The Importance Of Four Listed Skills

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Goldenstate Manufacture Company has focused on textile-manufacturing for over 30 years in Australia. The company is among the top five manufacturing organizations in the country. There are many purposes and reasons of the company’s establishment. They are the basic for the process and development of Goldenstate Manufacture. Financial profit is an important goal to achieve, which is essential for stakeholders as a motivation for their participation in running the business and working to achieve the goal. It also brings benefits to society as providing 1700 job opportunity for people. This positive effect contributes good images of company on society; people working for this big company also have the confidence and more chances to improve their working skills as imagination, creation, profession. Based on these purposes and reasons the company has the mission to obtain as providing goods with excellent quality, acceptant prices and making customers satisfied with their textile products, also motivating employees and other members work with enthusiasm and loyalty.

b) Three other types of organizations and explanation of their differences from Goldenstate Manufactures.

Movenpick ice-cream is an example of Franchise business, it provides particular flavours of this ice-cream brand to customers, materials and the way of performing are very important; they must follow and guarantee the frame and the theme of the franchisor. Purpose of the franchise is getting benefits from using name and follow methods and ideas of a famous franchisor.

Vodafone is an international company which has network is in over 70 countries; it provides equipment and network services to customers and also enhances the development of technology, society and satisfaction of consumers.

Private Rest Home, Clair House Rest Home is an example of sole trader organizations, the manager provides fund and organizes the operation and also owns the income and profit of the Rest Home. This nursing home provides care services to the elderly who are not able to manage themselves with physical, mental problems. It offers a range of services with the purpose of giving care and protection to the elderly. The business focuses on Service Revenue or Professional Fees but for Goldenstate Manufactures their goal is Sales.

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

Mark (CEO): he brings an innovation towards the new goal of "optimizing the production and improve the quality of the finished garments to the required level" to the company. He also uses his experiences, knowledge and observation to identify the problems the company is facing. He performs the leaders function effectively by setting the goals and leading the members work towards them.

Carl (general operation manager): he performs the duty of supervising the largest department in the company. He has the responsibility to ensure the process of the operation is performed effectively and well organized by his multi-tasking skills. He also plays an important role in recruiting, training and evaluating staff.

Quality Control Manager: He has the role of examining the produced products and services in order to satisfy customers’ standard and requirement. He inspects the final result of manufacturing. Thus, fault products can be fixed or disposed and problems with services when giving to the customers can be solved to improve the quality according to the law and customers’ expectation.

Research and Development Manager: He is reliable for activities of researching technic which is involved management and coordination of a team in order to contribute new products progression. He also has the role of leadership and guidance to teams as they are facing new situations or uncommon issues happen to be able to choose, evaluate and conform new techniques to deal to influencing factors.

1.3

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

Effective operation towards the Goldenstate Manufactures’ purpose is not being done as expected. It can be seen that the speed production and communication are their weakness and the flow of co-ordination is limited, lack of team leaders and supervisors ‘competence. Many problems are indicated such as, a considerable fall 20% of Company’s manufacture, growth of customer’s unsatisfactoriness, decrease in quality products. Furthermore, communication barrier and the way of thinking as well as the method of management are different among managers in the company, for example, Adam, the Knitting Manager and Ron, the Finishing Manager, they both insist with the philosophy of "my way or no way". On the other hand, James, the Dyeing Manager does not emphasize the productivity of performing tasks among staff but only concerns about their emotion.

b) Four main management skills or competencies needed for it to be competitive

- Leadership skills

- Communication Skills

- Motivational skills

- Developing skills

c) The importance of four listed skills

- Leadership skills: They play an important role of affecting people by setting clear purpose, working guidance to each part, effective time planning to each task, regular appraisal, and inspirations in the process of performing tasks. An excellent leader is the person who is motivating, sensible, even-handed, courageous, sincere, and creative. His good moral principles and competence prompt his staff to work towards the final goals effectively without over-pressure. Leadership skills cover many work aspects such as, integrity, relationships, teamwork, planning. These help to increase the quality of products and satisfy customers, also enlarge the company fame in commercial market.

- Communication skills: They are one of the elements which helps to increase the comparative competence of the company. Thus, setting an effective communication channel in the company is very important. It includes the most successfully communication methods, the technical manner of using these methods, and demonstrating information to each specific audience. Variety of problems and differences in operating mission are happening in the company due to incompetent communication skills. Obvious communication among CEO, Managers and workers can help to overcome the problems. Maintaining open communication will contribute to good relationships between staff and leaders. Managers who are away of bossy manners and have effective listening skills would help the company to avoid the risk of undermining the progress of performing tasks and staff leaving. These help to overcome the communication barriers to develop productivity, quality of goods and services.

- Motivation skills: They are the key to achieve the company efficiency and maintaining employee’s loyalty in order to be competitive. Commentating and promoting staff, dealing with motivational problems, also creating a promotional working environment are significant to accomplishment in keeping employee and also expending productivity, quality products.

- Developing skills: They are important factors for the company to be competitive. They help to promote a sense of accountability to employee and especially leader team in achieving the goals. In the company, each staff may have different competence and some of them may feel tasks are difficult and under over-pressured. The managers must know their staff’s strength and weakness and give them frequently feedback in order to let them know what they should do to improve their strength and lessen their defect and arrange them to perfect each other towards the general development. This makes employee happy with their job and work with enthusiasm to achieve the company’s common goals.

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 comment.

Because Ron does not allow his staff the liberty to take any action or make any decision without his acknowledgment, the Finishing manager’s leadership theory is most closely aligns with the transactional theory. It’s involving not letting the employees to have their own working strategies and the entire task need to be complied under the direction and supervision from the manager. The workers innovation and creativity will be restrained since all their actions are controlled and instructed from Ron. There would be no innovation among the workforce, hence made them depressed or be afraid of upsetting their manager, thus make the turnover of worker is high in the Finishing department.

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 comment.

The leadership style of the Knitting Manager Adam who believes in the philosophy of "My way or no way" is clearly an autocratic style. For a person who has this style of leadership, all his subordinates are required to carry the jobs according to his way only, as well as each staff members under him must complete their duties via his direction. As illustrated in the case scenario, the Knitting section in Goldenstate Manufacturers is having a very high pressure because of the workers’ turn-over, in which we can tell that this autocratic style is inappropriate for the leader of the knitting department. Under the pressure comes from the manager’s direction, all the workers must carry on the job without having any negotiation. Being afraid of doing any mistakes in case they don’t catch up with the manager’s way, the workers can constantly be under pressure and fell stressful when doing their job. Hence, this type of leadership style can limit and restraint staff’s work creation and innovation.

James the Dyeing Manager has a totally different style of leadership which is laissez-faire. Having more interest about getting the staff to like him, he gives less concern about the performance of the team members in doing their jobs. He also refrains from taking any comment or action that can make team members upset and might turn again him. This style of leadership leads to the overstaffed situation in The Dyeing department. Staff member might find it unnecessary to report to anyone since they have thoughts of having the power in doing the job without having supervision from their manager. By giving the power of free management to his staff, James’s style of leadership becomes delegative, which means all the responsibilities in controlling and decision making belong to the manager although not all of the decisions are made by James but his staff without having his authorisations. Despite of the overstaffed situation in The Dyeing departments, the fabric dyeing is usually late for the next step of production which means James’s style of leadership is currently too loose for his staff. Although in The Dyeing section, workers have the opportunities to create their own work space and having no limit in applying their innovation which is good for the staff themselves and whole section. However, James might setup a loose time frame in carrying on tasks for his team members which leads to slow production of the section. It illustrates James’s lack in having his control over the performance of the department, because of the loose working environment which is overstaffed, no matter how much skilful and competent in their work.

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.

Adam’s style in leadership is Autocratic, in which he has in hand as much power and the authority of decision making as possible due to the manager taking advantages of his status and positional power. This style is really inappropriate in the situation of Goldenstate Manufacturers because:

It so far has overall negative impact in the quality of the textile they manufacture.

It raises the problem in ethics, although ethics in organizations vary from one to another, it is the manager’s responsibility to keep their employees having a comfortable working environment and take their prides in concern.

With the Laissez-faire leadership style of James the Dyeing Manager, he has no attention in giving concern about what is going on within the department. He does not want to lose his reputation among his staffs; hence the employees are allowed to have complete freedom and power. This style of leadership is giving no benefit for the organization because:

There are certain decisions only the manager is capable to make to control the operations and production progresses.

By giving too much freedom to employees, who are not trained or having enough skill to deal with complicated situations without having any supervisions, they can be undecisive or making mistakes in decision making.

Because of these inappropriate leaderships styles, the productivity of the Goldenstate Manufacturers (Pvt.) Ltd. has dropped down 20% after an year and a half as well as the number of complaints from customers has increased due to the poor quality of finished textile.

2.2

a) Select one motivational theory:

Briefly describe the theory

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

Herzberg’s two-factor theory

According to Herzberg (1968), there are two factors of motivations which are quite distinct and separate from each other:

Motivators is regarding internal motivations and the satisfaction with the job which include:

Career advancement and achievement

Responsibility and the actual work

Appreciation and recognition

Autonomy and personal growth

Hygiene’s is for preventing dissatisfaction, it’s all about external factors but not motivation including:

Pay and benefits

Supervisors

Employment conditions

Policies and procedures

Explanation

As the new Chief Executive Officer for the Goldenstate Manufacturers (Pvt.) Ltd., Mark Frazer can motivate Carl, the General Manager of Operations by using the Herzberg’s two-factor theory to make him open to communicate to the other members of management department and inspire Carl to lead as an example. The hesitation in hiring new staff as technical managers makes him cannot do the job effectively.

Mark should explain to Carl that success of the business in organization entirely depends on how productive the work produced by the company is. It is critical for the CEO and managers to have the knowledge of motivational theories and more importantly, how to apply it properly inside the organization. Mark can help Cark to keep motivated by acquiring the steps in the Maslow motivational theory, as well as encourage Cark to have more connections with the other manager by more closely approaching and better communicating to them. He can make the General Manager of Operations understanding how important he is to the company and any of his decision is extremely vital for the business of the organization, which leads to the productivity of the whole company as well as its position in the market.

Carl can be guaranteed by Mark the CEO that he is both psychologically and physically protected and secured. Mark can assure that Carl will be provided enough support and resources for his duty and decision making; in exchange Carl has to understand as a General Manager of Operations, he must be clear about his responsibilities and duties and has to show his commitment for the organization. Further professional development opportunities can also be offered for Carl by Mark to keep him motivated.

b) Advise Adam, the Knitting Manager, of four 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

Except from having Adam’s leadership style to be changed so that he can encourage his staff and keep them motivated, by applying the Maslow Hierarchy of needs he can also keep his employees to stay with the organization by satisfying their needs.

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As we can see from the chart above, to meet the needs of the staffs in the Knitting Department, Adam firstly need to ensure about his staff’s physiological need, which means he has to make sure that all his staff’s salary and wages must be paid on time without any delay. Money comes from salary is a vital part of his employees’ lives which without it they cannot afford their basic needs in their daily lives, without money they would not be able to buy food and so on.

Secondly, after their physiological needs have been satisfied, it’s time to take safety needs provided by the organization in consideration. Clearly it’s Adam’s duty and company’s responsibilities to keep the working environment for their employees absolutely safe and secured. Not only that but Adam also can encourage his staffs to work harder, increase their productivity, meet their goals of work on time with better quality products by letting them can have rewards to have better yearly health check or insurance on company’s cost.

The next step after having employee’s safety need ensured is meeting love and belonging needs for Adam’s staffs, in within the organization, for example, Adam can have a special arrangement with other department’s managers to have quarterly or monthly department or company party if they get 20% less of complaints from customers for example. Also parties among different departments not only enhance the relationship between staffs of the same department but also improve the connections between different sections and apartments. The relationship between departments is also very important to the organization because better communication between sections can help to accomplish the company goal on time.

After that, to meet his staff’s esteem need, Adam can give free technical training to staffs which can build self-confidence for each and every employee in knitting department. Adam can discuss the situation with the CEO that the company should give the department more budgets on giving staff technical training to build up his staffs’ work passion. Because having more knowledge and being more professional in the work area will make big difference to his staff as they will have more self-confidence and the feeling of being more respected.

Finally, Adam can adjust his leadership style and skills to be more open to his employees, giving more space for the work performance as well as better working environments to meet his staffs’ self-actualization needs. He can inspire his employees to be more creative in their work, having their innovation to be applied properly, as long as the changes can helps to improve the quality of their work and effectively achieve their goal, Adam can be gladly to be open to accept the change.

By applying this, Adam’s staffs’ work creativity and their thoughts on responsibility as well as accountability can be stimulated thoroughly; they would realize that they are playing important roles in the organization as they are making progresses whilst they’re working. This can help to keep employees stay with the company longer hence the turnover rate of worker will be reduced.

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 benefits of delegation, using information from the case study to illustrate your comments.

Benefits of delegation that Ron can achieve:

Accountability: By assigning his staffs some specific tasks, Ron’s employees can do a better job because they can feel that they have the personal accountability for the outcome of the task they are going to perform, despite the fact that the ultimate decisions and responsibilities stay in the hand of the person who decided the delegation. The worker/employee who is assigned the task will be accountable for the work they perform. Also Ron can minimize the risk of losing his staff member in the Finishing department. Some results of accountability are listed below:

Performance will be improved

Better employee involvement and participation

Increase employee commitment and feeling of competency

Allow more innovation and creativity

Better employee satisfaction and morale with their work

Opportunity for staff development: by assigning his staffs new task and let them feel they have more responsibilities, his staff members can have the opportunities to be stretched and challenged for new duties because few employees want to turn up for the work every day and do the same tasks day after day. Through delegating Ron can give his employees chances to develop more professional skills and experiences at work. The best thing about this kind of experiential development mostly cost the manager nothing apart from sometimes of monitoring and briefing

Empowerment: the Finishing Manager can get benefits from delegation by developing the department. This will help Ron to build up and enhance his personal empowerment gained with his staffs and also more respect will be given which is valued by his employees and superiors. Delegation here also has some more benefit. Because streamlining his workload, Ron can have more time to focus more on his essentials managerial tasks. His staffs will feel more motivated and confident as they have been trusted, as well as the stress level across the workforce also decreases.

b) Explain to Ron the five 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.

As we already know, delegation is the process of letting the lower-level staffs or employees have the authority of decision-making in some specific tasks or situations. For a successful delegation, the worker who is assigned to do the task has to be able to get enough resources and cooperation which are required for the completion of the delegated task, not to mention the empowerment of the workforce and the process of delegation are closely related. Successful delegation would benefit the employee and the manager as well as the organization, which is the higher quality of work. Productivity can be improves through delegation by allowing employees who have enough knowledge of products and services to make decisions and complete the tasks instead of the manager. Quality can also be improved because of better employee motivation. So actually Ron should delegate more since the way Ron follows his current approach and believes in not allowing his employees to have the liberty of doing tasks without his knowledge, which lead to more pressure for himself and his staffs.

Below are the five steps that Ron needs to take for an effective delegation:

Give the duty manager (the one assigned to do the delegated task) a whole task to do

When delegating work, Ron need to make sure he has given the person a whole task to do, even if it’s not possible to give the employee a whole task, he needs to ensure that the duty manager understand thoroughly the overall purpose of the task or the project. If it’s possible, he can connect them to the team that is planning or managing the task. Employees’ contribution is most effective when they are aware of the big picture.

Make sure the duty manager understand exactly what Ron want him to do

As a subordinate, the duty manager must understand exactly what Ron wants him to do. Ron can ask some questions, watch the work performed by his duty manager or have the subordinate to give him feedback to ensure that his instructions were fully understood.

Share his point of view with the duty manager

If Ron has with him a picture of how successful the department should be like, it is necessary to share his point of view with his duty manager. Also, if he would like the staff to do the job properly, he should not fool the duty manager who is assigned and has been authorised to do the task to believe that any outcome can be acceptable, unless Ron himself feel that way.

Getting feedback from his duty manager about the progress

When Ron wants the feedback about the progress from his duty manager, the key points of the project or dates need to be clearly identified. This is the crucial action that Ron needs to take so without micromanage the task by his own he still can get the feedback provided from the duty manager about what is going with the project because Ron needs to assure that the delegated task is on track. He also needs the opportunities for influencing the team or individual’s decisions as well as the project’s direction.

Reward and thank the duty manager

In advance, Ron also needs to determine how he is going to thank and reward the duty manager after the delegated task or project has been completed successfully.

It takes time and energy for having successful delegation of authority as a leadership style but it’s worthy for Ron and his staffs to develop their skills, involvement and empowerment succeed. It benefits not only Ron but also the organizations to have his subordinates succeed, developed and meets Ron’s expectations as well as building up their self-confidence in doing the job.