Self Reflective Essay on Management Functions

This self reflective essay explores the importance of management functions in smooth operations and growth. It discusses the challenges faced by a team leader and the impact of planning, organizing, leadership, and controlling. The essay also suggests alternative leadership styles and strategies for improving team performance.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Topic- Self Reflective Essay from Life with Application of Planning, Organising,
Leadership and Controlling
As commented by Alvesson, Blom and Sveningsson (2016), the management
functions play a vital role in smooth operations, development along with growth as it is the
ongoing process which helps in predicting the deviations before actually the situation occurs.
Moreover, as stated by Erasmus, Strydom and Rudansky-Kloppers (2016), the planning is the
most crucial element which should be incorporated by the different leaders in the companies
as it will be enhancing the overall efficiency of the companies in a positive manner.
While working with my ABC Company, I was appointed there as team leader in
which there were four members who worked under my guidance. In my team, the different
team members were from various cultural backgrounds and it created a challenge for me in
managing them. As it was my first experience as a team leader, therefore I was not flawless
in planning, controlling and organizing the team. The first task which was assigned to us by
the manager of the company was to deliver fifty pieces of designer scarfs to the most
premium client of the company.
However, due to the lack of proper planning, our entire team could not succeed as
there were cultural clashes between thoughts of different members of the group and we could
not strategize the goals and objectives appropriately as well. Moreover, I failed in organizing
the allocating the resources and there was lack of available resources such as there was
shortage of clothes to design the scarfs. However, I tried to act as an authoritarian leader in
handling the team and managed the entire situation in a tactful manner. We were required to
deliver the scarfs to the client within three days, however due to the cultural issues and lack
of equality created within the team members, there was huge chaos among the team members
and it affected the work (Thorpe 2015).

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In such scenario, I tried to act as the autocratic leader and tried to handle and control
the situation somehow and deliver the order to the clients within the due date. However, due
to the following of the autocratic leadership style, it affected the morale of the team members
and they felt I never maintained equality between them as well. Moreover, the client was not
fully satisfied with the designs and as far as the situation is concerned, I feel that the blame is
on me as I could not manage the team in a tactful manner which affected the productivity.
From the analysis of the entire situation, I tried to identify the different loopholes
which were caused due to my faults and I could have rectified them in a proper manner.
Firstly, I could have followed the transformational leadership style wherein I could have
included the team members and understand their views which would have helped us in
completing the tasks on time. I could have maintained the flat communication structure to
improve the scenario and achieve the goals and satisfy the requirements of the clients (Parker,
Holesgrove and Pathak 2015).
As a leader, I should have planned the different processes accordingly as it would
have led to gaining profitability and improve the scenario. In order to satisfy the clients, the
main aim of mine should have been to strategizing the resources and formulate the team
structure to lead the team with more motivation that could have increased the morale of
employees and there would have been coordination that would have helped me in solving the
issues effectively and more tactfully.

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References
Alvesson, M., Blom, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2016. Reflexive leadership: Organising in an
imperfect world. Sage.
Erasmus, B., Strydom, J.W. and Rudansky-Kloppers, S. eds., 2016. Introduction to business
management. Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Parker, D.W., Holesgrove, M. and Pathak, R., 2015. Improving productivity with self-
organised teams and agile leadership. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management, 64(1), pp.112-128.
Thorpe, R., 2016. Gower handbook of leadership and management development. CRC Press.