Developing Managerial Skills: A Self-Assessment and Development Plan

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The developing manager

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Compare different management styles.............................................................................2
1.2 Discuss leadership characteristics....................................................................................4
1.3 Evaluate communication processes in the selected businesses........................................6
1.4 Analyze organizational culture and change in selected businesses.................................7
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Assess own management skills performance...................................................................8
2.2 Analyze personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats................................8
2.3 Set and prioritise objectives and targets to develop own potentials.................................9
Task 3.......................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Lead and motivate a team to achieve an agreed goal or objective.................................11
3.2 Justify managerial decisions made to support achievement of agreed goal or objective
and recommendations for improvements.............................................................................11
Task 4.......................................................................................................................................13
4.1 Explain how own managerial and personal skills will support career development.....13
4.2 Review career and personal development needs, current performance and future needs
to produce development plan...............................................................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................14
References................................................................................................................................15

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Hierarchy of needs......................................................................................................3
Figure 2: Herzberg motivation theory........................................................................................5

Introduction
The business profitability and success has roots in the management capabilities. Therefore,
managerial skills define how the resources and assets are managed. The presented report
provides discussion of the management styles with potential differences among them whereas
it will discuss the communication process, organizational change and cultural values. The
core purpose of the report is to guide toward the systematic development of a manager to
acquire the personal and professional skills. The report will discuss my capabilities and
weaknesses along with plan to overcome the weaknesses to develop the competent career in
the industry.
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Task 1
1.1 Compare different management styles
The organizational management style has relationship with the goals and objectives. For
example, the management approaches of Thomas Cook are different from TUI Group
because Thomas Cook wants to increase the profitability and performance whereas TUI
Group focuses on the employee empowerment and retention. Following are major
considerations to understand the management styles:
Classical theory
The organizations such as Thomas Cook have use of the theory to advocate centralization of
decision-making and leadership, specialization of labor and profit maximization. Therefore,
Thomas Cook has primary purpose with this style to streamline the operations, achieve the
bottom line and increase productivity. The management has strong focus on the fulfillment of
the physical and economic requirements of the employees. However, there is no accounting
for their job satisfaction and social needs (Shafritz et al., 2015). Therefore, the organization
provides hierarchical structure and ensures specialization in work with financial advantage to
the employees for high performance.
Scientific management
In comparison of Thomas Cook, TUI Group implements scientific management theory which
has main purpose to improve economic efficiency especially associated with labor
productivity. TUI Group ensures that planning is separated from operations and there are
group leaders and supervisors to direct the resources. The organization also analyzes the
processes and equipments for their standardization and implements scientific approach to
manage cost and work (Waring, 2016). Therefore, social needs and job satisfactions are
considered to improve the employee engagement and motivation.
The influence of informal groups
TUI Group also empowers the employees to share the knowledge and experience in
information groups those are created and managed at their ends without the control of the
business managers. It helps to create social environment at workplace and drive the
performance. The organizational culture also improved through informal groups for
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performance and quality in individual’s work (Argyris, 2017). However, the interest and
motivation of individual behind the engagement define the group size and knowledge
building.
Hierarchy of needs
The both organizations implement hierarchy of needs theory which shows that the
management can address the requirements and expectations of the employees is a systematic
hierarchy. For example, basic needs including physiological and safety needs are at priorities
in comparison of psychological and self-fulfillment needs. However, the organizations
provide equal focus on the needs and ensure that the employees are satisfied with workplace
situations and benefits (Cherry, 2014). It also helps management to program the decisions
and approaches for betterment of the experience of employees with business operations.
Figure 1: Hierarchy of needs
Systems approach to management
TUI Group uses the system approach to assume that the entire organizational functions are
the composition of employees and assets and all works interrelated to attain the goals and
objectives (Noe et al., 2017). Therefore, the management balances the internal resources with
marketing capabilities and opportunities for profitability whereas Thomas Cook believes that
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management is a separate and monitoring function in business and have no influence of
external factors.
Contingency approach
TUI Group has high flexibilities to melt the decisions and operations according to the
situations because the organization thinks that there is not a single management approach
which can address all issues. Therefore, the organization has efficiency to address the
competitive advantages and ensures high contingency (Battilana and Casciaro, 2012).
However, Thomas Cook mainly focuses on a several styles to deal with changing situations at
workplace and it constraints for profitability and stability.
1.2 Discuss leadership characteristics
According to Drucker (2012), leadership is a process to influence the people so that they can
achieve the common goals and objectives effectively. Therefore, a leader is liable to plan,
direct and monitor the resources toward the achievement of the goals. Following are major
characteristics to influence others at workplace:
Style
Leaders in TUI Group focus on the participative leadership in which the employees are
integrated into business decisions and change process to attain high quality and performance.
Therefore, the employees have opportunities to express their thoughts and opinions into
business decision making so that it helps the organization to achieve adoptive and sustainable
decisions and approaches at workplace and foster the positive work culture
(Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy, 2014). Thomas Cook focuses on autocratic leadership in
routine operations because the organization assumes that engagement of the employee is time
consuming and their skills and capabilities also impact the quality of decisions. Therefore, the
organization centralizes the decision making process and liabilities to control the operations.
Also, TUI Group leaders focus on transformational style to drive the workforce to adopt the
changes and influences against the external market to achieve the competitive advantages.
Action-oriented
TUI Group provides high flexibilities to the leaders to become action-oriented so that they
can reduce the impact of changes in external market to drive the profitability. It helps to
attain high independence at role profile. An action-oriented leader needs to analyze the
market and to map the decisions adequately to ensure particular consequences of the actions.
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Motivational
Leaders are also motivational to support the workforce during the strategic executions. They
consider the employee requirements and expectations for the incentives, work recognition
and rewards so that they can be motivated and directed toward the goal accomplishment
(Laureani and Antony, 2017). The leaders promote the creativity, flexibility and
communication to motivate the resources and for that, they mainly implement Herzberg
motivation factor theory.
Figure 2: Herzberg motivation theory
Effectiveness
The influence is at core to drive others and so that the leaders have to manage a good
personality, appearance and communication skills. The leaders are required to acquire the
skills and capabilities to solve the problems, align the team members and foster the
standardization to meet the goals effectively.
Conflict resolution
Internal conflicts are common to occur. Leadership means to resolve the conflicts with high
efficiency and to align the resources into a team to accomplish goals (Dickson et al., 2012).
However, the leader also has characteristics to convenience the resources but the leader is
also ahead for the rights of the resources at workplace.
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1.3 Evaluate communication processes in the selected businesses
Communication process is essential to consider the managers with execution team so that
management can share strategic goals and approaches whereas resources can report the issues
and progress. Following are major processes with advantages and limitations.
Verbal: Thomas Cook prefers verbal communication process between managers and
employees for routine operations. It is accomplished through seminars and meetings and easy
to direct the resources. However, the main limitation is that it has no accountability and
evidence and rarely used to justify the liabilities on work.
Written: TUI Group empowers internal communication through written emails and letters.
Several copies are created and circulated in relevant departments. It is formal to allocate the
roles and responsibilities whereas it is also effective to justify the liabilities of individual on
outcomes (Guffey and Loewy, 2012). However, it needs systematic process for approval and
sign-off to ensure implementations.
Lines of communication: The both organizations make use of chain of agents, suppliers and
customer representative to support the business decisions through market related data. The
lines of communication are significant but it has high threat of inaccuracy and reliability
because the source of the information is complex to identify. However, there is effective
sharing of knowledge among employees.
Linear: The top management of both organizations uses the approach to direct, control and
guide executive resources. It is used to share goals and objectives to execution level in
business (Adler and Elmhorst, 2012). However, it is effective to manage the hierarchy but it
has lack of understanding with expectations of the employees.
Lateral: TUI Group empowers groups and departments to share the information among them
so that they can support high quality and performance in work. It is effective to achieve
teamwork but it also has influence of individual’s interest to support the communication.
Formal/informal: Formal communication is used at management level in both organizations
to share information on tasks and strategies whereas information communication is
accomplished within group of people to achieve idea and knowledge sharing. Both are
significant processes to empower the internal teamwork and performance.
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1.4 Analyze organizational culture and change in selected businesses
The organizational culture of TUI Group focuses on the engagement of the employees in the
business decision making process and ensures high satisfaction and performance. The
organization has performance directed work culture through formal and informal groups. The
management of the organization share the vision and mission to the employees and align the
practices to the goals. The organizational culture promotes consistency, employee motivation,
loyalty, and coordination (Briody et al., 2012). Also, it helps to shape the organizational
behaviour with integration of diversity and strong communication. The organization has
adopted horizontal expansion and so that merger and acquisition is used to expand the
operations. The changes are occurred with time for internal restructuring, competitive
advantages and business growth. Several technological changes are also occurred to influence
the business process for optimization.
Thomas Cook has work oriented culture which means that the organizational leaders and
managers are aligned to optimize the productivity of the resources. The organization is
adopting the innovation and customer services at management level to influence the practices
of the employees. There is vertical expansion of the business in which the organization has
high focus on the profitability and services (Alvesson, 2012). However, the organization has
gone through several changes in business process and structure. For example, the
management focuses on innovation and customer services and ensure new processes are
optimized to adopt to reduce the operational cost.
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Task 2
2.1 Assess own management skills performance
I have to acquire strong management skills to accomplish the roles and responsibilities as a
deputy manager in the retail functions of TUI Group. Throughout the working, I have
performed effectively to attain the competitive advantages and to manage smooth execution
of the business goals.
 Autocratic and democratic leadership styles are part of my performance because I
have used autocratic leadership to ensure high performance and centralization of the
control and decision making. It has helped me to attain short term goals also. Also, I
have used democratic leadership to establish the strategies and changes at workplace
so that employee satisfaction and motivation can be achieved.
 I have used Maslow’ theory to identify the needs of employees and systematic
approach to address the needs whereas Herzberg theory is used to attain motivation of
the employees.
 A problem solving and positive attitude toward the decisions and work strategies has
helped to achieve the outcomes against the constraints and challenges (Martina et al.,
2012). For example, I have introduced custom holiday services to retain the
profitability during off-seasons.
 Strong communication and professional behavior has helped to engage and manage
the resources. For example, I have defined incentives for high performance givers
whereas I have recognized the individual’s contribute with high accuracy and
transparency.
 I have supported innovation and creativity and ensured that the organizational goals
and objectives are communicated to the employees effectively. As a manager, I have
fostered individual’s personal and professional development.
2.2 Analyze personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
Strengths
 I have strong communication and interpersonal skills. I have capabilities to influence
others and to express the thoughts clearly to the intended audiences. I am a good
public speaker and attractive approach in interpersonal skills.
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 I know how to manage the operations and resources as the previous experience in
same field is beneficial for me to attain efficiency in practices. I have strong
knowledge of management including the theories and framework (Kor and Mesko,
2013).
 Capabilities to resolve the problems with high accuracy and reliability help to
improve the outcomes. It helps to achieve independence in operations.
Weaknesses
 However, I have never used feedback from others or never documented the results on
practices to measure the performance. I lack expertise to ensure accuracy in
performance measurement.
 I also need some understanding with other business functions so that managerial roles
and responsibilities can be accomplished with high quality.
Opportunities
 The managerial functions are also transiting on the technological tools and techniques
so that I have to learn technical skills to improve productivity.
 I can integrate the tools and techniques for performance monitoring so that cost and
time including other opportunities can be used to improve skills.
 It is an opportunity for me to foster creativity in the practices and to standardize the
outcomes (Testa and Sipe, 2012).
Threats
 Rapid changes in the management approaches are challenging my practices and so
that I have threat to become compatible for the ongoing changes within time.
 Sometime, informal communication prevents me to influence people and it reduces
the control on the resources to direct and guide them into operations.
2.3 Set and prioritise objectives and targets to develop own potentials
My primary goal is to develop technical and professional skills within next six months so that
high productivity and quality can be achieved for professional growth. Core target is to
measure the performance once a week through the feedback from colleagues whereas six
months are good enough to develop the potentials and to sharp them.
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