VI.

If You Were a Manager

Discussion Questions:
1. Is the manager’s view regarding his workers acceptable to you? Why?
2. How would you convince this particular manager to improve his human skills?
3. If you were a manager, which management skill (conceptual, human, technical) would
often guide you in making decisions and dealing with your workers?

ESSAY:
In my opinion, the manager’s view in the given situation where he doesn’t care about his
relationship with the workers in his department is not acceptable. It is not acceptable because
only taking care of the results of their worker's job doesn’t equivalent to being a good manager.
A good manager is someone who has a nice relationship with his workers, the one who
encourages and builds the team's spirit to do their task accordingly and efficiently. Now, some
might ask “Why do we even need to maintain a relationship with our workers, when our only
prime goal is to have a successful product?” One of the objectives that management should
contain is to have a healthy environment. Having a healthy environment makes the work more
adequate and it makes the workers do their jobs more genuinely, and that will result in an
effective and efficient product/service. That is why it is also important to have a relationship
with your workers, but be careful of being too friendly because having a personal relationship
between manager and workers has its downsides too. It might hinder your decisions toward the
growth of the company and may also cause biased decisions due to over-considerateness
towards the worker. Thus, in conclusion to that, the manager needs to be more balanced and
keep the discipline between the roles of a manager and employee that you have in the
beginning. It should not cross the line to avoid such consequences inside the department that
will highly affect the outcome of your products/services.
Having to disapprove of the manager’s mindset about the given situation, I would convince him
to improve his human skills by telling him the benefits of acquiring an equal trait of all the
aspects of a standard manager. If he is eager to achieve a good result out of the worker's job, I
will state that possessing a trait of compassion and an enthusiastic mindset in your workplace,
along with having a well-controlled plan which he will be leading, will meet the satisfaction of
the results that he’s trying to obtain. In this way, he can improve his performance more
effectively as well as the employees that are under him. Sometimes, an employee might also
come up with a good proposal that might be able to help and enhance the plan more, and
employees usually find talking to their supervisors more challenging because they’re afraid it
might have a bad outcome and put their jobs at risk. This is one of the reasons why we should
communicate to our workers properly as this helps in the company's growth. Good managers
constantly seek feedback. They are keen to learn what they can do better. As the managers
relate and communicate with their employees proficiently; their employees will find them more
motivational and will do their best on the job assigned to them.

Management skills can be acquired and enhanced. Managerial performance is more dependent
on ability than on personality attributes. Managers who demonstrate the appropriate
management skills are likely to work effectively and be relatively successful in their field. So, if I
were a manager, the management skill that I think would often help me guide in making
decisions for the company and my workers are the “conceptual skill.” Conceptual skill is
referring to a manager’s ability to analyze a situation and search for new opportunities and
resources to conclude the best strategy that will come up for the particular situation. Besides
being at the top level of management, I chose this skill because being able to provide your
organization with the best strategy may also produce the best outcome for the
products/services. Every manager must have a clear vision and understanding of the
organization's policies, plans, and other activities. This skill also correlates with the ability to be
innovative and having an advanced and original idea will also lead the organization to
successfully achieve its goals. Having this skill will boost the company’s performance, not only
on their products, but as well as on their critical thinking, and that is why I chose conceptual
skill as the management skill that will guide me a lot in my decision making.