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BSc (Hons) Real Estate Management & Development

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT (Part 1)


6506BEKL
ASSIGNMENT SM01 (No. 1)
1. Critically review management functions
in managing projects.
2. Training and development process carried
out by companies.

Assessment Requirements
and
Student Checklist

Name:
Lecturer:
End date:

Chung Vui Hsiung

Student ID:
(Imperia/LJMU)
Pn. Rosita Arman Michael Anniah
9th March 2015

1006540/670078

Table of Content

Table of Contents
Question 1 3-8
Question 2 9-12
Reference

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Question 1
According to Certo (1997), management can be defined as a process to
accomplish organizational goals by working with humans and other organizational
resources. According to Bin (2008), management as a discipline refers to an area of
knowledge that attempts to investigate methods to properly manage an organization.
This is because management can come from various approaches that is best suited
for certain types of organization. For an organization to utilize management, it is
important that every organization needs to establish goals and objectives in order to
compete and stay relevant and existing in the industry (Bin, 2008). The quality of the
projects these organization undertakes are heavily dependent on how the
management is carried out and whether the function of management is
acknowledged and utilized properly. It remains a valid point that management as a
process involves several work activities and functions that must be followed and
completed by every managers in order to achieve goals that were set by the
organizations (Bin, 2008). As someone who takes up the leading role, it is the duty of
managers to utilize management principles to guide the employees and staffs in
carrying out the management process (Bin, 2008). The functions of management for
projects can be divided to 4 parts, which are planning, organizing, leading and
controlling.

Firstly, for planning, it involves the process of forming organizational goals


and objectives that are based on a logical plan (Bin, 2008). This is the basic
foundation that needs to be established in order to form a proper management for
project. In this stage, the management will first set up goals and the relevant
procedures that are required to achieve existing goals taking into consideration the
available resources within the organization. Planning requires that managers be
consistently aware of any environmental conditions that are facing their organization
and are also able to forecast conditions in the future (Mason Carpenter, 2015).
Project managers are also required to be capable of making good decisions in this
management stage (planning). Otherwise, a badly thought out plan will jeopardize
the entire management process and may negatively affect the outcome of the
project, be it in terms of quality or quantity or both depending on its nature.
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There are several steps that planning is consist of. Planning begins with
environment scanning that means that the managers or planners have to be aware
of any critical contingencies that are or potentially affecting his or her organization
(Mason Carpenter, 2015). The contingencies may come in the form of economic
conditions, competitors or customers. Planners must be capable of forecasting future
conditions. This is because should these contingencies arises, there has to be a
contingency plan concocted in order to tackle the arising problem. Otherwise, the
loss would be greater if the contingencies affect the organization in the future but
with no ample preparation or anticipation to handle it. As a result, the attempt of
creating and implementing proper project management will end up in an eventual
failure. To sum up, in this phase, planners or project managers must be able to
establish objectives which consists of statements, written or otherwise, of what is
required to be achieved and when should it be achieved, identify various alternatives
means to achieve the established objectives, make best decisions about the best
courses in which that should be taken in order to accomplish objectives, formulating
plans necessary along with ensuring that implementation is conducted effectively,
and constantly evaluating their plan and take corrective measures where necessary
(Mason Carpenter, 2015).

There are 3 types of planning which can be applied for projects by project
managers, the first being strategic planning where it involves the analysis of both
competitive opportunities and threats along with strength and weaknesses (SWOT
Analysis) of a given organization, which will be followed by determining ways to
position the organization in order to compete effectively in their current environment
(Mason Carpenter, 2015). Generally, strategic planning aims to provide coverage for
longer time frame such as 3 years and above. In this planning, usually the entire
organization is included within and objectives are formulated taking into
consideration the results of SWOT analysis (Mason Carpenter, 2015). This type of
planning is suitable for project managers or stakeholders who are intending on
producing certain goods which either takes a long time to complete such as property
developments or one that needs to maintain or increase sales of product for a long
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period of time without losing customer base(Eg. Nestle, Milo, KFC, and McDonald).
These companies are not looking into short term business but long and lasting
relationship with the consumer base and will implement strategic planning to
undertake projects in order to ensure that people will still be interested in the
products they sell.

The second type of planning used for project is tactical planning. Unlike
strategic planning, tactical planning is not targeted for long term usage but for shorter
term that usually ranges around one to three years. This type of planning is used to
develop concrete and specific means to implement the plan into action. Usually,
middle-level managers are engaged in tactical planning (Mason Carpenter, 2015).
This planning is useful for preliminary preparations or procedures of a project for
three years and below.

The third type of planning is operational planning. Generally, operational


planning assumes the existence of organization-wide or subunit goals along with
objectives and contains specific ways to achieve them. Operational planning covers
a shorter duration than the previous two planning, which is usually 1 year and below.
This type of planning is mainly used to develop specific actions or steps that
supports both the strategic and tactical plan (Mason Carpenter, 2015). This planning
method can be used for laying out the foundation or groundwork for a long term
project.

The second part for the function of management is organizing. Organizing


involves the effort to coordinate activities that were done by two or more individuals
in an organization (Bin, 2008). In other words, organization involves developing an
organizational structure as well as allocating human resources to ensure
accomplishment of established objectives (Mason Carpenter, 2015). Effort is
coordinated through the framework which is the structure of the organization. This
done in order to arrange all established actions based on priorities or degree of
importance. Should this arrangement not done, more cost in either monetary, energy,
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labor or time will be incurred by the organization in taking actions towards problem
that are not deemed an immediate or great threat which might be incoming within a
short period of time. The organization structure is usually represented in a chart
which provides a graphical representation of the chain of commands within a given
organization (Mason Carpenter, 2015). This is to show the position as well as roles
played by every individual within an organization in order to avoid any confusion as
to who does what. Decisions made about the structure of an organization is usually
referred to as organizational design decisions (Mason Carpenter, 2015). Organizing
in a project is important because the process involves deciding how best to
departmentalize jobs or roles of every individual into department in order to
coordinate actions accordingly. In a project, organizing will save a lot of time as
every individual can perform their designated duties and coordinate with each other
in order to create a healthy level of productivity. In other words, organizing enables
smoothness in an organization. According to Mason Carpenter (2015), traditionally,
job design which means process of putting together various elements in order to
form a job, taking into consideration organizational and individual worker
requirements, was based on the principles of divisions of labor and specialization,
which assumed that the more narrow the job content, the more proficient the
individual performing the job could be. This is related to organizing as individuals can
be delegated to specific and specialized job in order for higher productivity out of the
job due to increased proficiency of the worker doing it. In projects, this will allow
individuals to perform better in their designated duties. However, there is a drawback
for such job design. This is because a job content can be too narrow and
specialized. As a result, negative outcomes might be resulted, due to poor job
satisfactory among workers as well as organizational commitment who are having to
repeat the same specific and specialized work. For projects, a good motivation is
required to ensure good work output from all individuals and there needs to be a
proper balance between that (good job satisfactory level) and job specification.

The third functions of management are to lead or provide proper or adequate


leadership to the organization. According to Bin (2008), leading or leadership is the
process of training employees on how to perform their duties in an organization. An
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organization requires someone who can direct it and all the components within it in
order to progress to greater heights than where it is currently. Without a proper
direction, an organization will fail to progress with maximum efficiency and
productivity and may collapse given time. As leading involves the social and informal
sources of influence that a leader uses in order to inspire action taken by others, the
managers need to be an effective leaders to ensure their subordinate remain
enthusiastic about exerting their efforts to achieve organizational objectives (Mason
Carpenter, 2015). In order to achieve that, especially for projects, the managers
need to understand the personalities, values, attitudes and emotions of their
subordinates. This is because personality research and studies of job attitudes gives
useful information as to how managers can effectively lead subordinates (Mason
Carpenter, 2015). An undertaking of a project requires managers who can truly take
the helm and bring his or her team to exercise the required or additional effort in
order to achieve the completion or succession of the project.

The fourth and last function of management is controlling. Controlling or


otherwise known as managerial control is the effort from the management in order to
ensure that the organization is progressing towards achieving goals based on the
developed plans (Mason Carpenter, 2015). Controlling involves the process of
ensuring that performance does not deviate from established standards. This is
because any work or effort done in a project that does not come hand in hand with
existing regulations or plans will act as a detriment to the organizations goals and
objectives and may prevent them from being achieved. Controlling consists of 3
steps, which the first one is establishing performance standards, secondly being
creating a comparison between current performance against the established
standards and the third being taking any corrective actions if deemed necessary
(Mason Carpenter, 2015). These 3 steps must be done systematically and orderly so
that a performance can be controlled to ensure quality of the outcome of a project.
This function is sometimes misunderstood as some may think it implies project
managers should attempt to control or manipulate the personalities, attitudes, values
or emotions of their subordinates, which is incorrect (Mason Carpenter, 2015).
Rather, this function is more focused on the roles of a project manager in taking the
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appropriate actions in order to ensure that work-related activities by the team


members are in consistent with the standards established which will contribute
towards the accomplishment of a project, not to mention departmental and
organizational objectives (Mason Carpenter, 2015). It is undeniable that controlling
requires the existence of plans as planning provides the appropriate standards or
objectives. Other than that, controlling also requires a good understanding of where
responsibility for deviations from standards lies (Mason Carpenter, 2015). This is
related to organizing within the function of management. Despite controlling being
often perceived of in terms of financial criteria, managers should also include
production and operation processes, procedures for service delivery and compliance
with company's policy within the definitions of controlling in management (Mason
Carpenter, 2015). This is to ensure that any projects undertaken will have their good
quality and quantity (where applicable) ensured.

In conclusion, management is not as simple concept as one may think. It


involves several functions in which a lot of effort and performance is being conducted
in order to ensure that optimum operation and productivity can be attained when
undertaking a project or attempting to achieve goals and objectives. The four
functions of management, which is planning, organizing, leadership and controlling
are vital in ensuring that management is being performed well. Without one of them,
the quality of a project or an undertaking will be compromised. These four functions
are harmonious towards one another and each and every one of them needs to be
carried out to its optimum level in order to increase productivity, efficiency and quality
as well as pushing the organization to greater heights than it was.

Question 2

Training and development process carried out by a company can be defined


as a planned effort by a company in order to facilitate employees learning of jobrelated competencies (Noe, 2010). The outcomes obtained from these trainings
include knowledge, skills, or behaviors that will no doubt be critical for a better or/and
successful job performance by the trained employee. The purpose of training,
according to Noe (2010), is to master the knowledge, behavior and skills that the
training program entails and apply them to their day-to-day basis. Such improved
application to day-to-day work will no doubt improve efficiency and productivity of the
employee, which ultimately benefits the organization in form of reputation and profits.
In order for a company to obtain any competitive advantage among other
competitors, the training module provided by the organization must involve more
than just basic skill development (Noe, 2010). A company must also have a mindset
of viewing training as a way to create intellectual capital. Intellectual capital can be
categorized under basic skills which are skills required to perform ones job, and
advanced skills such as ways to use available and existing technology to share
information with other employees. Intellectual capital can be seen as a form of
investment by company to produce skilled employees that can take on tasks
required to advance the company to higher levels than before.

There are several steps which are deemed necessary in the training process,
the first being the need to clearly determine organizational objectives. Training and
development cannot occur if the purpose of the training is not made clear and to
what goals or objectives the training were to accomplish should it be undertaken by
the employees. The training has to allow the employee to perform measures using
the skills learned via the training to achieve or at least move towards to achieving
objectives set by the company. Should training be conducted but no goals and
objectives are established, there will be unnecessary costs incurred in providing
training to staffs or employees which will not prove to be productive in the
organization. In some cases, those skills which were learnt will barely be used in a
day-to-day basis. Should that were to occur, productivity and efficiency will drop
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down and that will deter the company from progress towards greater heights. In
training and development process, valid considerations need to be taken as to the
long and short term of the companys objectives as well. This is because both long
and short term objectives may constitute different training methods or decisions (to
train or not) to all related employees. Determining such factor improves accuracy
and relevancy of the training module, if it were to be done.

Secondly, a needs assessment has to be done to determine whether training


and development of an employee is required or otherwise. The company is required
to define the needs of the company by identifying weak areas where training would
prove beneficial (McKay, 2015). The examples of such needs are dependent on the
nature of the company itself. For example, there may be a need to develop training
modules on how to use machinery, office equipment or a specific process (hard
skills), or soft skills such as time management, conflict resolution, harassment and
company policies (McKay, 2015). This is important to ensure that the training
process that were to be deployed is relevant to the daily works being conducted by
the employees.

There is a need to plan the training by identifying individuals or groups that


are likely to benefit from it (McKay, 2015). This is to ensure that the proper
employees receive the proper training module. It is unlikely that a cleaner in the
company will benefit a lot from training on note taking. Certain modules, such as
those covering company policies and time management should be given to all
employees within the company (McKay, 2015). Such training is important for them to
be well aware of the ways to manage time efficiently and the dos and donts in the
company. However, more specific skills such as how to use a piece of equipment or
perform a specific duty may only provide benefits to the employees whose job
coverage are directly impacted by the addition of those knowledge via training
(McKay, 2015).

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Implementation is an important part in training and development process.


There is a need to implement training modules based on the level of importance
(McKay, 2015). This is to ensure that resources are allocated based on priority or
degree of urgency that the company deems it to be. A proper arrangement on what
to be trained and when should it be carried out as well as to who it should be carried
out is very important to ensure proper efficiency and lesser costs incurred by
avoiding ineffective and unimportant trainings. For example, if customer services or
time management is an important issues that needs to be addressed immediately,
then it is advisable that training be provided as soon as possible regarding those
issues (McKay, 2015). Lesser important trainings can be arrange in a later date
depending on its level of importance. Such course of decision making will also
promotes proper organizing in a systematically way within a company and will
prevent messes throughout.

During training and development process, a professional trainer or


experienced employee should be used whereas possible, whether from within the
company or outsourcing from a different company (McKay, 2015). This is because
the trainers interaction with the audience as well as its way of presentation is
important in ensuring the effectiveness of the training module (McKay, 2015). If the
person conducting the training process does it poorly, the employees wont be able
to learn much from the training module. Worst of all, the training module may
backfire if the trainers are poor in presenting their knowledge to other people. This
may cause the trainees to perform poorly after the training procedure. This explains
why a good and professional trainer is recommended for training process.

In training process, there are different methods that can be employed to train
trainees. One example of the methods is presentation where trainees are passive
recipients of information such as facts, processes, and problem-solving techniques
(Noe, 2010). Another example includes lecture where trainers communicate through
spoken words on what they want the trainees to learn. Audiovisual instruction is also
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a method of training trainees. This method uses overheads, slides or videos. It is


important to determine which training method is suitable for which purpose as well as
the participants that are expected to benefit from the training module. This is
because a certain group of participants might be able to learn way more from a
certain method but not so much as with another method.

In conclusion, training and development process is important for the


productivity and efficiency of a company. Without training, employees or staffs will be
less skilled in a particular skill which may impede their ability to perform well in a
given task. This will also cause the company to be unable to utilize higher use of
their employee that it could have gotten if training is provided for the staffs. Some
may argue that it may cost a lot to provide these training to the staffs, but the
outcome may be a lot better than the downside of training. Some companies treats
training and development as a form of investment that is believed to provide higher
returns in the future, whether it be in form of productivity, efficiency or profitability.
Therefore, there is a need to promote proper training and development in order to
compete with other companies that are continuously improving as well in order to
stay relevant in the market.

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References
Anon., n.d. BizMove. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bizmove.com/personnel/m4d.htm
[Accessed 9 March 2015].
Bin, A. H., 2008. Business Management. Shah Alam: Oxford Hajar Sdn. Bhd..
Certo, S. C., 1997. Modern Management. Upper Saddle River: NJ: Prentice Hall.
Mason Carpenter, T. B. B. E., 2015. Principles of Management, v. 1.1. [Online]
Available at: http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/6?e=fwk-127512-ch01_s03
[Accessed 5 March 2015].
McKay, M., 2015. Chron. [Online]
Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/developing-effective-employee-training-program-1181.html
[Accessed 9 March 2015].
Noe, R. A., 2010. Employee Training and Development. 5th ed. New York: Paul Ducham.

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