Introduction
To begin with, it should be stated that the only truth for any investor sounds the following: a good management team is the most important factor for any company. Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to estimate the management level, as some aspects of this process are deeply hidden within the internal management processes. Nevertheless, there are some aspects which should be paid attention to.
The Job Management
First of all, it is necessary to emphasize that strong management is the basis of any successful company. Surely, the management team and the employees are not less important, nevertheless, proper and accurate management is often regarded as the key to success. It is not the main driving force of the company, nevertheless, it is the aspect that directs the driving forces of any business activity.
As for the matters of Woolworths, it should be stated that the main problem of the company is covered in the fact that Luscombe made an essential emphasis on his personal management, while nothing is stated of the management team and HR policy within the Chief Executive Management. As Statt (2005, p. 321) stated in his research: “Theoretically, the management of a publicly-traded company is in charge of creating value for shareholders. Management is to have the business smarts to run a company in the interest of the owners. Of course, it is unrealistic to believe that management only thinks about the shareholders. Managers are people too and are, like anybody else, looking for personal gain. Problems arise when the interests of the managers are different from the interests of the shareholders. The theory behind the tendency for this to occur is called agency theory.” In the light of this fact, it should be stated that conflicts and problems will be a common thing for the company unless the management will be closely linked with the matters the interests of Stakeholders. Surely, the stakeholders of Woolworths are interested in the decrease of expenses, nevertheless, the decrease of CO2 emissions is not in their direct interests, consequently, they may become dissatisfied with the management and business policy.
On the other hand, the board of directors is not obliged to always come to the shareholders’ rescue. The issues of job management will become here essentially important, especially, taking into consideration the statement that workers of the company are not able to estimate the management level of the CEO level.
Another problem, which may be traced in the case study, is the problem of compensation. Originally, in theory this concept sounds perfectly, nevertheless, it leaves to wish a better one. Indirectly, the problem may be defined by the fact that the car parking is full on weekends. There are two variants: the workers either work on weekends for making overtime hours, or have too much obligations and responsibilities, and are not able to cope with them during the working week. As Swanson (2002, p. 182) emphasizes: “Many executives simply did whatever it took to drive up the share price so they could vest their options to make a quick buck. Investors then realized the books had been cooked, so share prices plummeted back down while management made out with millions. Also, stock options aren’t free, so the money has to come from somewhere, usually the dilution of existing shareholder’s stock”. From this point of view, there is strong necessity to emphasize that the required solution of the managerial problem will be covered in the proper research of the reaction of the stakeholders, employees and partners. Anyway, if the company is unable to solve its internal problem, it signifies the fact that the feedback system, and the structure of internal communication is not adjusted properly. Again, this is the managerial problem in its communicational aspect.
Aims and Goals
Judging by the given information, it should be stated that the company and the new CEO management team does not have a clearly stated goal. Originally, a company with no goal is like a riffle shooter with closed eyes: whatever accurate he is, he will not be able to hit his target with closed eyes. Surely, the issues of the goals are within the management responsibility, consequently, there is strong necessity to ask the questions for defining the goals and aims of the company. what kind of goals has the management set out for the company? Does the company have a mission statement? How concise is the mission statement? The fact is that, a good mission statement is the source of goals not only for management, but also for the employees, stakeholders and partners. Moreover, it helps to realize the competitors that the company is still developing and is going to place the leading positions. The following fact should be stated – the mission statement should be stated with the help of business language, and it should be supported by at least two thirds of the workers. Only such mission statement may be regarded as the perfect process of defining the goals.
Roots of Managerial Problems
The fact is that, any problem, especially managerial, has its roots in a deeper aspects of work. The deepest reason of managerial problems are the issues of attitude towards business performance in general. Personal attitude towards the job may be regarded as the key issue of business performance. Originally, personal attitude of Mike Luscombe is perfect, nevertheless, he should define the attitude of all the other managers towards the business performance of Woolworths. Initially, it is hard to define such type of problem, as the information provided is not sufficient for defining any problem.
Another statement, which should be emphasized on the matter of the roots, claims, that the problem of internal disagreements is pursued in every fourth business company, nevertheless, those, who managed to cope with this problem are close to success, or have already reached it. Wright (2007, p. 439) emphasizes the following: “Most managers don’t take the time to know the various personalities of the people who report to them. They take a one-attitude approach to everyone, and this doesn’t always work with everyone and this leads to arguments. Nothing side-tracks a project like arguing.” From this point of view, it should be stated that disagreement is, evidently, the common thing, as the management team has just changed, the Chief Management has the opposite representations on the needs of the company consequently, part of the managerial team can not agree with the offered business course. Consequently, it should be stated that the solution of this problem should be directed towards the sphere of encouragement of the workers, and inspiring them to offer the ideas of business performance improvement. Originally, there is no need to eradicate the disagreement moods totally, as the initiative may suffer form this, however, it is dangerous to let the disagreement grow essentially, as consent will be hardly achievable in these circumstances. The aim of the manager here, is to create the atmosphere, which will allow to reach the necessary conclusions before the things are talked to death.
As Golann (2006, p. 369) emphasizes in his research: “These problems may arise in the part of the managers and the labor force. The management of a business has left the hands of its owners and come into the hands of the professional manger, an employee himself. Perhaps the strangest thing about the professional manger, as we know him today, is that he is not working primarily to get rich, but to do good production.”
Conclusion
Finally, there is strong necessity to mention that the managerial problems, which are observed in Woolworths Company may be of various origins. The fact is that, the information which is provided is not sufficient for clear identification of the problem, nevertheless, the possible problems are enlisted in the report. Coping with all these problems dissent can be beneficial, depending upon on how it is done, nevertheless, there is strong necessity to mention that all the problems can not be coped with, consequently, they should be divided into important and less important for successful relocation of the working resources, aimed at solving these problems. Moreover, some problems, like disagreement within the team should not be eradicated totally, as this issue is the double end stick.
References
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