INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT

INDIVIDUAL PAPER
CASE STUDY: OUTDOORS

Course Name and Introduction to Management - BUSM4185

Code:
Campus: RMIT Vietnam, Hanoi

Student Name: Le Mai Quynh

Student ID: S3927473

Lecture’s Name: Ganakrishnan Gopalakrishnan

Submission Date:  Sunday 12nd of December 2021 

Word Count: 1982

 I. Case analysis
Human resource management is the process of managing people in the
broad areas of resourcing, rewarding, developing, and building and sustaining
relationships (Rowley and Jackson, 2011). One of the problems Ms.Ngoc is
facing when operating her business is poor human resource management,
harming the organization including decreased productivity, ineffective
recruitment, and employee turnover (Nillos, 2015).
1. Poor delegation
Delegation is the process of a leader or manager transferring the responsibilities
for certain activities, or decisions to subordinates (Doyle, 2020).
The case demonstrates that Ms. Ngoc does not want to delegate her authority to
subordinates due to her lack of trust in them. She always feels that they are not
experienced enough to take charge of tasks by themselves. As a result, she had to
fly back and forth between Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang to oversee every task
her employees were supposed to complete. Despite being the owner, Ms. Ngoc
had to handle all administrative tasks and department duties such as marketing,
accounting, and supplier relationship management. This working style is
considered micromanagement which the boss prefers to control
employees’work rather than giving them authority to do so (Le, 2021). As stated
in the case study, Ms.Ngoc had to be on the phone constantly with her team to
monitor their actions and provide step-by-step instructions to guarantee they
were doing things accurately because she is scared that even small mistakes could
jeopardize her business.
Ms.Ngoc’s unwillingness to share her responsibilities might cause
negative repercussions for herself, her employees, and her clients. Her continual
supervision will significantly squander lots of time and effort, leading to an
imbalance between personal and professional lives. While employees whose
abilities are doubted by the supervisor will be less inclined to come up with
creative solutions to difficulties they may encounter on the job because every
action they take must be approved by their boss. Along with this, when employees
do not feel trusted by the boss, their morale and performance will suffer, which
leads to high turnover. In addition, clients are likely to be frustrated with the slow
service and cast doubt on the business's overall competence if personnel must
continually seek approval to make small decisions. As a result, poor customer
service could negatively affect the business including loss of loyal customers,
profits, and brand reputation (Banerjeee, 2014).
*Linking theory:
A leader or manager can not take on all of the tasks on their own in the
workplace. It is critical to master the art of delegation in order to be a successful
leader (Sanfilippo, 2021). Delegation allows a person to allocate tasks to
subordinates and provide them the authority to complete them successfully.
According to principles of management, Henry Fayol mentioned authority
and responsibility as two key components in management. Authority enables
management to function efficiently while responsibility holds them accountable
for the work under their supervision and leadership. If employees are assigned
duties, they have to be given the necessary authority to accomplish well.
Moreover, he claimed that the division of work among the workers boosts
productivity, accuracy, and working speed. Back to the case, Ms.Ngoc failed to
delegate her tasks to the personnel, leading to a lack of trust, productivity loss,
high turnover, and poor customer experience. A significant example of this is
Ms.Bao-the longest-serving employee opted to leave the job for better
progression and opportunity.

2. Poor recruitment process

Recruitment is the process of searching for potential individuals and encouraging
them to apply for positions within an organization (Flippo, n.d.). A well-
executed recruitment process not only increases employee’s effectiveness but also
ensures that they will stay with the company to contribute more.
According to the case study, Ms.Ngoc’s business has 8 and 12 full-time employees
in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City individually. Although this number of
employees is suitable for Ms. Ngoc's small business, she faces staffing and task
allocation issues. She had to deal with these challenges since her recruitment
process may be flawed, resulting in hiring errors like misevaluating candidates'
abilities and employing unqualified personnel. Firstly, she might trust anything
the interviewees said and demonstrated in their unverified applications.
According to the True Portfolio website, 6% of educational degrees are
counterfeit and 53% of job applications contain false information. As a result,
Ms.Ngoc is always aware that her firm is seriously lacking in human resources
and needs to recruit new skilled people.
Besides, she failed to hire front-line managers for production and services, and
middle managers for accounting and marketing. Consequently, she had to handle
everything from the simplest tasks like ordering, trying equipment to complex
ones like managing fees and promoting her products. The absence of managers
leading a particular department not only impedes her firm to achieve its
objectives but puts it at risk of bankruptcy. This is also clearly demonstrated in
the case study when Ms.Ngoc wishes to transition to online retail activity because
she does not realize the scope of developing her physical store in which she had to
handle every task.

*Linking theory:
Stakeholder theory asserts that employees are the main stakeholders in the
company because everything they do directly affects the company's survival.
Therefore, individuals with adequate job-related knowledge and skills need to
receive special attention from the recruiters. Not only does hiring the right
personnel assist the business in increasing revenue and establishing a
competitive strategy, but also increases employee engagement and productivity.
However, as shown in the case, Ms.Ngoc seems to underestimate the complexity
of the hiring process, leading to her lack of confidence to delegate to her less
experienced employees. Her inadequate recruiting programs mistakenly result in
the hiring of incompetent employees, which might waste a lot of time for
Ms.Ngoc to train them and undermine the confidence in management. Besides,
this creates more work for team members and lowers employee morale. In a
survey conducted by Robert Half of more than 1,000 small and midsize
businesses, 53% of respondents reported that teams working with bad hires
suffer a higher level of stress (Herd Freed Hartz, 2017). All of these
consequences resulting from an efficient recruitment process have a detrimental
effect on the overall operation of the whole business.

II. Solutions
1. Improve the delegation skill
Delegation is a critical procedure that allows leaders to maximize work efficiency
by sharing their responsibilities with subordinates. Henry Fayol's
administrative management theory stresses the division of work, asserting
that team members should be allocated tasks based on their skills and interests to
assist them complete them efficiently (Indeed Career Guide, 2021).
Specifically, the top managers need to find the right person for the task, assess
their abilities correctly and give them authority in making decisions. As a result,
receiving proper delegation will help enhance employee productivity and provide
them with numerous opportunities to demonstrate their capability and grow
their potential. Delegating effectively relieves the manager of the workload, á they
could devote their time to more important responsibilities.
Managers who delegate tasks adequately also help to build trust among
employees (Grossman, 2020). Giving them important jobs demonstrates faith
in their talents, giving them a sense of pride in their work and motivating them to
take on more difficult tasks in the future. Moreover, this could build strong ties
between managers and employees, allowing employees to voice their concerns
and managers to comprehend them. Delegating authority to the subordinates
also increases their commitment to the company and reduces high turnover.

2. Improve the recruitment process

Recruitment is vitally crucial in human resource management. An efficient
recruitment process helps the company save costs, enhance the its reputation and
attract talented employees to the company (Ridding, 2019).
According to the scientific management theory, Taylor stressed that the
manager should hire the best qualified workers by selecting candidates
thoughtfully based on their education, work experience and aptitudes. Linking
with the case, Ms.Ngoc should create recruitment goals based on the SMART goal
setting framework before starting the procedure. This controls the cost per hire,
facilitates the process and decreases new hire failure. Besides, she needs to
consider effective recruitment strategies to attract more talents for her firm. For
instance, many companies such as Apple and Uber use social media to connect
with potential individuals. Moreover, the employer should write a decent job
description, which is a fundamental part of building an efficient recruitment
strategy (Perucci, 2019). A clear job description will help the candidates
understand the organization’s needs and expectations. Therefore, it needs to be
designed with as much specificity as possible to attract potential candidates.

III. Recommendations
1. Involve subordinates in the delegation process
The Goal-setting theory developed by Edwin Locke proposes that establishing
clear and specific goals will help the organization achieve greater productivity
and better performance. Therefore, firstly, Ms.Ngoc should focus on the goal-
setting process, during which she will think about the tasks she intends to
delegate and decide who will be in charge of. After that, it is vital to choose the
right person whose strengths and skills are fit for the task. This will ensure their
timely task completion and help promote their abilities. Besides, the manager
should explain why she chose the employee for the specific jobs and how she
expects them to grow, and provide proper instructions (Alex Cavoulacos,
n.d.). Moreover, the Human Relations theory advocates employee
involvement in the decision-making process, which is considered participative
management. Allowing employees to voice their opinions will provide the
manager with different perspectives to make better decisions. Once given
opportunities to engage in decision-making, employees regard it as
organizational support for their workgroup to gain better work performance
(Kukenberger et al., 2015). Microsoft is a real-world example of a firm that
incorporates employees in decision-making. The corporation used an
engagement survey to solicit employee feedback on employee development
initiatives, career growth opportunities, and how the company should handle
employee dismissal. Thanks to it, Microsoft could navigate new career paths for
their workers and enhance their job satisfaction. From the lesson of Microsoft,
Ms.Ngoc could improve the decision-making process. Giving the workers
authority to make decisions for every problem of the firm will increase their
engagement and satisfaction with their jobs, leading to low turnover rates for the
business.

2. Deploy social media to recruit

Using social media networking sites to recruit is one of the latest recruiting
trends. As social media has grown in popularity in recent years, many people are
increasingly embracing it for job searching. According to LinkedIn, 49% of
professionals use social media to follow organizations to stay informed about
their jobs (Burton, 2021). Therefore, the firm should create smart recruiting
strategies on social media platforms to attract passive candidates, target many
talents and promote the company brand. The first step is to choose the
appropriate channels that are commonly used by the majority of candidates and
understand the functions of each to make content creation. Now Linkedin is
the most prevalent social network used by 95% of employers to find job
candidates (Ryan, n.d.). It is also essential for the company to be active on
social media and use hashtags for recruiting like #JoinOurTeam to grab the
attention of potential candidates for its job openings. Besides, the company
should enhance its profiles on social media by updating some pictures related to
its working environment, introducing job postings, and attaching the links to its
website, allowing candidates to know more about the company they intend to
apply to. For example, Verizo is one of the companies that successfully integrate
social media in its recruitment strategy. On its Facebook page, the company posts
jobs, many compelling photos, and employee quotes to share information about
the company culture, helping people imagine what its working culture would be
like, and encouraging them to apply. Therefore, Ms.Ngoc could learn this strategy
from Verizon by taking advantage of Facebook page and featuring her firm’s
photos, stories, and quotes on social media to raise brand awareness and enable
prospective employees to connect with the firm.

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