...2 Bradley Isaacs (197019226) Dr Pineteh August 2010 ------------------------------------------------- Table of contents Abstract 3 Introduction 3 Management of conflict 5 Management of meetings 6 Dissemination of project briefs 8 Team dynamics 10 Conclusion 11 Reference list 12 Abstract Communication forms the communal aspect of managing information technology projects. The effectiveness of this facet can be the determinative factor for many project successes therefore a failure to communicate effective is often the greatest threat to the positive outcome of the project. This paper identifies and discusses aspects that play a pivotal role when communicating in an information technology project environment. Key aspects discussed include the implications for team dynamics, management of conflict and dissemination of project briefs. The management of meeting and how this can promote team dynamics in a project team. Introduction From the beginning of an information technology project, up to the completion thereof, various important roles are being played be skilled departments, the managers and their team members. Communication however commonly forms the most critical aspect of all these inter-linked departments human resources and equipment. The project therefore puts most of responsibility for success on communication. Not only does a project require its communication plans...
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...Jenny can outline what the employee can expect of the company and what the company in turn expects from them. If employers evolve as their workers evolve, the end result will be a more dynamic and competitive organization where knowledge is shared, action is taken quickly and new possibilities are opened. The performance of an employee cannot be measured effectively unless a standard has been set against which to measure the employee's daily performance. When you are setting performance standards, it is helpful to clearly state, “Here is what meeting expectations looks like and here is what exceeding expectations would look like.” Clear expectations provide a solid foundation on which to provide recognition and reinforcement as well as guidance and corrective feedback. It's not fair to hit people with corrective feedback or a bad review if you have not made your expectations clear. An employee handbook can help managers and workers know how to deal with difficult situations. Employee performance can be improved just as much if not more by general management practices that recognize the individual. The best way managers can measure performance is to be as open as possible about how they make decisions, and to have a clear rationale for decisions and policies. It's also important to be consistent about how decisions are made and to respond to questions in a sensitive, respectful way. This has a number of advantages. Problems can be caught...
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...operation of a new technology while preserving employees interpersonal relationships and other human aspects of the work, this approach mainly focuses on the management of quality and the control of processes to ensure the quality of goods or services, which just means doing everything right the first time around. Quantitative management is an approach that emphasizes the application of quantitative analysis to managerial decisions and problems, basically the company tries to guess the outcome of a decision using mathematical models, however many managers do not rely on this approach to make a decision they normally use there own judgment to make a decision, that being said they would still use this approach to compare or remove different options. The Organizational Behavior approach studies and identifies management activities that promote employee effectiveness by examining the complex and dynamic nature of individual, group, and organizational processes, this approach draws from psychology and sociology to explain exactly how people behave in a job environment, Studies showed that managers who assumed their employees wanted to work were more productive than the employees whose manager thought they were lazy and irresponsible. The Systems Theory states that an organization is a managed system that changes inputs into outputs, which simply means organizations take...
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...Chattanooga Case Analysis Assignment 1 Tomas Thomson Jack Welch Management Institute Dr. Earl Richardson JWI 510 November 14, 2015 Abstract The goal of this paper is to analyze the Chattanooga Ice Cream Case. The Chattanooga Ice Cream case is a case study where senior officers of a food company have opposing views for turning a declining business around during a crisis. The general manager, Charles Moore is faced with several challenges. He has a consensus-oriented style that asks for his team’s opinion before making a decision. His style might not be the best for this situation. He is faced with choosing several competing ideas, managing conflict within his team and a quickly approaching deadline. Keywords: Conflict, Peer Relationships, Conflict Resolution Style, Group dynamics, Interdepartmental Relations, Management communication, Candor, Teams CHATTANOOGA CASE ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT 2 Charles Moore’s conflict resolution style, indecisiveness, and management of group dynamics drove his business unit to near failure. By modifying his style, Charles Moore can turn his team and company around from near failure to a profitable division. Case Analysis: Introduction – Background on Chattanooga Chattanooga Ice Cream, Inc. was founded in 1936 as a subsidiary of Chattanooga Food Corporation. The Ice Cream Division was one of the largest regional ice cream manufacturers in the United States. (Sloane, 2003) It had a reputation for producing, mid-priced...
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...them. All of us are taught we should find some way to repay others for what they do for us. Most people will make an effort to avoid being considered a moocher, ingrate, or person who does not pay their debts. But when reciprocity is exploited to created unnatural obligations, where only one part benefits, and the other feels manipulated, the strategy may work in short term but will likely fail in time. 2. Commitment and Consistency A motive that lies deep within people, quite simply, the desire to be (and appear) consistent with what we already have done. Once a person make a choice or take a stand, however small initially, social and internal pressures prompt us to behave consistently with that commitment. 3. Scarcity This can be said as ‘The Rule of the Few’. Opportunities seem more valuable when they are less available. Hard-to-get things are perceived as better than easy-to-get things. The Scarcity Principle in work field is referred to limited resources and time limits to increase the perceived value of the benefits of helping or working with you. The possibility of losing something is a more powerful motivator than of gaining something. 4. Authority People are willing to follow the suggestions of legitimate authorities, because most of us are raised with a respect for authority, both real and implied. 5. Social Proof Sometimes, people decide what is correct by noticing what other people think is correct, especially the way we determine what constitutes...
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...Leading in a Dynamic Era In examining leaders it is apparent that successful leaders, particularly when leading through difficult times need to be able to transform and drive change through creative and innovative approaches, in a way that inspires and transforms both the people and therefore the organisation (Johnson, 2009). Conant is an example of a transformational leader who used a people centred approach to turn around the Campbell’s Soup company. In 2001 Campbell’s share price had dropped by 50% in three years (Gerdeman, 2013). Sales of canned soup had declined in a highly competitive market and 62% of its managers considered themselves not actively engaged in their jobs (Waghorn, 2009). However, By 2010, Campbell’s total shareholder return, at 68% was nearly 5 times the return of the S&P 500 and employee active engagement levels soared to 62%, which is an engagement ratio of 23:1. Gallup Organisation considers 12:1 to be ‘world class’ (Waghorn, 2009). How did Conant achieve this? No one leadership strategy can transform a business this close to failure. For Campbell’s it took a combination of cost control, innovation, a change in marketing direction and especially, a concerted effort to invigorate the workforce and change its culture (Waghorn, 2009). Conant believes that of all the measurable elements in building culture, engagement correlates most closely to shareholder returns. Conant’s people focussed strategy states that “to win in the market place…you...
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...able to: ➔ Distinguish elements of strategic capability in organisations: resources, competences, core competences and dynamic capabilities. ➔ Recognise the role of continual improvement in cost efficiency as a strategic ➔ Analyse how strategic capabilities might provide sustainable competitive advantage on the basis of their value, rarity, inimitability and nonsubstitutability. ➔ Diagnose strategic capability by means of value chain analysis, activity mapping, benchmarking and SWOT analysis. ➔ Consider how managers can develop strategic capabilities of organisations. Photo: Glyn Kirk/Action Plus Sports Images capability. ECS8_C03.qxd 94 10/15/07 CHAPTER 3 3.1 14:23 Page 94 STRATEGIC CAPABILITY INTRODUCTION Chapter 2 outlined how the external environment of an organisation can create both strategic opportunities and threats. However, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda all compete in the same environment, yet Tesco is a superior performer. It is not the environment that distinguishes between them but their internal strategic capabilities. The importance of strategic capability is the focus of this chapter. There are three key concepts that underpin the discussion. The first is that organisations are not identical, but have different capabilities; they are ‘heterogeneous’ in this respect. The second is that it can be difficult for one organisation to obtain or copy the capabilities of another. For example, Sainsbury’s cannot readily...
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...5±34 www.elsevier.com/locate/lrp SECI, Ba and Leadership: a Uni®ed Model of Dynamic Knowledge Creation Ikujiro Nonaka, Ryoko Toyama and Noboru Konno Despite the widely recognised importance of knowledge as a vital source of competitive advantage, there is little understanding of how organisations actually create and manage knowledge dynamically. Nonaka, Toyama and Konno start from the view of an organisation as an entity that creates knowledge continuously, and their goal in this article is to understand the dynamic process in which an organisation creates, maintains and exploits knowledge. They propose a model of knowledge creation consisting of three elements: (i) the SECI process, knowledge creation through the conversion of tacit and explicit knowledge; (ii) `ba', the shared context for knowledge creation; and (iii) knowledge assets, the inputs, outputs and moderators of the knowledge-creating process. The knowledge creation process is a spiral that grows out of these three elements; the key to leading it is dialectical thinking. The role of top management in articulating the organisation's knowledge vision is emphasised, as is the important role of middle management (`knowledge producers') in energising ba. In summary, using existing knowledge assets, an organisation creates new knowledge through the SECI process that takes place in ba, where new knowledge, once created, becomes in turn the basis for a new spiral of knowledge creation. = 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd....
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...“Blueprint for Professional and Personal Growth” Week Seven Assignment Walden University WMBA6000 Dynamic Leadership Yvonne Thompson, Ph.D. Stephen Rickey October 15, 2015 Executive Summary This course has given me a great deal of insight into Leadership styles and characteristics regarding how to become an effective leader. This course addresses the many leadership styles and cognitive reasoning on the How and Why? Using the approaches will benefit and enable you to become a more effective and efficient leader. I believe being a great leader coincides with being a good listener as well as making tough decisions. This course examines and identifies the great managers and the not so good managers that you have personally dealt with. By identifying the characteristics of both of those managers it gives you a key to understanding why they were a great leader, or why they were a poor leader. I thought it is interesting to observe that all the leadership styles can be interchanged, and it is really a keen understanding, or insight into your own management style, your strengths and weaknesses. But, the more important aspect is an understanding of your employees, identify their strengths and weaknesses which will truly determine how effective your leadership style will be. I believe that in order to become a truly Dynamic Leader entails all of the above, and is an ever continuous evolving process. It is a process of understanding oneself, gaining insight into your values...
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...of the Department was located in Tulsa Oklahoma. A few of the major issues involved inside the CRA Department include issues with the CRA personnel reporting compliance issues, a lack of automation, and a bad reputation. Steven Bradshaw was assigned to turn the department around Discussion of the Decisions Two of Bradshaw’s major concerns were the department was not profitable and did not meet BOK’s standards. The first step he took to turn the department around was a change of leadership. Bradshaw hired Paula Ellis as the new leader. Ellis worked under Bradshaw in the past and was very well qualified for the position. The leadership of a department is extremely important and in this case Paula was a great decision. She has experience working with banks and in the community. Together, Ellis and Bradshaw helped create a good “tone at the top”. There were four key points the team wanted enact. They include establishing a new direction, building an effective group, automating the review process, and creating a culture of collaboration with business units. These were the building block Bradshaw and Ellis used to begin changing the department. Ellis met with executives and business line leaders so she could understand how they viewed the CRA Department. This was a crucial first step because it helped her begin to build relationships with other important people...
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...running a meeting devoted to performance assessment. Each senior manager stood up, reviewed the individuals in his group, and evaluated them for promotion. Although there were women in every group, not one of them made the cut. One after another, each manager declared, in effect, that every woman in his group didn’t have the self-confidence needed to be promoted. The division head began to doubt his ears. How could it be that all the talented women in the division suffered from a lack of self-confidence? In all likelihood, they didn’t. Consider the many women who have left large corporations to start their own businesses, obviously exhibiting enough confidence to succeed on their own. Judgments about confidence can be inferred only from the way people present themselves, and much of that presentation is in the form of talk. The CEO of a major corporation told me that he often has to make decisions in five minutes about matters on which others may have worked five months. He said he uses this rule: If the person making the proposal seems confident, the CEO approves it. If not, he says no. This might seem like a reasonable approach. But my field of research, socio-linguistics, suggests otherwise. The CEO obviously thinks he knows what a confident person sounds like. But his judgment, which may be dead right for some people, may be dead wrong for others. Communication isn’t as simple as saying what you mean. How you say what you mean is crucial, and differs from one person to...
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...better growth and progression for the company. There stays a great necessity to perform the business practices in a reliable way and with the successful implementation of management practices, the employees can be brought to together and learn to make the best possible use of available resources. Management practices guide and direct any organization to move forward along a proper path to ensure success. The management practices of planning, leading, organizing, staffing and controlling are being implemented in nearly all workplaces, and are able to derive far better results than previously unorganized systems. These five management functions have been validated and proven to be worthwhile in setting goals and objectives, and I will show the difference between management at my place of employment, and effective management in this paper. The initial step in effective managing is planning. This involves forming the mission, vision and objectives of the company and laying out a detailed plan for the way through these goals are to be attained. In the organizing category, an internal structure is established within the company. During the implementation of this function, tasks can be segregated, coordinated and controlled. Moreover, the tasks are being distributed by the managers to the employees. During the staffing phase, trained and proficient people are being employed by the company. Employees are being chosen for their prospective ability to...
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...effective group participation. I will further explain how negotiation and persuasion can help ease conflict and controversy. Groups can be effective or non effective, they can operate as a democracy or a hierarchy. Depending on the type of group and activities performed there are different levels of commitment and participation. We join groups for many different reasons. Groups provide something to each individual. Many functions an effective group performs successfully, would be much more difficult if attempted alone. Effective leadership is key to a group's success. Leaders must provide to each individual to encourage participation and to create group commitment. It is important for leaders to make effective, goal oriented decisions that represent the group. Groups may also provide its members with more support and commitment than other groups. A good example of this type of group would be Alcohol Anonymous. AA members receive much more support through their group than a membership at a golf course. Every group in which we belong has its own norms, level of commitment, participation and effectiveness. Cooperation among group members is the basis for reaching goals and developing trust. Being trustworthy to the other members in the group creates an cooperative effort to reach group goals and increase communication within the group. It is important to learn and understand Group Dynamics to be an effective leader. Group Dynamics is the study of group behavior. There are many definitions...
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...Running head: Theory at Work Paper Theory at Work Paper University of Phoenix PSY 430 Team Dynamics for Managers Introduction There are two issues involved when working in groups. First are the task and the problems involved in getting the job done. Second is the process of the group work itself; the mechanisms by which the group acts as a unit and not as an out of control group. Working in groups applies to my work environment by combining talents and providing innovative solutions to possible strange problems, in cases where there is no well-established approach or procedure. Our group consists of skill knowledgeable people that have a distinct advantage over that of one individual. (Blair, G.M., 1997-2007) Our small group symbolizes the functional theory and has gone through the Tuckman’s Stages for development. Theories of a small group communication focus on the way group members go about coordinating their actions, and possibly work with the group to reflect on group member interaction. Each theory of small groups illuminates some features of communication while hiding others. There are many theories about the development of group dynamics, but fundamental to all of them is the concept of groups as social systems. As groups develop overtime, group dynamic processes evolve. Forming, storming, norming, and performing are all stages of Tuckman. All members of the group share team roles and responsibility. However, our group has a team lead. Group interactions are...
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...Assignment for MGT 942: Write about a problem faced by your (current or past) organization. Explain the problem. Write how you might approach this problem using YOUR thinking style. One might be emotional, one logical, one scientific, one creative, one pessimistic, and one optimistic, etc. Review the details of the problem and how your thinking style might affect various stakeholders the organization. Show how your particular thinking style might positively and negatively affect decision making in your organization. Compare and contrast your thinking style with another approach to this problem using ANOTHER thinking style. Sample list of thinking styles: Emotional, Closed question, Pessimistic, Logical, Open question, Optimistic, Scientific, Deductive, Divergent, Creative, Inductive, Convergent. Response I would like to share my experience working for a research group at a leading public university. The group can be called an organization because there were around 20 members in the group ranging from laboratory manager, laboratory assistants, postdoctoral researchers and undergraduate students. The laboratory could be compared with any small company. Like most academic laboratories, my advisor shunned from collaborative work because he was paranoid that someone might scoop his ideas. He did not trust his own lab members to work together. His attitude was that the only he could control his lab was to micromanage the lab. Following were the main problems faced by the...
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