MGMT6012 Management Perspectives: Case Study on Multiplex Analysis

This case study critically analyzes the roles and functions of managers at Multiplex, a large construction and engineering company, while also exploring the challenges and risks they face in today's dynamic business environment. It examines the impact of values, ethics, and diversity on the organization's culture, and the role, behavior, and performance of managers within that context. The research methodology employs an instrumental case study approach, utilizing secondary research from company records, government publications, and online forums. The study identifies five primary functions performed by managers: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling, and also elaborates on the various roles managers play, including figurehead, leader, liaison, monitor, disseminator, entrepreneur, disturbance handler, and resource allocator. Ultimately, the document highlights the crucial role managers play in achieving organizational objectives, fostering a positive work environment, and inspiring employees to achieve excellence; solved assignments for students are available on Desklib.

Running Head: Management Perspective
Management Perspective
Multiplex

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Table of Content
Introduction to the Report........................................................................................................................................... 3
Research Methodology.................................................................................................................................................. 4
Roles and Functions Performed by Managers...................................................................................................... 4
Planning.......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Organizing...................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Staffing............................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Leading............................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Controlling..................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Roles performed by the managers............................................................................................................................ 6
Manager as a figurehead.......................................................................................................................................... 6
Manager as a leader................................................................................................................................................... 6
Manager as a liaison................................................................................................................................................... 7
Manager as a monitor................................................................................................................................................ 7
Manager as a disseminator..................................................................................................................................... 7
Manager as an Entrepreneur.................................................................................................................................. 7
Manager as a Disturbance handler...................................................................................................................... 7
Manager as a resource allocator........................................................................................................................... 8
Impact of Values, ethics and diversity on the Culture....................................................................................... 8
Values............................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Ethics................................................................................................................................................................................ 8
Diversity......................................................................................................................................................................... 9

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Behaviour and Performance of the managers................................................................................................. 9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................................................... 9
References........................................................................................................................................................................ 10

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Introduction to the Report
Multiplex is one of the largest construction, engineering and Infrastructure Company
located in Sydney, Australia. The company which was founded in the year 1962 is
headed by John Flecker and employees over 3750 people and is spread across India,
Canada, Europe and The Middle East(Bryan et. al., 2017). The 56 year old company
specializes in high rise buildings, stadiums, High end residential properties, education,
health and civil infrastructure. Some of the most notable projects of the company
include Wembley Stadium in London, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in
Glasgow(Chan & Martek,2017).
The purpose of the report here is to critically analyse the roles and functions which
managers perform and discuss the challenges and risks they have to address in today’s
changing business organization and environment. Within the purview of the
organization and the assignment the impact of values, ethics and diversity on the
culture of the organization would be considered, along with the role, behaviour and
performance of managers within that organization.

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Research Methodology
A case study research method can be understood as an empirical inquiry which
investigates a contemporary phenomenon with its real-life context, more so when the
boundaries between the phenomenon and context are yet not clearly evident and uses
multiple sources. In this particular scenario, an Instrumental case study method has to
be used. Within the purview of the case study, the researcher focusses on a bigger
objective, rather than just focussing on one particular problem. The goal here is to solve
the global problem, hence becomes evident in this case, because Multiplex is a global
organization.
In order to conduct the research on the role and function of the managers and the
ethical consideration underpinning the managers will be considered by using secondary
research on the case study. The data for the secondary research will be collected
through the company records, Government publication, Published papers, conference
proceedings & online discussion forums or documents. Also, Qualitative data analysis
will be used to categorize the information, identify the pattern and connections within
and between the categories.
Roles and Functions Performed by Managers
Managers are the key elements which act as a connection between the lower level
employees and the senior management, thus managers have to ensure that their roles
and functions are in sync with organizational development and effectiveness. The five
primary functions which are performed by Managers at Multiplex, and moreover by
every manager across the globe are:
Planning
This is the first and the most fundamental function of managers, in this step the
manager has to create a comprehensive plan to achieve the goals of the organization.
Goals are created by the management by involving the managers and the employees,
post creation of goals; it is the duty of the managers to come up with a plan to achieve

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the goals. The plan would include advertising plan, communication plan, business plan,
KPI for the employees and many more. Thus, managers are pivotal to the planning
process which leads to achievement of the goals in an organization(Goetsch & Davis,
2014).
Organizing
The second important function of managers is organizing; this function is masked by
assigning work to the employees and giving authority to take their own decision.
Organizing, proceeds after the planning stage, and herein the managers have to organize
the team and resources to carry out the planning activities. Organizing becomes an
important function of managers as scientifically the managers have to organize the
activities according to the planning function. For instance, Managers at multiplex are
required to give instruction to employees when they are working on a new project, and
different supervisors are given authority to conduct the work on the project. Creation of
Wembley Stadium at Australia was one of the most organized projects created by
Multiplex(Hill, 2017).
Staffing
Staffing is the third important function of the managers, herein the manager is required
to work in close association with the HR managers and executive to create a team of
employees to achieve the goals of the organization. Herein the managers brief the HR
team on the kind of employees they require for this job, and the HR then beefs up the
process of recruiting, selecting, developing and training the employees. At Multiplex,
which is a construction organization, the managers hire employees on a project basis,
these are the contractual employees. However it is the duty of the mangers to brief them
up on the work proceeding and ensure that the work is completed on time(Kerzner &
Kerzner, 2017).
Leading
The prerequisite of a good manager is, that he should be a leader and must and should
have innate quality of leadership. After conducting planning to reach towards the
organizational objective, organizing the team and the resources towards the objectives
of the organization, staffing to get the right employees in the system and then

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motivating, communicating and guiding them towards the objectives becomes highly
inevitable. Leading ensures that managers are required to assist, coach and solve the
problems alongside working with the employees(Teece, 2016).
Controlling
Most people often get confuse that manager role finishes after the leading function,
however, it is not the case. Controlling is the last and another important function which
the managers perform to ensure the achievement of the organizational objectives. In
this function managers has to keep a constant check on the progress of the task
completion and ensure that the goal is achieved in the time stipulated by the
organization. Controlling is more of a monitoring process and the managers are
required to gain feedback and to gauge the work progress on a regular basis(Laudon &
Laudon, 2016).
These are the most important functions which are performed by the managers and
ensure the fulfilment of organizational objectives.
Roles performed by the managers
Manager as a figurehead
Manager as a figurehead is an interpersonal role; herein the role performed by the
manager is symbolic or ceremonial in nature. His role is to welcome the guests,
authorities and signs official document. Here the role of the manager can be seen as
filled with less communication, doing routine work and less important decision.
Manager as a leader
The role of manager as a leader includes communicating with the subordinates and the
superiors, motivating the employees, hiring of the employees and ensuring discipline in
the organization. Thus, the role here is that of leadership where the manager is
responsible for leading the team by influencing, motivating and communicating with
them(Chang, 2016).

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Manager as a liaison
The role of manager as a liaison is to involve all the teams together, coordinate with the
subordinates and to ensure that all the activities leading towards accomplishment of
goals are taken care. Manager has to thus act as a liasoner between the teams and get
the work done(Nicholas & Steyn, 2017).
Manager as a monitor
Manager in his role as a monitor collects plethora of information about the external
environment and the internal organizational environment, the manager collects the
information via reading, communicating, attending events, gossip and many more. The
manager in this role collects the information and acts on them(Stark, 2015).
Manager as a disseminator
The role of manager here is to distribute the information collected by him or pass on the
information to his subordinates or peer for their knowledge widening. This role has
importance in the management function where the subordinates have less or no access
to outside or inside information.
Manager as an Entrepreneur
The role played by the manager here lies on the pillars of innovation and creativity, he
makes sure that the culture of innovation and creativity always prevails in the
organization. He brings innovation and creativity in the organization by pushing the
employees to work at their best and appreciates creativity and innovation in the
team(Pearson, 2017).
Manager as a Disturbance handler
Disturbance is the order of the day in most of the organization, which can be caused due
to various reasons such as cultural conflicts, communication gap, workforce diversity
and many more. Herein the manager plays a role of a conflict handler or disturbance
handler, who by using his strategical approach tones down the clash, conflict and
disturbance in the organization(Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

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Manager as a resource allocator
Resource is an important element which plays a crucial role in the achievement of
organizational goals. As a manager, one has to ensure that it allocates human, physical,
financial and other resources to its employees. These resources help the employees to
achieve the organizational goals and objectives(Ulrich & Dulebohn, 2015).
Thus, critical understanding of the roles and function of managers in the business
organization helps the readers to understand the crucial and significant role they play in
the success of business objectives and goals. The success of the goals can be seen as a
function of effectiveness of the role played by the managers. Manager at Multiplex thus
have a very important role to play, not only in the achievement of the organizational
objectives, but also to establish a positive work environment and to ensure that the
employees are motivated and inspired to achieve excellence.
Impact of Values, ethics and diversity on the Culture
Values
Values can be understood as the worth or meaning which is attached to something or
some abstract concept. Values in organization have a very important role to play in the
cultural setting. The values are translated and form the culture of the organization. At
Multiplex the values are integrity, honesty and commitment towards the work and
business sustainability. The culture of Multiplex directly stands on these values.
Ethics
Ethics can be understood as the moral principles which govern the Behavior and
conduct of a person. It is very important for the business leaders and the mangers to
adopt high ethical standards in their business conduct and proceeding. The sub-
ordinates or the employees look up to the leaders and managers, thus a culture of
strong ethics is created in the organization when the senior leadership practice the
same in their business transactions.

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Diversity
Over the last decade, the world has become a global village due to the advent of
globalization. Due to globalization it has become inevitable for business organization to
keep a tab on their workforce diversity. Thus, organization has a lot of people working
from different backgrounds, religion, nationalities, caste, colour and creed, working
shoulder to shoulder with one another. This diversity widens the culture in the
organization and makes it more and more accepting and prevalent in the
organization(Wheelen et. al., 2017).
Behaviour and Performance of the managers
Managers have a very crucial role to play in setting up the culture of business
organization. The reason behind it is as the managers act as an influencer, motivator
and symbolic for the employees, thus the employees look up to the mangers and the
way he conducts himself in the organization. Managers by their conduct and behaviour
in the organization set the culture of the organization. For instance, in an organization
where manager does not appreciate communication, the culture in the organization will
be set to closed communication. A highly unethical manager will create a team and
culture which is filled with high level of unethical behaviour. Thus, it can be easily said
that the behaviour and performance of managers has a direct implication over the
culture of the organization.
Conclusion
The case study here is based on the organization Multiplex, which is one of the leading
construction company situated in Sydney with a limited global presence. Instrumental
case study and secondary research methodology has been used to understand the role
and functions of the manager in an organizational context. The manager has five
important roles to play here viz a viz planning, organizing, staffing, leading and
controlling. More so, managers have an important role to play in the cultural setting of
the organization, a highly ethical manager will create a culture and team of people on
the same values.

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