Strategic Operation Management (PS4S26), USW: Report Analysis

This report presents a comprehensive reflective analysis of strategic operation management, focusing on the development and improvement of communication skills within a sales management context at Enterprise Life Insurance Company. Part A of the report delves into self-assessment, highlighting the importance of communication skills for a sales manager, supported by theoretical justifications and real-world examples. It explores the areas needing improvement, such as confidence, listening skills, and public speaking, and details methods employed to enhance these skills, including speaking in public and actively listening. Part B addresses operational challenges like globalization and sustainability, proposing solutions such as supply chain management, agile strategic management, and lean manufacturing. The report emphasizes the significance of communication in the workplace and its impact on employee relations, career progression, and overall organizational success. Through critical evaluation, the report provides insights into improving communication skills and operational effectiveness in a business environment.

Running Head: STRATEGIC OPERATION MANAGEMENT
Strategic Operation Management
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Part A.................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.....................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................4
Importance of communication skill....................................................................................4
Suggestions for improvement............................................................................................6
Area of improvement........................................................................................................6
Methods to improve communication skill...........................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................12
References.......................................................................................................................13
Part B:..............................................................................................................................16
Introduction......................................................................................................................16
Discussion........................................................................................................................17
Operational challenges faced by a successful candidate............................................17
Globalization.............................................................................................................18
Unproductive communication...................................................................................19
Sustainability............................................................................................................19
Ethical style..............................................................................................................20

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System plan..............................................................................................................20
Name of the company: DEMAND METRIC.................................................................21
Methods to address the main issues of operation management....................................22
Supply chain management..........................................................................................24
Quality plan contro.........................................................................................................24
Agile strategic management........................................................................................25
Just in time management.............................................................................................25
Lean manufacturing.....................................................................................................26
Six sigma......................................................................................................................27
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................27
References.......................................................................................................................29
Appendix..........................................................................................................................32

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Part A
Introduction
Development of the personal skill can be addressed with the ability to do
something with a positive mind set or proficiency. The aim of the first part of the
assignment is the develop a self-analysis or a reflection which will cater to outline the
importance of the selected skill which will describe one personal skill that I aim to
develop and improve within myself (Liebel et al, 2018). Whereas the second part of the
assignment deals with the reflective analysis that I want to improve and how effective
the efforts have been. The skill within an individual is typically acquired to be developed
through the process of direct experience and training which can involve the sustained
efforts. The skill that I want to develop as a sales manager is communication skill
because while working in the office I find it difficult to handle the employees and list to
their grievances (Grundke, Marcolin and Squicciarini 2018). Therefore, communication
skill is acquired within me because it is needed to speak appropriately with a wide
variety of employee subsequently maintaining eye contact, tailor professional language,
listen attentively, present ideas appropriately and demonstrate a wide variety of
vocabulary. The importance of having a great communication skill aids to all the criteria
of the business or workplace starting from personal life to professional life and the
attributes that fall in between. The benefit of a good communication skill in the
workplaces adds a bonus point and it is essential to cater others and myself to
understand information more precisely and fast. The reason behind choosing the path
of improving my communication skill is because while delegating the sales training to

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the team leaders I examined that I had difficulty in breaking down the three initial steps
of making a sales management a success. This was the scenario which made me
ensure that I need to work on my communication skills in Enterprise Life Insurance
Company. The importance of this particular skill tends to be the heart of every
organisation. I believe in good reading, speaking, writing and listening skills which is
essential of each task which is performed in the workplace and for the same work to be
completed and achieve goals (Mohanty and Mohanty 2018). The general nature of
communication skill is listening, body language, respect, confidence and open
mindedness. Finally this paper seeks to provide information from a reflective prospect
and cater to the nature of communication skill. It is strongly assumed that a good
communication skill is essential for a great career and one needs to know how to attain
it.
Discussion
Name of the Company- Enterprise Life Insurance Company
Importance of communication skill
Communication skill can be defined as the ability to communicate with the others
or while receiving information. The different communication illustration includes the
process of providing feedback, communicating new ideas. Observing, listening and
emphasizing. As a Sales Manager of Enterprise Life Insurance Company it is important
to have a good communication skill which will assist me to express the employee more
clearly, understand request and ask questions (Moore et al, 2018). The importance of
having a good communication skill can be illustrated in the following points:

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 Valued In the workplace: if an employee is dreaming of promotion in career or
job life then he or she must certainly need to demonstrate good communication
skill (Harris 2017). The need of proper communication skill caters to speak
appropriately with the employees while maintaining proper eye contact as well
tailoring the audience.
 In demand by the business: written and oral communication is the ranked
among the top ten desired skill which an employee of the company should
posses. It acts as an encouragement to take up different training just to improve
the presentation and communication skills.
 Assist in career progression: communication skill involves the need to request
information, delegate proper information, interact with the employees and the
branch and lastly manage work in teams (Bertin et al, 2016). There are many
factors that are involved if I communicate well and which affects the employee in
the recent development in the global world.
 Builds better rapport with the employees: the employees in the company
desire the basic need to be listened to on various prospects. This is basically
important for me so that I can cater and involve more amount of contact with the
employees face to face.
However, developing a good communication skill will help me in many aspects of
my life and will allow me to grow in my area of specialization. In the recent
development of the global world we depend on sharing information which results in
greater emphasis on having a good communication skill. Another reason which
makes communication as an important tool or aspect to develop within me is

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because it will allow me to approach strangers and talk to large group of people.
This will allow others to distinguish extroverts more positively and will boost up their
self esteem. This skill will permit me to be anxious about talking and sharing more
information with the unfamiliar people probably in their induction period.
Suggestions for improvement
Area of improvement
The areas which I am most affected are in delivering my speech in front of a
large number of audiences, lack of confidence, not listening properly and irregular
conversation. Effective communication is pivotal in raising the productivity because it
directs the staff with different approaches to perform (Aubin et al, 2016). Hence I could
examine the affected areas of poor communication within myself because the staffs
were not receiving adequate information from my side as I was unable to express them
the daily target of sales and the future target. Workplace communication is very vital for
my company because it allows being productive and facilitate communication down the
chain in the company. Communication skill is considered to be very vital for each of the
employee working in Enterprise Life Insurance Company. Once the communication skill
improves I can be an inspiration to the other employees to reach in my level and be
competent (Anitha and Kumar 2016). With lack of communication the employee’s g
through a rigorous selection procedure and it becomes a problem for them to coordinate
with one another. These kinds of problem usually occur when there is barrier in
communication at workplace. The barriers in communication need to be catered on time
which is likely to persist and weaken the real time collaboration among the employees.

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In order to work and enhance the productivity of Enterprise Life Insurance
Company there needs to be a proper delegation of instruction and equal contribution of
the employees so that the barriers can be avoided. The areas of improvement which is
required within me are:
 Lack of confidence- there is lack of confidence in me while facing the crowd or
while delivering the speech to the team leaders. This causes a great problem
among the employees or with the subordinates to share information or to gather
information from the top level (Gill and Orgad 2017). Lack of communication is
considered as a great obstacle in work life which causes awkwardness,
discomfort, shyness and so on.
 Not listening properly- I had observed previously that in the feedback process
from the employees working on field often have certain query to make to which I
hardly pay attention or is distracted with the finance work. but as the days passed
I realized that not listening is a problem due to which proper information was not
delivered to the on field workers.
 Unable to deliver speech- there is lack of clarity when any information is
delegated from the top level of management to the lower level and it is hard for
me to overcome because the understanding of the rest of the employees are not
alike.
Irregular conversation- after facing problem with the expenses and savings of our
branch I realized that there is lack of conversation between the senior accountant and
myself due to which all the expense bills are not tracked in the expenditure sheet.

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Methods to improve communication skill
A good communication skill about understands the instruction, making request,
acquiring new skills, relaying information and asking questions. On the other hand good
communication skills are considered to be the most important skill which one can poses
as an employee. Being the Sales Manager of Enterprise Life Insurance Company it is
important for me to possess a good vocabulary and have the power to explain
information or task to the employees. The attribute which I believed in improving was
thinking positive, training myself in speak fluently and at the same time talking to other
people and improve their confidence (Kurtz, Draper and Silverman 2017). The aspect of
confidence came from felling of well being, developing one’s self-esteem and having a
strong belief in self ability, experience and skill.
However, the communication skill has a huge impact on my job and delegating
the role of a Sales Manager of Enterprise Life Insurance Company, Ghana I had to
generate the impact on my job satisfaction, career success and lastly on promotion
potential as my ability to communicate effectively with others (Alzrayer and Banda
2017). By enhancing my communication skill at the work place it tends to increase the
ability to reach my success, whereas it is important to note down the technique of
reaching the success and get myself promoted. Hence the technique which I had
adopted in improving the communication skills are as follows:
 Firstly I got my points across as it had helped me to speak to others and while
thinking for too long it had helped me to process what I was about to speak and

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explain the matters (Yang, Lee and Cheng 2016). Instead of catering on what I
wanted to say it was effective when I made my opinion getting cross checked.
 The next step caters to listening to what the people are not saying. There are
times when the employees do not mention or speak out something as it is
important or sometime they tend to be nervous. Being the sales manager is it is
important to develop the ability the ability to listen carefully and not interrupt the
person while he or she is talking just to know the truth.
 Thirdly I had developed the ability to speak in public. At the first instance I had
tried to speak to smaller groups and make it an interactive session which made
my procedure easier. The two ways communication process was an effective
medium of knowing what is the opinion of the employee in regard to the field
sales. Before when I was newly recruited as the sales manager of Enterprise Life
Insurance Company I was very reluctant to speak in public and also in front of a
group of people (Ibrahim,Boerhannoeddin and Kayode 2017). But in my case I
could not afford to remain in this attitude because it would hinder my job
profession. Therefore as days passed public speaking made me confident and it
got easier with practice.
 The next step which I followed is to agree on the opinions of my employees as
expect our boss to be. The problem with the employees is not what they ask but
the main task depends on my ability to find out different techniques in solving
their queries or resolve any matter.
 Being the Sales Manager of Enterprise Life Insurance Company it was an
important part of the work process to gather for honest feedback from the

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employees. With the elements of all the leadership skill, receiving a feedback
from the subordinates or directors or either from the employees is critical of
becoming a better communicator. Gathering positive feedback caters to discover
the area of improvement which might get overlooked.
 Lastly it is important to have respect and self-confidence. There are situation
where I had disagreed on what someone else has said whether it was a co-
worker or an employee, it was important for me to sympathize with the opinion
rather than simply try to get the message across. On the other hand respecting
others opinion and acknowledging of what others has to say is an important part
of improving communication skills. By respecting others the employee will feel
appreciated which will lead a more honest conversation.
 There is a correct medium of using different communication style. It is important
to choose the right one. For instances the person who take the matters more
seriously like the changes, salary and week offs is more appropriate than
sending a mil.
Adopting these methods of communication has been highly effective because I could
see the progress in my work life and could cater the employees with notice and
delegating information. While listening to the employees or to the senior team leaders it
made my work easier to make them understand and deliver the information more
appropriately. To be a good communicator it is vital to be a good listener (Adamczyk et
al, 2016). It is important for me to practice active listening and pay close attention to
what others are saying. There are basically four different types of communication skill
that I use in my working space and they are verbal, non-verbal, visual and written. Most

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of the times when the word effective communication comes in my mind I think about
exchanging ideas, thoughts and information by means of using verbal communication.
In today’s world the business has to access a number of methods of communication
which is used internally with the employees.
The Enterprise Life Insurance Company uses the method of communication which is
included in the traditional style of communicating with business meetings that takes
place with face to face interaction and sharing of ideas. The above communication
technique had facilitated me to utilize the business and address the audience who are
willing to share their opinions. I made it sure that there is still presence of traditional
ways of communication because it helps in addressing the employee and as a result it
holds value. However the several ways of communication which is still present in
Enterprise Life Insurance Company and it determines my own method of choosing the
right method and technique for this company with regard to taking vital decision.
Therefore, the technique of adopting different communication skills has
effectively impacted on the company to be productive in terms of sales and operate
effectively. The employees I Enterprise Life Insurance Company have the liberty to
experience a rise in productivity, morale and commitments if the co-workers are able to
communicate up and down the communication chain within the company. Being able to
talk or explain someone is perhaps the most important of all the skills (Maslovat and
Franks 2019). This facilitated me to pass on information to other employees and
understand what is being said to me. Knowing that communication is the simplest act of
transferring information I tried to embed the habit strictly so that it takes with me forever
and I can motivate other employees to come in my position one day. Lastly the effective