Organizational Management: The Case of General Motors (Essay Sample)

Organizational Management: The Case of General Motors
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Organizational Management: The Case of General Motors
An organization is either a public or private entity that holds the interests of many stakeholders such as employees, managers, shareholders, suppliers, customers and the general public. For an organization to learn effectively, managers are employed to manage the interests of all the stakeholders within the organization. While managing, a manager can decide to take the role of a leader or stick to one profile. In our case, general motors company has many departments, all being headed by managers. With close observation, some managers are more leaders than managers. Although it is difficult to differentiate between a manager and a leader, the way they make decisions and how they relate with other stakeholders makes the difference. General Motors is a car making company that has many subsidiaries and therefore, prudent management and leadership in this company are needed for it to meet its goals and objectives. The changing business environment needs both leaders and managers for this organization to remain relevant in the car making industry that holds worthy competitors (Westhuizen, 2002).
There are substantive differences between a manager and a leader in an organizational perspective. A manager is perceived as an administrator in an organization. He administers all the office orders to his juniors with an intention to maintain effective running of the organization. On the other hand, a leader in an organization is perceived as an innovator. He or she is responsible for innovating new methods of running or administering the organization. While a manager sticks to the hierarchy order in the organization, a leader creates harmony in management level hence making it easy to communicate and also maintains ever changing means and channels of communication within the organization.
A manager is a copy. Where one practices pure management style in an organization, he follows the stipulated roles without making changes where necessary. A newly employed manager follows the footsteps of his or her predecessor hence making or presenting a copy of the old manager. He always observes his duties strictly without involving himself or herself to other junior’s line of duty. It is believed that, any one who can follow the rules set aside by an organization, and be able to effectively impose those orders to the juniors within the organization’s expectations is a manager. A leader is totally different from a manager on this aspect because he or she always operates independently away from the demanding stipulated rules. He is always original and independent. Although he or she is always guided by the company goals, objectives and vision of the company, he revises and upgrades the company management structure and order of events to suit the current business environment. He solves problems and makes decisions based on the current situation and does not source arguments from the presidencies. He or she gives orders and roles to his juniors according to the nature of tasks to be solved but not on the structure that is historically followed in that organization.
A manager maintains the statuesque in an organization. He or she makes sure that the company remains in the core business. A manager uses his or her position to advice the company on how to withstand the competitors’ pressure for them to retain their market share in the industry. This helps the company to retain its profits while in business. He or she maintains and retains the same management structure that previously existed before their employment. On the other hand, a leader maintains and develops the company. A leader’s main intention is to make a difference by improving the already achieved goals while introducing other new projects and structures to help the company remain relevant in the market. He or she improves the company’s capacity to produce more and quality goods and services while encouraging and promoting innovativeness in the company. This helps the company to be more appearing to the public, hence more profits are made. A leader improves the relationship between all stakeholders in the company by creating a good professional atmosphere within the organization (Mintzberg, 1998).
A manager’s main point of interest while in his duties is systems and structures in a company. He or she makes company systems go through all the departments with reliable structures. He plans, organizes and coordinates the events in an organization relying on the system and structures he creates. Reporting channels are organized, and all employees adhere to the procedures set aside while reporting to their duties. Contrary to this, a leader’s main focus is the people. He inspires and motivates his juniors all the time. He is a role model to the people but not a ruler. He works together with his team of employees therefore creating a sense of belonging to the junior employees. Improved working conditions, better pay and other people related fields are his main points of focus. He leads the people from the frontline hence making an example to the others. This leadership style of management improves the company productivity and workers relationships, hence forming a strong working team to face the company’s challenges.
Managers use control as their main tool of coordinating all the activities in an organization. All the transactions or activities in the company must be authorized by the manager. By so doing, he or she controls and limits the risks that might emanate from the deals of the juniors. On the other hand, a leader inspires trust to his or her juniors. This saves time and enhances responsibility and accountability to the juniors in an organization.
Managers are always in need of knowing when and how to tackle the challenges the company is facing from juniors. A manager gives directions and the time limit but a leader defines the task to the juniors and explains why he or she intends to take that direction. He gives room for questions from his juniors therefore improving on his initial thought. A manager gives much concentration on the bottom or the results, while a leader remains horizontal. This gives the leader a chance to oversee the implementation of the company objectives.
Managers and leaders in an organization are both important and are both needed for stable growth of the company. They have their roles and responsibility to meet. For starters, the buck stops with them. Any decision made that affects the company either negatively or positively is subjected to them. Managers, being the sole decision makers in the company, should always make timely decisions to shield the company from the risks that it might be facing. During the hard business time, managers are expected to make important decisions to help their company out of the challenges. Managers are expected to forecast the future and streamline their operations to handle the future smoothly.
Leaders and managers have the responsibility to plan on the behavior of the company. They are responsible for any misappropriation of the company’s scarce resources. Planning is an important aspect of management. Planning gives direction to all stakeholders hence making them to work hard for the achievement or realization of their plans. For proper utilization of the company resources, proper planning is required hence giving managers a challenge to plan for equitably distributing resources to all departments to enhance equal growth in the company.
For a healthy organization culture spirit to be achieved in an organization, managers and leaders must be willing and able to promote and advance different interests in an organization. By so doing, different talents and capabilities are to be exposed hence giving the company a chance to choose talents within its labor force. On the other hand, the main objective of a company is to continue its operations and achieve profitability. Managers should strictly follow the continuity spirit of a company in order to remove the uncertainty concerns of the employees, suppliers and other interested parties.
Supervising and coordinating are major roles entrusted to the managers and leaders in the company by the shareholders and directors of the company. They are required to supervise and coordinate the company’s projects on day to day basis. The company should be managed prudently respecting all organizational cultures of the company aiming at profit maximization. The failure or success is blamed on them as they are expected to give directions and control the damage effects while in operation. All the juniors should meet their duties promptly and work as one team towards the achievement of company’s goals and objectives. The desire to interrelate and promote communication within the company is the role of the manager.
Leaders should influence and inspire the working team. He or she should lead from the front and this differentiates between a manager and leader in a team. To promote organization culture, he or she should have the three basic managerial skills for better and effective management. One of the managerial skills is the technical skills ability. He should be conversant with the task handling skills. This will create an example to other employees hence motivating them to do better. The second one is the interpersonal skills. This is the ability of the manager to be able to relate well with the other stakeholders in the organization. A manager should not create a gap between him and the other junior employees bu...