WRITE UPs FOR FINAL ASSESSMENT

Prepared By
A F M FAISAL
ID: 20-91781-2
EMBA Program, Summer – 2020
Course: Leadership & Management Skill

Prepared For
Professor S. M. ZAKARIA
EMBA Program, AIUB

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY-

BANGLADESH
19 September 2020

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
SL No Topics Page No
1 Why is the strategic management important for 3
an organization? Can an organization be
successful without strategic plan? Why or why
not?
2 What does social responsibility mean to you? Do 6
you think business organization should be
socially responsible? Explain
3 What challenges do managers face in motivating 7
todays workforce?
4 Discuss leadership issues in the 21st century 8
which focus on ethics principle of leadership
5 Write in short about management skills. Why are 10
they treated as the key to management success?
Explain.

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TOPIC - 1: Why is the strategic management important for an organization?
Can an organization be successful without strategic plan? Why or why
not?

Answer:

Strategic Management:
Strategic management is the process of developing and executing a series
of competitive moves to enhance the success of the organization both in
the present and in the future. These competitive moves are derived from
the demands of the external environment in which the firm operates as well
as the internal capabilities that it has developed or can reasonably hope to
build or acquire.

Importance of Strategic Management:

i. Alertness in Employees: The alertness among the employees
increases the success of objectives and targets due to strategic
management. While framing the strategy management studies the
capability and weakness of employees and resources and taking
the steps to improve them, the employees become more alert
about their own performance and the group activity.

ii. Increase in the Efficiency of the Employees: The officers and

experienced employees of all the three levels of re-engagement
are included in strategic management process. The necessary
inter-process in being done with them and for the success of
strategy necessary training is also given to them. By this there is a
notable increase in efficiency of employees and they get inspiration
to work more.

iii. Increase in Profitability: The profitability of a unit depends upon-

the maximum use of limited resources. Through strategically
management process, the managers cannot only make the
maximum use of financial resources but also they can use
maximum man power to increase the overall productivity and
profitability of the unit.

iv. Reduction in Fixed and Flexible Expense: The capital invested

in the fixed assets is a fixed capital. Instead of purchasing the fixed
assets, the managers may buy such assets on rent to decrease the

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 fixed capital investment. In the same way, the flexible expenses
can also be reduced through collection arrangement. Making
changes in packing, of making changes in full, by acceptance, the
strategy of machinery resources in management etc.

v. Motivation to Group Activity: By taking strategic decisions

through the group, integration between group members increases
on accepting various optional strategies which result into co-
operation and unity. Not only that, but the managers can also get
the advantage of special strength of group members.

vi. Reduction in cost of capital: It is a fact that the unit which is

successful in raising the capital of the lowest possible cost is
almost eligible to face the competition right from the beginning.
After getting the estimate of capital requirement the managers
select the sources of capital from where they can acquire the
capital in a strategically manner. The strategic management has
been proved to be very useful to raise the estimated capital at
lowest possible rate, simple conditions for mortgage, return of
borrowed capital and conversion of borrowed capital into owner’s
capital.

vii. Acceptance of Organizational Changes: Normally the employees

do not accept the changes made in the organization, because due
to that the change occurs in their roles also. As a result, the
necessity to giving training of the new work to the employees
arises. Not only that but because of such changes many
departments also have to be closed. In these circumstances the
problem of the safety of job arises. In strategic management
process the capability of employees is also considered. Not only
that, but for its development, efforts are made through training
programmed so no question arises for the employees for not
accepting the changes.

viii. Increase in rate of return on investment: Due to the strategic

management there is a noble increase in the rate of return on
investment made in the project. On the basis of the information
received through analysis of internal and external environment the
managers can increase the rate of return on investment by making
a maximum use of resources.

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ix. Prevention of Overlapping of Work: Due to the interaction with
employees and officers working at all the levels of the organization
the question does not arise at all for the distribution of one work to
more than one employee or event he overlapping work is also not
possible. When the same activity is done by more than one
employee. At that time there is wastage of time and materials. The
problem of co-ordination also arises. With the help of strategic
process, the managers can prevent the overlapping of work.

x. Prevention of Organizational Gap: Out of the departmental

activities organization if any activity is not allotted to any employee,
that activity is known as organizational gap. If the allotment of any
work is left out by mistake, then none of the employees can be held
responsible for it. In strategic management process, because of the
interacting process being done with each employee, all the
employees are given equal works and so there does not arise a
question of organizational gaps.

xi. Increase in trading on equity: Trading on equity depends upon

many factors. Among on this, by making a maximum use of
borrowed capital in a creative manner through strategic
management process, the profitability of the unit can be increased
and the equity shareholders can be paid maximum dividend. If an
appropriate strategically arrangement is not made for the use of
financial resources, then its profitable use will not be successful
and the interest on the borrowed capital will also become
burdensome.

Strategic management helps an organization to be successful.

While five-year plans may remain relatively unchanged in some
industries, other industries may make major modifications monthly.
For this reason, most firms consider strategic management to be an
ongoing process characterized by periodic progress evaluations and
major plan analysis on a yearly basis. Such updates allow a firm to
continually reconfigure its internal process and capabilities to create a
better fit with the demands of the competitive situation.

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TOPIC – 2: What does social responsibility mean to you? Do you
think business organization should be socially responsible? Explain

Answer:

Social Responsibility:
Social responsibility can be said to be the obligation on the part of
business enterprises to protect and promote society’s welfare. The
activities of businesses should be organized in such a way that the society
is benefited and not affected.

Business organization should be socially responsible which is called

Corporate social responsibility (CSR). The reasons are outlined below:
1. Better Public Image:
Each firm must enhance its public image to secure more customers, better
employees and higher profit. Acceptance of social responsibility goals lead
to improve public image.

2. Conversion of Resistances into Resources:

If the innovative ability of business is turned to social problems, many
resistances can be transformed into resources and the functional capacity
of resources can be increased many times.

3. Long Term Business Interest:

A better society would produce a better environment in which the business
may gain long term maximization of profit. A firm which is sensitive to
community needs would in its own self-interest like to have a better
community to conduct its business. To achieve this, it would implement
social programmes for social welfare.

4. Avoiding Government Intervention:

Regulation and control are costly to business both in terms of money and
energy and restrict its flexibility of decision making. Failure of businessmen
to assume social responsibilities invites government to intervene and
regulate or control their activities. The prudent course for business is to

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understand the limit of its power and how to use that power carefully and
responsibly thereby avoiding government intervention.

TOPIC - 3: What challenges do managers face in motivating todays

workforce?

Answer:
Motivation seems to be a simple function of management in books, but in
practice it is more challenging. The reasons for motivation being
challenging job are as follows:

 One of the main reasons of motivation being a challenging job is due to

the changing workforce. The employees become a part of their
organization with various needs and expectations. Different employees
have different beliefs, attitudes, values, backgrounds and thinking. But
all the organizations are not aware of the diversity in their workforce
and thus are not aware and clear about different ways of motivating
their diverse workforce.

 Employees motives cannot be seen, they can only be presumed.

Suppose there are two employees in a team showing varying
performance despite being of same age group, having same
educational qualifications and same work experience. The reason being
what motivates one employee may not seem motivating to other.

 Motivation of employees becomes challenging especially when the

organizations have considerably changed the job role of the employees,
or have lessened the hierarchy levels of hierarchy, or have chucked out
a significant number of employees in the name of down-sizing or right-
sizing. Certain firms have chosen to hire and fire and paying for
performance strategies nearly giving up motivational efforts. These
strategies are unsuccessful in making an individual overreach himself.

 The vigorous nature of needs also pose challenge to a manager in

motivating his subordinates. This is because an employee at a certain
point of time has diverse needs and expectations. Also, these needs
and expectations keep on changing and might also clash with each
other. For instance-the employees who spend extra time at work for

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 meeting their needs for accomplishment might discover that the extra
time spent by them clash with their social needs and with the need for
affiliation.

TOPIC – 4: Discuss leadership issues in the 21st century which focus

on ethics principle of leadership.

Answer:

The beginning of the twenty-first century was plagued with extensive,

evasive, and disheartening. Leadership in business ethics can encompass
a broad spectrum of areas. We can improve the reputation and credibility
of the company by emphasizing ethical decisions, behaviors, boundaries
and ideas. Using leadership skills to demonstrate appropriate business
ethics can help build a team culture at our business. In addition, it
provides measurable benchmarks for employees to follow as they make
independent decisions in their daily duties.

Developing leadership in business ethics can start with designing an

ethics policy and having every employee read and sign it. The policy
should outline the company's ethical standards in all areas of business,
including personal use of computers, personal phone calls, customer
service, how discounting is handled, discussion of company business
outside of the office and any type of harassment. Include clearly outlined
guidelines for each of these situations and consequences for failing to
follow the ethics policy. In addition, outline provisions for complaints in
the policy. identify the chain of command with directives about how to
handle concerns or observed policy violations.

As we saw in the introduction, ethical lapses can have profound

consequences, from loss of reputation to the collapse of the entire
company. 

When the postmortems were conducted on various corporate scandals

over the years, it usually became clear that the mistakes could've been
avoided if strong ethical leadership had been in place and managers had
questioned or prevented the wrongdoing before it escalated. 
But it’s not all negative. Studies have found practical, positive benefits too.
For example, one experiment at Cornell University found that “ethical
leadership was positively and significantly related to employee
performance.” 

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Another study published in Science Direct showed that ethical leadership
made employees less likely to leave. Given the high cost of employee
turnover, this is a significant benefit.

As we’ll see in the next section, ethical leadership is about creating a

culture in which people do the right thing. So there are many benefits that
flow from that, from small things like employees being less likely to steal
the stationery to much larger things like treating customers in the right way
and making decisions for the long-term benefit of a wide variety of
stakeholders instead of for short-term personal gain.

Ethical leadership also has subsets too, such as environmental ethics.

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TOPIC – 5: Write in short about management skills. Why are they
treated as the key to management success? Explain.

Answer:

Management Skill:
Management skills are something that you hear a lot about in the abstract;
yet you may find you're at a loss to define what the term really means. In
the broadest sense, management skills can be nearly anything that
enables you to manage others effectively.
Some important points are outlined below in which sectors management
skills helps for management success

1. Building good working relationships with people at all levels

The most important management skill, the survey found, is the ability to
build good relationships with people at all levels. For example, an
approach to relationship building described in the book focuses on
creating "high-quality connections" through respectful engagement.

2. Prioritizing tasks effectively for yourself and your team.

All of us have a huge number of things that we want to do or have to
do," Birkinshaw says. "The demands can often seem overwhelming, to
us and the members of our team. This is why prioritization is the second
most important management skill." A particularly useful approach to this
the book recommends is called the Action Priority Matrix.

3. Considering many factors in decision-making.

We've all seen how bad decisions can be when they're rushed or when
financial concerns are the only criteria used. This is why it pays to use a
formal, structured process to think a problem through thoroughly,
including analyzing risk and exploring ethical considerations.
The ORAPAPA framework which stands for Opportunities, Risks,

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 Alternatives and Improvements, Past Experience, Analysis, People,
and Alignment and Ethics is a good example.

4. Knowing the key principles of good communication.

Management is about getting things done by working with people,"
Manktelow says. You can do this only if you communicate effectively.
This is where the 7 C's of Communication—clear, concise, concrete,
correct, coherent, complete, courteous—can help you get your
message through more clearly.
5. Understanding the needs of different stakeholders and
communicating with them appropriately.
As you spearhead bigger projects, it becomes increasingly important to
manage the many different groups of people who can support or
undermine the work you do. This is where it's important to develop good
stakeholder analysis and stakeholder management skills.

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