Management of people and teams is considered to be an effective approach for achieving organizational goals. This essay is a reflective analytical piece of management, people and teams. I have enjoyed this week’s reading as the way of thinking has broadened. In this essay, I would critically assess the theories related to strategic people management. I shall also throw light on the application of strategic people management to enhance individual and organizational performance. Further, I shall demonstrate the importance of problem-solving skills to manage people effectively. The roles and functions of a manager in a changing environment shall be discussed.

The first part of the week was to understand the nature of organizations, role of management and challenges faced by managers. This course has provided me with a new experience both learning and performance wise. I learned that there are two types of environment- internal and external. I studied in detail about the internal and external factors and it would be helpful for me in knowing the state of economy (Spyridonidis et al., 2016). Previously I believed that the role of a manager is simply to lead the employees. However, I learned about the roles of management based on Henry Mintzberg’s theory and Gary Hamel (Kumar, 2015). Out of the ten managerial roles indicated by Mintzberg, I found the interpersonal role as a leader most suitable for myself. I shall encourage employees development, balance effectiveness and oversee the progress of employees. In the last part of the module, the challenges faced by managers were studied. It is not easy to manage a group of people working for a common goal. I shall apply these learning to my organization so that it can undergo change management and be competitive. I shall apply change management to overcome the challenges effectively to survive in the highly competitive world (Hedman and Valo, 2015).

The second part of the module was to learn about motivation, influence and power and politics. I learned that power can be used in many ways in an organization. I shall try my best to understand the dynamics of using power so that I can apply it to the different circumstances. I shall keep myself informed of the various ongoing developments of the tasks as valuable to the organization (Hui and Wang, 2017). I shall try not to use the power of demoting, transferring and terminating the employees unless the situation gets out of hand. My intention would be to retain the employees and train them until they improve their working standards. I believe that everyone cannot lead and good leaders are gifted. The lecture of motivation is of great importance to me as it would help me in enhancing the performance of the people. Previously I believed that only financial incentives can help in motivating the employees. Now my beliefs have changed and I learned that not all employees are motivated by financial incentives but also the non-financial incentives such as rewards and recognition. I shall use a combination of financial and non-financial incentives in the future to deeply motivate the employees or group of people I would have to lead (Kaupilla, 2018).

The last module that is covered for the purpose of this paper is Communication, conflict and negotiation. Previously, I believed that conflict management is not as important in the management. Conflict enhances innovation and growth thereby bringing about additional management options (Chan and Lai, 2017). Unresolved conflicts can cause decreased cohesion among the team members. Such positive perception gives me the confidence and deeper insight about how to manage leadership effectively. In my opinion, developing effective communication holds a very important place in the overall growth of the organization. I have learned that effective communication can also help in resolving conflicts. In this regard, conflict management strategies like compromise, collaboration, competition and avoidance are important. In my future endeavours, I shall apply collaboration as it seems to be the most appropriate strategy as it helps in building commitment and reducing negative feelings (Wu et al., 2017).

The material in the course helped me gain an excellent balance between theory and practice. This course introduced me to theories that would help in enhancing my knowledge of organizational behaviour. The examples and case studies throughout the course shall show me how to manage employees. This course has helped me in being self aware of how capable I am and how my behaviour can affect the business environment I shall work in the future.

References

Chan, S. H. J., & Lai, H. Y. I. (2017). Understanding the link between communication satisfaction, perceived justice and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of business research, 70, 214-223.

Hedman, E., & Valo, M. (2015). Communication challenges facing management teams. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(8), 1012-1024.

Hui, W. A. N. G., & Yang, C. H. A. N. G. (2017). The influence of organizational creative climate and work motivation on employee’s creative behavior. Journal of Management, 3, 6.

Kauppila, O. P. (2018). How does it feel and how does it look? The role of employee motivation in organizational learning type. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(8), 941-955.

Kumar, P. (2015). An analytical study on mintzberg’s framework: Managerial roles. International Journal of Research in Management and Business Studies, 2 (3), 1-19.

Spyridonidis, D., Currie, G., Heusinkveld, S., Strauss, K., & Sturdy, A. (2016). The translation of management knowledge: challenges, contributions and new directions. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18(3), 231-235.

Wu, G., Liu, C., Zhao, X., & Zuo, J. (2017). Investigating the relationship between communication-conflict interaction and project success among construction project teams. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), 1466-1482.