Management Practices: Skills Assessment and Development Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of management styles and skills, focusing on leadership characteristics, communication processes, and organizational culture within the context of Asian Airlines and British Airways. It includes an assessment of personal management skills, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, culminating in the creation of a development plan for career advancement. The report also demonstrates managerial skills in a business setting, specifically Frankie’s and Benny’s restaurant, justifying managerial decisions and recommending improvements. The ultimate goal is to illustrate how managerial and personal skills support career development, aligning current performance with future needs to achieve organizational objectives. Desklib provides similar solved assignments and study tools for students.

THE DEVELOPING MANAGER

Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1 UNDERSTANDING THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOUR.......5
1.1 COMPARING THE DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT STYLES OF ASIAN AIRLINES AND BRITISH
AIRWAYS......................................................................................................................................5
1.2 DISCUSSING VARIOUS LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS....................................................7
1.3 EVALUATING THE COMMUNICATION PROCESSES IN BRITISH AIRWAYS AND ASIAN
AIRLINES.......................................................................................................................................8
1.4 ANALYSING THE ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE IN ASIAN AIRLINES AND
BRITISH AIRWAYS.......................................................................................................................10
TASK 2 ASSESSING OWN POTENTIAL AS MANAGER......................................................................12
2.1 ASSESSING OWN MANAGEMENT SKILLS PERFORMANCE...................................................12
2.2 ANALYSING PERSONAL STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS........13
2.3 SETTING AND PRIORITISING THE OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS TO DEVELOP OWN
POTENTIAL.................................................................................................................................14
TASK 3 SHOWING THE MANAGERIAL SKILLS WITHIN A BUSINESS AND SERVICES CONTEXT.......15
3.1 LEADING AND MOTIVATING A TEAM TO ACHIEVE AN AGREED GOAL OR OBJECTIVE........15
3.2 JUSTIFYING MANAGERIAL DECISIONS MADE TO SUPPORT ACHIEVEMENT OF AGREED
GOAL OR OBJECTIVE AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS..................................17
TASK 4 CREATION OF A DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR EMPLOYMENT WITHIN A BUSINESS AND
SERVICES CONTEXT........................................................................................................................19
4.1 EXPLANATION OF HOW OWN MANAGERIAL AND PERSONAL SKILLS WILL SUPPORT
CAREER DEVELOPMENT.............................................................................................................19
4.2 REVIEWING THE CAREER AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS, CURRENT
PERFORMANCE AND FUTURE NEEDS TO PRODUCE DEVELOPMENT PLAN..............................21
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CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................23
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INTRODUCTION
The travel and tourism industry is one of the fastest growing industries that are also helping the
countries to increase their economy. There are some social responsibilities to be followed by
the organizations serving the travel and tourism industry. People spending their leisure time in
travelling and expending a lot is making the industry expand its business. Airports are also
getting advanced with the growing technology and people’s interest in travelling (Moutinho,
2011). By implementing highly advanced technology and internet facilities, the field of travel
and tourism industry has made the transactions and travelling process of people much simpler
and easier. People are using internet to search and explore places and visit there to understand
and know the culture. Internet has made this exploration and finalizing the travelling plans very
easy.
The developing manager is a solution to the problems faced by the organization. It is a process
where a manager improves his personal skills and knowledge to manage the functions and
operations of the organization with the intention of achieving the organizational goals and
objectives. Various leadership and management skills are involved in this process to maintain
the sustainable development of the organization in the respective industry (David, 2011). To
apply this managerial process in tourism and development industry, two organizations are
considered here in this report. The two organizations are Asian airlines and British Airways. The
report will also describe the personal analysis on the basis of the manager of Clayton Crown
Hotel London. The managerial skills are shown with the help of Frankie’s and Benny’s
restaurant. At last, the career development plan is shown to forecast the future needs
according to the present performance.
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TASK 1 UNDERSTANDING THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF
MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOUR
1.1 COMPARING THE DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT STYLES OF ASIAN AIRLINES
AND BRITISH AIRWAYS
According to the theory of Sir Colin Marshall, the manager is responsible for assigning the job
and work to the individuals. He describes that British Airways adopts the leadership style of
Autocratic. It was also considered as the Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management theory.
Taylor’s robust optimistic legacy described that to make the employees’ performance better, it
is necessary for the organization to divide the difficult tasks into segments and measure the
performance in timely. But his theory came to know for dehumanize the employees.
Afterwards, the model was redesigned to pay more attention towards training the employees
such that they can handle the organizational problems effectively (Boxall and Purcell, 2011).
This made the employees and manager more concentrated towards each other and making the
successors trained towards achieving the goal efficiently.
Coming to the case of Asian Airlines, the management adopts the management style of laissez
faire. The airline has a very informal management style. This approach was considered to be
highly risk taking but also a very serious approach that made the management to lift up the
Asian Airlines at a very high position. The managing style of Asian Airlines was very
communicative with the employees and this style with new and forwards thinking made the
company to grab the highest market position and this became the most valuable asset of the
organization. The mangers of the Asian Airlines followed the approach of collaborative
structure. This approach helped the organization to treat all the managers and employees
equally. This equivalent treatment makes the employees to involve in the decision making
process of the organization which encourages them to work more effectively (Robbins and
Judge, 2012). The departments of the Asian Airlines follow the cross functionality trend which
makes the employees to understand the level of other employees. The hierarchical structure of
Asian Airlines has made the organization to achieve this great height where the employees are
considered as the asset of the organization and are treated very effectively.
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The management techniques adopted by the British airways and Asian Airlines are very
different from each other. The tradition technique of British Airways and collaborative method
of Asian Airlines differ the process of management of both the organization.
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1.2 DISCUSSING VARIOUS LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS
The person has the ability to lead a group of individuals effectively concerning the
organizational goals is considered as a leader. In the travel and tourism industry, the
organizations adopt three leadership styles and they are transactional, democratic and
autocratic leadership. British Airways is considered to adopt the democratic leadership style
from these three. In the democratic leadership style, employees are considered to be more
participative which makes the employees to involve more in decision making process and
decrease the need of transformation (Northouse, 2015). British Airways can improve their
leadership approach by executing the task oriented approach. The organization does not use
laissez faire style very often as it is known for low group performance which gives rise to
informal leaders. The organization adopted the democratic approach which resulted in the high
involvement of the employees which in result lead the organization towards the growth and
development. The organization provided motivation to employees by making them express
their thoughts freely which made the managers to gain the support of employees. This
represents that democratic leadership styles is a very high-quality leadership style but
practically it is considered to be very slow while executing the strategies which makes it difficult
for the organization to adopt it as the slow procedure can result in affected outcomes ( Daft,
2014).
In case of Asian airlines, the management uses the transactional leadership approach which
directly results in the improved decision making process of the organization. In this style, the
management uses the various motivational factors to make the employees work effectively and
happily. These motivational factors can be considered as reviewing the performance of
employees with appraisals, promoting them, raising their payments, making them responsible
for new standards, modifying their duties according to their will, etc. these appraisals make the
employees feel satisfied in their work. Good behaviour of the managers and leaders
corresponding to their style makes the best factor to lead the employees effectively and gain
the growth and development of the organization with sustainability (Jogulu, 2010).
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1.3 EVALUATING THE COMMUNICATION PROCESSES IN BRITISH AIRWAYS AND
ASIAN AIRLINES
The process adopted by the organization to communicate successfully is considered as
communication process. To make the organization successful, it is very important for managers
to adopt the communication process successfully. The communication process of the
organization is diverse from top level to bottom level (Lunenburg, 2010). This process ranges
from virtual to verbal conversation. Improved and effective communication process can make
the organization to reduce the conflicts and that will make the customers to gain satisfactory
results. Both the airlines have highly efficient managers that make the employees work
effectively by proper communication process. This can be very helpful in problem solving
process. This problem solving approach ranges from making employees learn from their past
mistakes and solve the present difficulties with an ease. Many times, employees face the
problem of stress and this can be because of relationship issues at workplace (Guffey and
Loewy, 2010). Health safety measures should also be considered to improve the
communication process with employees. The stress level differs from the person and his
position. Everyone has different capability to handle the stress level in different difficult
situations. Mangers at British Airways and Asian Airlines have different ways and techniques to
solve the different problems and both adopt different communication techniques to maintain
the effective working environment in the organization.
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Figure: Importance of communication process in organizations
[Source: http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/organization/communication-importance-forms-
and-improving-effectiveness-in-communication-process-in-an-organization/8726]
High stress level can affect the performance ability of the employees which may result in the
affected result for the organization. This can be considered as a main reason for which
managers maintains the effective communication process in the organization.
It can be concluded that communication process directly results in lessening the stress level
within the organization as work and stress are correlated to each other. This shows that there is
a psychological contract between employers and employees. Employers provide a respectful
behaviour to employees along with the high effective and healthy working conditions. This
makes the employees feel motivated towards their work (Tubbs, 2012). The oral, written,
verbal any type of communication process helps the organization to strengthen the relationship
in the organization.
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1.4 ANALYSING THE ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE IN ASIAN
AIRLINES AND BRITISH AIRWAYS
The term organizational culture is considered as a system of organization where all the shares
beliefs and values are considered to govern the behaviour of people within the organization
(Carlström and Ekman, 2012). Sir Colin Marshall as a leader changed the organizational culture
of British Airways. This change in the organizational culture means that British Airways is
representing the condition to survive the burdens with the intention of generating the brilliant
results. This cultural change has resulted in the great satisfaction of the stakeholders and
employees along with increased profit ratio. The organizational cultural change adopted by the
British Airways is considered as the first ever corporate change adopted by any organization.
The change adopted by British airways made the other organizations along with Asian Airlines
to know the importance of change in the organizational culture which resulted in the adoption
of change by others too.
The organizational culture is considered as the most important part of the working organization
which cannot be copied by other organizations. Coming to the organizational behaviour of
airline industry, the adoption of change can alone results in the progress of the organization.
The main problems faced by the British airways were the lack of leadership and bad customer
services. This increased the need of change in the culture. In the year 1981, John King joined
the British Airways which resulted in the leadership change for the organization. He reduced
the workforce by 20% in 9 months only which proved beneficial for the organization. The next
step of change adopted by John King was to provide proper training and development to the
staff with the intention of achieving high productivity of the organization (CourseBB, 2017).
By considering the effective cultural change of British Airways, Asian airlines also took
considerable changes for the culture. They adopted the pilot’s training programs to motivate
the crew. The change considered by the management was mainly because of the US crash.
Proper pilot training made the organization to reduce the chances of failures (Wee, H., 2014).
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Figure: Cultural change web for British airways and Asian airlines
[Source: https://speedypaper.com/?rt=U4SiUjFf]
As British Airways and Asian airlines both have adopted the process of cultural change, the
process has made these organizations to get the topmost position in the industry. Both the
organization adopted the role culture of Handy’s cultural typology. Power is within the high
authorities and they take the decisions respectively. The decision making process is slow but
also less risky. Both the organizations are bureaucratic.
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TASK 2 ASSESSING OWN POTENTIAL AS MANAGER
2.1 ASSESSING OWN MANAGEMENT SKILLS PERFORMANCE
Every organization has its personal objectives and goals for which the management apply
different strategically approach. To meet the customer’s requirements, there are some
marketing strategies designed by the organization (Rue, et. al. 2012). As a prospective manager
of Clayton Crown Hotel London, it is very necessary for me to analyse my personal skills and
then challenge myself to improve effectively. My skills are as follows:
 Motivating: As a manager, I am always motivating for my team members and
employees.
 Decision making skills: I consider myself to be very good in effective decision making
process regarding to the problems and conflicts.
 Communication skills: I maintain a good communication process with employees as
well as top level management.
 Fielding complaints: I sometimes lack to solve the complaints of customers but now
gaining proper knowledge of solving these problems.
 Managing economically: I sometimes lack to make proper economical use but trying
to learn the optimal methods to improve this ability.
 Understanding the policies: I understand the policies of hotel very effectively and I
always make use of these policies appropriately.
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