A Introduction to Management

Question: Each student is required to conduct and document a Critical Analysis of four of theself-assessment activities undertaken in the tutorial.The critical analysis for each topic requires: Presenting a brief review of your self-assessment findings. Presenting a critical analysis of the findings. Discussion of theories that can explore and explain the findings. Reflecting on the results of your self-analysis, discuss your strengths and weaknesses as a manager. Based on these findings outline an action plan that will help you develop as a manager. Answer: 1. Introduction The process or function to co-ordinate the effort of people in an organization is known as management. The main objective of management is to achieve goals and objectives by using the available resources in an efficient and effective manner. Management is a mix of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling an organization to achieve the target set by the company. Management is also the effective utilization of resources, including the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources (Cleland King, 1972). Management is also an academic discipline, a social science whose objective is to study social organization. It can also be considered as a social science targeted towards studying the processes and management strategies in use by an organization. Management is considered to be the integrating force in all the organized activities. Whenever two or more persons try to come up working together, then they have to co-ordinate their activities in some way to increase the productivity and efficiency. They also have to organize the resources available with them to make their optimum utilization. Management is required not only in business organizations but also in places like schools, pubs, shops and almost everywhere. It is an integral part of work, without management it would be very difficult to get any work done effectively (Johnston, 2008). These places also require the optimum utilization of resources and also the effective co-ordination between different departments and people working together, in order to produce an effective and efficient result. So it could be truly said that management is not only required in business organization but is a mandatory in all types of social organizations. Management is a vital aspect of huma n society, whenever or wherever co-ordination between two or more different people or departments is needed, and management plays its role in it. There are many forms of management, one or another form come into play whenever organized activity is performed by a group of individuals (Koontz, O'Donnell Weihrich, 1980). It is to be noted that in every aspect of life we need to utilize the resources in such a manner that the result obtained is the most effective and the process followed is the most efficient. This is possible only by involving management activities in, leading the team and organizing the behavior (Ebun, 1998). This paper focuses on the analysis of some of the key points of marketing and what is their role overall in developing the organization. These points to be covered are as follows: 2. Organizational Structure and Design Organizational structure can be defined as the process of task allocation, scheduling and hierarchy activities in the quest to achieve the goal set for the organization. There can be many ways in which an organization can be structured, depending on its objective. Organizational structure is responsible for organizational action in two main ways. It provides the environment for standard operating procedures and routines. It also determines who gets to participate in the decision-making processes (Jung, 1923). 2.1 Types of Structure Following are the popular structures which exist in an organization: 1. Pre-Bureaucratic Structure This type of structure is prevalent mostly in small organizations. It lacks standardization of task, and is favourable for small activities only. It is totally a centralized structure, and the owner or the key person is the one making all the decisions (Gibbons, 2007). It is useful for new entrepreneurs, as it provides them complete control on their business. 2. Bureaucratic Structure This type of structure consists of a number of levels in the management process, and everyone is aware of their roles and their powers. They also are aware about who is the boss and to whom they should report. Strategic decision making is simple in this structure, but is not a good place for creativity. 3. Post Bureaucratic Structure Similar to its predecessor, there are still levels of management, but now there exist some level of relaxation to give place and atmosphere for nurturing new ideas (Latreille, 2010). 4. Functional Structure Highly standardized structure with high level of efficiency is the identity of this kind of structure. Employees are experts of their realms as proper conditions are provided to them to develop. Co-ordination is practices between all the departments and individuals. 5. Divisional Structure This employs the practice of creating divisions of work for specific task, with a delegated authority in that division, responsible for all the operations and performance of it (Ross Beath, 2002). This type of structure makes the work division clear and put responsibility on central person of that division, making it easier to provide and achieve the goals. 6. Matrix Structure It is seen in large organizations where there are more than one department functioning, every department is divisional in sub departments to divide the power and increase the efficiency. But it has dis-advantages of complex structure and confused employees. 7. Organizational Structure Used normally in the small organizations, this is one of the most popular structures formed till date, consisting of a well formed and very capable top order management, a very efficient middle order management and a firm bottom level management, providing strength to the entire organization (Goleman, 2002). These are the various types of organizational structures existing, and are used according to the need of an organization. Choice of a structure depends completely on the psychology and size of the organization. According to the above discussion, a proper structure of an organization is very important as this helps in creating a base for an organization. Various organizations had grown even in the tough situation just from a good structure of organization. While having the self-assessment about the organizational structure it can be said that the organization structure should be chosen according to the objective and requirement of the organization. As a manager what I would prefer is a structure which could provide me total control on the ongoing activities in my organization, like FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURE, which keeps me the boss of overall activities while employing the domain specialists as the responsible persons for their respective domain. In this way de-centralizing the authority for quicker decision making and providing complete control over all the processes. In addition to this liabilities are decided and hence output is better and named (Blanchard Fabrycky, 1990). As a manager my strengths related to the organization structure is the understanding of the theory of organizational structure how the theories related to the organizational structure should be applied and theoretical strategies to be used but my weakness is the practical implementation of these theories in the real world. 3. Human Resource Management Human resource managementis a process in organizations formed to increase employee performance in service to meet the employers goals.HRs primary task is concerned with how people are managed within organizations, focusing on the policies and systems used in the organization.HR is typically responsible for activities, includingrecruitment,trainingand development,performance appraisal, and rewarding.Human resources also takes care of the task of cross industrial relations, i.e. they balance the different practices within an organization with the regulations which arise as a result of collective bargaining as well as governmental laws. HRM is also related to a strategic as well as a comprehensive approach of managing people, the culture of the workplace and its environment. The Human Resource Management is said to be effective if it is able to make the employees contribute towards the organization effectively as well as productively and helps the organization to achieve its goal and fulfil its objectives (Cleland King, 1972). According to the above discussion it can be analysed that the human resource manager is an important part of an organization which includes the management of employees by performing various strategies and tasks. The tasks include the recruitment of employees, training of employees, reward and bonus programs which keeps the interest of employees towards the work. As a Human Resource Manager, my primary task is to achieve the trust of my employees, because without gaining their trust no manager can function properly and make decision benefitting the organization. As Ill be involved in the recruitment and overall functioning of an employee, so I would prefer the employees who are experts in their domain or even if they are not experts but then too enthusiasm and the zeal to achieve the targets on time is a must for all the employees. I would like to take care of all the grievances (if any) of them, so that they could feel safe working and produce more, providence of better working atmosphere is a primary key to achieve success for any organization, and that would be my criteria too (Akanni, 1987). Discipline is to be maintained to keep a check on the operations and to monitor the growth and output. As a human resource manager my strength is my leadership quality. The other strengths of mine are my capability of understanding the need of organization in terms of employee or human resource requirements and motivating quality. My weakness as a human resource manager is that I believe on people very early. Employees may be able to make me fool very easily. 4. Functions of Management Below given are the various functions of management: 1. Planning: It is the most important and crucial part of any organization. The management has to do everything after planning it first and then implementing the process. Without an effective planning no organization can carry on its work efficiently. It is required to know the possible outcome before-hand and then acting accordingly. 2. Organizing: Managers have to organize the resource available with them efficiently to get the work done effectively without requiring any external agent to come into play and increase the production cost or increase the overtime (Akanni, 1987). A well-organized organization always has a good strategy to utilize all those resources and carry on with its processes smoothly. 3. Staffing: Employing an effective and efficient staff is very important for an organization. As an enthusiastic employee filled with energy and efficient in working is an asset to any organization. As hell be producing output equivalent to ten poor and lazy employees all together, hence it is considered to be one of the most important function of management. 4. Directing: Directing or Leading the organization is a very important task to accomplish, without an effective leader the entire staff will go bind and will not be able to perform the duties effectively (Colin, 1986). An efficient leader can bring laurels to the organization by leading his team effectively. 5. Co-ordination: This is the basic task accomplished by management, it is to act as a binding agent between the various departments of an organization to work effectively and produce best output. According to the above discussion it can be easily said that the foundation of behavior include the various factors related to the organization. Planning, organizing, staffing, Directing and coordinating are main functions of any management. These are the basic functions of any management which help in managing the organization with a powerful management capacity. As a manager, the above given functionalities are the key points on which I would operate. A good plan when well executed provides the best results, and the planning phase starts from the very beginning. Staffing comes as an implementation part, choosing the best people for the organization is the first stepping st6one towards the success (Miller Dalglish, 2011), motivation the employees to work hard and directing them towards the goal and providing them the best guidance so that they could achieve their goal in time and efficiently is the total process of implementation. Once well-coordinated, these all functions provide the desired outcome and proves the plan was successful. My strengths as a manager is that I can coordinate with the employees, I can direct the employees for various tasks under me but main weakness of mine is to plan well but planning is a very important task for any management to get success for the task. The other weakness of mine is to defining the objectives of any task means I always have a clear image of the objective but I can express those objectives in words. 5. Understanding Groups and Teams An organization comprises of various levels of management. These levels have varying degree of powers vesting with them, enabling them to take authoritative decisions at their levels in the benefit of the company. They act as the leaders to the people working below them, and guide them to achieve better results. Various levels of management are described as below: 1. Top Management: It is the ultimate source of authority, all the goals are laid down by them for the organization, and it is their responsibility to make new policies for the organization (Miller Dalglish, 2011). They devote most of their time in planning and thinking of how to maximize the output from the available resources. They are directly answerable to the company owners and to the people whose money is on stake with the companys performance. They are also known as the policy maker group. Main functions for them are: Establishing goals Making policies Framing organizational structure Effective control Overall leadership 2. Middle Management: They act as a link between the top and the lower level of management. They are responsible for the top management to carry out effectively their departments (Mackenzie, 1969). They mainly focus on organizing the resources available, and devote their most of the time in making the policies carried out effectively. Their main functions are: Act as link Interpret policies Recruitment Assigning activities Motivation 3.Lower Management: They form the base of the operations, also known as the front line managers. They are in direct contact with the workers and face the direct blows of the market. Their work is to manage the staff and lead them to achieve the goals set by the top management. They report to the middle management about the current situation thus making them aware about the process going on and helping them to form policies to deal with it (Mackenzie, 1969). Teams and groups are very essential to understand and manage for any organization to accomplish any task. According to our analysis in large organization, the projects are also large thus a project cant be accomplished by a single person. There is a requirement of full team or group on that project. The management of whole team is very necessary for an organization to complete any project efficiently and effectively. As a manager, working in any of the group would require a lot of patience and knowledge to achieve success. In addition to these qualities one would require a keen foresightedness to foresee what is going to happen next and act accordingly beforehand. Motivational skills are a must and directing the employees towards the goals is mandatory. A blend of all these makes a true manager. As a team manager my strengths are that I can direct a team for any task very effectively and efficiently. I have the capability of motivating employees as well as self-motivation which helps me and my team even in critical situations. My weaknesses in managing a team are the assessment of the work. I cant get tough with any of the team member. 6. Summary Management is a practice to intermingle all the departments and co-ordinate between them to get the best result from the organization. Managers are the people responsible for carrying out this task. It is their responsibility to co-ordinate between different departments of the organizations working under different forms of organizations to carry out the processes effectively (Mittal, Anderson, Sayrak Tadikamalla, 2005). A manager must have excellent communication skills to make him achieve this goal. He is responsible for the overall functioning of an employee. All the plans for the welfare of the organizations are framed by him, so he requires a better understanding of all the activities. This is because of the planning done by him while staffing and motivating the employees to work hard and directing them to achieve their goals while coordinating between all the departments. 7. References Akanni J.A (1987): management, Concepts, Techniques and Cases. Taa Printing Publishing Company, Ibadan. Blanchard, B.S. and Fabrycky, W.J. (1990). System Engineering and Analysis, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall. Colin, P. (1986).WHAT DO MANAGERS DO? A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE. Journal of management studies.23:1.Pg; 88-116. Cleland, D.I. King, W.R. (1972). Management: A Systems Approach, McGraw-Hill. New York. N.Y., Ebun, F.C (1998): Revision Notes on business Management. Federal Co-operative College, Ibadan. Financial Impact of Customer Satisfaction. Marketing Science (24:4): 544-559. Goleman, D. (2002).The New Leaders. Time Warner. London. Gibbons, M. (2007) Better Dispute Resolution: A Review of Employment Dispute Resolution in Great Britain. London: Department of Trade and Industry. Jung, C. (1923). Psychological types. Routledge and Kegan Paul. London. Johnston, T. (2008). Knowledge and use of mediation in SMEs. Acas Research. Paper 02/08. Koontz, H., O'Donnell, C. Weihrich H. (1980). Management 7th ed. McGraw-Hill, New York, N.Y. Latreille, P. (2010 b). Mediation at work, of success, failure and fragility. Acas Research Paper 06/10 Latreille. MIT Sloan Management Review (43:2): 51-59. Miller, P. Dalglish, C. (2011). The Leader in You: Developing your leadership potential. Tilde University Press (Palgrave Macmillan). Melbourne. MacKenzie, R.A. (1969). "The Management Process in 3-D,".Harvard Business Review. Nov.-Dec. pp. 80-87. Mittal, V., Anderson, E.W., Sayrak, A. Tadikamalla, P. (2005) Dual Emphasis and the LongTerm Ross, J.W., Beath, C.M., (2002) Beyond the Business Case: New Approaches to IT Investment.