Unit 14 Working with leading people Assignment Copy

Unit 14 Working with leading people Assignment Copy

Introduction:

The working with leading people argues about different functions of the retail store organisation based at UK. This organisation is planning to open a new clothing store in the city of London in order to expand the business. This is a local retailer for clothing of men, women and kids. The report initiates with the recruitment and selection process of the organisation with the reference to the recruitment of a new sales head for the company. A document has been prepared to discuss the process of recruitment and selection and the legal, regulatory and ethical framework that has its impact on the same. This report also studies the manager’s role and contribution in the process of recruitment and selection. Manager requires leadership quality to manage and lead the employees in the organisation. The unit argues about different theories of leadership and the skills required by the managers to deal with different situations. Motivational theories have also been discussed that has been used by the organisation to motivate and inspire the employees to work effectively. Further, it also argues about the teamwork and its benefits along with the methods used to resolve the conflicts that may arise due to employees working in a team. The last section of the report focuses on performance management and the assessment of the planning of monitoring and assessing performance of the employees in the organisation.

Task 1:                                                                                      

1.1 Prepare documentation to select and recruit a new member of staff.

Recruitment is the process of attracting the candidates for the vacancy available in the company. The Human Resource department of the company generally performs this work. It is called as the positive process as it attracts more and more candidates towards the vacant job. Selection is process of short-listing the appropriate candidates from the applicants. This is the negative process as it rejects some of the candidates. Selection process follows the recruitment process. Before conducting the process of recruitment and selection, some of the documents need to be made to support the process of recruitment and selection. (Aguinis, 2009)

The documents discussed below are related to the job profile of a sales head required in a clothing store.

Recruitment methods: The recruitment method that has been used to advertise about the vacancy is print media and internet. The advertisements have been posted in newspapers about the vacancy and have been posted on the online sites and job portals. (Das, 2003)

Selection process involves the face-to-face interview of the candidates. Questions involved in the interview:

• Tell me something about yourself?
• What is the difference between sales and marketing?
• Tell me about your working experience under previous employer?
• Why you left the previous job?
• Why you think that you can be the perfect candidate for the job?
• How will you manage the sales force under you?
• Are you comfortable working for longer hours?

A panel has been judging the candidates according to how they answer these questions. A final candidate has been given with the appointment letter.

1.2 Assess the impact of legal, regulatory and ethical considerations to the recruitment and selection process.

Legal and regulatory consideration: Legal consideration involves all the laws related to the recruitment and selection of the employees. There are some of the practices that may be illegal in terms of employment laws framed by the UK government. The most important Act that needs to be taken into consideration is the Equality Act 2010. This Act has came into existence on 1st October 2010 and replaces all the other Acts like Racial Discrimination Act 1970, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Employment Equality Regulation 20013, Race Relations Act 1976 etc. The Equality Act 2010 focuses on the laws that are against any unlawful practices of the employer during the recruitment and selection of the employees. This Act has come into existence to safeguard the rights of the employees. This Act protects the employees from the discrimination in terms of marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment, age, disability, race, religion, beliefs, maternity etc. (Edenborough, 2005)

All the above stated Acts that are replaced by the Equality Act 2010 frames the ethical standards that needs to be followed by the employers. The main aim of the Act is the removal of all kinds of discrimination from the country. The basis of this Act in UK is the anti-discrimination Law. This Act requires equal treatment for all on the grounds of employment, public and private services. the Act describes that there should be no discrimination with respect to case, colour, age, sex, disability, religion etc.  It is mandatory for the employers to rate the candidates according to the specifications matching rather than the experience of the candidate. If any of the employers found to be breaching the laws or the contract of employment, case can be filed against the employer in the tribunals, as the tribunals do not assess the proofs but works on probability.

Many types of discrimination need not to be practiced in the organisations among the employees, as it is not an ethical practice to be done. Direct discrimination is the condition where an employee has been treated favourably over other employee due to the protected characteristics. Indirect discrimination refers to the condition where a group of people get disadvantage of any of the policy that has been implied in all. Victimization is the condition where and employee have treated unfavourably because of raising voice for his rights and the last discrimination is the harassment that argues about the bad conduct of behaviour with a particular employee under any protected characteristics. (Mitchell, 2007)

1.3 As part of personnel selection, write how did you take part in the selection process and evaluate your own contribution in the selection process.

As a general manager of the company, the individual have his own role to play in the process of recruitment and selection. As there is no specified Human Resource Department in the company, the general manager was the one who was leading all the processes of hiring sales head for the store.

Roles and responsibilities of the general manager: General Manager of any company has many responsibilities. He is not related to a single department but has to monitor the functioning of all the working departments of the firm. It is his responsibility to evaluate the processes as well as to implement the changes according to the requirements in each department.

As far as the human resource department is considered, manager is responsible for the evaluating the recruitment methods that have been used to recruit the candidates. Under the business strategy of retail industry, it is necessary for the manager to draft a document containing the job analysis that includes the job description and the person specification. This helps the recruitment team to hire the relevant candidates for the job. Manager needs to act as one of the member in the judging panel to take the interview of the candidates. He used to judge the managerial skills of the candidates by asking him the relevant questions. In the case, General Manager was the one who was handling all the above processes during recruitment and selection for the post of sales head. (Noone and Hultberg, 2011)

The contribution of GM in the recruitment and selection of the sales head has been evaluated as satisfactory. He was handling all the important processes of the recruitment and selection and managing them so that they can be conducted in an orderly way. According to me, He was engaged in almost all the activities of recruitment and selection process, which is important for a manager because he is the one who is responsible for managing the processes in the organisation.

Task 2:

2.1 Explain the skills and attributes needed for leadership.

The job of a manager is not easy. He needs to be skilled in all the processes to manage them. If a manager does not have the basic knowledge of the process, he cannot be able to guide his employees effectively and it may results in negative performance of the team as well as the organisation as the whole. The most important skill that is needed by a manger is the skill of leadership. There are many theories that discusses about the types of leadership in the organisation:

Great man theory:This theory argues that the characteristics of leaders are inherited and cannot be acquired. This theory supports the statement that leaders are born not made. It has been conceptualised in 19th century and several other leadership theories have replaced this in further years. (HR-Inform, 2016)

Trait theory: this theory states that there are certain characteristics of the leaders that can be inherited or can be acquired after birth. Some of these characteristics were intelligence, creativity, responsibility etc that needs to be there in the person to be a good leader.

Behavioural theory:this theory has been framed according to the pattern of working of the leaders. It involves there types of leaders that have different behaviours in their working patterns:

Autocratic leaders: these leaders do not consider the views of their followers in decision-making process.

Democratic leaders: these leaders take decisions considering the views of their followers.

Laissez faire leaders: these leaders are the most lenient leaders and do not interfere in the working of their followers and only act as the guides for them. (Xperthr.co.uk, 2016)

Contingency theories: contingency theories are because leaders cannot opt for the same styles every time but have to change their leadership styles according to the conditions in the organisation.

Transactional theory:this theory focuses on the mutual relationship between the leaders and the followers. This theory results in the motivational values.

Transformational theory:This theory argues about the interaction between the followers and the leaders that results in building trust between them. In this situation, leaders transform the followers according to his concepts and beliefs.

According to me, managers should have the skills that allow him to communicate, influence and motivate his followers and leaders should opt for the contingency theory of leadership. This is because this theory facilitates the leaders to handle every dynamic situation of the organisation. (Rudolph, 2016)

For being an effective leader, it is very essential for the individual to develop some of his skills like communication skills, leadership skills, public speaking skills, problem-solving skills etc. It is essential for an effective leader to be very fair. He should treat everyone with equality and have to be a good listener. An individual can only become a good leader if he has the ability to move forward by taking everyone together rather than making decisions on the grounds of listening to the opinions of few of the employees.

2.2 Explain the difference between leadership and management

According to the organisation discussed in the scenario, managers should be the effective leader. This depicts that managers have to play the role of leaders as well as the managers simultaneously because they have to manage the processes and they have to lead the team accordingly in the organisation.

There are some of the differences between management and leadership that can be neglected, as both the functions have to be followed by the managers for effective functioning of the organisation. (Sparrow, 2006)

This table suggests that there are many differences between the management and the leadership. Leadership is about training the employees to develop their skills while management is about managing the employee’s skills in such a way that gives a better output. All other differences are clearly described in the above table for better understanding of the same.

2.3 Compare leadership styles for different situations.

The below table provides the clear picture of different leadership styles. It also gives the idea about the situation in which these leadership styles can be implemented to handle the same. the leadership styles that have been discussed in the table are commanding, visionary, associative, pacesetting, democratic and coaching. 

In the case, manager has used two of the learning styles most frequently. The first one is the coaching style that is used by me to develop the skills in the new employees and the sales staff during their performance. Another style that has been used by the manager was democratic style. The style is used at the time of making the strategies to advertise about the opening of the new store. He has considered the views of his sales staff to make the final strategies. (Wu, 2013)

2.4 Explain ways to motivate staff to achieve objectives.

It is very important to motivate employees to work in an effective and efficient way. Two of the motivational theories that have been sued by me have been discussed below:

• Maslow’s hierarchy needs theory:this theory involves five levels of needs. This theory believes that fulfilment of these needs motivates the employees to work effectively.
• Physiological needs:the basic needs of the employee that involves the salary, proper working timings and required breaks.
• Safety needs:safety needs involve the needs related to provision of safe work environment to the employees. (Agnihotri and Krush, 2015)
• Love needs:The management used to treat employees as the part of the organisation and try to communicate with them. This creates a feeling of belongingness in them.
• Esteem needs:The organisations provide incentives to the employees who meet their targets. This motivates them to work even better.
• Self-actualization needs: these needs can be meet up when the employees get the chance to develop themselves and have the feeling of achievement in them.
• Herzberg’s two-factor theory: This theory states that organizations should consider the factors whose presence does not provide satisfaction but their absence may dissatisfy the employees. As a manager of the organisation discussed, those factors that creates feeling of dissatisfaction are absence of communication between the employees and absence of provision of recognition of the employees. The manager keeps a watch on these things and ensures that the employees of the organisation would not face and dissatisfaction due to these reasons. (Gold, Thorpe and Mumford, 2010)
• Ways to motivate staff:
  • Rewards: Provision of the rewards on grounds of the performance of the employee motivates him to perform even better the next time.
  • Trainings:Providing trainings to the employees for their individual development along with the organisational development also motivates the employees to work effectively for the organisation.
  • Open working environment: The working environment of the company has a great impact on the working style and intensity of the employee. If the organisation has open working environment where employee’s views are equally important for the management than the employees feel motivated to work for that organisation.

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Task 3:

3.1 Assess the benefits of team working for an organisation.

Teamwork is the method of working in which group of people or employees work together for the achievement of common goal. There are many benefits of team working in the organisation:

• Enhance productivity: Teamwork allows many brains to work together. This helps them to share their views and it results in decisions that are more intelligent.
• Communication:employees working in a team tend to communicate more as compared to the employees working individually.
• Learning:Teamwork helps the employees to share their views. This allows the employees to learn new things from each other. Sharing of knowledge from different provide a chance of enhancing the knowledge at individual level.
• Increases the speed of work:Teamwork enhances the speed of the work and the tasks can be completed with more speed and pace.
• Enhances quality: If more number of employees work on a single task, they used to process information that is more relevant and thus it enhances the quality of the ultimate results of the task. (Mitchell, 2007)

All the above points describe the benefits of working as a team in the organisation. Team work provides benefits to the employees as well as to the organisation. It not only enhances the working skills of the employees but also enhances their social care to deal with the people in the society.

3.2 Demonstrate working in a team as a leader and member towards specific goals, dealing with any conflict or difficult situations.

Teamwork provides benefits to the organisation but it results in some of the conflicts that may rise due to difference in the views of the team members. Conflicts in the team may results in ineffective decisions that can harm the company in one or the other way. These conflicts can be resolved by practicing some strategies during teamwork:

• Proper communication: It is very important for the team members to communicate properly. Restrictions in the communication lead to conflicts.
• Clear roles and responsibilities: Every team member should be aware of his roles and responsibilities in the team. This is the main factor that can restrict the conflicts in the teams. (Noone and Hultberg, 2011)
• Open thinking: It is very necessary for the members of the team to keep their minds open. If they frame a picture about an issue, than they cannot see the other side of the issue that may be subjected by other team members.

Belbin created a list of nine roles that every team should have. These roles are Plant, human resources , Coordinator, Shaper, Monitor Evaluator, Team Worker, Implementer, Completer-Finisher, and Specialist. This theory has been used in the organisation discussed in the scenario. To deal with the conflicts, it is necessary for the mangers to evaluate the situation and come up with the root cause of the conflicts. Resolving the issues from the root cause, results in long-term benefits. As far as the above points are considered, open thinking can help in increasing the understating level of the people. If the people understand the things very clearly and keep their minds open to mould their thoughts according to the others than chances of conflicts reduces. Proper communication practices and clearly defined roles of the members facilitate them to understand the level of involvement they should have in the particular issue. This also helps in reducing the conflicts in the organisation.

3.3 Review the effectiveness of the team.

The effectiveness of the teamwork can be improved by supporting the team members to share their views with equal opportunities. With reference to the above organisation, sales staff needs to work together in order to increase the sales of the organisation. Their teamwork can be made more effective by the involvement of manager or leaders at some point of time. Leaders play a very important role in improving the effectiveness of the team. Leaders need to direct the staff or the team to think over an issue by following a particular path; any deviation may lead to decrease in the effectiveness of the teamwork. It is also necessary for the leaders or the managers to bring and maintain coordination between the team members so that they can communicate the important information with each other. Team members also used to have some of the responsibilities regarding improvement of the team effectiveness, they need to make internal check and balance system that focuses on equal contribution of the each member. (HR-Inform, 2016)

Effectiveness of the teamwork can be reviewed and assess by the examining the personal and the team performance outcomes. Performance outcomes can be evaluated by the final idea generated by the team, or the solution that has been generated to solve the particular problem. Personal outcomes can be measured by satisfaction of the employees from the team, the willingness of the team members to be in the team again as well as the satisfaction of the team members about their roles. If all these elements have been observed to be positive than the team has been considered as the effective team.

Task 4:

4.1 Explain the factors involved in planning the monitoring and assessment of work performance.

Monitoring and assessment of the work performance of the employees is very necessary. It helps the organisation to know about the productivity of the employees at individual level and about the needs of the employees in order to develop their skills. In the above-discussed organisation, following factors would affect the planning of monitoring and assessment of the work performance.

• The basis on which the performance of the employee has been assessed.
• Resources that have been available in the organisation to help the employees.
• Approaches used by the managers to improve the performance of the employee relation .
• Monitoring can be done by provision of the performance feedback to the employees.
• Rewarding the employees who deserve it.
• Evaluation of the performance should be proper and on regular basis. (Aguinis, 2009)
• All the above stated factors are required in the planning and assessment process. These factors are framed by the availability of the requirements to perform a particular task by the employees.

4.2 Plan and deliver the assessment of the development needs of individual

It is very necessary and essential to evaluate the development needs of the employees. This helps the employees as well as the organisation to know about the strength and the weakness of the employees at individual level and helps in introducing the plan that can support the employees to develop their skills and in turn enhance their performance. Following steps should be considered in order to assess the development needs of the employees:

• Assess the strength and weakness of the employees.
• Determine the objectives that need to be attained by the organisation.
• Align the organisational objective with the strength of the employee.
• Draft the document that talks about the difference in the present skills and the required skills of the employee.
• Implement the programs that can help the employees to develop those skills.
• Evaluate the performance of the employee after implementation of the training program.

Delivery of the assessments can be done by conducting a meeting with the employees who have undergone the training. The results of their assessment or the improvements can be announced by the managers or can be mailed them so that they can have a look to their performance improvement.

4.3 Evaluate the success of the assessment process.

Evaluating the success of assessment process is very important to know about the improvement in the skills of the employees and in turn in the productivity of the department, that particular employee is working into. There are series of steps that needs to be followed to check the success of the assessment plan: (Das, 2003)

• Conduct an assessment plan in order to develop needs of the individual.
• Conduct an interview process to identify the understanding level of the employees.
• Conduct an examination in order to evaluate the difference in the understanding level.
• Monitor the performance of the individual on practical fields.
• Compare the performance of the individuals with the set standards or with the previous performance.
• Review the outcomes of the individual performance.

The outcomes of the performance of the employees determine the success of the assessment plan. If the outcome of the employee has raised that means, the assessment plan is successful and if there is no enhancement in the performance than this suggests that, the assessment plan may not be so much effective to develop the required skills. (Mitchell, 2007)

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Conclusion

This report concludes that it is very important to follow the legal and ethical framework in recruitment and selection process of the organisation. Manager needs to play an important role in the process so that all the activities can be conducted well in orderly function. Manger requires leadership skills to deal with the different situations in the organisation. Teamwork is very essential for the effective productivity and the manager should resolve the conflicts that may be raised during teamwork. Performance of the employees needs to be assessed to identify the development needs of the employees in order to implement various approaches to fulfil those needs.

References:

Books:

Das, H. (2003). Performance management. Toronto: Prentice Hall.
Edenborough, R. (2005). Assessment methods in recruitment, selection, and performance. London: Kogan Page.
Gold, J., Thorpe, R. and Mumford, A. (2010). Gower handbook of leadership and management development. Burlington, VT: Gower.
Mitchell, D. (2007). Performance management. Chandni Chowk, Delhi: Global Media.
Sparrow, P. (2006). International recruitment, selection, and assessment. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Wu, B. (2013). New theory on leadership management science. [Oxford]: Chartridge Books Oxford.

Journals:

Agnihotri, R. and Krush, M. (2015). Salesperson empathy, ethical behaviors, and sales performance: the moderating role of trust in one's manager. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 35(2), pp.164-174.
Noone, B. and Hultberg, T. (2011). Profiting through Teamwork: The Role of the Revenue Management and Sales Functions in Group Revenue Management. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 52(4), pp.407-420.
Rudolph, C. (2016). Lifespan Developmental Perspectives on Working: A Literature Review of Motivational Theories. Work, Aging and Retirement, 2(2), pp.130-158.

Websites:

HR-Inform. (2016). Recruitment and selection - Recruitment advertising. [online] Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-inform/employment-law/recruitment-and-selection/recruitment-advertising/default.aspx [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].
Xperthr.co.uk. (2016). Recruitment selection | Recruitment and selection | Employment law manual | Tools | XpertHR.co.uk. [online] Available at: http://www.xperthr.co.uk/employment-law-manual/recruitment-selection/20344/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].