Learning Approach
This study is aimed at developing the management based competencies based on what has been taught during the semesters. The learning is being constructed in two ways such as by constructing a reflective essay and also drawing a portfolio to support the critical reflection and competency development.
This task uses a few management theories to understand the competency development and to show pieces of evidence to the critical reflection and competency development. It means that I would be discussing the development of chosen competencies in me with the help of the range of concepts being drawn from a range of management theories. Competency skills can be divided as a set of behaviours that are individual qualities in their capabilities to influence the outcomes; however, seem like being interrelated terms within a specific situation (Tench and Moreno 2015). Competency in the context of organizations is a set of skills, which are standard parameters to allocate tasks and judge anybody’s performance (Silvius and Schipper 2014). Despite a fact that there are many interpretations for what is a competency and what all it constitutes, the task outlines how and when such behaviours are being developed in class and in context to the given role-play in the case study company ‘ScaterBoys’.
The application of the management competency approach in this study is done with the help of a case study organisation “ScaterBoys Company”. The departments and the related roles are being assumed by different students to understand the practicality of the management approach. In this study, three competencies are being selected such as communications, decision making and motivating others. These competencies can be understood from theories and then can be applied to the case study company in its different business such as employment, recruitment and selection.
As opined by Zeller et al. (2016), a competency-based approach can be helpful at the time of recruitment as this will help to judge applicants based on a few sets of skills specifically identified and designed by the management. Moreover, the shortlisting process will be comparatively easier then. A competency-based approach can also be used for managing performances of employees as it helps to assess their strengths and weaknesses. However, a competency-based approach also has some challenges like the business world faces a constant evolution. Therefore, the identified set of skills would then not be sufficient. In such a situation, there may be needs to alter a few competency-based skills with the new ones.
Sakhieva and Fedorova (2016) argue that one of the disadvantages of a competency-based approach is these are potentially good for boosting the team’s performance but not so for the individual. It encourages the overall team’s performance, not of the individual employee.
Tripathi and Agrawal (2014) say that a competency-based approach can be helpful from the employees’ perspectives. Employees can use the set of skills being used in the list of competence skills to conduct their personal development at any point in time when it is required so. Moreover, employees would be able to find the gaps between their performance and the requirements to be competent. A competency-based approach provides actually the reviewing opportunity, which employees can utilize to identify their personal strengths and weaknesses. Nonetheless, these are the primary stages of going for a personal development plan.
Competency-Based Approach to ScaterBoys Company
Title of competency: Communications
Incidents/experience
In this section, I will pick one of the weak zones in the case study company to critically analyse the development of a competency-based approach in me. The competency-based skill in discussion in this section is ‘communication’. To further narrow it down to be specific with the purpose, I have picked the sales department, which has been creating problems for ScaterBoys. I assumed myself as the sales manager of the case study company “Scater Boys” and tried to use my understanding of the situation.
The company had been shown as struggled to meet its sales targets. This was due to some given reason such as listed below:
- Coordination complexity
- Absenteeism and punctuality at a certain point
Issues related to co-ordination can be resolved by promoting the importance of effective communication at the organisational level. However, there are barriers that do not let the effective communication to happen. As opined by Ghobadi and Mathiassen (2016), differences in perceptions of employees and the management are one of the barriers to the effective communication. It means there is a gap between what is being conveyed to employees and how well they understand it. Employees make their assumptions of what is being said to them. According to Georgescu and Popescul (2015), few employees have their tendency for not to go ahead and clarify things from the management personnel. It is this habit, which affects effective communication between the management and employees. It eventually affects the overall operational outcomes.
Absenteeism can be due to a number of reasons; however, this could be controlled by applying robust plans to control it and implementing those ideas by effectively communicating with employees. An effective communication with employees will ensure that there are less resisting than supporting forces in organizations. Once the stage is attained that supporting forces are bigger than the resisting, implementation will possibly happen (Russ et al. 2015). As opined by O’hagan et al. (2014), communication can help to come on common grounds provided that imposed plans are feasible to both the management and its employees. It means that employees are tolerant of communication till the moment the proposed plans are as per their work nature and policies. Employees become less approachable when they are asked to adapt to a change, which asks employees to go out of their comfort zone or from their style of working. Absenteeism can be classed into two types such as intentional and unintentional. An intentional absenteeism is rather a matter of serious concern from the organizations perspective. Vertino (2014) believes that intentional absenteeism can be controlled by effectively communicating with concerned employees, understanding their challenges and implementing the supportive policies for employees till the moment it is feasible to organizations.
Evidence
(See Competence 1 in the Portfolio Section)
Title of competency: Decision Making
Incidents/experience
The other problem area that draws me towards was the existing production strategy of the case study company.
The existing production strategy is very traditional and is less productive. The customer makes the order and the order is then processed under the production specialty. After a little duration, the product is now ready to be delivered to the customer. As stated by Joseph-Williams, Elwyn and Edwards (2014), an order-basis preparation of products is good till the moment the order pressure is low. However, in case the company grows bigger, there will be needs to impose a change to the existing strategy. In the context of the chosen issue, decision-making will be an effective approach towards resolving the issue. It can help in changing the existing production strategy; however, decision-making may not be easier all the time.
Communication, Decision-Making, and Motivating Others Competencies
As opined by Spencer et al. (2017), decision-making can be difficult at times because at sometimes it does not appear an easier act to go with. It is because the decision-making teams are sometimes not sure of what ways to follow to reach a decision. As stated by Abdulrahman et al. (2015), all are not the experts for a decision-making. Decision-making requires a lot of factors to consider, which may test the managerial skills of decision-making teams. According to Mira et al. (2014), decision-makers must be able to identify ways out of challenges for the effective management of resources. Decision-makers cannot go beyond their spending capability for a given problem situation. In a likewise manner, decision-makers can face the challenge in the form of an inadequate supply of workers or in case, workers are mostly up against the decision. According to Légaré and Thompson-Leduc (2014), implementation of decisions requires an adequate support of workers as they are a fundamental part of any implementation.
Graham, Harvey and Puri (2015) say that many decision-makers avoid implementing new decisions due to their fear of unpleasant aspects and negative consequences. Unpleasant aspects can be anything from financial crunch to the mostly unsupportive workforce and to the availability of efficient machines and tools. It means that unsupportive employees can potentially affect the decision. Therefore, decision-makers need to focus on both decision-making and the feasibility of decisions with the available physical, human and financial resources. In the opinion of Cascetta et al. (2015), decision-making becomes more challenging when employees are less supportive. In such circumstances, decision-makers must learn how to cope with employees. As stated earlier that competency-based skills despite having the individual identity, sometimes are used as interrelated terms. Hence, in case of coping with unsupportive employees, it is important that decision-makers are able to effectively communicate with them. An effective communication as according to Ureña et al. (2015) will allow knowing the problem areas, ensuring the solutions for problems and gaining employees’ faith in the decision. Glance, Osler and Neuman (2014) say that effective communication is required at the different levels of implementation of decisions. It is required to publish the decision. It is required as well to reduce the internal resistance. It is required to guide employees and others towards ways to follow to implement the decision.
The entire course module and my attempt to apply certain concepts to resolve the production strategy at Scater has helped me to understand that decision making is an important tool in critical times. It is very challenging for companies that are not flexible with the changing needs. I must learn to cope with the decision-making process to effectively fulfill my organizational roles and responsibilities.
Evidence
(See Competence 2 in the Portfolio Section)
Conclusion:
In summary, it can be said that communications and decision making are the two competency-based skills, which face challenges in varieties of forms from employees and other stakeholders.Those with good management skills will only be able to cope with resisting forces from within the organisations.
Advantages of a Competency-Based Approach
Part 3: Portfolio
Competence 1: Communications
This is one of the competences, which I have developed by working on the chosen issue in the case study company Scater. The chosen issue was related to the sales department of Scater. The company was not able to meet its targets. Hence, the number of issues was identified. Absenteeism was one of the issues, which were resulting in bad outcomes.
|
Situation |
High absenteeism |
|
Task |
Communications |
|
Action |
The McClelland’s Need Theory |
|
Results |
Employees will feel motivated. The communication gap between employees and the management will effectively reduce. |
Table 1: STAR Technique
(Source: created by author)
The table clearly shows that I did focus on the high absenteeism issue, which was one of the reasons for poor sales performance. I realised the need for effective communication to have managers and employees in good coordination with each other. According to O’hagan et al. (2014), effective communication helps managers to communicate plans and involve in talks with employees to understand their queries. In context to the sales issue in the case company, managers should know what issues the salespeople are facing to identify the problem areas. Salespeople should also understand what their responsibilities are and what their managers expect from them (Thomson et al. 2015). These all will happen when employees are not so hesitant in going to managers for their numerous queries. Additionally, managers should also be approachable, so that, employees do not feel hesitant in reaching to managers. An effective communication between managers and employees will make managers more approachable and employees will also be able to share their problems.
The evidence for communication as one of the competency-based skills can be drawn from the McClelland’s Need Theory. The theory states that there are three basic needs, which employees expect from employers. Those needs are the need for power, need for achievement and need for affiliation (Buzdar et al. 2017). The McClelland’s Need Theory may remain unfulfilled if managers are not into communication with employees. This is why I decided to put myself into the real situation and take the role of an interviewer. I decided to talk with the sales department people. The purpose of the communication was to make myself more approachable to the salespeople and help me identify their challenges. I also aimed at reducing the communication gap, which has so far affected the case company ScaterBoys. Such communication should expectedly reduce communication gaps, enhance managers’ approachability to employees and bring forward the hidden issues (Lawn et al. 2015).
Competence 2: Decision Making
|
Situation |
Uncompetitive existing production strategy |
|
Task/competence |
Decision making was required to resolve the issue |
|
Action |
New production strategy was adopted |
|
Results |
Reduced out of stock issue and customer satisfaction |
Table 2: STAR Technique
(Source: created by author)
I did study the task and then tried to apply the learning which I had from the course module. I found that decision making is immensely required to bring some necessary changes to the case company. The module-based learning had encouraged me to gain a more knowledge of the decision-making approaches to help me be able to deal with the issue. Hence, I went for more secondary resources available on websites such as case studies of few companies. The process did help me immensely to figure out the way out of the issue. Therefore, a forecast capability was introduced in the existing strategy. Additionally, inventory management was also introduced (Ravinder and Misra 2016.). I did find from a few selected case studies that reputed companies are good in marketing forecast. The demand is calculated and accordingly, the products are manufactured (Gu, Zhang and Li 2015). One of the case studies, which helped me was of Dell and its strategy for supply chain management (Silvestre 2015). These strategies should help the case company to deal with ‘no stock’ issue. Customer satisfaction level will also improve (Saeidi et al. 2015).
Disadvantages of a Competency-Based Approach
Competence 3: Motivating Others
|
Situation |
Salespeople had required motivation |
|
Task/competence |
Absenteeism was needed to reduce |
|
Action |
|
|
Results |
Reduced absenteeism |
Table 3: STAR Technique
(Source: created by author)
An increased absenteeism of salespeople in the case company was one of the reasons that had affected the sales. The situation had required a competence to reduce the absenteeism. I did identify that if employees are motivated, they will definitely accomplish their roles and responsibilities. Hence, I step into the real world and assumed as if I am speaking to the team. I did find some issues unnoticed until now. Such a situation could have resolved by promoting effective communication between managers and the salespeople. Being the sales manager, I had to work on it and hence, I identified the ways to sort out the issue. I found that an effective communication and improved coordination between teams and managers is what required. The Development Communication Theory did help me to understand the ways to follow to establish an effective communication with the salespeople. The theory helps to know about the media, which will help in reaching the target people. Hence, I was able to use the resources and make a good use of the theory to bring in the differences. The result was surprising as most of the salesperson was found as disciplined in regards to absenteeism (Tourish 2014).
References
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Conclusion
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