Key Management Roles

Question 1

What is planning?

Answer 1

Planning is the process of defining objectives and determining methods or strategies to achieve them.

Question 2

What are the levels of planning? Explain the roles of each.

Answer 2

Strategic planning.

• long term planning, usually 3-5 years
• managed by top level management
• helps determine where the organisation wants to be in the market and what the organisation wants to achieve in relation to its competitors, for the future.

Tactical planning

• intermediate planning, 6 months to 1 year
• managed by middle management
• flexible, adaptable medium term planning which assists in implementing strategic planning.

Operational planning

• short term planning that occurs on a day to day, weekly basis
• managed by lower level management such as supervisors or front line managers.
• provides specific details about the way in which the organisation will operate in the short term.

Question 3

What are the steps in the planning process?

Answer 3

1. Setting objectives - management begins the planning process by considering where they believe the organisation is headed.
2. Analysing present situations and future opportunities -
   Using SWOT to an analyse where an organisation is now and how they can improve.
3. Develop and evaluate alternative strategies - consider a number of options, and evaluate benefits and weaknesses of each.
4. Implement an alternative - Utilise the best fit strategy to achieve the objective, if it fails, reconsider another alternative.
5. Monitoring and reviewing results - determine whether plan chosen is meeting the desired outcome. If outcomes are not met:
   a) try to rectify the problems
   b) seek to implement alternative plan

Question 4

What is SWOT analysis?

Answer 4

SWOT analysis involves identifying and analysing the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organisation and the opportunities and threats from the external environment.

Question 5

What are the components of SWOT and what type of questions need to be considered?

Answer 5

Strengths
- what is the organisation good at? is our product popular? Are our customers loyal? Do we function effectively? Are we in a strong financial position? Do we have motivated and a multi force?

Weaknesses
- do we have competent managers and staff? Is our technology obsolete? Have we experienced past failures? Do we have sufficient finance?

Opportunities
- what will new technology bring for us? What are possible new markets? What will globalisation mean for our business? What will increase in profits mean for our organisation?

Threats
- what trends are evident in the market? Are there any new or existing competitors that are overtaking our business/market share? Are there greater community expectations about the environment that we are not meeting?

Question 6

What is organising?

Answer 6

Organising is the process of defining the relationship between and arranging staff, tasks and resources so that all aspects of an organisation are working towards achieving its objectives.
A manager is responsible for dividing jobs between staff and allocating resources required for each job, delegating authority and responsibility over a task, determining the span of control for each employee with management responsibilities.

Question 7

What is leading?

Answer 7

Leading is the process of influencing or motivating staff to work towards the achievement of an organisations objectives.

Question 8

What qualities do effective leaders display (transformational leaders)?

Answer 8

Effective leaders inspire or enthuse staff with a vision to ensure that they are committed to achieving the objectives within the organisation. They possess interpersonal, informational, and decision making skills; they have the capacity to build working relationship and liaise with staff, gather and share relevant information, and are able to identify alternative strategies and choose the best course of action.

Question 9

What is the difference between a transactional and transformational leader?

Answer 9

Transactional leaders provide staff with rewards in return for their compliance/acceptance of authority (e.g. Pay rises and promotions).

Transformational leaders inspire or enthuse staff with a vision to ensure that they are committed to achieving the objectives within the organisation. They tend to consider each employees as an individual rather than a collective group, whilst also providing opportunities for team members to exercise their own judgements on decisions.

Question 10

What is controlling?

Answer 10

Controlling is the process of evaluating performance and taking corrective action to ensure that plans are being implemented appropriately and that objectives are being achieved. This involves looking at what was expected to happen and then what actually occurred.

Question 11

What are the steps in the controlling process?

Answer 11

1. Establish non financial and financial performance standards.
2. Determine methods of measuring performance
3. Measure performance - what the overall result is
4. Compare performance against standards or benchmarks
5. Take corrective action or make changes if necessary
6. Review performance standards - realistic? Change required?