Strategic Operations Management and Oper PDF

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Sixbert SANGWA, R1508D964268 PS4S26-V2/ Module AssignmentUniversity of South WalesSchool of Business and SocietyMBA-Masters in Business AdministrationTutor: Dr. Evangelos TsoukatosStudent: Sixbert SANGWAStrategic Operations Management andOperational ResearchModule Summative AssessmentSeptember 2018P...

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Sixbert SANGWA, R1508D964268

PS4S26-V2/ Module Assignment

University of South Wales School of Business and Society MBA-Masters in Business Administration

September 2018

Strategic Operations Management and Operational Research Module Summative Assessment

Tutor: Dr. Evangelos Tsoukatos Student: Sixbert SANGWA

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ABSTRACT

This paper consists of an end module assessment for the strategic operations management and operational research. It comprises of two important parts which respectively consist of reflective learning and critical analysis for a position of operations manager. In the first part of the work the learner attempts to critically reflect on his learning, focusing on how the course enabled him to improve his knowledge of operations management and more particularly a skill of his own choice, coordination skill. Although coordination involves other more skills such as communication, by applying different learning approaches, it is clear that the learner's skills have improved considerably through this course, which allowed him to critically evaluate and improve the process performance both in the field of operations and in a larger organizational environment. On the other hand, the second part of this paper attempts to use knowledge gained from the course to critically analyze a learner’s chosen job description for an operations manager which is attached on this work. We focused on analyzing the challenges that the incumbent is likely to face in the course of his work. Although forecasting, quality management, sustainability, market systems and resource utilization are important operational issues for the Operations manager, a number of challenges has been analyzed and solutions proposed in order to mitigate these challenges.

Key words: Operations management, coordination skills, teamwork, operational challenges, forecasting, sustainability, reflective analysis.

Sixbert SANGWA, R1508D964268

PS4S26-V2/ Module Assignment

Table of Contents ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................................i PART A - REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS ON MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE............................................2 1.

Introduction......................................................................................................................2

2.

Background and Context...................................................................................................3

3.

Learning goals and expectations.......................................................................................4

4. 5.

Learning methodologies....................................................................................................5 What I learnt and how my coordination skills were enhanced.........................................5 5.1.

Coordinating Peers discussions.............................................................................................5

5.2.

Reflective learning approach.................................................................................................6

5.3.

Learning workshop and practice............................................................................................8

6.

What will I do differently going forward?......................................................................10

7. 8.

My actions and next steps...............................................................................................11 CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................11

APPENDICE A:.........................................................................................................................12 A.1. Additional learning methods applied and their outcomes..........................................................12 A.2. Summary of my takeaway from the course................................................................................14 REFERENCES A.......................................................................................................................17 PART B – CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE JOB DESCRIPTION FOR AFIELD OPERATION MANAGER AT ONE ACRE FUND/RWANDA.......................................................................................21 I.

INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................21

II.

BRIEF OPERATIONS MANAGERS’ CHALLENGES................................................22

III. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSIONS ON OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES RELEVANT TO THIS JOB............................................................................................................................23 CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................31 APPENDIX B............................................................................................................................32 1.

OTHER SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES...................................................................32

2.

SUMMARY ABOUT THE COMPANY.............................................................................33

3.

OPERATIONS MANAGER’S JOB DESCRIPTION.........................................................34

REFERENCES B.......................................................................................................................37

PART A - REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS ON MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE

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1.Introduction This course explored the different operational processes, techniques, planning and control to develop students’ ability and skills in strategic operations management. In addition, the module focuses on operational research that includes varied and advanced analytical methods for better decisions (Khodabakhshi et al., 2013, pp. 1-2). In the beginning students were requested to choose one personal skill that they wanted to improve during the course duration and a reflective analysis on how their skills were enhanced was part of the end module assessment. In this regard, and given my current professional context, I have chosen to develop my coordination skills, described by Weigand et al (2003) with a focus on communication, which together have greatly enhanced my teamwork competency. The rationale for this choice of skill to be improved during this course was based on both my current coordination role and my entrepreneurial aspirations. As my employer is a leading empowerment agency in the humanitarian field, I was recently appointed to create and lead a Livelihood coordinating body in a Burundian refugee camp in Rwanda, and I really have to be a good coordinator. However, with my background in business development, I also recently established a small business consulting firm in Rwanda, hoping to soon lead a strong senior management team and oversee different organizational functions that strives to promote youth employability. For these reasons I found myself challenged by lacking skills to coordinate human interactions and integrate their time, energy, effort, ability, and available resources to meet a common organizational goal. As a program coordinator and more specifically the future executive, I want to be good at building relationship between various company departments and its key external business partners (suppliers, colleagues, donors, etc.) and coordinate different activities. I believe like Akrani (2011) that coordination skills are important to help me successfully accomplish the much larger tasks that one might encounter. However, as the coordination involves a range of other professional skills described by Karen (2010), communication skills are paramount in my learning to support effective task coordination because I felt devoid of these skills.

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This work reflects the way in which the coordination described by Weigand et al. (2003) has been improved throughout the course.

2. Background and Context During the first few weeks of this course, I looked at different course materials available in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Based on Belbin's (1981) team behavior categories and Honey & Mumford's (1986) Learning Styles Questionnaire, I could then better understand the kind of person I live. Based on what I intend to achieve, I determined the kind of skills I need to develop. For example while being ready to lead and to coordinate, I have always found myself wanting to do everything alone, to have the final word, to manage my workload independently of the work of others and to ignore certain standards of cultural communication; which doesn’t allow me to bring people’s efforts together for organizational benefits. Feeling a lack and need for coordination skills, I discovered that my coordination success is closely tied to effective communication. Leadership and management theorists describe coordination as an important management function that attempts to harmonize activities so that each organizational unit complements and enriches the work of another (Fayol, 1916). As in Thomas and Kevin (1993), all business functions are interdependent. Coordination is therefore a process of managing these dependencies between activities performed to achieve a goal. Van de Ven et al. (1976) defined coordination as “integrating or linking together different parts of an organization to accomplish a collective set of tasks”. More specifically in my own situation, it’s a tool for increasing the effectiveness of a collective endeavor. While there has been growing interests in researching how activities can be coordinated in different complex systems (Rumelhart, et al., 1986; Winograd & Flores, 1986; Huhns & Gasser, 1989; Malone & Crowston, 1990; Thomas & Kevin, 1993, ICVA, 2013; Maximilian et al, 2016), my goal is to understand its common themes. In the ICVA NGO Coordination Guide (2013), Joel & Peter (2018) and Maximilian et al (2016), it is very clear that coordination involves skills such as communication, organizing, time

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management, critical thinking, leadership, delegation, etc. In this reflective work, coordination is particularly described as a four-element management tool as pointed out by John (2013). These elements include: 1. Regular convening of departments or agency representatives, 2. Regular, structured information sharing and joint analysis and planning, 3. Provision of facilitative leadership and Delegation of decision-making, 4. Professional incentives, and accountability for results. As it can be observed communication is a potential pillar for effective coordination and that’s why

both are emphasized in my learning reflection as

they equally pertain

together to make me successful in a team assignment, as shown in the model below:

Source: Mohamad & Brian (2017)

3. Learning goals and expectations At the beginning of this course, I was expecting to discover different theories and discussions related to operational coordination within an organization and in conjunction with other partners.As a program coordinator and a future entrepreneur who is ready to lead my entire business and to coordinate interdepartmental and partnership activities, I found my weakness in coordination, especially in information sharing and meeting administration. Therefore the aim of my learning was to enhance my coordination skills with a focus on communication. Specifically, I wanted to improve important management behaviors such as: 

Obtaining and sharing information with teams (verbal and nonverbal),



Convening and running regular coordination meetings with departments or other agency heads,

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

Co-planning and running joint events with partners,



Task sharing based on individual team member’s expertise, talent and passion;



Delegating, providing facilitative leadership and motivating teams

4. Learning methodologies After choosing a skill for improvement with an understanding of its role in my future career, I tried different learning approaches such as: 

Discussing with my peers via the USW’s VLE and different self-managed platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, and emails) to get their insights into the topic;



I read different journal articles which are very insightful;



I watched tutorial videos on YouTube (Elisabeth, 2015);



I used reflective learning to internalize my learning as advised by Boxer (1978);



I attended a learning workshop, then;



I tried to apply the learning to my professional work environment.

5. What I learnt and how my coordination skills were enhanced 5.1. Coordinating Peers discussions Inspired by Annica and Ulrike (2011), I took the initiative to convene and facilitate peer discussions through special groups on self-managed platforms, namely Facebook and WhatsApp, to improve performance and cohesion of our team. This is like what John (2013) called Facilitative leadership, a leadership without authority which helped us to jointly analyze topics and help each other as a main goal. When all four peers were added on groups, we brought in different cultures and great diversity, which helped us to analyze subjects from different perspectives. While one of our peers didn’t participate, we discussed topics, shared resources, and offered insights to each other such that I probably couldn’t have gained broader understanding of my chosen skill if I didn’t maintain communication with my peers. Knowing that I was working to improve my coordination, the group left me a coordinator role; so I drafted our group rules, agreed on regular discussion time and organized

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students-students tutorial sessions on skype. The role helped me to build relationship, keep thinking on how to direct discussions and motivate members to participate; which are important aspects of coordination (Satyendra, 2015). Working on individual assignment didn’t really prevent us from consulting with each other and doing peer reviews which culminated to my understanding of the entire course. By consulting members to elaborate and share discussions agenda, it improved my communication and unlike my solo work, it showed me the success of teamwork. Similarly, I understood that departments/agencies need to coordinate their activities to successfully achieve departmental and eventually organizational goals (Silver, 2018). Like we did a peer review, when doing a concept note for an event, I considered sharing it with my subordinates to get their inputs and it turned out to be comprehensive and appreciated by my senior leaders. I have therefore considered information sharing as an engaging, accountability and quality tool (John, 2013).

5.2. Reflective learning approach Because learning and thinking go together (Mezirow, 2011, p.1), I noted the invaluable importance of the reflective practice of learning, which was complementary to the comments and advice I received from my tutor and peers. In reflecting on my personal experience, I tried to critically evaluate my learning based on the course objectives. Again as Boxer (1978) advised, I explored the value of my past experience relative to my own context, to other managers’ experience and eventually tried to create design criteria for strategic options within a problem context capable of commanding a consensus between the managers. As mentioned by Leisha (2018) and the UEFAP (2018), I much emphasized on self-efficacy by trying to think deeply about what I do and learn from other managers’ experience. With this approach I chose a few scenarios and tried to coordinate by communicating through phone calls, conversations and verbal interactions, meetings, and other media that teams use to negotiate their goals, make decisions, and update each other about task status. This helped me to reflect on important people personalities and appreciate the planning processes which resulted in a change and adoption of new management behaviors, especially by recognizing different types and directions of communication

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that are key elements of effective coordination (Mike, 2018). My reflective moment was really very productive since I was able to internalize how I can better coordinate using verbal, nonverbal and written communication across teams as on the below diagram:

Source: Mike (2018)

After reflecting on the best practices in coordination, I tried to apply my learning to my work environment as the head of our Livelihood coordination body. I found communication very essential for coordination because, for example, the 7 NGO members were involved in Livelihood but there was a lot of duplication of work. This was due to communication gap and at our next coordination meeting, I followed Armstrong (2014)’s advice to early convene the meeting, share the provisional agenda and convey a concise message that created opportunity for dialogue. John’s (2013) idea of regular agency representatives’ meeting was accepted by the team and our regular agency coordination meeting was scheduled on every Tuesday. In order to encourage joint situation analysis and planning, I referred to the UNHCR livelihood strategy to communicate the common goals. To properly communicate, I tried to use non-judgmental language, recognize diversity and the perceived power imbalance as well as adapting to different individual cultures as advised by Joel & Peter (2018). As result, NGOs have agreed to regularly share with me reports on their activities, including lists of their beneficiaries who benefit from different trainings, distribution of non-food items, business grants, etc., so that I can make a common

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database for our regular reference. While we agreed an open cooperation and collaboration among agencies, I committed myself to share, via emails, the real-time data, including minutes of our coordination meetings, upcoming events, and Agencies’ updates or progress on their interventions. I found that this doesn’t only foster interagency relationships but also mutual understanding as Galbraith (1994) said. Beyond regular information sharing I also proposed division of labour according to each NGO specialties and because the camp is divided into villages, we assigned each NGO to a specific village. This is expected to reduce work duplication and increase coordination efficiency as supported by Malone & Crowston (1990) and Weigand et al. (2003).

5.3. Learning workshop and practice My learning was consolidated by a learning event that I was tasked to coordinate. At the end of our budget year, my organization invited all staffs, partners and clients for a learning event that took place at one of our field offices with an aim to celebrate the achievements, share past experiences, challenges and discuss how departments, partners and clients can better work together in...