Hall & Pickles: UK's Leading Steel Processor And Stockholder, Essay.

Understand the management role to improve management performance and management communication.

Goals and Objectives of Hall & Pickles

Hall & Pickles is the UK’s leading steel processor and stockholder. They have succeeded to supply steel all across the nation for past two centuries. At present, the company holds a comprehensive portion of share in the market. The services offered by the company include zinc coating, laser cutting, kitting as well as profiling, mitre sawing, square sawing, galvanizing along with bending, shotblasting and painting (Hall & Pickles, 2016). Additionally, in the present context, the company has become a renowned independent stockholder, which has an annual turnover that exceeds £100 million (Hall & Pickles, 2016a). Moreover, the goal of the company is to fix the highest standard of quality, which helps in ensuring the optimum level of customer satisfaction. The company aims to meet the national standard along with European and international standard. This further includes ISO 9001:2008 accreditation. On the other hand, the key objective of the company is to deliver all the required materials, in addition to maintaining its quality. This is performed by the company with a force of vehicles managed by the company (Hall & Pickles, 2016). These goals and objectives guide Hall & Pickles to consider its future outcomes. The short-term goal in this context is to ensure Just-In-Time delivery of high quality products and services, whereas the long-term goal of the company is to exceed the mark of £100 million annual revenue.

SMART Objectives

SMART objectives are some of the specific targets the organisations wants to achieve. According to Carysforth & Neild (2000), a good objective of an organisation must be Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, and Time constrained. It was further stated that for an objective to be SMART, it needs to have a time-scale and must be realistic in nature. This is because it helps in achieving the set goals within the set time constraint (Carysforth & Neild, 2000). This concept when applied in the context of the Hall & Pickles Company, the SMART objective mainly focuses on exceeding the target of its turnover, which is more than £100 million on an annual basis. This objective has made an explicit relationship between the goals and the objectives of the company, as the incorporation them can help in meeting the SMART objective in an efficient manner.

Assessment of the Management Communication’s Effectiveness

In the company Hall & Pickles, the area of key concern is its sales department. Hence, as a sales manager, the range of both written as well as verbal communication methods will be accessed in this part. According to Preserve Articles (2012), management communication refers to the process, which focuses on entailing the transmission as along with the correct replication of information and ideas provided by feedback for planning actions. Thus, it can help in the accomplishment the organisational goals. Hence, it can also be explained as process through which the sum of everything a person does to make another individual person understand. Moreover, communication is the bridge of meaning. Hence, management communication can further entail continuous and systematic process of speaking, listening, and understanding what one conveys to the other. In simple terms, it is the process of transferring information from one person to another (Preserve Articles, 2012). Hence, in this particular aspect, appropriate attitude i.e. apt language, body posture, and tone of a person can have great impact in management communication. This is especially for the purpose of negotiation for having a positive outcome. Hence, persuasion can act as a tool for resolving all the problems and mitigating the barriers in proper communication (Sehgal, 2008). Understanding this concept, it can be inferred that, in order to have proper management, communication within the organization needs to be appropriate for achieving the desired outcome.

Goals and objectives of the company

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication method is also known as oral communication, which includes exchange of words between two or more individual. In an organization, oral communication depends on the hierarchy level. Face-to-face communication is one of the prominent verbal communications, which is done with individual as well as in group meetings. One of the advantages of it is that, with the support of this method, immediate feedback can be generated, which will help in developing relationships. Another advantage is that, it is considered to be an effective tool for the purpose of persuading along with communicating in a group even in case of emergencies. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that, it lacks documentation and the message can also be distorted in the process of communication, as it is affected by physical barriers (Sehgal, 2008). On the other hand, it is also observed that it requires close proximity of people while communicating which can be considered as a disadvantage (Becky, 2004). Hence, in the sales department of Hall & Pickles, an example of oral communication is face-to-face conversation of Sales Manager along with six team members during the sales meeting or with the Depot Manager to whom reports must be sent. Other examples include speeches, interviews, presentations, telephone conversations, conferences, and communication in seminars.

Written Communication

Written communication involves a document with the help of which transmission of the message is done. Through this type of communication, reference and records can be maintained. This can further assist in storing the information and data, which will act as a legal defence. With the support of this mass access, it can also be done and can be considered to be most suitable for distance communication. On the other hand, it is time consuming, costly, and requires expertise for which immediate feedback cannot be provided (Sehgal, 2008). E-mail can be considered as written communication, which is undertaken through electronic mode. There are various advantages and some disadvantages of e-mail communication. Contextually, the advantage is that it is cheaper than the other methods and can be transmitted faster. Additionally, it is convenient and permanent, which can be considered as a text document. The disadvantages include spreading viruses, messages can be spam, data storage problem, and business information/confidential data can be leaked with a small mistake (Invest Northern Ireland, n.d.). Hence, in relation to the company, written communication can be done through letters along with memorandums written by the senior members to the sales team for conveying essential messages. For instance, being a sales manager, report in a documented form can be sent to the Depot Manager. Other examples are notices, agenda, and minutes as well as circulars, which can be produced by the senior management to the employees of the sales team.

SMART objective

Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills involve the appropriate manner in which effective translation of information can be done. Its advantage is that it has the interpretation ability of people relating to the emotions other individual. Resolving conflicts, problem solving, and active listening are some of the interpersonal skills, which helps in running the operation efficiently. Hence, using this skill, a person can be successful in the personal as well as professional contexts, which is one of the main advantages of interpersonal skills (Salim & Joy, 2016). For a sales manager, the three interpersonal skills, which can be considered to be the most important includes appropriate verbal communication, listening, and problem-solving or decision-making skills. Moreover, another advantage is that with the help of this skill, an individual is able to negotiate, motivate, and persuade others. Hence, a sales manager can significantly improve the overall managerial performances. . In addition, being a sales manager, expertise in these skills must be developed; only then, effective management and delegation of work among the employees can be done. On the other hand, not possessing these skills can be highly disadvantageous. If he/she lacks some of these skills, they may not be able to communicate in an effective manner with the employees. Thus, collaborative outcome of the team cannot be derived. With these problems, the pre-determined organisational goals cannot be addressed in a timely manner, thereby negatively affecting the entire performance of the company.

Communication Skills

Communication skills are those skills, which are essential for each and every personnel working in the organization for proper transmission of messages from one person to the other. The most important advantage is that possessing good communication skills are vital for conducting an interview and workplace as well as for a resume. Among various skills, proper listening along with having confidence and creating concise, in addition to clear message are the three key skills which a sales manager can posses (Business Skills & Software, 2018). As a sales manager, to showcase these skills is highly advantageous, as one can effectively deliver the message to the target audience, especially to the senior managers. On the contrary, the disadvantage lies in the fact that if these aspects are not considered while communicating, it may lead to misunderstanding between the sender and the receiver. Therefore, it creates miscommunication within the organisation.

For analysing the personal strengths along with weaknesses, the Depot Manager of the senior management has been asked to provide feedback on the verbal as well as written communication skills. According to ACT Government (2013), receiving feedback involves three basic steps i.e. reacting, reflecting, and responding. However, in order to make the feedback generated to be highly useful, it is important to initially analyse prior to responding. Moreover, one must control reacting emotionally and listen to the viewpoint of others in the reaction stage. One must be honest as well as open-minded while reflecting upon the feedback. Furthermore, positive responses to the feedback providers must be ensured so that the alternative views can be collected even in the future instances. This can subsequently help in driving necessary improvements (ACT Government, 2013). Being a sales manager, it would be feasible to ask feedback to the superiors within the organisation. Thus, in this particular context, the Depot Manager was asked for providing feedback. The two verbal communication skills, according to the superior manager were clarity and confidence. The messages conveyed are always clear and full of confidence, but it was also stated that friendliness was lacking. Additionally, it was also observed that proper or adequate body language were lacking. Even from the feedbacks of the subordinates, it was understood that they sensed high level of confidence. However, it was further observed that friendliness was not as expected.

Importance of interpersonal and communication skills

In the context of the written communication, it was observed by the Depot manager that there were no aspects that lacked in a document produced. However, instant feedback was not obtained from the receivers’ end. Hence, this led to the creation of delays in decision-making process. It was also stated by the employees that the e-mails and notices were clear enough to understand as well as concise with the help of which every member could read all the messages with ease.

Therefore, it can be analysed from the feedback of both the senior manager as well as the subordinates that the written skills must be required for a sales manager. However, there are certain verbal skills such as body language, while conveying messages at times of emergency situation or difficult scenarios were observed to be unfavourable. Hence, being a sales manager, all the strengths that have been highlighted from this feedback session must be enhanced so that the subordinates can be motivated to improve both written along with oral communication skills. However, the weaknesses, especially regarding the body language must be self-checked on a regular basis such that improvements can be made accordingly to develop expertise in this area.

In order to evaluate the communication skills, the criteria, which have been taken into consideration, are level of interaction, professional vocabulary, language quality, fluency, pronunciation, and presentation (University Of Jyväskylä, 2007). Additionally, body language has also been rated on the basis likert sale of 1 to 5. As per the rating in Table 1 below, it can be evaluated that body language and pronunciation needs to be improved for developing expertise in the respective areas. On the other hand, the key strengths are interactive and fluent communication.

Table 1: Communication Skills Rating

The skills, behaviour, and knowledge can be self accessed by preparing the performance review along with developing good understanding of oneself. Gaps present while acquiring adequate knowledge, skills, and behaviours must be identified such that improvements can be made in the future instances (VPSC, 2009). From the assessment rating done in Table 2 below, it can be stated that the three key strengths are interpersonal skills, motivating other people, and respecting others, not only superiors but also subordinates. On the other hand, the key weaknesses are lack of listening skills, management concept application, and friendly behaviour.

Table 2: Rating of Knowledge, Skills and Behaviour

From all these findings, it can be concluded that, the key strengths must be enhanced and the weaknesses must be mitigated through practical application of theories as well as the concepts in the real scenario. This will not only increase my personal managerial skills, abilities, behaviour, and knowledge. I will also be able to encourage my subordinates to get motivated. All these can effectively cater to the needs and requirements of the customers and hence, can effectively meet the personal as along with the team’s sales target, thereby enhancing the performance and profitability of the Hall & Pickles. These are depicted in a SWOT analysis below.

Table 3: Self-SWOT Analysis

References

ACT Government 2013, ‘The art of feedback: Giving, seeking and receiving feedback’, ACTPS Performance Framework, pp. 1-14.

Becky, S.G 2004, The leader's communication toolkit: How to select the right communication method in an electronic world, Human Resource Development, US. 

Business Skills & Software 2018, Examples of good communication skills, Business Skills, viewed 03 June 2018, <https://www.businessphrases.net/examples-good-communication-skills/>.

Carysforth, C & Neild, M 2000, Intermediate business, Heinemann, United States.

Hall & Pickles 2016, The UK's leading steel stockholders and steel processors, Hall & Pickles, viewed 03 June 2018, <https://www.hallandpickles.co.uk/>.

Hall & Pickles 2016a, About us, Hall & Pickles, viewed 03 June 2018, <https://www.hallandpickles.co.uk/about-us/>.

Invest Northern Ireland, n.d, Advantages and disadvantages of using email for business, Benefits of email and the internet, viewed 04 June 2018, <https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-using-email-business>. 

Preserve Articles 2012, What is the Definition Communication in management?, Preserve Articles, viewed 03 June 2018, <https://www.preservearticles.com/2012051932610/what-is-the-definition-communication-in-management.html>.

Salim, S.S & Joy, I.E 2016, ‘Interpersonal skills’, Training Manual on Theeranaipunya - Equipping Fisherwomen Youth for Future, pp. 341-345.

Sehgal, M.K 2008, Business communication, Excel Books, India.