Roles And Responsibilities Of Managers In Organizations – A Case Study On Hospital Innovations

The Role of Managers in Organizations

Managers are important people in the organisation. The managers are the people who control operations and employees in the organisation so that objectives can be met on time. Different managers head different departments in an organisation, for example, the human resource manager heads the human resource department and the marketing manager heads the marketing team. The main role of managers in an organisation is to look at whether all the operations are running smoothly. In this project the roles and responsibilities of managers in terms of goal setting and planning at Hospital Innovations will be assessed. This assessment of the management at Hospital Innovation will give a comprehensive idea as to how vital the roles are played by managers in the organisation. Information about the roles and responsibilities will be gathered by interviewing one of the managers of Hospital Innovations. Hospital Innovations is an organisation that is based out of UK, it deals with surgical and orthopaedic equipment. In this assignment, a literature review will be drafted that will have discussions about the important roles played by managers in organisations. In addition to this, the operations of the managers will be discussed. The assignment will deal with a short recommendation and conclusion.

All the major organisations in the world realise the fact that the employees working in their company are their real strengths. This phrase is not only theoretically correct but practicality is also present. Among the employees in the organisation manager are important people who look after the operations inside an organisation (Reh, 2016). As the term suggest, managers look after the interests of the organisation and the people working in it. There are four activities that are played by the managers of organisations and they are; managing, planning, controlling and coordinating. All managers in different organisations follows these four activities and based on these activities they structure their own plans of an organisation. Firstly, managers have to plan their activities, planning should be done whilst keeping in mind the final targets of the organisation. All managers in the organisation need to keep a single fact in their mind that their activities should be planned according to the goals of the organisation and the needs of the employees working in it (Bosworth, 2016). After plans have been drafted and finalised it needs to be effectively implemented in the organisation. This activity is known as implementation. The responsibility of maintaining co-ordination among the employees is also a key role played by managers. The managers act as the middle man in the organisation to help maintain co-ordination among the employees and the company. Maintaining co-ordination among the different departments of the organisation is also the work of managers.

Different Approaches to Planning

The overall control of the organisation lie in the hands of the directors who then pass the responsibilities onto the managers. The managers are the people who control various activities in in order to achieve a common goal set by the organisation. It is very important to control activities in the organisation, this improves the organisational culture and the relationships between employees. All the above mentioned activities can be clubbed together in the managing section. (Sikora, Ferris & Van Iddekinge, 2015).

Every manager has different style to work with the people in the organisation. Some managers are autocratic in nature while others are democratic in nature. Autocratic managers do not consider the viewpoints of the employees when they are taking any decision while the democratic ones considers the viewpoints of the employees in the organisation while making decisions on any policy or plan. Democratic managers try to work with employees. Democratic managers always respect other employees and  their views in the organisation, they do not believe in strict hierarchy. They treat all the employees with integrity. Successful managers are those who motivate the employees working in an organisation on daily basis. It is very important to motivate the employees as motivated employees produce more work towards the growth of the organisation. Successful managers understands the fact that motivation plays a vital role in employee satisfaction which in turn increases performance. Therefore, the managers should always find our ways to motivate their employees. When employees in the organisation are satisfied, the work of the managers also becomes easy (Nickson, 2017).  One of the most important functions of managers in an organisation is to identify the potential of their employees. This includes the identification of strengths and weaknesses in different employees working in the organisation and the ability to assign them appropriately. The managers in the organisation should also help people identify their own strengths and weaknesses. By doing this, the employees can work with their strengths and improve upon their weaknesses to become more valuable to the organisation.  

Managers are the people in the organization who looks after the planning process. All the changes that needs to be brought in the organization needs to be planned and the planning part is majorly done by the managers of the organization. In addition to this, the managers have the responsibility to communicate the plans to the different departments in the organization so that workflow remains unhindered. In the previous section of this assignment it has been said that one of the core activities of the management department is planning. Planning includes accumulation of ideas that would be required to develop certain areas in the organization. The plans that are made can be implemented by framework such as SWOT, PESTLE, Value Chain Analysis and SMART tools.

Challenges Faced by Managers

There are different approaches that can be used by the organizations to implement he plans in the organization. There are some traditional and modern approaches in which plans can be implemented in the organization. In addition to this, centralized and decentralized planning approaches are effective in implementation of the plans. Some of the planning models that can be used by the managers of the organization are, MBO, Single-use plans, Standing plans, Shewhart Cycle and Quality planning and Total Quality Management. Sometimes planning needs to be done in the organization when the environment within the organization is turbulent. In such a scenario, contingency plans and scenario planning methods can be useful. (planning)

Planning is one of the integral elements of reaching the goals and targets of the organization.  After planning, implementation of the plans is another crucial process that helps in the achievement of the goals. The mangers and the leaders in the organization are the main people who directs and guides the employees so that the targets of the organization can be met on time.  Different organizations have different goals. For example, companies that deal with products have goals regarding reaching maximum sales and profit percentage. On the other hand, organizations that provides services are concerned regarding the satisfaction of the consumers. The main work of the managers and the leaders is to path the way for the employees so that the goals can be accomplished on time. Moreover, all the information regarding the goals and the targets needs to be communicated clearly to the employees for the organization for their better functioning. (goals) 

Hospital Innovation is an organisation that is based out of the United Kingdom. The organisation has nearly 35 employees. The company started in 2008 and has been distributing products related to orthopaedic and corrective surgery (About Hospital Innovations, 2018). This organisation has been licensed under Human Tissue Authority and has been working with many renowned tissue banks all around Europe. The objective of the organisation is to expand its services and provide world class equipment regarding corrective and orthopaedic surgeries.

Critically discuss what managers really do

Hospitals Innovation is not such a big organisation however it is aiming at expansion. The managers present in the organisation have the capability and this is the reason the organisation has been maintained so well. After interviewing a manager in the organisation, the roles and responsibilities played clearly got highlighted. The managers in the organisation have various roles to play. The roles played by the managers in Hospital Innovation are as follows:

• The managers in the organisation play a medium of communication between the employees and the higher level Directors. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that, the managers in the organisation have to have excellent communication skills. The managers in Hospital Innovations looks after all the grievances of the employees and tries to solve them as soon as possible (Stillman II, 2016). In addition to this, the managers in the organisation talks with the employees at regular intervals and tries to understand anything that bothers them. It is important for the managers to solve the grievances of the employees as soon as possible so that they remain motivated and dedicated to the task at hand. The managers in Hospital Innovation hold meetings with the employees are regular intervals so that their needs and wants are listened too.
• The managers in Hospital Innovation not only manage the employees and their work but mentoring them as well. In this organisation, managers play dual roles of managing the and mentoring employees. Mentoring employees is very important, through effective mentoring, the productivity among the employees can be increased. The managers in Hospital Innovation are very active and concentrates on the growth of the organisation through the growth of employees (Page et al.,2017)  To achieve growth in the organisation, the employees are mentored regularly by the managers. The managers makes the employees understand the recent innovative measures taken and how they will bring growth to the organisation. In addition to this, the managers makes the employees understand the reasons for various decisions that are made. This helps in improving the transparency level between the managers and the employees in the organisation.

Lessons Learned

• The work of the directors in any organisation is to set targets that need to be reached by the organisation as a whole and the managers then look about how to achieve these goals. In the same way, Hospital Innovation managers are the main people that co-ordinates with the employees in the organisation so that the targets can be reached on time. The managers of Hospital Innovation are very co-operative and solves all the work related problems experienced by the employees(Sikora& Ferris, 2014). In addition to this, the managers of the company makes the employees understand the targets set by the hierarchy. Moreover, the ways to reach the targets are also mentioned by the managers. In this way, it becomes easy for the employees to fulfil their individual targets.
• The managers in Hospital Innovation also looks at the fact that all then rights of the employees in the organisation are safeguarded. In addition to this, the managers do not entertain any kind of discrimination in the workplace. All the employees in the organisation are treated equally and no one is given an upper hand in the organisation. Moreover, the managers in Hospital Innovation follows a strict program of rewards and punishments. The system of rewards and incentives in very important to keep the employees motivated in the organisation. When employees are given suitable incentives, it makes them feel that their work is being recognised. (Quinnet al., 2014). On the contrary, when employees commit some mistake they are subjected to punishments. These punishments are designed in such a way that they do not undermine the prestige of the employees and also looks at the fact that employees learn something out of the mistakes.
• Additional responsibilities of the managers in Hospital Innovation is to improve the relation among the employees and also looks after employee engagement in the organisation. The managers in Hospital Innovation try to keep the employee relations smooth. This helps the organisation to achieve its targets with ease. In order to enhance employee relation, the managers distribute work equally. Team work is given vital importance in the organisation, in addition to this, the employees get several benefits in the organisation which increases their engagement (Meredith, Shafer, Mantel Jr& Sutton, 2016). All the employees in the organisation are provided with flexible working hour options. This helps the employees to work with ease and comfort. Along with this they get private health and dentist insurance via the company.  

From the above discussions made it is clear that the managers in Hospital Innovation have various roles to play. All these roles and responsibilities help the organisation to reach its targets. All these roles and responsibilities played by the managers at Hospital Innovations makes them competent people in the organisation.

What challenges managers face

Apart from the roles and responsibilities in the organisation, the managers at Hospital Innovation also face various challenges that slows the growth of the employees as well as the organisation. The challenges faced by the managers at Hospital Innovation are as follows:

• Although the organisation has competent employees, there are certain vacancies in the organisation that needs to be filled. The current challenge that is being faced by the managers of Hospital Innovation are they are not getting suitable candidates for the vacancies available in the organisation (Argyris, 2017).This problem lies in the hands of the human resource manager, it is very important for HR managers to recruit the right people in the organisation. The right people adds to productivity.
• In current scenario, the managers at Hospital Innovations are facing problem regarding time management issues. This challenge has arrived in the workplace as the employees are taking too much unwanted leaves in the organisation. Due to too the amount of unwanted leave in the organisation, the flow of work is getting hindered. In addition to this, the time allocated for each task is getting extended and the managers are not being able to meet its short term targets. All the time management plans in the organisation are getting puzzled (Bolman& Deal, 2017)
• The third challenge that is being faced by the managers at Hospital Innovation are the presence of under-talented and over-talented employees. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to deal with the over-experienced employees. The over-experienced employees in the organisation tend to have an attitude that they know it all and have a tendency to work at their own comfort and their individualistic ways. There are quite a few number of experienced employees at Hospital Innovation and they do not co-operate with the managers in the organisation. On the contrary there are some employees in the organisation who underperforms. These employees have to be dealt with separately by the managers and even directors present in Hospital Innovation (Katzenbach& Smith, 2015). The managers at Hospital Innovation should arrange training and development programs for all employees, so that everyone is taught new techniques they could implement in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness for all.
• Crisis are very common in all the organisation.  Crisis are those situations that hinders the work flow. Crisis can occur in many different forms including, the unavailability of materials, untalented employees, rising grievances among the employees and financial crisis (Harrison & Lock, 2017). Risk management and crisis management are the two important responsibilities of the managers in the organisation. In the present scenario, Hospital Innovation is facing crisis regarding competent employees. This crisis can be encountered by the hiring right people. When the right and potential employees are selected in the organisation it helps the company to reach its desired target with ease. 

Other interesting lessons learnt from the experience

From the interview conducted of the manager at Hospital Innovation many new facets regarding manager and management of people in the organisation has come to the forefront. The managers in organisations have various roles to play. One of the vital responsibility is to manage the employees and the operations. The managers at Hospital Innovation are doing their best for the organisation so that the targets can be reached. In addition to the roles and responsibilities played by the managers they have to encounter various challenges in their everyday work life. It is important for the managers to overcome the challenges and keep the work flow unhindered. The experiences gathered by interviewing the manager at Hospital Innovation makes facts evident that managers are crucial for the running of an organisation. Without an effective manager an organisation would steer off track and not be able to meet its targets on time. When organisations have competent managers, employees work life becomes easier. The employees have faith on the managers which increases the productivity.

Conclusion and Recommendation

The assignment has thoroughly dealt with all the responsibilities of the manager in an organisational context. The managers in an organisation has crucial roles to play. From the literature review drafted and the answers obtained from interviewing the manager of Hospital Innovation, it became clear that managers in an organisation are important people without whom the company would not be able to reach its targets and objectives. In addition to this, the challenges faced by the managers in the organisation has also been discussed. It is important for the managers to encounter all challenges and keep the operations of the organisation constant.

The managers in the organisation should be ready to face any challenge they may face. They should co-ordinate their work well with the employees and this will help them overcome the challenges very easily. The managers should constantly motivate the employees. This is one more effective way to face major challenges by the managers.

References

About Hospital Innovations. (2018). Hospitalinnovations.com. Retrieved 5 October 2018, from https://www.hospitalinnovations.com/about-us/

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Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.

Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (2015). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.

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