Organizational and Managerial Problems (Essay Sample)

Running Head: Organizational and Managerial Problems Organizational and Managerial Problems By Student’s name Code+ course name Professor’s name University name City, State Date Introduction For an organization to succeed in the 21st century with employees who are encouraged and committed to work, good organizational behavior and management techniques must be well understood. Organizational behavior is an approach in management where all sorts of behavior emanate from the organization and traditions of work environment (Lawler, 2012). Management generally refers to forecasting, planning, organizing, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling a given activity or event. It is the art of having something accomplished through people. The executive, middle management and lower level employees must work together with a common purpose: meeting the main goals of the organization (Morris, 2010). Affirmative change that is goal oriented is easily promoted in an organization through a variety of organization and managerial practices that are initiated by executive and middle level managers to direct organizational behaviors (Suddaby, 2010). The school is experiencing poor planning, lack of clear feedback system, lack of teamwork, decision are made hurriedly, inefficient organization system, low staff, poor co-ordination of issues, poor reporting, and organization culture that negatively promotes the school. Managerial problems at the school Poor planning Sutton and Staw (2005) say that planning is one of most vital administrative functions of any head teacher in a school. It involves identifying all that must be achieved, when, by whom, how, and at what cost. The planning aspect of management is the major contributor to success and productivity. The process of planning determines organization’s goals and laying down strategies on how to achieve competitive advantage. The head teacher’s administrative and managerial approach does correlate with planning elements in management. The school is overloading the administrative officer with all administration tasks although working part-time. The top management in the school should plan well at the beginning of every academic calendar to determine organizational goals, developing premises about the current environment, select course of action, initiate activities required to transform plans into action, and evaluate outcome. Henri Fayol a classical management theorist said that planning is one of the major functions of management in an organization. According to Adair (2009), Fayol’s theory emphasizes a top-down management approach and his focus was to educate managers on how to improve processes before they are passed to employees at the lower level. He believed that if an organization will focus on administrative practices organizations will reduce misunderstandings and promote effectiveness. Fayol’s theory provides guidance administrators on how to attain administrative roles and techniques they should use. Poor co-ordination Effective co-ordination of activities in an organization is an important management function. It comprises of phases where you interrelate the varied functional departments in an organization. These management aspects allow allows administrators to initiate, lead and supervise the performance of employees to attain preset objectives. Other roles functions of management like forecasting, organizing and recruitment are insignificant if this function is not well executed. The school in the case study is lacking proper direction from the head teacher on issues that affect the school. The structural arrangement of the school in terms of who should and should not direct the other poses a major challenge to the head teacher. When Darren was employed the idea was to assist her reduce the management workload that was already a burden but instead problems increased. According to McGregor (2012), classical management theory provides the authority principle gives only one person to give order on what should be done. He goes further to say that the unity of direction principle dictates an organization must have one plan and one head but working as a team toward a common goal. In classical theory of management unity of command principle allows only one person to be the superior (Bazerman, 2008). The deputy head in the school was recruited to deputize the head teacher for easy management of the school but this caused confusion on who is the head. Poor staffing Finding the right workforce for an organization is not easy. This is one of the major challenges that organization are facing today not excluding schools. The hiring of staff is a task that must be planned well in advance. In addition, it requires selection of the right person who can do the job competently, relate well with management and other members of staff. As an administrator success is closely linked to proper human resource planning with no regard to who is being recruited. Shift from employee to an administrator The majority of administrators real take a considerable amount of time to adjust int their new into their management position following the promotion. They struggle amid the distinction involving doing working and achieving the set targets. In the case of the school Darren was employed as the deputy head. He acts as the assistant manager in the school in managerial responsibilities. Before joining the school he worked as a regular employee in one of the examination bodies with no exposure to management skills. The process of adjusting to the position became a challenge. Darren as a deputy head could not handle the shift at all. He had a tendency of micro-managing the head teacher and the teaching staff which could them and in spite of constant explanation everything grew from bad to worse. Struggling with burden of new responsibilities Managerial role brings with it budget making process, strategic planning, co-ordination, staffing, directing, building presentation among other things. There is no organization that whether private, public that offers official training to administrators on management issues and this make managerial roles a problem for newly employed managers. The deputy head teacher is experiencing managerial problem because taking up new responsibilities as a deputy head is not easy for him. Team management and poor delegation Human resource management, carrying out evaluation, handling groups, meeting what they demand or ask, motivating the workforce to work towards organizational, understanding what they want, how and when to put pressure on them are all advanced features of good management that success administrators must learn how to work around them without hurting any employee(Carnen, 2009). Unfortunately, the strain of daily work denotes that administrators have to strike the ground rolling and have no time to enjoy the comfort to ease into their responsibilities. This therefore denotes that in several cases, understanding their members of staff will not be easy. This dilemma further becomes compounded if the manager is manning across the department. The school is a crisis on how to delegate some roles. The deputy head came to deputise the head teacher but unfortunately the school recruited two bosses. One should deputise another to allow easy management and proper delegation of duties. Organizational problems in the school According to Kerzner (2006), organization is a set of persons who should manage their activities in order to achieve organizations goals. Organizations are elaborate human plans premeditated to attain specific goals (Argyris, 2008). Because organizations are structure of characteristics created to allow human beings and their machineries to achieve objectives, organizational structure should be a combined purpose of human self and the scenery of the duty situation (Simon, 2009). Organizations are put up to accomplish certain set goals that cannot be accomplished individually. Organizations offer an environment for people to work with other persons in order to attain some goals (Stewart, 1994). Delegated power and formal objectives             According to Philip Selznick (2011), when power is assigned the managers, they follow their individual aims more robustly than organization goals. Managers have their ethical and professional aims and these often clash with organization goals and plans. For instance in the case study Darren came in as the deputy head to assist Audrey in management functions but he had personal ambitions of taking over from Audrey as the head teacher which is direct conflict with the initials objectives; to deputise the head teacher and reduce the workload that was already overburdening her. On the other hand, the head teacher has no time and energy to verify all details of the school's operations. The deputy was recruited to be in-charge of issues related to teacher and pupils which is not happening. The school management is not involving any teacher in the management of the school activities; they only teach and that ends there. A well managed and organized school and any other organization for that matter inevitably must involve the teaching staff in managerial roles like curriculum development, exam preparation and moderation, discipline, planning, admitting pupils, budgeting, staffing, organizing among others . This approach in management will put the teaching staff situation of exercising judgment on issues of policies. The fundamental clash between head and the deputy in the school is lack of delegation and quest for power. The head teacher is overburdened because she feels that the deputy is not to be trusted on administrative matters. The teaching staffs feel that they have two bosses to report to which creates conflicts and confusion. The management and organization in the school is centralised. Power centralization in the school without subordination to the teac...