Essay: Organizational Management

Organizational Management is a vital asset to forming an environment that supports solid and continuous improvement of individuals in their organization. It is imperative that every organization has leaders with clear understanding of the issues that face their organization and are prepared to create the necessary change towards fixing them. Managers must break down the entire operation of each and every department into several phases, allowing for site of the goals that must be met. Every organization relies on the hands of these managers for survival, therefore it is key they understand the true importance and role of management. Along with management it is important to understand change, how to implement it, and how to quickly adapt. In this paper I will be discussing my position in the workplace from an organizational standpoint, personal leadership goals that I have and how I will apply organizational management towards to success of my organization’s future.
My position within the workplace could not be any more perfect when it comes to dealing with Organizational Management. I currently deal with management on a daily basis in several different areas. The most intensive area I manage is our sales force of about a hundred representatives. Every day is unique and challenging and teaches me to how imperative it is to be a great leader because you have many people following your guidance. Over time I have learned that it is not only important that I am a great leader however, that I also have great leadership above me for guidance. Another area I manage is our market access, and this involves strategizing with several departments on how these patients can best get covered and relaying this message to them. This area can be extremely difficult at times because each and every scenario is different, and it takes much strategizing be able to help each and every patient. Within these roles it is extremely easy to get lost within the day to day actions and lose sight of the overall picture.  I constantly have to force myself to step out of situations, to asses everything else going on around it. Given this is a smaller company, much of this work is manual and the processes are everchanging due to there being new problems daily. This has taught me how to adapt, which is essential to success in the workplace. Like Stephen Hawkins says, “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” One practice our company carries is creating for a decentralized management environment. While it is not officially decentralized, everybody in the office treats one another as an equal. Our CEO believes that it is so very important that each and every employee feels valued and empowered. He believes that everyone needs to work together to reach common goals, Peter Drucker calls this MBO “Management by Objectives”. In this practice there are 5 steps: review goals, set objectives, monitor progress, evaluate performance and reward employees. This is exactly how we do our work within the company and is an excellent use of organizational management. My goals within the workplace include being the best leader I can be and understanding each and every role within the company even if it means having to be in that role for a short period. To me, knowledge is the most powerful thing you can carry, and this will help me to becoming a better leader and manager.
As Gandhi once said, “I must first become the change I wish to see in others.” Personal leadership development is something I strive for each and every day because leadership plays a tremendous role in any organization’s success. For me personally, it is important that I know the difference between being a manager and a leader because they often get misunderstood. Managers focus on an organization’s goals whereas leaders focus on the people’s goals. I need to learn to be one with the people, while working towards these larger goals. Company’s like Google found themselves to be in trouble when they were being run by a team of leaders and not managers. In 2001 they had to bring in a new CEO in which could provide a more structured management. The new CEO knew how to stay organized and keep things focused, and this played a large part to Google’s continued success. He however not only had management qualities but also leadership qualities. He followed a set of principles such as getting to know his employees and creating ways to reward the top performers. He also felt it was important that employees have their performance reviewed by someone in which they respect for their objectivity. It was also known that he would create lists of his top employees’ so he could personally interact with them. These are all practices in which I plan to follow in my years to come within the workplace. One is not born a leader, it is something that is developed with the proper habits, discipline and attitude. There are many ways one can practice leadership, some ways of which are through interpersonal influence tactics. One of these tactics is to develop allies so that you have a network of those that are able to help you accomplish your goals. This is especially important in our company because you will not succeed with the help and backing of other employees. Another tactic I would like to personally work on is being able to appeal to the high authority to gain the support of those at higher levels. I have always been told that you act the role you wish to become. I have always had to goal of owning a business, therefor I have learned to think like. CEO. Lastly, it is also important that I rely on the rule of reciprocity so that I can influence others through exchanging benefits and favors. Life is all about the gift of giving and receiving, and this will help any individual with being the best leader they can be. I will use these tactics every day towards the betterment of my personal leadership skills.
Organizational management is something that not only I would benefit from, but so would my organization. One thing I feel is most important in our organization is the ability to adapt to change. Each and every day we encounter new situations and problems, and there will not always be simple answers to these. This forces all of us to work together, brainstorm, and create the change that is necessary to solve these problems. Moving forward, I feel that our company should focus on one of the four management functions specifically, planning. Being a start-up company, we work in an extremely fast paced environment, which forces us to make decisions sometimes without the proper thought process. In the book Management by Richard Daft, he asks, “how do managers plan for the future in a constantly changing environment?” This is the single handedly most dealt with issue in our organization. The book also goes over an organizational planning process in which we could significantly benefit from. This plan starts with first setting your end goal, then moving to developing a strategy map to reach that goal. In our organization, this would be our time to set meetings with various departments to discuss how we will solve the problems we deal with using multiple perspectives. The next part of the plan is to clearly define the goals and targets from an organizational standpoint, and then you must execute these goals. The next step following execution in my opinion, is the most important. This is the monitoring stage where you learn if your planning and strategizing worked, and if it did not, how you could have planned differently. Like Peter Drucker says, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence- it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” Without this stage, you may continue to make the same movement and mistakes, leaving you without creating the change that is necessary. There are measurements known as key performance indicators (KPIs) that help in progressing towards attaining the overall goal. Using some of these tactics in our organization will help us with continuous improvement, communication and especially employee development. All in all, this leads to an enhanced product, which then gives you increased profit. Organization development is the exercise of planned, systematic change in the attitudes, beliefs and values of the employees within the company. Practicing organization development helps organizations to better adapt to the everyday challenges they encounter. “Every successful organization has to make the transition from a world defined primarily by repetition to one primarily defined by change. This is the biggest transformation in the structure of how humans work together since the Agricultural Revolution.” – Bill Drayton