Nature of managerial work

Description

 Please answer ALL 3 questions, A, B and C: n A. Imagine you are in the position of Noelle Freeman, the Chief Financial Officer of Franklin Climate Systems. Reflecting on one or more theories on the nature of managerial work discussed in week 2 (i.e. Taylor, Fayol, Weber, Follett, Barnard, Urwick, Mintzberg, Stewart), please describe what are the key aspects of Noelle’s work as a manager. n B. Which management skills from those covered in this module (i. effective problem-solving, ii. developing self-awareness, iii. effective motivation & empowerment of others, iv. ability to work effectively in groups, v. successfully managing power & conflict and vi. successfully leading change) would Noelle need to apply in order to fix the toxic culture at the Little Rock Arkansas plant of Franklin Climate Systems? Why are these skills that you selected important in this situation? To answer this question please draw on the theories related to the selected skills. n C. Reflecting on the self-awareness skill that was discussed in the lecture and exercised at the seminars of week 4, if you were in Noelle’s place, would you choose to support the layoffs (i.e. fire people) or advocate for culture change instead? Why? In Question A you are expected to draw on the material from week 2 on the “nature of managerial work” and you will need to identify and cite studies by at least one or more – but not all- of the following: Taylor, Fayol, Weber, Follett, Barnard, Urwick, Mintzberg and Stewart. This means you will need to do some more literature review beyond those readings listed as your week 2 readings in the module outline. Please use the QMUL elibrary/summons to look for more academic articles depending on whose work you choose to talk about (e.g. you might chose to talk only about Taylor or talk about Mintzberg and Follett) but always in conjunction with the case in response to Question A. To identify more articles from the e-library please see the process listed in slide 7 in this slideset.

In Question B you need to choose and discuss at least 2 of 6 different skills covered in this module (each of the skills listed in Question B corresponds to a different set of readings covered on a separate week, e.g. effective problem- solving was covered in week 3, developing self-awareness was covered in week 4 etc). Therefore for Question B, you need to choose readings within the e-book chapters covering your TWO or MORE selected skills. Question B DOES NOT ask you to draw AGAIN on the week 2 material (i.e. on the work of Taylor, Fayol etc ) which is what Question A asked you to do. For Question B you need to choose readings from the weeks in which we covered or will cover later in the module the following skills ((i. effective problem-solving, ii. developing self- awareness, iii. effective motivation & empowerment of others, iv. ability to work effectively in groups, v. successfully managing power & conflict and vi. successfully leading change) In Question C, you are asked to tell us what YOU would do, so it is OK to use “I”, but always develop your answer drawing on the literature (in Question C you are specifically asked to draw on the self-awareness literature we covered in week 4) in conjunction with the case.