Business Management Overview Of Abraham’s Grocery Store

The Four Management Functions

1.Identify and describe how the four management functions contributed to improve the business in the case study, using relevant examples to reinforce

2.What one (1) management approach best suits this organisation or could be adopted by this organisation? Please elaborate.

3.Explain how the efficiency and effectiveness in managing the enterprise can be improved.

The report aims at providing an overview on business management in the context of an organization put forward by the case study. The organization under discussion is Abraham’s Grocery Store found by Bill Abraham along with his sister in the year 1967 (Samson & Daft, 2015). The report also provides a vivid elaboration on the various aspects of management based on the three questions provided. Thus, the report focuses on not only the four management functions adopted by the grocery store for its improvement but also provides an insight into its management approach.

1.The four management functions that contribute to the improvement of the business in the case study include:

Planning: This referred to the management process that defined the goal for the future direction of the company and determined the resources and missions for achieving the targets (Byrnes, 2014). Thus, for the achievement of the necessary goals, the managers need to put forward a business or marketing plan. Planning also necessitated the needs of the managers to be aware of any environmental conditions that face the organization and thereby forecast the future conditions. In other words, planning involved setting of objectives and determining the course of the action for the achievement of the objectives (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

The Abraham’s Grocery Store that began as a small store grocery in the year 1967 expanded to 200 stores by the year 2007 (Samson & Daft, 2015). However, there was increased dissatisfaction amongst the stores due to lack of coordination. To improve its situation the store resorted to the decision of the consultant and planned for reorganization within each of the stores so that grocery, meat and produce department reports to store manager.

Organizing: This referred to the management function where combination and synchronization of the physical, human and the financial resources takes place for the outcome of the necessary results (Scott & Davis, 2015). According to McEvily, Perrone & Zaheer (2013), organizing refers to the functions through which concern ensures defining role positions, the related jobs and coordination between the responsibility and the authority(Galliers & Leidner, 2014).

Administrative Management Theory

However, Abraham Grocery Store took to organizing through maintenance of dashed line relationship between the store manager and the meat specialist the district in terms of coordination and communication (Samson & Daft, 2015). Similarly, a dashed line relationship also maintained between the store produce department manager and specialist responsible for the district production. The store resorted to the fact that the store manager would directly report to the supervisor of district store. In addition, the specialists responsible for the meat and produce of the district would periodically pay a visit to the individual stores for providing advice and aiding the departmental store  head in ensuring top quality of meat, grocery and other produce.

Leading: Leadingrefers to the third function of management accomplished through communication, motivation, inspiration, and encouragement of the employees towards higher productivity level (Doppelt, 2017).  Leaders determine the heart of the business. In fact, the leaders set the direction by assisting the others in overseeing the challenges that lies ahead.

In Abraham Grocery Store, the store manager played the leadership role in revamping the store towards improvement. This is because he had total control over the activities taking place in the store along with maintaining coordination between meat, grocery and the produce departments.

Controlling: The control process of an organizational involves the careful collection of the information regarding a system, person, process, or a group of individuals for making the decisions regarding each of the aspect (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).  Thus, controlling refers to the important function of the management since it enables checking the mistakes and telling one on how to face and meet newer challenges.

For instance, the Abraham Grocery Store ensured contol over all the store managers and the departments by assigning responsibilities. This not only helps in encouraging the coordination between the stores but also provides the manager with the ability of adapting to the local customer needs and taste. Moreover, the presence of the dashed line relationship would lead to the excellence in quality between all the departments across all the stores.

2.The Abraham Grocery Store follows the administrative management theory since attempts in finding a rationale for designing an organization. According to the theory, the administrative structure focuses on the clear labour division, delegation of authority and power to the concerned administrators in the areas of their responsibilities (Waldo, 2017). On a similar note, the store had four regional managers each of whom held the responsibility of about 50 stores. Within every region, there existed twelve to thirteen stores for each of the four districts. Since the grocery stores offered excellent quality produce and meat, so it appointed different manager for each of the meat, grocery produce department for each store. The manager of the grocery department also held the responsibilities of the store manager and could not exercise direct authority over the produce or the meat department. The manager of the store meat department directly reported to the manager specialist of meat belonging to the district meat while the manager of store produce department directly reported to the specialist produce manager of the district. The store manager directly reported to the store supervisor of the district. Thus, the direct authority awarded to each of the store department led to the excellence in quality control of meat, grocery and produce and departments within the individual stores. The grocery store followed the principles of the administrative approach even when it undertook reorganization of each of the stores for regaining the consumer’s trusts. The store completely aligned to the principles of planning, organizing, command, coordination and control put forward by the administrative management approach in determining the new structure and the operation. This included (Waring, 2016):

• Division of the work for ensuring greater organizational efficiency implying planning
• Defining of a proper structure since it allowed the proper functioning of the employee implying organization and coordination
• Development and application of the administrative principles to the general and the higher levels of the management implying command and control

Philosophy of Continuous Improvement

3.The success of an enterprise is determined by the fact that it should not be satisfied with the current state and undergo continuous development (Iakovleva, 2014). This helps in ensuring competitiveness towards other enterprises and help in strengthening its position in the market. The philosophy of the continuous improvement should apply throughout the enterprise. The management should seek continuous opportunities for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of management instead of waiting for the problem that leads to the revelation of the improvement in the opportunities. The improvement might range from smaller continuous operation to the strategic long-term improvements of the projects.

For improving the competitiveness and performance of the enterprise, it is necessary for applying the different approaches and methods that helps in pushing the enterprise to an altogether newer level (Kobersy et al., 2015). The enhancement of the efficiency and the effectiveness of the organization are achieved through practical application of the progressive approaches and the methods. This includes the application of an integrated management system, total quality management and ensuring a sustainable development.

To withstand the tough competitive struggles and in achieving a sustainable development, it is necessary for the enterprise in adapting to the changes and the requirements of international market. An increased demand persists in all the area of the economic and social life that leads to growing interest in the maintenance and improvement of environment, safety and the product quality. The concerned enterprise should review its present situation and ensure establishing efficient management systems in terms of the environment, safety and the quality that leads to the creation of an effective and highly efficient integrated system of management.

Thus, the comprehensive management of quality represents a philosophy, an attitude, and a continuous process that helps in emphasizing the personal responsibility amongst all the workers of the enterprise looking for continuously improvement (Lam, 2014). This also represents a business strategy that helps in making all activities of concerned enterprise the focal point of the attention for ensuring necessary customer satisfaction. However, the aim remains in the constant improvement of the business for not only the customers but also the owners and the employees. The process also leads to sharp decline in cost of the clean-up errors along with better customer service that not only helps in streamlining the internal processes but also enhances the business flexibility. In addition, there is also greater certainty that leads to strengthening of the position of the enterprise.

Conclusion:

To conclude, one can say that presently, the expectations from the enterprises have also increased in terms of prioritizing the sustainable development and there has been a shift from the maintenance of the product quality to the achievement of sustainable development.  This has made the enterprise more responsible where they can essentially integrate the environmental and the social aspects as a part of their business operations.

It is recommended include:

1. Strengthening Skills of the People: It is important for the managers to relate to people and vice versa that helps in laying the critical foundation for earning trust and respect
2. Motivating and Inspiring Others towards Achievement: Effective managers should motivate the employees for working towards their goal
3. By Undertake Frequent and Open Communication: This will enable providing necessary feedback and guidance.
4. Getting Comfortable with Conflict: This will enable him to provide an effective resolution in dealing with conflict situation

References:

Byrnes, W. J. (2014). Management and the Arts. Focal Press.

Doppelt, B. (2017). Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Routledge.

Galliers, R. D., & Leidner, D. E. (Eds.). (2014). Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Iakovleva, E. A. (2014). Managing major components of market value of enterprise in assessment of economic efficiency. Life Sci J., (11 (10)), 578-582.

Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Kobersy, I. S., Barmuta, K. A., Muradova, S. S., Dubrova, L. I., & Shkurkin, D. (2015). The system of the methodological principles of management of enterprise development. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(3 S4), 25.

Lam, J. (2014). Enterprise risk management: from incentives to controls. John Wiley & Sons.

McEvily, B., Perrone, V., & Zaheer, A. (2013). Trust as an organizing principle. Organization science, 14(1), 91-103.

Samson, D. & Daft, R. L. (2015). Management (5th Asia Pacific Ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning Australia. Page 428.

Scott, W.R & Davis, G.F.,( 2015). Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural and open systems perspectives. Routledge.     

Waldo, D. (2017). The administrative state: A study of the political theory of American public administration. Routledge.

Waring, S. P. (2016). Taylorism transformed: Scientific management theory since 1945. UNC Press Books.