AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
1.1 Research Methodology and Research Process
The research was performed in form of long-term participated
covert observation in current business practice in selected private
company. The business activities of this company lied in
financial sector. Due to this reason, the company gave a higher
stress on security. The period of time devoted to this observation
exceeded two and half years.
1.2 Research object
The selection of the research object was random selection of
available research objects fulfilling selection criteria which were:
managerial position and no managerial education.
The object of observation was a male employee in his mid-
thirties in managerial position of a team manager of a software
development team of an international company. The assigned
team was responsible for maintenance and development of
software applications. The team was composed of two
nationalities distributed into two separate locations.
The research subject was in charge of employees of his
nationality located in one city. The workers of both locations
were working in distributed teams on a daily base via
information communication technology means like phone, email,
video-conference etc. Occasionally, also visits occurred between
these locations if it was necessary.
The position of the research object can be described as lower
managerial line position. The observed manager was responsible
for the leading of assigned team which was working for foreign
market. At the beginning of the observation, the assigned team
consisted of 10 workers. At the end of the observation, the team
consisted of 21 workers and hiring was planned.
This was the first managerial position of observed object without
past experience. He achieved this position approximately one
year prior the observation start. Before, he worked for this
company in the position of project manager for approximately 2
and half years with moderate results. Before he worked for
another company as software developer where he gathered
limited developer experience.
He achieved the position of a line manager due to the structural
changes in the company which decided to expand and needed
managers. The company decided to appoint existing employees
with knowledge about company’s structure and processes into
managerial positions. The search for new employees, especially
the search for managers, takes a lot of time and resources. The
company decided to go this way.
The direct superior of observed manager was a foreign director
of the department who was assigning tasks to him and getting
him familiar with his tasks. Another direct superior of the
observed manager was a local manager who was responsible for
several departments of local company. Although some
hierarchical changes occurred during the observation, the
described relationships were not touched.
The foreign director had also a foreign manager who was
responsible for the assistance services of the director and
managing together with the director the foreign team of workers.
That foreign manager was on the same position as the local
observed manager, thus, those were colleagues.
The director led his department with supporting way of
leadership and tried to professionally develop the talents of his
workers, ensured the budget for his department and projects for
all his workers. The observed manager preferred to lead with
power and information control.
1.3 Hypothesis
The working hypothesis was as follow: We assume, that for the
efficient execution of managerial functions in a managerial
position, the managerial educational preparation may lead to
better results.
3 Research Results
In this chapter the research results are presented and discussed.
The research results are demonstrated on 3 main tasks which
were in the responsibility of observed manager. Each of the tasks
represent a specific level of management: operational, tactical
and strategic management.
3.1 Operation
The typical operational task of observed manager was
represented by assurance of necessary access rights and access
accounts and assurance of working equipment for his workers.
Without a computer, the software developer cannot develop or
without an access right or account he/she cannot efficiently
develop or do maintenance of assigned software applications.
The company disposed of dedicated specialized processes for
each kind of access or each type of equipment. Most of them
were done via internal ticketing systems. However, for each type
of access request another system has to be used.
3.2 Tactics
The typical tactical task of observed manager was represented by
allocation of workers to projects. It is important to have adequate
amount of work for each worker in order to avoid overworking
of assigned employees or to prevent their inefficiency of not
working. To this task also the assurance of deputy organizing
belongs together with hiring of new workers.
3.3 Strategy
Among strategic tasks of observed manager we count his
responsibility for assurance of achieving project deadlines in
timely manners. The projects of that company were often
measured in years. They also represented the source of income
for the department. In managing this task, the manager faces
pressure from above and reluctance from the bottom.
3.4 Evaluation of approaches, methods and techniques
applied in the phases of decision making
In this section, the evaluation of used types of thinking by
observed manager during execution of above mentioned tasks is
presented (tab.1). Among these types of thinking belong
10
:
a)
Intuition – actions based on feelings without the use of
analytical techniques and methods or methodologic
systematic procedures,
b)
Mechanical thinking – actions based on use of
methodologies of recommended analyses according to
existing procedure,
c)
Strategic thinking – use of analyses which divide between
present and future and consider possible outcomes, their
causes and context.
Table 1: Evaluation of used thinking concepts during the
given phases of the decision making
Phase of problem solving
Operation
Tactics
Strategy
Identification
a
c
b
Analysis
a
b
b
Search and creation of solution
variants
a
b
b
Selection of decision criteria
a
b
b
Selection, Decision making
b
b
a
Implementation of chosen decision
b
a
a
Control over implementation of
decision
b
a
a
10
PAPULA, J.; PAPULOVÁ, Z. Strategické myslenie manažérov: Za tajomstvami
strategického myslenia. Bratislava: Kartprint, 2010, p. 141-152.
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