Managing for Organizations Research Paper

Introduction

The purpose of this research paper will be to integrate all the readings and class discussions into work and life experiences as well as apply the theories acquired during class discussions in real world applications. The discussion within this paper will be based on the understanding and knowledge that has been gained from management studies and coursework.

The paper will focus on the various aspects of management that have been acquired during the course of the studies and these aspects include emotional intelligence and positive work environments, functional and dysfunctional control systems within the organization, the essentials of quality management and the techniques that are associated with quality management, functional planning, employee motivators, organizational decision making, job characteristics, being the manager of large and small organizations, personality differences, and organization analysis.

Emotional Intelligence and Positive Work Environments

The concept of emotional intelligence and its impact on work environments is relatively new since it was introduced in 1990 by Salovey and Mayer after deriving the concept from Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences which included interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence.

Salovey and Mayer used Gardner’s theory to develop their definition of emotional intelligence which is the ability to monitor and regulate an individual’s personal feelings and also use these feelings to guide one’s thinking and actions. Under this definition five dimensions were identified and these include being aware of one’s emotions (self-awareness), managing one’s emotions (self-regulation), motivating oneself, recognizing other people’s emotions (empathy) and handling either work or personal relationships (Luca & Tarricone, 2011).

Emotional intelligence is vital for achieving positive work environments as it allows employees to exercise self-control, motivation and persistence in the workplace which are all important aspects in achieving a positive balance. Emotional intelligence allows employees within an organization to perceive the emotions of their co-workers within the organization so that their perceptions can be able to assist their thought processes when performing work duties (Giesecke, 2007).

Positive work environments within organizations are usually characterized by open and positive communication, relationships that have been built on trust, team spirit within the organization, employees who are constantly given recognition and appreciation for job performance. Emotional intelligence is therefore important for positive work environments to ensure that good employee relationships and teamwork are maintained within the organization.

With regards to the impact of personality differences on positive work environments, various research efforts have been conducted to explain how personality differences amongst the various employees of an organization impact on the process and outcomes of the team.

According to Jones and George (2010), personality plays an important role in the cohesion and efficacy of team performances within the work environment. The researchers developed a big five framework that would be used to explain personality differences in a team composition.

The five traits which would be examinable under the framework include extroversion which encompasses personality traits such as assertiveness, reservedness and well guardedness, conscientiousness which encompasses responsibility, meticulousness and self-discipline, agreeability which deals with personality traits such as cooperativeness, irritability or inflexibility, emotional stability, creativity and openness.

The existence of personality differences among various team members makes it difficult to maintain positive work environments in an organization as they make it difficult to have team cohesion and team work.

According to Poling et al (2011), the less diverse the employees are within the organization, the better their team performance will be and also their agreeability will lead to a greater cohesion within the workplace. Fewer personality differences within the organizational teams will ensure that there is greater communication within the organization and that there is greater workload sharing.

Being the Manager and Employee Motivators

Being a manager within an organization involves planning, organizing, directing and controlling the various resources that exist within an organization so that the organization’s goals and objectives can be achieved effectively and efficiently.

All managers working within organizations are charged with the overall coordination of activities within an organization and they are therefore required to be effective and efficient in managing organizational resources to achieve organizational objectives. Managers have a major impact on the society as they are the people who decide how to use the valuable resources that exist within the society such as skilled employees, raw materials, land and technology.

Understanding the role of managers within an organization will be important in understanding how a society works and how it creates wealth. Being managers also enables individuals to teach other people who are not yet in positions of management on how to lead their co-workers and other people that they might be in charge of on how to solve conflicts (Jones & George, 2010).

Employee motivators within an organization are the factors that are usually considered to determine the success or failure of employee performance within an organization. Motivators are important as they ensure that the organization is able to achieve profitability and sales which are all important for the success and survival of an organization.

Employee motivators are usually designed based on the individual needs of employees within an organization. Because of the various personality differences that exist among an organization’s employees, employees are motivated by different factors where some are motivated by money while others are motivated by the opportunity for professional development (Jones & George, 2010).

Other employee motivators that are used by employees to motivate them to perform well in their jobs thereby achieving job satisfaction include the opportunity to make a difference to the organization’s customers and clientele as well as the co-workers, the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment derived from performing their jobs, the opportunity that work provides for the individual to mature and grow within the organization, the opportunity to be remembered by others for having achieved something worthwhile and the chance to accomplish certain milestones during the performance of work.

Employee motivators are important to employees as they enable them to achieve job satisfaction which is an important aspect for many organizations.

Organizational Decision Making and Job Characteristics Analysis

The decision making process in most organizations usually involves the proper and efficient implementation of strategic plans that will be used to achieve organizational objectives and goals. Organizational decision making involves making a choice that will alter certain operations or situations within the organization.

The process is usually governed by uncertainty and risk given that the consequences of the overall decision are unknown. Every decision made with an organization is meant to have an effect on the business operations of the company. Organizational managers are the people who are usually charged with the task of making decisions within organizations and they usually have to develop certain skills for them to be able to make the right choices (Jones & George, 2010).

The various decisions that managers make during the course of running an organization include changes to business operations, profitability and sales decisions, employee performance improvement decisions, merger or acquisitions and financial decisions. Managers are also involved in making decisions that assess and analyze the organizational characteristics of the company as well as the job characteristics of various employees within the organization.

The characteristics or factors that make up a job within the organization include skills, knowledge, working environment and the physical demands of the job. Job characteristics usually determine the level of job satisfaction and motivation that employees will have towards their work. Job characteristics are important in designing the work duties and responsibilities of employees within the organization to ensure that they are able to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives (Jones & George, 2010).

The organizational characteristics that are usually considered by managers when designing work duties and also making organizational decisions that will change the business operations of the company include the size of the organization, the amount of resources that the organization to meet its goals and objectives, the influence that the organization has on the world at large and the tenacity that the organization has to pursue its goals for organizational success.

Organizational and job characteristics are important to managers during the decision making process as they enable them to consider the various dimensions of these characteristics when making choices or decisions that will change the operations of the organization (Jones & George, 2010).

Functional and Dysfunctional Control Systems

Employees within an organization are required to work together in a cohesive manner to ensure that both the organizational and individual goals have been accomplished. However, this at times becomes difficult given the various personality differences that various members of an organization have, making it difficult to function in a team.

Every organization in the world is made up of either functional or dysfunctional teams which have various control systems to manage the various members that fall under these groups.

Functional teams are groups where the personality differences of employees are considered and matched with the other personality differences of people within the same group. Functional team members are usually aware of the emotions of their colleagues within the same group and the impact these emotions will have on the rest of the team (Luca & Tarricone, 2011).

The control systems that exist within an organization include information management systems, knowledge management systems, operations management and business development systems. The type of control systems that exist in functional systems are designed to focus on the product or service that the organization is concerned as well as the regulation of team member emotions to ensure that they do not have a negative impact on the product development.

The control systems within functional teams are also focused on developing healthy working environments as well as good relationships which will ensure that the activities of the group have been accomplished (Luca & Tarricone, 2011).

Dysfunctional teams within an organization are those that are unable to take into account the various personality differences that exist amongst the various members of the group. Team members in dysfunctional groups are unaware of the impact that their behavior has on other people within the group.

This leads to communication problems as well as overt emotional problems since employees are unable to control their emotions. The control systems used for dysfunctional team members are usually designed to manage the various emotional and communication problems that exist within such groups. For example, a dysfunctional control system that will manage the knowledge management activities of a particular group will be focused on creating communication guidelines and procedures (Luca & Tarricone, 2011).

The criteria that is used in developing and evaluating control systems within both functional and dysfunctional teams involves group factors such as job or organizational characteristics, the level of cohesion within the teams, the focus of the group, goal orientation of the team, working relationships among employees, personality traits and differences that exist in various members of the organization.

These criteria are important as it ensures appropriate systems are developed to manage the various teams within the organizations (Luca & Tarricone, 2011).

Essentials and Techniques of Quality Management

Quality management systems are developed to meet the needs of the various stakeholders of an organization. These systems are designed to fulfill the needs and expectations of customers while at the same time enabling the organization to achieve a profit.

The essentials that a manager needs to consider to create an effective quality management system within the organization include clearly defining the quality policies and objectives of the organization, implementing the processes that will be needed to achieve quality objectives and goals, providing adequate resources to meet these objectives, measuring the processes that will be needed to implement quality policies, using the measurements to guide the improvement of the company’s quality management systems, preventing any non-conformities which might arise within the system and developing a clearly defined framework for verifying business processes.

The techniques that are commonly used to analyze the essentials of quality management systems include benchmarking where standard measurements are used to compare the outcomes of the system with the expected results. Benchmarking in quality management is important as it enables managers to set targets or benchmarks that will ensure the organization gets to where it is going.

Knowledge management is another technique that is used in quality management as it involves the creation, maintenance, dissemination and distribution of information within an organization. Knowledge management systems are important for managing quality as they ensure that there is improved performance within the organization as well as competitiveness where the products or services designed are developed to provide the organization with a competitive edge (Jones & George, 2010).

The Impact of Management in Personal and Professional Contexts

As discussed earlier in the research paper, management and managers affect the various aspects of the society in either a personal or professional context. Personally, management affects the maturity of an individual either within the society or organization as it determines the level of resources that will be availed to the individual as they seek to develop their lives.

Management determines how the various resources available within the society can be effectively and efficiently used to achieve prosperity within the society. Professionally, management ensures that there is competition amongst various employees within an organization as everyone strives to gain a well paying job and a satisfying career (Jones & George, 2010).

Management enables employees to look for interesting and complex jobs that will allow them to gain job satisfaction and motivation which are important factors for job performance. Managerial positions enable employees to advance in a great way in their careers as they are able to develop and acquire vital management skills needed to run an organization.

The concept of management is therefore important in both the personal and professional contexts of individuals as it affects the various faucets of organizations and societies. It has a direct impact on how individuals will be able to develop their personal and professional lives to achieve certain levels of satisfaction.

References

Giesecke, J., (2007). Emotional intelligence. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska.

Jones, G.R., & George, J.M., (2010). Essentials of contemporary management. New York: McGraw Hill.

Luca, J., & Tarricone, P., (2011). Does emotional intelligence affect successful teamwork?. Perth, Australia: Edith Cowan University.

Poling, T., Woehr, D.J., Arciniega, L.M., & Gorman, A., (2011). The impact of personality and value diversity on team performance. Web.