Table of Contents

1. Leadership. 1
2. Team Building. 2
3. Motivation and Performance. 4
4. Self Development. 5
5. Managing Employment relationship. 5
6. Recruitment and selection. 6

Job description and specification. 6

Selection process. 7

7. Coaching and training a Team.. 7
8. Providing quality to customers. 8
9. Planning to Work Efficiently. 9
10. Organising and Delegating. 9
11. Managing Projects. 10

Appendices. 13

Reference. 14

1.    Leadership

This is the ability to use authority to get others to follow and do things willingly to achieve a particular goal (Mullins, 2002). It is the role of a leader to be able to achieve effective performance from others and by influencing the behaviour and actions of other people (Mullins, 2002).

The nature of the task affects leadership style. An autocratic style of management is needed for a task that needs quick decision making. Autocratic style of leadership takes place when all the power is in the hands of the manager to make decisions and decide policies by himself making the focus of power on one person to decide and take control of work procedures and relationships (Mullins, 2002; 2007). Where decisions have to be slow and carefully taken, a more democratic style is needed. Democratic leadership occurs when team members are more involved in decision making and leadership functions are shared amongst members to implement policies and procedures (Mullins, 2002).

High risk jobs need more of a democratic leadership style. Jobs like this need highly qualified professionals to be leaders. In accounting departments, decisions are taken by consulting other members of the department. This will also depend on how quickly the decision needs to be made.

The culture of the organisation is highly important in determining what kind of leadership to implement. There are some cultures that empower their employees to do what they want to do at their jobs in order to encourage creativity and innovation. Others do not really care what employees do or what means they use to do their jobs as long as the job is done. This is known as laissez-faire leadership style.

2.    Team Building

There are differences that exist between teams and groups. A team has a limited number of members and leadership roles rotate, while a group has no limit in its number of members and looks up to just one leader. In the work place, trust in teams is developed by using the model of forming, storming, norming and performing developed by Bruce Tuckman (Group Facilitation, 2001).

The first stage is by creating the group, also known as forming. In this stage, the members of the team meet to learn about the challenges and opportunities the team has to offer (Group Facilitation, 2001).

Team member behave independently and focus on themselves as they lean about the goal and agree on the tasks to be taken at this stage (Group Facilitation, 2001). This is an important stage because it allows members to get to know each other, make friends and exchange personal information (Group Facilitation, 2001). Giving out personal information develops trust.

Storming is a stage where members come up with different ideas to be considered and are more open to members to confront their ideas (Group Facilitation, 2001). This stage is very important because it shows how tolerant and patient team members can be (Group Facilitation, 2001). Teams hardly leave this stage which is very important for members to know how other people face particular situations and how conflicts could be solved (Group Facilitation, 2001). This stage helps members to control themselves and be able to listen

The third stage in the norming stage where members adjust their behaviour and begin to work as a team by agreeing to rules, values and norms of the team and begin to trust each other as they work together (Group Facilitation, 2001). Team members are expected to be more responsible in decision making and their views of each other change as they understand each other (Group Facilitation, 2001).

Performing is the final stage of creating team trust and confidentiality. The team develops in to this stage where they work smoothly and effectively with little or no conflict and with motivation and knowledge (Group Facilitation, 2001). Team members are now independent and are effective in decision making (Group Facilitation, 2001).

This trust is very important for members to function well. Confidentiality motivates members to work with a clear mind.

3.    Motivation and Performance

The most known theory of motivation that is linked with performance appraisal is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory. This theory has five basic stages to meet employees’ satisfaction which include physiological, safety, love, esteem and self actualisation (Mullins, 2007).

Figure 1; Maslow Hierarchy of needs

Source; Mullins, 2002; 2007

Physiological, Safety and Love needs are stages where employees try to satisfy their basic needs such as thirst, oxygen, shelter, to maintain their health, the power to feel safe and need to be loved respectively (Mullins, 2007). This can only be achieve by carrying out informal personnel assessment and asking them what should to be done to improve on individual basic needs and safety. An informal assessment is conducted by meeting employees face to face to find out what they think about their working environment and co-workers. This might mean an increase in salaries for employees so they could be able to afford their basic needs. This can be referred to as quantitative appraisal (Mullins, 2002; 2007). These needs are very important for employees to function well in their jobs and therefore should be given constant feedback

Esteem and self actualisation are achieved by formal assessment in the organisation. This is the need to gain self-respect, confidence and strength and achieve full individual potential (Mullins, 2007). This is assessed through presentations made by employees, how confident they are with their own ideas and creativity and their independence. Self-actualisation is the highest level of satisfaction humans can attain (Mullins, 2007) and could be achieved by the individual by taking exams to improve on their level of education and also taking training programs organised by the organisation to meet their long and short term career goals. This is also known as qualitative appraisal (Mullins, 2002).

4.    Self Development

The need to develop one’s self is as a result of achieving knowledge or the need to function in a new role. This involves learning how to carry out this particular role and how to handle the work load and pressure (Mullins, 2002). The job itself is very important and should be carried out effectively. The learning process takes two main forms; undergoing a training program organised by the company and learning ‘on the job’.

Training programs organised by the organisation go through theory and practice. The theoretical part involves classroom learning and note-taking. This is then finalised with a hands on the job to make it more practical.

Not every aspect of the job is covered during the training program because of the time limit and cost. Most of the training is carried out at the job where the manager guides the team leader through every step. Practical work (i.e. ‘doing’) is arguably more easily remembered than theory.

The need to develop others comes as a result of working as a team. It will be difficult for one person to know and control everything. The learning process of the others in the team might be more difficult because of the number of people who take the training at the same time. They will need equal attention and some may well learn faster than others. In order to facilitate and make sure both self and group development is effective, the learning process needs to be monitored and coached (Mullins, 2002). Monitoring needs experts in the tasks to measure the progress every week or month, and the mentors should be available at all times (Mullins, 2002).

5.    Managing Employment relationship

Diversity is a very important aspect of organisations because it presents the opportunity to exploit different ideas from different individuals and make it into something creative for the benefit of the organisation. Every organisation needs discipline, especially those that are very diverse.

This can be achieved by putting in place policies that will not discriminate in terms of employment and discipline but will put into practice these policies in the organisation and employees. These policies will depend on the size of the organisation, method of operation the strength of the trade union (Mullins, 2002). The responsibility of the organisation’s employee relations is in the hands of the line manager and there should therefore be good communication and consultation with the management, especially with the Human Resource department, on policies (Mullins, 2002).

Seeing people as stereotypes can affect the way line managers operate, which might lead to discrimination. When employees develop stereotypes, they develop a certain perception about a group of being which lead to these group being treated differently from others. Differences occur in race, gender, disability, age and region. Stereotypes could be favourable or unfavourable to a group of people (Mullins, 2002). In the organisation, policies are directed towards giving equal opportunities to all employees without discriminating as long as they are qualified to do the job. Disciplinary actions follow a particular procedure that is designed by management following the laws of the country regarding equality in place of work.

6.    Recruitment and selection

There are some specific procedures that the organisation follows in recruiting new employees. The first thing to do is to write out the job analysis which includes job description and person specification.

Job description and specification

Company; SQC Leisure

Job Title; Assistant Accountant

Salary; £10-£13 per hour

Location; London, England

Job Type; Temporary

SQC leisure is looking for a temporary Assistant accountant to help during the busy spring and summer period.

The main duties for this job include;

• Processing daily purchase and sales invoices and payments
• Maintaining the various accounts and carrying out reconciliation and credit control
• Assisting the accountant with year end accounts and audit
• Assisting in year end preparation of cash flow, balance sheet and income statement
• Assist in the production of management accounts

The right candidate should;

• Be CIMA or ACCA part qualified or hold a degree in business
• Have a minimum of one year experience in dealing with accounts
• Be numerate with excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Be experienced in using Sage Line 50 or CODA software and excel

Selection process

The first process is by going through the CVs and selecting those that meet the criteria. The second is to invite the candidates for a one on one informal interview where questions would be asked with regards to the information provided on their CV. A test will not be given because it is time consuming and costly. The selected candidates will be given one month training on the company’s operations and will have the opportunity to go permanent after 6 months depending on their performance. Performance is measured according to the number of mistakes made.

7.    Coaching and training a Team

The need for training in the accounting department comes as a result of the company introducing new software, Sage Line 200, to be used by the department. This software can carry more information and is more reliable and user friendly for the company than CODA. The two main types of training to be carried out are task training and performance training (Mullins 2002; 2007). Task training is carried out by selecting specific individual in the team, due to limited resources, to go for training. This is done so as to measure the effectiveness of the new system compared to the old system. The team will be working with CODA software while the trained individual will be working with the new Sage Line 200 software and performance will be evaluated based on how many invoices are processed in a day or week. In performance training, budgets are set for this purpose and there is one person that over sees the training process and make sure quality is achieved (Mullins 2002). The organisation appoints the trained individual to be in charge of the training process. The organisation also provides resources to facilitate training in order to implement this new system. This type of training involves monitoring the process by comparing the output using the former system to that using the new system. Training is carried out in a team and monitored individually to make sure the employees fully understand the system.

8.    Providing quality to customers

Total Quality Management is a way of managing the future by assuring quality in products and service through managing people and business processes in order to ensure both internal and external customer satisfaction in every stage of the processes (Powell, 1995).

Quality is when the needs and expectations of customers are fully met (Powell, 1995). The organisation uses total quality management to create a competitive advantage in both their products and services. This can be done by providing training to internal customers. Satisfying both internal and external customers is very important for the organisation because it helps to build a good relationship between the organisation and its customers and also helps to spread the good will of the company. Satisfied internal customers (employees) provide good services to external customers (buyers) who, in turn, spread positive word of mouth about the company.

In order to get to a good standard in quality, the organisation needs to spend more to better its services and produce high quality products. The higher the quality required, the more the cost; the lower the quality, the less the cost of providing goods and services (Powell, 1995).

In order to maintain good quality, the organisation follows the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) (Powell, 1995). There is always planning on how to meet a particular standard. The organization then puts the plans in to action and carrying out continuous check to make sure the actions follow the plan. Act comes to place when there are changes to be made in the plan or the organization finds out that operations are not going according to the plans. This helps in quality control and the organization to meets its quality objectives.

9.    Planning to Work Efficiently

Planning in the organisation is used to create and maintain plans. This involves thinking, creating and monitoring ideas that have been developed in the organisation. Key performance indicators (KPI) are very important for a team to be able to assess how all the team and individuals in a team have done. During busy periods in the organisations, individuals in the team are expected to process at an average of 50 invoices a day. The KPI here is: at least 50 invoices are processed in a day. KPI are used to evaluate the performance of the team and are more effective because they define the exact result that the team has to meet. According to Mullins (2002) planning is part of the management process also involves control, co-ordination and motivation. In order to achieve efficiency in the team, after the plan has been made, control is carried out to ensure satisfactory progress to meet targets. The team is then co-ordinated to make sure that tasks are performed in harmony and work load is equally shared. The last thing to do is to motivate team members to inspire them to carry out their work and meet the target set. Motivation is very important because it determines not just how many invoices are processed, but also how many mistakes are made. It is very important to follow the planning process using steps because if there is any problem at a certain stage, the organisation can easily recognise and resolve the problem.

10.                 Organising and Delegating

Delegating is assigning someone to carry out a particular duty, while empowerment is giving the freedom to employees to do what they want (Mullins, 2002). The management gets work done through delegation (Mullins, 2002). Delegation requires trust, training of the person and learning experience (Mullins, 2002).

As a team leader, power delegation is usually from the manager. As a team leader, being assigned to be the leader of a team to make sure that they meet the target of the company is part of delegating. This role involves going through a training process and being experienced in the job. The obstacle about delegating jobs is that the manager might have the fear that the work will not be done to a high standard as expected and they might take the blame for the mistake caused by the team leader. Another reason may be that the manager might be afraid the team leader might do a better job than them and put the manager in a position where they might be uncomfortable and insecure about their jobs. One of the barriers of delegating is the lack of confidence and trust in subordinates (Mullins, 2002). This might be because they do not know the new person’s ability and are not sure if they can do well as the boss themselves; but lack of delegation means bad management and de-motivated employees.

One way to monitor the outcome of delegation is from the number of positive responses and also by creating a suggestion box where team member can give suggestions and appreciate the team leader’s work.

11.                 Managing Projects

Project management is very important for a company to manage its cost and carry out effective planning. Project management involves planning, organising and managing resources to achieve a successful completion of a project’s goals (Kerzner, 2006). The project is to renovate one of the organisation’s leisure camps in Oxford, England.

The method used for this project is known as PRINCE2. This is a method of managing projects that involve planning, control, organising and management of a project. The diagram below shows the how the PRINCE 2 Method works

Figure 1; PRINCE2

Source; Colin Bentley, 2005

The diagram above shows how projects can be monitored in an organisation. There is always directing at every stage of the project to make sure that it is being carried out according to the plans. The project is being initiated following the plan which involves appointing the right person to execute the plan (Bentley, 2005). This person will be preparing the project brief and how it will be approached.

After defining the project, the next thing to do is to initiate the project and put it into action. All projects need directions at all time. The quality of the project is agreed on and the overall plan is made (Bentley, 2005). Controlling the project will involve the way materials are being delivered and how time is being managed by the work force and the project manager (Bentley, 2005). This stage includes: ordering, highlight, reporting feedbacks, monitoring the progress and correcting mistakes.

The managing stage boundaries stage involves managing the end of the project and how the final project should be reported (Bentley, 2005). The last stage is closing the project where there is officially no work left to be done and it is now open for functioning.

Appendices

Source; Colin Bentley, 2005

Source; Mullins, 2002; 2007

Reference

• Bentley, Colin (2005). Practical PRINCE2. 3^rd The Stationery Office

• Kerzner, Harold. (2006). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. 9^th John Wiley & Sons

• Powell, Thomas (1995) Total Quality Management as Competitive Advantage: A Review and Empirical Study; Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Jan., 1995). Published by: John Wiley & Sons

• Mullins, Laurie (2002) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 6^th London Prentice Hall