Managing a database administrator team

[Your full full December 06, Managing a Database Administrator Team Before going to discuss the ways to manage a database administrator team, let us get a better understanding of what management actually is. Management means to control all departments and activities of a company. The aim of the managers is to take care of all administrative matters in order to maximize the organization’s output. Unskilled and untrained managers can never put the company on the path of success; rather they prove risky for the successful achievement of goals and objectives. So, it is really critical for a company to hire such person for the post of manager who should have enough skills and abilities to proficiently meet different sorts of challenges and obstacles. Providing training to the database administrators and retaining them effectively are two of the major responsibilities of a manager. If I would be the manager of a team of database administrators, I would provide at least two-week training to all newly employed administrators in order to improve their skills and abilities. I would train them to think logically. As per my knowledge, the ability to communicate with programmers logically is very important for a database administrator. Therefore, I would work on improving their communication skills as well. Moreover, I would provide them with practical training instead of theoretical because all database administrators hold computer science degrees so they are already aware of theoretical concepts. Therefore, I would focus more towards practical training. “ Companies take a deep interest in their employee turnover rate because it is a costly part of doing business” (Beam). As far as retaining is concerned, I would use effective methods to retain database administrators. I believe that use of incentives and benefits depend on some key factors. “ Key employee retention is critical to the long term health and success of your business” (Heathfield). Some of the most important factors, which organizations need to consider while developing incentives and benefits system for their employees, include managerial capability and cost of the benefits. Pay for performance, employee recognition, and salary increment are some of the effective ways to retain and motivate employees. Rosenbloom states, “ Employee benefits are a part of employees’ total compensation” (3). Provision of such benefits increase employee motivation and they feel good to work for their companies. Therefore, I would use such ways to retain database administrators. Managing databases is not an easy task. However, an expert database administrator can manage more than one database easily if he/she has a good command over databases. An expert database administrator needs to have a good knowledge of entity relationships and dependencies to manage more than one database effectively. Managing database administrators is different from managing technical staff in many ways. Technical staff is introvert by nature. Managers need to examine their behaviors and characteristics by themselves in order to manage hem properly. Technical staff members do not reveal themselves in front of others and that is the major difficulty for the managers in managing them. On the other hand, database administrators are highly educated and know how to express themselves in different situations. Therefore, managers find it easy to manage such employees as compared to others. Database administrators know how to communicate their feelings to others. However, technical staff members generally lack this ability and make it difficult for the managers to manage them. One common thing in both database administrators and technical staff members is that both think logically and keep their emotions behind while on job. This characteristic makes it easy for the managers to guide and manage them. Some of the ways which managers can use to manage technical staff members include providing tools to the technical staff that it requires, providing right opportunities to staff members, creating viable work environment, helping and supporting staff members, appreciating their work, and encouraging them. On the other hand, some of the effective ways to manage database administrators include providing accurate information to administrators regarding business operations, providing creative work environment to make administrators show their creative skills properly, shielding them from workplace politics, appreciating performance of each team member, and giving them bonuses on achieving goals and objectives. Kelly states, “ Effective teams do not just happen; they are thoughtfully and purposefully designed” (220). Optimization of database administrators is a very important managerial level activity. Managers need to optimize team performance to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively. I would optimize the performance of my database administrators by providing them with required data, information, and guidelines. I would guide my team members in every matter and would provide them with required support to make them perform better for the company. Works Cited Beam, Jacob. “ What is Employee Turnover?.” Wisegeek. com, n. d. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. Heathfield, Susan. “ Top Ten Ways to Retain Your Great Employees.” About. com, n. d. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. Kelly, Diane. Applying Quality Management in Healthcare: A Systems Approach. Chicago: Health Administration Press, 2007. Print. Rosenbloom, Jerry. The Handbook of Employee Benefits: Design, Funding, and Administration. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.