Analyzing Management: Malaysia Airlines and Managerial Roles (BDM1314)

This report provides a critical analysis of management principles, focusing on the context of Malaysia Airlines (MA). It begins with an introduction to the company and its background. The report then delves into the four principal functions of a manager: planning and decision-making, organizing, leading, and controlling, evaluating their impact on the organization. It further examines the challenges managers face, such as employee performance issues, terminations, hiring decisions, ethical dilemmas, and team conflicts, discussing how these challenges are addressed. The report identifies key managerial roles, including information, interpersonal, and decisional roles, and details the skills essential for effective managers. Interpersonal skills, motivation, and communication are highlighted. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of these elements for organizational success and personal and professional growth. The report follows the assignment brief, addressing the core questions related to managerial functions, challenges, roles, and skills within the context of a real-world organization.

Running Head: MANAGEMENT
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Principles of Management
BDM1314: Principle of Management I
(Student details :)
8/13/2019

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Contents
Principles of Management-I.......................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Background and details of the MA........................................................................................2
Critical Analysis and Evaluation................................................................................................3
Four principal functions of the manager................................................................................3
Planning and Decision-Making..........................................................................................4
Organizing..........................................................................................................................4
Leading...............................................................................................................................5
Controlling.........................................................................................................................5
Challenges face by Managers.................................................................................................5
Facing an employee performance challenge......................................................................6
Terminating employees......................................................................................................6
Taking the correct hiring decisions....................................................................................6
Practicing something wrong or unethical...........................................................................6
Team conflicts....................................................................................................................7
Important managerial roles....................................................................................................7
Skills required by the effective managers..............................................................................7
Application.................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Principles of Management-I
Introduction
This report is based on critically analysing managers in modern organizations while
describing the role of effective business leaders or managers. In this context, critical analysis,
as well as evaluation, will be done on the basis of different principles of management. For
instance, this report is going to discuss four principal functions of the manager within the
modern organizations and thereby their effects or contribution towards benefits for
organizations. In this report, the challenges faced by the managers will be discussed. Besides,
how managers of this era overcome such challenges in real-time, will be discussed. To do so,
an organization named as Malaysia Airlines has been selected for narrating on principles of
management for a manager of this era (Venugopal, 2019). With the help of this report, the
best managerial roles for an effective manager will be discussed. Apart from this, important
skills which are required by the modern managers to be an effective asset within an
organization will be discussed in detail.
The selected company is ‘Malaysia Airlines’ (MA), a part of Malaysia Aviation
Group (MAG) that is an international aviation firm with subsidiaries as well as equity
investments managed into 4 important distinct business segments. In this context, Malaysia
Airlines Berhad, previously known as Malaysian Airline System, branded as Malaysia
Airlines. It is an airline operating flights from Kuala Lumpur International Airport as well as
from secondary hubs in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching to destinations all the way through
Oceania, Asia, and Europe (Ping, et al., 2019).
Background and details of the MA
The company first established in May 1947 as Malayan Airways headquartered in
Sepang, Malaysia. The corporation is known with the names to include Malaysia Airlines
System (MAS), and MAB. This is an airline operating its flights from Kuala Lumpur Airport
as well as from Kota Kinabalu to destinations all across Asia, Europe, and Oceania. It is
worth knowing that MA is the flag carrier of Malaysia. The company also owns codeshares
with famous global airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines, Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Singapore
Airlines and many more (Ping, et al., 2019).

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Critical Analysis and Evaluation
In general, effective managers play a vital element in all organization operations. It
has been found that a good manager is who understands the efficient ways to train as well as
supervise his staff. Thus, a good always better positioned to run his team efficiently, resulting
in enhanced productivity for his organization (Zheng, Yang, & Mclean, 2011). In this way,
this section of the report is going to critically analyze my current Manager in MA. In order to
describe the role of effective business leaders or manager, the following points will be
included for critically analysing and evaluating as follows:
Four principal functions of the manager
In order to critically analyse and evaluate managers working in MA, there are Four
principal functions of the manager in the organization. It will be seen here that how does it
contribute or benefit the chosen organization.
Source: (Chawla & Renesch, 2010)

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This critical analysis of the managers in MA from the perspective of four principles of
management suggests that a manager who is holding an important position in an organization
needs to think conceptually and strategically for achieving organizational goals. In this way,
this discussion is describing the four function of management and thereby the process which
can relate managers to organizational success (Rothwell, 2010).
The analysis of managers in MA is suggesting that management majorly involves the
main function which a manager completes and they can be categorized into following 4
different functions as follows:
Planning and Decision-Making
In MA, it has been observed that planning function of management is a formal
procedure where managers select goals and recognize suitable actions to achieve those goals
and thereby allocate responsibility for implementing those actions to specific units or
persons. This function of management measures the success of actions by comparing real
results against the set goals while revising plans accordingly. In MA, planning executes at
multiple levels in an organization and hence it is an ingrained part of a modern manager’s
job. It has been seen that planning function is used by senior managers for developing
overall strategies for a firm like MA. However, sometimes planning goes beyond strategic
development in order to include the regulations of a broad range of modern organizational
activities. Managers of MA plan expenditures in the budgeting process every year. In MA,
our managers draw up plans for building new factories, implementing novel info systems,
opening new workplaces, introducing new products, improving inventory control, dealing
with crises and launching new marketing campaigns and so on. In this way, organizations like
MA planning is a very useful process for their managers in order to generate strategies as
strategizing involves more than planning (Cooren, Kuhn, Cornelissen, & Clark, 2011).
Organizing
Here, in modern firms like MA organizing refers to the procedure of deciding who
will perform what organizational tasks. Apart from this, organizing function includes
decisions related to who reports to whom as well as how distinct parts of an organization will
manage their activities for accomplishing a common organizational goal. Within businesses
like MA, organizing often comprises the dividing the firm into subunits on the basis of
functional tasks like research and development, procurement, production, customer service,
sales, marketing, accounting, finance, and human resources. Apart from this, organizing helps

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manages to decide how much decision-making authority should be given to each subunit of
the organization (Department of IARD, 2017).
Leading
In this context, leading is a management function of influencing, motivating by
directing others in MA for working productively aiming to achieve organizational goals. It
has been evaluated that leading entails articulating a great strategic vision for a form and
thereby becoming a tireless advocate for such a vision (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
Controlling
In the context of Malaysia Airlines, controlling can be seen as a process of monitoring
performance in relation to company goals while assessing why organizational goals are not
met, and hence taking corrective measures to control organizational functions by the
managers. In addition to that, controlling function requires managers to compare performance
against the organizational plans for monitoring how successful MA is at implementing a
strategy (Chawla & Renesch, 2010).
In this way, skilled leaders often drive strategizing deep in an organization like MA
while evaluating their own vision for the company. The managers of MA often carry a plan
for their firm and thereby encourage others to grow those plans. Additionally, at MA
managers and good leaders proactively structure the company for implementing their chosen
strategies. Moreover, four principles of management allow managers to exercise control
while never seeming too demanding. The aforementioned management functions allow
modern managers to put the correct kinds of incentives at the place. In this way, effective
managers of this era get the best out of organizational people through persuading them. They
always convey to their sub-ordinates that an organizational function is worthy of their efforts
(Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Thus, four principal functions of the manager in MA enable
managers to build high-quality teams of employees and sub-ordinates from which they can
work to achieve organizational objectives effectively.
Challenges face by Managers
As we know that management carries perks and rewards while being a manager is
challenged job itself. In this context, MA’s managers often face some significant challenges
which obstruct them to effectively handle all management responsibilities. If the challenges
are not addressed properly then organizations may lose the control which ultimately causes

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employees to be less motivated and hence the organization might face the problem of
insufficient human capital (Burke, Koyuncu, Wolpin, Yiriks., & Koyuncu, 2015). In this
section, challenges faced by managers are going to be discussed for finding how they
overcome it. These challenges with their overcoming ways are as follows:
Facing an employee performance challenge
The foremost challenge for a manager of MA is to deal with performance problems as
this is a prime source of our manager’s sleepless nights.
They deal with the challenge by postponing discussion or averting the discipline
processes. On the other hand, managers often confront performance issues as quickly as they
appear within their organization (Business Development Bank of Canada, 2018).
Terminating employees
In case of severe case violations, terminating an employee situation occur. In this
case, they need to face this challenge at the workplace by ensuring that they have clear
policies and training for such cases (Nelson & Quick, 2013).
Frequently, our modern managers deal with such situations by adopting a consistent
and fair process, also by getting training on how to have the kinds of discussion respectfully.
In this way, they overcome such difficult issues by providing an outplacement package with a
decent severance (Colquitt, Lepine, Wessaon, & Gellatly, 2011).
Taking the correct hiring decisions
It is well-aware that choosing amid final candidates is agonizing by any manager. It is
also a huge challenge for contemporary managers because if they will choose wrong, they
will be ending up dealing with other issues on their list.
In this context, managers usually get trained within selection interviewing for dealing
or overcoming such challenges (Dozier, Grunig, & Grunig, 2013).
Practicing something wrong or unethical
Here, if a manager is seeing something unethical or wrong happening in his or her
teams then it’s a huge challenge to be dealt with (Putnam & Nicotera, 2009).

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Usually, in these kinds of situations managers confront the problem immediately and
thereby ask for help to their HR pro as well as the compliance team (Greenberg & Baron,
2010).
Team conflicts
Being managers, they all wish their sub-ordinates to work as a team, to collaborate
and thereby play nice while working in an organization.
Thus, as a precautionary measure, managers practice reinforcement and identification of their
team values for dealing with team conflicts (Maas, 2014).
Important managerial roles
This section is dedicated to narrating about managerial roles which suit best to the
current managers with specific supportive reasons. In this context, knowing which
managerial roles suits your current manager and why it is important for personal and
professional growth. In the context of MA, strong managers often become capable leaders by
exhibiting good managerial roles according to their expertise (Ingram, 2019). The writer of
this report has found his or her manager best suited in following managerial roles in the
organization like MA:
Information Role: in this role, the manager often plays the role of a monitor, a disseminator,
and a spokesperson. Besides, the manager finds out legal restrictions and hence gathers info
in relation to an organization (Pettigrew, 2014).
Interpersonal Role: in this managerial role, the manager of MA has been seen working
efficiently as a figurehead, liaison and a leader (Riwo-Abudho, Njanja, & Ochieng, 2013).
Decisional role: in this context, roles of an entrepreneur, disturbance handler, negotiator and
resource allocator are easily handled by the managers of MA (Management Study Guide,
2018).
Skills required by the effective managers
In this section, the skills required by today’s managers will be discussed. The skills
which are required by the modern managers to be an effective asset in their working
organization are as follows:

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Interpersonal Skills: a manager needs to demonstrate their managerial qualities along with
their authority to be an effective asset of the organization. When managers maintain the
ability to play their part being a member of an organizational team, interpersonal skills are
essential (Worth, 2018).
Motivation and Communication: as we know that effective managers and leaders must show
their communication skills including verbal, written and effective listening skills. In this way,
for motivating employees and other organizational people, a leader always requires to
demonstrate their communication skills via social media, over phone conversations, in
presentations, meetings, and email as well as one-to-ones (Wisdom , 2018).
Delegation and organization: in order to be an effective asset of an organization, managers
need to be multi-skilled while organizing and delegating organizational tasks. Here, many
managers always ease their own workload through delegating tasks to their colleagues hence
skill of proper organization and delegation is essential in the modern managers (Pearson &
Merkert, 2014).
Strategic thinking and forward planning: when a manager is looking forward to becoming an
asset of their organization then forward planning and strategic thinking both are necessary
(Jones, 2013).
Effective decision-making and problem-solving: as a manager needs to spot as well as solve
organizational problems on a regular basis, hence a problem-solving skill with effective
decision-making skills are necessary for modern managers (Hasim, Shamsudin, & Ishak,
2018).
Commercial awareness: the skills of commercial awareness are in demand among recent
business employers.
Application
Here, all principles of management given by Henry Fayol are applicable to the
managers of Malaysia Airlines, as follows:
Division of Work: the managers of MA often divide work into small jobs so that it can lead to
specialization. In this way, the major intent of the division of work is to make them work
better in the same input efforts, which is applicable to all the managers of MA.

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Responsibility and authority: as per Fayol, responsibility, and authority are the right to give
orders as well as obtain obedience (Luhmann, 2018).
Discipline: according to Fayol, discipline as the principle of management requires good
superiors at every level. Hence this principle is applicable to MA’s managers.
In this way, four principles of management including planning, organizing, controlling and
leading are essentially applied to all of the managers of MA (Jones, 2013).
Conclusion
In conclusion, in the context of effective management by contemporary managers,
principles of management are important for all of the organization’s operations. It has been
found that efficient managers are in demand for effective operation in modern organizations.
Besides, the report’s findings suggest that a manager is who understands the best ways to
supervise and train their staff in a better way. Post evaluation and analysis of the four
principal functions of the modern managers, some important challenges have been identified
faced by the managers of MA. Thus, time management, people management, pressure
management, setting goals and clear expectations have been identified as the challenges for
the managers. The above challenges are being overcome by these managers with the help of
change management, conflicts management strategies while encouraging productivity within
organizations.
Apart from this, an application of these principal functions of management onto MA’s
managers has been demonstrated with the help of this report. It has been found that effective
communication is the key for modern managers. Besides, different skills required by the
managers in contemporary organizations have been discussed in detail. In addition to that,
Fayol’s principles of management have been discussed in this report. Furthermore, some
many significant managerial roles have been discussed which suits current managers of the
MA while supported by the reasons. In this way, this report has successfully analysed
managers in MA while describing the role of an effective business manager or leader in an
organization setting.
References

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