BUSN113: Managing People and Organisation Report - May 2019

This report, submitted for the BUSN113: Managing People and Organisation course, delves into critical aspects of leadership and organizational behavior. It examines business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR), emphasizing their importance in contemporary business practices. The report explores the four functions of management (planning, organizing, leading, and controlling), highlighting their interconnectedness and impact on organizational success. Furthermore, it analyzes the dynamics of high-performing teams and the significance of effective communication and employee engagement. The author integrates personal reflections and insights gained from lectures, drawing upon stakeholder theory and ethical sustainability frameworks. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for managers to balance various outcomes, fostering employee satisfaction and reducing turnover within organizations.

Running head: MANAGING PEOPLE AND ORGANISATION
MANAGING PEOPLE AND ORGANISATION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Introduction
Virtually, all organizations have managers with roles assigned as marketing manager,
director of public relations, vice president for human resources and plant manager. However,
none of the organizations have a position called organizational behaviour manager. It is due to
the fact that organizational behaviour is not an organizational function or area (Siebert and
Martin 2016). Thus, by realizing organizational behaviour ideas, managers can proficiently
understand as well as appreciate the behaviour of individuals around them. For instance, majority
of managers in an organization are directly accountable for work-associated behaviours along
with their immediate subordinates (Cascio 2015). The course “Managing People and
Organization’ has helped me to understand the relationship between management action, human
resources management and labour relations in business strategy. The course has primarily shed
light on research on the crucial role employees tend to play as the major source of competitive
advantage in addition to lectures, teachings of my lecturers namely, Ellen McBarron, Maree
Valle and Sharnai James-McGovern.
Discussion
Business Ethics and CSR
Conceptual Understanding
The notions of ethical behaviour and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have recently
emerged to the forefront in developed as well as developing nations due to the development of
sense of corporate misconduct (Choi and Rainey 2014). Such concepts tend to bring significant
advantages to the organization. The concept claiming that business enterprises comprise certain

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accountabilities to the society beyond that of making profits for shareholders has been significant
for long. CSR activities have surpassed the intention of acquiring funds for shareholders. In
recent times, CSR in business is essentially concerned with safeguarding the benefits of all
stakeholders, such as employees, consumers, managers, distributors, suppliers in addition to the
communities in which businesses executes its operations.
Application
CSR primarily operates on the standards and principles that businesses have obligation to
accomplish their accountability to an extensive range of stakeholders than its shareholders. CSR
should not be applied on policy by any organization, but must be implemented into its
governance structure as well as strategy. Kolk (2016) has noted that CSR activities in business
across the world have augmented significantly in current years as organizations identify their
significance not only on commercial basis but also on the basis of employee assessment,
attracting workers and reducing organizational expense.
Self Reflection
Different Thoughts
On gathering insights from the lectures of my professors in this module, I have learnt that
recently the concept of CSR has generated considerable debate. I have learnt that on one hand, it
has been claimed that sole purpose of business is attaining revenues while the other view claims
that managers are assigned to the role of unelected officials, when they participate in CSR
activities. Thus, I believe substantial advocacy has been significantly provided to the idea of
corporate social responsibility (Mason and Simmons 2014). Furthermore, lectures offered by my
professors in this entire module and drawing insights from various online resources, I have been

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able to study CSR and business ethics through Freeman’s Stakeholder theory. By drawing
relevance to stakeholder theory, I have attained the knowledge that the rights of an authorized
unit used by any organization tends to be associated with it functions and obligations to the
environment of which it is a division. According to Harrison, Freeman and Abreu (2015), these
duties tend to align to the norms and code of conduct and thus should further be aligned to
institutional plan.
To my understanding what I have learnt, business comprises duties and reciprocity
towards that specific environment for a persistent sustainable continuation as well as the
environment. Thus, idea of stakeholder theory mainly entails studying the organisational systems
and process design in a generalized form. In such a context, I suppose CSR practice will show
certain degree of inadequacy. However, at this juncture, a highly dynamic and inclusive
approach which successfully goes beyond the financial estimation of the organization’s
operations is required. Thus, to my perceptive, the ethical standards of business would require to
be the framework whereby organizations will gain the competence to follow profits.
Ethical and Social Sustainability Considerations
CSR is aligned to the standards and principles of ethical sustainability framework which
claims that organizations should engage into decision making based not specifically on financial
factors for instance profits or dividends. However, business in recent times can further rely on
direct and continuing social and environmental outcomes of their activities. Thus, disregarding
importance of CSR implies to jeopardizing business performances and posing challenges to its
success in the global world as well as its market.

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Four Functions of Management
Conceptual Understanding
The concept of management involves greater implications rather than simply supervising
others. According to Mijumbi et al. (2016), the major functions that a manager functions can be
categorized into four different functions such as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
According to Cheruvelil et al. (2014), within every business structure there are managers.
Moreover, regardless of the type of business, primary responsibility of any manager is typically
equivalent. However, it is important to consider these four functions of management despite of
the leadership style.
Application
At the planning stage, managers are mainly accountable for creating a ‘game plan’ in
order to attain a specific goal. Harrison, Freeman and Abreu (2015) have drawn instances of
managers of Woolworths and Coles Group, where managers make weekly plan may involving
regular meetings and strategically creating employee schedules or receiving a report that details
data and information. On the other hand, the organizing stage can be viewed as basis of all levels
of management functions because of its undeviating nature. As per the view of Cheruvelil et al.
(2014), in this stage, managers tend to be disorganized further leading to an undulation effect.
Thus, employees have the implication to lose reverence for management thus making the
subsequent function of management challenging to achieve.
Self-Reflection
Different thoughts

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On gathering insights of different resources and lectures, I have learnt that while there
can be witnessed several other functions towards valuable and successful management; the four
functions namely, planning, organizing, directing as well as controlling should be seen as highly
decisive factors for managing business. Thus, learning the way to balance each of the four
functions all together will lead to effective management (Kanki 2019).
Ethical and Social Sustainability Considerations
It is important to note that majority of professionals engaged to the role of leading
sustainable business initiatives tend to take it to another role and often fail to have ethical
“sustainability” in their title (Mason and Simmons 2014). Drawing insights from these factors, I
have understood that ethically sustainable managers tend to initiate with smaller projects, such as
supervising raw materials through a supply chain or facilitating their unit to conform to legal
norms and regulations in order to develop their sustainability role from there.
High Performing Teams and Communications
Conceptual Understanding
Employee engagement is essentially related to high performance. Developing internal as
well as cross-department communication tends to augment productivity and associate team
members closer to each other and to the rest of the organization (Kanki 2019). Thus, cultivating
effective knowledge management will establish reliance and thus increase employee
engagement. Moreover, authors have noted that understanding the magnitude of communication
is highly decisive in leading high performance teams.
Application

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The use of teams has expanded radically in response to competitive disputes as well as
technological changes. Levi (2015) has noted that team structures facilitate the application of
various skills, opinions and experiences which are highly suitable for crucial projects which call
for different expertise and problem-solving skills.
Self Reflection
Different thoughts
The comprehensive insights gathered from various internet resources have made me learn
about being similar to rules which regulate group behaviour; norms show constructiveness in
enhancing performance and growth of teams. Furthermore, I have studied that norms for high-
performance teams mainly include direct lines of communication, early resolution of
disagreement, accepted evaluation of individual and team performance, increased levels of
respect amongst members in addition to cohesive as well as supportive team environment in
addition to thriving work ethic and principles which focuses on teams’ performance results and
collective recognition of team successes. Furthermore, by critically delving into insights gathered
from lectures, it has struck to my understanding that knowledge transfer is regarded as a
foundation of contemporary high-performing teams. At this juncture, through what I have learnt,
classical management theory must be applied in order to understand that it is better for leaders to
protect all members of its team from certain facets of information.
Ethical and Social Sustainability Considerations
According to Levi (2015), in the formal perspective, employees tend to observe whether
ethical sustainability has been included into job descriptions and training programs and whether
sustainability targets have been successfully aligned to the variable remuneration package of the

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employees. Moreover, employees tend to observe whether sustainability performance gas been
recognized and rewarded and whether managers have established performance expectations
which integrate ethical and social sustainability considerations. As a result, in recent times,
employees tend to observe any implication of reliability and trust between commitments given
by the organization regarding its values in its mission statement and practices it intends to
follow.
Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion and drawing relevance from gathered insights it has been
noted that in developing management competences, skills engaging workers to job and increase
their satisfaction level will reduce turnover. As a result, manager in contemporary organizations
must aim to attain complete range of outcomes and endeavour to balance them in an optimal
approach.

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References
Cascio, W.F., 2015. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill.
Cheruvelil, K.S., Soranno, P.A., Weathers, K.C., Hanson, P.C., Goring, S.J., Filstrup, C.T. and
Read, E.K., 2014. Creating and maintaining high‐performing collaborative research teams: the
importance of diversity and interpersonal skills. Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment, 12(1), pp.31-38.
Choi, S. and Rainey, H.G., 2014. Organizational fairness and diversity management in public
organizations: Does fairness matter in managing diversity?. Review of Public Personnel
Administration, 34(4), pp.307-331.
Choi, S. and Rainey, H.G., 2014. Organizational fairness and diversity management in public
organizations: Does fairness matter in managing diversity?. Review of Public Personnel
Administration, 34(4), pp.307-331.
Harrison, J.S., Freeman, R.E. and Abreu, M.C.S.D., 2015. Stakeholder theory as an ethical
approach to effective management: Applying the theory to multiple contexts. Revista brasileira
de gestão de negócios, 17(55), pp.858-869.
Jamali, D., Lund-Thomsen, P. and Jeppesen, S., 2017. SMEs and CSR in developing
countries. Business & Society, 56(1), pp.11-22.
Kanki, B.G., 2019. Communication and crew resource management. In Crew resource
management (pp. 103-137). Academic Press.

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Kolk, A., 2016. The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the
environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.23-34.
Levi, D., 2015. Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.
Mason, C. and Simmons, J., 2014. Embedding corporate social responsibility in corporate
governance: A stakeholder systems approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 119(1), pp.77-86.
Mijumbi, R., Serrat, J., Gorricho, J.L., Latré, S., Charalambides, M. and Lopez, D., 2016.
Management and orchestration challenges in network functions virtualization. IEEE
Communications Magazine, 54(1), pp.98-105.
Siebert, S. and Martin, G., 2016. Managing people and organizations in changing contexts.
Routledge.