Control Yourself. Becoming your own Master

Introduction

Qualities of Good Employees

Increase employees’ happiness

Become a Good Boss

Your Own Boss

The Key to Acting Like a Business Owner

Roles and duties in organization

Roles of Team Members in an Organization

Achieving the success factors and overall objectives

SMART Goals

Gain self-respect steps:
- Expect obstructions
- Treat yourself respectfully
- Spend time with respectful people
- Perform a self-check

Be clear about what you want

Successful People Make Decisions Differently
How to write your personal mission statement

References

Introduction

For the Business Employees: Before starting, it would be a good idea to define what we a discussing in this book. What is an employee? An employee can be defined as person who is hired to work for another or for a business, firm, etc, in return for payment (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). Synonyms for the term employees are words like clerk, labourer, worker, even hand, help, or servant.

Qualities of Good Employees

According to Adkins (2011) the characteristics searched for in employees important in any business. A problematic employee can have a great impact on morale in an organization and a good employee’s attitude and work ethic can be transmittable (Haneberg, 2005). The good employees are disciplined, dependable, responsible, cheerful, have good communication skills and ability for team work (Modaff, DeWine & Butler, (2011). Every business will have unique requirements; there are some employee characteristics of high concerned value (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982).

Being Disciplined: Being able to work without a supervisor is a sign of discipline. Reliability is a trait implanted at an early age, and employees can overcome deficiencies such as lack of experience by showing up on time and performing their assigned duties, for Bartel (1991).

Dependable: An employer being able to count on you to show up, do your job, stay focused, be prepared and not steal – either physically or by stealing company time (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982).

Commitment: Urge to completing tasks on time, as assigned, during the application process for Bartel (1991).

Taking Initiative: Offering solutions to problems in a constructive manner (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). Pay attention and communicate when you detect a problem or a way that a process can be improved.

Responsibility: Standing up and taking responsibility for mistakes made, also be willing to pitch in when company is faced with a serious deadline. You are willing to do more than just your own job as a way of looking out for the company's interests (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982).

Good Attitude: A positive stance, flexibility, enthusiasm, being a team player and a pleasant disposition make a good employee because they add up to a good attitude (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982).

Positive: Positivity leads to a more productive work and creates a better environment for employees (Barney, 1986). One trait to look for in a candidate is their ability to acknowledge mistakes and still move forward in a positive way (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982).

Good Communication Skills: Understanding the benefits of clarity (Modaff, DeWine & Butler, (2011). These skills are the result of learning and are vital to becoming a successful employee (Holton and Bates, 2000). Good ideas won't help anyone if you can't deliver them effectively for Bartel (1991).

Be ethical: a strong work ethic was clearly one of the most popular qualities hiring managers look for in a candidate.

Setting and achieving goals: demonstrate ability to work hard. Employees who set high goals for themselves, or respond well to stretch goals from supervisors, indicate a willingness to do more than be at work every day.

Self-motivated: Working effectively with little direction, take initiative and get work done with little to no encouragement.

Complete enthusiasm and interest: the work is driven with confidence.

Team-worker: Work in collaboration because success is in work of teams and departments (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). Flexible: Adapting in a meaningful way (Kotter, 2007). A good employee for Bartel (1991) will not resist change blindly, but instead embrace it and adapt to it as it proves necessary for the business.

Increase employees’ happiness

Office stress is challenging in physical and psychological dimensions and affects productivity, increases turnover, and costs (Ganster & Loghan, 2005). Organizations should be alert of these negative effects, and try to neutralize them (Dardar, Jusoh, Rasli, 2011).

Job control to help employees succeed: The starting point for Bartel (1991) should be to manage the work environment to improve employee health, potentially reducing healthcare costs (Michie and Williams, 2003).

Job control: This is the amount of discretion employees according to Adkins (2011) have to determine what they do and how they do it. This has a major impact on their physical health (Michie and Williams, 2003). Low job control for Bartel (1991) has bad effects that extend from the employees’ physical to the mental health and companies have the power to minimize these hazards by creating roles with more flexibility and autonomy, and by reducing the effects of micromanagement (Michie and Williams, 2003).

Physical and mental health: according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984) The higher the rank, the lower the incidence of and mortality from cardiovascular disease. Higher-ranked employees enjoy more control over their jobs and have more discretion over what they did, how they did it, and when, faced greater job demands (Michie and Williams, 2003).

Work stress as a co-occurrence of high job demands and low job control, predict the likelihood of getting heart disease and type 2 diabetes (Wolfe, 2004). Employees who faced chronic stress at work are likely to have metabolic syndrome compared with those without work stress (Ganster & Loghan, 2005).

According to Adkins (2011) people with a higher level of influence and task control in the reorganization process have lower levels of illness symptoms, were absent less frequently, and experienced less depression. There is a negative relationships between job control and anxiety and depression.

Learning, motivation, and performance: There are performance-evaluation criteria set by companies that make it hard to know how to succeed (Holton, Seyler, Bates, 1998).

A disordered office environment of frequent, uncontrollable proceedings harmfully affects people’s motivation, their perception, learning, and emotions (Holton, Seyler, Bates, 1998). When employees cannot predictably and meaningfully affect what happens to them, they are going to halt acting (Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton, 1984).

According to Adkins (2011)the connection between actions and their consequences, with employees having minor control of their actions, decreases employee motivation and efforts and it considerably obstructs learning (Holton, Seyler, Bates, 1998). Employee’s ability to learn by observing the linkage between actions and their consequences allows them to reach some degree of mastery over their environment (Frey, 2002). Also, for Bartel (1991) they gain an understanding of what they must do to achieve the desired results. When there is a little job control, employees have less responsibility and discretion, which weakens their capability and achievement and adds to stress, anxiety, and depression (Ganster & Loghan, 2005).

Control and autonomy: Subject to your boss, and design of work, the choices about what to do and how to do are eliminated (Frey, 2002). The result is more stress and higher vulnerability to sickness (Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton,1984).

Minimize micromanagement: Some managers according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984) are deprived at coaching and facilitating others to their jobs. In these situations, the employees lose autonomy and sense of control to the bosses that do not delegate (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). The company is a place where employees know what they need to do, and does that work independent of direct supervising (Montana and Charnov, 2008).

Autonomy: according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984)all people can be given more decision-making discretion in their jobs and liberty to control their work. Create a more empowered, highly skilled staff, drawing graduates from top universities (Barney, 1986).

Social support: There is a connection between social support and health (Fox, 1966). Having support protects and can have a direct effect on health and buffers the effects of various psychosocial stresses, such as workplace stress, that can compromise health (Cully, O’Reilly, Millward, Forth, Woodland, Dix and Bryson, 1998). The new workplaces according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984) make it harder to build relationships and provide support. Practices that foster internal competition, reduces collaboration and teamwork (Fox, 1966). Anything that drives people against one another weakens social ties among employees and reduces the social support that produces healthier workplaces (Cully, O’Reilly, Millward, Forth, Woodland, Dix and Bryson, 1998). Also, transactional workplace approaches in which people are seen as factors of production and where the emphasis is on trading money for work, without much emotional connection between people and their place of work according to Adkins (2011).

Leaders should (Fox, 1966):

- Build environments with stronger social support (Fox, 1966)
- Demonstrate commitment to offering help
- Encourage people to care for one another
- Fix the language
- Support shared connections

How to develop Qualities to Become a Good Boss

When there is low morale, employees disengage from their positive influence to their work resulting in never ending stress (Ganster & Loghan, 2005). The negative work environments lower worker productivity, they are also very difficult to manage, so the answer is to create an environment that encourages happiness and supports engagement according to Adkins (2011)

Communicates Clear Vision: Employees want to perform at high levels at their job. When the boss communicates a clear vision for the organization according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984) to the employees, they get engaged by making them comprehend what is the purpose behind the tasks they are about to undertake. Through this approach the employees involved are getting interested in helping the organization achieve its vision (Haneberg, 2005).

Connects Vision to Daily Tasks: The boss for Bartel (1991) should tell how the employees should work for their tasks to support the attainment of the purpose of the organization. This is conducted by making a vibrant linkage between the employees’ routines and how it supports the mission of the organization (Haneberg, 2005). This is achieved by setting goals that support organizational goals that are, on the big picture connected to business strategy (Hill and Gareth, 2008).

Sets Clear Performance Expectations: Employees experience increase stress levels when they don’t have a good understanding of what is expected of them (Ganster & Loghan, 2005). Employees should be provided with a set of clear performance expectations by offering the employee with a specific job description that explains the expected tasks and the individual employee goals (Mabey & Gooderham,.2003). The boss should discourse and simplify the expectations via business meetings on discrete level. Taking into account that in the world economy is continuously changing, the priorities change as well (Kotter, 2007). The boss continues to interconnect the updated expectations to deliver the employees with an on-going appreciative of their role and job responsibilities according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984).

Provides Consistent Feedback: Employees according to Adkins (2011) should be provided with continuous feedback on the level of achievement with respect to the expectations set. When they recognize when they are achieving and what they are achieving through communication and when they are not meeting requirements(Modaff, DeWine & Butler, (2011). There is a need for further efforts on the behalf of the boss.

Coaching: Often employees do not realize when they are achieving their expected goals. In this situation the boss should be turned into a coach. It is the boss’s obligation to coach and develop these employees (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). That requires the boss to possess coaching skills, and if he does not have them, develop them according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984).

Employees are People: Employees are human beings and want to be seen as such. They have the need to be cared about on a personal level. The boss should stand beside them and understand who they really are. In such cases employees feel valued when the boss shows an interest in them (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982).

Shares Personal Experiences: Imagine a situation where a boss shares a personal experience. There the boss reveals their vulnerabilities and helps employees appreciate the human side of the boss. When the boss shares their human everyday struggles, it cultivates the relationship with their employees according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984).

Develop a happy work climate: When the work climate is not happy, things are going the wrong way. Incorporating activities that foster happiness and systematized happy time for employees gives them something to search for (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982).

Embraces Team Development: Diverse personalities according to Adkins (2011) can make team relations difficult. The boss have good team leader skills that foster team development, as they know how to collect the correct employees, unite them and align them (Brown, Murphy, & Wade, 2006).

Employee Values: Employees’ for Bartel (1991) produce for the organization when their supervisor pays attention about what the employees think and proactively asks employees for feedback (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). They recognize that employees often have the answers to many of the operational problems. And when asked, employees feel valued for being able to contribute their thoughts and opinions according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984).

Rewards Noble Performance: According to Adkins (2011) employees go to work wanting to perform well and should be rewarded for meeting their job requirements. When employees according to Blanchard, & Thacker (2004) understand of what is expected of them, provided with the tools and training to do their job and are rewarded for doing a good job, they become engaged with the organization and committed to helping it achieve its objectives (Mager, 1997). The supervisor for Bartel (1991) occasionally blocks them from achieving high performing. When supervisor communicate where the organization is going, explains how employee actions contributes to what they are trying to accomplish and allows employees to participate in organizational problem solving efforts, they create an environment that employees are proud of and enjoy working in (Bos, 2007).

Personality Traits: If you are the owner of a business, being the best leader is of high value for the company and employees (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). A business is successful if they are passionate and motivated by the work they are doing this work begins at the top managerial level.

Be Positive: According to Adkins (2011) have a great workplace environment that is brought into it. Transfer a positive mentality as you walk into the office, knowing that each challenge that comes before you is an opportunity to succeed (Cully, O’Reilly, Millward, Forth, Woodland, Dix and Bryson, 1998). A positive attitude can be the most important part in achieving a goal for a company, and attractiveness is created to clients (Barney, 1986).

Be Motivating: There is the responsibility to make employees feel positive, as well. Everyone wants to work for someone that they like, and is bringing out the best of their abilities. Workers are more willing to do what’s best for the company if they have been inspired by their boss according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984).

Be Honest: Honesty is a difficult characteristic to manage because it leads to painful conversations. It is important though to keep employees know what you expect from them and whether they are meeting your standards (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). Exemplify the big picture of the company and how you intend to get there in order to ensure that everyone is contributing according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984).

Be Composed: Being always composed is a challenge of maintaining an honest work attitude. It is important that employees feel easy approaching if something is wrong, and if their boss is not nervous according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984).

Be Consistent: Set and stick to the rules, as a reliable supervisor who trusts employees who knows what is expected from them. Universal equality is essential for success and employees must know that you will not be nepotist according to Adkins (2011).

Be Accountable: Employees for Bartel (1991) depend on you and you keep the promises that you make. Accountability is to leading by example. A trusted relationship between you and them will make it much easier for everyone to collaborate (Dunlop, 1958).

Be Liked: Turn office a fun park by celebrating birthdays, holidays, and special occasions. Don’t be all business all of the time. Let employees see your personal side and enjoy the office (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). Your workers will be driven to exceed your expectations if they know they are respected by you according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984).

Be Resilient: There will be times when business isn’t going good and employees will look to you for the answer, make sure they know that you have not flinched (Doran, 1981). Use your setbacks as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and make them positives (Kotter, 2007). Don’t be afraid to change your business pattern, smart risk-taking is often met with great reward according to Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn and Walton (1984).

Your Own Boss

How the boss acts according to Adkins (2011)

- They are enthusiastic
- They are not just trading time or talent for compensation.
- They have passion, positive energy and excitement about the business or some element of the work.
- They have a clear perspective on how the company provides value to customers and specifically how they contribute to that value.
- You can count on them to do what they say they will do and act with integrity.
- These employees are honest, trustworthy and consistently reliable.
- They should be easy to spot because if there is an important assignment, they get it.
- They hold themselves accountable for the results of their efforts, they might even do things outside their job description, like the customer support rep that chooses to come in on her day off to make good on a commitment to finish a team project.
- They take responsibility the same way successful leaders or business owners are accountable and demonstrate their commitment.
- These employees have strong relationships across the business, not just within a silo.
- The strength of their relationships isn’t just about being friendly or collegial, but are based on trust.
- They develop trusting relationships with team members, colleagues in other parts of the company, and even “higher ups”, through their expertise (Adkins, Caldwell, 2004). It could be a technical expertise like software coding or expertise in a discipline like marketing or sales (Cooke, 1987).

If you want to create a culture where everyone behaves like an owner, or a leader, seek out and reward the hidden leaders within the ranks of your company (Mills, 1988).

The Key to Acting Like a Business Owner

What does it mean for employees to act like business owners? If an employee for Bartel (1991) acts like a business owner, is it a result of financial incentives, personality, or a combination of both?

Acting like a business owner” implies, it often seems to be a combination of things:

- Personality and upbringing
- Unusual curiosity
- Fear of letting others down
- Fear of letting themselves down
- Genuine desire to serve
- Gratitude
- Intense desire to learn and to get better at their job every day
- A purpose that transcends themselves (Adkins, 2011)

How To Bring More Ownership Spirit Into Your Organization

Connect employees to the big picture: Helping an employee to understand a business's strategy and situation allows him for Bartel (1991) to look and act beyond their role.

Reward employees who go beyond the norm: Nothing can quell people's desire to give extra than not feeling recognized. All teams are open to anyone interested in joining. Work on these teams becomes part of the performance evaluation process with employees gaining extra credit for joining and active participation (Mabey & Gooderham,.2003).

Make decisions and debates transparent: According to Adkins (2011) when employees have the full context about a decision and the options considered, they are more likely to support it regardless of whether they agree with it or not. The sessions are used to flesh out new proposals and educate staff on key decisions. A small group of employees sit in an inner circle to learn from one another on a controversial topic or idea. This group commits to "inquiry" on the subject as opposed to advocacy for or against the topic. Employees for Bartel (1991) ask questions, explore the idea, flesh out any issues and learn about the subject. All remaining employees sit on the outside and educate themselves on the idea while holding those on the inner circle accountable for listening, inquiring and being open and supportive to the new idea or issue (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). The result, they say, has been a quicker adoption of new and radical ideas.

Collaborate on goals and decisions: A highly participative workplace yields better buy-in for decisions as people more fully support ideas they help create (Cully, O’Reilly, Millward, Forth, Woodland, Dix and Bryson, 1998). According to Adkins (2011) decision-making often involves a combination of voting, consensus and/or delegating. The human resources committee will design and recommend HR-related proposals, which will then go to the entire company for a vote (Nadler, 1986). Depending on the magnitude of the decision, the vote will either be a super-majority vote (85%), a majority vote (50%) or a consensus driven decision in which objections are asked for but no formal vote is required. This shared decision-making extends to the company's annual goals as well.

According to Adkins (2011) in the offices that have reached a staff of owner-minded employees, those workers often consistently step outside their role for the sake of the business's objectives (Mager, 1997). These cultures adapt faster to change and develop innovative ideas that lead to new product and market opportunities (Kotter, 2007).

Some employees would like to take ownership of their work but feel like they don’t have that power (O'Donovan, 2006). Others feel frustrated by team's reluctance to take charge or make quick decisions (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). A culture of personal accountability, where employees enjoy the autonomy to make appropriate decisions and the nerve to take ownership, is a powerful, desired, and least understood characteristic of a successful work environment (Mills, 1988).

Accountability is something we often try to command, but it’s not a process or a tool. You can’t force someone to be accountable. But you can do is hold employees able to succeed and give them the necessary tools to accomplish what they have been tasked to do. They will logically grow an ownership mentality that benefits them and the organization as a whole (Haneberg, 2005).

Ways to inspire personal responsibility in team

According to Adkins (2011) to the workplace, ask for employees’ feedback and input on team projects and goals. Encourage their opinions on important decisions affecting the company (Cully, O’Reilly, Millward, Forth, Woodland, Dix and Bryson, 1998). Give your employees a voice so that everyone shares the context that they are able to contribute to the success of the team (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). Of course, you won’t be able to act upon everyone’s opinion every time, but when people feel like they’re being heard, it will go a long way toward enriching relationships, fostering collaboration, and heightening engagement.

Delegate the Right Way

Employees don’t make decisions or take ownership of work because they’re not quite sure if they should. According to Adkins (2011) they feel like they need to check in with you or they’re afraid of making a decision with which you won’t agree. You can solve this difficulty by making sure you’re delegating effectively. Delegation is about evidently communicating where the decision-making power lies and permitting your employees to hold themselves able to take responsibility for their results. When working on a task or project, someone can be delegated a responsibility at four different levels. Each level for Bartel (1991) has a clear definition of what is expected of them for that project and how to interact with you, the leader, regarding decision-making. This type of delegation necessitates a lot of time and energy on your part to communicate your expectations to those around you. But eventually, it will yield an atmosphere of ownership, according to Adkins (2011).

Have a Plan

Promote an accountable culture means that every person has a clear accepting about key objectives (Mager, 1997). Set a roadmap for team as a whole, then each colleague, about his performance objectives to meet the team goals (Mabey & Gooderham,.2003). Align your team on a vision of where the company and team are going and make sure each employee sees where he or she fits in the picture. Employees aren’t going to feel compelled to accomplish something unless they are emotionally engaged (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). Then, make sure that employees are devoted in what they're doing and engaged with the broader team goals.

To Act Like An Owner

Only few leaders really act like owners. Their pay package might be structured in such a way that they are incentivized to help make the company grow and be profitable, but on a day-to-day basis few leaders really act like owners.

Key insights regarding what it means to act like an owner.

You focus on what the next“one thing is to move closer to your goal and the rest are just distractions: The two key constraints that companies of any size have to manage are time and money. Those constraints force you to every day ask “What is the next best one thing that I can do to move closer to achieving our goal?”

According to Adkins (2011) few leaders who are part of a big company practice this, because they don’t feel the restrictions. They have large budgets and lots of people. But, big companies move slower despite those advantages, because in big companies it takes more time to get more people to agree to act andmany leaders apply their resources (budget, own time and team’s time) to do too many things at the same time. These results in a loss of focus and time spend on many activities that are useful but not the one best thing that can help the company get closer to its goal.

So if you want to be a more effective leader who acts like an owner, then review each project that you and your team are spending money and time on.

Are these really the best next actions to help move your team and/or company closer to its goal? Are they useful but not yet critical? Is there a next best action that you and your team are not even investing time and money in?

Decide what you and your team be spending your time and money on. Stop projects that are non-critical and refocus on the real priorities.

You will be surprised how much faster the critical things will get done and therefore how much more impact you and your team will have on the success of the business – by focusing on doing less

You constantly look for what you might be getting wrong, so to fix it, save money make business more efficient or effective. You are responsible with growing a business, so innovation and continuous improvement are too busy with just managing the day-to-day (Laplagne, and Bensted, 1999).

According to Kotter (2007)Many leaders fail to focus on what could drive those big changes and seek opportunities for continuous improvements because they fail to question their own work. To proactively ask their teams and their peers to keep searching for ways to do things better, more efficiently, or effectively, because they are good at what they do and this stops them and others from questioning openly whether it could be done better.

When you are an owner, you don’t take any criticism personal, because you are interested in making things better, saving money, not making costly mistakes. So you are searching for people to take the time to review, critique and feedback on how your business does things. So acting like an owner means becoming more critical of you and team’s work. It’s just a sound and necessary business practice to help you and your business become more successful.

Which solutions or processes are behind the times? Are there new ways of doing things that could save money or help you do things more effectively? You understand the power of learning-on-the-job: you need people who have a willingness and ability to figure it out yourself (Brown, Murphy, & Wade, 2006). You need people who are able and willing to learn on the job. Leaders often get into the mind-set of hiring to fulfill new specialized skills that are required to grow.

they ignore their existing team likely could have learned those skills on the job. Great to create an opportunity for professional development, retains talent for company. Create an opportunity for one of your team to increase their salary by acquiring those new skills and taking on that new area of expertise by investing in the development of in-house skills, instead of solving it through outsourcing or using freelancers, you are building a stronger team for the long run (Haneberg, 2005).

Constantly questioning expenses: We all know that you’ve to spend money to earn money. But when you are spending the money that you earned and saved, then that really makes you think twice. When you run and bootstrap your own business you are super-focused on this, as you want to minimize the risk of losing money. In a similar vain, you want to always try and time your expenses as close to the actual cash-generating event that you are funding with it and as such you seek out vendors who require no or small upfront deposits ahead of the actual time of delivery of their service.

Roles and duties in organization

Many companies encourage a team environment. The team members for Bartel (1991) help each other succeed to accomplish the company's goals and provide their expertise on different projects and duties. Each team has specific roles and are typically structured in a functional way. Companies create structural charts that clearly define the types of roles within departments. In a functional structure, it's designed by hierarchy, which is when the roles of each group are ranked one above another based on responsibility (Haneberg, 2005). For Brown, Murphy, & Wade (2006), most organizations consist of the following roles: Executive officers, Research and development team, Operations and production team, Sales and marketing team, Accounting and finance team

Team Member Responsibilities

The company assigns responsibilities that each team must accomplish in order to keep the company running and to produce profits. Let's take a look at what these are. Executive officers are responsible for keeping the ship afloat. They work for Bartel (1991) with all of the teams to create synergy and hold them accountable.

The research and development team has the responsibility of being innovative and keeping up with the latest trends and developments in whatever field the company is in (Brown, Murphy, & Wade, 2006).. For example, tech companies like Apple have to stay innovative and creative for customers to care about their products. Their R&D team is responsible for researching the market and developing new technologies to stay ahead of their competition which explains the constant cell phone battle they have with Android phones makers (Brown, Murphy, & Wade, 2006)..

The operations and production team is responsible for bringing the product to life. They receive the product's vision from the research team and then bring the product into its finished stage.

The sales and marketing team is responsible for bringing the product to market. They use several different methods to get the word out about their new invention. They usually do this through advertisements on TV, Internet, radio, and even printed mail to promote the product.

Roles, Responsibilities

One of the basic rules of management according to Blanchard, & Thacker (2004) involves the recruitment, hiring, training and retaining of the right people as members of the organization. This involves for Bartel (1991) looking into their qualifications, characteristics, potential contributions, and their strengths and weaknesses. But it is actually a much broader view, one that is not limited to just choosing the right people to match the right job. It also involves defining roles and responsibilities, because you cannot match a person to a job without knowing exactly what you are looking for (Bos, 2007).

Why should you have clearly defined roles and responsibilities within the organization?

Defining the roles and responsibilities of members in your organization is important for several reasons:

Hiring the right people for the job: From the beginning, having clearly defined roles will enable management to identify the type of people they will need, so they can proceed to targeting and hiring the most qualified candidates for the job (Haneberg, 2005).

Improved collaboration between and among members and teams within the organization: If each employee’s role and responsibilities are defined clearly, there are higher chances of collaboration and sharing of work becoming more successful (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). This also works clearly when you have different groups of people working together. It is not enough that you have clearly defined the roles and responsibilities of each group; you should also make sure that their individual roles are just as definite, since it makes for better teamwork if each employee is aware of what they are bringing to the table and what is expected of them (Haneberg, 2005). This will also reduce the possibilities of misunderstandings and disputes, especially those that are related to authority.

Development of strong teams: Teamwork is one of the vital ingredients in organizational success, and strong teams are composed of individuals who know what they are supposed to do, and what they are responsible for (Haneberg, 2005). If management is able to communicate to its teams and team members their responsibility and accountability properly, then they will have stronger teamwork, leading to higher productivity and better results (Brown, Murphy, & Wade, 2006)..

Improved overall effectiveness and efficiency: All the above will result in higher efficiency and effectiveness in how the business is run. Finding a good fit or match between jobs and people will lessen and even eliminate errors and mistakes, and improve quality of work. There will be lesser instances of delays and backlogs brought about by misunderstanding when it comes to roles of employees, and they will have a strong sense of responsibility towards their job and the organization (Haneberg, 2005).

Redundancies are also avoided, and job distribution will be improved. For example, they might discover that one person is currently doing the work of three people, while three people are doing practically the same thing. In the long run, these could result in cost savings for the organization and a more efficient use of its resources (Haneberg, 2005).

In the end, it all boils down to one thing: defining the roles and responsibilities will aid the organization or business in becoming successful and ultimately attaining all its goals.

There are three things that every member of an organization must be clear about:

- their superiors or the person they have to report to,
- their responsibilities and corresponding expectations, and
- the level of authority they require in order to make decisions.

A role is not a responsibility, and vice versa. Many people mistake a role as the job title, but there is more to it than just a designation. The whole business management process is comprised of different roles (Montana and Charnov, 2008). It is possible for two or more people to have one or the same role, depending on what they do. There are roles that are solely focused on the administrative side of things, while others are more on the technical side. Some of the most common roles you will find in a typical organizational or business setup include the Owner, a Business Leader, an IT business leader, a Business Analyst, an IT analyst, and the like (Haneberg, 2005).

These roles then come with corresponding responsibilities, or the specific results that are expected from these roles. One simple way of stating this is that roles are the general terms, and the responsibilities are the specifics.

Management is responsible for defining the roles and responsibilities within the organization. In some cases, they form teams or committees tasked to do it (Montana and Charnov, 2008). They can go about it through various ways, using several tools, depending primarily on the type and nature of the business or the operations of the organization, as well as the goals, but here are some of the common activities undertaken in the process.

Look at what you have, and what you need. The first thing that management should do is conduct an organizational audit (Montana and Charnov, 2008). One simple way of doing this is to make a list of all the existing staff or employees of the company (Mowday, Steers and Porter,1982). Next, create another list, this time enumerating the roles and tasks that are performed in the business operations. Another useful tool is a rough organizational chart, which is useful in analyzing how the different departments or divisions of the organization are connected or interrelated. Now take a look at the current state of affairs in your organizational chart (Haneberg, 2005).

- What else do you need that are not there?
- What functions are lacking, and in what departments?

This will allow you to include positions that you did not have previously but now you realize you need, while removing those that your processes or operations no longer really require.

Pay attention to the position description of each position in your organization (Montana and Charnov, 2008). Think of the position description as your guide or map, for both the management and the employee to know the direction that they will be taking in their attempt to attain the goals of the organization (Haneberg, 2005). The components that must be present in the position description include the following:

Job Description. More than just an official job title or designation, this sums up the tasks, functions and responsibilities of the employee who will be holding this position.

Tasks or functions. These refer to the specific activities or work that the employee will perform.

Roles or Responsibilities. Each position is associated with sets of responsibilities. This answers the question on what are the expected results associated with the job of the one in the position.

These lists down the skills, capabilities and capacity that are required to perform the functions and fulfill the roles and responsibilities of the job.

Experience and educational requirement. The position may also require a certain degree of background experience or possession of knowledge in a specific field. These must also be set out clearly in the position description.

Performance Management and Indicators. It is also important to define how the employee in that position will be evaluated with respect to his or her performance (Mabey & Gooderham,.2003).

- What are the metrics to be used?
- What are the performance targets?
- What actions will be taken if they exceed, meet, or fail to meet these targets?

Prepare a final organizational chart: Once the roles and responsibilities of each member of the organization has been clearly defined, it is a good idea to create a final organizational chart, which will also define the relationships between and among all the departments, teams and individuals within the organization (Haneberg, 2005). Simply by looking at the chart, the employees will know who they should report to, and with whom they are expected to work or collaborate with.

Get the cooperation and approval of management, or those at the executive level: This is especially important if the organization assigned the task of defining roles and responsibilities to people who are not at the executive level. They should be agreeable to the methods you used in assessing the current organizational structure, and your proposed changes (Kotter, 2007).

Communicate the roles and responsibilities to the employees: There is no point in defining the roles and responsibilities if the employees are not made aware of them (Bos, 2007). Each employee should be clearly made aware of what is expected of him or her. This can be done according to Blanchard, & Thacker (2004) through various communication methods. Direct conversations with the concerned employees, group workshops and trainings and other similar activities (Modaff, DeWine & Butler, (2011).

Handovers

Often, problems are encountered when tasks are handed over from one person to another, or from one team to the next. When the handover is done improperly or with problems, friction frequently results, and efficiency and effectiveness of everyone involved will be greatly affected.

Turnovers are inevitable in an organization: You cannot expect one person to be staying in one position forever, performing tasks and functions for a very long time (Dardar, Jusoh, Rasli, 2011). They grow old, they retire, they move up in the organization, or they seek greener pasture elsewhere. One of the most common problems encountered in these cases is the transition, particularly with the handover of tasks and responsibilities. Another person will take over the position and the role, along with its responsibilities and accountabilities.

The problem often encountered is improper handover of projects or responsibilities: The person who used to be in charge may have left too suddenly, so there was not enough time to properly turn everything over to the “new guy”. There may not have been even a transition period where the person coming in is allowed to learn the ropes or familiarize himself with the responsibilities of the previous person.

There is a domino effect of this event happening: Team dynamics according to Blyton and Turnbull (1994) will certainly be affected, and so will the flow of work. Delays are probable, and productivity will be reduced or adversely affected. Therefore, it is also important to handle these handovers properly.

Ensure a smooth handing over for all parties involved

The persons handing over their roles and responsibilities should ensure that they: List all the activities, projects and tasks that are currently being worked on, and will have to be handed over.

List them down in order of priority, from the most important to the least important. They should contain all the relevant details; for example, if they are time-bound projects, include the deadlines, progress of work so far, the budget, and the people involved, whether directly or indirectly, in its implementation (Dardar, Jusoh, Rasli, 2011). Other details that must be included are:

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