1.

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of coordinating the efforts of

people to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and

effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and

controlling an organization or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing

encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources,

technological resources, and natural resources (Stone et’al,1999).

The four principal managerial functions were exhibited by CEO Greg Steinhafel include;

decision making, the CEO had to make decisions based on the hack that happened to millions of

customers, the decisions he made included holding press conferences to changing the magnetic

strips on its payment cards with a new chip technology widely used in Europe and Canada that is

less vulnerable to fraud. Manning, and Curtis, (2003) note that decision making actually

determines the fate of the organization. The major challenge a manager has to face is making the

right decision for a particular situation. It contains most of the risks a manager has to face. This

decision making also depend on the manager’s choice either to take risk or not. A manager also

has to higher ups for their decision. In the present world in the complex situation it is important

to make ethical and intelligent decision.

CEO Greg Steinhafel also had a perform a managerial function known as communication, this

function is evident when he appeared on a video to communicate to customers about their data

fraud that occurred and thanking customers for the continued support they showed. Milkovich,

and Boudreau (1998) alludes that in the present day it is an important function for the

managers of the organization. Effective information sharing, passing of instruction, technical

knowledge is important for the healthy growth of the organization. For ideal case managers

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should be responsive to the feed backs and the upward communication. Also the communication

should be in both ways.

Equally CEO Greg Steinhafel showed a managerial function called leading, he engaged his staff

and was involved in countless weeks of meetings to try to and find a lasting solution to the

current crisis the company was facing. Adler, (1991) notes the following leading is that inert-

personnel aspect of management which deals directly with influencing, guiding, supervising,

motivating sub-ordinate for the achievement of organizational goals. The idea of visionary

leadership is popular today. In Golden Trading Company managers have to act as the leader for

the subordinate.

Planning was is the other managerial function performed by CEO Greg Steinhafel the meetings

held were meant to plan how the company was to respond to this crisis which threatened the trust

the customers had in the store, it is through the planning process that the changing of the

magnetic strips on its payment cards with a new chip technology widely used in Europe and

Canada that is less vulnerable to fraud was made. Nelson, (2011) asserts that planning is a

process of thinking in advance the future course of actions. It involves what to do, when to do,

where to do and by whom it is to be done. Thus it is actually thinking before doing. Major

activities in planning includes determination of organizational objectives, projects, setting

policies strategies and making rules, procedures and budgets. As for our organization it is one of

the important jobs of the manager (Becker, and Gerhart,1996).

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 2.

CEO Steinhafel’s ability to effectively execute the three key managerial roles; interpersonal,

informational, and decisional is poor. This is because at inter-personal level he never got along

with his colleagues or bosses, in fact he did whatever he wanted and never gave a second thought

to what others said or though must be done. In terms of informal, Steinhafel failed to

communicate effectively and on time to the customers, as a matter of fact it was only after the

Chief Markeing officer urged him to make a video that he so and in terms of decisional

Steinhafel showed to be poor at decision making many of his initial decisions made the crisis

worse and were very costly to the company.

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 References

Adler, N.J. (1991). International Dimensions of Organizational Behaviour. Boston: Kent

Publishing Company.

Becker, B., and Gerhart, B. (1996). The impact of human resource management on
organizational performance: Progress and prospects, Academy of Management
Journal, 39.

Manning, G., & Curtis, K. (2003). The art of leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Milkovich, T.G., and W.J. Boudreau (1998). Human resource management, 8th Edition.
Boston: Irwin.

Nelson, D. L. (2011). ORGB. USA: Cengage Learning.

Stone, G., Singletary, M., & Richmond, V. P. (1999). Clarifying communication theories:

A hands-on approach. USA: Iowa State University Press.