Identify daily work requirements

1.1 Work Identification and Allocation

Every job has a job profile. A job profile usually consists of two
parts- job description and person specification. These two in
turn will help you to identify the job requirements.
Job Description
It is a written record of the duties and responsibilities associated
with the particular job.
Job description serves a dual purpose,
1.
Making it easier to match the right person to the right job, and
2.
Informing all employees what their jobs entail.
In preparing a job description, the following details must be included:
–A general description of the job
–The duties to be performed
–The job responsibilities
–Specific skills needed
–Education and experience required
Person Specification
It is used to assess whether someone has the right skills/knowledge and
experience for the job. The person specification consists of the essential as well
as the desirable qualities of the person who is to perform the job; these include
–Qualifications
–Experience
–Skills and abilities
–Personal qualities/attitudes
Once everything is put down on paper, the employer is ready to start looking for
the person who fits the job description as well as the person specification .
Job analysis is a process in which employers identify and
determine the particular job duties and the relative importance of
these duties for a given job.
During job analysis, the following leading questions should be
asked as a guide by anyone who hires, be it the business owner,
the manager or supervisor:
– What work has to be accomplished?
– Will additional help be needed to do it?
– How many people are needed?
– Would part-time help be sufficient?
– What are the skills being looked for?
– How much experience is required?
– How much payment will entail?
1.2 Business Environment
A business organization cannot exist in a vacuum. It needs
– living persons,
– Natural resources
– Places and
– Things
The sum of all these factors and forces is called the
business environment.
Therefore, business environment may be defined as a set of
conditions namely Social, Legal, Economical, Political or
Institutional that are uncontrollable in nature and affects the
functioning of an organization.
Characteristics of Business Environment
1. Business environment is compound in nature.
2. Business environment is constantly in a changing
process.
3. Business environment is different for different
business units.
4. It has both long term and short term impact.
5. Unlimited influence of external environment factors.
6. It is very uncertain.
7. Inter-related components.
8. It includes both internal and external environment.
Business environment is of two types:
(i) internal environment (ii) external environment
(i) Internal Environment: It includes the 5 Ms i.e.
man, material, money, machinery and management,
usually within the control of business. Business can
make changes in these factors according to the
change in the nature of its activities.
(ii) External Environment:  It includes those factors
which are beyond the control of business enterprise.
These factors are: Government and Legal factors,
Geo-Physical Factors, Political Factors, Socio-
Cultural Factors, Demo-Graphical factors etc.
External Environment is of two types:
1. Macro/General Environment
2. Micro/Operating Environment
Macro/General Environment: – It includes factors that create opportunities and
threats to business units. The followings are elements of Macro Environment
1.Economic Environment
2.Non Economic Environment
• Socio-Cultural Environment
• Technological Environment
• Natural Environment
• Demographic Environment
1.3 Micro/Operating Environment
This is the environment which is close to the business and affects its capacity to work. It
consists of Suppliers, Customers, Market Intermediaries, Competitors and Public.
1.4 Action Plan
Action Plan is a sequence of steps that must be taken, or activities that must
be performed well, for a strategy to succeed
An action plan has three major elements
(1) Specific tasks: what will be done and by whom.
(2) Time horizon: when will it be done?
(3) Resource allocation: what specific funds are available for specific
activities.
Each step or change to be sought in an action plan
should include the following information:
– What actions or changes will occur
– Who will carry out these changes
– By when they will take place, and for how long
– What resources (i.e., money, staff) are needed
to carry out these changes
1.4.2 Realistic Timelines and Priorities
Realistic Timeline is an appropriate time that is accurate and true to life. One of the
main differences between those who realize their goals and those who don't seems to
be the implementation of realistic timeframes.
No matter what type of goal you pursue, setting a realistic timeline can help you
realize your goal.

Setting a realistic timeline can be an excellent way

•to spur you to activity, to keep you on track,
•to help you avoid pitfalls (hidden or unsuspected dangers or difficulties), and
•to achieve your goals with as little difficulty and sacrifice as possible
5 Rules to Keep a Realistic Timeline
1. Create an Outline (a general plan)
2. Set Realistic Deadlines
3. Start on Time
4. Set Reminders
5. Start with the most time-consuming
Priorities
Things that are considered to be more important than others
4.3 Performance Measures
Performance measures quantitatively tell us something
important about our products, services, and processes that
produce them. They are tools to help us understand, manage, and
improve what our organizations do.
Performance measures let us know:
•How well we are doing
•If we are meeting our goals
•If our customers are satisfied
•If and where improvements are necessary
They provide us with the information necessary to make
intelligent decisions about what we do.
Performance measures are always tied to a goal or an objective
(the target).
Most performance measures can be grouped into one of the following six
general categories.
1.Effectiveness: A process characteristic indicating the degree to which
the process output (work product) conforms to requirements. (Are we
doing the right things?)
2.Efficiency: A process characteristic indicating the degree to which the
process produces the required output at minimum resource cost. (Are
we doing things right?)
3.Quality: The degree to which a product or service meets customer
requirements and expectations.
4.Timeliness: Measures whether a unit of work was done correctly and
on time. Criteria must be established to define what constitutes
timeliness for a given unit of work. The criterion is usually based on
customer requirements.
5.Productivity: The value added by the process divided by the value of
the labor and capital consumed.
6.Safety: Measures the overall health of the organization and the
working environment of its employees.
The following reflect the attributes of an ideal unit of
measure:
– Reflects the customer's needs as well as our own
– May be interpreted uniformly
– Provides an agreed upon basis for decision making
– Is understandable
– Is precise in interpreting the results
– Applies broadly
– Is economical to apply
 Monitor and manage work
2.1 Conducting Meeting
Meeting is an assembly of people for a particular
purpose, especially for formal discussion.
Steps in conducting a meeting
1. Identify Goals and Objectives for the Meeting Before the actual
2. Determine the Appropriate Participants meeting
3. Develop An Agenda
4. Review the Agenda and Ground Rules During the actual
5. Allow Sufficient Time to Facilitate the activities of meeting
the meeting from the beginning up to the end

6. Produce and Distribute a Meeting Summary After the actual meeting

7. Evaluate the Meeting
2.2 Conflict Management
Conflict
– It is a state of incompatibility of ideas between two or more parties or
individuals
Conflict management is the practice of identifying and handling conflict in a
sensible, fair and efficient manne r.
General Causes of Conflicts
– Poorly defined goals
– Divergent personal values
– Lack of cooperation/trust
– Competition of scarce resources
– Unclear work roles/lack of job description
Effects of Conflict in Organizations
– Stress
– Absenteeism
– Staff turnover
– De-motivation
– Non-productivity
How to prevent Conflicts within a working team
– Frequent meeting of your team
– Allow your team to express openly
– Sharing objectives
– Having a clear and detailed job description
– Distributing task fairly
– Never criticize team members publicly
– Always be fair and just with your team members
– Being a role model for good work
Conflict is unavoidable because of
–Complexity of organizational relationship
–Interaction among workers
–Dependence of workers on one another
•Conflict is a healthy sign not a negative process
•Conflict reflects dynamics (the forces which stimulate development or change within a
system or process)
Healthy responses to conflict:
–The capacity to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person
–Calm, non-defensive, and respectful reactions
–A readiness to forgive and forget, and to move past the conflict without holding
resentments or anger
Unhealthy responses to conflict:
–An inability to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person
–Explosive, angry, hurtful, and resentful reactions
–An inability to compromise or see the other person’s side
–The fear and avoidance of conflict; the expectation of bad outcomes
–The ability to seek compromise and avoid punishing
–A belief that facing conflict head on is the best thing for both sides
Conflict is unavoidable because of
–Complexity of organizational relationship
–Interaction among workers
–Dependence of workers on one another
•Conflict is a healthy sign not a negative process
•Conflict reflects dynamics (the forces which stimulate development or change within a
system or process)
Healthy responses to conflict:
–The capacity to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person
–Calm, non-defensive, and respectful reactions
–A readiness to forgive and forget, and to move past the conflict without holding
resentments or anger
Unhealthy responses to conflict:
–An inability to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person
–Explosive, angry, hurtful, and resentful reactions
–An inability to compromise or see the other person’s side
–The fear and avoidance of conflict; the expectation of bad outcomes
–The ability to seek compromise and avoid punishing
–A belief that facing conflict head on is the best thing for both sides
2.3 Monitoring
Monitoring is the systematic and routine collection of information
from projects and programmes for four main purposes:
1. To learn from experiences to improve practices and activities in
the future;
2. To have internal and external accountability of the resources used
and the results obtained;
3. To take informed decisions on the future of the initiative;
4. To promote empowerment of beneficiaries of the initiative.

• Monitoring allows results, processes and experiences to be

documented and used as a basis to steer decision-making and
learning processes.
• Monitoring is checking progress against plans. The data
acquired through monitoring is used for evaluation.
 Monitoring involves:
• Establishing indicators of efficiency, effectiveness and
impact;
• Setting up systems to collect information relating to
these indicators;
• Collecting and recording the information;
• Analyzing the information;
• Using the information to inform day-to-day
management.
 Monitoring is an internal function in any project or
organization.
• In Summary Monitoring is:
• an on-going process
• more or less a routine or continuous day-to-day activity
• movement towards the objective or away from it
• focuses on inputs and outputs
• means of checking on progress
• alerts managers to problems
• tool for improvement
 What is Evaluation?
• Evaluation is the comparison of actual project impacts against the
agreed strategic plans.
• It looks at what you set out to do, at what you have accomplished, and
how you accomplished it.
• It can be formative (taking place during the life of a project or
organization, with the intention of improving the strategy or way of
functioning of the project or organization).
• It can also be summative (drawing learning from a completed project
or an organization that is no longer functioning).
• In Summary Evaluation:
– is periodic
– is an in-depth analysis of achievements
– provides managers with strategy and policy options
– provides feedback for analysis of impacts, outcomes and
results of activities
 What monitoring and evaluation have in common is that they
are geared towards learning from what you are doing and how
you are doing it, by focusing on:
• Efficiency
• Effectiveness
• Impact
• Efficiency tells you that the input into the work is appropriate in terms
of the output. This could be input in terms of money, time, staff,
equipment and so on.
• Effectiveness is a measure of the extent to which a development
program me or project achieves the specific objectives it set.
• Impact tells you whether or not what you did made a difference to the
problem situation you were trying to address. In other words, was
your strategy useful?

Why we need Monitoring & Evaluation?

• Assess to what extent the objectives of the project are fulfilled;
• Evaluate how effectively change is promoted;
• Equip managers with a tool for timely information on the progress of
activities;
• Identify problems in planning and/or implementation;
• Make adjustments so that you are more likely to “make a difference”
 2.4 Manage work
Management is the act of getting people together to accomplish
desired goals and objectives. The person who performs this activity
is known as manager.
The functions of management comprise planning, organizing,
staffing, leading/directing, and controlling.
Planning
–Setting future course of actions
–Setting objectives
–Scheduling future activities
–Resources allocation
Organizing
– Systematic combination of resources to achieve goals
– Determination of the number of people required to get the jobs done
– Placing organizational structure to get these tasks done
Staffing
– Hiring and deploying people for work
– Promoting, transferring, training of workers
Leading/directing
– Supervising
– Motivating
– Coaching
– Assessing
Controlling
– Monitoring the work done
– Taking corrective actions
Management Skills
The major skills required by a manager are
1. Conceptual skills
•Ability to see the “big picture” of the situation
•Ability to arrive at ideas
•Ability to create a vision and plan for the future
2. Technical Skills
•Possess specific knowledge or have a specialized
expertise
3. Human skills
•Ability to work well with others both individually
and in a group setting
 2.5 Information Management System (IMS)
There is a distinction between data and information. The information is a product of an
analysis of data. This concept is similar to a raw material and the finished product. What
are needed are information and not a mass of data. In many industries, survival and even
existence is difficult without extensive use of information technology.
Information Management System (IMS) is a general term for software designed to
facilitate the storage, organization and retrieval of information. The system was largely
capable of handling the data from collection to processing.
Information systems have become essential for helping organizations operate in a global
economy. Organizations are trying to become more competitive and efficient by
transforming themselves into digital firms where nearly all core business processes and
relationships with customers, suppliers, and employees are digitally enabled.

2.6 Operation Management

Operation can be described as that part of the organization devoted to the production or
delivery of goods and services. It can be seen as of many functions (e.g. Marketing,
finance and personnel) within the organization.
All organizations produce some mixture of services and products, whether that
organization is large or small, manufacturing or service, for profit or not for profit,
public or private.
Operation Management is the activity of managing the operations of an organization .
 2.7 Resource Management
Resources are all things of values for the organization that
are used in its day to day activities.
Resource Management is the process of using a company’s
resources in the most efficient way possible. These resources
can include tangible resources such as materials, equipment,
machineries, financial resources, and labor resources such
as employees.
Resource management can include ideas such
as making sure one has enough physical resources for one's
business, but not an overabundance so that products won't
get used, or making sure that people are assigned to tasks that
will keep them busy and not have too much downtime.
 Develop effective work habits
3.1 Work Habits
We humans are creatures of habit (a settled or regular
tendency or practice). Therefore, to develop good habits
should be simple - right! Well, not always.
Seven Simple Steps to Develop Good Habits
1.Identify the habit.
2.Make the decision and the commitment to change
3.Discover your triggers (events that causes something to
happen) and obstacles
4.Devise a plan
5.Employ visualization and affirmations
6.Enlist support from family and friends
7.Find healthy ways to reward yourself.
10 Good Work Habits
1. Punctuality
2. Professionalism (the competence required of a
professional)
3. Positive Attitude
4. Individuality (distinctive quality or character)
5. Diligence (careful and persistent work or effort)
6. Time Management
7. Organization
8. Energy (the strength and vitality required for sustained
activity)
9. Communication
10. Creativity
3.2 Work Prioritization
Prioritize your work by urgency of the task that
– Needs to be done now
– Should have been done yesterday
– Should be done today
– Can wait until tomorrow
– Can wait until time permits
After prioritizing your work by urgency, it should then be prioritized by the
date it was received.
3.3 Time Management Strategies
The term Time Management is a misnomer (the wrong use of name or term).
You cannot manage time; you manage the events in your life in relation to
time.
Much like money, time is both valuable and limited: it must be protected, used
wisely, and budgeted.
People who practice good time management techniques often find that they:
– Are more productive,
– Have more energy for things they need to accomplish,
– Feel less stressed,
– Are able to do the things they want,
– Get more things done,
– Relate more positively to others, and
– Feel better about themselves
– Know how effectively to spend time
– Set priorities
– Use a planning tool
– Schedule time appropriately
– Delegate: get help from others
– Stop procrastinating
– Manage external time wasters
– Avoid multi-tasking
– Stay Healthy