Tag Archive: Management


Cadbury’s latest drama

Filed Under: Businesses, Leaderhsip & Management by Kirsty — Leave a comment
June 5, 2011

This week chocolate maker Cadbury made the headline when they had to apologise to supermodel Naomi Campbell after one of its adverts “caused upset” to the supermodel. The advert that “upset” Campbell was part of a print campaign for Dairy Milk Bliss which featured the tagline “Move over Naomi, there’s a new diva in town”, next to a bar of chocolate standing in a pile of diamonds.

The company released the apology on their website when Campbell suggested that she may sue Cadbury. They said that they were “sincerely sorry” and that it was not their intention to cause offence to “Naomi, her family or anybody else.” Cadbury have also confirmed the advert had been withdrawn and the model’s solicitors had accepted the apology on her behalf.

Campbell told campaign group Operation Black Vote she was “pleased” with the public apology. She is quoted as saying: “The advertisement was in poor taste on a number of levels. It is also a shame that it took so long for Cadbury to offer this apology.”She continued: “I hope they and other multinationals can learn from this… Better still they should avoid causing offence in the first place, which is best achieved by having greater diversity at board and senior management level.”

The Advertising Standards Authority says it has received four complaints about the adverts and is in the early stages of deciding whether to launch a formal investigations. To be honest this all seems a little bit insane, the advert was merely a light hearted way to promote a new chocolate bar why it is being made into a big scandal I don’t know.

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Importance of an effective team

Filed Under: Uncategorized by Kirsty — Leave a comment
February 19, 2010

In businesses where there are groups of people working it is important that they’re able to work together. If they are not able to work together, it results in conflict and low productivity. In some cases it can result in major mistakes being made.

Ideally all members of the group should share the same ideas and goals. However in reality often the goals are shared within the team but the ideas about how to achieve that sometimes differ. This can be a good thing as long as there is good clear communication and the ability to compromise in order to get things done.

The team dynamic usually consists of degree of hierarchy, where each person is assigned a role. In a medical setting you can see this within individual departments which are smaller teams within a larger team, that is the hospital, which is a smaller team with a particular trust and so on until you get to the largest team of all the NHS.

Now we’ve all seen the stories on the news about the NHS failing, this is because their are parts of this team that are not working effectively. If you think about it logically each department is essentially a business if it does not work effectively then it loses customers this can then impact on the hospital as a whole because if you have a bad experience in one department then you are not likely to go back or at the very least reluctant to go to the hospital where you had the bad experience fearing that if you do the same thing may happen again.

There are a number of options that can be applied to rectify the situation:

  • Change the Team
  • Alter the hierarchy
  • Take Courses in team management and effectiveness

If you decided to take the 3rd option then your next question is who/where can i find these courses. Well there is a company called Medicology Ltd. This company offers a diverse range of tools to help you make your team the best it can be.

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Clinical Business Excellence

Filed Under: Healthcare Products, The NHS and Healthcare by Kirsty — Leave a comment
February 19, 2010

The definition of business excellence is: a state of organizational performance achieved through the successful integration of a variety of operational and strategic elements that enables an organization to become one of the best in its field. Excellence is initially evident when an organization rises above its competitors, and it is usually measured by the ability to sustain a leading or significant market share. The strategic and operational elements contributing to excellence include the organization’s approach to total quality management, quality assurance, quality awards and quality standards, core competency, benchmarking, customer service, the balanced scorecard, and leadership. Taken altogether, these components should produce an organizational approach to the generation, development, and delivery of products and services that is better, cheaper, and smarter than that of the competition. Attempts at becoming an excellent organization have spawned terms such as best practice, best-in-class, and world class manufacturing and are usually associated with a holistic approach to competitive advantage.

So clinical business excellence takes this definition and applies it to clinical settings. Medicology has a centre of excellence in this area. They are already running courses to help the NHS staff develop on both a professional and a personal level. Now they are holding a conference on, yes you guessed it, Clinical Business Excellence. This conference will be held on the 29th June 2010 at Park Crescent Conference Centre. For more details see clinicalbusiness.co.uk.

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Leadership – what type are you?

Filed Under: Leaderhsip & Management by Kirsty — Leave a comment
August 14, 2009

During the early 20th Century an increased interest in leadership was noted, The early leadership theories focus on the qualities that distinguish leaders and followers. However subsequent theories explore other factors including situational factors and skill level. There are a number of leadership types the most common ones are:

  • The Great Man Theories:
    This theory assumes that leadership is hardwired, in other words people are born leaders rather than created. This theory portrays leadership primarily as a male quality.
  • Trait Theories:
    This theory has some ideas similar to those of the Great Man theory. Trait theory states that certain traits and qualities that make a better leader are inherited. This theory has one major flaw it can’t explain why some people have the qualities defined as leadership qualities but are not leaders; also it assumes that leadership runs in the family so what about the leaders from a family where none of the family members are leaders.
  • Contingency Theories:
    This theory focuses on environmental variables that determine what leadership style best suits the situation. It would seem that this is the most logical theory as it recognises that there is no single leadership style best suits a situation.
  • Situational Theories:
    According to this theory leaders base their decisions on situational variables. Different styles of leadership may be more appropriate for certain types of decision-making. This theory appears to be similar to the above theories.
  • The Behavioural Theory:
    This theory claims that leaders are created rather than it being innate qualities. In other words this theory is based on the actions of the individual rather than mental qualities or internal states. Behaviourists argue that people become leaders through teachings and observation.
  • The Participative Theory:
    The participative theory suggests the best leadership style is one which considers the input of others. Leaders that fit into this category encourage contribution from their group thus making others feel relevant and involved decision-making processes.
  • Management Theory:
    This theory is also known as the “Transactional theory” see the leaders role as one of supervision, organization, and optimising group performance. This theory sees the basis of leadership as one of reward and punishment. This is often the most common type of leadership found in business.
  • Relationship Theory:
    Also called the “Transformational theory” concentrates on the bonds between leaders and their followers. These leader often have high moral and ethical standards; they motivate or inspire people, they are very focused on the groups performance and want everyone to reach their full potential. A good example of this type of leader would be religious leaders such as priests.

So now that we have outlined the main leadership types which type are you? Who knows maybe you are a mixture of several.

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How morale levels affect the workplace

Filed Under: Training & Development by Kirsty — Leave a comment
December 22, 2008

Morale is a way of measuring how happy a person is in the workplace. This can be done using various methods which include questionaires or interviews. Medicology has launched a morale testing instrument, for more details see Morale Testing Instrument.

Things that can affect morale levels include:

  • Job Security
  • Levels of Pay
  • The Working Environment
  • Chance to Progress (Professionl Development)
  • The Management

Basically morale has two levels it can be high or low; if morale is high then it means that the staff are happy and productivity will be high but if it is low then staff are unhappy thus having a negative impact on productivity which can be potentially dangerous for example if a doctor has low morale then tey are more likely to make mistakes. It can also cause companies to have high rates of absence as low morale can have a detrimental effect on health as there are links between low morale and mental health problems such as depression. Please be aware that not illness is caused by low morale.

If you find morale is low first you need to identify what is causing the low morale once this has been identified there are a number of options which can applied to rectify this although everyone needs to appreciate that change will not neccessarily occur overnight although if change takes too long staff may assume that management is stalling and morale may further deteriorate therefore communication is key to improving the situation. There are lots of options which may help to rectify the failing morale these include attending training courses such as those provided by Medicology others include open negotiations with staff.

To maintain high morale it is important to recognise staff’s achievements, and offer support when you notice that they are struggling. Although it sounds obvious but most people fail to acknowledge their staff’s achievements I’m not saying that you have to spend lots of money to show your staff that they are appreciated you can use bonuses but there is nothing easier than simply saying: “well done”.

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The difference between Leadership and Management

Filed Under: Leaderhsip & Management by Kirsty — Leave a comment
August 10, 2008

The terms Leadership and Management are often used interchangeably, however they are two separate ideas.

Let’s start with leadership. Leadership is a quality that management must have but they also need effective authority, it is said that leaders tend to think radically which essentially means that they use their intuition rather than always doing things “by the book”. This can sometimes be beneficial to the company as it allows ideas to progress beyond the rigid framework set out in “the book”.

A leader has to maintain a “can do” attitude and have to be as the title suggests a leader rather than a follower even when they come up against obstacles. Leaders relish a challenge and will stand up for what they believe in and is prepared to go above the call of duty when necessary. Leaders use every opportunity to learn including failure and are often aware of their personal impact on others and recognise the indicators of both their strengths and weaknesses. A good leader is resilient and their main focus is working for the good of the team rather than for personal gain, this can be achieved by good time management. Leaders know who the key influences are and involve them when required.

One of the key qualities of a leader is to keep others motivated which can sometimes be difficult as leaders are busy fulfilling their own role within the company.

Now to management put simply this is getting people together to achieve goals it can . Managers have to be able to plan, organise and lead to control an organisation, managers are also responsible for allocating human, financial and technological resources. Managers often delegate tasks and promote good time management within their team and also have to attempt to resolve conflicts within the workplace with minimal disruption.

There are numerous benefits to good leadership and management these include:

  • Motivated Staff
  • Conflicts resolved effectively
  • High productivity
  • Resources would be used efficiently
  • Good time management

These can be achieved through a combination of personal and training
.

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