Management Assignment: Critical Discussion on Business Scenarios
Question
Task: This management assignment task is divided into three parts: Part A: Essay questions.
You are required to answer all questions provided below:
Q1: Write a short essay explaining the difference between technical, conceptual and human skills needed by managers today. Support your answer with relevant examples.
Q2: What does it mean to say that HRM plays a strategic role in driving organizational performance? Consider recruiting, training, performance appraisal and compensation strategies in as part of your answer.
Q3. What skills and abilities does a manager need to effectively lead in a virtual environment? Do you believe a leader with a consideration style or initiating structure style should be more successful as a virtual leader? Explain your answer with suitable examples.
Part B: Case study
This section is a case study on Rolling Plains Golf Club.
1. Discuss the leadership issues in the case study? What strategies will you develop to enhance leadership effectiveness in Rolling Plains Golf Club.
2. Based on the current situation develop a strategic plan for Rolling Plains Golf Club that may be implemented in 2021. Justify the rationale for your plan.
Part C: Self-reflection on the topics that you have studied.Write a reflective piece on the skills that you have learnt to become an effective manager.
Answer
MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT PART A
1. Management of people and an organization is not an easy task as it requires experience and knowledge. This results in hierarchical organizational framework, possibilities for the members with adequate knowledge and skills to improve their management process. Managers are required to have conceptual, technical and human skills in today’s competitive world to aid organizational development. Human skills are displayed in two ways, management of the inventory teams and also through middle management of the existing inventory teams. To improve the productivity of the work, the middle management is required to work in tandem with the inventory personnel for training purpose, work planning, scheduling and other activities which needs to be taken care of (Wirtz and Jerger, 2016). Communication is the key factor in the inventory team. Managers are required to ease out existing communication channel and develop new networks to keep the work flowing. Technical skills are paramount at this age. Managers are required to be hold strong technical knowledge about certain aspects of the job in order to manage situation of crisis (Locatelli, Mancini and Romano, 2017). Skills required are in field of database management, project management, IT security, Data analysis and customer service systems. This reduces time, minimizes cost and optimizes the overall process. Encouragement to up skill, learning and developing personal growth will make the employees more engaged and productive. Conceptual skills involve the capability to see the company as a whole and understand the diverse parts are interdependent and finding ways to relate to the external environment. Managers utilize the skill to evaluate circumstances and develop alternative action procedures.
2. Performance of an organization is highly dependent on the employee’s productivity. HRM or Human Resource Management is the preplanning of the human resources, its necessity in the company and managing the human capital. These include recruitment process, training, compensation strategies and performance appraisal. The primary work of a HR includes that of filling the expected vacancies present in the organization with candidates showing the right skill sets. The process involves choosing the recruitment sources, application invitation, test conduction, interviews and lastly retirement planning, resignations and growth (Anwaar, Nadeem and Hassan 2016). HRs of a company is required to recruit the right people to fill the vacancies and the process includes hunting for the right candidate. After the recruitment process is done and the candidates are selected, the next step is the training candidates for the job. Training is crucial as they prepare the candidate for the role they are hired for. HRs pay a crucial role in developing compensation strategies as they are the main motivating factors to keep employees engaged and improve their productivity (Atena and Tiron-Tudor, 2020). It is a highly strategic task as it affects every individual in the organization and the planning of compensation is required to be done depending on the organizational hierarchy. It is on the HR to structure the performance appraisal and analyze the aspect to everyone’s satisfaction. HR is required to be aware of the responsibilities of each employee and design an system in which the achievements can be measured in regard to their key responsibility areas. An individual representing the MIS team cannot rate himself/herself on the KRAs of a marketing professional. The team of HR sits with the reviewing community to ensure timely appraisal and the benefits are provided to the most deserving employees (Davis, 2017).
3. In a virtual setup managers must function like a leader. The key skills and abilities that a manager must possess in order to lead his or her team on a virtual environment are decisiveness, intelligence, charisma, integrity and self confidence. In order to reach greater employee satisfaction and high productivity, managers are re required to initiate structure and consideration compared to being rated low on the same. The paramount skill required to deal on a virtual environment is to be able to utilize the technology as the team will communicate on online platforms and engage in remote collaboration. The managers often find it difficult to identify the contributions made by the employees hence they need to recognize or create methods to indentify the efforts of the team. A leader with an initiating structure style will definitely be more successful in being a virtual leader. Such a leadership involves the extent to which the leader defines the roles of the group member, organizes activities, initiates actions and defines the modus operandi of tasks. A virtual leader is required to be proactive in staying in touch with the dispersed team and initiate sessions to connect and motivate team members. On a virtual platform there rises a chance of high possibility of miscommunication as the virtual leader does not have the benefit of ton so there is a requirement of developing communication channel. Specific measurable goals are extremely crucial and frequent tracking of the same ensures members to be agile and it’s easier for the lead to recognize problems.
PART B
1. The Rolling Plains Golf Club is a sports and an entertainment complex attached to a golf course. The revenue comes from the food and drinks sale and that from the electronic gaming machines. The current CEO Mick has worked in the company for the longest period of time and seen the company grow. The higher authorities trust his decision. The company is looking for a new CEO and the directors intended to advertise for the position. There is a great lack of communication and ideology difference between the Mick and Ronnie who is being groomed for being the next CEO. Mick is not willingly to accept new and modern ideas put forward by Ronnie and follow his own traditional way of working. The problem with the management lies in being stagnant even when the organization has grown. The company requires strategic planning and modern developments from the management. Ronnie has a bit of a tiff off with staffs which makes the staff stay on the edge when Ronnie is around. This is having an impact on the productivity of the work and type of service being catered to the clients. There is much conflict of interest in the club with the senior authorities. Keith himself faces difficulties and there has been a complaint against him which makes him viewed unfavorably.
The recommendations put forward by Annie have mostly been dismissed and no changes were brought. The company should definitely introduce a feedback mechanism and take serious consideration of the same. A smooth line of communication is highly required to avoid conflict of interest and at the same time modern ideas are needed to be encouraged.
2. The current managerial state of the company is in mayhem. There is conflict of interest and disinterest in accepting new ideas as the management is astute in following traditional methodology. The company is required to develop a feedback mechanism system where the feedbacks provided in terms of service and improving the same should be considered with significant value. Analysis of the feedbacks from various sectors will enable them to understand the shortcomings of the system and then new strategies can be developed in keeping in mind the current scenario. The company must focus on modern solutions rather than focusing on the traditional ways of solving a problem. To resolve the very many conflict of interest and enterprise social network must be developed. This will ensure the free flow of communication and both sections of management will be connected. This will surely improve the channel of communication and ensure better exchange of ideas. The management will be aware of real time issues and conflicts which can be solved strategically through healthy discussions and cultivating modern ideas. The club needs upgrading of the present facilities and requires strategies to sustain in the competitive market. The clubs surely provides multiple opportunities of investment and the same time upgrading the amenities technically will draw a greater mass of crowd. The marketing should be done in a concrete way on digital platforms to engage the youth. There should be chart of the infrastructural requirements which needs to be given immediate attention and solved at the earliest to ensure safety of staff and optimizing productivity.
PART C
There are diverse attributes in relation to becoming an effective manager. The modules had been interesting and at the same time extremely detailed in instilling the required qualities for developing oneself into an effective manager. In my opinion, the process of building oneself in regard to the external environment is crucial. Developing interpersonal skills is what I think is extremely important as it is the primary step in developing efficacy. Management’s jobs are all about engaging people and at the same time building successful relationship. The integral aspect lies in instilling trust in people and earning the respects from team members and colleagues. To achieve the same, I need to know how effectively I can deal and mange people. My professor made me realize the importance of compassion and the right dose of rationality to be put in running and executing the team. As a manager, I am required to build smooth communication channel with them through team building training, social activities and at the same demonstrating my authoritarian side. Motivation and communication are the chief enhancers for improving team productivity. Effective managers must master diverse communication medium as the manager becomes the communication hub for the senior management and the frontline staff. Building a trusting relationship in crucial and hence it is required to be accessible for the team mates in case they face any kind of issue. Delegation of duties and organization of task is significant as a manager is required to juggle though multiple responsibilities. For this reason organizational skills are extremely vital. In delegating workload to the subordinates, the managers are required to resort to their analytical skills to correctly indentify particular skill sets of employees required for the moment. The most interesting attribute which I find is crucial for managers to hold is strategic thinking and the capacity to make informed decisions. By this I mean, the managers are required to set priorities syncing in line with the goals of the organization, reviewing policies and systems, managing CPD activities and attending training. I believe it is important for a manager to encourage innovation and at the same time lead to high team productivity to generate high revenue for the company. A manager on a regular basis is bound to face crisis situation and he or she must possess problem solving skills to come out o such situations of minimum to zero damage. The major skill required for the manager here is to identify the problem or sense a problem before hand from prior experience. For this, the manager is required to have exceptional attention to detail and also at the same time to maintain composure under pressure situation. Problems are to be solved efficiently to curtail from reappearing and at the same ensuring smooth working of the team. Creative thinking is greatly valued and is one of the key qualities I believe should be present in an effective manager. Creative thinking will involve engaging in innovative solution for minimizing the impact and optimize the business as whole. The lesson was thoroughly knowledgeable and instilled in me concrete concepts about effective management skills.
References
Anwaar, S., Nadeem, A.B. and Hassan, M., 2016.Critical assessment of the impact of HR strategies on employees’ performance. Cogent Business & Management, 3(1), p.1245939.
Atena, F.W. and Tiron-Tudor, A., 2020.Gender as a Dimension of Inequality in Accounting Organizations and Developmental HR Strategies. Administrative Sciences, 10(1), p.1.
Davis, P.J., 2017. How HR can create competitive advantage for the firm. Human Resource Management International Digest.
Locatelli, G., Mancini, M. and Romano, E., 2017. Project manager and systems engineer: a literature rich reflection on roles and responsibilities. International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 9(3), pp.195-216.
Wirtz, J. and Jerger, C., 2016. Managing service employees: literature review, expert opinions, and research directions. The Service Industries Journal, 36(15-16), pp.757-788.
