MZUMBE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

(SOPAM)
PROGRAM : DLGM-I
COURSE FACILITATOR : MR. KAVAKULE KAAMO
COURSE NAME : PRINCIPLE AND FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT
COURSE CODE : PUB O53
ASSIGNMENT’S NATURE : GROUP ASSIGNMENT
SUBMISSION DATE : 22TH MAY, 2024
GROUP NO: 2
GROUP MEMBERS
S/N STUDENT’S NAME REG. NUMBER

1. GLADICE FRANK 1823013/T.23

2. JORDAN ISAAC MWITA 1823005/T.23
3. SALOME KULWA 1823029/T.23
4. SCHOLASTICA ALEX 14232012/T.23
5. EVODIUS ASIMWE 1823015/T.23

QUESTION:
As a manager of ABC Company Ltd: use examples to describe five (5) situations you can
apply a contingency approach to manage your employees.
 INTRODUCTION
Management: refers to the process of organizing, reading, and controlling resource within in the
organization to achieve specific goals efficiently and effectively. It involve coordinating both
human and materials resources to accomplish the objectives of the organization. Managers play
crucial roles in decision making, setting goals, allocating resources, and oversee operations to
ensure the success of the organization (Serban et al, 2024).

Manager: refers to a person who responsible for controlling or administering an organization or

group of staff. The manager is one who performs managerial functions such as planning,
organizing, direction or leading, staffing, and controlling. Also manager have to possess
managerial roles such as interpersonal roles, informational roles and decisional roles.
Furthermore, manager has to possess managerial skills such as technical skills, human skills, and
conceptual skills (Storey & Zimmermann, 2022).

Company: refers to the legal entities formed by a group of individuals to engage in and operate
a business enterprise in a commercial or industrial capacity., or is a group of people who a works
to together for commercial purposes. A company’s business line depends on its structure, which
can range from partnership to proprietorship or even a corporation. For example of companies
such as Abood transportation company Ltd, Azam company Ltd, Mo company’s Ltd, Azania
company’s Ltd, and others company’s related to (Contini & Peruzzini, 2022).

Contingency approach: refers to the different situations and conditions require different
management approaches. The best way depends on the specific circumstances or one best way to
manage. Also is a contingency factor incentive system that work for manual labors does not
work for knowledge workers. For example: the contingency approach view point in action is a
manager facing a situation with an employee who regularly shows up rate to work. The
contingency approach to management suggests that there is no one size fits all solution and that
the most effective management style or strategy depends on the unique circumstances of a
situation. As a manager at ABC Company Ltd., can apply the contingency approach in various
situations to effectively manage the employees (Pires & Alves, 2022).
 MAIN BODY

Here are five (5) situations where manager can utilize and use this contingency approach to
manage employees at ABC Company Ltd.

Employee training and development; refers to the processes designed to enhance employees
knowledge, skills, and abilities to improve their performance and productivity. Also training is
typically a short-term process that focuses on specific skills or tasks, while development is a
more long-term process that arms at grooming employees for future roles with the organization.
Farthermost may have employees with varying levels of skills and experience, by applying a
contingency approach; can tailor training programs to meet the specific needs of each employee.
For example, contingency require organizations to be strategic, flexible, and adaptive in
designing programs that align with their unique situational factor and overall goals. New hires
may require more structured training programs, while experienced employees may benefit from
more flexible and advanced training opportunities (Sung & Choi, 2023).

Performance management; refers to the tool that helps managers monitor and evaluate employees
work. The goals of performance management to create an environment where people can
perform to the best of their abilities and in alignment with the organization overall goals. Also
performance management can be applied in organization through a systematic approach that
involve several key steps setting clear goals and expectations smart, continuous feedback and
coaching, performance evaluation, identify development needs, reward and recognition,
performance improvement plans, and adjustments and continuous improvement. When it comes
to managing employee performance, a contingency approach can be valuable. For instance,
instead of using a one size fits all performance appraisal system can customize performance
metrics based on individual job roles and responsibilities. By applying these principles and
practice, organization can creates a performance driven culture where employees a motivated to
excel, and grow professional (Faragone, 2023).
Conflict Resolution; refers to the process of resolving disagreement between two or more parts.
It involves finding a peaceful solution to conflict rather than resorting to aggression, violence, or
effective conflict resolution arms to address the underlying issues causing the conflict and a
mutually acceptable agreement. The manager of ABC Ltd Company is use contingency approach
to solving conflict of their employees. As far as conflict in the company is inevitable in any
workplace, so in order to manage those situations he or she have to make a significant difference
in conflict resolutions. For instance, conflict resolution the manager are solving the problems of
the employees to be cooperation at the work, but also contingent approach can be used to assess
each conflict situation among individuals and choose the most appropriate conflict resolution
strategic based on factors such as the nature of the conflict, personalities involved, and potential
impact on team dynamics (Pang et al, 2023).

Allow work Scheduling; refers to the process of planning, organizing, and locating tasks and
responsibilities to employees within an organization. It involves determining when and where
specific tasks will be performed, by whom, and with what resources. Effective work scheduling
is crucial for optimizing productivity and ensuring efficient use of resources allocation, clearly
communication, meeting deadline and maintain a healthy work and life balance for employees.
Flexibility in work scheduling is becoming increasingly important for many employees. By
applying a contingency approach to work scheduling, can offer different options. For instance;
flextime or telecommuting based on individual employee preferences and job requirements. This
customize approach can enhance employees satisfaction and work-life balance (Sen et al, 2022).

Leadership Style; is a leader’s method of providing direction, implementing plans, motivating

people, and managing their teams or groups. Also the manager is use by a leadership style to
influence and control his followers towards achievements of the planned goals; it includes
leadership styles such as democratic leadership style, autocratic leadership style, laissez-faire
leadership style and effective leadership is crucial for employee motivation and engagement.
With a contingency approach can adapt leadership style to fit the specific needs of the team
members. For example, some employees may thrive under a more hands-on leadership approach,
while others may prefer autonomy and independence in their work (Monehin & Diers-Lawson,
2022).

CONCLUSION

Generally: by applying the contingency approach in these five key areas or situation such as
employees training and development, performance management, conflict resolution, work
scheduling, and leadership style. Therefore, a manager at ABC Company Ltd., have to create a
more adaptive and responsive management environment that caters to the unique needs of the
employees. Which it supports to effective and effectiveness, relationship oriented leaders, task
structure positional, decision making strategies, participative, flexibility open to change, and
implementation.

REFFENCES:
Storey, M. A., Houck, B., & Zimmermann, T. (2022, May). How developers and managers
define and trade productivity for quality. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on
Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (pp. 26-35).

Contini, G., & Peruzzini, M. (2022). Sustainability and industry 4.0: definition of a set of key
performance indicators for manufacturing companies. Sustainability, 14(17), 11004.

Pires, R., & Alves, M. C. G. (2022). The impact of environmental uncertainty on accounting
information relevance and performance: A contingency approach. Economies, 10(9), 211.

Sung, S. Y., & Choi, J. N. (2023). What drives firms to invest in training and developing
employees? Time-dependent effects of firm internal and external contingencies. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 34(2), 223-252.

Faragone, G. (2023). A Contingency Approach to Public Sector Performance Management: The

Case of the Canadian Intelligence Community (Doctoral dissertation, Université
d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa).

Pang, A., Jin, Y., & Cameron, G. T. (2023). The Contingency Theory of Strategic Conflict
Management: Review From Three Decades of Theory Development, Extension, and
Application. Journalism & Communication Monographs, 25(2), 193-214.

Sen, W., Hong, Z., & Xiaomei, Z. (2022). Effects of human–machine interaction on employee’s
learning: A contingent perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 876933.

Monehin, D., & Diers-Lawson, A. (2022). Pragmatic optimism, crisis leadership, and
contingency theory: A view from the C-suite. Public Relations Review, 48(4), 102224.
Serban, T., Badertscher, P., du Fay de Lavallaz, J., Providencia, R., Migliore, F., Mugnai, G., ...
& Chun, K. R. J. (2024). Definition and Management of Arrhythmia-induced Cardiomyopathy:
Findings from the European Heart Rhythm Association Survey. Europace, euae112.