Managing Organisations Assessment V1 14 Essay

MGT2002 Managing
Organisations: Written assignment 2014

The experience (300 words)

The problem isn’t necessarily with the position as much as it is with the person in that position and his management style. My managers approach is the political style where he is a self-promoter and self-interested. The only right way, is his way. Under this type of working culture it snaps the life out of the team, reduces commitment and annihilate initiative. We as employees become withdrawn and passive contributors within the team. We hold back great ideas because of fear of rebuttal of those ideas. The team does not challenge any flawed ideas of our manager rather they only concur and execute every “command’ to the letter. This negative behavior creates distrust, fear and backwardness in our organisations ability to reach substantive goals. An incident that will highlight his management style to help appreciate my anxieties and the team. Our weekly meeting was opened by our manager saying the applications he received from the four senior advisors for his relief were poor and some were ok. If I could have all of your good qualities in one person they would be the best person to do the relief. We looked at each other and our expression said it all. We felt undervalued, you’re not perfect either and why would you say that in front of all the subordinates that work with us and at times report to us. This could be our manager’s strategy to either frustrate, discourage or highlight weaknesses of the advisors as he feels insecure or threatened. He stated he has communicated with our director and requested writing skill training. I believe he could benefit from evaluating his own behaviors, writing skills and management style. Also look at the way they impact those he leads, and perhaps make himself a more people focused leader.

Integration of theory with experience (305 words)
From reading Katz theory, a successful manager appears to rest on three basic skills which are technical, human, and conceptual. I will focus on the human skill as it has established my understanding that leading people requires mentoring, coaching and working with them to ensure they feel valued and at the same time developing their impact to the team (Katz, 2000, p. 91). My manager wants to be seen as doing the right thing and support the team in success and personal well-being, while in reality he only wants to look after his self-interests. To the outside he would be a competent manager and has proven himself to be successful in the eyes of his direct reports. The undesirable side of his human skill, like the incident above demonstrates his lack of communication skills and listening ability to the team. I believe most managers, lack of emotional intelligence on their part results in poor communication skills. Managers who do not develop their emotional intelligence have difficulty in building good relationships with peers, subordinates, superiors and clients (Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee 2002). Researchers believe that how well a person manages his emotions and those of others impacts leadership effectiveness. According to Mintzberg’s (1994) to function effectively with the people around them, managers have to spend considerable time sharing their information, both with insiders and with outsiders. Managers need to communicate well in order to be effective. Samson and Daft discuss that as a team, members of that team can help managers to meet these needs and encourage and help build on specific behaviors (Samson and Daft, 2012). Theorist like Katz state that this skill can be developed by an individual either with or without formalised training. The theory is good in practice, but it comes down to the individuals’ willingness and want to apply the learnings.
Personal reflections (340 words)

Reflecting on this event forced me to focus, think holistically, act collaboratively and execute diligently. For example, learn to accept that we are all

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