Introduction Faboil Ltd has evolved into a relatively successful organisation within the biotechnology field. In this report I will give a analysis of Richard’s managerial roles and used the assertiveness skills theory to analyze Carole’s inassertiveness. Then I will explain the effects of conflict and how should conflict be resolved. At last, I also give some time management techniques to Carole to manage time better, and give some useful methods of stress resolution.
Findings 1. Management Roles—Henry Minzberg Although theorists may define what managers should do, the reality of what they do is very different, and also difficult to estimate. They are normally driven by deadline, continual interruptions and a rush of information. Confusion over what managers should and should not do has many repercussions. If it is not known what managers should do, how can we measure success or failure of manager’s job done? How can we best develop managers? How can fairly reward? Henry Minzberg—the nature of managerial works (Harper Row, 1973). He identified 10 roles at common works of all managers into three groups:
Interpersonal Roles:
Ensure that information is provided. 1. Figurehead 2. Liaison 3. Leader
Informational Roles:
Link all managerial work together. 4. Monitor 5. Disseminator 6. Spokesperson
Decisional Roles:
Make significant use of the information. 7. Entrepreneur 8. Disturbance handler 9. Resource allocator 10. Negotiator
In the case, Dr Alfred Brownlow has four senior department, they are Richard Cranverry (director of biotechnology), Brenda Frame (Chief scientific officer), Fred Windows (Financial director) and Judith Smythe (Sales &Marketing director). They all have their responsibilities and authorities. Richard Cranberry is the director of biotechnology department to develop new products with his three project teams, as quickly as possible, for their entry into the market. To reach the pre-set targets demanded by him, project teams must work very closely with Brenda Frame (Chief Scientific Officer) and her small team.
Innovative products manufactured by Faboil, which meet environmental regulations, include low-solvent-content paints, semiaqueous terpene-based cleaning agents and so on. Fred Windows managed the Financial Director department. It departs three teams—Robert Carlow responsible for accountant, Accounts Department; Stuart Goodall is purchasing manager and Ian Carter is operations manager. Judith Smythe’s Sales and Marketing team for 3 fields reps. The sales & marketing department has acted more and more important role in a company organization structure. It promotes customers to buy their products. And the marketing department also set some strategies to expand their market to get more profit. Richard is concerned that the problems lie not with his style of management but by the lack of leadership and management adopted by Brenda Frame and Judith Smythe.
Brenda Frame and Judith Smythe were sent on a leadership course run by a large, successful UK training company. Both Brenda and Judith returned from the programmed well motivated and enthusiastic, and keen to try out some new practices. Immediately they started to implement some new strategies designed to empower their staff in the hope that this would produce better overall results.
2. Assertiveness Introduction
We are going to examine aggressive, submissive (or accommodating/passive), and assertive behaviour to understand the characteristics and possible consequences of them. Aggressive—aggressive people cannot control their aggression, this kind of people may upset others. This may lead to others avoiding them or escalating the conflict. They may also get upset themselves afterwards if they have lost their temper. Submissive—they may avoid dealing with issues. Others may get frustrated with them or trample over them. This may lead to resentment, reduced self-esteem and stress.
Assertive— people develop positive relationships with others, as they will try to consider other viewpoints as well as presenting their own viewpoint in a clear way. This can lead to better self-image and reduced stress. In the case, Richard believes that only Carole have the necessary commitment and expertise to be able to cope with, and with the increased workload. He gave a lot of work to Carole, Carole has never refused his. Therefore, as to the end of last year, Carole has a lot of problems and pressures. The important thing here is to show that you have tried to take on board what other people say, first, that is, show your head.
Negative inner dialogues and bill of rights For many of us, our self talk or inner dialogue interferes with our performance. We often set ourselves up to fail even before we have tried. We also limiting ourselves by setting unrealistic rules or have unrealistic expectations of others such as: I must not make mistakes/I must be the best/ I must be perfect I must cope
People should like me When we cannot achieve these, and then may think we are useless, incompetent, etc rather than the more rational belief that we are human. The following are examples of what might be on a ‘Bill of rights’, i.e. a list of what rights it is reasonable for a human to expect: I have the right to express my views and ideas.
I have the right to ask for what I need. I have the right to say ‘No’ to unreasonable requests. I have the right to make mistakes sometimes (after all I have to learn). There are some Assertiveness techniques The techniques below are outlined by Rennie fritchie and Maggie Melling in their book ‘The Business of assertiveness’. They are 1. Basic or empathetic assertion, 2. Broken Record, 3. Use of Silence, 4. Saying No, 5. Fogging, 6. Disarming anger 7. Negative assertion.
Basic or empathetic assertion Step 1 Actively listen to what is being said and then show the other person that you both hear and understand what they are saying. You may nod or use eye contact to show you are listening; Step 2 Say what you think and feel in a direct way (calm and to the point); Step 3 Say clearly what you want to happen.
In the case, Judith Smythe’s enthusiastic approach has had a huge impact on her staff that can see major benefits from working with a cross section of people from across the organization. Previously her team’s approach was solely to sell the new products in the market place, regardless of the needs of their customers or the lack of good market research. Since the working parties were formed, some of Faboil’s customers have been involved in ‘focus group’ discussions and valuable lessons have been learned. Broken Record
This is when you repeatedly make your point until the other person hears it. Care should be taken with offering a reason as others may come back with a counter argument. Your body language should match your verbal message. Saying No
Many people find this difficult. We tend to make up excuses, avoid the other person or make them feel guilty or pussyfoot. When saying ‘No’, you should trust your immediate reaction. Practice saying ‘No’ without excessive apology or excuses. Through analyzed the case study, I suggest that Carole should have access to Richard and told him the situation faced by her and she would like to Richard, to reduce her workload, and asked the two team leaders, to help her. And she should learning to say ‘NO’. So that she should use this Assertiveness Techniques: Broken Record the dissatisfied to avoid the stress. And practice saying “No” without excessive apology or excuses to reduce the workload. Also, she could use the Technique of fogging such as Use the active listening to heat all the complaints before moving onto problem solving.
3. Conflict What cause conflict?
Conflict is a process which begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something the first party cares about.
The effects of conflict Organizational structure and Conflict Potential conflict may rise from various sources: Measurement systems—actual achievement may against budgeting. Time frame—group characteristics may rise conflict which seen to be ‘un-equitable’. Stereotype—as time past, believes in one will against with something new. Dependent—more rely on others, more chance of conflict occurring. Ambiguous—unclear authority related to role stress often generates interact conflicting. Limited resources—maximized profit against maximized pay
Conflict resolution Before changing structures or co-ordination mechanisms, giving punishment or forcing behaviour, managers and/or leaders still can try several approaches below: Competing— Trying to get ones own way (high on assertiveness, low on co-operation) Collaborating— Working with the other party for a win/win solution (both high on assertiveness and co-operation) Avoiding— Ignoring the issue (both low on assertiveness and co-operation), such as keep them busy. Accommodating— Seeking to adjust to meet the needs of the other party (low on assertiveness, high on co-operation). Compromising— Trying to find a middle ground (in between assertiveness and co-operation).
4. Time management
Stress may produce difficulties in sleeping and concentrating etc which increase longer time to do things and make mistakes. In this state, our cognitive functioning or our thinking centers of the brain are inhibited. From neuroscience it has been found that when we receive a stimulus relating to emotions feed information regarding feelings to our executive centre in the precortex. Stress will affect time management totally.
If we cannot do the time management well, it will lead some situations. For example, the work efficiency will decrease the stress which man-made will increase and the work satisfaction also will decrease. Even it may affect the operation of business and the target achievement. Carole should distinguish what is important task and what are urgent things. These are some technique if useful when Carole feels she has a large number of things to do. It is a good way that write all the things which need to do on a to do list. And when finished these all things, she should ask herself, ‘does this need to be done? Is it important?’ Priority setting:
Carole should be given more time to important tasks; urgent things should be dealt with straight way. The non-important task generally related to day-to –day work that she needs to react to done in shortest minutes. Peak time:
Carole should try to spend her peak time on important tasks if she want to be able to do things well and relatively quickly.
Conclusion In this report I had given the analysis of Richard’s managerial roles and used the assertiveness skills theory to analyze Carole’s inassertiveness. Then I explained the effects of conflict and how should conflict be resolved. At last, I had give some time management techniques to Carole to manage time better. In a word, Carole faced a variety of stress, she should have a healthy psychology thinking and take some useful methods to decrease stress.
