The Communication Skills And Leadership Skills

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Goldenstate manufacturers are the manufacturing organization. (Profit Organisation)

Purpose and Reason: This Goldenstate manufacturers are established to produce textile-goods

that satisfy the customers to make a profit for the organization. Another purpose is to provide job

opportunities to people in the society.

b) Identify three(3) other types of organizations and explain how their purpose and reason

for establishment might differ from Goldenstate Manufacturers.

- Sole proprietors. (An unincorporated businesses)

This organization focuses primarily on private profits. A private owner owns this organization.

But Goldenstate manufacturer is Limited company. (An incorporated businesses)

- Service organizations

This organizations produce services, activities that provide some value to the recipient such as

financial, legal, medical, educational or recreational benefits. But Goldenstate manufacturer is

just selling their textile (physical) products (Manufacturing organisation).

- The public sector (Not-profit Organisation)

This organization is to provide a service to the society to make better environment. It is under

governmental control. However Goldenstate manufacturer is to provide the stakeholders

profits (For-profit organisation).

1.2 Identify at least two (2) of the main roles/functions that need to be carried out by the following:

Mark (CEO)

Main roles/functions: Leader, Coordinator

CEO stands on the top position in company as a leader. CEO has to suggest and decide the direction of the company and give some plans about it. CEO has responsible for the company problems and issues. CEO has to think smartly n quickly. For example, Mark has to suggest how the company is going to recover the 20%dropped production. CEO has to coordinate the issues and arbitrate the problems in the company as a coordinator. And also CEO should pull out employee’s full power abilities by giving them motivation.

Carl (Operations Manager)

Main roles/functions: Communicator, Supervisor

Operations manager is able to explain aptly to the team members about their individual jobs, as well as the main goal that has to be achieved by the team collectively with communication. Operations manager has to supervise how the team works and listen to the team as well so he can reduce their complaints. For example, Carl has found out why production staffs do not stay with the company for long, and he reckons it hard to recruit technical managers so Carl has to communicate with managers and solve the problems out.

Quality Control Manager

Main roles/functions: Analyser, Inspector

Quality control manager has to direct quality control process to ensure the continuous production of products with established standard. Quality control manager should manage the process to improve and upgrade the products. Quality control manager also has to inspect the outcome of products as an inspector, so company can check if there is any problems or not and decide whether the products can be on sale or not. They can prevent customer’s complaints. For example, customer complaints have increased with regards to the quality of the finished goods in the case study, in this situation, the quality control manager has to figure out what the problem is and he should inspect the products before they sell it.

Research and Development Manager

Main roles/functions: Researcher, Motivator

Research and development manager has to know about what customers want, also analyse the products, customer’s satisfaction by checking latest information, give suggestion to company about marketing strategy to maximize the profit. Research and development manager is also encouraging employees by giving useful information. And also they can research employee’s satisfaction and develop the process of working.

1.3

a) Explain how effective you feel Goldenstate Manufacturers is in meeting its purpose

In my opinion, Goldenstate Manufacturers are not effectively meeting their purpose. The reason is the company’s production has dropped by 20% over the past 18 months and customer complaints have increased with regards to the quality of the finished goods during this time as well. Which means the company or the products are having some problems. We can see that production staffs do not stay with the company for long in case study, because the work pressure is too high, and some managers are not flexible and seem not listening to their team members. I would say that this company is having a lack of communication, and failing in meeting its purpose. Also dyeing and cutting sections are overstaffed, so production process is not effective.

b) List four (4) main management skills or competencies needed for it to be competitive.

Conceptual Skills

This skills focus on solving problem and understanding business. This skill is useful for planning for goals and managing organisation.

Communication Skills and Leadership Skills

A manager should give value to the opinions of his sub-ordinates as well as he should be a good listener, so they can solve the problems and issue smoothly and quickly. Good communication skills bring faster work speed as well and reduce the complaints of staff. A good leader is a good listener. Also good leaders can motivate, guide, provide right resources and lead their team members to achieve the goal easier. The leader has to manage resistance to change of staff.

Effectiveness Skills

Leaders who have effectiveness skills can contribute objectives and projects to the staff well, and also set standards for performance, so they can manage good time management.

Interpersonal Skills

This skill is for coaching and mentoring. If the manager is people’s person and good at relationship and team building, that team members would have less complaints and co-operate nicely together. A manager should know how to lead and work with people who have different background and educational qualifications.

c) Explain why you feel each of the four skills or competencies listed in 1.3(b) are important.

Conceptual Skills

Before planning, the management needs to understand organisation’s business model and has to prepare solving problem. For example if CEO does not know his company’s model and problems, he cannot lead and manage organisation to good results.

Communication Skills and Leadership Skills

In a team or a group, by communicating people can share the problems and solve the problems with less stress which will bring better work results. Good leaders have to be a good listener for their staff, because less stressful staff can perform their work well and achieve their goals easier through reducing their complaints. Also employees need to be leaded with good direction from a leader.

Effectiveness Skills

A leader has to arrange employee’s performances and objectives effectively in order to reducing waste resources and time. For instance if dyeing and cutting sections were not overstaffed in Goldenstate, they are able to get more effective profits and reduce customer’s complaints.

Interpersonal Skills

There are many different people who have different characters and life stories in the organisation. Therefore leaders have to understand them and manage their performance with coaching and mentoring.

Question 2

2.1

a) From any of the leadership theories you have studied on the course identify and briefly explain which theory Ron, the Finishing manager most closely aligns with, giving evidence from the case study to support your comments.

Ron has an Autocratic Leadership style, and behavioural theory is most closely aligns with finishing manager, Ron. This theory insists that great leaders can be made. This theory is about how the leader has to act like and how the leader has to treat people physically and emotionally through teaching and observation. In other words this theory focuses on action. From the case study, it says ‘Ron, the finishing manager follows the same approach and believes in not allowing his staff to take the liberty of doing things without his knowledge.’ Probably Ron is too much worried about things are going wrong because of worker’s mistake. However to develop the efficiency, and prevent from turning over from finishing section, Ron should allow worker’s liberty of doing things.

b) Identify and explain the leadership styles of Adam, the Knitting manager, and James, the Dyeing manager giving evidence from the case study to support your comments.

Adam : The knitting manager is autocratic style leader which means he makes decisions without reference to anyone else. In other words, this style means that a leader has too strong power in making decision. From the case study, it says ‘Adam, the knitting manager believes in the philosophy of "My way or no way"!’ Adam thinks that his way is the best way so he does not listen to anyone else. Even if his way is wrong, employees have to follow his way. So the workers have no choice on what they are doing, and they have to depend on their leader and those things create de-motivation, so the workers’ turn-over is high in the knitting section.

James : The dyeing manager is Laissez-Faire style leader which means he does not care much about what his teammates are doing. However this style has another aspect that means responsibilities are shared by all, in other words staff can be highly motivational because they can control over their working. From the case study, this style shows negative side. It says, ‘James, the dyeing manager, does not take much notice if workers don’t do their jobs. James likes to be liked by his staff and refrains from taking any actions which might upset the team and/or turn them against him.’ Leader should give direction to the team. However James is not leading properly because he thinks that his team will be upset if he tries to control them. At least he has to notice something if workers do not do their jobs properly to reduce time consuming. Maybe reducing staffs can make it easier for James to control team. (Dyeing section is overstaffed)

c) Comment on how appropriate you feel each of these leadership styles are in the current situation – give two reasons for your answer to each style.

Both Adam and James have not appropriate leadership style.

Adam’s autocratic style is not appropriate at all.

1) He believes in the philosophy of "my way or no way"! And because of that, the workers have to work without any thinking like a machine, and they loses the motivation, therefore knitting workers are turning over easily than other section. Probably many staffs cannot express their complaints to a manager.

2) Because he does not listen to his staffs, he would not know what is going wrong and the workers cannot give him any ideas or suggestion. So there is no quality improvement due to no communication with his staffs.

James’ Laisses-faire style is not appropriate as well

1) Since he could not control his team, employees are not working properly, so working efficiency is very low. And that is why dyeing section is overstaffed. His team’s liberty is too much. At least he has to warn if workers do not do their jobs.

2) I think his section needs standards for working process to his staffs. Because despite overstaffed in dyeing sections, the production is usually held-up in the stitching section due to waiting for fabric through the dyeing and finishing sections. In other words, working processing in dyeing section is not efficient.

2.2

a) Select one (1) motivational theory:

Briefly describe the theory

McClelland’s ‘Acquired’ (3-Needs) Theory

This theory presumes that the motivation has three important acquired needs in work. There are there motivators such as achievement, affiliation and power.

nAch is Need for achievement. The characteristics of person who has achievement focus on accomplishment of goals, and set goals and standards to reduce risk for achieve goals. This need provides individual responsibility and feedback on performance.

nPow is Need for power. The characteristics of person who has power focus on influence the behaviour of others, and enjoy competition. This need provides controlling over others and public attention.

nAff is Need for affiliation. The characteristics of person who has affiliation focus on interpersonal relationships, and want to feel part of the group. This need provides companionship and social approval.

Using information from the case study explain to Mark how he might use the theory to motivate Carl the General Manager Operations.

Mark should give Carl more individual responsibility to manage employees, so he can ask other managers to change their managing way for good achievement. Carl needs to be confident about what he is doing. There will be no improvement if he does not start interfere in how the section managers manage their staff. So Mark should encourage Carl through giving more individual responsibility to him. Mark should give power to Carl to control over his managers with high nPow. Carl thinks new employment of technical managers is hard, he cannot control his managers. Therefore Mark should give Carl more power about authority for employment.

Carl also needs affiliation to be socialized. So he can be able to find other technical managers for the future. If he makes more friends, then it will be easier to find the technical managers. Also he needs companionship with his managers.

b) Advise Adam, the knitting manager, of four (4) ways he might motivate his staff so they will remain with the company. Make sure you explain:

What he must do and

How he might do it

1) Adam, the knitting manager must communicate with his staff. By communicating, he must be a

friendly person to staffs and listen to staffs so he knows what the problem is and solve it.

2) Also he must not force his way only. He might stop forcing staff and allow some of their way of

working to improve efficiency and to reduce complaints.

3) He must show that he is a good leader to make staff to follow him. He must not blame other section

managers. Before blaming others he might check if his section has any problem and do not show

staff that he is aggressive. He needs to appeal that he has changed.

4) Adam must reduce working pressure. To reduce the working pressure, Adam must train his staff

very well. And approach kindly so they can feel comfortable when they are working.

2.3 Mark the CEO has told Ron, the Finishing manager that he should delegate more. You are

assigned to coach Ron through the steps he must take to delegate effectively.

a) Explain to Ron three (3) benefits of delegation, using information from the case study to

illustrate your comments.

1) Leader allows employees to make decisions – give more responsibility to employees.

You should allow your staff to take the liberty of doing things unlike Ron. Each person has their own style to do the work, unless they are doing wrong things. It will bring the more efficiency result and develop successors. You also should allow their free rein a bit. So they get less stress from the work which could make workers to work faster.

2) Leader allows flexible working environment to give more liberty.

Employees investigate the situation and decide their needs to be done and how to do it. A leader sets standards for priorities and delegates. Employee could have different ideas for same problem and they might have their own way to solve it. So you can just monitor how the staffs are achieving the goal. Also if the employees work themselves, they might get less pressure from the work and their teamwork skills will be improve as well.

3) Good motivation

You do not have to interfere in how the staffs are working. The less interfere, the less work pressure for the workers. If the team got the right direction, then they will discuss themselves and achieve the goal themselves. So the staffs know what they are doing and also can get motivated to their work. When employee can achieve their goals by themselves, a leader give them reward according to result. This reward motivate employees.

b) Explain to Ron the five (5) steps needed to be taken for effective delegation

Make it clear what he should do at each step

Give practical examples of each step relating to Ron’s job and the case study.

1) Define the task

This step chooses the task and confirms the effectuality of the task.

Ron should select the correct task first. Think twice before delegating tasks and do not delegate the task that is not clearly defined. Because the finishing section needs to observe materials and products and to detect defects of products, Ron should define the task of finishing sections to reduce defects.

2) Select the person

This step selects capable person the chosen task.

Ron has to choose the right person or people for the chosen task in the finishing section. The people he chosen should have adequate availability and be able to complete the task. At least he should have potential (can be checked by checking performance history) or skills for the task. The right choice of person for the task can lead high efficiency of productivity.

3) Negotiate the expected outcome of the delegation

This step is for explaining the reasons of the task and arranges resources and deadlines for the task. For example Ron should provide documentation and clear instruction to the chosen people. Therefore should explain the task clearly and let the chosen people to understand so there is no confusion. Also Ron has to take account of required resources and set deadlines. In this case study, Ron don not manage deadlines, so the production is usually held-up.

4) Check progress

This step is to evaluate the progress of the task.

Ron should check the progress. However if he assigns the task to chosen person and team, he has to trust his person and team, and then he should give them instructions to ask about the progress of the task on a time schedule.

5) Feedback and follow up

This step is for supporting them through the communication with chosen person and team.

After they started the task, Ron has to keep monitoring and give them some feedbacks for improvements. So they can be motivated within the task. In other words a leader is supporter. Therefore Ron should encourage them to show their ideas and give feedback to them about their ideas for the task. Also Ron has to let them know their purpose which has been achieved by feedback.