Leadership - week 5

   Leadership and management are both  supposed to have a charismatic people with that positions that should have self-confidence and influence power. They are both a kind of force that has to motivate the regular workers. But there are strong differences between them.
   Management is a official form of taking care of the teams of people co-ordinated by an individual chosen by the higher means , that is a manager. Manager has to control his team's work , plan everything what has to be done and do everything he can to achieve the goals he is expected.
To do that he has to take a good care of his people and motivate his team.
His work is seen on paper , he is known to be a manager , it is his work he doesn't have a high level of emotional involvement in his job. He is directed to results.
   Leadership can be an official or unofficial force that inspires and motivates people by showing them a role models from an individual that is the leader. That doesn't have to be high in the company's hierarchy , as people can call him the leader because of his decisiveness , self-confidence , knowledge and ideas that motivate and inspire them. Leader aligns people with a vision of change.

   Blake and Mouton developed a way to describe and evaluate the different styles of management. First published in 1964 , it was called 'Managerial Grid' , which provides a basis for comparison of managerial styles in terms of two production and people.
   Concern for production shows the amount of pressure placed by the manager on accomplishing the tasks with achieving the highest possible production level and gaining profits. This is represented along the horizontal grid line.
   Concern for people is the amount of pressure placed by the manager on his inferiors and other individual managers. It is shown on the vertical grid line.
   The grid on the left , shows that the Organisation Man Management has the equal amount of both of the concerns as it is situated in the middle. Impoversihed Management has lower amount of concern for production than concern for people as it is situated in the bottom left. It is easy to see a comparison of managerial styles in terms of these two principal dimensions as it provides five basic combinations of degree of concern for production coupled with degree of concern for people.

   In January of 2010 I took a part-time job. I was a member of the renovation team hired to paint a new metal construction in one company's stockroom. I was responsible for painting the highest parts and two other members were doing both preparation and painting lower parts of that construction. Our manager had to take care of the team of us three and two other teams that were working on mechanical issues for the same company. If comparing to the 'Managerial Grid' by Blake and Mouton , I identified his work style to be the tam manager with nine point nine rating and high concern for both production and people as he was always there if any team needed to know anything or had any kind of issues to talk about with him. He wanted us to complete our tasks as fast as possible with the best possible quality. However , he had always checked if we are not going to fast , and reminded us about the quality. He was always working with plan and always knew what to do if any problems occured.

   Bill Gates , the famous creator of the Microsoft , had given his tips for a good manager based on his lifelong experience. In this tips , Gates explained that a good manager has to clearly brief tasks to his people and explain how they should measure their achievements. He claimed that people will take seriously the project deadlines if they took part in setting them as unachievable goals udermine the organisation. Bill Gates explained in his tips how important it is for the manager to work regularly with his people so that they will do the work better than the manager can at some point and achieve expected goals. Similarly to the manager I worked for , the working style that is the most suitable for Bill Gates is the team manager , as he suggested that the right work with the team of people may help in gaining profits , which shows that he has got a high concern for production and for people as well.

   In conclusion , there are significant differences between the leadership and management. Blake and Mouton explained five basic combinations of the working style of a manager or leader and created the 'Managerial/Leadership Grid' in 1964 showing different types of concern for people and for production. A . Bill Gates had given tips for a good manager based on his experience and explained that a good manager or leader should know how to work with his team to make as many profits as possible.

Bibliography:

- Gates , B. (2010) Tips for a Good Manager [Online]. Avialable from - youthindia.wordpress.com [Accessed: 10th December 2010]

- Mullins , Laurie J. (2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour. Ninth edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Organisation Culture - week 4

   People of different nations develop their national identity by the use of different language , by having their characteristic appearance , cooking in a proper way with their national spices etc. Same things happen to the employees of companies. They develop the identity of people working in the same company , what is called organisation culture.

   There are many different companies in the Wycombe's Eden Centre , in which the visible aspects of organisation culture are easy to see.
   Language or jargon of people working within one company is being uniqe as they use words that have a certain meaning for them and not many people will understand it. For example , employees of phone shop like the T-Mobile or the 3-store when speaking to their customer can ask their colleagues about any offer in the way the customer will not understand as he doesn't know their technical jargon. Same situation happens when an employee of The Perfume Shop is being asked by the customer to see if they have Herrera Sexy Man perfume in stock , and he or she just asks the colleauge to check the maroon 212 in stock.
   People working for the companies have some obvious unwritten rules and expectations like saying hello to people passing by just to make them visit their shops or explaining their customers why should they buy in their shop. They are also expected to provide their customer as much help as possible to make them feel comfortable.
   There are some rituals or habits being a usual thing for people representing different types of organisational culture. For example , in the Tesco , when paying for their products , customers are being asked for coins to make the cashiers work easier when giving the rest of the banknotes received. In phone shops , dealers are often walking around the shop and try to catch their customers. In sport shop , the staff often explains how good their products are using their own sport experience. In a cafe or a restaurant when ordering a food , the waiter often say that there is a better meal deal in the same price to consider.
   The communication of the employees in different companies is a highly visible difference as waiters , barmans and chefs in a restaurant try to communicate as good as possible , because they are meant to work as a team , whereas phone shop dealers talk to each other , but not a lot because they want to gain as many customers as possible for their own , because the more customers they personally get , the more money they can earn.

   Last but not the least , the way the people dress and their work pace are a uniqe thing for the companies ther work for. In Vision Express , the salesman is wearing smart suit and very often glasses. He or she is walking with a normal speed taking care about everything they do. They try to look clever so that their customers get the feeling that they are being served by the experts that want to work good and take their time to do it. Phone shop dealers often wear a part of their daily outfit that makes them look like the dealer , for example a shirt with a logo , t-shirt , jacket , tie or all together. Their working pace is low. When it comes to barmans , waiters and chefs in a cafe or a restaurant , they all wear similar uniforms , they all work as fast as possible to serve as many customers as they can in the shortest time.

   Different types of organisational culture might be classified  by a number of ways. Handy described four main types of organisational cultures.
   Power culture defines an organisation with a central power source and strong individuals being a force of influence coming from that source through the organisation. There are not many rules and procedures as effectiveness of that organisation relies on trust , empathy and communication within it. For example , Starbucks cafe is a organisation that may be definied with power culutre. There is a store manager in every store , who is a strong individual with the influence from the strong power centre that is the board of the company's directors. That manager influences it's employees so that they work good as a team as they communicate well , trust each other and then gain profit to the company without any examples of big bureaucracy.
   Role culture is a way to define a company that is based on bureaucracy , logic and rationality. The company with a role culture depends mainly on the strength of it's experts that are working on making the company better in cases of production , finance , sales etc. The interaction between them is controlled by rules and co-ordinated by their managers. Position is more important than the individual and proclaims the main source of power. The example of a company with the role culture in the Wycombe's Eden Centre is Tesco. Tesco is a big company selling the products of other companies working in co-operation with and it's own made by it's manufacture. Tesco has got it's experts , controlled by the board of directors. Tesco's experts can improve many things , but first they have to ask for permission. They can have ideas for better ways for the company but without agreement with the company's directors , they can't do anything.
   Task culture is the kind of work culture that is to be noticed when different companies or strong individuals are working together on single projects. Music festival is one of the most simple examples of project , in preparation of which , the task culture happens. To prepare that kind of event , several companies or small firms must gather together. There must be a company providing food and drinks. Security must be provided by national forces e.g. Police or a private security company. To make the stage , a proper scenery and sound system , another company must be hired. After the festival , they might get together to do some more of that events or never meet again.

   Person Culture gather together people doing similar or same types of work. They share the same office space and use one structure to work easier. For example , cardiologist , nurse , gynecologist and dentist are all working in medicine. They can open their own private clinic even in a flat. They can hire one secretary to sign their patients in and take care of the paperwork so that they can share all the costs equally between them and often earn more money than they would in hospital. Usually , they would be using much better equipment than they would in hospital as well.

   When trying to classify culture into one of the four types described above , the main problem in my opinion is that in some companies there may be more than one type of organisational culture occuring. For example , in an law firm , when one of the lawyers finds out a new method with solving their main problems , he can't do it  without permission of the rest of the firm's lawyers as it may cause the bad reputation for the firm. Then there are both person and role culture occuring in an organisation. To choose one of more than one types occuring it needs to be seen , which one of them is stronger. In that example it's obvious that it would be the person culture as it is a law firm. But it might get more difficult if all of the organisation culture types occur in a big company like Tesco.

   In conclusion , culture is the way of identyfing one to a group. There is a thing like organisational culture , when people of different types of companies develop their identity. Handy explained four types of organisational culture , but it may be difficult in some examples to classify only one type for some companies.

Bibliography:

- Mullins , Laurie J. (2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour. Ninth edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

- Primary research: walk around the Eden Centre in High Wycombe.

Power and conflict at work - week 6

   When I started my degree at Bucks New University over two months ago , I joined BNU Buccaneers , the American football team playing in university league. After a five weeks the leauge began. We have lost our first game by three scores. Then our offensive part of the team realized that it was their fault. The defense was playing well , but offense had problems with scoring points. They were about to start some serious conflict as players had different ideas about how to deal with , none of which was good enough. Then the head offensive coach solved the problem as he viewed the game tape to the whole team and the players were told about their mistakes. All of our coaches knew what to work on during the next training session.

   We turned up on that training session and we've been working on our roles exactly the way the coaches wanted us to. We were told how to perform better and it all started to work much better than it used to.
One week after , we had another game , which we won. We scored twenty two points whereas our opponents scored nothing. Our strategy worked.


   John French and Bertram Raven conducted one of the most notable studies on power and identified the five bases of power in 1959 that is coercive , reward , expert , legitimate and referent power.

Sometimes manager has to use something more...

   The coercive power is a problematic source of power. It can cause a bad behaviour and dissatisfaction in the workplace. The common tools of coercion are threats and punishment. Coercion should be used as a last resort as it is sometimes neccessary to punish or threat to somebody at some point , but it should not be used as a daily thing. For example a manager should clearly tell his team what they have to do and how. If they do it wrong because they thought that they are smarter or did not pay any attention to what he said , they should be punished. Manager should use a threat to make them work better next time , for example tell them to work the way he says or else they will be fired next time , but not threat them if they work well.

   Managers and people higher in the hierarchy of the company are often in power to reward others. This is the reward power. Raises, promotions, , training opportunities, simple compliments and desirable assignments are the examples of the rewards controlled by the directors of the company. The problem with the power of rewarding is that managers need a permission from their supervisors to give rewards. Very often they can only use rewards that have a low value for their workers. If that situation happens , the effectiveness of their work may get lower and the managers's power weakens as well. Similar , when managers are able to use rewards that workers are looking forward to be rewarded with , their work efficiency increases and mangers's power increases. For example , when an employee works hard and gets more profits for the company and manager knows that he has a family and wants to buy a new house , he should be able to give him a salary raise so that he would work even better as he knew that he can gain even more money. Giving him a desirable assignment as a reward in that case would be much less efficient as his work motivation would rather get lower if he had seen that he is expected to work much harder for the same salary.

   When there is a person in the company that has a knowledge and skills that enable him to understand a situation , find a solutions , judge well or outperform others , he is likely to be listened by others. If he shows a right working methods , people will trust him and respect to what he does. His work will have more value and other people will be looking forward to have him as a leader. This is how the expert power works. For example when a regular employee helps a manager in making decision in front of others by showing him advantages with explanation and manager makes that decision making benefit for the company , he is thought to be a person with a proper knowlegde , decisiveness and confidence , that makes him a leader in front of his colleagues.

   Legitimate power of an individual happens when there is a leader , which leadership is formal. He was given that position by a higher means , like for example a manager , employees may but as well may not like him , but he was given that position by chief excecutive and they can't do anything about it. He should use that power to show that he is good enough to be the manager by using his decisiveness and confidence to help people working in his team and co-operate with them so that they could see that he is the right person for his position.  He should not rely on his legitimate power as his only way to influence others because it takes more to than that to be a leader.

   Referent power comes from charisma, charm, admiration, or appeal on an individual in a workplace. It happens when one person likes , respects and strongly identifies with another person that has these characteristics at some point. These kind of power can be a big responsibility as that kind of person can easily influence everything from what people buy to whom they elect to office. It is good to have that person in a workplace as he or she makes everybody feels good. When combined with other sources of power, it can help in achieving a great successs. For example , celebrities have referent power as they can influence everything from their fans , which is why they appear in as many adverts as possible.


   If the conflict happens within the company , it can be solved by the right use of the following strategies.
   The policies of human resource management, for example carrying out a system of equal pays within the equal levels of the company's employees.
The company can also provide equal opportunities for their employees such as same amount of days off or chances to attend the free qualification raising courses.
   The firm must be ensured about the good communication kept within it's employees so that the managers and regular workers will know exactly what they have to do , where and how much time they can spend on it etc. When the communication is good between the managers and their teams , the members of that teams will not hesitate to ask for feedback or consult any issues with their managers. Then the decision making process will be easier as all advantages and disadvantages were clearly presented , the amount of mistakes will reduce and what comes from these is the lower probability of conflict.
   The board of company's directors must ensure their employees that they have a right to complain. The grievance policy and it's procedure are significant in that case as the employees can work better if they know that they have a right to complain if somebody or something is making their tasks more difficult by interrupting them etc. They must know that if they have complained , the right procedure will be carried out to solve this. On the other hand , they must know also that the grievance policies may be used against them if they cheat or somebody complained about them. The grievance policies and procedures must be set up well as it may be used wrong and not fair if somebody did something on purpose to make somebody else fail. When solving problem of grievance policy , there should be a sort of investigation to be carried out to gain proofs of a real fault or a lie about the subject complained.
   Everybody in the company should be aware of the disciplinary procedure. The company should have that kind of procedure clearly presented to it's employees so that they knew what is going to happen if they are try to take care only about their needs. They must know that they are a team and they are working for the company that gives them an opportunity to gain experience and a knowlegde with earning their money.
The discipline is not difficult to be kept if people are taking care about the company. If they are not , then they should be warned and reminded a procedure about the discipline. If that is not working , they should be fired. However , if they are taking good care of the company , they should be exaulted by their managers to show them that they are being taken seriously.

   In conclusion , when it comes to being in groups , there are always problems that have to be solved. To solve that problems it is important to know what caused them and then fix it. Conflicts are caused by the wrong cooperation between people with different sources of power. If they are being solved by the right use of the strategies mentioned above they are not being a serious problems anymore or may not even happen again.

Bibliography:

- Leadership training. Leadership Styles. [Online]. Available from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm [Accessed: 30th October 2010]

Enterprise week. Little Kickers. - week 8

   On Tuesday 9th of November 2010 , I have had a great opportunity to hear a story of a graduate of Buckinghamshire New University. She held a lecture on the event called Little Kickers , which was one of the Enterprise Festival events. The purpose of that event was mainly to show advantages and disadvantages of being a dealer of franchised company like the Little Kickers but it also suggested that there are other ways to make a business , not only creating your own company.
    The Little Kickers is a company that provides a football coaching for kids aged 18 months to 7 years , spreaded into three age groups. They are franchised brand and they create an opportunity for people that want to become a coaches to get into the Little Kickers , buy their good name with all coaching methods , instructions , training kits and accesoriess. The company provides also legal support , coroner , policies and support on advising.
   On the other hand , they expect a payment of an initial fee and monthly fee of 10% of turnover.
That type of business is restricted to certain geogaphical areas so people may switch to classes in other areas if the time schedules are more convenient for them. If being a part of that franchised company , there is no possibility of developing new programs freely , because particular kit and programs are restricted within the Little Kickers.
   When it comes to me and how does that event influenced my career aspirations , I learned a lot. I could see that a person interested in dancing and working with kids , found a way to work in the type of business that she enjoys even though she is not dancing there. She became a football coach and found out that she likes it. It shows that people may benefit from fulfilling a function they would never thought they like.
   I have also seen that when it comes to franchise , not only Little Kickers , but also companies like BF Goodridge - tyre company , it is an easy way to make money on ready made marketing and well known brand. The only thing to do with the franchise is to make sure that it is worth to become a dealer , which means calculate. For example , if I joined my family business that is a transport , logistics and spedition company , supported by it's own trucks and trailers , service area with parking and official DAF(truck producer) serivce , I would consider to become a dealer of franchise company like mentioned BF Goodridge or Goodyear. It might have provided me a way to earn more money as in that business area tyres are really important and selled to every that kind of transport firm in big amounts depending on the number of trucks and trailers owned.
   In conclusion , that event opened my mind for franchise companies and made me aware of their presence.
I now know what to look at when it comes to franchise and what should I consider if going to be a dealer.

Bibliography:

-Primary research conducted within the attendance on the described events.

Motivation: Improving Staff Performance - week 3

   There are many theories of motivation , inter alia Maslow's and Herzberg's explaining what motivates an individual at work. These theories identify people's needs , their strenghts and goals that they want to achieve to satisfy their needs. That theories are known as the content theories of motivation.
   For example McClelland's Achievement Motivation Theory explains how people work to satisfy their needs , when thinking about desired goals.

   Despite content theories of motivation , there are also theories known as process theories of motivation.
These theories are trying to explain the way how behaviour is initiated , directed and sustained.
Many of process theories cannot be attached to single writer because very often one of theories were written by more than one author.
   Process theories spread into:
      - expectancy based models - by Vroom , and Porter and Lawler;
      - equity theory - by Adams;
      - goal theory - by Locke;
      - attribution theory - by Heider and Kelley.
For example , expectancy theory has been developed by Porter and Lawler. Their work goes beyond motivational force and shows performance as a whole. They suggest that the motivational force is mediated by abilities and traits of an individual , not lead directly to performance. Performance , motivation and satisfaction are shown as a separate variables. Porter and Lawler try to explain the relatonship among them. Their model recognises that job satisfaction is more dependent upon performance , than performance upon satisfaction.

   

   

   AMRO Logistics is a Polish transport company working within Europe and Asia. They provide a wide range of transport options by their own means and offer help by using other companies working for them.

AMRO is spreaded into two departments of headquaters and service area. Headquaters is the office where all the business issues are being worked by the staff of seven people. Service area is a part where all twenty trucks and trailers owned by company are being inspected and the service support for other companies is also provided by the staff of five mechanics , two suppliers , one engineer and one painter working in three big and well prepared depots. The drivers of the trucks are also a part of this department.

   Chairman of the company admited that the most resultful method of motivating his employees is the system of salary bonuses. In the headquaters the amount of bonus depends on the amount of sale increase. If the sales are kept under regular amount , the salary is regular as well. If the sales amount increase , then the bonus is given by three stages:

- first stage - five percent of salary bonus

- second stage - five plus four percent of salary bonus

- third stage - five plus four plus two percent of salary bonus

   When it comes to the service area , the amount of bonus depends on staff working effort. If drivers take good care of the trucks and trailers they are using by keeping the average speed they were told so that the fuel and tires costs are being as low as possible , they are being given the bonuses. If the fuel and tires cost are lower , they get bigger bonuses.

   When mechanics , suppliers , painter and engineer take good care of the trucks and trailers by carrying out good inspections , changing what needs to be changed and repairing what needs to be repaired , they get bonuses. If the set of truck and trailer runs a itinerary of about three thousand kilometres in two or three weeks and no important damage happens , then the bonus is big , if something small happens then the bonus amount is smaller , and of course if something important like brakes or engine breaks , they have to go to repair it on the route the truck goes and they have no bonuses given.

   Another method used by the AMRO company is the qualification raising programs as awards for the best employees.

For example if the employee from headquaters makes a benefit for the company , what he gets as award except money bonus is the opportunity to improve his language , computing or any other skills he or she wants for free.

If the service area employee distinguishes from others , he or she is being given a chance to go on manual skills courses , eg. welding , cutting or building with specialized tools and the newest methods with the best materials. Thanks to all of that improvements both company and employee are getting better.

   One of the process theories on motivation used by the AMRO company is Vroom's Expectancy Theory.

When there is an effort from the employee that knows what is being expected from him or her , the level of performance is higher or lower as it depends on what he or she wants to achieve. If the level is higher as mostly it is to be higher as the staff member wants to get praised by superior , higher wages or promotion , the level of that outcomes influenced  by his or her needs is higher as well. The company shows it's staff that they can earn more money or increase their qualifications by increasing their effort.

   In conclusion , AMRO Logistics uses only one method to motivate it's employees , which is based on one process theory on motivation. It shows that the company doesn't have to use numerous methods. It is enough to use one , spreaded into two or three award types , but what is important is that the method must be simple to use and understand for both employee and employer , so that they both can make benefit from it.

Bibliography:

- Mullins , Laurie J. (2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour. Ninth edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

- Rostowski, K.B. Improving Staff Performance in AMRO Logistics. [Interview] Buckinghamshire New University with K. Rostowski. 15th October 2010.

Motivation - week 2

   The achievement motivation theory by McClelland's is the one that I feel is particularly relevant to me. That theory is based on people's needs or expectations , which result in driving force that makes the way to achieve desired goals and then achievement of that goals provides fulfilment which is a feedback to people's needs or expectations. Since I can remember I have always had a concrete goals to achieve. I've never thought about the current level of my needs because I didn't have to worry about my safety or physiological needs when I was living with my partents.   In December 2006 , I started to excercise in the gym with my fitness coach. My weight then was about 117 kilograms. I knew that it was a serious threat on my health , so my current need was to loose a lot of this weight. It's almost four years now since I started to excercise regularly. My driving force was all the work I have already done so far. After almost four years , I've lost about 27 kilograms , what happens to be the goal that I wanted to achieve. Now I want to look as good as I can and be very fit as well , so this is the feedback of fulfilment in this example.
   My life is based on this theory. When I started to race with quadbike I wanted to be good at it. To do that I needed to ride a lot and improve my fitness as well. Now , when I am a good rider I want to be even better , so I want to achieve another goal.
   I've joined american football team at university and I want to be a good player. I need to learn theory , work hard and practice. It is a similar situation as with the goal that I want to achieve in quadbike racing.
   Examples mentioned above prove that the McClelland's achievement motivation theory is the one that is the most relevant to me. It's the most concrete for me and enables me to describe my way of thinking and working the best of all theories mentioned above.


   When I was in high school , I met people showing the ability of studying in England. They displayed a lot of advertising material and made me realize that I want to study at Buckinghamshire New University.
   I already knew that I could study at plenty of Polish colleges situated close to my home but I knew as well that I will never be able to gain so many profits from that kind of college that I was able to take from Buckinghamshire New University.
   Firstly , there is no way to improve my English language skills at Polish college or university. Most of the lectures are held in Polish. There are some of them that are held in English and advertised as a kind of English studies in Poland but it is obvious that Polish lecturer can't speak better English than English lecturer with years of experience.
   Secondly , Polish students very often have to learn things that have absolutely no matter and will not help them during their course. For example students of Religion Studies studying physical education obligatory.
I want to avoid studying unnecessary subjects in Poland and just waste my time.
At Bucks I can learn things that will help me understand how the business world works. I will be able to gain skills that will make my future job much easier.
   Tthis university enables me to meet people from all over the world. I can made some serious relationships or friendships with many people and use them to make a lot of benefits in future life.
   I am sure that during the first year of studying here I will get to know this place better and feel more familiar with everything. I believe that what will motivate me for the next 2 to 3 years is the knowledge that I can always gain more and more profits and skills in many areas because Buckinghamshire New University is made to enable it's students to do it. I know that the more I learn here , the more I will be able to do in my future life. It is really simple but I am sure that this is what is going to motivate me during next 2 to 3 years.
   I am here because I want to finish my degree course. I want to implement myself on many ways , I want to actualize myself so it is easy to say that Maslow's hierarchy of needs is another theory that is connected to me. It shows levels of people's needs from physiological to self actualization. If it comes to belonging needs , I've joined American football team to alleviate that need because in that kind of groups the feeling of being a part of something is a ususal thing.
   However McClelland's achievement motivation theory is more relevant to me because I know exactly what my goals are. My expectations are to make as many benefits as possible and my driving force in that case is all the work I will do to achieve it.

Bibliography:

- Mullins , Laurie J. (2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour. Ninth edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.