INTRODUCTION
All companies want to improve
employee, but how often do they examine their won management practices as a
means of attaining it? Studies consistently show that a disturbingly high
number of non-management employees are disengaged, not working at full
productive capacity.
Management is the core function of
any organization. Management is responsible for well being of the company and
its stakeholders, such as investors and employees.
Therefore, the management should be
a skilled experienced set of individuals, who will do whatever necessary for
the best interest of the company and stakeholders. Best practices are usually
outcomes of knowledge management. Best practices are the reusable practices of
the organization that have been successful in respective functions.
MANAGEMENT PRACTICE
There are two types of management
practice in an organization
(1) Internal best practice
(2) External (industry) best practice
1. Internal best practice originated by
the internal knowledge management efforts.
2. External best practice (industry)
External best practice are acquired
to the company by hiring the skilled, educated and experienced staff and
through external trainings.
Thought, when it comes to management
best practices, there are plenty:-
They
can be further subdivided into different sub-domains within management, such as
human resources technical, etc. But in brief practice and will not elaborate on
different sub-domains.
MAIN AREAS WHERE MANAGEMENT BEST
PRACTICES ARE APPLIED
When it comes to management best practices, we can
identify five distinct areas where the best practices can be applied:-
1. Communication
2. Leading by example
3. Setting and Demanding Realistic goals
4. Open management style
5. Strategic planning
1. Communication
Management is all about communicating to the staff and
the clients. Effective communication is a must when it comes to successful
management.
The management should have a set of
the best practice defined for clear and effective communication from the head
to the staff and the clients.
2. Leading
by Example
Respect is something you should earn in a corporate
environment. Leading by example is the best way of doing this. Define and
adhere to leadership by example best practices and also make sure your
subordinate do the same.
3. Setting
and Demanding Realistic Goals
Realistic goals can boost the corporate morale. Most
of the times, organizations fail due to unrealistic, unachievable goals and
objectives. There are many best practices on how to set goals and objectives,
such as SWAT analysis.
Since the goals are the driving
factor behind your organization, you need to make use of every possible best
practice for goal setting.
4. Open
Management Style
When your management style is open and transparent,
others respect you more. In addition, information directly flows from the
problem areas to you.
Always try to follow the open door
policies that do not restrict you subordinates coming to you directly.
5. Strategic
Planning
This is the most important best practice area when it
comes to long-term benefits for the company usually, experienced people in
management, such as Jack Welch, have their own, successful best practices for
strategic corporate planning.
It is always a good idea to learn
such ideas from exceptional people and apply them in your own context.
FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
1. Forecasting
2. Planning
3. Organizing
4. Commanding
5. Coordinating
6. Controlling
1. Forecasting
Especially, financial
forecasting is a key function for a business organization. There are many tools
such as price sheets, effort estimates for accurate forecasting.
2. Planning:
This is the process of setting up a goal or a process by which one can
determine what to achieve, how to achieve it.
3. Organizing:
Is the process of bringing activities of the set goal together
4. Commanding:
Is issuing instruction on how to achieve the set goals.
5. Coordinating:
Is bringing together human and material resources to achieve the set goal. To
ensure that all instructions, and processes are carried out to the later.
MANAGEMENT PRACTICE THAT PROMOTES
PRODUCTIVITY, EFFICIENCIES AND EFFECTIVENESS ARE:
1. Design economic incentives so employees
at all levels of an organization can benefit from
them.
2. Provide meaningful feedback in a
constructive manners on a regular basis
3. Respect employees as individual, in
addition to the job they do
4. Be sure management at all levels of an
organization receives adequate training.
5. Provide support for employees when it’s
genuinely needed.
6. Don’t
be emotionally stingy
7. Ensure senior leadership models
beaviour that makes the rank-and file proud to be the team
1. Design
Economic Incentives so Employees at all Levels of an Organization can Benefit from them
There’s a natural tendency for management to focus
most heavily on senior-level economic incentives. While this is completely
understandable, it’s best not to neglect substantive incentives for lower-level
employees. That is, it you expect success. To the argument that this will be
unduly costly, a program has to be carefully structured of course, so
additional payouts reflect clearly defined revenue and/or earnings targets.
2. Provide
Meaning feedback in a Constructive Manner on a Regular Basis
This feedback is a foundational management skill, the
ability to pro-manner that encourages, not discourages, is a corner-stone of
effective management. That’s not to say feedback is always positive- that
wouldn’t be management at all- but that the communication is done thoughtfully
whether the occasion is encouragement for a job well done, or that course
correction is needed.
Provide support for employees when
it’s genuinely valued support can take away many forms: equipment when existing
is outdated or in efficient, emotional support in the face of (occasionally)
unfair criticism, flexible support for a reasonable level of work-life balance.
Management support in times of need
won’t be forgotten, it builds employee goodwill and loyalty.
3. Respect
Employees as Individuals, in Addition to the Job they do
Respect can be a simple but powerful motivator, just
as its unpleasant twin, lack of respect, has the opposite effect. When
employees feel genuinely respected (always assuming it’s warranted), they’re
much more likely “to go the extra mile” to help a company succeed.
4. Be
Sure Management at all levels of an Organization receives Training
There’s a tendency for companies to invest less on
supervisors and middle managers. I can readily speak from experience on this
one, having received considerably more training and development opportunities
in the latter stages of my career than in the early formative stages, when I
most needed it.
5. Don’t
be Emotionally Stingy
There’s nothing for management to gain by with holding
praise and recognition when it’s warranted. A recent employee study, I came
across indicated that recognition is often a more powerful motivator than
money. While this may well be less true at senior levels as financial rewards
escalate, this post is focused on general employee productivity where the
broadest gain can be made.
6. Ensure
Senior Leadership models Behaviour that makes the rank-and- file proud to
be part of the team
Nothing demoralizes employees more quickly than seeing
senior leaders act in a way they don’t like and few things energize employees
more than a senior team they admire.
Leaders are always being watched and
judged, employees have keen eyes (and are data sharers ) when leadership is
“walling the talk”, it will be quickly –but so will “talking the walk” without
actually walking it.
To help boast productivity, employee
engagement matters. Ultimately, most employees would much rather be part of a
team they’re committed to, not just a member of an organization.
Developing and maintaining a consistent
management approach that engenders esprit de corps is a key in the productivity
process.
THE INDIGENOUS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES THAT
PROMOTE IN EFFICIENCY IN NIGERIA
1. Lack of incentive
2. Poor/or low communication channel
3. Lack of feedback mechanism
4. Lack of respect for individual employee
and petition
5. Lack of motivation
6. Division of labour
7. Bureaucratic values
8. Concentrating on socio cultural sector
9. Melodiams in staff selection
10. Tribalism
1. Lack
of Incentives: When employees are not
being rewarded in organization irrespective
of gender or race, academic qualification.
Senior or junior employees are not
being rewarded accordingly.
2. Lack
of Communicate: Is when there is
communication gab between employee and management
their band to their lapses.
3. Lack
of respect for individuals employee and petition: When there’s no feedback from the management to the employees the management cannot
know the problem facing the employees.
And it is only the management know their problem that it can be solved.
5. Lack
of Motivation: Employees are not
being invested on training. This will make the
employee not to have experience over the company.
6. The division of labour: bureaucracy demands apparently lead to
monotony and boredom. Most importantly
it leads to alienation. This explains a situation where the workers is estrange or dissociated
from the surrounding society. Being afraid of this situation, Weber wrote that "it is horrible to think
that the world would one day be filled
with little cogs, little man changing to little jobs and siring for another
bigger one". Schafer
(2002:203) argued that true division of labour has certainly enhanced the performance of many complex bureaucracies,
in some cases it can lead to trained incapacity:
that is workers become so specialized that they develop blind problems, liven worse, they may not care about what
is happening in the next departments.
7. Bureaucratic values: of impersonality arc constantly in
conflict with societal values. According
to Rosen bloom and Krauchuk, (2002:205), public’ organization, bureaucratically as organized, tends to be
in tension or conflict with society in terms of
style of action, emotional feelings, and overriding concerns. The differences between societal and bureaucratic values,
in short, are social interaction versus doing and
the beliefs randomness, and emotionalism versus specialized expertise systemization and impersonality,
while to Weber, "the question in order to keep a position of mankind free from this parceling out of the
soul, from this supreme mastery of
the bureaucratic way of life,
8. Concentrating on socio-cultural sector: they shift emphasis away from structural implications to the socio -cultural
realms of the system. Two of the scholars that represented
this theory are Professor Robert M. price and Martin Landau. According to R.M. Price, (1975:102) There is a
need to reveal (he process aspects of the relationship
between structure and system, a need for a bridge to link the macro-level concern with Polynormativism
(ecological concern) to a micro-level concern with actual behaviour (socio-culturally determined) of transitional
bureaucrats. Contrary to Riggs"
argument, Price maintains that the problem docs not lie in whether the transferred bureaucratic structures in the developing states
have been institutionalized or
not, but rather "lies in what has been institutionalized and what has
not". He argues that what has
been institutionalized in the developing states is the status instead of the role aspects of organizational position.
And contrary to Pye, he argues that bureaucrats
in the developing states not only
understand fully their responsibilities, especially to their
corporate groups, but are also under constant pressure from these groups, but so arc prepared to sacrifice organizational
norms (which we assume they are in a position,
to follow meticulously) in order to satisfy the demands of their corporate groups (social groups).
9. Melodrama in staff 'selection: inefficiency in the public enterprises as
emanating from the compendium of
nepotism and corruption. The word "cognitive" is connected with ones mental processes of
understanding. Drama can be referred to as an exciting event or a play in the theatre. While mellow is to become
or make someone less extreme in
behaviour, Melodrama is a story, play or novel that is full of exciting events and in which the characters and
emotions seem too exaggerated to be real. Therefore,
Cognitive Melodrama literally can be seen as an exciting act of event that makes someone less extreme in
behaviour in connection with his/her mental processes
of understanding. It can mean a compendium of events necessitated by factors in the- environment that
beclouds ones understanding of the reality because of its excitement that overshadows reasonability. It is. an interplay
of factors in the environment
such as favouritism, nepotism, tribalism, clientelism and prebendalism and all such elements and acts that can be
termed "corruption" in the public institutions
that obstructs the effective-administration of the affairs of government that is ordinarily supposed to attain effective
performance of the public enterprises which can
be translated into development of the society. What the theory is saying in a nutshell is that hardly can any
Nigerian get a job, favour or any other
thing of value without
"knowing" somebody, or "knowing" somebody who knows
somebody or somebody who
"knows" somebody who "knows" somebody...Of course, it is
news when an applicant gets a job in
any of our public organizations without "knowing" somebody. Even when this news is
heard, it is received with unabashed incredibility. This is precisely because the society has come, to live and
accept the fact that nothing goes for
nothing, and nothing happens without necessary contacts. The corollary of this situation is that no applicant
gets out seeking for job without first making the necessary contacts, liven before he or she submits the
application for the job, the necessary
spadework must have been completed and assurance given for the success of the application. This necessary
spadework invariably involves getting in touch with the right person or the person who knows the right person (Okoli,
2003). This is only at the micro
level. At the macro level, this phenomenon affects the group. In a society like Nigeria, the group may be ethnic,
religion, political or class. Cognitive melodrama
at the macro-level is the conglomerate those events that emanates from the society that impedes the effective and
efficient administration of the entity call Nigeria
and the allocation of political appointments, the administration of the institutions of government like the
judiciary, legislature, central banks and how they impact on the society in which they are found. Issues like
federal character principle, quota
system, rotational presidency, zoning system allowing tribalism and ethnicity to play to the gallery,
10. Tribalism: this is another bottle-neck in the
efficiency process of the public service. So
many persons have lost their job possibility due to the tribal logger-head in
the country. Once this has been
settled, the efficiency of the public sector would be appreciated.
CONCLUSION:
Organizations can achieve a great success by employing
management best practice.
This is one way to make sure that
the same mistake is not repeated. Once a best practice is derived through
knowledge management, it should be properly documented and integrated to the
relevant functions of the company.
Best practices should be included
into corporate trainings regularly.
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