Essay Sample on Woolworth Management Issue

Introduction

Woolworths Supermarket is an organization that is based in Australia, and it is owned by Woolworths Limited, and it was started in 1924. It mainly sells groceries, DVDs, magazines, and stationery among other products. One of the management issues that is affecting the firm is having managers that are just passing orders without giving a detailed explanation of the expected goals and outcomes of the information. In such instances, the workers are just following the orders given without understanding what is expected of them since the goals and outcomes are not stated. Therefore, any result from the staff members' activities is acceptable since there exist no guidelines on what they are supposed to deliver. Such leaders are being viewed as dictators, and the employees tend to detest them and most of the time, the firm's result are undesirable. The inability to have clear communication channels on what every staff member is supposed to deliver leads to low returns and wastage of resources (Toddi, 2013). Employee disengagement is a common problem that is arising from the inability to state the outcomes and expectation of the details given by the manager for the officer inadvertently disempowers the workers especially in the case the employees are smart and strategic people.

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The issue is important to the firm for it can lead to its collapse if it is not handled in the right way. The management and its officer's needs to understand that whenever they give orders, they need to explain what needs to be achieved by following the details given. There is a need to state to the workers what is expected of them so that at the end of the working period, they can determine if they are doing what is required of them or if there are areas that they need to improve to achieve the desired goals. A report will be written and directed to the chief executive officer by 09th January 2019, and it will cover details on the issue and the likely effect it will have on the business and the industry at large.

Underlying Reasons for the Issue

One of the reasons why the manager may decide to give orders without explaining the expected outcome is the fact that the leader may be weak regarding the inability to understand how the firm needs to be managed. There exist some managers who follow the wrong route in rising the ladder at the workplace. They may be in their position because nepotism was applied and they tend to personally know some of the senior managers in the business (Lavoie, 2016). As a result, they may have been promoted not out of merit, but rather due to their closeness to the seniors. Therefore, there is a likelihood that such managers may not have a clear understanding of the way that the business needs to be managed. They may end up thinking that just giving orders is enough to have the work done, but they fail to know that the workers need a leader who can direct them on what is excepted of them to ensure that all the business activities are being done with the idea of achieving the same objective. The manager may thus fail to understand that the objectives of the business needs to be quantifiable, specific and have bounded terms (Lipman, 2014). These goals should either be written or verbally given to the staff members to make sure that the employees have enough details on the way that they can complete the tasks effectively. Leaving the employees to fill the blanks on what is needed is not the right way to run a company for at the end of the work schedule, it is possible that the manager will state that is not what was expected.

Another factor that leads to the managers just giving orders without clearly stating the expected goals and objectives that the employees should work towards achieving is the poor communication channels in business. Whenever a business has more than one person running its activities, communication is critical to ensure that all the various departments are operating optimally and in the right way. However, if the strategies used to pass information are not effective, there is the likelihood of the various personnel not getting to exchange ideas in the right way (Chartered Management Institute (Great Britain), 2015). It is possible to find that there is a gap between the managers and the subordinates meaning that the leaders are not concerned about the other workers under them. At the same time, due to the gap that exists between them and their manager, the subordinates may find it had to raise issues affecting them with their seniors. Even when there is some information that is missing, they may not manage to request for additional details to ensure that they are supplied with details on what they are needed to do (Mccarthy, 2018). Additional, considering that the communication process is minimal, the manager may not have the opportunity to speak with their juniors and clarify if the information given is adequate. Therefore, everyone tends to work with assumptions thinking that the other party is satisfied with the available details.

Another factor that may lead to the manager giving instructions without providing additional details on what the workers should work towards achieving is the leadership style that is being used in the company. In an example, a form may be relying on the autocratic leadership procedure where it is only a single individual with the responsibility of making all the decision about an organization (Cherry, 2018). Such managers are authoritarian, and they never accept any form of advice from other people. They tend to make decisions based on their judgments and ideas meaning that there is a huge gap between the way a firm is being run and the way it is expected to be running based on the existing situation in the market (Tanner, 2017). In such form of leadership, the juniors are rarely trusted with the various activities that they are supposed to be handling, and the duties that are assigned to them tend to be rigid and highly structured.

Recommendations

Various strategies can be adopted to help solve this issue to ensure that the Woolworth Supermarket is being managed in the right way. One of the solutions to the highlight management issue is ensuring that promotions in the company are given based on merit. Only the qualified individuals should be allowed to hold the senior positions, and in most of the cases, promotions should happen within the firm ( Schaffer, 2017). This will help to ensure that the senior managers have an understanding of the way the organization operates, how the juniors expect to be treated and how the manager need to behave and pass orders to the subordinates. Therefore, they will manage to pass information that will support the success of the firm and ensure that all the workers have an understanding of what they are supposed to do and how they can measure their success. The managers that are promoted based on their qualification levels manages to ensure that the communication channels are left open and clear to all the stakeholders (Doug, W. & Polly, 2016). The subordinates can thus manage to ask any relevant information that they may feel is missing, and this will provide them with a sustainable ground to complete their duties and even get to measure their effectiveness levels. It is critical to ensure that there are articulated goals that the firm should be working towards realizing and all the workers understand the specific roles that are assigned to them. A significant number of the manager are usually in a hurry, and all that they care about is the results without taking time to understand the strategies that are needed to achieve the output. Adopting a leadership style that will ensure that all the departments are working in cohesion will be critical to the success and growth of the supermarket. The democratic leadership style is one of the best tools that are useful in making sure that all the stakeholders in an organization know what is required of them at the workplace (Smith, 2013). It also helps those with doubts with an avenue and platform to make enquiries with their seniors. By following these procedures, Woolworth Supermarkets will stand a better chance of solving the issue of manager just giving orders without details on what the staff members are required to offer.

References

Chartered Management Institute (Great Britain). (2015). Managing business communications: Your guide to getting it right. London: Profile Books.

Cherry, K. (2018). Autocratic Leadership. Verywell mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-autocratic-leadership-2795314

Doug, W. & Polly, W. (2016). 3 Steps to Help Employees Understand Your Objectives and Expectations. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/286366

Lipman, V. (2014). 3 Very Common Management Problems - And How to Avoid Them. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2014/04/15/3-very-common-management-problems-and-how-to-avoid-them/#5560b03738c9

Lavoie, A. (2016). Here Are 4 Problems That Occur With Poor Management Skills. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276919

Mccarthy, D. (2018). Challenges Managers Face and How to Deal With Them. The Balance Careers. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-challenges-a-manager-will-face-2275955

Schaffer, A. (2017). Get the Most Out of Talented but Troublesome Employees. The 360 Review. Retrieved from https://www.uppercasehr.com/blog/how-to-manage-difficult-but-talented-employees

Smith, J. (2013). 10 Tips For Dealing With An Overly Demanding Boss. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/07/10/10-tips-for-dealing-with-an-overly-demanding-boss/#5e58d08064bc

Tanner, W. (2017). Here's how you get employees to take ownership over their work. Modern Manager. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@warrentanner/heres-how-you-get-employees-to-take-ownership-over-their-work-ebe1f7ebf508

Toddi, G. (2013). How to Tackle 3 Tough Management Issues. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227297