A manager has been defined as an individual who has control over a business or organization and manipulates resources and spending in the enterprise or organization. The manager is tasked with the job of minimizing costs and maximizing profit for the organization. The one sure avenue of achieving this is to focus the employees that are under him to perform in their work activities so that the objectives of the organization are met. A critical analysis of the various roles of the manager will indicate a bias towards focusing people towards the performance of work activities to achieve organization objectives (Comfort 2010, p. 122).
Firstly, managers have a role to train and educate employees in the organization. Managers should come up with training programs that are geared towards keeping employees up to date with the developments in the industry. The intention of these training programs is to improve the performance of the employees in their work activities. That would put the organization in a position where organizational goals can be met. Secondly, managers are required to conduct employee appraisals within the organization. Appraisals are focused towards rewarding well-performing employees and challenging poor performing employees. Employee evaluations ensure that employees are motivated and have high morale as they go about their work performance (Comfort 2010, p. 134). Adequately motivated employees can easily achieve the objectives established in the organization.
Thirdly, managers have a role to direct the activities of the organization. That involves makingdecisions that are meant to reach the goals and objectives of the business organization. The managers are also responsible for the creation of budgets and the location of resources in various departments in the organization. The massive power of decision making that the organization has placed on managers illustrates the massive responsibility that the manager is bestowed with. The organization counts on managers to guide it towards the achievement of business goals.
The manager is responsible for various human resources activities in the organization.
These activities include hiring, discipline and remuneration. A manager is required to hire the most qualified, experienced employees that would be best suited to ensure the progress of the organization. Discipline in the organization is paramount especially among employees as it ensures that company time is spent on work related activities. Managers are required to maintain discipline through the development and implementation of a code of ethics or code of conduct. Finally, managers have the responsibility to determine the incentives and salaries paid to employees. It is critical that the incentive and salary packages be attractive to motivate the employees to put their best foot forward when working for the organization. As illustrated from the above discussion, the roles of a manager in any business can be summed into one wholesome responsibility. That is, the responsibility to focus people performance towards work activities with the aim of achieving the desired goals and objectives.
Question 4
The typologies of operations, otherwise known as the four Vs, are important dimensions of process and operations. They contribute a lot towards the performance of operations and success in these processes. A service delivery process at a bank in Dubai would especially need the typology of operations during peak hours. The first dimension that is volume deals with the amounts of the same services that are produced. As it is during peak hours, it is likely that there is a high volume of services rendered in the bank. That would mean that there are a high number of repetitive processes done at this time. It is advisable that the bank utilizes the principle of specialization to facilitate these repetitive process and activities. The second dimension is the variety that introduces the principle of diversity (Mahadevan 2010, p. 547). During peak hours, the bank is likely to receive customers who require different types of services. It is paramount for the bank at this time to provide a wide range of services to customers.
The third dimension of the typology of operations is variation. The dimension states that demand may vary from time to time, in the bank, the demand for certain services may vary with time, it may either increase or decrease. It is, therefore, prudent that the service delivery process is able to adjust the resources according to the demand. The banks should have additional staff on standby in cases of increased demand for services. Finally, the fourth dimension is visibility. Visibility deals with how much of the service delivery process are exposed to the customer. It is important that a bank has a front office as well as a back office. High visibility should be encouraged in the bank as it promotes transparency and confidence in the customer. However, it may be advisable to keep some processes in the back office for purposes of security in the bank.
Marketing
The three major developments in the marketing industry which are the digital age, rapid globalization and ethics responsibility should be integrated into the marketing strategy for the fashion clothing brand. A marketing strategy is a program that is adopted by a company with the aim of increasing sales and gaining an advantage over its competitors. It is advisable that marketing strategies adapt to emerging issues in the market as is observed in the case of Maysoon, my sister.
The first major development is the emergence of a digital age. This means that most of population in the whole world have access to the internet and can connect digitally over long distances. It creates a unique opportunity for businesses seeking to implement their marketing strategies. With a digital world, it is no longer necessary to physically meet people as they can be accessed through the internet and various social platforms in provides. Maysoon should establish what is known as a social media marketing strategy (Kates& Greenberg 2013, p. 134). The strategy aims to reach people through social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others and directing them to websites that advertise the desired products. Maysoon should take advantage of the internet and social media to expand her marketing strategy. In addition, online sales of the products are possible with the digital age that allows payments through money transfer methods like PayPal and the shipping of the products to the customers wherever they are in the world. These measures are bound to maximize the sales of the fashion clothing brand while minimizing the costs of marketing the clothing brand.
The second major development is rapid globalization. Rapid globalization has been greatly motivated by the digital age that is characteristic of our world today. Globalization means that the global market is able to access the products that are offered in any part of the world. In addition, companies are now offering products for sale beyond the borders of their own countries. Maysoon should incorporate this development in her marketing strategy by developing global marketing strategies. A global marketing strategy is one that is modified and tailored to suit the needs and special requirements of a certain country (Hassan &Kaynak 2014, p. 234).
It refers to basically localizing the product to suit the conditions of a particular country. An example is a clothing product that intends to penetrate the female market in Saudi Arabia. The culture of the country requires women to wear full covering clothes. Therefore, the clothing brand should modify its products to suit these conditions. The third major development is ethical and social responsibility. There is growing oncerns for companies to practice social and ethical responsibility. The clothing brand that Maysoon seeks to market should, therefore, be seen as practicing this responsibility. Ways through which the clothing brand can achieve this is through protecting the environment, fair labor practices and fair remuneration for employees.
Human Resource Management
Internal recruitment has its advantages and disadvantages. The main advantages are that it promotes morale and motivation in the company. In cases where staff from inside the company is recruited into a new job, they feel that they have been rewarded for their loyalty and dedication to the company. The second advantage is that it is cost effective. Recruiting from inside the firm only requires a notice on the company’s bulletin and notice board. It does not require advertisements in the papers and websites, and this saves the company a lot of money (Australia 2009, p. 170). However, there are disadvantages that come with hiring from inside the firm.
The first is that external hiring brings new ideas and options into the firm. The second disadvantage is that internal recruitment is likely to lead to increased competition among company employees that may cause conflict.
External recruitment also has several advantages in that it allows the entry into the company of new persons that bring new ideas, opinions and perspectives. The second advantage is that it challenges the current staff to work hard in the hope that they will be considered in the next recruitment exercise. There are however some disadvantages that come with external recruitment. Firstly, it is costly to the company as it involves an expensive recruitment and selection process. Secondly, it may affect the current employees in terms of their morale and motivation. They may see that their chances of career development are limited in the company.
Question 2
The performance appraisal of employees gives rise to various potential problems. It is important that these problems are identified and addressed in an organization. The first problem facing performance appraisal in an organization is unclear standards. Supervisors and managers use standards to appraise their employees. In most cases, these standards are not clear or keep on changing from time to time or from supervisor to supervisor. Unclear standards of appraisal are likely to result in a distorted appraisal that is not reliable or credible. A solution to this problem is the development of a clear and elaborate standard of merit to be used in the employee performance appraisal. With such a clear standard, the information concluded from the appraisal would be credible, reliable and standard (Grote 2013, p. 215).
The second potential problem that may arise during employee appraisal is the famous halo effect. This problem occurs in situations whereby a supervisor’s opinion of an employee on a specific rating influences the supervisor’s opinion in all the other ratings. It has been established through various ratings that supervisors are likely to rate unfriendly employees negatively in all aspects. The supervisor should however only rate the employee negatively on specific issues such as interaction and friendliness. The proposed answer to this potential problem would be the extensive training of managers and supervisors so that they are aware of this problem and avoid it in all instances.
References
Austarlia, C 2009, Effective Recruitment and Selection Practices, Australia Limited
Comfort, J 2010, The Mindful International Manager: How to Work Effectively Across Cultures,Kogan Page Publishers
Grote, D 2013, How to Be Good at Performance Appraisals: Simple, Effective, Done Right, Harvard Business Press
Hassan, S Kaynak, E 2014, Globalization of Consumer Markets: Structures and Strategies, Rout ledge
Kates, A Greenberg, E 2013, Strategic Digital Marketing: Top Digital Experts Share the Formula for Tangible Returns on Your Marketing Investment, McGraw Hill Professional
Mahadevan, B 2010, Operations Management: Theory and Practice, Pearson Education
