Transcript
Taylor Sexton
a. Explain the 4 functions of managers in a small business, large corporation, and non-profit organization. Used specific examples of businesses and/or organizations to illustrate your points. 4 – 6 paragraphs
Managers can do many different things to help run a business. Not all businesses are alike, so many different places managed differently. For the most part though, you can group together what managers do under four functions. Almost all managers use planning. Which can include, explaining what goals you want achieved in your business and when you want to achieve these goals. Figuring out how you can achieve these goals that you just created and when. And putting together different events that the business might hold. All of these are very important things in any business. For small businesses it's important because you need to figure out how your business is going to work on a smaller scale and how everyone's going to be knowing what jobs they need to do and for what reason. On a bigger scale, like a large corporation, it's very important because you need to know what's going on at all times so there's never a mistake in the business.
Another thing that needs to be done in every business is organizing. A messy business is not going to be a successful business and if everyone's running around not knowing what they're doing then it will never succeed. The managers need to organize employees jobs and what they should be doing each and every day in the business. The manager can also determine who becomes a team leader in a more large corporation. The organizing part of this four functions approach is extremely important because the business needs to make sure everyone knows what their particular job is in order for the business to run smoothly. A daycare business would need organizing because without it the workers at the daycare would not know what children they're taking care of or when to feed them. It could be very dangerous to the business because if the parents come to pick their kids up and certain things were not done as promised then there could be a conflict.
In every work environment there needs to be someone that can lead everyone else. The manager can help with the leading by motivating the employees and helping out in anyway they can. If it's a small corporation then there is less people to lead or if it's a larger corporation and many more managers then each manager can direct smaller groups of people to continue motivating them and even resolving problems if they arise. The nonprofit organization part of this becomes especially important. People need to know what they're working for, and it helps people to work harder if they know they're working toward something and continuously get reminded about what it is.
The last part of the four functions approach is controlling. Every manager in a business needs to know how to control its employees and be able to monitor performance and make sure that they are on track for the goals that the company has created for that time period. Staying on track is very important for small businesses, large corporations, and even nonprofit organizations. If you get off track and you waste time and money doing things that aren't important than your business could go down. A business that we need controlling could be something like a grocery store, for example, Shaws. Shaws needs a manager to properly control everyone. If there wasn't someone that was controlling the employees than the employees can do whatever they wanted and could start eating food from the store, or would just not care about the customers and walk away from their jobs.
b.What skills and qualities are important to managers working in today’s environment of changing workforce, workplaces, and technology? Choose a business and explain the skills and qualities of managers in your chosen business. Be sure to include at least three of the skills and/or qualities in the description of the business. 4 – 6 paragraphs
Many skills and qualities are important for managers to have in businesses in today's working environment. If someone wants to manage a business in a professional place, then they need to have a lot of skills to put on the table and also qualities that make the employees and whoever is hiring them like them. At Best Buy it's very important for the managers to be qualified and know a lot about electronics, but to also be a manager that the employees and the customers enjoy.
Something very important to a lot of people that have managers it's that their manager is likable and friendly. The manager that can get along with their workers in a way that makes it seem like they are friends but on a professional level can to help the worker to do better rather than being yelled that could do something or talk down to like they're not as good as the person who is the manager. It's also important that the managers are friendly to the customers because the manager will see customers every day as well. A good manager can go out and talk to people and be very likable and is someone that people can trust and enjoy being around rather than someone that goes out on the floor of a store and is rude.
For Best Buy specifically the manager would need to be very tech savvy and be able to be around new technology, know what certain technology is and how to properly sell things to a customer while maintaining professional. Because of the way the world is changing and how much more technology is being involved in each job, being educated on technology is a very important skill to have no matter what job you're going into. For Best Buy however, because you're going to be selling electronics customers you need to know what you're talking about, how certain products work, the differences between different products, and many more things that go with buying electronics. Not only do the managers at Best Buy need the knowledge of what they are selling but they would also need to know how to work the cash register, how to return items if someone wants, and other things along the lines of that.
The manager that can make good decisions for the team is also great skill to have. You put under pressure by screaming customer or even making a decision about what your workers are going to be doing a certain day is a very important job for a manager. Good manager should have very good conceptual skills and be able to make good decisions based off of what the workers want and what the manager wants out of different situations. A manager should also be able to work well with others. At Best Buy it's important that the manager cannot only control the workers, be friendly with the workers and the customers, and possess expert job knowledge about electronics.
