Essay: Roles Of Managers In Multiplex - Functions And Impact.

Discuss About The Dynamic Capabilities And Entrepreneurial.

Multiplex is one of the largest construction, engineering and Infrastructure Company located in Sydney, Australia. The company which was founded in the year 1962 is headed by John Flecker and employees over 3750 people and is spread across India, Canada, Europe and The Middle East(Bryan et. al., 2017). The 56 year old company specializes in high rise buildings, stadiums, High end residential properties, education, health and civil infrastructure. Some of the most notable projects of the company include Wembley Stadium in London, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow(Chan & Martek,2017).

The purpose of the report here is to critically analyse the roles and functions which managers perform and discuss the challenges and risks they have to address in today’s changing business organization and environment. Within the purview of the organization and the assignment the impact of values, ethics and diversity on the culture of the organization would be considered, along with the role, behaviour and performance of managers within that organization.

A case study research method can be understood as an empirical inquiry which investigates a contemporary phenomenon with its real-life context, more so when the boundaries between the phenomenon and context are yet not clearly evident and uses multiple sources.  In this particular scenario, an Instrumental case study method has to be used. Within the purview of the case study, the researcher focusses on a bigger objective, rather than just focussing on one particular problem. The goal here is to solve the global problem, hence becomes evident in this case, because Multiplex is a global organization.

In order to conduct the research on the role and function of the managers and the ethical consideration underpinning the managers will be considered by using secondary research on the case study. The data for the secondary research will be collected through the company records, Government publication, Published papers, conference proceedings & online discussion forums or documents. Also, Qualitative data analysis will be used to categorize the information, identify the pattern and connections within and between the categories.

Managers are the key elements which act as a connection between the lower level employees and the senior management, thus managers have to ensure that their roles and functions are in sync with organizational development and effectiveness. The five primary functions which are performed by Managers at Multiplex, and moreover by every manager across the globe are:

This is the first and the most fundamental function of managers, in this step the manager has to create a comprehensive plan to achieve the goals of the organization. Goals are created by the management by involving the managers and the employees, post creation of goals; it is the duty of the managers to come up with a plan to achieve the goals. The plan would include advertising plan, communication plan, business plan, KPI for the employees and many more. Thus, managers are pivotal to the planning process which leads to achievement of the goals in an organization(Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

Roles and Functions Performed by Managers

The second important function of managers is organizing; this function is masked by assigning work to the employees and giving authority to take their own decision. Organizing, proceeds after the planning stage, and herein the managers have to organize the team and resources to carry out the planning activities. Organizing becomes an important function of managers as scientifically the managers have to organize the activities according to the planning function. For instance, Managers at multiplex are required to give instruction to employees when they are working on a new project, and different supervisors are given authority to conduct the work on the project. Creation of Wembley Stadium at Australia was one of the most organized projects created by Multiplex(Hill, 2017).

Staffing is the third important function of the managers, herein the manager is required to work in close association with the HR managers and executive to create a team of employees to achieve the goals of the organization. Herein the managers brief the HR team on the kind of employees they require for this job, and the HR then beefs up the process of recruiting, selecting, developing and training the employees. At Multiplex, which is a construction organization, the managers hire employees on a project basis, these are the contractual employees. However it is the duty of the mangers to brief them up on the work proceeding and ensure that the work is completed on time(Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).

The prerequisite of a good manager is, that he should be a leader and must and should have innate quality of leadership. After conducting planning to reach towards the organizational objective, organizing the team and the resources towards the objectives of the organization, staffing to get the right employees in the system and then motivating, communicating and guiding them towards the objectives becomes highly inevitable. Leading ensures that managers are required to assist, coach and solve the problems alongside working with the employees(Teece, 2016).

Most people often get confuse that manager role finishes after the leading function, however, it is not the case. Controlling is the last and another important function which the managers perform to ensure the achievement of the organizational objectives. In this function managers has to keep a constant check on the progress of the task completion and ensure that the goal is achieved in the time stipulated by the organization. Controlling is more of a monitoring process and the managers are required to gain feedback and to gauge the work progress on a regular basis(Laudon & Laudon, 2016).

These are the most important functions which are performed by the managers and ensure the fulfilment of organizational objectives.

Manager as a figurehead is an interpersonal role; herein the role performed by the manager is symbolic or ceremonial in nature. His role is to welcome the guests, authorities and signs official document. Here the role of the manager can be seen as filled with less communication, doing routine work and less important decision.

The role of manager as a leader includes communicating with the subordinates and the superiors, motivating the employees, hiring of the employees and ensuring discipline in the organization. Thus, the role here is that of leadership where the manager is responsible for leading the team by influencing, motivating and communicating with them(Chang, 2016).

Roles performed by the managers

The role of manager as a liaison is to involve all the teams together, coordinate with the subordinates and to ensure that all the activities leading towards accomplishment of goals are taken care. Manager has to thus act as a liasoner between the teams and get the work done(Nicholas & Steyn, 2017).

Manager in his role as a monitor collects plethora of information about the external environment and the internal organizational environment, the manager collects the information via reading, communicating, attending events, gossip and many more. The manager in this role collects the information and acts on them(Stark, 2015).

The role of manager here is to distribute the information collected by him or pass on the information to his subordinates or peer for their knowledge widening. This role has importance in the management function where the subordinates have less or no access to outside or inside information.

The role played by the manager here lies on the pillars of innovation and creativity, he makes sure that the culture of innovation and creativity always prevails in the organization. He brings innovation and creativity in the organization by pushing the employees to work at their best and appreciates creativity and innovation in the team(Pearson, 2017).

Disturbance is the order of the day in most of the organization, which can be caused due to various reasons such as cultural conflicts, communication gap, workforce diversity and many more. Herein the manager plays a role of a conflict handler or disturbance handler, who by using his strategical approach tones down the clash, conflict and disturbance in the organization(Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

Resource is an important element which plays a crucial role in the achievement of organizational goals. As a manager, one has to ensure that it allocates human, physical, financial and other resources to its employees. These resources help the employees to achieve the organizational goals and objectives(Ulrich & Dulebohn, 2015).

Thus, critical understanding of the roles and function of managers in the business organization helps the readers to understand the crucial and significant role they play in the success of business objectives and goals. The success of the goals can be seen as a function of effectiveness of the role played by the managers. Manager at Multiplex thus have a very important role to play, not only in the achievement of the organizational objectives, but also to establish a positive work environment and to ensure that the employees are motivated and inspired to achieve excellence.

Values can be understood as the worth or meaning which is attached to something or some abstract concept. Values in organization have a very important role to play in the cultural setting. The values are translated and form the culture of the organization. At Multiplex the values are integrity, honesty and commitment towards the work and business sustainability. The culture of Multiplex directly stands on these values.

Ethics can be understood as the moral principles which govern the Behavior and conduct of a person. It is very important for the business leaders and the mangers to adopt high ethical standards in their business conduct and proceeding. The sub-ordinates or the employees look up to the leaders and managers, thus a culture of strong ethics is created in the organization when the senior leadership practice the same in their business transactions.

Over the last decade, the world has become a global village due to the advent of globalization. Due to globalization it has become inevitable for business organization to keep a tab on their workforce diversity. Thus, organization has a lot of people working from different backgrounds, religion, nationalities, caste, colour and creed, working shoulder to shoulder with one another. This diversity widens the culture in the organization and makes it more and more accepting and prevalent in the organization(Wheelen et. al., 2017).

Managers have a very crucial role to play in setting up the culture of business organization. The reason behind it is as the managers act as an influencer, motivator and symbolic for the employees, thus the employees look up to the mangers and the way he conducts himself in the organization. Managers by their conduct and behaviour in the organization set the culture of the organization. For instance, in an organization where manager does not appreciate communication, the culture in the organization will be set to closed communication. A highly unethical manager will create a team and culture which is filled with high level of unethical behaviour. Thus, it can be easily said that the behaviour and performance of managers has a direct implication over the culture of the organization.

Conclusion

The case study here is based on the organization Multiplex, which is one of the leading construction company situated in Sydney with a limited global presence. Instrumental case study and secondary research methodology has been used to understand the role and functions of the manager in an organizational context. The manager has five important roles to play here viz a viz planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. More so, managers have an important role to play in the cultural setting of the organization, a highly ethical manager will create a culture and team of people on the same values.

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