High Noon at Alpha Mills Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

High Noon at Alpha Mills Case - Essay Example Ever since its formation, the company has been recruiting top management staff from England and other UK countries with the majority of its employees being retired military and police personnel (Woods, 2009). A laborer by the name Mr. Ang Siow Lee first joined the company in 1965 at a tender age of 15 years where he rose to become the senior non-managerial staff in the company. Mr. Ang is a senior production supervisor at the company whereby his only superior is the mill manager and he has two junior supervisors to assist him in his work. The company has three shifts of 25 employees where each supervisor takes charge of one shift. As a manager, Mr. Ang is responsible for quite a number of tasks, which he carries out in the company. He oversees smooth daily operations at the company. Moreover, he is responsible for coordinating all the activities of all the three shifts of the company with his two supervisors. He also prepare the daily pro-action reports, and deals with short term human resource management matters as well as minor issues related with discipline in the company. Mr. Ang is also responsible for setting and evaluation of short-term performances that are targets for the compan y’s three shifts of employees (Springett, 2004). Mr. Ang also acts as an assistant for the manager, which means that he is responsible for all matters before they can send to the manager. In most cases, Mr. Ang successfully evaluates these issues and solves them before reaching the manager. To achieve this success, Mr. Ang has developed an efficient way of handling matters related to the company. In 1999, the palm oil industry in Malaysia faced very many challenges in which Mr. Ang was to play a part to stabilize the situation at Alpha Plantations Sdn. Bhp. The company experienced a plunge in the price of oil due to oversupply, where the prices of oil reduced to

Critical Issues faced by the managers while they set a project where Assignment

Critical Issues faced by the managers while they set a project where the associated persons of the project are from different culture - Assignment Example The paper tells that when a company management wants to start a new project then they have to take many factors in account. History shows that the projects which have got success are very much lesser than the projects which have failure. There are many factors which are associated with the project. If a project gets success then it can generate some big amount of revenue but if it gets failed then the cost of the project would go in vain. The project only gets success if that manager of the firm has done a proper planning. At first the manager has to make sure that the project is financially viable that is by using the financial tools he has to make sure that the project would generate profit for the firm. Then the firm has to fix the location for the project and also the labour who will execute the planning into reality. Then there is the marketing and sales and distribution of the project about which also the managers should make a plan. The workers are a major part of the project. In the era of globalization persons of different cultures, different religions can be associated with the project. The project can also be a multinational project where the top management has to control the employees who are of different nationality. When a team of people based in different locations and they work in the same project then the team is known as the virtual team. The members of the virtual teams don’t meet but they work on the same project communicating by video conference, phone or e-mail on a regular basis. The virtual team concept has started since 1973 (Mihhailova and Piiriste, n.d., p.9). In a company where the project is done in the face to face team then there is fixed team membership, the team members are located in one place, they are 100% dedicated as they have to work in one project and the team has only one manager. But in the virtual team there is much difference from the face to face team. There are many advantages and disadvantages associated in the virtual team process. Modern communication process has open a new window of collaborative work where the knowledge can be shared by the members of the organization who are in different places and this would be ultimately effective for the organization as a whole (Kimball, 1997, p.1). Despite of its advantages virtual teams becomes more complex day by day as there are many challenges when the persons work in a virtual team. The virtual team has to face the language difficulties as the virtual team members are from different locations of the world; there is problem of time zone, absence of face to face contact, reporting to different part of the organization. Also there are problems of conflict management; problem of making decision above all there is the problem of cultural barriers. There are some issues regarding culture of the workers as it can be different. Some workers of the team may be aggressive and some other may be of not that type. So there can be a misunderstanding ar ising between the team and so mistrust. When the Americans like a fast response and they use a sparse and targeted prose when they used to communicate by an e-mail; the Japanese are not of that type. They are in the side of a careful and proper response, the idea of the sparse prose where is problem of grammar is measured as an incomplete message. So working in this cross cultural situations where people from different cultures are there the culturally based problems usually arise, so the company has to solve the problem consciously for effectively manage the situation. When there is mistrust