. Studying was a very vital aspect of this course, read volumes of recommended and Non-Recommended Texts in order to grasp the substance of the course. I had to analyse and assimilate views as posited by different authors and I also do very much consider this as synonymous with the planning aspect involved in management. Furthermore written essay were on integral part of this course. In connecting our tutor we understood the concepts presented within the course it was important for me to be able to reproduce what had been assimilated and even present my own ideas in written essays, also an essential sale needed in management work after graduation. Co-operation was also vital in this course, as we had to work together as presentation groups. This helped in developing team spirit among team members. Individual contributions were encouraged and adopted in order to ensure success for the group. This tallies very well with organizational skills relevant in management after graduation with features such as grouping of work and workers by job and department allocation of space and equipment etc. All of these work functions are very important because it would be difficult to achieve organizational objectives without proper planning, organizing controlling and leading. Organisations are pre-occupied with myriads of problems without proper organizing and controlling; it would be a Herculean task to solve the problems. Management functions make provisions for purposeful direction and orderliness in executing polices. These management functions provide solid basis for controlling organizational activities. One major skill acquired as we laboured on this course was the principle of management by objectives - I personally look forward to a management position in a blue chip company where this skill is highly required management by objectives starts with establishing an appropriate relationship between the office manager and the supervisors who report directly to him. This relationship will need to take into account a member of ideas, which have already been touched upon. The manager and his supervisors are working together in the office to achieve a series of objectives. These objectives form the purpose or the mission of the department for initial the manager is responsible. It is the office manager duty to establish these objectives by discussions with the managers of those departments of the business, which the office serves. The office manager also has the duty to interpret the objectives to his immediate subordinates. These objectives are unlikely to be clearly understood if the manager merely states them to his subordinates, either really or in writing. These needs to be full and open discussion so that the information obtained by the office manager may be shared with his supervisors working together as a team. The supervisors will need the opportunity to discuss and explore the purpose of the department if they are to collaborate to the full. This may include contributing ideas, which will involve the office manager in going back to the departments to make further suggestions. When the total purpose of the department is understood it is then appropriate, against the background of team discussion, for the manager to discuss with each supervisor in turn the purpose of his particular section. Once there is mutual agreement on the purpose of a section, the manager and the supervisor should agree upon the targets, which the supervisor is to try to achieve in the immediate future, perhaps, following six months. These are likely to concern changes and improvements. The supervisor may be responsible for helping to install a change in methods there may be a requirement to improve the training of his subordinates, it may be desirable to raise the output or improve certain aspects of quality. Ideally, the supervisor, having taken part in the general discussion on the overall purpose of the office should take the lead in stating the purpose of section and in detailing the appropriate targets, which he hopes to achieve in the immediate months ahead. He should be united to go away and think about his ideas and come back with proposals. In thinking about his targets he should be given an opportunity to include those aspects, which will give him personal satisfaction. If a supervisor is in reality to contribute to the setting of objectives or targets he will thereby increase his commitment; people support what they have helped to build after the objectives or targets have been agreed the supervisor should be invited to recommend the basis on which performance will be measured. Unless targets are capable of measurement the supervisor will not be able to get satisfaction out of achievement when the time comes to review performance .The crucial aspect of the process is that manager and supervisor agree in advance what performance is required and how that performance is to be measured .In short the rules of the game are worked out and agreed before hand. Something like an ideal state of affairs will have been reached if at the end of the agreed period the supervisor, without prompting from his manager that they should review together his performance and set up new targets for a further period. If a climate of management by objectives is to be fully effective it has to operate on all levels .The office managers will need to work in this relationship with the senior managers to whom he reports .The supervisor will need to establish similar relationship with their group leaders and the group leaders with their clerks. As a result of the rapidly changing work place climate brought about advancements in technologies and other factors, companies must often rapidly money the ways their workers get things done. This leads to an increase in demand for managers with. Have both the human skills and the technical skills to make these changes the course AC346 has encourages us to imbibe practical interpersonal skills ranging from topics such as effective time management. How to run a meeting and relationship with employees. AC346 touched on analytical and theoretical techniques such as operations research, information systems etc that will be useful in any functional area of management the student eventually opts for. One particular tool necessary for modern management covered within this course is the corporate culture. This comprises the beliefs, values, attitudes and expectations that are held by the employees of an organization and that make up its unique character certain mixtures of management policies and styles obtainable in a particular organization can be explained by the factor of corporation by which employees can judge what the company wants from them, how they are supposed to handle issues and approach problems with the types of solutions will be acceptable in that organization. Different types of corporate cultures may be found within different organizations. There is the culture that seeks to reward aggressiveness and demands immediate results obtainable mainly in unpredictable industries like the entertainment industry. Another culture is seen in sales-oriented firms that rally around promotions, contests and the image of the super sales person. Yet another culture is found in high stake slow-feed back first, with large but infrequent pay-off. The process culture, easily found in low risk slow-feedback organizations is usually favoured in industries such as financial services where the need for technical perfection means emphasis on procedure rather than product. The course AC346 helps the student understand that knowing the culture of his or her corporation has a very powerful tool for designing policies likely to get results in that organization. It will be much easier then to act on decision fast and providing stability in times of great change on other hand not knowing the culture can lead an otherwise intelligent policy to fail it. It is in consistent with the culture. Furthermore the student within the bounds of AC346 was introduced to internal organization. In management, when a manager sets up a structured internal organization, they divide the labour of the organization among people or groups of people and set up lives of authority and responsibility thereby formalising the organization by recording it on an organizational chart. Workers in most organizations are grouped according to their activities. Departmentation may be according to function, territory, product or other criteria. It is important to note that these systems have both advantages and disadvantage and that organization may use more than one method. Also covered in this course was the importance of effective distribution of authority and responsibility as these are crucial to an organization success. Management must consider with their span of management should be nine or narrow, whether delegation balances authority and responsibility and who has accountability in the chain of command. Management must also decide whether to set up an organization based on different authorities whether to centralize or decentralize its internal operations. And as it is noticeable, huge, highly centralized companies and conglomerate have begin to decentralize so as to remain fluid, efficient and productive also decentralization will help them keep there sub-divisions self-governing and free from high level interference. This may result in the shrinking of middle management. At many levels of work today people should learn to relate to one another, in new and more effective ways, by building good human relations with vital factors such as leadership, communication and motivation with a strong leaning towards morale. Social change information and a tight economy are also bringing some innovations for one thing there is greater flexibility with regard to work rules job descriptions, seniority rights and so on. Also necessary is more team work sharing is another innovation within which pays and work weeks are reduced for all workers to prevent layoffs of a few. Since automation is displaying so many blue-collar workers, it is important for companies to provide retraining designed for those workers to find jobs in other areas. Reference 1. Harney, S. and Moten, F. (1998) 'Doing Academic Work', in R. Martin (ed) Chalk Lines: The Politics of Work in the Managed University, Duke University Press. Read More