The Fundamentals of Management: Organizational Management and Leadership - Essay Example

 The Fundamentals of Management: Organizational Management and Leadership INTRODUCTION The fundamentals of management lie in the four components of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Management which really works is the attainment of the goals that have been set by the organization through the effective as well as efficient utilization of resources through doing the above-mentioned activities of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Resources can be anything, like tangible or intangible, whether human capital or machinery used. Weaknesses The first weakness that lies in the organization is the fact that decision making steps are not being properly followed when it comes to the planning component of management. The six steps required in the managerial decision making process are not being used to reach a decision and therefore, often the managers make decisions which turn out to be futile in the future. The six steps are recognition of decision requirement, diagnosis and analysis of causes, development of alternatives, and selection of desired alternatives, implementation of chosen alternatives and evaluation and feedback 1. The organization often misses out on the second step of the decision making process, that is diagnosis and analysis of causes. If the understanding of the situation is not refined, and the brainstorming for alternatives has already started, then the decision will turn out to be wrong eventually. Treatment cannot be right unless the diagnosis is right. 1 Another weakness is that the organization is organized in a functional structure. The departmentalization has been done using the functional approach. Therefore, the organization has to face the weakness that a functional structure possesses. Firstly, there is poor communication across functional departments i.e. Marketing is not rightly communicating with Finance and vice versa. The structure lags innovation and is not responding to the external changes that are badly required. The decisions are mostly concentrated at the top level of management which increasing the number of delays that take place in getting a job done. And the responsibility for problems is difficult to pinpoint because the whole department is bent upon doing the same nature of work for the whole organization. Another weakness within the organization is the presence of the autocratic leadership style. An autocratic leader is one who believes in keeping decision making centralized and believes in managing his sub ordinates through the power that has been vested in him by the organization to reward, punish or recommend somebody. This leadership style will develop a dislike within the employees for the leader and they will not work up to the mark in his absence. The company is faced with the problem of inadequate budget control systems. This can be said because there have been signs which convey the presence of this weakness. The signs that are indicating the need for a proper budget control system are that deadlines are being missed frequently by employees, the inefficient use of human and non-human resources or even facilities and the fact that there is a high rate of employee absenteeism. 2 Strengths Goals are really important for any organization. They are the future desired state that the organization wishes to get fulfilled. Goals are of many types, whether they are on the operational, tactical or strategic level. Goals should always be carefully made and this is one of the strengths of the company that it is effectively designing its goals keeping in mind the criteria on which they should be created. The company is making goals keeping in mind that they should be SMART, i.e. Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable and Timely. If a goal is made keeping in mind the above mentioned characteristics, it will be easy to achieve them, fulfilling desired end states and will further motivate the company to work even better.3 In the component of organizing in management, human resources is also a very important part. If a company succeeds in well organizing its human resources, it can gain a competitive edge over other companies. One of the strengths of the company is that it values diversity. It employees people from all sorts of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, people from both genders, people young and old, people who are disabled. Therefore, a diverse mix of people ensures that the company is filled with ideas and innovations from all cultures and kinds of people, maintaining the edge that it needs over others. The organization's culture promotes working in teams and therefore, employees are often made to form teams so that they can achieve common interests and goals with the help and coordination of each other. But conflicts in a team are inevitable and understandable. Managing team conflict effectively is the strength of this organization. The company uses the compromising style to handle conflicts in a team, where it places importance on both assertiveness and cooperativeness. Both parties in the conflict are made to settle in a win-win situation. Another of the company's strength is that there is effective organizational control. The company is making sure that the organization's needs are tailored to through its control efforts and they should enhance the efficiency of the company. The company has controls which are linked to strategy in the sense that they take the long term view and does quality activities. Secondly, the controls are accepted by all members, thus enabling its success. Employees are very committed to follow the control standards and procedures. 4 Recommendations The first recommendation related to the planning phase of the management process is that there should be encouragement of organization wide planning. This should be the role of the top management because planning always starts and stops at the top most level. The responsibility of the ineffective planning will lie with the top management, therefore their involvement is essential. Moreover, training for a process as simple as planning is also essential. If employees will be trained how to plan what they have to do, they will be better planners. Furthermore, the company should hire planning staff, which becomes facilitators for employees all over the company in making them plan. They provide them with all the data or perform other specialized tasks which support employees. Another recommendation is that the company should improve participation in decision making process of all the employees that is decision making should be centralized. The recommendation for the organizing component of the management process is that the company should further endeavour to maintain an effective workforce. The workforce that is already working is very diverse and talented. It therefore should be maintained by giving the right amount of compensation by making sure that there is compensation equity all over the organization. Moreover, the wage and salary structure should match that of being provided by other companies in the same industry. Benefits should also be given to employees, such as a paid vacation or health insurance. The recommendation for ensuring better leadership in the organization is that new motivational programs should be used. 5There are many kinds like the pay for performance, where the employee is paid according to the level of performance he shows. Another motivational program is that of gain sharing, when a whole team of people or a single department is rewarded together simultaneously. This encourages team work among employees. Thirdly, there is ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), where the employee is given share in the ownership of the organization through stock exchanges. Moreover, communication barriers should also be overcome by inculcating skills like active listening within the employee workforce. The selection of appropriate channel should also be made in communicating. The managers should also consider MBWA (Management by Wandering Around) to know about the informal networks. Lastly, there is the recommendation of implementing total quality management in the company where the whole organization is committed to improve continuously through making sure that costs are kept low, enjoying teamwork and prioritizing customer satisfaction. Works Cited 1. Jones, Halsey (1973) Organizational Management: Concepts and Practice 2. Lundgren, Earl (1974) Organizational Management: Systems and Process 3. Cushman, Donald (1993) Organizational Communication and Management: A Global Perspective 4. Hersey, Paul (2002) Management of Organizational Behaviour: Utilizing Human Resources 5. Guiliani, Rudolph (2003) Leadership Read More