Professional Skills Case Study

TASK 1

Problems identified in the case study

Sales industry deals with direct interaction with the customers . Each and every member has immense opportunities to reveal and prove their marketing and communication skills. Although, all the members work efficiently and acts as good team player there exists many issues.

The problems as identified from the presented case study are as follows

• There exist conflicts between the employees. There are many cases where there are fights and differences between the work force due to various reasons.
• Another problem determined is reduction in performance efficiency. The reasons behind these kinds of problem could be lack of rest and continuous work. One needs to work hard but at the same time sufficient rest is necessary for the body and mind in order to work effectively. Also, there can be personal life stress in the mind which results in lack of concentration on work.

Possible causes of conflict

In the sales sector every individual wants to work hard and efficient. Each and every member wants to perform the best and get the title of the best employee. Everybody works hard in this direction. However, not everyone reaches their goals. In the race of performance there are many cases of conflicts between the work force.

The possible reasons of conflicts could be

• There may be a feeling of jealousy amongst the employees. When the whole team is aimed to do the best and someone of the same post and skills performs better than one could develop the feeling of jealousy which results in initiation of practising false activities like making them want inferior or humiliate them in front of everyone.
• Another reason could be personal grudges between the workers. There may exist some personal reasons which leads to professional conflicts.
• The reason of issue may be the race of getting the title of the best employee. One may not want to work hard and in turn work smartly by benefiting from others work.

Ways for avoiding conflicts

• The presented conflicts could have been avoided. This could have been done by taking a step towards it as soon as it was revealed. Roots of conflicts gets deeper and deeper with the time. It is better to resolve the issue as soon as it has been detected so that time doesn't embeds its roots.
• Another way to avoid issues like this is by managing proper team interaction activity because sales person mostly deal with people rather than each other. This would create a feeling of trust and loyalty among the work force. Too much focus on best performance should be avoided as best could only one . Work of other employees should be equally appreciated and rewarded.

Dealing with the described situations as a manager

As a manager there could be many ways to deal with the presented problems. The manager could practice activities which helps the employees to focus more on work and increase their work efficiency and activities to avoid and resolve conflicts.

The management activities which could be adopted to handle the issues are as follows

Stress management activities

Many strategies could be planned by the managers to reduce work stress as well as individual stress. The strategies could be organisational strategies or individual strategies. The organisational stress removal plan includes promoting job rotation, appreciation of each and every employee for performing good and rewarding them by giving promotions and acknowledgements, Providing safe environment, motivate them to take part in decision making, organising team activities, creating interactive environment etc. The individual stress management involves encouragement of eating healthy and living healthy lifestyle, provide social and emotional support, listen to their problems, develop sense of emotional intelligence, creating fun and happy atmosphere, reducing work load and providing sufficient rest and relaxation etc.

Time management

The time management among the employees could be taught by managers by conducting regular sessions which trains them to manage their time. The time management activities includes firstly identifying the sources of anxiety as due to stress and anxiety concentration of employees becomes low and as a result time taken to perform the task is more. Identified sources should be eliminated. Planning of day to day activities could also help as it becomes easier to prioritise and organise work. Proper training should be given to employees to work under pressure. The managers should emphasize on bottom line results of the projects and not on procedures. A smarter and shorter procedure should be taught and encouraged.

Business etiquettes

Teaching business etiquettes to the worker also helps to deal with conflicts between the employees and manage their stress level. These etiquettes involves teaching punctuality for the tasks allotted and other works. Making them practice corporate social responsibilities activities. Appreciating and helping others is one of the vital business etiquettes it could be done by using words like thank you, please, sorry, kindly etc. Employees should feel to help others more than become competitive as it would help to reduce jealousy and increase trust and interaction. Other etiquettes include following companies rules and regulations, listening properly and avoid misunderstandings, not interrupting each others work etc

TASK 2

Overview of policy for Social Event Employee Behaviour

Scope

The presented company in the case study adopts in order to practise social event employee behaviour adopts policies of employee motivation and acknowledgement of their work. This involves organising social meetings, rewarding the best performance etc. They believe in motivating employees to perform better and appreciating the efforts made by them for the company. All the employees working in the company are eligible for the policies. The workers are expected to participate voluntarily in the events organised by the company and in adoption of the social event development. The development and organisation of the programmes is the responsibility of the human resource

Acceptable behaviour

The company expects that the introduced policy is appreciated and adopted by all the workers. Every employee voluntarily participates in the events and accepts it in a healthy manner. Most of the employees have open heartedly accepted and appreciated the events and have actively participated in the proposed programmes.

Unacceptable Behaviour

The unacceptable behaviour involves disapproval and disagreements by the workers to the introduced policy. Although, most of the employees have shown acceptable behaviour there are few employees who does not participate in the events and programmes and disapproves the policy. There may be possibility that they believe that policy encourages competitiveness and jealousy among the work force.

Informal Resolution

The complaints and issues of the workers could be resolved informally by identifying the complaints and make a complete understanding of its roots. The employee should be made aware of the benefits and capabilities of the policy and how the policy could help in improving their performances. This can be done by personal meetings and interactions and confidentiality of the conversations should be

Formal Investigation

Formal investigation involves determination of the outcomes of the policy and various issues of the employees. For this identification of the purpose, need of investigation and ways of investigation are defined. Employees should be made aware of the investigation. Interviews are conducted for investigation and the collected information is recorded and analysed. Finally, the investigation report is prepared.

TASK 3

Servant Leadership

The servant leadership refers to the philosophy of leadership as well as set of practices of leadership. Leadership deals with accumulation and exercising of power only by the top head. On the other hand servant leadership involves sharing of the powers with other talented and skills workers, helping employees and people in every possible way even by stretching their comfort zones and keeping the needs and demands of others at priority. A servant leader aids in enrichment of individual lives of people by creating better organisation environment and developing the caring atmosphere in the world. This concept of leadership states that a leader is a server first. It involves the feeling of working for the betterment of others and developing the feeling of the desire to serve others. The servant leader has his prime focus on the growth, well being and enhancement of others. This type of leadership could be practised by the institutions as well as by individuals. The benefits are it helps in developing good culture in the organisations and good treatment of work force as well as of customers. It is a long termed concept of life and work.

Benefits of principles of servant leadership in the company with reference to the case study

The implementation of principles of servant leadership aids the company in varied ways. The different advantages are as follows

• Diversity in work place could be effectively managed by servant leadership because it involves serving to each and every member of the company.
• The needs of work force is given priority than the needs and goals of organisation. This develops the trust and increased loyalty of the work force for the company.
• Increase in productivity and efficiency of the tasks is achieved by using servant leadership approach.
• It also aids in impacting positivity in the society and obtaining long term life concepts.
• It also encourages identification of employees with the organisation.
• Many solutions to the issues dealt by the company are obtained by its applying its principles.
• The feeling of team work is generated through this approach.

Conclusion

The report concludes that the presented case study deals with the issues of conflicts between the employees and the reduction in work efficiency due to stress among the workers. The various reasons of the issues are identified and the solutions are recommended in the report. An overview of social event employee behaviour policy is presented and servant leadership and its benefits have been discussed.

References

• Liden, R. C., and et. al., 2014. Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal.
• Panaccio, A., and et. al., 2015. Toward an understanding of when and why servant leadership accounts for employee extra-role behaviors. Journal of Business and Psychology.
• Sipe, J. W. and Frick, D. M., 2015. Seven pillars of servant leadership: Practicing the wisdom of leading by serving. Paulist Press.