Production Management

ProductionManagement

Production management is the function of business which selects, designs, operates, controls and updates a production system.

production is the process of producing goods and services from raw materials and other resources.

Function of production management

1) Deciding the type of machines and process to be used for production 

2) Determining the right methods of production

3) Scheduling jobs and allocating resources

4) Setting standards,monitoring performance and comparing actual performance with set standards.

5) Revising the system as demand and organizational goals change.

Production planning and control is the direction and coordination of the firm's material and physical resources towards the attainment of pre-specified production goals in the most efficient way.

Objectives of production Planning

1) Ensure smooth coordination of production activities

2) To ensure efficiency of the plan

3) To ensure effective utilization of production

4) To ensure proper delivery schedules.

5) Ensure existence of adequate stock of raw materials, work in progress and finished products.

Types of production

• Job production or custom production: it is also called a "one-off" or make complete production. It consists of small scale production to meet customers' individual requirements. It involves the manufacture of a single complete unit by an operator or group of workers. It ensures that customer's specification is adhered to in the production of the goods. Example include aircraft,ship, bridge building.

• Batch production: It is the commonest type of production. It requires the division of production work into parts of operations and each operation is taken to an end throughout the whole batch before the next operation is commenced. Examples include production of electronic equipment, transformers etc.

• Flow production/ Mass production: It involves the continuous and progressive processing of materials. It is a production method which has no lost time. It eliminates non-producing time. Ie. as the work on a batch is completed to a stage, it is passed to the next stage without completing work on the whole batch. Examples: soft drink, beer, flour mills. textiles etc.

Theories of Motivation

Theories of Motivation

Individual performances make organizations what they are, individual performance in any organization is determined by three complementary factors:

1) His knowledge of the job

2) His skill in performing the job

3) His attitude towards the job.

The organization's training procedures can influence an employees resolve of the first two factors,while the last one is as a result of the focus of motivation in the organization.

Motivation may be defined as a goal seeking behaviour,the driving force within a person or group of persons that drive them to evolve actions that would result in the achievement of desired objectives. It usually involves needs, expectations, personalities and perception.

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Some of the theories of motivation include:

1) Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of needs

Maslow in his theory saw needs as occurring in hierarchial order,the first being:

Physiological needs: These concern the basic needs of human existence e.g. food,clothing,shelter,sex.

Safety and security needs: These are needs that focus primarily on the protection of individuals from harm in his environment.

Social or love needs: These are needs or desires to associate with others within a group and being accepted for desired relationship.

Esteem needs: These are needs for reputation,recognition or self worth,respect and admiration.

Self actualization needs: These are needs to realise personal goals a person would deem important to give a feeling of pride and achievement.

2)Fredrick Herzberg two factor theory:

The theory was proposed in 1959 by Frederick Herzberg. He grouped needs into two. One group contains company policy and administration,supervision and working conditions,interpersonal relations,salary, security,personal life and status. He called these factors dissatisfiers, maintenance or hygiene factors which are not motivators. It is believed that their existence in the work place does not motivate, but their absence would definitely create dissatisfaction.

The second group comprises satisfiers and motivators including: Factors of achievement,recognition,challenging work,advancement and growth on the job. These are job content factors whose existence in the workplace will motivate and will not be effective tools if the hygiene factors are absent.

3) Douglas McGregor Theory X and Y

Douglas McGregor explained two opposing behaviours of the managers towards the subordinates. The first set of assumption called theory X assumed that :

The average human being has inherent dislike for work and would want to avoid it if possible.

The average human being avoid responsibilities where possible,generally unambitious and prefers to be directed.

Workers must be coerced,controlled,directed and punished in order to get them to put in their best

These assumptions encourage managers to recommend "carrot and stick" style as a means of ruling the workers. Ie. to control strictly and reward the work where necessary.

Theory Y sees man in a more favourable manner,managers regard employees as human beings. Theory Y's assumptions are:

The expenditure of physical and mental efforts in work is as natural as play or rest.

External control and the threat of punishment are not only means for bringing about effort towards organizational objectives. People will excercise self direction and self control in the service of objectives to which they are committed.

Commitment of objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement.

Under proper conditions average human beings learn not only to accept but to seek responsibility.

The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination,ingenuity and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely and not narrowly distributed in the population

Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized.

4) David Mc-Clealand Theory of needs.

He identified three types of basic motivating needs which are

Need for power

Need for affiliation

Need for achievement

According to this theory, people with high need for power usually seek position of leadership in order to influence and control. They are mainly people who are forceful,outspoken,hard headed and demanding,who enjoy teaching and public speaking

Those with high need for affiliation are usually concerned with maintaining good personal relationship,enjoy a sense of intimacy and understanding,have preparedness to console and help others who are in need and most of all enjoy friendly interaction with others.

People with the need for achievement are known for strong desires for success coupled with fear of failure. They usually wang personal responsibility,moderate difficult goals and acceptable realistic levels of risk taking .

Reinforcement Theory (Operant Conditioning)

This theory was developed by a psychologist .F Skinner.

Reinforcement theory explains a behaviouristic approach which focuses on the fact that reinforcement conditions behaviour. An event is said to be reinforcing if the occurrence of the event following some behaviour makes the behaviour more likely to be repeated. For example, if an employee is paid a percentage of his weekly wage extra each time he meets a particular target set by his superior,he would always want to meet this target. In this way, the extra pay has acted as a reinforcer. Events become reinforced if they are tried overtime and the consequences recorded.

There are four different kinds of situations involved in the reinforcement theory which are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement,punishment and extinction.

a) Positive Reinforcement: It is a reinforcement in which a desirable event is given to someone as a reward for following a specific behaviour,such desirable events may include bonus,higher pay.

Negative Reinforcement: A negative reinforcement refers to a situation where a behaviour results in removal or withdrawal of undesirable or unpleasant event. An example may be issuance of queries on lateness to work by an employee, then the employee might change durle to the queries. In this case,consistent queries acted as a negative reinforcer.

Punishment: It is a situation whereby an undesirable effect occurs as a result of a bebaviour less likely to be repeated. If a manager suspends a subordinate from duty for one week with loss of pay,he does this with the hope that this will deter the subordinate from similar behaviour in future.

Extinction: Sometimes when the pleasant or desirable event is removed,it results in occurrence that may not be repeated. For example if a worker is paid overtime each time he or she stays behind after closing hours to do some jobs,he or she sees as urgent and important,when the managers stops paying this overtime,he or she may stop going this extra mile.

From the above,we can conclude that positive reinforcement is likely to be the most effective one that managers can use to influence behaviour. One great advantage and characteristic of positive reinforcement is that it heightens the occurrence of effective job behaviour on the part of subordinates.

Punishment and extinction are less effective because they only reduce the frequency of ineffective performance by employees. They hardly teach employees what to do.

Negative reinforcement has a lot of disadvantage as it has some undesirable side effects on the employee. The employee may grow angry or feel frustrated when subjected to the necessary unpleasant situations.

Man Power Planning

Manpower Planning

This is a process designed to ensure that the human resource needs of an enterprise will be constantly and appropriately met.

Objectives of Manpower planning

1) Recruitment and retention of human resources of required number and quality

2) Forecasting employee turnover,minimizing the turnover and filling up consequent vacancies

3) Meeting the needs of expansion,diversification etc.

4) To improve discipline, standards,skills,knowledge and ability

5) To assess the surplus or shortage of human resource and take measures accordingly

6) To ensure optimum use of human resources.

7) To estimate the cost of human resources.

8) To minimize the imbalance caused by non-availability of human resources.

9) To maintain good industrial relations by maintaining optimum level and structure of human relations.

Manpower planning process

This involves

1) Determination or analysis of organizational goals

2) Translation of organizational goals into man power needs. The needs of the various departments are determined here.

3) Determining the current stock of human resources in the enterprise .

4) Correction of man power shortfall or shortage.

5) Implementing the manpower chosen option.

6) Evaluation of actions taken by asking the following questions

•  Do the employees perform their tasks satisfactorily?

•  Are there new needs for human resource arising from operations

•  Do all the employees exhibit well the expected skills.

Benefits of Manpower Planning

1) It gives human resources department and manager the clear view of future human resources needs of the enterprise.

2) It helps to ensure employee's development through its training and development programmes.

3) It reduces personnel cost because it ensures that only the most essential staff are employed.

4) Employees' needs like promotion, better condition of service, transfers etc are satisfied through human resources planning.

5) It brings about the improvement of staff welfare facilities ed canteen,clinics,quarters, stores etc.

6) It helps to check redundancy.

7) It enables management to estimate total salary bills.

8) It acts as a control on corporate planning of the enterprise.

Job Enlargement,Job Enrichment and Job Rotation

Job Enlargement,Job Enrichment and Job Rotation

Job Enlargement

A job is enlarged when the tasks being performed in the job are merely increased ; when employee carries out a wider range of tasks of approximately the same level of difficulty and responsibility as before.

Job Enrichment

A job is enriched when tasks being done by many people are created into one job so that one individual starts and ends the job. That is,when the employee is given greater responsibilities and scope to make decisions and he is expected to use skills he has not used before. For example when a radio unit is given to one operator to assemble instead of many operators and the worker is expected to use his discretion in carrying out the job.

Effects of Job enlargement and job enrichment

Both job enlargement and job enrichment are examples oj job extension. Both are attempts to build opportunities into the employee's job for the satisfaction of ego and self actualization needs. Both of them increase the job satisfaction of employees. A greater range of tasks or decisions makes the employee feel more important, give him a sense of achievement and make more use of his abilities . He therefore receives satisfaction from the job itself (I.e intrinsic satisfaction) as well as many and fringe benefits (I.e extrinsic satisfaction)

But the problem is that it is easier to extend the job of a non-manual worker (ie manager), whose responsibilities .

Responsibility and actions are often not precisely described than to extend the job of a manual worker whose tasks may be highly specialized and precisely defined because they are part of a complex production process. Also, there may be a conflict between specialization and development of specific skills required for efficient operation of the process and the construction of a job sufficiently enlarged or enriched to give greater satisfaction to the employee. In order to make the job significant to the worker it may be extended so much that the extension seriously effectively affects productivity. The result therefore may be a compromise between efficiency and job satisfaction in which the worker, instead of doing one meaningless task would now have to do several meaningless tasks.

Another problem is that extension of jobs may meet with trade union opposition because demarcation lines between skills are eroded. It will almost certainly necessitates increases in pay; wider or deeper responsibilities must be recognized by an increase by an increase in the monetary worth of the job, a measured by job evaluation. An employer might therefore hesitate before introducing job extension because the benefits to him would be somewhat uncertain,whereas the cost might be considerable.

Job Rotation

Some of the difficulties the employer finds in job extension can be avoided if job rotation is used instead. In job rotation,employees are trained in several minor skills and exchange jobs with each other at intervals. Greater satisfaction is obtained because the employee has a greater understanding of the work process through experiencing several jobs within it,and the increased versatility of the workers is useful to management when sickness absence is high. It is not necessary to redesign production methods and rise in pay,if any of them happen to be small.

Insurance Is A Pool Of Risk

Insurance is a pool of risk

Insurance is the practice by which an individual secures or obtains financial compensation for a specified loss or damage resulting from risk of any sort by contract with a company to which he pays regular premiums.

Risk is defined as the possibility of danger,injury, loss etc, while premium is the payment made by an insured person to insurance company on regular basis for the insurance cover given to him. A shop keeper for example is likely to have quite valuable stock of goods and he could suffer losses from such things as fire,burglary, theft, flood etc. By paying a sum of money to the insurance company,that is premium, the shop keeper knows that he will be compensated in future for any losses he suffers from these causes.

The risk of both business and private life which insurance takes care of include accidents, fire, theft,illness and death. Few people will choose to bear personally all of these risks. Any business man for example, who refuses to get insurance cover would suffer great anxiety in case fire, theft or accident occurred on his premises. A serious fire which destroyed his premises could mean the end of his business unless he could afford to re-build.

Insurance is based on the "pooling of risks". It is possible for the insurance companies to calculate the chances of something happening, based on past statistics, and from this they can work out how much they should charge for their insurance. The same result would be achieved if a groul of traders got together and agreed that any losses due to accidents would be shared equally among themselves. An insurance company is better suited to do the work as it will be specializing in it,and can undertake the work more efficiently.

Because losses of the few are shared among many, insurance is said to be a pool of risks.

Job Description

Job Description

Job description is a statement of facts about a particular job, that is,what the job actually involves. Job description outlines the facts compiled from the job analysis, concisely identifying and describing the contents of a job. The statements of facts of a job (I.e job description) guide management in the selection, promotion, or transfer of employees and aid the establishment of comparative wage scales. They are equally used for training schemes.

A job description shows the following:

a) job Factors, that is,

i) Title of job and its location- e.g department and job code number.

ii) Job summary- I.e the duties involved in the performance of the job or the major functions and the tools, machinery or special equipment used.

iii) Job content: The lists of the sequence of operations that constitute the job.

iv) The relation of the job to other closely associated jobs.

v) Training Required: Working hours and peculiar conditions of employment eg very hot or humid.

b) Employee factors,that is sex,age,physical characteristics required e.g size or strength,mental abilities and emotional qualifications needed,cultural requirements, e.g speech,experience and skill needed.

Job description should reflect the duties that are being performed and not what higher management wants performed so that in the evaluation of job the degree of skill exercised and the condition in which the job is being performed can be appreciated. Most managers in charge of job evaluation insist on watching the employee perform the job. The job description is then agreed with the employee and his supervisor. The supervisor is involved because some employees know what job evaluation is about,so,they tend to inflate the importance of their jobs and the supervisors role is that of counter-weight.

Advantages of Job Description

• Job Description is a statement of fact about what a job actually involves.

• Job description outlines the facts obtained from job analysis

• It identifies and describes the contents of a job.

• Job description aids in the establishment of comparative wages and it is useful for training schemes.

• It guides management in selecting,promoting and transferring employees.

• Job description reveals job factors, employee factors.

Job factors

They include:

•  Job title & its location.

• The duties or functions of the job and the tools, machineries, or equipment used.

• Job content

• The job' relationship with other jobs.

•  The training required or working conditions, hours of work etc.

Employee factors revealed include:

• The physical character required; sex,age,size,strength, and mental abilities

• The emotional qualifications required.

• The cultural requirements e.g the speech,experience and skill needed.

• Job description should actually reflect the duties performed so that in evaluation of the degree of skill exercised and the job condition can be well appreciated.

Groups

What is a Group

A group is defined as a combination of two or more individuals jointly contributing specialized services which are coordinated for the attainment of enterprise purpose.

Stages of Group formation:

• Forming: Gathering information and resources,finding out things about the tasks, rules and methods.

• Storming: Development of conflicts over tasks or leadership.

• Norming: Settling the conflicts,development of cooperation exchange of views and development of new standards.

• Performing: Achieving team work,experiencing flexible roles, finding and implementing solutions.

• Adjourning: Dispersing on completion of its tasks.

Group effectiveness;

Effectiveness means:

• Effectiveness in terms of task accomplishment

• Effectiveness in terms of satisfaction of group members.

Characteristics of an effective group

• Members listen to each other

• Most decisions are reached by general consensus

• Much relevant discussion with high degree of participation

• Informal,relaxed atmosphere

• Group tasks or objectives clearly understood.

• Group examines its own progress and behavior.

• Leadership is not always with the chairman but shared.

• ideas are expressed freely and openly

• Conflict is handled maturely.

Characteristics of an Ineffective group

• Members do not listen to each other

• Most decisions are reached by simple majority

• Discussion is dominated by few and it may not be relevant

• Bored or tensed atmosphere

• No clear common objective

• Groups avoid any discussion about its behavior

• Leadership is provided by the chairman

• Personal feelings are kept hidden and criticism is embarrassing

• Conflict is either avoided or allowed to escalate beyond proportion.

Performance Appraisal

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

A performance appraisal is a review and discussion of an employee's performance of assigned duties and responsibilities. The appraisal is based on results obtained by the employee in his or her job,not on the employee's personality characteristics. Performance feedback is the most dreaded task of managers. This becomes a major threat to productivity because according to a recent survey, more than 70% of managers admit they have trouble giving a tough performance review to an underachieving employee. To some the cost is alarming and the effectiveness is questionable, but a performance appraisal can be effective and satisfying if systematically developed and implemented techniques replace haphazard methods.

Making Performance Appraisals Legally Defensible.

With the increasing legal actions by personnel against performance appraisal methods by a company, a human resource manager needs to ask themselves, "will my organization's performance appraisal system stand up in court?" To limit legal exposure from personnel's, it is better to ask this question when developing a formal appraisal system.

After studying the verdicts in 66 employment discrimination cases in the united states, one pair of researchers found that employers could successfully defend their appraisal systems if these systems satisfied four criterias, which are:

1) A job analysis was used to develop the performance appraisal system

2) The appraisal system was behaviour-oriented, not trait oriented

3) Performance evaluators followed specific written instructions when conducting appraisals

4) Evaluators reviewed the results of the appraisal with the ratees.

Performance Appraisal Techniques:

The following are some of the appraisal techniques used by organization's:

• Goal setting: In relations to management by objective,goals are set at an earlier date and the performance is evaluated in terms of the set goals and objectives. This is a comparatively strong technique if desired outcomes are clearly linked to specific behaviour.

• Graphic rating scales: Personnel traits or behaviour could be rated on incremental scales. For example dilligence could be rated on a 1-5 with 1 representing the lowest possible,and 5 the highest possible.

• Written essays: In this appraisal technique, managers describe the performance of employees in narrative form.

• Weighted Checklists: Evaluators check appropriate adjectives or behavioural descriptions that have predetermined weights. The weights,which gauge the relative importance of the randomly mixed items on the checklist,are usually unknown to the evaluator.

• Multirater Appraisal: it is a diverse array of nontraditional appraisal techniques involving more than one rater of the focal person's performance.

• Rankings/Comparisons: This appraisal technique involves a comparison between coworkers in a sub unit and they are ranked in a head to head fashion according to specified accomplishments or job behaviour.

McClelland's Needs Theory Of Motivation

Mc CLELLAND'S NEEDS THEORY OF MOTIVATION

David C. McClelland of Harvard university has contributed to the understanding of motivation by identifying three basic motivating needs. These needs are

a) The need for power n/PWR.

b) The need for affiliation

c) The need for achievement (n/Ach)

Mc clelland and his associates carried out a substantial research on needs especially on the need-for-achievement drive. Research of achievement need has been noteworthy and is often used by psychologists as a prototype of how knowledge should be researched and discovered in the behavioural sciences. The three needs discussed are of great importance to management because all must be recognized in order to make an organized enterprise work well. This is because any organized enterprise and every department of it represent groups of individuals working together to achieve goals,the need for achievement is of great importance.

Need for power:

Mc Clelland discovered that people with a high need for power have a great concern for exercising influence and control. They are referred to as position seekers,they seek positions of leadership,they are forceful,outspoken,hardheaded and demanding. They enjoy teaching and public speaking.

Need for Affiliation:

People with high need for affiliation derive pleasures from being loved and tend to avoid the pain of being rejected in social group. They seek to enjoy a sense of intimacy and understanding,and are likely to be concerned with maintaining pleasant social relationships. They are ready to console and help others in trouble,and enjoy a friendly interaction with others.

Need for Achievement:

People with a high need for achievement have an intense desire for success and an equally intense fear of failure. They enjoy being challenged and they set moderately difficult but not impossible goals for themselves. They are mostly risk takers but take a realistic approach to risk. They prefer to assume personal responsibility to get a job done,like specific and prompt feedback on how they are doing,tend to be restless,like to work long hours,do not worry about unduly about failure if it does occur,and tend to be In the driving seat,running their show.

How McClelland's approach applies to managers.

In research made by McClelland and others,entrepreneurs showed a very high need for achievement and a fairly high need for power drive but were quite low in need for affiliation. Managers generally showed high on achievement and power and low on affiliation,but not as high or low as entrepreneurs.

Marketing Mix (The four P's)

Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is a vital element in every marketing strategy,the concept was first explained by professor Neil Borden of Harvard University in the 1940's when he identified twelve key variables in the typical marketing programme. Theses twelve variables were later consolidated to four by later writers. The marketing mix is the particular group of variables offered to the market at a particular time. These variables are 1)Product, 2) Price,3) Promotion, 4) Distribution.

The marketing mix is the central part of an organisation's marketing tactics. It must take cognizance of crucial factors to the company's marketing strategy such as the customers,the distributors,the competitors,suppliers etc. The marketing mix must also work with time,as timing is very crucial for a marketing strategy. This is because any marketing situation can change rapidly over even a short period of time. Thus the development of the mix to meet conditions at a particular point or period in time is essentially a contingency approach to marketing management.

The four p's

The four p's represents marketing decisions that can be controlled by the marketing manager,they are 1) Product 2) Price 3) Place 4) Promotion.

Product:

The term product means anything offered to a market for its use or consumption,for a manufacturing firm,it may consist of physical items such as television sets, clothes, chocolates cosmetics. Products offered by service industries include hospital care, flight booking, dental treatment,auditing and accounting services.

The range of products offered by an organization is called the product mix. The quality and range of an an organization's products should be of top priority since the organization's revenue is going to be obtained from the sale of such products.

The product or service may provide a strategic advantage if it is the only product or service that satisfies a particular intersection of customer needs.

Some of the product decisions to be made includes: Functionality, styling,quality,safety,packaging, after service,repairs, support and warranty.

Price:

Price is important to the marketing mix because it is the only element of the mix which produces revenue,while the others all represent costs.

The price a company sets may constitute a strategic advantage in the sense that it may be set below the usual to undercut competition or above the market average to convey a premium.

Factors that affect pricing decisions include:

a) The cost of production

b) The desired market share for the product

c) The ability to generate sufficient revenue or profits.

d) The prices being offered by competitors.

Some of the pricing decisions to be made are:

a) Pricing strategy

b)suggested selling price

c) Discounts to be given and on what volume

d) Seasonal pricing

e) Price discrimination

f) Price flexibility

Promotion

Every product needs to be promoted which means that the existence of the company's products should be brought into awareness of the marketplace and its benefits identified. The principal methods of promotion are : advertising,sales promotion,publicity,personal selling.

Promotional activity can be used to create consumer awareness, open new markets or target a specific competitor.

Place (Distribution)

One of the key functions of marketing is moving the product or service to the final consumer, and the place or distribution decision takes care of this.

The physical location of a product or service can provide strategic advantage if it is superior to its competitors,if it is readily assessable by the consumers of the product and if it brings indepth awareness of its products to existing and potential consumers.

Distribution decisions include:

a) Distribution channels

b) Warehousing

c) Distribution centers

d) Order processing

e) Outbound logistics

f) Inventory management.

Expectancy Theory

Expectancy Theory:

Expectancy theory was propounded by Victor Vroom. The theory is all about relationship between motive to act and the expectation from such behaviour. The theory explains motivation in terms of expectations that employees have in performing effectively.

The theory argues the strength of the drive to act in a certain way depends largely on the strength of the expectation that such behaviour will result in a desired outcome and the attractiveness of euch outcome to the individual concerned.

The expectancy Model has three major components which are;

Performance Outcome Expectancy

Performance (p) leads to outcome (o) P---> O. People believe that they will have certain outcomes if they perform effectively or behave in a certain manner. For example,a worker who works to meet a certain target in sales hopes that this may bring him increased salary,bonus or praise.

Efforts Performance Expectancy

Efforts (E) leads to performance (P) ie E---> P. People believe that effective performance comes by making efforts. A person is said to have a very low E---> P if he or she believes that no matter what effort he makes achievement performance will not be possible.

Valence of Outcomes

Valence (V) represents power to motivate and this varies from individual to individual. The level of impact that any outcome may have on an individual's motivation will depend on how much such individual values the outcome. For example,an employee who values nearness to family will not have the same valence with one who values higher position if they both are transferred to the branch office on higher positions.

Valence is the degree of satisfaction an individual anticipates from a future outcome while,value is simply the amount of satisfaction an individual actually receives from an outcome.

In practicing the expectancy theory in organizations, a manager must note that it is meant to solve the problem that arises from the situation whereby a particular attempt to motivate workers will end up motivating some,while others are not. Workers tend to seek answers to the following questions (Robbins 1996) regarding valence:

• If I give a maximum effort,will it be recognized in my performance appraisal?

• If I get a good performance appraisal,will it lead to organizational reward?

• If I am rewarded,are they the rewards I find personally attractive?.

Sometimes depending on the situation,a manager may try to alter the rewards but must ensure adequate communication in terms of how performance is related to rewards.

FUNCTIONS OF A MANAGER

Functions of a manager

Managers perform variety of duties and tasks,ranging from planning,to organizing,staffing,leading,controlling,representing and communicating and so on.Now lets analyze the various classifications of the functions of managers.Please keep in mind that the classification is not airtight and there are interlocking and even overlapping elements.

•  Planning: planning involves selecting objectives and the strategies,policies,programs and procedures for achieving them either for the enterprise as a whole or for a division or any organized part of the enterprise. In planning, decision making is involved and it is assumed that the best strategies,policies,procedures are chosen among best alternative course of action. Planning ranges from setting corporate level strategies,business units strategies,to choosing the best accounting policies in depreciation,end of the year date and so on and also choosing the best policies relating to prices competition authority. Programs also are chosen from among alternatives. For example the company may decide the best programs fro internal control,production,management succession and so on.and lastly procedures requiring a specific method of handling paper,products and people.

 Planning is a pervasive function. In any organization,managers at every level engage in planning.The need for planning as the responsibility of managers depends on the type and size of the organization as well as the management level. As earlier dis used,there are corporate level plans,business level plans and also functional or departmental plans. Corporate level plans are plans aimed to provide direction for diversified organizations.Business level plans aim at managing the interest and operations of a particular line of business,while functional level plans create a framework for managers in each functional area to carry out decisions of the business and corporate level planning.

• Organzing: Planning is regarded as a blue print for business actions and decisions while organizing provides the framework for carrying out business actions and decisions. Organizing according to koontz 1980 "involves the establishment of an intentional structure of roles through determination of the activities required to achieve the goals of an enterprise and each part of it,the grouping of these activities,the assignment of such groups of activities to a manager,the delegation of authority to carry them out,and provision for coordination of authority and informational relationships horizontally and vertically in the organization structure". The above definition and lists of activities constitutes the organizing function. So it is assumed that in the case of a one man business that the organization is not organized since he performs most of the duties himself and he has no one to delegate to. But on the occurrence of delegating authority to subordinates and providing coordination between the buyer and himself,then the organizing function would be fulfilled.

It should be noted that the organization structure is not an end I itself but a tool for accomplishing enterprise objectives.

• Staffing: Staffing involves the process of sourcing for the best personnel to fill and keep filled the positions provided for by the organizational structure. It therefore involves the inventorying,appraising,selecting candidates for positions;compensating and training or otherwise developing both candidates for positions; compensating and training position holders to perform their tasks effectively.

• Leading: leadership refers to the process of influencing people In a planned direction by inspiring,motivating and directing their activities to help in the attainment of group or organizational goals through non-compulsive means. Features of effective leadership includes;

1) it is both a role and influencing process.

2) it creates a vision of the future

3) it develops a rational strategy for moving towards that vision.

4) It highly motivates the core group of people.Managing people can be troublesome task,because the willingness and effort each person brings to the table may vary largely,so all managers would agree that their most important problems arise from people,their desires,attitude,their behaviour as individuals and also in groups,so there is a need for effective managers to also be effective leaders.

• Controlling: Controlling is the measuring and correcting of activities of subordinates to assure that events conform to plans.So control measures performance against a benchmark or some preset goals and plans,then it shows where negative deviations exist and then puts in motion actions to correct deviations and help assure accomplishment of plans. Control and planning are closely related, planning provides for the establishment of organizational objectives and the means of attaining the objectives,while control measures the progress towards achieving these goals and enables the manager to detect deviations from the plan and take timely and corrective actions.

Although planning must precede controlling,plans are not self-achieving.The plans guide managers in the use of resources to accomplish specific goals,then activities are monitored to determine whether they conform to planned actions.

Types of control include:

Pre-action control: it is also called pre controls.It ensures that there is a correlation between the plans and availabilty of resources before embarking on any action.

Feed-forward control:They can also be called steering control or feed forward controls. Their main aim is to detect and correct deviations from standards before a particular sequence of action is completed.

Screening control: Also known as yes or no control. Screening control as the name implies checks for aspects of a procedure that essentially needed to be approved before the operation is continued.

Feedback control: It is a post action control,it gives a feedback on the conforming of actual activities to preset goals and objectives,and reassures the results of a completed action and identifies the causes of deviation from the planned activities and applies findings to similar future actions.

Concurrent control: Also known as the real time control,this type of control is imbibed in the course of organizational activity.

• Coordination: Coordination is the process of synergizing the objectives and efforts of the separate units of an organization, in order to achieve the predetermined goals effectively and efficiently.Coordination has been perceived differently by management scholars,some consider it to be a separate function of the manager. It seems more accurate,however to regard it as the essence of managership,for the achievement of harmony of individual efforts towards the accomplishment of group goals.

The need for coordination can be attributed to specialization, interdependence of tasks and human differences.

Task specialization: Specialization involves dividing tasks into specialized function or departments to save time and increase productivity.Coordination is important in task specialization in order to harmonize the various activities of each specialized department for the smooth running of the business.

In large organizations,the problems of coordination tend to be more than in small firms. This is because as organizations grow,the complexity of activities involved increases and specialists would have to be hired,and also there might be increase in the delegation of activities.

Task dependency: interdependence of work may occur in three ways which are:

a) pooled interdependence: here,activities are not directly dependent on each other but the failure of one activity may threaten the entire operation of the company.

b) Sequential Interdependence: This is a system where output of one unit are inputs for the following work unit.

c) Reciprocal interdependence: it refers to activities that are interdependent and interrelated.

Human differences: Human capital are regarded as the greatest assets of a business,this is because with all the assets in the world,be it materials,money and technology with no competent staff to operate or utilize them,would be rendered useless. Since human beings are from different settings,perceptions,attitudes and values of people will therefore vary and create a coordination problem which must be properly addressed by the organization.

Introduction to Time Management

TIME MANAGEMENT

Managers utilize a lot of resources in carrying out their work, this may include people, materials, money and so on. In any particular job, one resource may predominate, but we will agree that we all have one resource in common, which is time. Time is an important resource used for the achieving personal and organizational goals. There are usually time limits for projects or jobs to be done and everyone occasionally experiences problems getting everything done just in time without extending the planned completion time.

Recognizing the impact of time in attainment of productivity, managers do not only plan their work but also their time. Time management is not optional, it is something that everyone who wants to work effectively must consider whether formally or informally. Infact everyone practices time management to some degree. The only question is how well they do it and how it affects what they do.

Modern management techniques such as organization and methods, motion study, work measurement and so on are used to reduce unproductive times for employees, which are spent on things that do not significantly contribute to the achievement of objectives. Time management can be defined as the judicious use of time to carry out assigned functions. It involves planning, organizing and controlling of productive activities within a time frame. Planning for time according to Peter Drucker involves:

• Keeping record of time
• Changing habit to make effective use of time
• Consolidating the small fragments of discretionary time into large usable periods.

Making it work

With effective time management, your job and career could be positively affected, the effect of getting into time management can be rewarding and varied. Time management can

• Condition the pressure that goes into any job.

•  Affect your efficiency, effectiveness and productivity.

•  Create greater positive visibility

Time management, must be synonymous with self management to be successful. It demands discipline but discipline reinforced by habit. The good news is that it gets easier as you work at it.

The main factors affecting the use of time includes:

• The nature of the job

• The organizational culture

• Personality and skills of the job holders
• Management style of the superiors

• Demand made by own self
• Influence of colleagues

Time management is crucial for success in an organization, lack of effective time management may result into low productivity, stress, poor uality output, disorder, low morale and so on. Some suggestions for effective time management includes:

• Assess how you spend your time

• Have a good mastery of your schedule of duties and the scope of your funding

• Have a daily work plan and adhere to it within reasonable limits of elasticity
• Never engage in an activity without planning
• prioritize jobs and goals
• judiciously allocate time for every activity and make reasonable allowances for delays and anticipated interruptions
• Avoid the bottlenecks and pitfalls of the previous day

THE NEED FOR THEORY AND TECHNIQUES OF MANAGEMENT

THE NEED FOR THEORY AND TECHNIQUES OF MANAGEMENT

The need for a clear concept of management and for a framework of related theory and principles was recognized many years ago by early practical schorlars of management such as Henri Fayol, Chester Bernard and Alvin Brown. Machine efficiency surpasses that of human cooperation and efficiency of group efforts, so this therefore makes the application of management knowledge essential to further human progress.

Obviously, Knowledge of the basic principles and techniques of management can have a tremendous impact upon its practice clarifying and improving it. The need for theory and techniques of management has been increasingly recognized by intelligent managers and they include:

a) To increase efficiency: Managerial efficiency would be inevitably improved when management principles and techniques can be developed, proved and used. Having a tested or ready made principles and technique reduces the time management spends in solving problems and also laborious research or risky practice of trial and error. Although it would be argued that this principle might not be suitable for some environment because the kind of experience on which many managers rely too heavily is only a hodepodge of problems and solutions existing in the past and never exactly duplicated. Two management solutions are seldom alike in all respects, and managers cannot assume that exact techniques applicable in one situation will necessarily work in another. However it is said that managers can filter experience, analyse and recognise the fundamental causal relationship in different circumstances, then they can apply this knowledge to the solution of new problems.

Therefore if there is a fundamental structure in place for solving problems, then solutions become simplified. The value in understanding management as a conceptual scheme of concepts, principles and techniques is that it lets one see and understand what would otherwise remain unseen. Theory and science can solve future problems arising is an ever changing environment.

b) To crystallize the nature of management: Without understanding the concepts, principles and techniques of management, it would be increasingly difficult to train managers and analyse the managerial job. The the need for fundamentals arises, which without the training of managers results in a hapazard trial by error. In business , government and other enterprises, a considerable body of management knowledge has already come into being and serves increasingly to crystallize the nature of management and to simplify management training.

c) To improve research: With the establishment of a structural framework, research can be undertaken to build further theories or otherwise to expand horizons of knowledge. With a structural framework, research is better channelled to be more productive because new theories would be an improvement of the old ones.

Management deals in part with people and since groups of people are unpredictable and complex, effective research is difficult. Then the need for tested knowledge of organized enterprise is great and anything which makes management research more pointed out would help to improve management practice.

d) To achieve social goals: Management largely involves the interaction and coordination of the efforts of people so that individual objectives become translated into social attainments. When management is developed in such a way that would impact positively the efficiency in the use of human as well as material resources, it would unquestionably have a revolutionary impact on the cultural level of the society.

The Role of Accountants in industries.

The role of Accountants

who is an accountant?.
An accountant is a professional who is reasonably proficient in accounting and related matters. Accounting involves the design of the preparation of financial statement, audit, costing, development of forecast,income tax work,computer application to accounting process and analysis and interpretation of accounting information as an aid to making business decisions.

 The professional body regulating the activities of accountants in Nigeria is the Institute of Chartered accountants of Nigeria (ican) established by the act of parliament in 1965. Apart from establishing code of conducts and ethics for its members,the institute train people to become accountants and also provides accounting standards.

In terms of career opportunities, members of the institute may be divided Into two broad categories which are
a) Practising Accountants: These are independent professional accountants (Aca or Fca) who offer accounting services to clients at a fee in areas such as auditing,tax services and management advisory services.

b) Non- Practising Accountants: These are accountants in private government or non profit making institution's employment. Apart from general preparation of financial statements, this group of accountants are also involved in a design of accounting system, cost accounting,forecasting,internal auditing and management accounting, etc.


The role of Accountants 
1. They act as external auditors: when in practice and attest to the true and fair view of corporate financial statements.

 2. Accountants give tax advisory services to industries: whether as clients or employers, such services include tax planning, preparation and filing of federal and state income tax results. Etc.

3) Accountants offer management consultancy services: Mostly on accounting and financial matter and also on organisational structure,pension plans.

4) Another role played by accountants is the design of accounting systems: This includes accounting records and forms, instructions and manuals, flowcharts, programmes and reports to fit the particular neds of the business.

5) They provide I formation on cost of a particular product,of a manufacturing process or of a business operation.

 6) They prepare forecasts with specific targets for management to achieve. They also prepare feasibility studies for new projects and for existing ones needing rehabilitation.

 7) Most large companies employ accountants as internal auditors.

 8) A member of Accountants act as liquidators,receivers and managers during liquidation and receivership of companies respectively .

9) They provide professional advise on formation of new companies and also provide start up - assistance.

10) Accountants provide information which form the basis of management decisions. Top executives who cannot have close physical contact with operations depend on the information provided by the accounting system for the day to day running of such operations.

11. They provide training for articled clerks and experience for junior members of the profession .

12. They act as company secretaries.

Leadership and the various Approaches to Leadership

Definition


Leadership is an important aspect of managing. The ability to lead effectively is one of the keys to being an effective manager. The essence of the leadership is followership in other words, it is the willingness of people to follow that makes a person a leader.


Leadership is defined as influence, the art or process of influencing people so that they will strife towards the achievement of group goals. It is the art of inspiring surbodinates to perform their duties willingly, competently and enthusiastically. To lead is to guide conduct, direct and precede. Leaders act to help a group achieve objectives with the maximum application of its capabilities. They do not stand behind; they place themselves before a group as they facilitate progress and inspire the groups to accomplish organizational goals like a choirmaster or orchestra leader.


All human groups have a leader, such diverse organizations as street gangs, political parties and business organizations generally have someone who is either appointed or who emerges as a leader. The leader should possess the ability to understand the divers motivating forces, the ability to inspire and the ability to act and develop a climate capable of arousing motivation.


Leadership Theories.

1. The trait approach to leadership: The earliest approach to leadership was based on traits possessed by leaders. These includes agressive self assurance, intelligence, initiative, a drive for achievement or power, appearance, interpersonal skills, administrative ability, imagination, a certain upbringing and education and the ability to rise above a situation and analyse it objectively (The helicopter factor)

Under this approach, it is generally believed that leaders are born and not made although this has lost much of its acceptability now. The trait approach has not been very much accepted since all leaders do not possess all the traits and many non- leaders may possess most or all of them. Also, the trait approach gives no guide as to how much of any trait a leader should have.

Nevertheless, there appears to be some correlation between certain traits and leadership effectiveness.




2. The situational approach: Under this approach, it is generally believed that leaders are products of given situations. Examples abound in history on leaders who emerged out of given situations. These include Hitler and the second world war, President F.D. Roosevelt and the china revolution. Studies have revealed that effective leadership depends on response to environmental factors such as the history of the enterprise, the community, the psychology of the group, personalities, culture and the timing for decisions. This approach has much relevance to managerial practise.




3. Fielder’s contingency approach: Fred Fielder has found that success of a leader is not based on personality traits alone. Other factors, particularly that of a situational nature (kind of organization, nature of task, characteristics of the people being managed) also determine how effective a manager will be in leading.
In the Fielder’s model, three major factors that influence a leader’s style are:

a). Position Power: Derived from organizational authority. The more position a manager has, the easier it is for him to induce people to follow him.

b). Task Structure: the clarity with which tasks are defined. When tasks are vague, the manager has more difficulty in measuring performance and holding people than when jobs are clearly defined.

c). Leader-Member relations: The degree to which surbodinates trust, have confidence in, and are loyal to the leader.

Fielder postulated two styles of leadership which are:


a). Task oriented: Task oriented managers are primarily interested in work objectives being achieved satisfactorily.

b). People oriented: People oriented managers are mainly interested in building cooperative, harmonious working environments and in developing successful interpersonal relationships. Fielder;s research led to the development of a contingency theory of leadership. This theory states that group’s performance will be contingent upon the appropriate matching of leadership styles and the degree of favourableness of the situation for the leader .


In unfavourable situations, the highly task oriented leader will be the most effective. That is when position power and task structure are very unclear and leader-member relations are poor, the situation is highly unfavourable and the most effective leader will be the one who is task oriented. Likewise, where position power is very high, task structure very clear and leader- member relations very good (a very favourable situation . The task oriented leader will be the most effective. However where the situation is only moderately unfavourable or favourable . The people oriented leader would be the most effective.




4. Rensis Likert’s Style
Rensis Likert developed four systems for classifying leaders. According to him, leadership is a continuum ranging from a highly dictatorial to exceptionally participative styles. These are:

a) Exploitative- Authoritative: Leaders in this class are autocratic, they do not seek the opinions of surbodinates but make major decisions independently. They motivate through fear and punishment.

b) Benevolent- Authoritative: These managers have a condescending confidence and trust in surbodinates, motivate with reward and some fear of punishment. Some permit upward communication, solicit some ideas and opinion from surbodinates and allow some delegation of decision making but with close control.

c) Consultative: This type of leaders have considerable confidence in their surbodinates. They delegate extensively, encourage surbodinates to make recommendations and rely on rewards more than punishments to motivate.

d) Participative: Leaders using this style intentionally seek to involve members of the group in decision making process. They liberally delegate authority and use rewards, not punishment to motivate.

Likert is an advocate of system four (4), although in practice, most leaders fall in- between the autocratic and participative classification.




5. Argyris’s Immaturity – Maturity Continuum: Chris Argyris maintains that employees tend to place their own needs ahead of the organization’s welfare. He argues that, to the extent that this occurs, conflict, apathy and discord result. For managers to lead effectively and for surbodinates to develop greater interest in the goals of the enterprise, people should be provided with a climate in which they can mature.



6. Robert Blake and Jane Mouton’s Managerial grid.: The managerial grid developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton often play a part in organisations development and leadership. The Grid is a devise for assessing the orientations of managers to the work of the organization and the people who are expected to perfor the work. Five styles of leadership have been identified as shown below.

It is assumed that all organizations endorse and work towards the 9.9 point on the grid. The Blake – Mouton Grid is a convenient way to classify leadership styles.

Factors that affect leadership effectiveness

a) Organizational size

b) Interaction of group members

c) Personalities of group members

d) Congruence of goals.