Evidence of the four functions of management (planning, organizing, leading, controlling) at SOL
Management in an organization can be defined as the process where resources are planned, organized, controlled and focused towards achievement of business objectives. These qualities require much attention at all levels within an organization. All employees within SOL have the same status level, there are no managers neither are their personal offices (Stoner, Edward and Danvelo, 2001).
In planning, the training programs have changed the perception of SOL cleaners from cleaners to customer-service specialists, the workers are in agreement to work together in thought and deed towards achieving the company’s goals. The employees are taught time management and other basic skills required for running an organization including communication amongst employees. Respective team members together with their supervisors develop their own budgets, set principles concerning customer negotiations and hiring but in line with the company’s objectives. This makes the employees at SOL very excellent when it comes to handling customer services (Stoner, Edward and Danvelo, 2001).
The supervisors are endeavoured with their team members to set goals higher than the company’s expectations and achieve them diligently; this provides reinforcement to the Company’s goals and objectives. SOL designs appropriate course of actions to take that help employees in achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. SOL determines the effectiveness of their employees by building their culture around optimism and good cheer.
This motivates employees towards excellence since they obtain total freedom and satisfaction at the kind of work they do. The nature of the employees’ self-motivation, esteem and responsiveness has made the organization attractive to most Companies who hire their services. The company further enhances their image through their jumpsuits and their excellent logo that is stamped on every equipment, product and reports they use (Stoner, Edward and Danvelo, 2001).
Directing functions help in building trust within and outside the organization. Joronen believes in the independence of the self-managed team since the management of the whole organization depends on the functions taking place at branch offices, referred to as satellite studios. At the corporate level, Joronen leads SOL by example through doing what they do and even maintaining time management. They believe that each studio should have enough business activities to cover for rent, training programs and required resources.
SOL has 135 supervisors at this level each with the responsibility of managing and organizing his/her own team and customers. This is only achievable when the management can influence employees through its own means of communication and the kind of leadership. This contributes towards enhancing relationships amongst the employees from which they are able to trust one another. This Kind of trust is vital towards the achievement of SOL’s mission of decentralizing responsibility and authority (Blyton and Turnbull, 1994).
In organizing process, SOL organizes its employees by placing them strategically in positions where they feel appropriate and at ease with. The organization has abolished all dominant rules and regulations hence setting employees at freedom. SOL does not operate based on employee titles; they provide no individual offices or limit employees on their time to work. SOL delegates authority whereby they appropriately determine the employees performing specific tasks, and the content of those activities. The level of organization could be seen on the issue that a team of 50 workers work and are accountable to one supervisor.
This requires lots of communication amongst supervisors, salespeople and their team members. They use performance accounts to gauge on employee effectiveness on delivering required services. This makes it easier to shift employees on their respective areas of operation and specialization hence maximizing the Company’s productivity level. The self managed teams are organized in such a manner that they operate their own offices, they negotiate contracts with their customers without involving the head office (Stoner, Edward and Danvelo, 2001).
The other function of management known as control provides for success which ultimately guarantees power. SOL has focused much on upgrading its employees through training programs and this has had tremendous boost to the business as a whole. SOL customers help in boosting the Company’s image and profile because of the good services they receive from the workers. Their performance benchmarks are achieved and updated on a monthly basis within cleaners’ quality passports, which makes it easier for customers to identify with the Company.
This is revealed by the fact that some hospitals which are potential customers to SOL, decided to demand for their extra services on night shifts. Grocery stores also demand for SOL’s services in stocking their shelves as well as cleaning them. This has contributed towards handing back power to SOL. This kind of power is attributed to the controlling function of good management, which makes SOL to be aware of the Kind of good and poor activities within the organization and handle them appropriately (Mullins, 1996).
Evaluate SOL as a ‘new workplace’
Working practices within organizations differ on the extent to which they apply their working techniques. The method of working could either be technique based or technology based. SOL organization tends to utilize knowledge management method to organize their employees. They use both technique based and technologically based system to organize their working system. Therefore, SOL can best be evaluated as a new work place. SOL organization plans for various activities that promote performance, teaching skills and counselling which enhances leadership towards achievement.
The Organization has training program that consists of seven modules within which they organize for exams after the end of each module. The management system within SOL represents part of radical shift from the old working system where there is the existence of hierarchical authority operating within their offices. The organization is characterized by flexible working practices and promotes teamwork; this ensures that all employees are highly involved in the organization’s practices without much coercion (Cherns, 1987).
Evidence of the company’s efficiency and the company’s effectiveness
SOL undertakes their services cautiously with the environment in mind. They take full responsibility of their actions to the environment and consider addressing all these through their decision making processes. The Company uses eco-friendly technologies which operate at reasonable costs. They place much emphasis on quality and level of satisfaction of customers. SOL offer good training to personnel and makes sure that all employees are satisfied with the company’s terms and conditions. Strategies that help SOL ensure high level of effectiveness for their control mechanisms is the way they’ve established valid performance standards and provided adequate information to their employees (Bateman and Snell, 2009).
By determining accurate operational standards and priorities, managers and employees at SOL are able to focus and perform their tasks more effectively. SOL has not adopted the principle of dominance which often creates employee resistance and at times disables the duties of particular control systems which are used in evaluating operational activities. The organization pays much attention to good communication links amongst employees, every employee has got company’s yellow phone, this form vital part in determining the effectiveness of control system and the organization’s success.
Exchanging relevant information and feedbacks between SOL’s supervisors, salespeople and employees gives them the opportunity to understand and perform their tasks better. It also forms better part of motivating employees and enabling them to maximize their strengths and improve their weaknesses. The good relations and collaboration between employees even in the neighborhoods contributes a lot in the Success of SOL as a Company (Bateman and Snell, 2009).
SOL has got salespeople who work with their own team members at every new customer site. The team establishes for themselves performance benchmarks which are ultimately used by the customers to rate the level of SOL service satisfaction. Every cleaner is advised to have performance account where the quality of their services to customers is rated on a monthly basis. This presents good form of control based on level of performance, since it allows for easy implementation of corrective actions that ensures improvement in performance. The performance accounts used also makes it easy for accurate regulation of the organization’s efficiency and effectiveness (Becker and Huselid, 1998).
The Company has got supervisors who are equipped with modern technology equipments, the cell phones and laptops; this makes their work of coordination very easy. Planning is further made easy by the use of Intranet having the organization’s information database. This allows the team to make good use of the available resources by choosing appropriate goals and actions suitable for the organization. SOL empowers its employees by giving them more freedom to their own responsibilities on how they perform working activities. This has made SOL organization to win confidence with most of organizations based on their workers responsible nature. The use of the IT is one of the means used to empower employees within SOL since it enhances their knowledge by increasing the scope of their responsibilities at work (Becker and Huselid, 1998).
References
Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A., 2009. Management: Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive World.8th ed. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Becker, B. E. & Huselid, M. A., 1998. High performance work systems and firm performance: a synthesis of research and managerial implications. In G. R. Ferris (Ed.), Research in Personnel and Human Resources, Vol. 16. Stamford, CT: JAI Press.
Blyton, P. & Turnbull, P., 1994. The Dynamics of Employee Relations. London: Macmillan.
Cherns, A., 1987. Principles of socio-technical design revisited. Human Relations, (40), pp 153–162.
Mullins, L. J., 1996. Management and Organizational Behaviour. London: Pitman Publications.
Stoner, J. A., Edward, F. & Danvelo G.R., 2001. Management. 6th Ed. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India Ltd.