Brian Montgomery
What skills do you believe manages should possess? A: Leadership, organizational and interaction skills, good communication. Planning Q: Why do you think Managers need to plan? A: You need to have agreed plans and goals; I?s how you measure yourselves and the business against planned targets Q: There are different kinds of Plans including, Mission statements, vision, marketing operational. What type of plans do you use in your business? A: In my division we use all of those, the company has our mission statement and vision, which we live but the operational plans are the day to day business for us.
Q: How often do you refer to each of the plans? A: It really depends on the plan and situation but I would say at least weekly. Q: Do you discuss the plans with you your teams and why? A: Yes we discuss these in all of our meetings at different levels. Staff, supervisor and management meetings. Q: How effective do you think these plans are? A: There is always room for improvement, but at this time they are good. They are achievable and relevant to the core business. Our plans have to be somewhat flexible due to the changing environment we work in. Q: What benefits do you think you get from each of those plans?
A: The team get a sense of achievement, moving forward, setting new goals. We achieve then move the goals forward. It’s great for the team to see the plan coming to fruition. Organizing Q: Why do you think businesses need to have organizational structures? A: Accountability and growth. Q: There are different kinds of Organizational structures in the workplace, Formal/informal, functional, and divisional and matrix. Which one or combination Of these is used in your business? A: would say Divisional due to the multiple sites. Q: What benefits do you think you get from those structures you use?
A: loud say time is the biggest benefit. When you find something that works well at one site you can adapt that to fit another site. With not having to come up with a complete new system then have time to focus on other issues. Q: Do you see any drawbacks to any of the structures you use? A: Having too many sites sometimes mean you spread yourself a little thin. That’s when you have to look at staff and co-leaders. Leadership Q: Why do you think leadership is important in business? A: Overall accountability, but part of that is ensuring that the whole team work together to achieve the desired outcome.
Q: There are several types of adhering, Autocratic, Democratic Laissez-fairer, situational etc. Which of these do you use in your organization? A: Democratic for me, having said that there are occasions when time constants mean a directive needs to be the way to move forward quickly. Q:How would you describe your leadership style? A: Adaptable depending on the climate at the time and proactive. Q: What benefits do you think you get from this style? A: Success, great time management and good interactions with staff. This means we meet timeliness. Q:DO you see any drawbacks to this style?
A: Sometimes if you don’t stay focused on delivery, things can get interpreted Rooney. You really have to make sure you invest time on learning so everyone understands their part in the overall plan. Control Q: What does controlling mean for you? A: Guidelines are put in place sows have a structured approach. Q: What control systems are used in your business? A: Mainly Kepi’s (Key Performance Indicators) Q: Why are controlling systems important in your business? A: So we can achieve and show that we have achieved. Q: What control functions that you use monitor your planning functions?
A: The Kepi’s are what shows how we are progressing against our plan and working towards our targets. With no Kepi’s where are we really. 1 . The Planning Function of Management 1. 1 . A There are a variety of reasons that managers plan although to me the first reason would be to set the direction and priorities of the company or sector of the company. You want to ensure that everyone in the team is working towards a similar goal and understands what that goal is. 1 . 2. A Vision Statement: Describes what a company would like to achieve, their aspirations to be the leader or best at what they do.
Mission Statement: This is really the overall aim of the company, it tells prospective customers who the company are and what they stand for. Strategic plans: these are the long term plans the company has to grow. The overall direction it wants to take to achieve its desired goals. Marketing plans: This is the companies plan outlining how they plan to achieve the strategic goal they set. Here they need to look at what they deliver how well and what gives them the competitive edge over others out there. How they show that information to prospective clients. Contingency plan: This is the ‘what if plan.
As we all know “If anything can go wrong, it will. ” Murphy’s law With that in mind we need to put plans in place for possible events that were to originally planned for (the contingency plan). Operational plans: This is a short term plan often set at a lower level in the company to ensure the team or section of the company have a clear understanding of what they need to do in the short term to ensure the company as a whole is achieving its higher level plans. 1 . 2. B The company I studied has a variety of plans, they have a vision (what they want to be), Mission (Why they exist), Values(what is important to them).
They also have a strategic plan looking at the goals of increasing contracts and turnover by a percentage each year for the next five years. They have a marketing plan, for how they plan to sell the business to prospective clients. All these plans are driven from their National Office. Then there is the operational planning side of things, this is how they plan their work week to week to ensure they carry out the work the client wants within the timeshare set. 1. 3. From what observed I think overall the company studied has some good plans at each level.
My study was more focused on the operational plans and at interview and at first look it appears that the plans are sound and have some clear expectations of how things would be done in order to achieve the goals. Looking closer showed that there were some things that could possibly be done to make it more effective 1 . 3. B I was able to see the operational plans and how these were looked at from week to week. They have various focuses form current week to next and then longer focus into months ahead. I was shown the targets for completions of set work and the actual percentages achieved week on week against the plans.
They have set themselves some high goals for the year and are close to achieving. I did notice from discussions that where they appear to fail is due to not cooking at the contingency side of things fully. A lot of the day to day jobs are dependent on weather or plant access and often there is no plan for what they will do if they cannot do that. This means that the overall focus then becomes more reactive than proactive. 2. The Organizing Function of Management 2. 1 . A Businesses need to have organizational structures in order to allow them to function effectively.
This is because the structure defines the roles and tasks undertaken by staff. “An idea can only become a reality once it is broken down into organized, actionable elements. ” Scott Belles 2. 2. The main kinds Of organizational structures are: Formal: Generally roles and responsibilities are set out in writing and staff generally don’t venture outside their job description. Informal: Is how people work together in practice, day to day interactions. This structure generally develops alongside a formal structure. Divisional: Is where an organization is split into a number of separate units.
These can be grouped according to product, market, geographical location or a mix of these. Each division is self-managed. Functional: Is where staff are grouped according to the function or role they perform Matrix: Is where staff are grouped by both function and product, often this structure is used for project work. 2. B The company I studied had a combination Of the Structures discussed. The company as a whole have a formal structure with an organizational chart to show the positions, with each position having a formal job description.
But alongside that the staff have developed good communication and day to day talking to ensure the jobs are completed which is really the informal addition. The company has certainly got a divisional side to mainly based on location, and there is somewhat of a functional split at the location I looked at where hey have a roofing team with team leader, a handyman team with team leader, an industrial cleaning team with team leader and a commercial cleaning team with team leader. 2. 3. A The impression I was left with is that the mix of organizational structures works very well in this company.
There appear to be a good balance between the formal and informal. The functional structure impressed me in that each of the individual teams had a clear understanding of their roles and took pride in achieving and meeting their targets. 2. 3. B During my visit I was able to see the organizational chart and some of the position descriptions. Away the team members within the office and how they interacted with the team leaders to get tasks achieved. 3. The Leadership Function of Management 3. 1 . A Leadership is important because without it a business will fail to function to its full potential. Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality. ” Warren G. Bennie 3. 2. A To me the business I studied relies heavily on the democratic style of leadership, with a little delegating added to the mix. Democratic: There were a lot of notes from meetings with the manager and her supervisors and team leaders, where you could see issues discussed and he thoughts of the team with the decision made and agreed as the way to move forward. I noted from the tone used by the manager at interview and the dealings I saw with staff that she asked for their thoughts and input to assist in the decision making process.
Delegating: I could often see actions for tasks or monitoring being assigned to the supervisor and team leaders. 3. 2. B Compared to the democratic style the autocratic does not look for a collaborative approach. Generally it is a more solely directive or authoritarian approach. Whereas the democratic style assists staff in feeling that they are a ajar part of the process and engaging them the autocratic would not be the way to get the best from a team. The team with the autocratic leader often feel less loyal, have less commitment and in the end, less satisfaction from the job as those with a democratic leader.
Having said this a few of the staff I came across liked the go to work and be told what to do and how, although it was a minority. Although not ideal in my view there are occasions where autocratic works, this is usually in situations where an emergency has occurred and a decision needs to be made sooner rather than waiting to see if a consensus can be reached. . 3. A I believe that the leadership in the business I studied was adequate. There seemed to be systems in place and all those I spoke to or observed seemed to be aware of their part in achieving.
