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Welcome to LDRS 440

Developing Administrative Competencies

Ben Manickam

Course Description

• Examines the skills positional leaders employ in managing a small to medium sized organization or organizational unit, including: (a) direction setting (b) resource planning, (c) aligning and supervising people, and (d) assessing activities to improve results.

• Emphasis is placed on applying leadership insights and principles within a management context

• Managing from a leadership perpsective

Managers as “cogs” or “linchpins”?

• “The linchpin is an individual who can walk into chaos and create order, someone who can invent, connect, create, and make things happen. Every worthwhile institution has indispensable people who make difference like these”

• “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall” – Stephen Covey

• “A manager is a guide. He takes a group of people and says, 'With you, I can make us a success; I can show you the way.”

• “A manager sets objectives, organizes, motivates, and communicates, sets yardsticks, and measures develops people” – Peter Drucker

Topic 1

• Managing and Performing (Chapter 1)

• Introduction to LDRS 440– syllabus; course expectations

• Defining Administrative Competence

• What do managers do?

• The roles managers play

• Major characteristics of the Managers job

Administrative Competence – What is it?

•Skills, knowledge, attitudes, qualifications, capacities or authority to manage or direct the affairs of a business or organization.

What do Managers do?

(a) Guide the activities of other persons

(b) Undertakes the responsibility for achieving certain objectives through these efforts.

• Effective management rests on three basic skills - technical, human, and conceptual.

• These skills are interrelated

• Technical skill

• As used here, technical skill implies an understanding of, and proficiency in, a specific kind of activity, particularly one involving methods, processes, procedures, or techniques.

• The technical skill of the surgeon, the musician, the accountant, or the engineer when each is performing his own special function.

• Technical skill involves specialized knowledge, analytical ability within that specialty, and facility in the use of the tools and techniques of the specific discipline

• Human skill

• Primarily concerned with working with people.

• This skill is demonstrated in the way the managers perceive (and recognizes the perceptions of) superiors, equals, and subordinates, and in the way they respond subsequently.

• Conceptual skill

• The ability to see the enterprise/organization as a whole; it includes recognizing how the various functions of the organization depend on one another, and how changes in any one part affect all the others

• Extends to visualizing the relationship of the individual business to the industry, the community, and the political, social, and economic forces of the nation as a whole.

• Recognizing these relationships and perceiving the significant elements in any situation, the manager should then be able to act in a way which advances the over-all welfare of the total organization.

Group Discussion

Here are three job titles. Rank which job would devote the most of its time to conceptual, human, and technical skills.

1.Vice president of finance at a Fortune 100 company 2.Coding for a video game producer 3.General manager at a local McDonald’s franchise

The Roles managers play

• Interpersonal

• Informational

• Decisional

Group Discussion • You are a manager at a local convenience store that has been the

victim of graffiti. Identify the roles you will undertake with both internal employees and others.

Characteristics of Managers 1.Long-range planning. Managers occupying executive positions are frequently

involved in strategic planning and development.

2.Controlling. Managers evaluate and take corrective action concerning the allocation and use of human, financial, and material resources.

3.Environmental scanning. Managers must continually watch for changes in the business environment and monitor business indicators such as returns on equity or investment, economic indicators, business cycles, and so forth.

4.Supervision. Managers continually oversee the work of their subordinates.

5.Coordinating. Managers often must coordinate the work of others both inside the work unit and out.

6. Customer relations and marketing. Certain managers are involved in direct contact with customers and potential customers.

7. Community relations. Contact must be maintained and nurtured with representatives from various constituencies outside the company, including state and federal agencies, local civic groups, and suppliers.

8. Internal consulting. Some managers make use of their technical expertise to solve internal problems, acting as inside consultants for organizational change and development.

9. Monitoring products and services. Managers get involved in planning, scheduling, and monitoring the design, development, production, and delivery of the organization’s products and services.

❖Topic 2

External/Internal Organizational Environments

Corporate Culture

(Chapter 4 of Text)

• Humans & environment

The External Environment – PESTEL/ SLEEPT Factors

External environment

Understanding the factors that make up the external environment are critical to the success

(or failure) of the organization. Below are some examples:

• A continuously unstable or volatile political climate might mean that the organization must

critically evaluate the resources it is allocating.

• Government policies and legislature in the country impact hiring policies, unionization,

compensation, and other human resources functions

• Government policies impact tax structures

• The environmental factor considers weather patterns, hurricanes etc. in setting up

structures, transportation etc.

• Technological factors evaluate level of internet connectivity, power supplies etc.

The Internal Organizational environment

Organizational Designs and Structures • Every living organism has design and structure. Examples of design

and structure abound in the plant and animal worlds.

• Our human bodies are also wonderful examples of structure and design.

• Structures and design layout the plan, provide support and facilitate growth.

• Likewise, in organizations, structures help connect individuals and teams to achieve overall organizational goals and objectives.

Organizational Designs and Structures Organizational structures and designs are valuable to achieving coordination and management of resources, as they:

(1)specify reporting relationships (who reports to whom)

(2)delineate formal communication channels

(3)describe how separate actions of individuals are linked together

(4) lay out how reporting relationships govern the overall workflow of the organization

(5)eliminate unnecessary ambiguity, confusion and lack of accountability.

As individuals carry out their designated responsibilities, they contribute towards goals of their teams, and as teams reach their goals, the organization moves steadily to health and growth.

• Unit 6 provides further insight into how organizational structures and designs need to be crafted based on the vision, mission, and core values of the organization

• For now, we will take a brief tour of the types or organizational structures and designs.

• Organizational structures fall in to one of two configurations:

(1) Mechanistic (2) Organic (see next slide)

Mechanistic Structure

• An organization with a mechanistic structure is highly formalized and centralized.

• Communication lines are clear and flow through formal channels and such organizations are rigid and typically resistant to change.

• Mechanistic structures maximise organizational efficiency, and minimise costs a stable environment

• But they can stifle innovativeness, autonomy, and self determination.

Organic Structures

• Organic structures, in contrast are flexible and decentralized.

• In organic structures, communication is fluid and flexible

• Job descriptions are broader, and need based

• Foster entrepreneurial and innovative thinking amongst employees.

• For further reading - A helpful article that deals with the basics of organizational structures and designs, types of organizational structures and design, and an 8 step process on how to design an organizational structure can be found at https://whatfix.com/blog/organizational-structure/

Quick Quiz

From the list of words below, identify which describes the organic or mechanistic organizational structure

best ?

1. Team decision making

2. One way communication

3. Flat organizational structure

4. Narrow span of control

5. Very rigid, many rules

6. Very hierarchical

7. Flexible

8. Strict on processes

Group Exercise #1 • You have been selected to lead a team to decide on a

different type of structure in your organization to better serve customers who are complaining about poor service that is slow, impersonal, and not meeting their needs to be heard. Presently, the functional structure isn’t working well. Outline some information from your knowledge using this chapter that would help the team in its assignment.

Group Exercise #2

As a new graduate, you have been hired to help a medium- sized company come into the post – pandemic era. Products need revamping, people aren’t sharing information, and customers are gradually leaving. The firm has a traditional top- down managed, vertical hierarchy. It is believed that the firm has very good potential to sell its products, but new markets may be needed. Outline an agenda you would work on to research and make suggestions with regard to this chapter’s focus and content.

Corporate Cultures – Healthy or Toxic?

• The culture of an organization is one of the most important internal dimensions and has been described as the glue that holds the organization together.

• Its about how things get done in the organization, how employees respond, and their level of motivation.

•An organizations culture can be its strongest asset or its biggest liability.

• Organizational cultures, like national cultures are based on values, and are framed and influenced by leadership at the top.

• Organizational cultures can bind and bond teams together in unity. Such organizations can respond to change and volatile market conditions effectively with speed and agility.

• At the other end of the spectrum, organizational cultures can also create and breed disunity, fractions and conflict. Power politics, disengaged employees, low productivity are evident in such cultures. Such cultures are referred to as toxic organizational cultures.

Group Exercise

• Use Exhibit 4.21 (text), “The Competing Values Framework,” to identify the type of organizational culture at one of the foll:

• IKEA

• Home Depot

• Google

• Best Buy

• Meta

• Amazon.