- Task one
- Explain and evaluate how the manager carries out Mintzberg's three managerial roles: the interpersonal, the informational and the decisional roles
- Interpersonal roles
- The framework developed by Mintzberg on leadership categorised all the roles that the manager is accountable for executing different but integrated roles. In response to the interpersonal roles, the manager is the figure head whereby he is entitled to support and execute social, ceremonial as well as legal responsibilities (Mintzberg, 2009, p.3). The manager is seen as a source of inspiration whereby he/she motivates and encourages the employees towards achieving the set goals. The employees look up to the manager as the person unleashing all the authorities needed. In terms of executing the roles as figure head, the hr manager of PepsiCo United Kingdom, Morris, facilitates motivation to the employees through encouraging them towards performing their duties in the respective manner. He achieves these through providing gifts and rewards for the best performing employees. As a leader, the manager is also entitled to provide or facilitate leadership for the team, department or the entire organization. According to Koontz & Weihrich, (2010, p.18) the leadership role as identified by Mintzberg is whereby the manager is expected to control the performance as well as the responsibilities of each member in the team, department or organization. The hr manager of PepsiCo UK manages to manoeuvre the leadership roles for the entire department through frequent scanning and monitoring the activities that the employees perform. He checks the responsibilities which are executed to satisfaction and tries to determine the responsibilities which have not been performed to satisfactory in order for them to be revised accordingly. The manager is also obliged to the role of a liaison whereby he/she is expected to communicate with both internal and external contacts. In essence, the liaison role for the manager as identified by Mintzberg requires him/her to network effectively on behalf of the organization. The hr manager of PepsiCo UK has emerged amongst the list of the managers who have executed this role since he supports communication both with the employees and also with the customers or and different personnel from different companies.
- Informational roles
- Mintzberg also identified or categorised the informational roles which the manager is required to meet. The manager is expected to monitor whereby this explains the manner in which he/she should seek information related to the organization regularly in order to determine any changes in the industry or environment (Schermerhorn, 2010, p.19). The monitoring role also requires the manager to check and keep follow up on the progress as well as the welfare of the team members or the employees in the department. The hr manager of PepsiCo UK manages to fulfil his monitoring role through frequently interacting with the employees and visiting them in their stations in order to determine any problem which might be bothering them. In terms of welfare, the manager ensures that all the employees in the organization are well catered for if they have any healthcare or personal issues which might impact their productivity. Managers or leaders are also required to effectively perform the disseminator role which includes communicating any useful information to the members of the team or department. Communication is essential to ensure that everyone understand the guidelines to be followed. In PepsiCo UK, the hr manager always facilitates potentially the essential information that is useful and required in supporting the department and this has successfully ensured that the employees are aware of the requirements they are supposed to follow and maintain. The manager is the spokesman or performs the role of spokesman which implies that they are the speakers of the organization. This role is effectively accomplished if the manager is in a position to transmit information regarding the organization and its goals as well as objectives to the persons outside. For the case of PepsiCo hr manager, he ensures that communication of the goals and objectives of the organization is facilitated to the person outside the organization including the customers and other stakeholders whereby this is performed through newsletters and advertisements.
- Decisional roles
- Mintzberg also identified the decisional roles in which the first role of the manager under this category is acting as the entrepreneur. The manager is liable for creating and controlling change in the organization to facilitate improvement and development (Lussier, 2012, p.12). This covers a diversity of activities which include solving problems, creating and implementing new ideas. The human resource of PepsiCo has managed to execute this role effectively since he has implemented and supported strategies which ensure effective process in conflict resolution as well as supporting a robust team that engages in research and development to boost the knowledgebase of the organization in facilitating new ideas for development. Furthermore, Morris, the manager supports activities which lead to development of new ideas and easy process of problem solving including team formation and control. Disturbance handler is another role that the manager is entitled to performing as identified in the Mintzberg roles whereby he/she must take charge when the department of the team hits a dead end. The disputes associated with the team also require being solved in the most professional manner to ensure that members remain social and interactive and this remains to be the work of the manager (Mintzberg, 2007, p.5). The hr manager of PepsiCo UK has proved to be a professional in disturbance handler since he takes full charge whenever the organization seems to be a deadlock and has facilitated solution to numerous disputes in the organization thus ensuring the problems or issues facing the members are solved. Finally, the manager is also required to perform the negotiator role whereby he/she will at times be subjective to negotiations in order to ensure that the members of the organization remain in unison. The hr manager of PepsiCo UK takes all parties involved in bargaining or disagreement through a consensus process whereby he settles all aspect and ensures that the solution achieved leaves the parties contended.
- Task two
- Explain and evaluate how the manager plans the work of his or her department.
- Identifying the business needs
- The most essential aspect of the manager is consideration of the distinct levels of control and planning that he needs to perform. In planning the manager facilitates the procedures, d guidelines for achieving certain objective. The hr achieves strategic planning through reviewing and analysing the vision, objectives as well as the value of the entire business (Alexander, 2002, p.9). Through the strategic planning, the manager facilitates the long-term and short term decisions which need to be achieved. The manager has also developed a strong mission and vision for the department in order to ensure that all the members under the human resource umbrella have a clear focus as to where each is heading and what is needed of them. The other planning that the manager undertakes is the tactical planning whereby he describes the tactics or the strategies to be used ensure that the organization or business survives with a specified timeframe possibly a year. The manager provides tactical planning that ensures the business remains flexible to any changes. The manager is also involved in resource distribution and budgeting whereby he ensures that this is achieved effectively through the use of the most appropriate tools (Matthews, 2005, p.65).
- The hr manager of PepsiCo performs numerous activities in effort to ensure that he comes up with the required job plan for the department that benefits the whole organization. The first stage that the manager undertakes is through identifying the needs of the business in different perspectives. The manager views the business in the competitive perspective whereby for the business to remain competitive, it should have enough employees or workers to support the operations and activities of the organization in an effective manner. The other aspect that the manager view is through technology whereby investing in a more advanced technology solves the business needs. Increased customer demand is another dimension that the manager examines before planning for the workforce that will ensure that the business is supported in the appropriate manner. The workforce changes are significant aspects that need to be viewed in order to ensure proper planning of workforce. Without identifying the needs of the business in regard to the human resource department, the human resource manager cannot be in a position to determine what needs to be done in order to achieve the set goals.
- Setting departmental goals
- The human resource manager of PepsiCo understands that in order to achieve the overall goals of the organization, the business should have departmental goals which are aligned to the overall goals of the organization. The departmental goals as set by the manager tie the personal goals of the members of the department into the same lane. The manager uses SMART objective as the framework to facilitate making the appropriate decisions (Matthews, 2005, p.65). The most crucial aspect is that the hr manager discusses with the employees on the goals and objectives which need to be achieved through facilitating daily activities. The members are allowed to participate and offer their suggestions towards the tasks that need to be achieved and the process of facilitating these tasks. This makes each member aware of what they are required to contribute and how to go about their duties.
- Through job planning and conducting a job analysis
- The hr manager of PepsiCo plans for the work of the department following an effective job plan. The manager has developed effective work plan whereby this has involved discussion with the employees. A job plan facilitates both the manager and the employee an opportunity to understand the role for each one of them. The manager initially discusses the job requirements with the employees in order to be in a position to be able to reach for the appropriate job management schedule. In this case, the manager carries out the exercise of identifying the aspects of the business which require help. This is relevance to understand the new spaces that are opening up as well as determining the special skills needed to occupy the gap, the work experience, and the number of staff needed. The manager reaches for the right decision in planning job through conducting a job analysis which includes reviewing the current workforce whereby this includes an analysis of the current employees in the organization in terms of their skill level and experience in order to ensure that each employee is provided with the responsibilities that they can execute effectively based on their level of knowledge and skill. This also ensures that the skill gaps existing within the workforce. After completing the assessment of the job status, the manager proceeds and writes a job description for further clarification of the positions that need to be filled and the skills as well as the level of knowledge that each position holds.
- Scheduling the daily activities
- The analysis of the job and the business requirements facilitates the manager with the privilege of understanding the requirements or the tasks which will require daily attention. The manager is also in a position to understand the tasks which will require more attention and resources as compared to others. In this case, the manager comes up with a plan by allocating each employee the task they are required to perform daily (Rothwell, 2010, p.60). For instance, assuming that the business requires that the production system is to be checked and serviced every morning before the production of the day starts, the manager identifies the maintenance team that will facilitate the operations for them to be successful on daily basis. The service and maintenance team will have to perform the tasks early in advance in order to ensure that the operations of the business are not delayed. The programs of daily tasks are written in the worksheets and stored in the computer. The manager clearly understands that his tasks it to perform his duties effectively and ensure the other members also perform their tasks to satisfaction. Monitoring and inspection on the progress of the activities being performed by the employees are the major tasks that the manager is entitled to and he performs this inspection frequently in order to be in a position to identify any problem that might occur for it to be solved as early as possible.
- Teamwork development and management
- The human resource manager of PepsiCo UK cannot accomplish his tasks or his duties of planning for the daily activities without considering the issue of building strong teams. The effectiveness of teams is that they facilitate collaborative effort thus making work easier and they are easier to deal with in a large department. The manager determines the work of each team and the role as well as the position of each team member. The team are developed according to the taskforce relevance and they are coordinated together by the set goals and objectives. The manager in this case delegates the responsibilities of each member and ensures that they are effectively executed through monitoring the progress of each team on performance.
- Conclusion
- The manager remains the most influential character in the organization and as Mintzberg identified in his managerial roles framework, the manager is entitled to perform three roles categorized in three key groups including the interpersonal, informational and dissemination roles. For the organization to reach success, these roles must be performed effectively and in the right manner. The hr manager of PepsiCo as analysed in the study above has managed to ensure success in the organization following his success in supporting and accomplishing his roles in the required manner through strategic, tactical and effective resource planning. The manager also needs to determine key aspects such as mission and vision statements to ensure that the employees have their personal goals aligned to the same direction.
- References
- Alexander, D. E. 2002. Principles of emergency planning and management. Oxford, [Angleterre], Oxford University Press.
- Koontz, H., & Weihrich, H. 2010. Essentials of management. New Delhi [u.a.], McGraw-Hill.
- Lussier, R. N. 2012. Management fundamentals: concepts, applications, skill development. Mason, Ohio, South-Western.
- Matthews, J. R. 2005. Strategic planning and management for library managers. Westport (Connecticut), Libraries.
- Mintzberg, H. 2009. Managing. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers. http://www.contentreserve.com/TitleInfo.asp?ID={EDBE990A-F6C0-44D5-A88B-7BF36902FA67}&Format=50.
- Mintzberg, Henry. 2007. Mintzberg on Management. Free Pr.
- Rothwell, W. J. 2010. Effective Succession Planning Ensuring Leadership Continuity and Building Talent from Within. New York, AMACOM. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=533010.
- Schermerhorn, J. R. 2010. Management. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley.
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