In the book “The Goal”, Alex Rogo manages a production plant owned by UniCo Manufacturing where everything is always behind schedule. At the beginning of the book, Bill Peach, the division’s vice president, tells Alex that he has three months to turn the factory around from being slow and unprofitable to successful and profitable or the plant will be shut down.
While reading this book, one comes to understand the many problems confronting management. Achieving a set goal is one of them. The organization being managed is responsible for some sort of an objective weather is developing a new product, getting new customers or whatever it may be. There are goals associated with that objectives and those goals require effort. Bringing out the best in the employees is another job for management. It’s important that management tries their best to create as many “good days” as possible. Dealing with underperforming employees also confronts management. Not all employees will do their best. Any issue that contributes to an underperforming employee is the manager’s problem and management needs to provide some sort of motivation and counsel. Dealing with outstanding employees is also something management needs to confront. Some employees obviously outperform others. That presents its own set of challenges. Outstanding employees need special treatment. You want them to keep doing an exceptional job which could mean to have to pay them special attention. They need recognition for their talents and efforts as well as knowing that they have a career path ahead of them. Hiring the right people is another problem management needs to face. Hiring is easy, but hiring the right person is extremely difficult. Responding to a crisis is also an extremely...
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...tional expense) goes up as well. (pg. 87) There is proof for this in two phenomena, “dependent events” and “statistical fluctuations.” (pg. 87) Dependent event is an outcome that is affected by other, usually previous outcomes. An example is removing colored crayons from a bag. Each time you remove a crayon the chances of drawing out a certain color will change. (pg. 88) Statistical fluctuations are fluctuations derived from many random processes. The more times the process is done, the higher the chance of more standard statistical fluctuation. An example of this is when a fair coin is tossed many times and the number of counted heads and tails is about the same leading to a ratio very close to 1. After only a few throws, outcomes with a drastic difference of heads over tails or vice versa is possible, however the more throws, the closer to a 1 to 1 ratio. (pg. 88)
On this evidence analysis paper about the speech “Leaders and Managers” by Hugh Nibley to the BYU graduated class of 1984, Nibley put all his efforts to motivate the graduated class of the necessity in the world of real leaders and not just merely managers. For this purpose, Nibley started by explaining the hidden history behind the shift of leaders for managers in the world through historical evidence. Also, Nibley explained the basic division between these two characters leaders and managers using clear and consistent explanations. Moreover, the author expressed the different nature of managers and leaders in society with evidence, through examples in the earthly Christian history, societies of The Book of Mormon, and the current society. Furthermore, Nibley used some opposing views to show the mistake of having pure management skills, but also the necessity of having some managerial skills as an essential factor of leadership. Also, in the speech of “Leader and Managers” by Nibley, it was difficult to find a concrete fallacy or to assume that the author used fallacies because of the clear
Managers know the importance of having positive relationships with their employees. It boosts the company’s goals while the lack of any relationship with the workers may lead to losses in the business. Most managers rarely know that they are looked up to by many employees and, as such, should be careful with the actions they take. Lee b. Bolman & Terrence E. Deal, the authors of the book The Reframing Organizations, point out that the kind of measures taken in the business influences the employees acts and thoughts. In particular, this book gives insight to managers on how to relate to their subordinates. The discussion is carried out on the three parts of the book that highlight the missteps taken by managers as they try to improve their businesses.
This book is important to business students because it shows that even the most seasoned executive runs into unexpected challenges and can find themselves in uncharted territory. Jim Barton’s experiences and lessons can be lessons for anyone. Any employee, whether they are support staff or a top executive, should always maintain an open mind and be ready to learn from a situation or the people around them at any time.
Rumors surface that the entire division will be sold unless performance increases leaving no one with jobs. Alex reflects on a conversation his friend and physicist, Jonah, and realizes his plant is not operating as efficiently as he believed because robots are not decreasing inventory and payroll expense or increasing the number of products shipped.
Transformational leadership also integrates well with a biblical worldview because both advocate valuing followers as well as leaders, the importance of ethical behavior, the need to forgive and learn from mistakes, and the value of a high moral example. Kouzes and Posner advocate leaders having a “moral authority to lead” (2007, p. 41), practicing personal accountability and working to improve all aspects of their follower’s lives. This others-centered leadership approach fits well in the Christ centered atmosphere of a Christian school.
Many people believe that in order to succeed in a business that is having difficulties, it is important to focus on a particular area in order to be better productive in each of them, and be able to reach the goal. Instead, Goldratt and Jonah demonstrates that is important to focus on the company as a whole, but at the same time, it shows that it is incorrectly to only focus in an specific manufacturing department, or one plant, or a department within the plant, because people should not be concerned in local optimums.
The goals include training on leadership. The objective is for management to gain the proper skills to effectively lead teams, resolve conflicts, and better their management abilities. The training will address employee turnovers to low wages, effective communication strategies, and effective leadership. Management will become more strategic in selecting the right candidates to fill positions. The knowledge and skills attained will be that managers will become better leaders by becoming more empathetic. Employees will begin to feel appreciated and become more motivated. As a result, the company’s morale will be boosted and there will be less consumer complaints about bad customer service.
The book mainly talks about the protagonist, Alex, his superiors and his team along with his management Guru, Jonah, who changes the whole perspective of Alex’s life with his simple messages, opens Alex to brand new world of bottlenecks, variability, etc. and their effects in the working of any manufacturing firm.
The effect of goal setting on employee performance is evident in the studies conducted by Locke and Latham (1990, 2002, 2007). Leaders must develop closer mentorships with employees as they assist in goal setting and goal achievement. This creates a more positive management environment than that of the authoritarian boss. Leaders who lead employees toward challenging, attainable goals will see better performance standards and as well as a higher level of commitment to the organization. This in turn benefits the employees, the leadership, and the
The author has tried to convey that the manager should work smarter- not harder like observing closely the working of their subordinates and should use various management tools to groom them and accomplish goals for the organization. There is no direct link between amount or work and success as most of the people perceive, rather time and efforts put in work lead to success. That 's why it is said by the author "don 't work harder - work smarter".
From what I haven taken from this book, I have come to a conclusion that with a few steps, you can find a way to make your company productive and meet the overall goal of your company. A clear understanding of what your company’s goal is and to be able to use this goal to understand what being productive means in terms of your company. Knowing the measurements that are needed to reach your goal. The ability to try new experiments and be able to brainstorm and talk together with a dedicated team of researchers that want to reach the goal and wont stop experimenting different processes until the end goal is met.
Mr. Gilbert’s plans go for the full modernization of the company, for having it operating efficiently, resulting in selling high-quality products. He changes his plans as he goes along (ex. Letter April requesting for investing in a second tunnel kiln);
All these improvements will boost profitability by identifying at least or more that EUR 30 mio required by U.S.A headquarters. However, we believe it is not realistic to manage all this turnaround in 1 year’s time. It might take from 2 – 3 years.
If the organization succeeds then the employees also succeeds. Employees must see the bigger picture and must feel that they are part of the organization and not just a one man show.
It is apparent that the only thing constant in business is change. Organizational change is often an overwhelming challenge for business leaders, managers and employees alike. The need for change may be the result of market shifts, economic environment, technology advancements or changing work force skill-set demands. Today Organizational change occurs for reasons that originate external to the organization (Chandler, 1996: Hannan & Freeman, 1984), as well as internal to the organization (Baker 1990: Prechel 1994). Thus, External constraints, internal constraints, resource dependency and increasingly growing competitive markets force organizations to change in order to maximize economic potential. Although organizational changes are usually a response in reaction to an event, companies and leaders should still expect to encounter issues. Organizations need to be more proactive and contingent on how to handle the problems that will inevitably come about. This will make the process of organizational change go smoothly as well as reduce resistance through proper management techniques. Resource dependency argues that both environmental and organizational constraints impact organizational change (Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003).