Management in IT: Principles of Staff Management, Software Management Tools, Strategic Planning, and Developments in Information Technology

This study delves into the principles of staff management, use of software management tools, participation in strategic planning, and developments in information technology. It evaluates the staff recruitment policy, theories of staff motivation, and staff administration documentation. The study also explores the use of system management tools for planning processes and the effectiveness of software management tools. Additionally, it examines the roles of IT in strategic planning and the impact of new technology on management.

MANAGEMENT IN IT
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Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1: Understanding the principles of staff management............................................................3
1.1 Evaluation of staff recruitment policy of the organization........................................................3
1.2 Theories of staff motivation and change in management..........................................................4
1.3 Evaluation of staff administration documentation.....................................................................6
Task 2: Use of software management tools.....................................................................................6
2.1 Use of system management tool to manage planning processes...............................................6
2.2 Effectiveness of software management tool..............................................................................8
Task 3: Participation in strategic planning......................................................................................9
3.1 Evaluation of the roles of IT in planning in strategic planning.................................................9
3.2 Appropriate research methods of the company.......................................................................10
3.3 Issues related to strategic planning..........................................................................................11
Task 4: Developments in information technology.........................................................................12
4.1 Importance of introducing new developments within technology..........................................12
4.2 Impact of new technology on management.............................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
Reference list.................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
Management of information technology is the processes of all resources which relates to the
information technology that is managed according to the needs and priorities of an organization.
The information technology does include various resources like computers, hardware,
networking, software as well as people.
The aim of the study is to find the expectations of work based activities of the technology
manager of McLaren Technology Group, with the help of generic skills. The organisation was
founded in 1985 in the United Kingdom and has more than 5289 employees (Mclaren.com.
2017). It is an automotive industry with various technologies. The study also includes the
knowledge and understanding of the technology that is required in the environment of
information technology. Further, the study includes the principles of staff management and use
of various tools of software managements along with the planning of strategies used in the
organization named McLaren Technology Group with development in information technology.
Figure 1: Logo of McLaren Technology Group
(Source: Mclaren.com. 2017)
Task 1: Understanding the principles of staff management
1.1 Evaluation of staff recruitment policy of the organization
McLaren Technology Group holds that their staffs are the soul of their company’s success. So
the company’s main motive is to retain their staffs by offering attractive benefits and
remunerations. Therefore they have created strong policies and principles about this and are
constantly trying to renovate their basic company principles. They are constantly trying to create
a sound and stable company framework for the company to achieve success in future. They have
developed a new style of recruitment and selection criteria so that the company goals are met
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thoroughly. Christopher (2016, p.55) referred that the process of recruitment in the company is
following the approach of open competition principle. They highly value the merits of each and
every candidate for the selection criteria. This is performed by the company because the
company goodwill is withheld thoroughly, and the proper identification of the genuine
candidates are made. Only those candidates are recruited who are most deserving of the job. The
company is also very much concerned about the fact that the recruitment process is followed in a
genuine, orderly and timely manner.
After the total recruitment procedure is completed the company also gives much importance on
the candidate training procedure so that the company is benefited in the long run. As per Fayol
(2016, p. 46) the company also holds some subsidiary rule that the company staff members who
are already working in the company must inform the higher authorities whenever a close
personal related with that staff is applying for the job in that company, so that any unfair
favouritism is avoided in the recruitment process. Whenever a new vacancy is published by
McLaren Technology Group, a description of the job with relevance to the company criteria with
the skills, experience, and knowledge are published along with it. Irizarry et al. (2013, p.253)
suggested that, after a basic aptitude about the knowledge of the candidate, the shortlisted
candidates can be selected for personal interview. The interview is normally carried out by a
panel of four members with one of them being the recruitment manager. Finally, when a
candidate is hired, the final stage that he goes through is the induction process. Generally, the
head of the company's department is responsible for the preparation of the induction program of
the new candidate.
1.2 Theories of staff motivation and change in management
Each and every company has their own ways to motivate their company’s staffs. McLaren
Technology Group also has their own way to motivate their employees. The most common of
these are Needs motivation theory, Equity Theory, Expectancy Theory. The motivation theory is
best described as the highest effort that is exerted towards achieving a certain goal. It is the
ability to satisfy the individual needs. Johnston and Marshall (2016, p.75) argued that, In the
company perspective, the need is directly proportioned to the less amount of tension that it faces.
When the individual needs are met, the tension of the individual gets relieved and the work
outcome becomes more attractive. The needs mainly differed from person to person because the
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requirement of every person is not same. The needs can be physiological. These also vary over
different time and different places. Sometimes they can be too strong and sometimes they can be
too weak. McLaren Technology Group needs to understand the need of the employees and based
on that understanding they can easily plan their future operations. This can be very helpful for
the organization in terms of future growth.
Figure 2: Need theory of employee motivation
(Source: McNeil et al. 2015, p.22)
McLaren Technology Group also uses the Equity Theory for the betterment of the company.
McNeil et al. (2015, p.22) stated that this theory is based on the promotion and pay rise that the
employees get to develop their motivation towards the job. The employees feel motivated when
they avail fair and advantageous treatment from the higher officials. They employees can feel
dissatisfied if treated otherwise. The company believes in fair treatment with every individual
staff so that they can get the best outputs and efforts from them. This will eventually build the
company's reputation and character in the business world. They mainly emphasize upon the
employee expectancy theory helps in building their motivation in the work. This generally
revolves around a mental process of choosing and self-interest among rewards, behaviors and
organizational goals. They also ensure that rewards are provided to those who actually deserve it.
Change management theory is effectively and successfully applied to businesses and industries
in this company to deal with both transitions and also change. It helps in a transition of all the
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people, group projects and businesses from one state to another. It also involves various method
structures and frameworks to drive the company from the present situation to some desired
situation. McLaren Technology Group gives much importance to focus on a particular plan of
action and avoiding irrelevant methods to bring change. Change management is a constant
process which takes time, dedication and expert opinion for implementation. In it, all the staffs
and employees are involved and they all are directly affected by it.
1.3 Evaluation of staff administration documentation
Documentation is a process of retention of records of all employment events. Documentation
involves the company policy and practices which include both formal and informal keeping of
records in the process of employment events. The process of documentation in this company
allows it to keep a record of all the things that takes place in all events. This also helps to create a
record of the relationship between the employees regarding their promotions, payment rise and
also disciplinary actions along with employee termination. According to Vaishnavi and Kuechler
(2015, p.39) documentation is highly appreciated because it is factual and not at all judgmental.
It is mostly maintained by the manager of the company. The format of the documentation
involves permanent records, employee references, resumes and cover letters with background
checks of each employee. It also contains medical details and psychological behavior of the
employees. This helps both the employers as well as the employees because both good and bad
incidents are not overlooked and required actions like applauding and punishing, are taken by the
company. This helps in the creation of a good work atmosphere that is fair, consistent and
supporting. It helps in the development of employee goals, achievements, and future career
plans.
Task 2: Use of software management tools
2.1 Use of system management tool to manage planning processes
The system management tools are referred to the administration and distribution systems which
are commonly used within the organisation for all their processes. The organisation McLaren
Technology Group has faced various issues related to the budgetary procedures, financial
reports, and is the lack of the project controls as there is the use of various manual procedures for
most of the management operation.
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The organisation has faced the huge problem in the budgetary procedures as they use some
manual tools to control and manage the budgets of them. According to Armstrong and Taylor
(2014, p.69), there are various risks that the organisation may face like unable to understand the
management to the budgets. The cost and the expenditures at the correct statements are not
judged by the organisation. The budget of an organisation does help them to manage all the
works and the expenditure which are related to the cost of production, the expense of other
activities, employee salary and most of the cost related processes within them. The risks from the
budget controlling may be reduced with the help of some budget management tools related to the
information technology. The tool which the organisation can use is helpful to manage the fixed
budget, flexible budget, capital budget, and sales budget and expenditure budgets of them. The
budget management tool does help to plan the budget according to the daily status of the
organisation which may be the challenging area of the manager due to work pressure and
operating challenges. Borghoff and Pareschi (2013, p.63) stated that, the tools also have the use
of maintaining the financial conditions and the gaps along with the risks from it. Budgetary
control has to be present within an organisation so as to make sure of the proper management of
budget and finance. The financial aspects also have to be monitored for the better run the
processes of all the activities and the processes of production for McLaren Technology Group.
The financial tool allows better management of finance and it automatically uploads every
financial data which can be easily analysed by the manager and other personnel of the
organisation. The management tools which comprise of the different financial management tool
are helpful for changing the behaviour of the people, employee and the management bodies of
the organisation (Chae et al. 2014, p.310).
The projects and all the processes of the McLaren Technology Group are not managed properly
as they use some manual tool to manage various activities. The implementation of the
management tool for the organisation does help to manage all the processes and the projects in
perfect order so that the company does make well management of all the processes and gain the
extra profit which should be an added advantage to them. The control of all the processes and
correct execution of all the projects and processes does require the use of proper management
tools which are related to the information technology. Cresswell et al. (2013, p.11) stated that,
the management tools related to the information technology may be the software which is
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sufficient for managing all the processes for the organisation and make it easy and effective for
the betterment of McLaren Technology Group with productivity from the business.
2.2 Effectiveness of software management tool
In the earlier day, the management tools were referred to the pencil, paper and some
methodology to execute the management procedures. However, with the evolution of
information technology, there are various management tools used by McLaren Technology
Group for processing all of the activities with easy methodology and effectiveness. The
organisation use Liquid Planner, Zoho Project, Vollero and Team Gantt as the management tool
which has proved to be effective for them. With the introduction of software management tool,
the organisations are able to manage all of their activities and processes with more effectively
and conveniently. Dellinger et al. (2013, p.200) stated that, the different variations of the
management tools are for the different purpose to be implemented within different organisations
and other industries. There is much effectiveness gathered from the use of the different
management tool by the organisation. Managing an organisation and its processes is relatively
hard and the processes have been made them easy to fulfil their requirements with the
implementation of such management tools.
The software management tool are helpful to make business for easy communication with the
employees, clients, track project status, share files and track the records of assignments. The
software in the management tools is the lifesaver for the business of small or large scale industry.
The management tool and software are not for making less of work for managers however to
make easy access to the large scale of data with some easy means of access. The tool does help
for the easy management of the project for achieving the targets of them. This system makes the
project easy accessible and the employees also find it easy to comply with their projects.
Galegher et al. (2014, p.36) stated that, the employee management can be done with some easy
techniques and procedures that are implemented within the tool. The attendance record,
performance record, sort of employee, retirements of any employee and new requirements for
employees are managed through this software management tool.
The budget monitoring and controlling have been easy with this software and it has proved to be
effective for maintaining the correct budget for correct reason and the expenditure of the
organisation has been controlled. The initial cost to implement such management tool may cost
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to some extent. However, the effectiveness would make the organisation to gain extra profit
through effective management of all the processes with the help of that management tools. Thus
the initial cost can be recovered by the organisation with the exchange of effectiveness of the
tool for them. The tools that McLaren Technology Group is using for their business management
are helpful to manage easily with the projects of them. The resources and the finance are under
control and it has been done by the tool within the business organisation.
The tools do bring the critical issues to the attention of the manager which can be evaluated for
better results. It has made easy to track the project evolution for its completion with desired time
and effective costs. Galliers and Leidner (2014, p.58) stated that, the tools also help the
organisation to find the gaps and issues and solve them, with various undo and redo of the
projects and processes of them. The management tools also do provide the clean path to break
projects, allocate resources, build new resources and manage all the budgets for the business of
McLaren Technology Group.
Task 3: Participation in strategic planning
3.1 Evaluation of the roles of IT in planning in strategic planning
The information technology does play the most important roles in daily operations of businesses
in recent times. This is not the business; however, the information technology keeps things
smooth on working as per the requirements. Most of the organisations are based on the
infrastructure of information technology with 15 to 20 percent of the total budget of the business
organisation which is gradually growing every year for enhancing the business and productivity
of the organisations. The McLaren Technology Group also has implemented many management
tools related to the information technology (Hill et al. 2014, p.45). Focusing on the various
strategic plans to implement the information technology seems to be successful for most of the
organisations.
The management of data, computer technology, programming in the computer, software,
networking, application of software and the telecommunications are the main areas where the
planning of strategies required. The system of information technology is the defined to as the
system which stores data which can be retrieved and exchanged from system to system.
The IT strategic planning is the purpose for the manager’s activity and is done in the free time of
the technical team of an organisation. The strategies are for reducing the cost of tasks by
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automation process, data management through computers, proper and improved collaboration,
management of the knowledge and data transfer by electronic means. The organisation, McLaren
Technology Group does not add cost without the proper evaluation of risk and their challenges.
According to James et al. (2014, p.511), the different challenges found by the organisation are,
the budgets of implementation of information technology, unexpected delivery of values, often
get misunderstood by the system and the risks which occur from the faults and the security
threats. These have to be recognised by the management team and rectify the issues which are
related to the challenges faced by the organisation from the implementation of information
technology. The overcoming from the issues is also included in the strategies of planning the
information technology infrastructure within the organisation.
3.2 Appropriate research methods of the company
Planning strategies do rely on various methods and tools which can define or interpret the
information for comparing with different alternatives. The appropriate research methods for
strategies comprises of;
Diagnosis of sectors
The diagnosis of the sector is referred to the sector where the organisation belongs to. This
means it is to find the types of work done by the organisation and the belonging to the respective
field of specific industry. Johns et al. (2014, p.1560) stated that, this includes the concept of an
organisation, its rationale and the scope in the business market. For the implementation of
strategies, this is to determine the sector of the organisation for rest of the method execution.
Formulation of policy
The formulation of policy is referred to as the policies which are suitable for the organisation and
are accepted for the prior grant by the personnel of the company. The policies are generally
based on the previous policies and the result of sector identity.
Objective selection and areas of priority
This stage does involve the previous two stages. The recognising of the strength and the
weakness which were identified from sector diagnosis and policy are involved in the selection of
objectives and the programs which are having priority to furnish as early as possible (Kerzner,
2013, p.75).
Designing the priority program
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As the early stages are completed the specified programs of priority must be designed for
meeting the objectives that provide the indication to precise the targets that have to achieve the
expected outputs, key activities for completion of objectives, the timelines and indicators for
every activity of the organisation.
Preparing the cost and finance framework
The framework has to be created by the organisation for the all over cost and the finance that act
as the prior area to be present within the research methods.
Designing of system to monitor
The organisation need to have some system that can monitor all the processes involved in the
planning of strategies for implantation of information technology.
Creation of draft plan
The designing of method, need to create the draft plan which may of different structure and
format which are helpful to recognise the methods.
Revision of the draft plan
The draft plan has to be revised for identification of any gaps and issues that may damage the
methodology.
Approval of official plan
The planning of strategies needs the method which has to be approved by the higher personnel so
that it can execute for the business to make the organisation manage well within the information
technology system.
3.3 Issues related to strategic planning
The strategic planning may get the issue from the areas of political, economic, social and
technology. An organisation is always under the effect of political issues such as government
laws and rules. The economic state of the organisation has to be sufficient so as to execute the
whole process without any financial faults. Social issues are also the main aspect of the society
may distract and provide obstruction towards the process execution. Laurent et al. (2014, p.580)
stated that, the technology which may be used for the strategy planning has to be user-friendly
which can be easily accessed by the entire member and make the contribution in the handling of
such technology.
There are some internal issues that may create impact are:
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Lack of leadership
There should be a leader for all the activities that are to be done for execution in groups or team.
The team member has to listen to the leader by which they are able to work on the same path of
activity execution. There may be the issue arise from the lack of proper leadership. As the team
member listens to the leader there may be faulty planning of strategies from incorrect leadership.
Lack of unity
The execution of strategic plan needs some team with an effective leader. Sometimes the
member of the team may not agree on any portion of the execution process. As the team member
does not carry unity within themselves there may be problematic areas for wrong strategic
planning.
Being too much ambitious
The persons involved in the planning of strategies must be efficient enough and put complete
dedication in the processes. Majchrzak et al. (2014, p.62) stated that, there may be some person
who shows too much ambitious toward the process may misguide others as well as make mistake
in the all over the process. The Too much ambitious person often lacks in skill and may disrupt
the processes with wrong activities within the process.
Lack of velocity and momentum within short term
The planning of the strategies must be in a flawless manner and has to be in some continuous
momentum. The flow of the process may be getting certain break resulting in the break of the
momentum of the entire process. This break may result to the incorrect guide to work, can create
re-start issue which leads to the late execution of the entire strategic planning and there may be
also some gaps and faults within it.
Task 4: Developments in information technology
4.1 Importance of introducing new developments within technology
The development of new technology to an organisation is very much needed. This is because of
modern technology emergence to the competition market. The organisation has to implant with
modern technology such as information technology which can be helpful for easy execution of
all the processes and activities within the business organisation. The modern technology makes
the business of an organisation more successful.
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The technology helps to create an effective communication process and provides an environment
of open business. The people become more accountable and clear to everyone in the
organisation. It does provide the sense of ownership to engage in the project and processes.
It also helps the team and its member to be virtually connected to the business organisation. It
makes sure of the knowledge sharing and the available support. It helps more productive in the
business and enhances the skills of leaderships. It does help the employees to be more motivated
toward the efficiency of processes. The online productivity through information technology
solutions is able to monitor the business and progress of the employees can be tracked through it.
The modern technology helps to provide the advanced analyses of the business and the relevant
reports which are done to improve the ultimate productivity of the organisation.
4.2 Impact of new technology on management
The new technology for business management has various impacts on McLaren Technology
Group. They are:
Significance
With the traditional computers and smart phones, organisations do implement with some
information technology, software and special technology for making the operation of the
organisation run smooth. The implementation of new technology does decrease the time which is
needed for completing the task. It often diminishes the need of the processes for business and
functions of the job. To increase the productivity there need to upgrade the technology used in
the organisation
Structure
To improve the efficiency of business and its processes there should be modern progression for
the computers and technologies. Piro et al. (2014, p.170) stated that, the employees need to get
training on the new technology used newly to the organisation that used some traditional ways to
execute all their processes. There must be training on various software and modern equipment.
There may be some technology implementations that are actually obsolete for the organisation.
Operations
The enhancement in the modern technology often reduces the traditional office tasks and
improves the efficiency to process the activities of the organisations. The every aspect of the
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technology use are not gained by the employees and hence they are not able to operate the newly
implemented technology for the organisational processes.
Costs
The implementation of the new technology would cost to some extent and this may create the
impact on the financial state of the organisation. The initial cost of technology implementation
within an organisation can make more costs and expense which can be taken over with the
effectiveness of it and make more profit in the future with effective productivity from the
organisation.
Conclusion
The study states that the principles of managing staffs are helpful for the organisation and can
make better in the productivity and save much of the costs that may arise with improper
employee management. The study has provided knowledge with the software management tool
which is the effective criteria for an organisation to manage all its activities and the processes to
yield better productivity. It can be concluded that the planning of strategies to implement the
information technology within a business organisation is effective for its proper management. It
can be also concluded that the development of information technology in the organisation are
helpful to improve management and productivity despite having some implementation cost. Thus
the all over study are helpful for the organisation who are lacking with some modern technology
which may be of information technology.
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