Case Study 1 : A Day In Life of Adrian Jackson

Question 1 - Identify the basic managerial functions in which Adrian engaged during
the day-that is, planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

Planning is setting the mission and goals and defining the actions necessary
to achieve them. Adrian applies planning when he review notes from the team
meeting that was held last week and begins developing today’s agenda. He also
write out what he remembered from the last meeting to discuss in the meeting room.
Adrian engages in planning again when he outlines his schedule for the next day.

Organizing involves determining the tasks to be done, who will do them, and
how those task will be managed and coordinated. Manager must organize the
members of their work groups and organization so that information, resources, and
task flow efficiently through the organization. Adrian engages in organizing when
he’s manager is concerned about a recent contract the company has signed, and
she has some serious reservations about the company’s ability to complete the work
on time. Adrian tries to reassure her that they will meet the deadlines. Adrian
promises the manager to put together a short report on the progress of the contract.

Leading is motivating and directing the members of the organization so that

they contribute to the achievement of the mission and goals of the organization.
Adrian engages with leading when he indicates trust in Greg’s knowledge of
computers and software and will defer to his judgement if he does not think the
deadline can be met. Greg admit that he may have an overacted a bit during the
meeting and promises to reassess the proposed scope of work. At lunch meeting
with his manager, Adrian engages in leading when he quickly adapting the concern
of the partner and discussing the project’s merit and feasibility.
 Controlling is by monitoring performance of the organization, identifying
deviations between planned and actual results, and taking corrective action when
necessary. Adrian’s manager monitor the performance of the organization as well as
their progress in implementing strategic and operational plans. Controlling includes
establishing and understanding what is required to achieve goals, measuring what
actually happened or is being done, identifying deviations between planned and
actual results, and taking corrective action if there is a deviation.

Question 2 - When did Adrian act (a) interpersonal roles, (b) informational roles, (c)
decisional roles?

a) Interpersonal roles involve interactions and relationships with organizational

members and other constituents. The 3 interpersonal roles played manager
are figurehead, leader, and liaison. Adrian act in this interpersonal roles when
he manage to attend the meeting discussion with his team members to
discussed about the new agenda as well as last week agenda. After a
meeting, Adrian get back at the office to discover a voice-mail message
urging attendance at the manager’s meeting with one company’s partner
during lunch. Even Adrian had planned to run some errands over lunch but
decides it is necessary to join the lunch meeting. Adrian also attend the
retirement party for J.J Jordon in the main meeting.

b) In their informational roles, manager are responsible for ensuring that the
people with whom they work have sufficient information to do their jobs
effectively. Informational roles include monitoring, disseminator, and
spokesperson. Adrian act with informational roles when he’s manager is
concerned about a recent contract the company has signed, and she has
some serious reservations about the company’s ability to complete the work
on time. Adrian tries to reassure her that they will meet the deadlines. Adrian
promises the manager to put together a short report on the progress of the
contract.
 c) In their decisional roles, managers process information and reach
conclusions. Decision roles include entrepreneur, disturbance handler,
resource allocator, and negotiator. Adrian act with decisional roles when he
indicates trust in Greg’s knowledge of computer and software and will defer to
his judgement if he does not think the deadline can be met.

Question 3 - Did Adrian spend time appropriately? If so, in what ways? What
adjustments might been made to be more effective.

Adrian may have tried to manage his time appropriately, but many events in a
manager’s day tend to be unplanned and difficult to control. He spent too much time
on the phone with his manager when he should have been finalizing the meeting
agenda. He did not manage the meeting well, wasting the members’ time with an
extended argument over the project timeline. He also spent two hours at lunch
explaining the project’s merits and feasibility, which prevented him from running the
errands he had planned.
Case Study 2 : Tropical Sandals

Question 1 - Do you think that the workers in this sandal factory were provided with
too much autonomy in selecting work procedures?

In my opinion, the workers in the sandal factory are well trained with the
autonomy in selecting work procedures. This procedures may be applied from
Fayol’s general principles of management which is the division of work where by
dividing the work into smaller elements and assigning specific elements to specific
workers, the work can be performed more efficiently and more productively. Workers
might be tested to several workstations, they may be observed to see which area
that they are could be more productive and by applying this method, workers gets to
choose which task that they are more comfortable of doing and feel enjoy with their
working environment. When workers is in their comfort zone of performing the task,
productivity will increase and workers will feel more motivated and increase their
level of enthusiasm and confidence of performing their task.

Question 2 - Review the principles of scientific management and discuss how they
might be used to improve the task performance of the workers.

According to Frederick W. Taylor he attempted to define the one best way to

perform every task through systematic study and other scientific methods. He also
believed that improved management practices lead to improved productivity. In the
area of task performance, scientific management incorporates basic expectations of
management, including development of work standards where the methods should
be developed for performing each job within the organization, next is selection of
workers by doing it with the appropriate abilities to be selected for each job, fourth is
training of workers where workers should be trained in the standard methods to let
workers be familiarized with their job task. Lastly is support of workers where
workers should be supported by having their work planned for them.