Task 1
Principles of human behaviour:
Human behaviour can be identified as the result of attempts to satisfy certain needs. These needs can be simple and easy to understand such as the need offood, water and shelter. However it can also be complex such as the need ofrespector acceptance. Leadershipand human behaviour work hand in hand. To be a successful leader, you must understand your people and work with them to resolve their problems. In Nairobi the school of tomorrow the basic needs of any student is a goodenvironment, shelter and the basic needs such as water and food. As the human behaviour changes according to the environment Nairobi school of tomorrow has to make sure that the environment in each class and in the school is positive. By examining human behavior, we can expand the knowledge we need to better understand people. Human behaviour study helps us understand why people act and react in certain ways.(tpub. com)
Leadership and human behaviour preferences:
As a leader in order to accomplish yourgoals, you need to interact with your followers, peers, seniors, and others; whose support your needs to accomplish the goals. To gain their support, you must be able to understand and motivate them. Human nature is the common qualities of all human beings. People behave according to certain principles of human nature.
Values, beliefs, and customs differ from country to country and even within group to group, but in general, all people have a few basic needs. As a leader you must understand these needs because they can be powerful motivators.(Milliken Elizabeth. M, Honeycutt A (2004)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Basic Needs: are physiological, such as food, water, and sleep; and psychological, such as affection, security, and self-esteem.
Metaneeds: These include justice, goodness, beauty, order, unity, etc. Basic needs normally take priority over these Meta needs.
A need higher in the hierarchy will become a motive of behaviour as long as the needs below it have been satisfied. Unsatisfied lower needs will dominate unsatisfied higher needs and must be satisfied before the person can climb up the hierarchy. So in order to be successful leaders in Nairobi school of tomorrow leaders have to fulfil the basic needs which are physiological needs, safety and belonging. Once these needs are met the behaviour of students will change in the school and the classes which will produce more positive results. They will meet their own goals and targets and the students would also feel part of the school.
Preferred learning styles:
Learning is defines as a relatively permanent change in an attitude or behaviour that occurs as a result of repeated experience.(Kimble and Grambzy, 1963)
Institutes ofeducationalways seek to improve their educational initiatives more effective. Nairobi school of tomorrow are working hard to provide more effective and efficient services. Teaching serves as an important tool for achieving institutional goals and objectives, therefore to make the learning more effective teachers have to understand their students. Some students are left brained and some are right brained so theteacherhas to use the technique which would be easy to understand for different kind of students.(Sims. R Ronald, Sims. J Serbrenia (1995))
Team roles (belbin theory):
According to belbin theory of team roles a good team must have a leader who can be;
Coordinator: The co-ordinator is a person-oriented leader. This leader trusts the team, accepting, dominant and is dedicated to team goals and objectives. The co-ordinator is a positive thinker who supports goal accomplishment, struggle and effort.
Shaper: shaper is a task-focused leader who thrives in nervous energy and who has a highmotivationto accomplish goals and for whom winning is the name of the game.
Plant: The plant is a specialist idea maker characterised by high IQ and quietness while also being leading and original. The plant tends to take fundamental approaches to team performance and problems
Resource investigator: The resource investigator is someone who searches opportunities and extends contacts. Resource investigators are good mediators who explore others for information and support and pick up other’s ideas and develop them.
Company/worker implementer: Implementers are responsive of exterior responsibilities and are well-organized, careful and have a good self-image. They have a tendency to be tough-minded and practical, trusting and liberal, respecting established traditions. This kind of leaders doesn’t get anxious and tend to work for the team in a practical.
Monitor evaluator: is a sensible, careful and intelligent person with a low need to achieve. Monitor evaluators add particularly at times of vital decision making because they are skilled to evaluate competing proposals.
Team worker: Team workers make helpful interference to prevent potential resistance and enable the difficult characters of the team to use their skills to positive ends. They have a propensity to keep team spirit up and allow other members to add effectively to the team.
Specialist: The specialist supplies knowledge and mechanical skills which are not common within the team. They are often highly reserved and concerned and tend to be self-starting, devoted and committed.
Completer/Finisher: the completer or the finishers’ strength lies in perfectionism, attention to the details of the task and meeting the deadlines.(West, M 1994)
Principles of Human communications:
Communicationis basic human interaction. It is a process and it is dynamic, ongoing and ever changing. It may not have a beginning or an end. Communication can be divided into two categories. Interpersonal communication is between people and intrapersonal communication is your own self dialog. Communication is very important for Nairobi school of tomorrow because the feedback from the client is just as important as whatever the facilitator says or does. What the client says and what the client is showing by the way they look and act will give Nairobi school of tomorrow an idea of the results they get from the services they provide.
The way the school communicated with its contractors would affect the overall performance of the company. What message do they give to their clients and how they respond to the feedback givenWhat method do they use to communicate with their clients and contractorsFor example presentation, demonstration, discussion or tutorial to get the message across.
Language plays an important role in the way we perceive the world and it also effects the way people behave around each other. It does not jus label and distinguish the environment for us but also structures and guides out thinking patterns. It influences our relationship with others and with the environment. To ensure that the communication flow is not disturbed between administration and clients or administration and contractors the school has decided that simple language would be used throughout the whole project so everyone can understand. Use of jargons would be avoided.
Task 2
Resource management:
Effective resource management is mostly about foreseeing problems and working on solutions to make the resources of the organization more effective. Resources can be regarded as consumable and non consumable. Consumable resources is as it goes into task such asmoney, concert, engine days and paint all are considered to be consumable resources. Non consumable resources can be used over and over again. Once you are done working on a task you can carry on working on something else. An Effective resource management includes
Resource allocation: The first key to effective resource allocation for a school is in understanding the system of incentives that guides in spending of schools and colleges. The incentives are based partly on intrinsic value and partly on instrumental ones. For e. g. programs with strong market demand (for examples from students, research sponsors) however low intrinsic value serves instrumentally cross subsidize programs with high intrinsic value but low financial potential. A good resource allocation would allow Nairobi school of tomorrow to achieve a proper balance between its intrinsic values and those of the market place. Nairobi school of tomorrow has chosen outsourcing in resource management as their important part of resource allocation. Outsourcing is contracting with another company or person to do a particular function. In this case Nairobi school of tomorrow has picked another company to provide the school with lunch.(Massy F. William (2004)
Time management: Time management can be defined as the art of arranging, organizing, scheduling and budgeting ones time for the purpose of generating more effective work and productivity. To manage their time effectively Nairobi school of tomorrow administration must fulfil some requirements which are;
The administration needs to have clear objectives. If the administration does not know what they are trying to achieve then they will fail in resource allocation.
The administration needs to have careful forward planning. If the wrong step it would lead them tofailure.
Administration needs to have the ability to delegate successfully and the work should be flexible.
To manage the time effectively the administration has come up with a strategy. First of all Nairobi school of tomorrow has to identify the things which needs prioritisation such as the quality of teaching, classrooms, lunch and other facilities for e. g. school library. After identifying the priorities they will break down each task in to subtasks because it will put work into more logical sequence. It would also determine the skills needed and it would allow communication of work to be done. It would ensure that all work sequences are identified and understood. After task breakdown the next step would be scheduling.[1]
Scheduling is the process by which Nairobi school of tomorrow can look at the time available to them and plan on how to use it to achieve the goals of the administration which were identified in the early stage. A good scheduling technique designed by Nairobi school of tomorrow is to assemble the project schedule by listing all the tasks that need to be completed in order. Assign length to each task and then distribute the required resources, after the distribution the administration would Verify predecessors i. e. what tasks must be completed before and the tasks that can’t start until after.( F. John Reh. (2011). Project Management 101 Part 2: Managing Resources – People, Equipment, and Material)
Six Sigma: is a business management strategy originally developed by Motorola, USA in 1986. It is still widely used in many parts of the industry, even though its use is not without disagreement. Six Sigma looks for improvement in the quality of process production. It improves the production by identifying and removing the causes of deficiency and minimizing unpredictability in manufacturing and business processes. Six sigma uses a set of quality management methods which includes statistical methods, and creates a particular communications of people within the organization.(Tennant, Geoff (2001)
Task 3
In project management there are two types or resources. First resources are skill types and the second type is the worker time units. Here we are dealing with the effort that a skill type can put into the task over a giver period of time. There are a few stages involved in resource management. The stages are as follows;
Resource definition i. e. deciding what resources you are going to deal with
Resource allocation i. e. believing that the particular task will need so many traders people and as much material to get finished.
Resource aggregation i. e. simply the outline of the resources required to complete all activities based on the resource allocation carried out in the previous stage.
Resource smoothing is the process that resolves a resource requirement that is smooth and where peaks and low points are eliminated.
After the resources are managed properly Nairobi school of tomorrow has to make sure that they manage there subcontractors. Subcontracts are individuals or businesses that sign contracts to perform some parts of the business. In this case Nairobi school of tomorrow has a subcontractor Vertex who would provide them with school dinner. To manage the subcontracts effectively the administration has to regularly conference calls, regular progress reports and on site meetings at the subcontractor’s facility. This would keep the administration satisfied with the quality. It is very essential to have regular on site meetings because conference calls or progress reports may not always reveal the true programs. To ensure the management with subcontractors is good administration has to ensure that there is method for feedback on client performance. Feedback must be taken from supplier perspective as the client’s perspective on the supplier’s performance. Once a supplier is chose and a public announcement is made the administration should work with suppliers to develop supply chain.
Effective contract management is vital in ensuring the structure established in the procurement process for good supply chain management is applied over the duration of the contract.
Task 4:
Coaching: Coaching usually consists of
One to one development discussions
Coaching helps people realise both there strengths and weaknesses by giving feedback
Coaching is aimed at the specific issues or areas that need to be improved.
It is relatively short term activity
It focuses on improving performance and developing/enhancing individuals skills.
Generally more structured in nature and meetings are scheduled on a regular basis
Mentoring:
in progress relationship that can last for a long period of time
Can be more informal and meetings can take place as and when the person being mentored needs some advice, direction or support
Mentor is usually more skilled and qualified than the ‘ mentee’. It is usually carried out by a more senior person in the organisation who can pass on knowledge, experience and open doors to opportunities
Focus is oncareerand personal development
Mentoring resolves more around developing the mentee professional(Brefigroup. (2011). Coaching and mentoring)
Task 5:
Materials management is a part of logistics and it refers to the location and movement of the physical items or products of the company. There are three main processes which are connected with materials management
spare parts
quality control
inventory management
Materials management is important in big manufacturing and distribution environments where there are multiple parts, locations, and significant money invested in these items.
The first expansion in materials management is related to spare parts. Spare parts are essential to the progressing operation of manufacture lines and related equipment. Poor management of spare parts can cause downtime and loss of production.
Quality control is a huge part of materials management. The formation of material standards, examinations, and returns process is a most importantresponsibilityof the materials management group. All parts and materials must be tested to make sure that a precise level of quality is met. This is usually completed before a purchase order is issued to the supplier, to make sure that the supplier has met the conditions of their contract.
Inventory management is the correct tracking of all materials in the company’s list. The company has purchased these items from another supplier. There are three possible areas of loss that are concentrated on through useful inventory management: reduction, misplacement, and short shipments.
In material management one of the common ways that is used is the ABC analysis. It is a method of categorizing items, actions, or activities according to their virtual importance. It is often used in inventory management where it is used to categorize stock items into groups based on the total annual spending of each item. Organisations can focus more detailed attention on the high value items.
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