Principles of Management Assignment Essay

All four managers agreed that there was a difference between managing and leading, which means there is no gap. They all defined managing as process, procedures, task focused and results; compared to leading, which was focus on developing people. The positive benefit is it helps implement new processes the within the Contact Centre at MPI because all levels of management have a clear understanding that leading is people development and managing is a task focus. Key to Staff Motivation The key to staff motivation is similar with all four managers; therefore, no real gaps exist. They all agreed that recognizing individual difference, matching people to jobs, what builds up that employee, asking for staff opinions, being part of the solution and inspire them to buy in to the organization plan. The positive benefit to the Contact Centre is making people feel they are part of the solution. In addition, what they do makes the Contact Centre successful. Management are able to outline the expectation and make everyone accountable for his or her actions. As the managers understand the key to motivate staff, it will help when implementing new procedures and having staffed involved in the implementation at the beginning stages with the Contact Centre. Opinion on Expedition The most efficient way of getting people to do things, for all four managers was to communicate expectations and the understanding of why it is important to complete the request. There was no gap with each level of management, starting from the supervisor, to assistant managers and the department manager. They all agreed that providing direction, communicating, understanding and giving guidance to employees on completing the task. This would be a positive benefit to the managers because they will have staff to perform the daily tasks needed to run a contact centre. As all managers, do not use one specific type of motivation factor to influence and engage staff to work efficiently and effectively within the Contact Centre. Communication When discussing the best way to communicate with staff, all four levels of managers agreed that there are various methods to use and, depending on the situation, figuring out what works best. Between the four people, there is no gap with what they state regarding how to communicate information whether it is formal or informal. They all agreed that using the right tool to convey a message would be by email or in person. Communication is the transfer and understanding the meaning of information. This would be a positive benefit as it is important to keep the lines of communication open between front line staff up to management. This would help with relating feedback to existing performance goals and clear expectations. This includes: Giving specific feedback tied to observable behaviour or measurable results. Channel feedback toward key results areas and things the can do something about. Give feedback as soon as possible. Give positive feedback for improvement, not just results. Focus feedback on performance, not personalities. Speak directly and without judgement and base feedback on accurate and credible information. This positive benefit would help staff motivation and understanding new process and procedures to perform them effectively and efficiently to better help our customers. Responsibility for Change When asked who is responsible for change in an organization all four managers agreed that everyone is responsible for change. No gap exists between the four managers and the current practices. The positive benefit to not having gaps is that all levels of management are setting the tone through management behaviour when implementing any change. From managers to employees, everyone needs to be positive role models because everyone is responsible for change. It helps to know the best way for change is employee’s participation and creation of a climate with a high level of trust. Implementing Change in an Organization There is no gap between all four manages on their view of how they think change is best implemented in an organization. They all agreed that providing a clean timeline, planning, objectives and communicating outcomes  is shared with right group of staff. This has a positive benefit to the organization’s culture, since management realizes that change can be difficult to introduce because employees are often committed to old ways of doing things. In addition, management realize how to deal with employee stress while undergoing change. For the positive benefit to be effective, management realizes they need to communicate clearly, involve the necessary employees, share information and have employee buy in to have change be implement efficiently. Drives Change in Organizations There is not a real gap between all four mangers in what drives change in an organization. All four mangers, agreed there are internal and external factors that drive change in an organization such as: growth, technology, customer, politics, business, employees, and market needs. However, being different levels in management the internal and external forces of change differ in position and chain of command. The positive benefit with different points of view is shared by communicating from the bottom to the top manager. Everyone receives a broader view of the changes effecting the organization from front line supervisor to manager. The changes that effect an organization are structure, people and technology. To have views from different levels of management on how these types of change happens in one department, helps give a better understanding to how to handle the change with staff. This is a positive benefit on implementing any change as all levels of mangers work together to help staff understand and motivate the change fundamentally. Top Three Challenges facing Management and Leadership There exists a gap in the four levels of management on their views of what are the top three most pressing challenges facing management and leadership. The challenges differ with each level of management are as followed: corporate approval, amount of changing adversity in MPI, demographic change in the workplace, creating ownership and accountability in the organization, customer expectations, management change, workload and developing in your owner position and trying to develop other employees. These gaps between all levels of management have a combined result of being both a positive benefit and a negative impact implication for the future organization of MPI. The positive benefit is each level of management focus on a different challenge  that can be developed or changed to help employees and the company. For example the roles of each level of management is different in the Contact Centre so working with challenges facing management and leadership when addressed proactively they benefit the future goals of the organization. As they work together to implement any change or add new procedures, they realize they all have different challenges that effect their role. The negative impact is having these different challenges does not necessary mean that they are working towards the same goal. For example, if implementing any change within the Contact Centre, they do not realize the different challenges with each other. The result is they will have trouble understanding the changes that are required to implement to staff that will affect the future organizational goals.