INTRODUCTION

The success of any organization depends on several factors but the contribution from its managers is very important. This paper is aimed at providing a discussion of how a manager carries out his daily responsibilities. An interview was conducted on Muriel Agnes, the Human Resource Manager at Green Eye Corporation. This is a small organization with a total of 102 employees. It’s mainly involved in environmental awareness activities.

GENERAL BACKGROUND AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Ms Agnes has been in the company for a period of three years and she is currently on her fourth year. She began as an intern at the company in 2007 while undertaking her Master’s degree at the University of Kansas and was retained upon completion of her internship because of her good organizational skills. She progressed in her career until the 2009 when she was officially appointed the human resource manager, a position she still holds to date.

There are three main responsibilities that Ms Agnes is involved in. To begin with, she is responsible for the recruitment of new employees in the company. This recruitment should be timely so that the organizations operations do not stall (Harris 21). In line with recruitment, she is also in charge of employee retention and ensures that they deliver the best services. Considering that the company invests heavily in the recruitment procedure, she is supposed to ensure that no errors are made when recruiting employees and this makes the procedure more tasking. Every individual interested in working for the company has unique talent, skills and educational background that could be beneficial to the organization. It is upon the human resource manager to identify which applicant has the best quality needed by the company.

The second most important responsibility of a HR manager is organizational development. The organization has employees from different backgrounds but once they join the company, they are supposed to work as a team. The HR manager therefore has to ensure that this is achieved. Maintaining a good organizational culture is a key task. For this to be achieved, there has to be a congenial atmosphere at the work place where employees’ growth is also promoted and they are made to feel like they are worthy and useful members of the company. It also involves the existence of proper communication between the managers and employee and amongst the employees (Harris 29).

Lastly the Ms Agnes as the human resource manager is also in charge of advocating company policies. In times when there are confusions regarding the behavior of employees, the HR is supposed to create polices that will ensure that any situations, or confusion within the company are well addressed. Any form of harassment by any employees is also supposed to be dealt with by the HR department before it could proceed to higher levels of management (Tosi and Mero 56). This means that Ms Agnes is always alert to take note of any issues within the company and solve them to the best of her abilities.

According to Agnes, what she likes most about being a manager is that she is responsible for the success of the organization and whenever this is achieved, she feels very satisfied with her contributions. The management position has also given her a chance to mingle with different people at all levels in the company which has improved her interpersonal skills a great deal. However, there are a times when she is caught between making a decision as a leader of the organization and as a friend to the employees. For instance, sometimes, an employee who is very close to her; and most are, makes a mistake but because she is a boss, she has to make an appropriate decision as the Human Resource manager. Such scenarios often put her in trouble but she is quick to add that she always put the interest of the organization first and hopes that her friends understand this.

MANAGING EMPLOYEES

Organizational behavior looks at the application of knowledge of how individuals or groups act within an organization. System approach is used in maintaining good organizational culture in that people-organization relationships are interpreted in terms of the entire social system. Management’s philosophy, goals, visions and values will determine how well an organization’s culture is maintained. There is a need for a manager to ensure that there are good working relationships between employees and the managers and amongst employees. However, there is a different between respect and fear (Tosi and Mero 59). Leadership does not mean that employees have to be scared of a manager to an extent that when he passes everyone keeps quiet in fear of what she might say. A manager could be jovial with his employees and still earn so much respect from them unlike another manager who wants to show that she is the boss.

Leadership does not also mean that you have to keep watch and monitor every action taken by employees. This would make them scared and even end up making more mistakes than expected. Every human being makes mistakes. However, it is important that the mistakes are not repeated. Instead they should act as learning opportunities (Champoux 14). Managers therefore need to give their employees freedom to work comfortably but always correct them whenever they go wrong. Communication is therefore a key to better organizational culture. It develops a feeling of trust which results to corporation and positive reaction. A manager is also supposed to act as a role model by showing good example to the employees so that they could respect her and work towards the success of the organization. For instance, if a manager always comes to work late and drunk, her employees will not take her seriously. In fact they will also feel that there is no offence in coming to work while the influence of alcohol and this would definitely be reflected in poor performance in their work (22).

With respect to inputs from human resource, the best management style is that which yields the best outcomes. Many contemporary theorists prefer a participative style of management (Miner 252). This means that other members of the organization other than the managers are also given a chance to make important decisions for the organization. It makes them feel like they are very important assets to the organization and would work extra hard because their efforts are appreciated. The best style of leadership would therefore be supportive leadership where the manager acts as the leaders but gives all the support to the employees to participate fully and perform excellently in their duties. Making of decisions in organizations is a process of behavior with social model on one end and economic model on the other (256). It therefore stands that human values are as important as economic values in any organization and neither set of values could be ignored.

Goal setting is a very important tool in motivating a manager and the people she is working with. In order for an organization to succeed, the manager should get SMART when setting her goals. i.e. the goals should be specific, measureable, attainable , relevant and time bound (Griffin and Moohrhead, 101). She should ensure that the goals are not vague so that the employees might not know what to do and  they are unlikely to fail. Easy goals could be easily ignored because they do not motivate employees. Challenging goals therefore make employees stimulated and active in their work. However, if these goals are set without the involvement of employees who will be working towards their achievement, it’s very unlikely that they will be motivated to work towards achievement of goals.

If employees are to be kept motivated to work even harder, incentives could play a major role. A reward system should therefore be put in place to acknowledge employee’s efforts. This system could be based on benefits such as gifts, holidays, promotions or even cash(106). However, compensation is supposed to be issued depending on the performance of the employees. Using incentives does not mean that a manager should overload her employees with too much work so that they could feel like important parts of the organization. Incentives should allow employees to fulfill their responsibilities and increase their work satisfaction. As much as money could be important, it is a very costly mistake for a manager to believe that money equals happiness (Ivancevich, Konopaske and Matteson 28). There are very simple nonmonetary incentives that could motivate employees and get to push themselves towards achieving their targets. For instance recognition of achievements made employees would make them work harder. Simple words like ‘thank you’, ‘good job’ could encourage an employee so much.

With the increasing competition, it’s also worthy that a manager provides her employees with a chance to go for trainings and seminars to increase their abilities and improve their carrier. No employee would wish to stay at the same level for his/her entire life. Trainings give employees the knowledge needed to take up higher positions in the organizations and would therefore feel encouraged. Employees should also be given leadership roles as a reward for their contribution because this would help a manager identify those to be considered for future promotions. Stress management facilities like gyms and sports competitions could also come in very handy (32). Corporate socials responsibilities such as tree planting days would also be a tool to not only improve boding between employees but would also show the community that an organization really appreciates their existence and therefore improve public opinion towards the organization.

CONCLUSION

It is very evident that a manager has so much responsibility than most people might think because the success of an organization depends on the management and leadership style. However, a successful manager is one who  involves employees in decision making and gives them ample time to learn from their mistakes. Being a leader does not mean that one has to bully her employees to show that she has much power over them. One could still be friendly to employees and command so much respect from them. This interview made me realize that even those behind the scene i.e. employees make great contribution to the success of an organization as much as the leaders.