Case 1
Interpersonal roles portrayed by Adams Border
Line managers are mandated with the role of implementing policies and strategies that will see their organizations succeed. The quality of decisions made by line managers coupled with their leadership and interpersonal skills determine whether they will be able to build an orchestrate team. The promotion of Adam Border to a line manager brought his management skills to task where he has to develop best strategies to the department’s resources maximization and cost minimization.
The manager has the task of coordinating supplies/procurement teams, production teams, and sales team to work together with harmony. An organization is a system that has interrelated parts where optimal operation of all sections leads to business success (Campbell, Edgar and Stonehouse, 2011).
The promotion of Adam Border exhibited the leadership interpersonal role; Adam was responsible of making strategic decisions that guaranteed success to the organization. As leaders, Adam is mandated with the role of maintaining a winning team with his subordinates and ensuring that he creates good rapport as well as building strong team with his employees. In contemporary business management styles, there has been much focus on the quality of human capital that a leaders is able to develop; diversity has enlarged labor markets that companies can choose the best talents, skills and experience from the enlarged market.
Adam might not have had the opportunity of deploying new employees in the departments; however with the personnel at his disposure, the manager can get the best out of them with the available resources. The main management/leadership attributes that are going to offer his success are creativity, personnel development and growth, coaching, mentorship, and staff training. When making decisions, it is paramount that the leader uses his leadership skills to develop the best decisions for the good of the company (Fred, 2008).
At the end of six weeks, Adam portrays some satisfaction from the kind of support he has been able to get form his employees; this is an illustration of an effective leader who not only works to earn a living but also enjoys his work. The mind and the approach that the manager has is that of organizing, and mobilizing the resources of the company for the good of the company.
Accooridng to the article one of the challenges that Adams has is how to coordinate the production of his team with the needs of the sales department and with the availability of raw materials from his suppliers; the above challenge is the challenge of all team leaders. Effective leaders are able to combine the available, human, physical, informational, and corporate information in the most effective manner to benefit their company.
Decisional roles portrayed by Adams Border
Managerial science scholars and gurus have expressed their common notion that the quality, timeliness, and reliability of decision made by leaders determine the level of competitiveness that the company will attain. Adams success will be determined by how well he will be able to make decisions that reflect/ address the challenges he might be getting in the new promotion. In a nutshell, the main challenge that organizations face is how to manage, control, and make use of available resources amidst high competition in different sectors.
With the promotion, Adam will be playing resource allocator decisional role; the role involves allocating the available resources, physical, human, and informational resources, in the most optimal manner for the benefit of the company. The manager has to ensure that the supply chain management team is well coordinating with the production team for the benefit of the entire organization. Adam has the role of ensuring that there is effective logistics or supply chain management; SCM involves the ultimate provision of products and services required by an organization for operational functions.
Adams must ensure that the process looks into quality provisions, value additions, and physical distribution of material stocks, trading products, work in progress inventories, and manufactured goods/services (Hooley and Saunders, 2003). The next area that Adams has to consider is the production area; the manager should ensure that there is optimal utilization of raw materials. To attain departmental goals and objectives, which end up being reflected in the company’s organization goals, missions, and visions Adam should organize processes effectively; this includes undertaking input-output analysis, and undertaking numerous internal and external environment analyses.
Some tools of analysis that Adam can put into task include P.E.S.T.L.E. (Political, social, Ecological, Technological, legal, and environmental) analysis, S.W.O.T. (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, and using porter’s five forces. The level of output of the company should ensure that resources have been utilized in the best manner possible, production formulas should be followed to the letter giving opportunities to team leaders and staffs to air their voice on the best way to improve production in the department (Kim, 2005).
After the production of customer focused products, Adams has the role of ensuring that the commodities get to the targeted customers; sales and marketing is the process through which awareness and persuasion measures are undertaken to sell commodities manufactured in an organization. Integrated sales and marketing is an integral part in an organization’s management; necessary for developing and innovating effective business strategies.
The current global markets/ industry is highly competitive with new players coming up and old ones developing new working strategies or approaches; the best that Adam can do to ensure that the company remains relevant and competitive is to make quick and quality decisions. To be competitive in the international market, then there is need to have strategic decisions that ensure that issues and factors are handled from an international level/thinking. Scientific methods of decision-making have taken center stage in current business arenas as they address the prevailing conditions using research and expatriates inputs.
When making products, Adams is considering the end customer, the marketing department will be able to sell effectively if they have some competitive pillars developed by the company. Players in the same industry are more likely to sell their products with the same margin thus for price competitiveness, Adam need to embark on improving efficiency and resources allocation in the production department (direct costs) and other administrative areas.
In the event that the company has chosen a premium pricing methodology, the management should ensure that there is value for money; the products must have something unique than that one offered by its competitors. Despite the high cost, customers will be kept coming by the quality that the company is able to offer for instance when the company offers a unique products or it is the first one to offer a certain product in the market, then it can adopt premium pricing model at the introduction of the product to attract higher gains but offer the required quality by the customer.
Managerial skills most and least required by Adams in his new role
When acting on a management level, there are two most important skills that a leader should posses; decision making skills and human resources management skills. Decision making skills involves the management coming up with the best intervention in the form of decisions when required by the organization. Adam has the role of making strategic decisions to address challenges facing their organization as well as run day-to-day activities; it is also his role to make medium and long term decisions for the company.
The competitiveness and the success that Adams department will face depends will be dependent on the quality, timeliness, and acceptability of decisions; scientific decision making strategy advocates for the involvement of subordinates in making decisions. Different situations calls for different forms of decision and leadership skills/styles; the responsiveness and applicability of decisions to address issues facing a business determines the effectiveness of business processes within an organization.
With current business environment competition, Adam should adopt a scientific decision making process, the method involves a sequence of activities and stages. Much emphasis of scientific decision making is placed on gathering of data and information to make decisions; the initial stage in making an effective decision is defining the challenge facing an organization. The problem needs to be identified and differentiated from its symptoms; symptoms show there is a problem but does not point the problem itself; much emphasis is placed on defining the real cause of the problem; when root cause is well established, the success of later stages is facilitated.
The degree at which the management grasp of the problem, determine the quality of the final decision pertaining the subject area; it is with the light of the problem understanding that Adam will be gathering relevant data and facts. Some of the method that Adams can use to gather information includes researching, brainstorming, consulting, and experimentation; at any one time, it will be the role of Adams to choose the right method to adopt.
Information and data collected quality has an effect on the quality of the decisions made; if the problem was defined incorrectly, then the information collected will be misleading; misleading information leads to ineffective and unresponsive decisions. It is from the information collected that a platform for choosing the best alternative is laid; with a number of alternatives, Adams will then be called upon to make the right selection for the good of the department. Choosing the best alternate is not as simple as it may sound, sometimes it is straightforward while in other instances it is complicated; when complex, managers need to select the alternative with the highest probability of success.
Although having an understanding of accounting is important for Adams, the manager should focus more on managerial skills and talent development. There are some managerial accountings skills that the manager should posses, the skills involves how to make budgets and resources allocation. The department is not working in isolation; there are other departments that Adams can borrow some expertise in areas like accounting (Kourdi, 2009)
Basic management functions that Adams has to undertake
Line management is a leadership position that will determine the success of the department; Adams has to undertake some managerial functions skills to be successful in the sector; managerial roles can be classified into four main categories as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling/monitoring.
The functions do not work in isolation but they are interlinked and interrelated; efficient managers are able to effectively combine the four dimensions of management for the benefit of their organization. Organizing function of management involves putting factors of production into optimal use to attain competitiveness; while planning looks into the resources available in the organization to come up with the right manner of utilization (Kotler, Denize and Gary, 2008)
Case two
Jed’s leader style
With the new appointment, Jed has much enthusiasm to attain success in the new section of men’s wear where he is heading. The leadership style that has been adopted by Jed is authoritarian leadership style and delegation leadership skills; with the authoritarian style, the manager is aggressive and willing to make decisions that will see the success of his team. Jed has been portrayed as one who likes panning organizing, and dispensing orders/instructions that needs to be followed in the company. the article quotes that “he spends a lot of time planning and scheduling what needs to be done, assigning tasks to the staff in his section, giving directions, and emphasizing sales targets and deadlines, “the statement creates the impression that Jed gives clear and outright decisions and is aware and clear of the expectations thereafter.
In the form of delegation style, the manager uses most of his time planning, and giving instructions to his subordinates; Sally has been portrayed to be the manager interacting closely with subordinate employees. She is responsible of execution of orders and instructions from Jed. On the other hand, the employees in the segment employees are not working alongside Jed; they are executing orders and directions as have been given by the leader (Kotabe and Helsen, 2004).
Issue of power as it relates to Jed’s situation
Management positions comes with them some power, Fed has the control over the men’s wear sections; power comes with some responsibilities and expectations. The power and free will to plan, strategize and give orders/ instructions to be followed is power enjoyed by Fed. When planning has been done in the correct manner, Jed will be able to give attainable targets and set attainable objectives to his subordinates or those sections under him.
The targets will be attainable yet the resources of the organization will have been utilized in the best manner. As a manager, Jed’s has to learn how to monitor and control different undertakings in the company. When processes are rolling, there is much need for monitoring and control to ensure that the paths set by management has been followed. Periodical reviews are important to keep the company on track.
Misuse of power can leaders to demonization and elements of dictatorship in the segment; Fed need to understand that the best planning and strategizing policy he can implement can only start by understanding his subordinates. Fed seems to have taken a wrong path by not investing time to understand his employees on basis of their strengths, weaknesses, and intellectual capacity (Kourdi, 2009).
Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership to analyze the appropriateness of Jed’s behavior
According to the theory by Fred Fiedler, 1922, there is no on single model of leadership however leadership adopted in an organization is a factor of situational contingency. The management scholar is of the opinion that different situations calls for different styles of management; the theory explains that leadership style and situational favorableness determine the approach that leaders have at different situations.
Fed has the role of creating a group behavior and determining the trends and dynamics at particular situations; it is with the spirit that he will develop in the men’s wear segment that will determine whether he will be successful or not. Fiedler’s contingency theory suggests that in creation of group dynamics and spirit, there is no ideal leader however; low-LPC (task-oriented) and high-LPC (relationship-oriented) leaders can be of importance in different situations depending with the task.
The theory identifies three main situations that call for a different approach in leadership, they are leader-member Relations, task structure, and leader position power, how well every situation is used determines the success of group development dynamics. For example in the case of emergencies, or situations that need urgent decisions, it is of no point for the leader to consult team players on the way forward; he should adopt a Task-oriented leadership approach. Alternatively, in change management, leaders can be more successful if they adopt leader-member Relations approach (Mauborgne, 2003)
Case three
Rosewall Pty level of corporate social responsibility
The level of corporate social responsibility of the company is called CS-What; this is the level that the company fails to have high regards to the destruction and the environmental damage that it is causing during its production.
Before the intervention of the implementation team, the company failed to have a corporate social responsibility policy and probably was busy addressing matters on arising basis; this means that in the event there is urgent need to intervene the company would not hesitate. At the level of CS-What, the company has much regard with the profits gained from trade but fails to consider the effects that it has on the environment during the production process. Profit maximization becomes the most important factor for the company while environmental protection and societal factors or issues are ignored (Monroe, 2003)
Environmental vision do you communicate to your task force
The current level of ignorance that the company has on corporate social responsibility issues calls for corporate mission and objective that is attainable in the short and long run; the vision and mission should be strategic and affects all areas of the organization. The following is the vision that I would communicate to the team:
“To be the most reliable and respected company in the world for its environmental management policies” the following are policies I can highly recommend to be implemented:
- Develop recycling plant in the company
- Use of renewable energy when producing
- Developing, respecting, and maintaining an effective environmental management policy (Mullins, 2004).
Sustainability be economically viable for Rosewall Pty
When rosewall Pty develops sustainability policies and strategies in their operations, the company will benefit in the short and long run. Customer relation management strategies are going further than having the right marketing tools but also involve how well a company is managing the environment. With effective policies, customers will become loyal to the company’s products to the benefit of the company. The nature of rosewall Pty business involves the use of natural raw materials; when sustainable policies have been made, it will ensure that the company remains a going-on concern.
References
Campbell, D., Edgar, D. and Stonehouse, G., 2011. Business Strategy: An Introduction. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fred, D., 2008. Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Hooley, G. and Saunders, J., 2003. Competitive Strategy: The Key to Marketing Strategy. New York: Prentice Hall.
Kim, C., 2005. Blue Ocean Strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Kotabe, M. and Helsen, K., 2004. Global Marketing Management. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Kotler, P., Denize, A. and Gary, A., 2008. Principles of Marketing. Frenchs Forest NSW: Pearson Education Australia.
Kourdi, J., 2009. Business Strategy: A Guide to Taking Your Business Forward. New York: Bloomberg Press.
Mauborgne, K.,2003. Blue Ocean Strategy. Harvard: Harvard Business School Press.
Monroe, K., 2003. The Pricing Strategy Audit. Cambridge: Cambridge Strategy Publications.
Mullins, L., 2004. Management. Washington: Financial Times Prentice Hall.