Management Assignment: Reflection On Understanding Of Dynamics Of Employment Environment

Question

Task:
Management Assignment Instructions:
Students will create a SWOT Analysis on them and reflect on their current status as a manager. Students will then comment on their fit with the organisation identified in Assessment One. The second assignment should include:

• assessment of personal strengths and weaknesses as viewed by self and others. Students will need to complete a minimum of three self-assessment tools and refer to these results in their SWOT Analysis;
• feedback received from other people you have been associated with. Feedback is considered naturally occurring data and includes conversations, emails, formal references and performance appraisals. You will need to reflect on who is providing the feedback and how you appear to be progressing;
• a discussion of the opportunities and threats that will impact on your management journey, including self-development for continuous improvement;
• integration of theory and concepts from the subject, in particular Modules 2-6, including an assessment of your communication, values and ethics, experience with managing diversity, experience with networking and working collaboratively, your ability to give and receive feedback, your ability to influence others and your capacity to be a leader now and in the future;
• a critical assessment of how you are placed or misplaced within the chosen organisation from Assessment One; and whether or not you see a future at this organisation.

Answer

Executive Summary
Every manager needs to maintain a proper code of conduct inside their system to order to remain successful in the market. The organisational manager has tried his best to incorporate that discipline inside the system. This management assignment is intended to understand the organisational behavior and dynamics of the employment surroundings. This report aims to equip my capabilities with the essential skills to understand the emerging leaders and constraints managers face in creating strategies to overcome the organisational barriers. The report is also reflected on the advantages from solving organisational constraints by the effective mangers.

Introduction
As a manager to handle an entire organisation is not an easy job to do and therefore the role of the manager behind the success of the company has a great importance. It is the manager upon which the fate of the organisations depends mostly as he determines the way to conduct the process and manages the employees. This report will discuss my strengths and weaknesses along with my key opportunities and threats under the SWOT analysis. This report will also discuss three important self-assessment tools and discuss the feedback that I, as a manager faced from my seniors and teammates. This paper will also present some key managerial theories and concepts that I employed during my tenure. The report will finally conclude by stating some of the positives about the company and manager's desire and decision to continue the job in the same company.

Strengths
To become a manager of the Woolworth in future, I need to have some skills that are must to have in a manager and am grateful that I possess some of those key skills to do justice to my chair. I have good communication skills that is needed for a would be manager not just to be successful for himself but also to make the organisation a successful organisation. I used my communication skills to make sure that everyone working in the company communicates well with each other. I made sure that there is no gap in communication and miscommunication sort of things exist inside the process and everyone shares their views regarding the working procedures of the company so that the company can implement the best of the things (Martinez, 2017). Honesty is also one of the key strengths of a manager as he needs to serve the company with utmost honesty. A manager also needs to make sure that everyone works with utmost honesty and dignity and always tried to be a perfect example of a postulate of honesty that my subordinates should idolize.

The teams will only follow their leader when they would believe that the leader is working honestly. So, it is very important, to be honest to yourself. Another key strength that I believe a manager should have that can help the company is the decisiveness skill. A manager will need to take some tough decisions at the crunch moment that helped the company to gain more financial benefit and to be more successful. Leadership is also a key strength of a manager and the fate of the organisational success depends a lot on the leadership skills that the manager possesses (Verboncu and Condurache, 2016). Another key strength that a manager should have is that a manager should be very disciplined and time -punctuated person. A manager should always be punctual and dedicated to his job and should make sure that a proper discipline is maintained in the system.

The team will only follow the leader and therefore the leader has to be very passionate and time-punctuated to his job to set an example for others. Woolworth, a retail organisation, has to maintain a proper code of conduct inside their system to be able to remain successful in the market and a manager should try their best to incorporate that discipline inside the system. Adaptability is one of my key strengths and this is very important managerial skill since a manager has to adapt to different kinds of situations and perform (Gürel and Tat, 2017). Some other key managerial skills that I possess that will help the organisation is that I have the eye for talent and am very futuristic and identify the future risks and mitigate the threats as early as possible to protect the organisations from further losses.

Weaknesses
Although I possess some key managerial skills still there are few loopholes that need to be filled so that I can improve and enhance my skills to be a successful manager in future. Nervousness is one of my key weaknesses and I fail to work under pressure sometimes (Madsen, 2016). I need to improve this since a manager often need to work under pressure. I also don't have man-management skill that is very important for a manager to have.

Lack of technical knowledge is also one of my key weaknesses. I also need to work on my technical skills as I don't have much knowledge about the organisational technicalities and other things. Poor relations with the stakeholders are also one of my key weakness and I need to improve these above-mentioned skills to be able to become a successful manager in future for the Woolworth company. Emotional strain is also one of my key weaknesses. It is important for a manager to be psychologically strong to be able to work under pressure (Quezada et al., 2019). Since a manager has to deal with a lot of things it is therefore important for a manager to be professional at the working premises and not to go by the emotions of the employees. This is an area where I need to improve a lot to improve my and the company's performance.

Key Self-assessment Tools
In this segment of this report, some key self-assessment tools are discussed that I undertook to assess my own strengths and weaknesses. I conducted a self-assessment test and the results were quite surprising as the nature of my feelings is 86%. I have also possessed 74% tactical skills in judging. I scored 64% in the identical skills and I need to improve this as it is important for a manager to have good eye for the talent. The results also showed that I have very low energy level as I scored only 59% in the test. In addition to that I also need to have a clear approach and a clear mind to be effective as a would-be manager and I need to improve my mind skills as I could only score 60% as my mental strength. To improve the above mentioned skills I need to conduct some mental ability and stress reducing skills like exercising or joining stress free classes that helped me to improve my energy level and the mental abilities. Besides, I can easily cop up with any situation and I believe in futuristic theme. As a relator, I even enjoy close relationship with others. I love the challenges of meeting new people and winning over them. The three main self-assessment tools that I undertook are as follows:

1. Adaptability- Adaptabilityis one of the key areas that I should require to improve more. Although, I do able to make relationship with new people. Basically, my relationship building skills is strong, and adaptability power is low. Due to this reason, I cannot be able to go with the flow. Hence, in order to become adaptable, I need to look for positive methods to make changes work.
2. Futuristic: Due to high futuristic skill, I am able to get inspired by the future. I have a good strategic thinking skill and thus, able to inspire others with their vision of the future.
3. Futuristic: Due to high futuristic skill, I am able to get inspired by the future. I have a good strategic thinking skill and thus, able to inspire others with their vision of the future.
4. Woo: Woo theme is very specific to me. As I am especially talented in Woo theme, I love to prefer the challenge of meeting new individuals and winning over them. Until I break them and winning over the, I never get satisfied.
5. Communication: Effective communication skills can strengthen the influencing power of individuals. As I possess this theme, it is easy for me to put my thoughts into words. This is one of the good examples of managerial skill. In upcoming days, I would like to improve more and become a good presenter and conversationalist.

Key Feedbacks
I have received some key feedback from my teammates regarding my performances. I have received feedback related to my psychological weaknesses from the professors. I was advised to work on my mental strength so that I can stay positive while working for the company and can act professionally. I have been working in that direction to strengthen my mental abilities after receiving such feedback from the higher authority. I also received feedback from my seniors that suggested that I need to be more focus. It would help the company identify those employees who are not dedicated to their work and also keep the other employees on their toes (Afshari and Kowal, 2017). I have also been recommended by my teammates that I should show more faith in them and allow them to work freely and that I should not intervene on their job.

The stakeholders like the product suppliers and internet service providers shared feedback with me that I should work on my man-management skills a bit more to be able to strengthen the relationship with the stakeholders. I am trying to connect and interact with them a lot more now in order to manage them and learn some management skills to strengthen the interrelationship with the stakeholders. Some of the staff also shared their feedback and stated that I don't have much knowledge about the products of the company and I am putting more time into learning about the company's products (Davies, Van der Heijden and Stephenson, 2018). However, I also received some positive feedback from the head of the college department via mail. The head of the department congratulated me for my performance in leading the team and enhancing the company's sell.

Opportunities
This segment of the reflective paper analyzed the key opportunities that I currently have to be a successful would be manager of the Woolworth organisation. I have the opportunity to develop my mental skills to eliminate the psychological strain that I have to face. I also have the opportunity to apply for the manager post in other companies since I have learnt a lot of things from the feedbacks I received. I have the opportunity to improve my performance by working on my negative points or weaknesses. I also have the opportunity to improve my communicational skills that is very important for a manager to run the company (SumChan, Bambacas and Patrickson, 2019). I have the opportunity to work harder for the company in future and thereby impressing the management to achieve some supplementary benefits from the company like the company's flat or car or any other supplementary benefits.

Threats
With an ocean of opportunities, there are also some key threats that I had to face to be a successful manager in future. I, in future as a manager, will have a threat of losing the job since the management will be keeping an eye on my performance (, 2019). There is also a threat for me to improve the stakeholder's relationship and I also have a threat of getting demoted if I will not be able to meet the company's expectations and work according to that in future as a would be manager.

Key Theories and Concepts
Some key theories and concepts are integrated here to shed light on some key managerial skills like communication or networking and so on. The communication theory refers to the various ways in which an individual sees and reacts to the environment. The communication theory suggests that there has to be a two-way process in which the manager and the other subordinates or the stakeholders can freely communicate with each other and share their feedbacks or views freely. It also helped me to influence people through healthy communications (Ferguson, Wallace and Chandler, 2018). The ethical behavior plays a big role in improving a company's as well as a manager's performance and therefore it is important for a manager like me to look for a Behavioral Management theory.

This Ethical Behavioral theory presented here provides the managers with a detailed analysis of the right way to behave with others in working premises. It helped me a lot learning some key office cultures and ethical values. I also applied Administrative Management theory that helped me to control the administration process skillfully whereas Modern Management theory also helped me a lot to manage the employees and the process to extract the best performance out of my employees. Modern management theory emphasizes on extracting the best out of the employees by encouraging them and showing more faith in them (Claeys and Opgenhaffen, 2016). Modern management theory also taught me to use statistics to measure performances and encouraging cross-functional cooperation between various departments. Network theory also helped me a lot in building a network and also helped me to understand the way the Woolworth company operates. It also helped me to develop a network with the stakeholders to improve the company's performance.

The Leadership theory as a concept has fascinated hundreds of thinkers and management scholars over the years. All the forms of leadership theories starting from traits and behaviors to transformational leadership, almost all the concepts are of importance (Ulmer, Sellnow and Seeger, 2017). Leadership theory taught me that I need to be patient enough and dedicated to my job and to be entire disciplined and flexible and energetic to be able to actually lead the team or an entire organisation successfully.

Reflective Decision
I have been very fortunate enough to be able to work for the Woolworth organisation as a manager of this huge organisation. I have been enjoying my job under this company and the best thing about this job is that I am able to learn a lot of things from my seniors and even from my other teammates. The seniors and the management heads have been very supportive and they have always extended their full support to me (Verboncu and Condurache, 2016). They have also helped me by identifying those areas I need to improve so that I can improve my performance and so as the company's and get promoted to a higher post. I am excited to continue my job under this organisation and I can see a bright future for me as a manager here in the Woolworth retail business organisation.

Hopefully, I will be able to use the experience that I have gained from here for the betterment of the Woolworth company, and this is why I think I should stick to this company till the very end as I can see a healthy future from this organisation. However, to be able to continue with this organisation, it is true that I need to improve my key weaknesses and emerge as a more improved manager who can give more profit to the company by enhancing employees' performances & thereby increasing the sales of the Woolworth retain business organisation.

Conclusion
This report has discussed the manager's role in the development of the company and also presented some of the key strengths and weaknesses of the manager. This report has also discussed the threats and opportunities that I had to face as a manager. The paper also discussed some of the key self-assessment tools and presented some key theories that helped me a lot to manage the process. This report concluded with reflecting the manager's desire to continue the work for the same company in the future.

Reference List
Afshari, A. and Kowal, J., (2017). Decision making methods for the selection of ICT project manager. GOSPODARKA RYNEK EDUKACJA= ECONOMY MARKET EDUCATION, 18(4), pp.19-28.

Claeys, A.S. and Opgenhaffen, M., (2016). Why practitioners do (not) apply crisis communication theory in practice. Journal of Public Relations Research, 28(5-6), pp.232-247.

Davies, E.M., Van der Heijden, B.I. and Stephenson, J., (2018). Are managers open to involvement in employee retirement? The influence of manager psycho-social characteristics, decision-making environment and older employee situational factors. Ageing & Society, 38(6), pp.1279-1301.

Ferguson, D.P., Wallace, J.D. and Chandler, R.C., (2018). Hierarchical consistency of strategies in image repair theory: PR practitioners’ perceptions of effective and preferred crisis communication strategies. Journal of Public Relations Research, 30(5-6), pp.251-272.

Gürel, E. and Tat, M., (2017). SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International Social Research, 10(51).

Madsen, D.Ø., (2016). SWOT analysis: a management fashion perspective. International Journal of Business Research, 16(1), pp.39-56.

Martinez, B., (2017). A SWOT analysis on Millennials in the workplace: Increasing manager success with Millennial employees in the hotel industry (Doctoral dissertation, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona).

Namugenyi, C., Nimmagadda, S.L. and Reiners, T., (2019). Design of a SWOT Analysis Model and its Evaluation in Diverse Digital Business Ecosystem Contexts. Management assignment Procedia Computer Science, 159, pp.1145-1154.

Quezada, L.E., Reinao, E.A., Palominos, P.I. and Oddershede, A.M., (2019). Measuring Performance Using SWOT Analysis and Balanced Scorecard. Procedia Manufacturing, 39, pp.786-793.

Suhaib, M., 2019. Conflicts Identification among Stakeholders in Goal Oriented Requirements Engineering Process. International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE).

SumChan, A.M., Bambacas, M. and Patrickson, M., (2019). Identification of stakeholders in an organisational change process. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals.

Ulmer, R.R., Sellnow, T.L. and Seeger, M.W., (2017). Effective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Sage Publications.

Verboncu, I. and Condurache, A., (2016). Diagnostics vs. SWOT analysis. Revista De Management Comparat International, 17(2), p.114.

Appendix

My personality test result