Effective Management GCSE level

Effective Management – GCSE level

 

Answer 1:

The management of an organisation needs to undertake varied responsibilities in business to ensure the effective conduct of business. At the core level, management has to undertake two major responsibilities: overseeing the day to day activities of the business and leading the team within the organization. Management needs to do proper planning for carrying out all the activities of the business, as proper planning in advance will help in performing the task in the most effective manner. Management also needs to lead the team by setting appropriate targets for each of the individual employees of the organisation so that the performance can be achieved up to the desired level (Jacowski 2011). This will increase the wealth of the company and its owners/sharholders, arguably the most important responsibility of the management of organisation. In addition to this, management also has a responsibility towards other interested parties of the business such as employees, customers, suppliers, government, society etc. Employees should be given fair pay for the work performed by them and they should be provided with a good, safe working environment to work. The responsibility of management towards customers is to offer quality products at reasonable rates, making fair payment to the suppliers for the raw materials provided by them, ensuring the compliance of all the regulations set by government and finally, its responsibility towards community such as making available opportunities for employment, avoid polluting the environment etc. (Principles of Management).

Answer 2:

The three major areas of business that could benefit from greater organisation are Human Resources (HR), Administration and Research & Development (R&D). The HR function of the organisation is concerned with managing the employees such as their recruitment, selection, training, appraisal, future career planning etc. In the case of a large organisation, it is usually found that there are a large number of specialists handling each of the major areas such as compensation, training, development etc which is not the case in small organisations. As such, the greater organisation benefits from the skills and knowledge of each of the specialists (Bogardus 2004). The administration area of the business also benefits from greater organisation as in case of a large organisation; the top level executives are responsible for implementing strategies and also in setting the direction for a certain area of the organisation. This will ensure efficiency in the entire operational activities of organisation as each area is under the control of respective top managers (Labor Department 2010). The greater organisation also benefits the research and development areas of the organisation. In case of small organisation, it is difficult to conduct R&D activities as it involves huge cost. As a result, the chances of development of innovative products is rare in case of small organisations, but in case of large organisations, the management have sufficient funds to perform R&D activities which increases the scope of development of new products and enables the organisation to achieve competitive advantage by becoming the first mover (Byrne and Rich 1986).

Answer 3:

The three management concepts are Just-in-Time (JIT), Total Quality Management (TQM) and Customer Relationship Management. JIT is an important quality management concept that helps the manufacturers in improving productivity and reducing costs, inventory and work in progress. It implies the delivery of raw materials just at the time when they are needed so that the finished products can be immediately made and delivered to the consumers, avoiding the need for storage costs or wastage. The JIT concept has an impact on the personal role within the organisation in the sense that the manager handling the manufacturing department needs to be proactive in performing its function (Lai and Cheng 2009). TQM is another important management concept that implies the achievement of quality by including all the employees of the organisation in improving processes, products, services and culture in which they work. It is a continuous process and requires the effort of each and every employee of the organisation. This concept also has a major impact on the role of personal within the organisation as it requires every employee to contribute their effort in achieving efficiency in the operational activities so that the customers can be served effectively (Total Quality Management 2011). Customer relationship management implies the management of relations with the customers so that personalized services can be delivered and the retention of customers can ultimately be ensured. The relationship with the customer can be maintained through technology by identifying their consumption patterns and offering personalised services. The role of personnel also gets affected by such management concepts as the personnel should develop necessary skills to identify the customer’s consumption pattern, so that it would be possible to offer personalised services effectively (Rajola 2003).

Answer 4:

Planning, Control and Communication are all important in performing the day to day activities of the business effectively. Planning is regarded as the first and foremost important function of management. Planning is essential because it helps focus attention on the organisational objectives that needs to be achieved. In addition to this, it also helps in minimising future uncertainties, achieves coordination and ultimately helps in the proper utilisation of resources. It also encourages innovation and creativity so that the customers can be served with quality products at reasonable rates. There are certain other benefits of planning such as it helps the management in preventing irrational decision and also provides basis for other managerial functions (Business Management). Control is also important as it helps in ensuring organisational effectiveness. Proper control helps in identifying as to whether all the activities are performed as per planning and ultimately helps in implementing the planning process, and also in monitoring the organisation’s activities successfully. As a result, it becomes possible for the management to measure the progress and take necessary actions in case of deviation from the planned activities (Mukherjee 2009). Finally, communication is equally important as that of planning and control. Communication is essential in business in order to ensure the commitment of all the employees in achieving organisational goal. In the context of business, it has been identified that if the employees are excluded from the decision making process, then it becomes difficult to obtain their commitments. As a result of this, communication is important and pervasive to all management activities (Hargie and Tourish 2000).

Answer 5:

Encouraging team spirit among employees is very much essential for ensuring their effective performance in an organisation. There are various ways through which team spirit can be developed among employees. One such way is to ensure equity in all the major decision regarding employees that are taken within the organisation. The employees usually expect management to be equal to everyone and as such, all the decisions taken by managers should be free from any kind of unfair prejudice or bias. This will encourage the employees to remain committed towards the goal of organisation. Another major way of ensuring team spirit is to delegate work to employees on the basis of their skills and ability. By recognising the individual strengths of employees, they should be given appropriate tasks to perform. This will allow them the opportunity to reach their potential and ultimately results into better performance within the organisation. The other major way to ensure team spirit is to provide assurance to employees regarding job security, which will increase morale – its impact can be evident on their performance. Employees should also be encouraged by management to take initiatives as it helps in gaining confidence and also results in the feeling that they are being valued in organisation. All these steps by management will help in generating a feeling of team spirit among employees and encourage them to use their strengths to achieving organisational goals (Tripathi 2008).

Answer 6:

Management information is very valuable to business as is evident from the business information management in the case of telecom companies in UK. The data captured by telecom industries is huge with call records of millions every day, and there are other data as well related to wealth. All such information is highly valuable to management in making important decisions. The regulatory pressure and competition among telecom operators has increased and require them to manage the loyalty of customers in a more efficient manner. This calls for effective management of data as this will enable managers to take relevant decisions in a timely manner. The developments in telecom companies such as mobile banking, internet banking and also the proliferation of products and services have resulted into the explosion of data, making it difficult for managers to support their decisions. Convergence is another major complexity faced by telecom companies. There is a need to consolidate information because of the growing importance of content. Overall, the situation implies that management information is highly valuable for the telecom companies to base their decision.

The ways in which information is presented is through silos. As there is a higher need to consolidate information in case of telecom companies, it is managed this way. The presentation of information to management can be improved by managing separate databases for each of the important records of telecom companies such as call records, wealth records, regulatory compliance records etc. All these will help the management to make maximum use of management information and ultimately results in better decisions (Business Information Management for Telcos 2011).

 

Bibliography

Bogardus, A.M. 2004.  Human resources jumpstart. John Wiley and Sons.

Business Management. FK Publications.

Business Information Management for Telcos, 2011 [Online]. Available at: http://www.uk.capgemini.com/services-and-solutions/by-industry/telecommunications/solutions/bim/ [Accessed: 16 January 2011].

Byrne, J. and Rich, D. 1986.  The Politics of energy research and development, Volume 3. Transaction Publishers.

Hargie, O. and Tourish, D. 2000.  Handbook of communication audits for organisations. Psychology Press, 2000.

Jacowski, T. 2011. Preparing For Management Responsibilities [Online]. Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Preparing-For-Management-Responsibilities&id=203739 [Accessed: 16 January 2011].

Labor Department et al 2010. Occupational outlook handbook. Government Printing Office.

Lai, K. and Cheng, T.C.E. 2009.  Just-in-Time Logistics. Gower Publishing Ltd.

Mukherjee, 2009. Principles Of Manegement 2E. Tata McGraw-Hill.

Principles of Management. FK Publications.

Rajola, F. 2003.  Customer relationship management: organizational and technological perspectives. Springer.

Total Quality Management, 2011 [Online]. Available at: http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/total-quality-management/overview/overview.html [Accessed: 16 January 2011].

Tripathi, 2008.  Principles of Management. Tata McGraw-Hill.