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Principles of Management o Nguyn Trung, BBus 3.

Interview Project: Compare and Contrast Two Managers

Nowadays, many people underestimate the importance of management in business, but I firmly believe that it is certainly not the case. The input of labor, capital or raw materials will never become production without management. In this essay, Im going to analysis the similarities and the differences between two managers in order to bring a different way of looking at management in business. The first manager I mention in this essay is Mr. Hieu, my father. He is 50 years old now. He is the deputy manager of Water supply company in Dong Ha City. He supervises 320 employees. 100 percent of them are Kinh ethnic; the percent of people who graduated college accounted for 20 percent; age from 23-60; male employees stand for 63 percent, the rest are female. His responsibilities include setting plans for the whole company in one year, working out business plan and then submitting them to the management committee. He also involves in setting new budget, hiring new employees and firing, as well as training new recruits, and dealing with customers. Moreover, he is under control of his superiors. Within the company, his superior is the companys director. The way he evaluates employees performance is mostly based on their time and creativeness. When an employee is not performing well, his punishment
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depends on the seriousness: chiding them in the meeting, slowing the raise in their salaries, and the worst is transferring to other department. In this project, I wanted to do the interview with someone with experiences, and someone I worked with. Then I asked Mr. Hung, manager of Academic English and Leadership Club, because I worked with him three times and he was someone I could follow and learn from. Hung is the finance manager of Academic English and Leadership Club in Ho Chi Minh City for 2 years. He is 20 years old. He has 7 subordinates, which includes 5 men and 2 women, and theyre quite young. His superior is the president of the Club. Hungs duties consists of leading, controlling his subordinates to organize Clubs Events, about Academic English Skill, Leadership and Management in Organization, etc; going through documents and papers, check over the day to day operations, dealing with customers and employees. He measures his subordinates performance based on their works. There is no criteria, he measure everything based on his intuition and experience. He believes mistakes by his employees are unavoidable. And if they do, he just advises softly and helps them to figure out solutions. In the rest of this essay, I would like to compare and contrast these two managers, which mainly based on their responsibilities and management styles. Compared to each other, Mr. Hieu and Hung have something in common. Their positions within the organization are closely alike, both of them are one step above entry level manager. Their responsibilities includes setting up plan for the organization, supervising and training their subordinates directly, dealing with customers and solving problems, negotiating contracts happening anywhere within their organizations. Moreover, they also must come forward and take full responsibilities for their subordinates acts, such as late accomplishment or damage losses for the organization. In contrast, theyre different. I would say that Mr. Hieus position is much higher than Hungs. Mr.
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Hieu stands above all of his employees, and he is only inferior to the companys director, which is the highest level manager within the company. He has to speak in his capacity as director representative. In other words, when the director is absent, Mr. Hieu would take the place of the director and manage the whole company, in order to make sure that 320 inferior employees work smoothly. He is in charge of setting overall strategy for the company, which includes financial plan and manufacturing business plan, firing and hiring. In short, he is in charge of everything happens within the company. On the other hand, Hungs responsibilities are more simple. Hungs duties consists of leading, controlling his subordinates to organize Clubs Events, such as Academic English Skill, Leadership and Management in Organization, etc; going through documents and papers, check over the day to day operations, dealing with customers. He has two coworkers who have the same position in the club. He just mainly implement guidelines from his supervisor, the president. His major focus on setting up financial business plan for the club and he doesnt have any authority in human resources. In sum, I would say Mr. Hieus responsibilities is much greater than Hungs, because with great power comes great responsibilities (Raimi, 2002). The reason why I chose these two managers is that I had close relationships with these two managers, and I used to work with them as the role of subordinate. To Mr. Hieu, Im his son. To Hung, he used to be my leader. Thus, I believe I can easily analyze their management styles, which is a function of behavior associated with personalities (McGuire, 2005). They would like to provide long-term direction and vision for subordinates. They are partly authoritative manager. They would like to set the vision for the team, clearly and compellingly, then step back and allow the team to work. Their job is just evaluating each members performance, based on their result and labor attitude. Moreover, this style brings positive effect. Without the leader
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control, subordinates must stick together to get the work done, because they have to do it on their own. The team may enjoy the activity and fell enormously proud of the work they have done. In addition, both Mr. Hieu and Hung have a common precise and firm belief about motivation, their challenge in working, that is being a friend is always better than being a boss. Understanding individual behavior and motivating workers are important roles for managers (Paul Davidson, 2009). Mr. Hieu believes that motivation comes from respect. He stretches a line between being a friend and being a boss and tries to walk this line all the time to constantly motivate his employees. He is frank with his employees so that his employees can go up to him with anything. Similarly, Hung is always trying to create a two-way-communication with his subordinates, in which everyone feels comfortable, open-minded, straightforward and listens to others problem. On the contrary, I would call Mr. Hieu to follow the style of laissez-faire manager, meanwhile Hung is a type of democratic manager. As a laissez-faire manager, Mr. Hieu sets up the tasks and gives his subordinates complete freedom to complete the tasks. There is minimal involvement from the manager. However, he doesnt sit there and watch them working. He will be there to coach and answer questions, supply information if required. He gives his employees full power to complete their tasks, then he will evaluate the tasks the last time and sign for approval. Employee involvement in decision-making is limited. Same as Mr. Hieu, Hung gives his subordinates responsibilities to complete the tasks given to them, he also tells their subordinates what their roles are and what is expected of them, and there is no late submission allowed. Subordinates are involved in decision making, giving them a sense of belonging and motivation, decisions are made mainly based on the major approval. Despite of standing and watching subordinates working, Hung prefers supervising them closely, urging someone who can not complete their tasks on time and motivating them. Subordinates are

allowed to voice their feelings and opinions, which can offer useful suggestions and ideas before Hung finalizes. The lesson about management I learned by interviewing Mr. Hieu and Hung is that trust and respect with employees or subordinates are the keystones to the foundation of a successful management. There would be times where people break the trust and lose respect and these would be the times for a manager to step up and take an affirmative action to make sure the things are set right. I also learned about different kinds of responsibilities a manager has to deal with time and the most important thing I took out of it is that to be successful, a manager or a leader has to take these responsibilities seriously and influence people working with him. A managers real job is to influence his employees to work and make them feel motivated. He has to cultivate a feeling of achieving progress for the company in his employees and make sure they act according to this feeling, all this while maintaining a constant stress free environment of enjoyment, respect and trust.

Bibliography
Leadership and Management styles. (2008, September 1). NGFL business studies a level resources . Lunenburg, F. C. (2001). Leadership versus Management - A key distinction - At least in theory (Vol. 14). Sam Houston State University. McGuire, R. (2005). Which Management Style to Use. The Pharmaceutical Journal , 9. Paul Davidson, A. S. (2009). Management - core concepts and applications. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. Laura Ziskin, I. B. (Producer), & Raimi, S. (Director). (2002). Spider-man [Motion Picture]. United States.

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