Free Custom «Effectiveness of Managers and their Direct Reports» Essay Paper

1. Review of Management Functions

1. Planning

Planning entails the definition of the organization's goals and objectives, establishment of an effective strategy for achieving the goals and objectives, and developing the most comprehensive program for integrating individual functions and coordination of all activities (Kaifi, 2010). Hence, managers need to be effective planners to ensure that a work breakdown structure has been provided for respective tasks.

1. Organizing

Organizing entails the determination of the respective tasks that ought to be done, identifying who will be responsible for doing them, aligning tasks according to groups, assigning reporting functions, and where all decision making mechanisms will be made (Kaifi, 2010).

1. Leading

Leading entails mastering skills for directing and motivating employees through application of effective communication and conflict resolution skills (Kaifi, 2010). Managers need to understand that they are in a leadership position hence they ought to exercise their mandate in the best way possible.

1. Controlling

Controlling entails monitoring one's performance, initiating comparison of goals and results, and mastering the art of making required adjustments and corrections in a timely fashion (Kaifi, 2010). The art of controlling one's personal feelings allows an individual to perceive their surrounding in a better way and hand emotions around those surrounding them professionally (Kaifi, 2010).

1. Mastering Functions of Management

• Managers need to plan respective activities intended to achieve the tasks in mind.

When planning for any task, a course of action needs to be identified in a predetermined fashion that will be successful. This normally entails forecasting unexpected occurrences, development of proper objectives, programming the activities, scheduling the initiatives, budgeting, and developing implementation policies (Stretton, 2010).

• Managers need to organize projected activities taking into account all possible circumstances

Achieving the intended objectives primarily relies upon the manner in which activities have been organized. This will entail the development of proper procedures of implementation, the designing of an organizational structure to attain the objectives, and mastering good delegation patterns (Stretton, 2010)

• Managers need to take effective implement good leading strategies that will enable members to take their assigned actions effectively.

The art of leading is a special attribute which managers ought to understand before carrying out any tasks without projecting the consequences. This will entail establishing beneficial relationships in the workplace, implementing good decision making mechanisms, choosing effective communication strategies, and initiating effective selection methods for the staff (Stretton, 2010). In essence, this should enable people to take the intended course action in a proactive manner.

• Managers need to apply effective execution mechanism to achieve the intended end objectives

The execution of the chosen course of action will ultimately depend on the assessment and regulation of demonstrated performance approaches. This will entail developing people oriented skills, defining the standard performance requirements, developing a method for measuring individual performance from all members and using this to perform a good evaluation based on the outcomes (Stretton, 2010).

1. Evaluation of Effective Delegation Skills of Among Managers

• Communication as an Evaluation benchmark

Information forms an important element in the in the actual delegation of chosen tasks. Failure to identify certain important aspects associated with information during delegation can actually interfere with the effectiveness of delegation. The proper communication should entail sharing in a way in which saliency and decay of information is known (Anthony & Vidal, 2010). For instance, a manager can provide information during delegation while the actual task had progressed past the given instructions, consequently leading to dumping.

• Efficacy of Performance Monitoring

In as much as the duties have been delegated to other employees, the manager ought to monitor the tasks that are being performed to ensure that all the objectives are being attained in a timely fashion. In most instance, the act of performance review ought to stay with the manager hence cannot be delegated (Luecke & McIntosh, 2009).

1. Importance of Mastering Effective Delegation Techniques

• Description of new responsibility in the assigned task

Every manager delegating a task ought to recognize the fact that assigning new responsibilities to an employee may not always be welcome. Hence, there is need for the employee to know the task description and their willingness to partake on the task.

• Mastering Feedback Approaches

It is important to recognize the fact that effective feedback relies upon the dissemination of a two way approach (Luecke & McIntosh, 2009). Hence, most of the time managers would seek to postpone further communication until the task has been completed, which has a negative impact during production of the final report.

• Good Choice of Person and timely Delegation

According to Leucke and McIntosh (2009) in order to avoid any disappointing outcomes, the manager must delegate to a person who is the right person and determine whether the person has time to do the apportioned task. Hence, it is important for managers to assign tasks to people whom they are certain will accomplish the required task within the prescribed time limits.

• Effective monitoring on Timing and Tasks Implementation

During delegation, managers ought to understand that task have timelines since this is important in the attainment of the organizational goals and objectives. As a result, it is important to provide a breakdown structure for the new task to avoid any disappointment. Moreover, this important in order to project any changes that might need to be made in the original plan.