The Millennium Manager

By R. Ashley Rawlins

The Millennium Manager should be of interest to managers of all levels in public sector, private sector, or voluntary organisations. This book deals with several areas of management activities such as; Total Quality Management (TQM), The Management of Change, Management decision Making, Research Methods, Management Strategies, Marketing Planning, and Operations Management.

This book should appeal to those following formal studies in management from certificate level up to master of Business Administration degree. The practical treatment of some of the chapters should make interesting reading for managers and potential managers who do not want to undertake formal management studies but want to acquire some management tools.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Feb 27, 2006
• ISBN: 9781467878739

R. Ashley Rawlins

Major (Retd.) R. Ashley Rawlins TD DL BA MSc MBA MCMI Design Engineer, Energy Manager and Project Leader, British Telecom Plc. Senior Design Manager, Leeds City Council. Senior Manager, Utilities and Energy Management, Nottingham City Council. Contracts Manager, EnviroEnergy Ltd, one of Europes largest combined heat and power schemes. Part-time Lecturer in Building Services Engineering. Member of Governing Body for two high schools and one primary school and chair of one high school governing body. Director and Board Member of UCA House. Director, Chair and Board Member of Leeds Interpreting and Translation Services Ltd. Director and Board Member of Chapeltown and Harehills Enterprise Ltd. Director, Chair and Trustee of Leeds Chapeltown Citizens Advice Bureau. Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Incorporated Engineers, member of the interviewing panel and interviewed applicants for membership in the North East and Midlands from 1988 to 1992. Member of the East Midlands Energy Management Group, the Nottingham Green Partnership Energy Group, the Nottinghamshire Environmental Topic Forum and Chaired the Nottingham City Councils Energy Conservation Group. Member of Sheffield Business Schools Change Management Forum during its early stages. Member of the Chartered Management Institute. Appointed Her Majestys Deputy Lord-Lieutenant for the County of West Yorkshire.

Book preview

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1

The Quality Gurus and Total Quality Management (TQM)

Chapter 2

Change Management

Chapter 3

Organisational Change and Conflict

Chapter 4

Creative Organisations

Chapter 5

Management Decision Making

Chapter 6

Managing Change in a Public Organisation

Chapter 7

Research Methods

Chapter 8

Strategy Evolution and Organisation Structure

Chapter 9

Marketing Planning and Strategy

Chapter 10

How a Company’s Manufacturing Strategy Relate to its Corporate Strategy.

Chapter 11

Management and Accountability in the Public Sector

Chapter 12

Service Operations Management

Chapter 13

Crystalox Limited – Operations Management

Chapter 14

Organisation Strategies

(Past & Present)

About the Author

Acknowledgements 

I would like to thank those friends and colleagues in the many organisations where I was involved, and who assisted me in preparing some of the information for this book, for their generosity in responding to my questionnaires and allowing me to draw on their experiences during the many discussions and interviews. Acknowledgements especially to; British Telecom Leeds Area, Leeds City Council, Nottingham City Council, Barnsley City Council, EnviroEnergy limited, British Airways, I.E.I. Leeds Limited (Part of the Conder Group), Crystalox Limited and Tuberex Limited. A special thank you to the Directors and senior managers of some of the above organisations, who allowed me to meet and have discussions with junior staff during the normal working day and also for making sensitive business information available to me that is not normally available to the public.

Introduction 

The Millennium Manager should be of interest to managers of all levels in public sector, private sector, or voluntary organisations. This book deals with several areas of management activities such as; Total Quality Management (TQM), The Management of Change, Management decision Making, Research Methods, Management Strategies, Marketing Planning, and Operations Management.

This book should appeal to those following formal studies in management from certificate level up to master of Business Administration degree. The practical treatment of some of the chapters should make interesting reading for managers and potential managers who do not want to undertake formal management studies but want to acquire some management tools.

Chapter one examines the contributions made by a number of writers whose concept of quality within manufacturing, the service industries and possibly life in general, has made a major impact on the way we think and act today. The messages covered in this chapter is analysed to see if there is sufficient agreement in the various writings to provide managers with, comprehensive and coherent models for the implementation of TQM.

Chapter two looks at changes within an organisation and critically analyse the implementation of strategies in the organisation in relation to issues of Change Management. This chapter attempts to anticipate some of the changes and suggests ways in which the organisation might plan and accommodate them. The proposals put forward, justify some debate, as the central theme running through this chapter is that of constant change.

Chapter three is about Management Decision-Making and is a case study of organisation change and conflict. This chapter looks at two strategic decisions by the organisation. On inspection it was found that these organisational changes were carried out without communication or consultation with staff or their respective trade unions. It will show how this Scientific Management Style, which ignore human needs and behaviour and unsuitable for such organisation has caused both interdepartmental and interpersonal conflict. I discussed how conflict may be recognised and strategies to overcome or reduce the conflict and so bring about organisational effectiveness. I also discussed some causes of interpersonal conflict and how effective negotiation may be used to solve these conflicts.

Chapter four is about Management Decision-Making and looks at creativity and successful innovation within an organisation. This chapter discusses the characteristic behaviour of decision makers in such an organisation and outline the key variables that would, in my view, have to exist in order for a creative organisation to prosper. I discuss how creative organisations may seek out and recruit new members who they feel are especially creative. Creative organisations must develop an action plan for the introduction of new ideas, new services, new products etc. If highly creative individuals occupy strategic positions within an organisation, it is possible for them to influence the style adopted throughout the organisation and develop a highly creative organisation.

Chapter five is about Management Decision-Making. Organisations must seek the best possible match between environmental conditions, organisational structure, and culture in order to improve their decision-making capacity. Decision-Making is seen as the response of an organisation to its environment. An understanding of the processes for decision-making cannot be achieved without paying attention to the issues of organisation culture. It is important when analysing the strategic position of an organisation, to assess how this culture influences decision-making in the organisation and the strategies being pursued. This chapter argues that a useful analysis of culture can be achieved by examining the culture web of factors within an organisation, which preserves and sustain commonly held beliefs. The structure of an organisation is an important part of the culture web and therefore influences how individuals and groups perceive the organisation’s decisions, so the design and management of the organisational structure is crucial to the successful implementation of decisions.

Chapter six is about Managing Change in a Public Organisation. This chapter looks at one organisation and examines the implications for the processes of strategy implementation of the Post-Modern Condition, and the related issues of complexity. Certainly, organisations are changing, that is an essential element in the process of organisations. In this chapter, I tend to agree with the assertion that the period of Modernity, if we wish to call it that, is still dominant. Terms such as capitalism, industrialism, financial regulations, accountability and budgetary control are still appropriate, and I do not see how we can do without the legacy of the division of labour, bureaucracy and political economy. They are not beyond question but seem to provide a framework for thinking about organisations that has not yet been transcended. There seems to be no reason, apart from academic fashion, to introduce the term Post-Modernism, because it appears to have little or no empirical foundation and provides no convincing theoretical reason for adopting a periodisation of organisational form.

Chapter seven is about Research Methods. This chapter compare and contrast the validity of observation and interview research methods, which might be used in a post-graduate level dissertation. There are two major problems with interviewing. One is the no response problem; it is of major concern with all kinds of research. Another major interviewing problem is that of response error, in which the respondent fail to give a complete answer. However, the interviewer can make a major contribution to the correction of this problem. Observation is about the only feasible type of research where we are studying recordings, mechanical processes, lower animals, small children or complex interactive processes. We can gather data as the event occurs, and can come closer to capturing the whole event. However, we have to be present, or have some recording device to do the job of capturing the whole event.

Chapter eight is about Management Strategy. This chapter examines the strategy evaluation of an organisation to ascertain to what extent management strategies are fragmented, evolutionary and intuitive. The values of society are a major influence. Attitudes to work, authority, equality, and a whole range of other important issues are constantly shaped and changed by society at large. There are forces that encourage some overall cohesion in strategy too. The board negotiations that takes place is the collective process, even the forces of habit and tradition can pervade the organisation, for example, the hiring of certain kinds of people. The strategies of the organisation tend to exhibit a degree of stability. Strategic evaluation are discouraged by the fragmentation of activity and the influence of individual professionals and their outside associates.

Chapter nine is about Marketing Planning and Strategy. Marketing can be misleading. It is not just advertising, promotions, price cuts, packaging, public relations and surveys, which make up the visible small part and which are frequently considered to be the entirety of marketing. Marketing has its origin in the fact that humans are creatures of needs and wants. Interest in marketing is growing rapidly as more organisations in the private sector, commercial sector, public sector, and non-profit sector recognise how marketing contribute to improved performance in the marketplace. Marketing is concerned with strategic decision-making and all organisations are faced with the problems of formulating strategy. Strategic decision-making embraces all organisations, be they industrial, public sector, non-profit sector or private. Therefore, as a discipline, all areas of marketing are of equal relevance to all organisations.

Chapter ten is about Operations Management. It is important to recognise the dynamics of manufacturing that arise from the numerous subsystems, which exists, the interrelationships between these and the openness of the system to the environment. With changing demands being placed on manufacturing it will be necessary to adjust these systems in order to survive. Manufacturing must concerns itself with the process choice made by the operation and the consequences resulting from the decision. Manufacturing strategy must take on board the issues of product, manufacturing, investment, costs, and infrastructure choice, which have to be made. Organisations, especially large ones, are set to be efficient machines and it is difficult to change one part without adjusting the other parts. Organisations can be changed through strategic decisions and in advance of a crisis and in the midst of a crisis. The key to organisational survival is the organisations ability to involve all its functions in its strategic debate or is involved too late to make any useful contribution to corporate strategic debate and decision-making.

Chapter eleven is about Change Management in public sector organisations. It examines the changes in one organisation to see how Decentralisation has changed the decision process. One of the most difficult decisions to be made in planning or changing an organisation is, how much decentralisation there should be. The best balance between centralisation and decentralisation may vary at different periods in an organisation’s history as the local area politics change. Management tradition in this organisation is well established and this should make decentralisation easier, because managers tend to think and act in the same way. The calibre of junior and middle management will also affect the amount of decentralisation that is practicable. This is one of the constraints on decentralisation in this organisation. The prime reason for decentralisation is, that all information needed to make decisions cannot be comprehended in one head. So in an organisation that is based on a complex body of knowledge, there is usually a need to decentralise decision-making power. However, complete decentralisation become very complex if not impossible because of the extent that the organisation is controlled externally, for example, by central and local government that dominates the organisation’s external environment. In having to rely on trained professionals, people highly specialised and with considerable control over their work, the organisation surrenders a good deal of its power not only to the professionals themselves but also to the associations and institutions that selects and trains them in the first place.

Chapter twelve is about Operations Management. It examines the service operations management in a public sector organisation. In doing so, I looked at the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This chapter looks also at the organisation’s key activities, its objectives and the outcomes of pursuing those objectives. Also examined in this chapter are the customers benefits from the various activities, how outcomes are achieved and how the service is evaluated. The outcomes of the processes are reported to Committee Members on a regular basis although some Members are actually end users of the processes. However, there are some barriers to the processes providing good service or fulfilling customer expectations. The processes may be improved by forming partnerships with community groups. Links or partnerships are already being formed with some community groups and the processes have been greatly improved as a result of getting better knowledge of the needs of the end users. Although partnerships or joint venture initiatives with the private sector organisations are rigorously scrutinised by City Auditors, such joint ventures are opportunities that can greatly improve the processes.

Chapter thirteen is about Operations Management. This chapter is a strategic analysis of a private organisation. The formulation of strategy is concerned with matching the capability of the organisation with its environment. The approach is to list all conceivable environmental influences so that opportunities and threats may be identified. The listing will show the organisation to have a whole range of things going for it and a range going against it. However, if environmental analysis consists of listings things for and against the organisation, this will have significant limitations. Where there is a high degree of autonomy, as in the case of this organisation, decision-making in the organisational climate can cause some uncertainty amongst senior managers about the degree of competence and awareness amongst the decision makers. Such uncertainty and a desire to retain control seem to be a problem in this organisation.

Chapter fourteen is about Change Management, Management Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Operations Management and Management Decision-making. This chapter is an analysis of a private organisation. In 1983 the company started in an empty building, with limited funds. The senior management team using their previous experience and contacts pursued a strategy of developing a viable business in a familiar manufacturing environment. The initial strategy was to work as a subcontractor to the major manufacturing organisations. In order to qualify for orders in this market, the quality had to satisfactorily meet the specifications and reputation standards of the major producers. To win orders, the price had to such that it was low enough for the major suppliers to favour this new company (despite its well known management team) against the competition from other private producers. The strategies from the inception of the company have been to be a low cost supplier of quality products. The strategies have evolved incrementally. Reactive and proactive moves in relation to the changing internal and external environment have presented a pattern of actions, which has given an emerging strategy in terms of the customer profile. The current strategies are the result of a series of actions taken in the past. Those actions, which have been seen as successful, are the most likely to be re-enacted when the company is faced with situations, which are perceived to warrant the same treatment. The company employ an open and aggressive attitude to sales. There is an established routine for chasing and servicing existing customers.

Chapter 1 

The Quality Gurus and Total Quality Management (TQM)

The quality Gurus have given us a series of prescriptions for the implementation of TQM but have failed to provide us with a comprehensive and coherent model.

1.   What is a Quality Guru?

If quality is important, so are the people that propound it. It is human nature to deify great men and women who