Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2013
The three most important areas that I can apply to my business and my personal life
LOUIS BONFILS
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Louis Bonfils
Contents
Structure : Change and Innovation ......................................................................................................... 2
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 9
Louis Bonfils
Management is a concept so wide that several definitions can be applied to this notion. However the several definition of this concept carry the print of the works done by the previous theorists; Management is the coordination and oversight of the work activities of others so that theirs activities re-completed efficiently and effectively. This definition emphasize of the notions of efficiency (doing things right) and effectiveness (doing the right thing); however, it also contains the essence of the work done by Henri Fayol, summarised with the Planning, Organizing, Lead and Control concepts. Those are the 4 key basics elements of management; The 20th century, and more specifically the second part of this century has seen the Management notion being developed in several fields, such as Marketing, Research & Development, Human Resources The management is also a very empiric science, based mostly on experiences, and trial-and-errors situations. In this essay, I will relate to personal situations, both professionals and personals, where three concepts of management seen in class has been applied. I will introduce each concept with a small and concise theoretical background, and the experience that I had gathered during the small case-study.
Louis Bonfils
Change and Innovation impacts mostly on three levels: 1. The organisation itself, impacting the mains goals of the Organisation. 2. The individual organisation members, the individual goals, such as the career and others aspirations. 3. The combination of these members, impacting the internal politicking of the organisation1. The development of innovations impacts the development of new organisational forms. In innovative organisations such as start-up or companies in new technologies industries (Information Technology, Electronics, Web based services) companies must face a very competitive landscape, and quick shifts. And very often these changes occurs without the benefit of experienced management of the new needs of the sectors. How does company response to change and innovation? Service industries does innovate, but this kind innovation doesnt impact the company the same way it impact manufacturing companies. Unlike manufacturing companies, change management is very unsystematic. While some companies have special innovations departments, most of the Small and Medium businesses manage, successfully for some of them, these changes through management consultancy, or collective actions. Collective actions is easier in companies of less than 10 employees, due to the limited amount of individuals, implying a reduction of different goals and aspiration. However, these aspirations can be gathered through motivation management. It is also very important to point out that the relationships between customers and Service based companies are very close. Very often, the client, and more specifically the client needs are what triggered the decision to adopt innovations processes. But that doesnt imply that the company undergoes the shifts on its market. Most companies tries to understand what are their clients needs, and try to anticipate them. In some case, some company try to incorporate theirs clients in their innovative process. Overall this case is very rare, and is not systematically bound to success.
Louis Bonfils
Louis Bonfils
Louis Bonfils
Louis Bonfils
A meta-Analytic review of experiments examining the effect of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation E L Deci, R M Ryan & R Koestner (1999) 3 Driving performance and retention through employee engagement Corporate Leadership Council (2004)
Louis Bonfils
improvement. Others key elements such as the access to relevant job information, the allocation of better resources.
Why Motivation ?
Unfortunately, I dont have a concrete example of motivation, now. However I am really interested in this notion as it is a very important one. My personal experience comes mostly from internship in small businesses. I have noticed than in comparison to other bigger structures, the forces behind motivation and engagement are not similar. Employees from a bigger structure tend to favours external motivations such as promotions or raises in their salary whereas employees from SMB are more engaged in their company. My first impression was to think that engagement is stronger in SMBs because of the small hierarchy. I personally prefers working in a small team, giving me more room for initiative. Reading from business literature, I found that three elements are the pillars of motivation. Self-direction, the ability to be free to organize its own work, Mastery, the feeling to learn a new skill or to gain new insights, and finally Purpose, the feeling to make a contribution. But how do these elements apply in other cultures? Surely those elements have to apply and conform themselves to the specificities of each culture, but I remain convinced that there is a powerful tool that can be used to reduce cultural differences. As I intend to work abroad, among an intercultural team I know that I will have to work with colleagues from an others countries, with whom I dont share the same language, the same beliefs, the same norms and values. But all the culture share the same motivation and engagement toward their work.
Louis Bonfils
Conclusion
The Management notions that I chose, Structure, Team, and Motivation are the three main notions that, to my mind, will have an impact on my work. Those are the key elements I want to focus on. I want to work abroad. For patriotic reasons, I would like to work for a French company, because I am proud of my country, of my culture, and the history of my country. But I want to share this culture abroad. I want to find a way to be an efficient manager in a more complex world. The last problematic from my third notion, motivation remains unanswered, yet. I want it to be my problematic of my thesis. My personal objective is that in one year, I want to be able to operate in a multi-cultural team. We all have so much to give. But yet, why is it so difficult to build something? Lets make another Babel Tower.