Freshplus Supermarkets - Research Paper Example

Freshplus Supermarkets AFFILIATION: 2. Findings 2 Findings from interview The findings from the interview depicted that the Manager of Freshplus Supermarkets is well aware of how things should be managed in the supermarket. He has the knowledge and skills about managing the workforce and how productive work should be derived out from the employees of the supermarket. The planning, organising, leading and controlling functions of management are carried out by the manager in a successful way as the proper management leads to a successful, productive and profitable organisation. 2.2 Planning The management function of planning is conducted by the manager, Mr Mohammed Buday, in a very systematic way. The planning of business operations in a successful manner is important for higher productivity (Jacobs and Chase, 2011). Every morning the previous day’s workings are analysed by the manager and this way the manager is well aware of the status of work progress of the supermarket. By conducting a check on the previous day’s sales, the manager accordingly plans the task for the current day. All issues that were present in the previous day’s working that took place in his absence are addressed by the manager and the way it was handled is reviewed by the manager. After reviewing these tasks, the manager then takes a round in the supermarket and visits the shop floor and the morning staff and asks if they have any problems or any issue that they want to discuss. He asks the employees if everything is working in order and also about if they require anything of any sort for conducting their job properly. The manager’s future planning regarding his job role is that he wants to continue working as a store manager for further two years and then he would like to get promoted to a higher level. He would like to get promoted in the head office as a CEO or General Manager of Freshplus Supermarkets in future. Mr Mohamed Buday has planned his future career on a 5 year timeline and he has sets his personal goals and objectives so that he accomplishes his future career plan. He has organized his priorities according to the level of importance and follows it accordingly. 2.3 Organising Organising is another major function of management and this is one of the most critical functions as through proper planning and organising of tasks, further work can be progressed (William and McWilliams, 2010). For achieving the goals successfully, the manager needs to organise all work tasks in a systematic manner and accordingly assign tasks to each employee so that productive results can be attained. The organising of tasks and employees requires the manager to possess certain types of skills, techniques and knowledge. One of the major challenges faced by the manager in this management function of organising is that he finds it difficult to discipline employees during certain times as employees at times do not follow instructions (Campbell and Meddings, 2006). They tend to overlook the instructions on what they are asked to do. This becomes difficult for the manager to handle them as the employees are de-motivated and hence do not produce the results as desired by the organisation. The manager needs to constantly work upon keeping the employees motivated at work so that the productivity of Freshplus Supermarkets is always high. The manager needs to keep himself motivated as well and his main and sole motivation is money. The manager gets highly motivated by money and by working with people. Managers of almost all firms need to people oriented so that they can develop good manager-employee relationship with their entire staff (Pfeffer, 2010). The manager, for motivating his employees comes down at their level and communicates in a friendly way with them. All employees that work well are given positive feedbacks by the manager. There are some rewards given to the best employees such as awarding the best employee with the status of employee of the month. At times employees are empowered with responsibility so that they feel motivated in their job roles and work harder to produce optimum level results for the organisation (Werth, Markel, and Forster, 2006). The manager delegates certain tasks to employees so that they become alert and responsible in completing the task successfully (Kwon, Bae, and Lawler, 2010) . 2.4 Leading Leading is yet again another important function of management. The leading function involves the manager to guide the employees in the right direction, motivate the employees and positively influence the employees so that they remain motivated at work (Northouse, 2010). The manager looks for certain factors in people who lead him. The factors are to be smart, to have a great and influential presence, the person should possess the factor of fear, and the person should be clam and have a professional attitude towards work. The other colleagues that have left the organisation are viewed as mentors by the manager (Leaders Coaching Leaders, 2009). The manager looks for the element of trust in people whom he sees as a mentor. The manager mentors his team of employees and hence he ensures that he is in communication with his team members at all times (Nankervis, Chatterjee, and Coffey, 2006). The manger achieves goals by working with his subordinates and colleagues by setting standards for achieving the goals and objectives. The SPQRCE (S= safety, P= people, Q= quality, R= responsiveness, C= cost, E= environment) element is applied by the manager in which safety is given 0% weight and People are given 98% weight. The cost factor looks at what goes in the bin. The environment factor focuses on the recycling materials of the organisation. 2.5 Controlling The function of controlling reflects upon the successful accomplishment of goals and objectives that have been set by the organisation. The manager in the controlling function of management reviews whether the work is taking place according to the rules and regulations of the firm and also according to the set standards of work (Mitchell and Nault, 2007). The controlling function focuses on establishing standard work performance and measuring the actual performance against this standard (William and McWilliams, 2010). The manager at workplace needs to deal with all types of conflicts occurring in the supermarket. The manager deals with the conflicts by listening to both sides of the story, communicating the scenario clearly to both of the concerned parties and focuses on deriving the solution of the conflict on the very same day so that things don’t get carried on further unnecessarily. Conflicts tend to take place amongst managers at times too and the manager deals with these types of conflict by having a professional attitude, the manager does not take things further if the issue is of character clash, and lastly the manager tries his best to get along with others and the situation (Robbins and Judge, 2008). The ethical issues faced by the manager at workplace are to ensure controlled measures in evaluating performances of employees. The implementation of ethics at workplace is another important issue faced by the manager at workplace. Ensuring that code of conduct is followed is another ethical issue faced by the manager. The manager stated that it is extremely important for him to be aware of workplace diversity as having and maintain a diverse team allows the organisation to serve a diverse customer base (Rowley and Warner, 2007). The manager stated during the interview that workplace diversity allows the organisation to gain a competitive advantage because when dealing with a diversified customer base, a diversified workforce may prove to be highly useful and productive in dealing with all types of customer issues. Freshplus Supermarket has customers from different countries and religions and hence their diversified team of employees caters to the needs of the various customers accordingly. The manager also stated that due to customer diversification, all the products in the store are halal. Reference Campbell, Michael and Meddings, Kyle, 2006. The Role of Power in Effective Leadership. Leadership, 16(2), 245-272.  Jacobs, F.R. and Chase, R.B., 2011. Operations and Supply Chain Management. 13th ed. 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