Bruce Smith is a totally incompetent manager Essay

Bruce Smith is a totally incompetent manager - Essay Example The essay hereby proffers theories and concepts that aim to evaluate Bruce Smith’s performance as a manager of the Printery Section of Paper Partners, a small printing firm located in regional Queensland, owned and managed by Paul Southey Case Background Paul Southey is currently in a dilemma in terms of providing an appropriate evaluation for Bruce Smith, the Printery Manager of his firm, Paper Partners. As a manager, Smith’s subordinates rate him as exemplary and provided positive ratings. However, as a colleague and a co-manager, Smith was rated as a nightmare to work with, rude and with utter disregard of the other sections of the company. When confronted with his behavior, Smith admitted his primarily focus on his Printing section with minimal regard to the sales or packaging sections. In this regard, Southey needs to evaluate his behavior and determine the best course of action to solve the problem. Is Smith really an incompetent manager, as contended by other man agers of other departments? Or is Smith an effective manager but a poor colleague? Definition of Terms To support one’s arguments that Bruce Smith is considered a totally incompetent manager, one needs to qualify the definition for incompetence. The online dictionary defines incompetence as â€Å"the quality or state of being incompetent; want of physical, intellectual, or moral ability; insufficiency; inadequacy; as, the incompetency of a child hard labor, or of an idiot for intellectual efforts† (Webster, 1913). The term identifies insufficiency in qualifications. According to Alaspa (2008) in his article entitled Identifying incompetence,† Margaret Heffernan has assembled this list of the ten habits of total incompetence, to wit: (1) an inability to act; (2) failure to divulge crucial concerns; (3) oversensitivity; (4) refusal to deviate from procedure; (5) preference for weak candidates; (6) focusing on minute tasks; (7) inability to comply with deadlines; (8 )lack of recruitment skills; (9) reliance on consultants; and (10) work the longest† (Alaspa, 2008, pars. 2 – 11). The list however, identified habits or patterns of behavior that one has been accustomed to do. In analyzing the insufficiency of a manager to categorize him as totally incompetent, one needs to evaluate not only one’s technical skills, but interpersonal skills, as well. Robbins, et.al. (2008) averred that managers, to be effective, need to perform functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling (p.5) and assume ten roles grouped into interpersonal relationships, transfer of information, and decision-making (pp.5 – 7). Using these concepts, Smith’s performance can be evaluated first as a manager, using the comments from his subordinates and identifying the functions or skills manifested in the theories provided in various literatures. After which, Smith’s performance will also be evaluated as a colleague. Evaluation of Bruce Smith as a Manager The comments of Smith’s subordinates are enumerated and summarized, and the following managerial functions and skills manifested are identified as follows: SUBORDINATES COMMENTS MANAGER’S FUNCTIONS/SKILLS Nella McDonald Great to work for; gives Interpersonal skills (leader) credit for ideas and motivates Stephen Dye Good leader and problem Interpersonal skills (leader) solver Decisional (disturbance handler) Alex Brown Gives