Are you ready to be a manager?

In the book, Understanding Management, the introduction to chapter 7, which talks about Designing Organization Structure, has a self-assessment with some interesting questions, the self-assessment asks: "Are You Ready to Be a Manager?".

The first statement of the self-assessment is: "I'm comfortable taking on any authority that is given to me.", I would not be, especially at this point. I believe I am not ready for all kinds of authority, I need to study and gain more experience.

The second statement is: "I'm able to delegate tasks to other people; in other words, I don't hold on with tight control or distrust of others.", today, I am happy to say that I have improved a lot, but I have always had a hard time delegating tasks. It is hard for me to trust people to do what I think should be done. With time and experience, I learned that my way is not always the best; people also need to be given the chance to try for themselves and; delegating is an important trait in a good manager.

The third statement is: "I’m more capable of working in an organization that is decentralized with power and authority coming more from smaller units than from top management.", at this point I would prefer this company model. But I have worked with others, and I have had no problem. I believe that if the company's ideals match yours, not necessarily the type of organization will affect it.

The fourth statement is: "I think teams are a waste of time in organizations.", I do not agree with that. I think some people feel more comfortable working alone, and there are some jobs where you can accomplish good results even when alone, but in general, teams are there to help you, having different points of view and aggregating ideas.

And the last statement is: "I believe all people would prefer to work out of their own home and be part of a virtual team.", in my opinion, after COVID-19 it became clear that we can work from home, and some companies can function perfectly with their employees at home. At the same time, some people felt less stimulated and creative by the lack of contact with other people. So I believe the best option would be to offer both possibilities to employees whenever possible, being flexible at this point can favour both sides.

Reference: 

Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2019). MindTap for Daft's Understanding Management, 1 term Instant Access. CENGAGE

Planning and goal setting

 Plans and goals are part of people's daily lives. We are always making plans and setting goals, not just at work, but in our personal lives. Sometimes we do not organize and design our plans and goals as we should; or even set realistic metrics, but still, we look for ways to pursue our purposes.

I believe that in the business world this is even more important. How can a company survive without a goal? How to achieve this goal without plans? Some of the concepts and benefits of all this I already had studied, but something new that I learned and I found very interesting is the concepts of Management by Objective (MBO) and Management by Means (MBM).

The first one is described by Daft & Marcic as: "a system whereby managers and employees define goals for every department, project, and person and use them to monitor subsequent performance." (2009), and they define the latest one as: "A new systematic approach that has recently emerged, which focuses attention on the methods and processes used to achieve goals."

In my opinion and experience, I personally like the MBM more. In general, it fits better with the way I like to work, believing that the means are as important as the goals. But I acknowledge that the occasion, the company, the project and the team will influence which is the best method to pursue each particular goal. And it is up to the manager to analyze the situation and determine the best approach.

Reference: 

Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2019). MindTap for Daft's Understanding Management, 1 term Instant Access. CENGAGE

What’s my personal decision style?

 The book Understanding Management brings a good amount of opportunities for self-assessment and self-learning after having explained concepts and fundamentals. Making a self-learning regarding Managerial Decision Making, I had the chance to analyze how I usually act in a work or school situation and rate my personal decision style. The personal decisions style refers to the distinction between people in terms of how they assess problems, generate alternatives and make choices.

The quiz brought some questions such as: What do I look for while I am performing my job or class work?; The type of people that I most enjoy working with; How do I act in social situations?; How do other people consider me?; among other things.

According to most of my answers, my directive score is behavioural. Daft & Marcic say: "The behavioral style is often the style adopted by managers who have a deep concern for others as individuals. Managers using this style like to talk to people one on one, understand their feelings about the problem, and consider the effect of a given decision on them. People with a behavioral style usually are concerned with the personal development of others and may make decisions that help others achieve their goals." (2019)

I have never worked as a manager, so I did not have the opportunity to exercise leadership and receive feedback on that, however, during some of the experiences I had working in a group, I received positive reviews for being a person who thought about others and how they feel, cares about people's development and is willing to help.

I hope to be able to improve this style and have the chance to apply it being a manager. But I also know that in everyday life it is important to be able to combine styles because different circumstances will require different reactions and hence the need to be able to adapt.

Reference: 

Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2019). MindTap for Daft's Understanding Management, 1 term Instant Access. CENGAGE

Be prepared to Manage in a Global Environment

 As much as I know that self-assessment is a great tool to help us better understand our skills and knowledge in a specific subject, and can show us where and what we can improve, I am not used to doing it as much as I could be. Making self-assessments about Management in a Global Environment, I came across some unexpected results, questions I had never thought of before and answers that made sense with what I experienced after working with people from different cultures.

One of the self-assessments was, "Are you culturally intelligent?" well, to be honest, I have never wondered about that. Have I always paid attention to and understood the customs of the people around me? Was I always prepared to behave differently depending on the situation? Have I always been able to deal with my expectations around other cultures? I needed to consider the situations I had experienced to answer these questions.

The first self-assessment statement was, "I plan how I am going to relate to people from a different culture before I meet them," and thinking about my experiences, unfortunately, this is mostly false for me. I usually do not take this time before as I should. It is an important way to show how much we care about people and their cultures. Another statement that my answer needs improvement and related to the previous one was, "I understand the rules for nonverbal behaviour in other cultures." Since I do not take adequate time to familiarize myself with plans for how I am going to relate to people from a different culture, how am I going to understand their rules of nonverbal behaviour?

On the other hand, I am happy to say that it is mostly true for me that "I can handle the stresses of living in a different culture with relative ease." and "I am confident that I can befriend locals in a culture that is unfamiliar to me." And even knowing that I can improve my behaviour, I considered that the final interpretation of this self-assessment was positive. The self-assessment would measure aspects of the CQ (Cultural Intelligence or Cultural Quotient). My Cognitive CQ (also known as using one's 'head' to think through how to properly interact with different cultures) has indicated that I need to work in this area. But the indications from my Emotional CQ (also known as using one's 'heart' to appreciate cross-cultural relationships while communicating well within and being respectful of cultural differences) and Physical QC (also known as using one's 'behaviour' in order to properly interact with different cultures) were strong.

All this information is really important to help me develop my knowledge and be prepared, as nowadays we manage in a global environment.

Reference: 

Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2019). MindTap for Daft's Understanding Management, 1 term Instant Access. CENGAGE

Ethics and Social Responsibility

 According to Daft & Marcic "ethics is the code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviors of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong." (2019, p. 146). However, I believe that determining what is ethical can be tricky, as it can vary from person to person because of our life experiences, culture, and moral beliefs. All of this will influence the way we see what is ethical and what is not.

The first company I worked for is the largest steelmaker in Brazil and Latin America, with more than 21,000 direct employees and 17,000 indirect employees, each with their own beliefs and experiences, if the company did not have a complete code of ethics, how could it possibly sustain the fact that nothing unethical would happen. This is not a guarantee, but it is a start to guide workers.

When studying the subject, it is clear the importance of a company establishing its ethics and social responsibility so that employees know if they are dealing with situations according to what is expected of them and can report when realizing that something is not being done as it should. In addition, when a company has its values clear to the community, its chance of attracting more good professionals and retaining customers increases. People like to relate to the place where they work, this helps them not to get frustrated and not to create false expectations.

Thinking about it, I was reminded of an ethical dilemma I faced at another job, at a Japanese restaurant. There used to be a normal menu and after some time a promotion was created for lunch, and a dish was placed almost identical to what already existed on the normal menu, but costing €5 more. The first time I noticed this was while selling the dishes to a customer. It was not right, the difference between the dishes was a piece of sushi, and customers paid 5€ more for that. I could have said nothing to the customer and sold the most expensive one, but it was not fair, it would have been against my ethics. So I helped him with the situation and talked to the owner of the restaurant about it. The situation was resolved so that it would not happen again. But I had to explain my point of view to her because, in her understanding, it was not an ethical issue. After I have lived in three different countries and had the opportunity to work and study with people from different places, I have been able to see how the diversity of our backgrounds can turn something right for one person into something wrong for other. In the end, each case is a case and sometimes is hard to say what is right and what is wrong. 

Reference: 

Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2019). MindTap for Daft's Understanding Management, 1 term Instant Access. CENGAGE