MGT300 Describe How Did Your Interviewee Come To Be A Manager
Your Portfolio Project synthesizes information gathered from an interview you will conduct with a manager of your choosing, the knowledge you've gained in this course, and your own experience to create a research and reflection paper.
Be sure to thoroughly read the Portfolio Project description below before beginning to work on the project.
Portfolio Milestone Deliverables
The following deliverables are due Sunday, 11:59 PM MST of week 2 and 5 respectively:
Week 2: Interview Subject and Summary of Theories (20 points of the Portfolio Project)
Select which of the two Portfolio Project options you will complete and submit. Before 11:59 PM MST on Sunday, submit the name of the person who will be your interview subject, along with a summary of the theories that you plan to cover. These theories can change as you progress through your project, so the information you provide for this Week 2 deliverable is not set in stone. Instead, this assignment provides an opportunity to begin thinking about your Portfolio Project and record your preliminary ideas. Your submission should be 200-300 words in length.
Week 5: Portfolio Project Outline (20 points of the Portfolio Project)
Submit an outline of your Portfolio Project. Your outline should include bullet points, in the form of sentences or phrases describing each major argument you want to make, organized as the final project will be organized. This should by no means be a complete or final document, but should be sufficiently advanced to serve as a guide for a working draft of your project drafts to ensure that your writing is clear, thoughtful, and precise.
Interview
Choose a manager to interview with whom you are familiar—ideally, someone whom you admire and aspire to emulate. Ask her or him for some time—perhaps you can sit down for coffee—during which you can describe your course learning objectives and discuss what you have so far taken away from the class (in brief) Ask the manager what insights she or he has to offer to you at this point in your career.
The goal of the interview is to gain insight into what makes a good manager from the perspective of someone in a management position. Some topics to touch on in the interview could include the following:
How did your interviewee come to be a manager (i.e., what career path she or he followed)?
Has your interviewee found that professional certifications, volunteering, and continued education are important factors to career development?
What has surprised your interviewee most about what it means to be an effective leader (as opposed to the popular view of what a successful leader is and/or does)?
What roles are played by managerial goals, objectives, decision-making, and communication on the job?
How does the interviewee handle change management at his/her organization and what specific challenges has she or he encountered?
What advice does your interviewee offer to someone in your position and with your short- and long-term goals?
At the close of the interview, be sure to thank your interviewee for her or his time and assistance!
Note: Any documentation resulting from personal interviews by CSU-Global students are for the sole purposes of fulfilling a course assignment and will not be used as part of a larger study, published, or distributed outside of the course environment.
Research and Reflection Paper
In the next phase, ruminate on what you learned in your interview—especially anything that helped you to gain a deeper insight into the topics you studied in the course—and write a research and reflection paper in which you draw upon learning shared with your instructor and colleagues, your individual learning, and knowledge you have gained from the interview to demonstrate a more in-depth understanding of the foundational principles of management. In your paper, go beyond recitation of memorized facts or regurgitation of information; strive to synthesize the most important topics of management (i.e., leadership, personality, motivation, decision-making, communication, and the importance of good management to yourself and to society) into a hybrid research and reflection paper.
Your paper should integrate responses to each of the following questions in a well-organized and coherent paper:
What leadership precepts did your interviewee impart to you (or what can you glean on the topic as a result of your interview), and how do those dovetail with one or more of the modern theories of leadership?
How do the personalities of workers, colleagues, managers, and subordinates impact your performance in, and experience of, the workplace? How do they interact with one or more leadership models to create the most effective work environment?
In light of your interview, the leadership model(s) you've discussed, and your own personality, what one or two tenets of motivation theory have you taken away from the course?
How do your understandings of motivation theories impact your conceptions of the best practices when it comes to making decisions and communicating at work?
Based on your interview and on learning from this course, what does it take to be an effective employee, a successful manager, and an exemplary citizen of society?
Research and Reflection Paper
Name
Institution
Research and Reflection Paper
There is extensive research as well as numerous papers and articles written with the intention of answering the question: what constitutes appropriate leadership style. However, despite all the available information, researchers are yet to agree on a particular method which will promote professionalism at work while also improving productivity. Regardless of the flawless nature of a method, there is always something that undoes a technique. However, in spite of the fact presented above, there is one thing that all researchers seem to agree on, and this is simply the obvious relationship between leadership and motivation. Leaders inspire, motivate, build, and can promote loyalty within an organization. Conversely, leaders can demotivate, demoralize, and promote disloyalty within an organization. The difference between a leader who inspires and one who does not is the choice of leadership style. Every leader prefers a particular leadership style and this brings about major differences in the impact one has on their subordinates. For example, there are leaders who believe that open communication will inspire and move employees to express their opinions and feel a part of the organization. On the other hand, there are those who believe employees should be taking orders and should never be allowed to speak their mind. Every leadership style is motivated by something and while interviewing John Merkel (current manager of Starbucks coffee company, California outlets) this was evident.
According to Mumby (2012), effective leaders support open communication and give feedback. He continues to state that whenever there are shared values and goals there is congruence and it becomes easier to communicate and expect positive feedback. The positive feedback here is not synonymous to getting positive reviews but getting honest answers and feedback as to what is happening. My interviewee echoed the same sentiments and reiterated the importance of encouraging open communication as a manager. While explaining why it is important to manage expectations, John Merkel added that open communication is indeed essential especially if one aims at averting the danger of getting misquoted or captured out of context. Aside from communication within the workplace, Merkel was also particular about managing issues and people within the workplace. Unlike most managers, Merkel seeks to understand his employees and to build a relationship with them. He understood that people are the most important asset within an organization and therefore, he endeavored to get the best from those under him. By managing issues within the workplace, he managed to stay abreast with everything happening within the outlets he managed. He also emphasized the point of having a presence or a lasting touch whenever he visited an outlet.
As per Herzberg’s two motivational factors, factors that cause satisfaction are indeed different from those associated with satisfaction. In their article, Jansen and Samuel (2014) stated that Herzberg’s two motivational factors are indeed relevant especially when one is seeking to motivate his employees. Apparently, the opposite of job satisfaction is not job dissatisfaction especially where achievement, satisfaction, growth, advancement, responsibility, and work are the factors that influence satisfaction. Merkel seems to tap into this model since he believes in building professional relationships with his workers and promoting a corporate culture that strengthens and enhances the workplace atmosphere. However, regardless of the motivation behind a managerial approach, the personalities of workers, colleagues, managers, and subordinates often seem to have a significant bearing on one’s experience and performance at the workplace. Conversely, as a manager, one is expected to lead from the front and Merkel decided to create a culture that seeks to motivate employees by propagating something that he practices. He believes that practicing what he preaches is the only way to get the best from his employees. Therefore, he initiated an open culture where everyone has a voice and every opinion counts regardless of one’s position in the company.
According to Ganta (2014), Herzberg believed that motivational factors such as employee promotion, employee recognition, and the hygiene factors such as salary increment, favorable organizational policies and good relationship with the management greatly motivate the employees. Employees want to feel like they belong and that they are a part of something. Therefore, treating them as an important party is crucial to the success of an organization. In the interview, it became clear that employees can influence and determine the success or failure of a manager. If not taken into consideration, the personalities as well as the attitudes of one’s employees can drive the company towards its crushing end. However, by incorporating Herzberg’s theory, managers can avert the danger of getting sidelined by their subordinates. Choosing to create and promote a culture that recognize everyone’s voice in the workplace is the best place to start. Organizational policies can also be bent to gift employees more power. Decision-making can also be made collectively and managers can gift their employees with enough room to make certain decisions. One can never influence or be guaranteed of 100% support but by empowering one’s employees, it is indeed possible to create an effective work environment. Good relationships last beyond one’s employment span and while managers are expected to showcase or be the authority figure in the workplace, it helps when employees can relate with their managers at a personal level.
This entire exercise has been illuminating and I have had the opportunity to learn and experience a lot. For example, I have come to comprehend the power of having clear and concrete goals and this is not only as a management tool but as a personal tool as well. Latham and Locke believed that setting goals can be used as a way to motivate employees as well as a way to maximize output or increase employee productivity. Additionally, they advised that the goals set need to be clear and measurable, challenging, involve employees input, encourage feedback at all instances, and finally, be attainable (Lunenburg, 2015). The above makes one of the greatest lesson of this entire experience. Teachers, parents, and even community leaders often speak of the importance of setting goals. However, it had never occurred to me that I can help to motivate or move myself to action by setting clear-cut g...