Introduction
Charles Xavier in his role of a master in MV Xavier; puts in place management structures that represent failure in proper co-ordination of duties. General management theories face total disregard in this crew; chaos, work inefficiency, and low staff morale are common. The general management theories are responsible for ensuring proper functions across all the members of staff taking care of their motivations, morale boosting activities, and methods of conflict resolution. Poor chains of command and co-ordinations form a basis for improper management. Staff motivation and encouragement remains vital to productivity.
All the motivating factors are missing in the management structures of MV Xavier, thus causing inefficiency and low performance of the staff. Master Charles leads the crew with limited motivation; the communication channels remain poor and the conflict resolution methods are non-existent as well. The staffs feel oppressed and demoralized. This makes them form improper behavioral groups, which later leads to low productivity.
General Management Theory
As the overall head of MV Xavier, Charles Xavier plays the role of a supervisory executive manager of the entire crew. The achievement of the specific goal of the vessel entirely lies with the management and leadership structures that he puts in place. The primary basis of a successful vessel depends on the safety and effective operation of the ship. In order to achieve this, there should be a defined and efficient management structure to ensure proper co-ordination of different professions, adequate staff motivation, and minimized conflicts within the staff. If management structures in the vessel compromise all these, as evident in MV Xavier Ship, the goals become pipe dreams. Henry Fayol, the father of management, in his works, puts out clearly the five basic roles of management as commanding, planning, coordinating, controlling, and organizing (Bratton & Gold 2000).
In the case of MV Xavier, all the basics of planning seem missing and the entire crew keeps pulling in different directions. The organization of command is poor and the control of staff is aristocratic with minimal communication channels to understand the plight of junior employees. All the conflicts arising from the behavioral groups present a recipe for chaos in the crew. If the master shows command and develops a listening ear to the problems of the junior staff, the chances of indiscipline and poor performance remain minimal.
In as much as the master delegated duty to the chief officer of the vessel, the workload passed down to individuals becomes overwhelming, thus reducing productivity. In the end, the chief officer suffers the bulk of obeying a command from a senior individual who passes the workload to other junior officer. The chain of workload spreads through to different carders of staff is causing frustration among junior employees, thus causing poor performance in the entire crew.
The typical management systems of the marine vessels take the hierarchical management system with the junior officers taking orders form their seniors. In such a set up, the juniors work under strict supervision from their seniors with harsh punishment for any form of indiscipline. However, democratic structures are changing the management systems; the junior employees are getting voice to express their plight to the seniors without fear of punishment for disobedience.
Leadership and Motivation
Leadership and motivation forms the basic of proper management structures. The master and overall team leaders in any kind of a setting must show high level of leadership skill and motivational encouragement to the team members. Gitlow (1992) in his work argues that in order to show these characteristics, proper interaction and communication structures between the seniors and junior staff is necessary. All these are absent in MV Xavier crew. For instance, the master leaves and isolates areas after delegating duties to the chief officer of the vessel. The chief officer in turn passes the workload and the frustrations that come with excess workload to junior employees. This scenario creates a frosty relationship between junior employees and their seniors.
Master Charles, as the overall leader of the vessel subscribes to the school of thought that believes that critical decisions in management require high speed in articulation. In this context, the middle-level staffs take decisions in haste often resulting in negative management consequences. For example a cadet who after facing intimidations and inadequate motivation with large workload, request to quit, but the master amply brushes his request away by asking him to “toughen up” and live with the prevailing working conditions. The master seems to take such decisions with haste without bothering to listen to the plight of the suffering junior employees.
This kind of leadership style demoralizes the junior employees, hence resulting in poor performance. If the master would employ a democratic system of management, the complaining sea cadet would have adequate time to reason out the reason for his desire to quit and request for the necessary changes that he would like to see in order to remain in the crew.
Staff motivation is a vital requirement for successful teamwork. The chief officer of MV Xavier looked forward to have a successful career in the maritime sector. When the master delegated the entire management duty to his discretion, he felt humbled with the expectation that such delegation provided him with an avenue to prove his worth. He failed to understand the consequences of carrying a wider workload in management.
His frustration trickled down in through the management chain, thus leading to poor performance. If Master Charles developed a viable program of takeover through apprenticeship and proper guidance, chances of the staff experiencing the problems would be minimal. In this circumstance, the chief officer of the vessel stands a better chance of understanding the job descriptions of the overall vessel management. Similarly, the two individuals share the workload; this reduces the level of frustration, hence improving efficiency.
Productivity of the junior employees depends on the motivation and encouragement they receive from senior employees. Master Charles, as the overall manager of the vessel created a barrier between the senior staff and junior employees. The senior employees should train the junior employees on the hands-on techniques needed in the articulation of some duties. However, this link is absent in the entire crew. The leaders of the crew led by the master and the chief officer brainwashes the senior officer to believe that training the junior officers on the hands-on techniques is a gross waste of time and is irrelevant. In such circumstances, junior employees feel left out in making decisions and unappreciated. This leads to inefficiency and low productivity from the entire crew.
Human and Group Behavior
MV Xavier crew draws its members from different professional backgrounds. All these individuals represent different cultures and believe in the work ethics and productivity beliefs. For this reason, the leadership should develop a system of culture into which all the members of the crew subscribe to ensure that the team develops a definite goal. The consolidation of different viewpoints is indispensible in the management and production systems in place for success of this crew. The leadership should discuss the different schools of thoughts available for members of the crew, and develop the best way forward in management (Gannon & Newman 2002).
However, the leadership of the vessels detaches itself from the workplace leaving members of the crew with no directives. In addition, there exist mistrust and inadequate respect between the senior and junior employees. Clearly, chaos and inefficiency arise when human groups pull in different directions in pursuit of their own objectives
Proper relationship between different work-groups in an organization is vital for successful management. Work-groups are necessary since they create ample time for different professionals and officers of different cadres to bond together and understand the dynamics of proper work environments. Disunity in shipboard proves to be disastrous in the overall planning, coordination, and implementation of the crew’s objectives. A shipmaster has to ensure that all departments work in harmony with each other. Creating working groups with people who can cooperate well creates the basis for high levels of productivity as compared to putting together people with frosty personal relationships.
Even though working groups are evidently absent in the crew, frustrations of the junior officers push them into forming behavioral groups. The junior officers find comfort in the company of the second and third mates, chief cook, and the Bosun. Despite the fact that such groups create ample time for recreation, unwinding, and bonding, they create an avenue for gossips and backbiting of senior employees who frustrate the junior employees. Such developments often create wide barriers between the junior and senior staff, hence causing inefficiency in work performance.
Conflict Resolution
In a system composed of different groups of people working towards a given goal, conflicts often arise. This is healthy since it creates an avenue for different types of problem-solving skills and points of view for the team from which the team can choose the most viable alternative. However, if proper conflict resolution mechanisms are absent in the management structures, such differences in opinions may degenerate into personal differences, thus compromising the productivity of the team (Hislop 2005). The master of the vessel with his unquestionable characters believes that Sunday night parties create the best method of staff motivation.
However, this creates a conflict with the chief officer of the vessel since the production of the team goes down on Monday. Even though this is a genuine problem, the chief officer fails to present this problem to the master for fear that this would create bad blood between them. The leadership and management system of the vessel should develop a system of governance that takes into account proper interaction between different departments and cadres of management. This creates a better environment for proper problem-solving techniques, thus enhancing productivity.
Communication
Horizontal and vertical communication channels are paramount to successful management of an organization. Communication breakdown in the levels of management is evident in MV Xavier. Junior employees have limited access to senior employees. The interactive segments are minimal and the members of the crew seem to be pulling towards different directions (Gatzoli 2012). Communication structures seem to exist only in the horizontal perspective in the informal behavioral groups. None of these augurs well with productivity. The master should take the leadership role to allow for adequate access of his office to the entire crew. Once this happens, with respect to protocol and cadres of employment, there exist high chances of openness within the crew in order to increase productivity.
Conclusion
Poor leadership structure cripples the management of MV Xavier. The master has abandoned the crew leaving all his duties to the chief officer. With the workload of such delegations overwhelming, the chief officer passes all these frustrations to the junior officers; this creates a channel of frustration within the entire systems. Frustrations lead to frosty relationship between junior and senior employees since there is lack of common goal. If the crews can learn basic democratic management skills, with adequate staff motivation, and proper horizontal and vertical communication channels, the problems experienced in the crew will be solved completely.
References
Bratton, J & Gold, J 2000, Human Resource Management Theory and Practice, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, New Jersey. Web.
Gannon, M. J & Newman, K. L 2002, The Blackwell Handbook of Cross-Cultural Management, Blackwell Business, Oxford, UK. Web.
Gatzoli, A 2012, ‘The Role of a Ship Master in Theory and Practice: Lessons from Marine Accidents’, Journal of Critical Incident Analysis, vol. 3. no. 1, pp. 56-70. Web.
Gitlow, A. L 1992, Being the Boss: The Importance of Leadership and Power, Business One Irwin, Homewood, Illinois. Web.
Hislop, D 2005, Knowledge Management in Organizations: A Critical Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Web.