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Nicholas Palmer - e-Portfolio for Experiential Learning Scholars Program (EXL)



RCampus


Organizational Skills

Nick Palmer
Professor Donnell
ORCO 3240
18 September 2007
                                                Management Analysis Assignment:
            Management is defined as “the act or manner of managing; handling, direction, or control.” Managing each organization is different; for me, managing a fraternity is managing the wide range of maturity levels of each member of the chapter. For an event planner, it may be bringing in outside organizations and coordinating them to produce one finished product. Managers typically follow Henri Fayol’s “Five Elements of Management.” One must plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control (Zaremba, 2006). A good manager must also have the three strong pillars; the mental pillar, the spiritual pillar, and the physical pillar (Potts, 2007).
            Planning is the first step a manager must take before accomplishing a task. A good plan must come with a good strategy. This is done best at a meeting or a think tank where there can be many different ideas expressed and viewed as a whole. He or she will plan out an event with the pros, cons, and everything in between. Once the manager has planed the event, he or she must organize it.
            To properly organize an event the manager has to bring in different colleagues, organizations, or businesses in order to accomplish the task. This may also be done at a meeting where the manager can start to delegate tasks to the committee members. This brings us to our next element, command.
            Once the work is delegated, the manager will command the committee by directing them into the way he or she wants the task to be carried out. Commands must be clear and assertive, but not over-assertive. If you are over-assertive there is a risk of hurting the feelings of an employee or committee member thus hindering their performance. 
            The manager must then coordinate. They must be able to take all the delegation and put it together. This can be tricky but with a well thought out plan and strategy everything should fall right into place. To bad this rarely happens, therefore while coordinating the manager must be a good problem solver and be able to think on their feet to be able to accomplish the task. 
            Our last element is control. My experiences as a fraternity president has taught me that events can escalate quickly, therefore it is always good to have a risk management plan. This plan may include various security polices as well as organization polices to ensure that all events taking place are controlled.
            A manager must also possess the three pillars; the mental, spiritual, and physical. This was expressed to me in a conversation I had months ago after being swamped with work and a young, stressed out president, early in my term (Potts, 2007).
            This first of the pillars is the mental pillar. “You must keep your mind sharp” is what I was told. You can not stop thinking, and you cannot over think. The pillar must remain at balance.
            The second pillar is the spiritual pillar. “You must keep your spirituality and your faith.” Loss of faith and in what you believe can lead to a tragic downfall.
            The third and final pillar is the physical pillar. “You must exercise your body, as well as your mind and soul in order to stay balanced.”
            Now imagine these three pillars side by side holding up a roof. If one of these pillars is higher or lower than it should the roof will fall, thus putting one off balanced and in a position where it is near impossible to succeed (Potts, 2007).    
Interview One      

        Phillip Burgess is the Executive Director and CEO of Holman Bible Outreach International. He is an exceptional manager and communicator. Burgess graduated from Eastern Kentucky University and is the Alumni Advisor for the Delta Lambda Chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order.

               Mr. Burgess says he communicates everyday with his employees in various ways. On a daily basis he asks his employees the status of various tasks and also asks for updates. He says this is mostly done by email but depending on the size of the project it may be done by a telephone call or a personal visit

               Burgess evaluates and communicates his employee’s performances by first setting an established measurement plan for each employee. This is done once a year. There is also a six month interview conducted to see if all goals are being met. He informs me that they discuss any problems, and if there are, how to fix them. Once there is a clear understanding of the employee expectations and the evaluation is complete, both the manager and the employee will sign an agreement to ensure the understanding of the expectations.

               Recognition of a good job often comes at a meeting where he recognizes someone for a job well done. He also motivates his employees verbally sometimes by just saying “good job, keep it up.” 

               Rewards come in a bonus and an annual incentive.   You get a bonus by exceeding the established measurement criteria which comes out of the budget.

               Mr. Burgess communicates with other departments of his organization as well. He holds meetings with his executive management weekly as well as the division heads. These meetings discuss current issues taking place in the company. Meeting with the Board of Trustees takes place quarterly and he also has direct reports once a week from current project heads. Mr. Burgess says that out of a fifty hour work week, he spends around twenty hours in meetings.

               When communicating with an outside organization he mainly uses email. He will also meet face to face with other organizations when negotiating contracts.

               Mr. Burgess believes that a lot has changed with communicating over the years. He says that there used to be a lot more personal interaction with employees and other organization. The development of email has taken away from much of the personal interaction in the workplace. He says that he communicates 60% by email, 20% by phone, and 20% in meetings.

               Meetings are a great way to communicate he says, but it does have its down side. While in meetings, many people are doing the “Blackberry Prayer,” which is having your head down looking at your cell phone during a meeting. He says in the corporate world that they are often referred to as “Crackberries,” because they are so addictive and are hard to get someone to stop using it. 

 
                   Interview Two
            John Carter Jr. is a Project Manager for Carter Contractors LLC based out of Greeneville, Tennessee. They specialize in disaster relief, demolition, site clearing, and building log homes.        
            Carter says that 95% of is job is communicating and coordinating. He gives direction to builders and operators. Most of his communication is verbal face to face interaction. The company also uses the telephone and office memos for communication, but rarely uses email.
            He manages employee performances by communicating to them what to do and when to do it. If an employee fails to do a task correctly, the employee could be fired. A recent example of this would be when company personnel caught a machine aflame and was later fired.
            At the time being, the company has few rewards but gives holiday bonuses. Carter says that in the future, he is looking into giving safety bonuses which would depend on the work history of the employee.
            Because the company is small, internal communication usually consists of telephone calls and very few conference meetings.
            When communicating with outside organizations Carter often uses the telephone to put in bids on future job sites and to get maintenance on company equipment. He rarely ever uses email.
            He believes that communication is the number one priority of the company; poor communication could lead to disaster as well as a large loss of income. A basic example he gave me was ordering a wrong part. This could lead the delayed completion of the project which in turn could potentially cost thousands of dollars.
                                                            Similarities
            The two managers are the same in which they are both leaders of their organization which is vital to being a good manager. The men I interviewed are well respected in the workplace, as well as the community. The biggest similarity that I find between the two managers is that they are both well spoken individuals. Their words flow when they speak and make things easy to understand while still being exceptionally professional.
                                               
                                                            Differences
          The reason I decided to interview these two individuals was because I wanted to see how communication differed in their two work environments. Phillip Burgess’s corporate work environment differs greatly from John Carter Junior’s informal environment of construction management. I found that while they communicate similar things, they way they communicate them very different. This is due to many factors such as the size, location, and expertise of the companies.
                                                In Relation to Chapter Two
          I found that Phillip Burgess managerial style is ran similar to the Five Elements of Management. He starts out with a plan, organizes the plan, delegates the tasks, coordinates the inner and outer personnel needed, and has control of the many objectives that his company is undertaking. 
             Carter Junior uses more of a Scientific Management. His communication with his employees is much different. He expects them to get certain jobs completed by an exact time such as a machine would. Most of the people he hires operate machines and are sub-contracted. Carter shows Scientific Management can work in certain job fields.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
References
Alan Jay Zaremba, ed. Thompson South-Western, Organizational Communication Foundation for Business and Collaboration, Northeastern University, 2006.
Jason Potts, “Interview,” (Spring 2007)
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