ScaterBoys Company: Developing Management Competencies - A Case Study

This report critically reflects on the development of management competencies, specifically communication and decision-making, within the context of the ScaterBoys Company case study. It utilizes management theories to understand competency development, supported by a portfolio of evidence. The analysis focuses on addressing challenges within the sales department, such as coordination complexity and absenteeism, and improving the production strategy. The report employs the STAR technique to demonstrate competency development and concludes that effective communication and decision-making are crucial for overcoming organizational challenges and fostering employee motivation. The student uses McClelland’s Need Theory to improve communication.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES
Management Competencies
[ScaterBoys Company]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
The application of the management competencies approach in business:.......................................2
Part 1: A critical reflection analysing (Communications) competency development.....................3
Part 2: A critical reflection analysing (Decision Making) competency development.....................5
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
Part 3: Portfolio................................................................................................................................8
Competence 1: Communications.................................................................................................9
Competence 2: Decision Making...............................................................................................10
Competence 3: Motivating Others.............................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction:
This study is aimed at developing the management based competencies based on what
has been taught during the semesters. The learning is being constructed in two ways such as by
constructing a reflective essay and also drawing a portfolio to support the critical reflection and
competency development.
The application of the management competencies approach in business:
This task uses a few management theories to understand the competency development
and to show pieces of evidence to the critical reflection and competency development. It means
that I would be discussing the development of chosen competencies in me with the help of the
range of concepts being drawn from a range of management theories. Competency skills can be
divided as a set of behaviours that are individual qualities in their capabilities to influence the
outcomes; however, seem like being interrelated terms within a specific situation (Tench and
Moreno 2015). Competency in the context of organizations is a set of skills, which are standard
parameters to allocate tasks and judge anybody’s performance (Silvius and Schipper 2014).
Despite a fact that there are many interpretations for what is a competency and what all it
constitutes, the task outlines how and when such behaviours are being developed in class and in
context to the given role-play in the case study company ‘ScaterBoys’.
The application of the management competency approach in this study is done with the
help of a case study organisation “ScaterBoys Company”. The departments and the related roles
are being assumed by different students to understand the practicality of the management
approach. In this study, three competencies are being selected such as communications, decision

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making and motivating others. These competencies can be understood from theories and then can
be applied to the case study company in its different business such as employment, recruitment
and selection.
As opined by Zeller et al. (2016), a competency-based approach can be helpful at the
time of recruitment as this will help to judge applicants based on a few sets of skills specifically
identified and designed by the management. Moreover, the shortlisting process will be
comparatively easier then. A competency-based approach can also be used for managing
performances of employees as it helps to assess their strengths and weaknesses. However, a
competency-based approach also has some challenges like the business world faces a constant
evolution. Therefore, the identified set of skills would then not be sufficient. In such a situation,
there may be needs to alter a few competency-based skills with the new ones.
Sakhieva and Fedorova (2016) argue that one of the disadvantages of a competency-
based approach is these are potentially good for boosting the team’s performance but not so for
the individual. It encourages the overall team’s performance, not of the individual employee.
Tripathi and Agrawal (2014) say that a competency-based approach can be helpful from
the employees' perspectives. Employees can use the set of skills being used in the list of
competence skills to conduct their personal development at any point in time when it is required
so. Moreover, employees would be able to find the gaps between their performance and the
requirements to be competent. A competency-based approach provides actually the reviewing
opportunity, which employees can utilize to identify their personal strengths and weaknesses.
Nonetheless, these are the primary stages of going for a personal development plan.

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Part 1: A critical reflection analysing (Communications) competency development
Title of competency: Communications
Incidents/experience
In this section, I will pick one of the weak zones in the case study company to critically
analyse the development of a competency-based approach in me. The competency-based skill in
discussion in this section is ‘communication’. To further narrow it down to be specific with the
purpose, I have picked the sales department, which has been creating problems for ScaterBoys. I
assumed myself as the sales manager of the case study company “Scater Boys” and tried to use
my understanding of the situation.
The company had been shown as struggled to meet its sales targets. This was due to some given
reason such as listed below:
 Coordination complexity
 Absenteeism and punctuality at a certain point
Issues related to co-ordination can be resolved by promoting the importance of effective
communication at the organisational level. However, there are barriers that do not let the
effective communication to happen. As opined by Ghobadi and Mathiassen (2016), differences
in perceptions of employees and the management are one of the barriers to the effective
communication. It means there is a gap between what is being conveyed to employees and how
well they understand it. Employees make their assumptions of what is being said to them.
According to Georgescu and Popescul (2015), few employees have their tendency for not to go
ahead and clarify things from the management personnel. It is this habit, which affects effective

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communication between the management and employees. It eventually affects the overall
operational outcomes.
Absenteeism can be due to a number of reasons; however, this could be controlled by
applying robust plans to control it and implementing those ideas by effectively communicating
with employees. An effective communication with employees will ensure that there are less
resisting than supporting forces in organizations. Once the stage is attained that supporting forces
are bigger than the resisting, implementation will possibly happen (Russ et al. 2015). As opined
by O'hagan et al. (2014), communication can help to come on common grounds provided that
imposed plans are feasible to both the management and its employees. It means that employees
are tolerant of communication till the moment the proposed plans are as per their work nature
and policies. Employees become less approachable when they are asked to adapt to a change,
which asks employees to go out of their comfort zone or from their style of working.
Absenteeism can be classed into two types such as intentional and unintentional. An intentional
absenteeism is rather a matter of serious concern from the organizations perspective. Vertino
(2014) believes that intentional absenteeism can be controlled by effectively communicating
with concerned employees, understanding their challenges and implementing the supportive
policies for employees till the moment it is feasible to organizations.
Evidence
(See Competence 1 in the Portfolio Section)
Part 2: A critical reflection analysing (Decision Making) competency development
Title of competency: Decision Making

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Incidents/experience
The other problem area that draws me towards was the existing production strategy of the
case study company.
The existing production strategy is very traditional and is less productive. The customer
makes the order and the order is then processed under the production specialty. After a little
duration, the product is now ready to be delivered to the customer. As stated by Joseph-Williams,
Elwyn and Edwards (2014), an order-basis preparation of products is good till the moment the
order pressure is low. However, in case the company grows bigger, there will be needs to impose
a change to the existing strategy. In the context of the chosen issue, decision-making will be an
effective approach towards resolving the issue. It can help in changing the existing production
strategy; however, decision-making may not be easier all the time.
As opined by Spencer et al. (2017), decision-making can be difficult at times because at
sometimes it does not appear an easier act to go with. It is because the decision-making teams are
sometimes not sure of what ways to follow to reach a decision. As stated by Abdulrahman et al.
(2015), all are not the experts for a decision-making. Decision-making requires a lot of factors to
consider, which may test the managerial skills of decision-making teams. According to Mira et
al. (2014), decision-makers must be able to identify ways out of challenges for the effective
management of resources. Decision-makers cannot go beyond their spending capability for a
given problem situation. In a likewise manner, decision-makers can face the challenge in the
form of an inadequate supply of workers or in case, workers are mostly up against the decision.
According to Légaré and Thompson-Leduc (2014), implementation of decisions requires an
adequate support of workers as they are a fundamental part of any implementation.

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Graham, Harvey and Puri (2015) say that many decision-makers avoid implementing new
decisions due to their fear of unpleasant aspects and negative consequences. Unpleasant aspects
can be anything from financial crunch to the mostly unsupportive workforce and to the
availability of efficient machines and tools. It means that unsupportive employees can potentially
affect the decision. Therefore, decision-makers need to focus on both decision-making and the
feasibility of decisions with the available physical, human and financial resources. In the opinion
of Cascetta et al. (2015), decision-making becomes more challenging when employees are less
supportive. In such circumstances, decision-makers must learn how to cope with employees. As
stated earlier that competency-based skills despite having the individual identity, sometimes are
used as interrelated terms. Hence, in case of coping with unsupportive employees, it is important
that decision-makers are able to effectively communicate with them. An effective
communication as according to Ureña et al. (2015) will allow knowing the problem areas,
ensuring the solutions for problems and gaining employees’ faith in the decision. Glance, Osler
and Neuman (2014) say that effective communication is required at the different levels of
implementation of decisions. It is required to publish the decision. It is required as well to reduce
the internal resistance. It is required to guide employees and others towards ways to follow to
implement the decision.
The entire course module and my attempt to apply certain concepts to resolve the
production strategy at Scater has helped me to understand that decision making is an important
tool in critical times. It is very challenging for companies that are not flexible with the changing
needs. I must learn to cope with the decision-making process to effectively fulfill my
organizational roles and responsibilities.
Evidence

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(See Competence 2 in the Portfolio Section)
Conclusion:
In summary, it can be said that communications and decision making are the two
competency-based skills, which face challenges in varieties of forms from employees and other
stakeholders. Those with good management skills will only be able to cope with resisting forces
from within the organisations.
Part 3: Portfolio

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Competence 1: Communications
This is one of the competences, which I have developed by working on the chosen issue
in the case study company Scater. The chosen issue was related to the sales department of Scater.
The company was not able to meet its targets. Hence, the number of issues was identified.
Absenteeism was one of the issues, which were resulting in bad outcomes.
Situation High absenteeism
Task Communications
Action The McClelland’s Need Theory
Results Employees will feel motivated. The
communication gap between employees and
the management will effectively reduce.
Table 1: STAR Technique
(Source: created by author)
The table clearly shows that I did focus on the high absenteeism issue, which was one of the
reasons for poor sales performance. I realised the need for effective communication to have
managers and employees in good coordination with each other. According to O'hagan et al.
(2014), effective communication helps managers to communicate plans and involve in talks with
employees to understand their queries. In context to the sales issue in the case company,
managers should know what issues the salespeople are facing to identify the problem areas.
Salespeople should also understand what their responsibilities are and what their managers
expect from them (Thomson et al. 2015). These all will happen when employees are not so

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hesitant in going to managers for their numerous queries. Additionally, managers should also be
approachable, so that, employees do not feel hesitant in reaching to managers. An effective
communication between managers and employees will make managers more approachable and
employees will also be able to share their problems.
The evidence for communication as one of the competency-based skills can be drawn
from the McClelland’s Need Theory. The theory states that there are three basic needs, which
employees expect from employers. Those needs are the need for power, need for achievement
and need for affiliation (Buzdar et al. 2017). The McClelland’s Need Theory may remain
unfulfilled if managers are not into communication with employees. This is why I decided to put
myself into the real situation and take the role of an interviewer. I decided to talk with the sales
department people. The purpose of the communication was to make myself more approachable
to the salespeople and help me identify their challenges. I also aimed at reducing the
communication gap, which has so far affected the case company ScaterBoys. Such
communication should expectedly reduce communication gaps, enhance managers’
approachability to employees and bring forward the hidden issues (Lawn et al. 2015).
Competence 2: Decision Making
Situation Uncompetitive existing production strategy
Task/competence Decision making was required to resolve the
issue
Action New production strategy was adopted
Results Reduced out of stock issue and customer
satisfaction

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Table 2: STAR Technique
(Source: created by author)
I did study the task and then tried to apply the learning which I had from the course module. I
found that decision making is immensely required to bring some necessary changes to the case
company. The module-based learning had encouraged me to gain a more knowledge of the
decision-making approaches to help me be able to deal with the issue. Hence, I went for more
secondary resources available on websites such as case studies of few companies. The process
did help me immensely to figure out the way out of the issue. Therefore, a forecast capability
was introduced in the existing strategy. Additionally, inventory management was also introduced
(Ravinder and Misra 2016.). I did find from a few selected case studies that reputed companies
are good in marketing forecast. The demand is calculated and accordingly, the products are
manufactured (Gu, Zhang and Li 2015). One of the case studies, which helped me was of Dell
and its strategy for supply chain management (Silvestre 2015). These strategies should help the
case company to deal with ‘no stock’ issue. Customer satisfaction level will also improve (Saeidi
et al. 2015).
Competence 3: Motivating Others
Situation Salespeople had required motivation
Task/competence Absenteeism was needed to reduce
Action The Development Communication Theory
Results Reduced absenteeism
Table 3: STAR Technique