Financial Planning: Management Theories, Cross-Functional Teams, Stakeholders And Organizational Development

Task 1- Management theories and stakeholders

a. Two internal and two external stakeholders related to the process of financial planning

1. Internal stakeholders- managers and Finance team
2. External stakeholders- government and clients
3. Three Roles of each of the stakeholders

• Managers- The managers set the person to be involved in the finance planning process. They find out how the progress of the financial planning and review the whole process.
• Finance planner- The planner established and define the relationship with the clients. He assists in collecting the information of the clients (Kazadi, Lievens & Mahr, 2016). They develop financial planning recommendations for them
• Clients- They buy the services of the companies. They have the full power to accept or reject the work. They negotiate, clarify as well as document the specifications and the deliverables of the project.
• Government- The government wants the business and the process to pay the accurate taxes and follow the laws. If they fail, the government could become a major barrier for the planning process. They enforce the rules that the company and the finance managers are bound to follow.

b.

1. Agency theory and financial planning-  Agency theory is the theory that describes the issues which takes place when one party represent another in the business but it holds different views on the important issues and different interests from the principal (lin, Chen & Long, 2017). It is used for defining the different types of relationships of the stakeholders involved in a business.
2. Modern portfolio theory and financial planning- The Modern Portfolio Theory which deals with investment and finance. It was developed by the Harry Markowitz in the year 1952 (Calvo-Silvosa, Antelo & Soares, 2017). According to this theory, it is possible for the stakeholders to design a portfolio for maximising the returns by taking on a good amount of risk.

a. A cross-functional team refers to an agency that can take several forms (O’Leary et al., 2017). These teams are formed on the basis of assumptions that state that the small groups is better able for accomplishing a creative project than the individuals who are acting alone or in large, well-structured groups. It is a group that has several people with several diverse functional expertise working towards achieving a common goal. It might include people from operations, finance, human resources, sales and any other department. According to Aime et al. (2014), the cross functional teams improve the total quality of the result and the team becomes highly committed to see the project throughout its end.

The traditional hierarchical structure is an organisational structure where power flows upward and in vertical way. With the same, all the employees in this structure are departmentalised. They follow a chain of command. Unlike, the cross-functional teams, where individuals from different expertise and backgrounds are welcomed and work collaboratively towards a common goal, in traditional hierarchical structure expertise from different backgrounds are allocated to different departments (Lynch & West, 2017). Hence, this has the possibility to slow down the functions of the finance planning process. For example, if in finance planning, it is required to take approval on the purchase of new supplies for meeting the requirement of the client, the planner or the other members involved in the planning process needs to go up the chain of command for taking approval on the transactions and any other necessary resources.

b.

1. Uncertain structure of command- Both control and command are intrinsic elements in the chain of command within any company. In cross functional teams, there are two or more than two teams of fairly equal managers and associates (De Massis et al., 2015). But it also holds a significant negative impact on the overall operation of the work. If each of the members are given equal importance and equal power than there is none who is in charge. In such cases, instead of associates and groups working towards achieving a common goal, one get some competing groups who are vying for the trainings, resources and proper guidance.
2. Sharing of the information and resources seems to be a one-way road- In a cross functional teams, joint efforts are very important. A meeting of both the sides for sharing resources and information in necessary (Bennett & James, 2017). But there are times, when only one group seems to be controlling the entire agenda as well as the distribution of the task among the other group members. With the same, it is unwilling to spend ample of time to know and share their experiences and knowledge.

c. Top management support- The top management team of a company is responsible for controlling the decision making which influence everyone right from the president of the company to the entry-level employees. It is to note that the financial decisions in a company comes from the top management only. When the employees do not have access to the resources and the equipment that are required for completing their jobs, then the achievement of the company suffer and this finally results in conflicts. At this time, the top management team supports the staffs by providing them resources and equipment to lead the success and achieve organisational goals.

Organisational Structure- The structure of an organisation have a significant influence in the employee performance. This in turn affect the achievement of organisational goals. It is the organisational structure that defines how the tasks are distributed and grouped among the employees. It is something that clarified the responsibilities and the roles of the organisational members. Therefore, for ensuring that employees are working together effectively and efficiently towards achieving the organisational goal, the structure of the organisation, the structure of the company is very important be taken into consideration.

Team Authority or autonomy- Authority can be defined as the character of the communication by means of which any order is accepted by a person as governing the act which he or she taken within the very system. Team authority plays a significant role in achieving the team goal and objectives. This team is comprised of independent workers who regulate most of their task behaviour around the whole tasks. They coordinate and communicate for transmitting all the necessary information for achieving the goal.

Task 2- Cross-functional teams and decision making

Performance reward system- The performance based rewards stress upon the organisational goals and then foster the commitment to the team like their personal responsibility for the progress of the work. This in turn enhanced the performance of the whole team as they get motivation for working more effectively and gaining positive result. With the same, this automatically results in the increase in likelihood of achieving the organisational goals and objectives.

Team dynamics- Team dynamics can be defined as the driving or the motivating elements of forces which propel a team towards achieving the organisational goals. Some of the effective team dynamics include identifying a leader, establishing the roles and responsibilities and discussing what every individual in the team brings in to the table, establishing a set of clear objectives and goals to work on and developing an agenda for the management of the time for completing the work or meeting. All these together contributes in the successful achievement of the organisational goals and objectives.

d.

1. Professionally appropriate behaviour- The professionally appropriate behaviour towards formulating cross-functional teams during the financial planning include showing compassion for the other people, responding properly to all the emotional responses of the clients and their family members and demonstrating a sense of respect, helping attitude and compassion for others.
2. Socially appropriate behaviour- The socially appropriate behaviour towards formulating cross-functional teams during the financial planning include the behaviours  which the cross-functional team members emit in the social contexts for making sure that there is integration with the other members of the team.
3. Ethically appropriate behaviour- The ethically appropriate behaviour towards formulating cross-functional teams during the financial planning is the behaviour in which the team members acts in manner that is consistent with what the clients and the society thinks as good values. These behaviour tends to be good for the business and also include the demonstration of respect for the important moral principles like fairness, diversity, dignity, respect for individual rights and equality.
4. Culturally appropriate behaviour- Culture have a great influence on the consumption, investment and saving decision making behaviour of the individuals as well as the financial growth of the clients. The culturally appropriate behaviour towards formulating cross-functional teams during the financial planning include considering the educational levels of the clients, their geographical areas and their socioeconomic status.

a. The four internal stakeholders include-

1. the internal staffs,
2. the managers,
3. the finance team and
4. the board members

The four external stakeholders include-

1. the clients
2. governments
3. community partners
4. suppliers

b. Management Plan

1. Professional- showing compassion for the other people, responding properly to all the emotional responses of the clients and their family members and demonstrating a sense of respect, helping attitude and compassion for others.
2. Ethical- Showing behaviour in which the team members acts in manner that is consistent with what the clients and the society thinks as good values. These behaviour should good for the business and also include the demonstration of respect for the important moral principles like fairness, diversity, dignity, respect for individual rights and equality.
3. Cultural- Showing behaviour that is appropriate and taking into consideration the educational levels of the clients, their geographical areas and their socioeconomic status.
4. Social- Formulating a cross-functional teams during the financial planning include the behaviours which the cross-functional team members emit in the social contexts for making sure that there is integration with the other members of the team.
5. Making relationship with the identifies stakeholders-
   1. Understanding the stakeholders. There are several projects that get delayed and end up in not delivering the value that they promised or the things that they committed because of the failure of project manager in identifying and engaging all the stakeholders. It simply means that important requirements, needs and insights are been missed.
   2. Identifying the stakeholders with high level of power and influence- while leading a large project, one would not be able to spend equal span of time with each and every engaged stakeholder of the project. Naturally, he will have to engage and learn about every person that he have identified, but the people whom he need to concentrate his efforts on are the ones who possess the most power and influence.
   3. Getting engaged in one to one conversation- Building strong bond and relationships is not about the amount of time that one spend with someone, but it is all about the quality of the time that he spends. Like, for instance it is often seen that a person do not know how many people he is interactingwith in meetings without knowing much about them. It is to note that great relationships are built on the basis of one-to-one conversations where he or she can find out more about the person. Stakeholders are usually very busy people, therefore, respecting their time by keeping the discussions as short as possible is very important.

c.

1. Creating a positive working environment for the team- Motivating the employees in the financial planning process by offering them positive and productive working environment is the key to success. It encourages and foster teamwork and idea sharing. With the same, elimination of conflicts when it takes place and giving the employees the freedom for working independently whenever it is appropriate is also very important.
2. Providing professional enrichment- Encouraging the members involved in the financial planning process for pursuing additional training, education and participating in the company is significant to motivate and encourage these employees. Providing them with proper development programs and sending them to skills workshops and different seminars also motivate and encourage them.
3. Recognising the achievements- Recognising achievements of each and every employee is very necessary for motivating any employee in any business context. Celebrating their achievements by means of employee-of-the-month or any awards and recognition like star performer of the month or year helps a lot. It also involves printing certificates and engraving plaques.

d.

1. Professional enrichment- The professional enrichment programs such as the training and development programs, workshops and seminars allow the employees to gain more knowledge and develop more skills on their departments. These training programs is completely focused on the level of employee engagement. It aids to the application of the different concepts of employee engagement along with the different activities. It is to note that the employee engagement has a notable influence on an financial outcome of the organisation. There are several organizations who designed the professional development training programs by targeting at enhancing the engagement skills of the leaders so as to affect the arena. There are many studies which have showed that there is a great importance of professional development training programs that are especially designed for including the engagement training for affecting the behavioural changes. With the same, there are many organizational leaders who depended on workplace learning for improving the employee engagement by means of designing and developing specific engagement programs for their employees in the supervisory positions.
2. Creating a positive working environment for the team- According to Anitha (2014), work place environment has a great impact on the overall performance and the level of engagement of the employees. Hence, producing a workplace environment that is conducive to employee engagement is the key to success. Hence, employee should consider the employee engagement as a business strategy which focuses on finding out the engaged employees and then, keeping those employees engaged all through the entire relationship of the employment.

e.

1. Personal goal 1- To improve and enhance the ability of managing time- In any workplace, employees face deadlines and order which keep on screaming their attention each and every day. As those works continue to pile up, the time to have each and everything doe time looks like a very scarce commodity. In such as condition, managing time management is a skill to success. It is to note that the sense of time consciousness comes with a huge array of benefits. It helps the employees in becoming more and more efficient and productive at the workplace. With the same, they are then less stressed. For improving the ability of managing time and keeping a track on how to spend the time at right place is very important for each and every employees. They must kill the activities which cause distractions and disturbance such as going repeatedly on social media sites.
2. Personal goal 2- To build and improve the relationships with the co-workers at the workplace- The next goal is of building and improving the relationships with the co-workers at the workplace. It is to mention that good relation in the workplace is very beneficial in running of a business in different ways. It helps in harnessing high performing teams and also in encouraging support among one another. With the same, it gives every employees in the institution with a sense of belonging. However, it is also to mention that for improving the relationship of the employees with the co-workers or their peers, it is very necessary to practise being friendly, likable and helpful to them. It makes it very easy for the other employees to accept him or her.

f.

1. Organisational goal 1- To focus on growth and education – Organisational leadership needs a productive and active measures for working with the several different individuals and groups (Bryson, 2018). It is therefore, very important for the leaders to understand the weaknesses and the strengths of the different professionals prior to making any plan of action for improving the organisational effectiveness. Hence, before making any sort of changes to the organisation, it is very important to consider the professionals’ education in several different areas of the business. After identifying the strengths and the weaknesses of these professionals who have different educational backgrounds, the leaders must focus on the growth and development of the organisation itself by building an effective teams. He should also try to develop the teams with some complementary strengths and skills. Furthermore, they should encourage the professionals towards a particular goal and give them proper assignments on the basis of their skills and knowledge.
2. Organisational goal 2- Working on quality products and services- Although customers play a very important part in the effectiveness of the organisation, therefore, it is very necessary for every business to identify a proper level of quality for the services and the products that they are offering to them (Burke & Noumair, 2015). The key to this is focusing on the balance of quality with some cost effective solutions. It is to note that the cost of any business should be improving and enhancing the quality of the products and the services without exceeding the price range. Moreover, the organisational leadership needs a very active participation in the process of decision making. The leader should ask the professionals in different areas of the business for their advices on the topic or issue of improving and enhancing the quality of products without increasing the prince of that materials. They should seek for their suggestions in reducing the time that is usually required for the accomplishment of the specific goals without cutting back on the quality of the final product and the service. It is also to mention that by involving different professionals from multiple fields in the decision-making process, a leader gains multiple perspectives and ideas about better ways to improve the organization.

References:

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