ADVANCED MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES- CASE STUDY (30 Marks)

CAREFULLY READ THE CASE STUDY AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW:

IMPROVING THE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF EXTENSION Managing people effectively in extension programmes is a skill that requires constant planning and development. An extension programme manager can be defined as the person who is vested with formal authority over an organization or one of its sub units. He or she has status that leads to various interpersonal relations, and from this comes access to information. Information, in turn, enables the manager to devise strategies, make decisions, and implement action (Mintzberg, 1988). Management is concerned with the optimum attainment of organizational goals and objectives with and through controlling the standard operating procedures that employees implement. Extension management organizations are characterized by many strategies and wide spans of control in various departments. Their management practices cannot be reduced to one standard set of operating guidelines that will work for all organizations continually. However, all managers of professional organizations face the same challenge: to manage one's time, objectives, and resources in order to accomplish tasks and implement ideas (Waldron, 1994). Managers of extension programmes are painfully aware of the need for revision and development of the new skill sets held by today's high performers. If change is not handled correctly, it can be more devastating than ever before. High performers reflect, discover, assess, and act. They know that a new focus on connecting the heads, hearts, and hands of people in their organization is necessary. Astute managers know what needs to be done but struggle with how to do it. Quite often they prefer to consider themselves as teachers or communicators rather than managers. This results in under-utilization of the increasing amount of literature on management theory and practice. The root of the problem is implementation. They must learn how to motivate others and build an efficient team. More formally defined, management is the process by which people, technology, job tasks, and other resources are combined and coordinated so as to effectively achieve organizational objectives. A process or function is a group of related activities contributing to a larger action. Management functions are based on a common philosophy and approach. Organizations constantly encounter forces driving them to change. Because change means doing something new and unknown, the natural reaction is to resist it. Extension programme managers must overcome this resistance and adopt innovative and efficient management techniques to remain high performers. They must improve their personal, team, and cultural management skills if they hope to adapt themselves to a changing world. Overwhelmingly, current management wisdom touts the goal of getting decisions made as low down in the organization as possible. The basic idea is that since people closest to the work are likely to know the most about solving problems in their areas, they should be involved in the decisions concerning those areas. An added benefit is that they are more motivated if they have some control over their work and over their own destinies. There is still considerable discussion as to whether management is an art or a science, a philosophy or a skill. No one sustainable model can holistically encompass all management situations and environments. Management can be defined as the rational assessment of a situation and the systematic selection of goals and purposes; the systematic development of strategies to achieve these goals; the marshalling of the required resources, the rational design, organization, direction, and control of the activities required to attain the selected procedures (McNeil & Clemmer, 1988). Managers typically engage in a large number of roles and activities each day, and the average number of activities appears to increase at lower levels of management. The activities, however, are usually very brief in duration (Mintzberg, 1973). QUESTION ONE (20 marks) The article states: Management is concerned with the optimum attainment of organizational goals and objectives with and through controlling the standard operating procedures that employees implement. In light of this statement, use any department from your organisation (e.g. Operations, marketing, finance etc.) to Identify and discuss the steps in the control process. Provide suitable examples for each step discussed?

QUESTION TWO (10 marks) According to the article: Managers typically engage in a large number of roles and activities each day Dr Henry Mintzberg identified these roles. In his research, Mintzberg said that what managers do can best be described by looking at the roles they play at work. Based on this, discuss Mintzbergs TEN (10) managerial roles with suitable examples.

Guidelines

Your assignment should include a Table of Contents page.

Text: Font: Arial or Times New Roman (12), Spacing: 1.5 lines

All text must be justified at each margin.

The length of your answers to each question should be in line with the mark allocation.

Your answers must include any theories, charts, tables or exhibits necessary to support your analysis and recommendations.

Ensure that the readings are not merely reproduced in the assignment without original critical comments and views.

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