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JA1. Interview with a Manager

Statement

  • Get in touch with a manager you are familiar with or have previously worked with.
    • Conduct a small interview with him/her to enquire about the roles and responsibilities he/she performs as a manager.
    • List them down. Now, use the P-O-L-C framework to categorize these listed roles and responsibilities.
    • Analyze the roles and responsibilities you listed under each component and describe how the roles and responsibilities relate to the P-O-L-C framework (plan-organize-lead-control).
    • Present this information in the form of a table along with some details about the interview, the manager/person that you interviewed, and the company.
  • Additionally, please respond to the following questions when you’re organizing and classifying the various roles and responsibilities that were identified during the interview.
    1. What function does planning serve?
    2. What function does organizing serve?
    3. What function does leading serve?
    4. What function does controlling serve?
    5. Discuss, if there was any function that did not fit well in the P-O-L-C framework. If yes, discuss these functions and suggest reasons why it does not fit in well. Alternatively, discuss the limitations of the P-O-L-C framework.

Answer

I have made contact with a company called WeFindFlats; it is a UK-based company that provides relocation services to new hires coming to Europe. Their services include housing, bank account opening, initial paperwork, and helping in enrolling kids into schools (WeFindFlats, 2020). I have interviewed the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of the company, Mr. John Doe, who has been with the company for the past 3 years where he leads the Product team (technical team). He has been in the IT industry for more than 10 years and has worked in various roles before joining WeFindFlats.

I asked Mr. John a couple of questions, and the text below is a summary of his responses. The text will later analyze his responses as per the problem statement.

Q1. Can please give us a brief introduction about the structure of the company and your role in it?

Mr. John said: We are a small startup with around 20 employees divided into 3 teams: Product, Operation, and Administration. I lead the Product team, which is responsible for developing and maintaining the company’s tech; the operation team is the customer-facing front, and the administration team is responsible for communications with partners, investors, and other administrative tasks. My team mostly consists of software engineers, data engineers, designers, and technical writers.

Q2. What are the roles and responsibilities that you perform as a manager?

Mr. John said: We are a small startup, and everyone does his best to keep the company running. I am responsible for everything related to the technical team, which includes hiring, introducing new team members, acquiring knowledge from inside and outside of the team and communicating it to the team members, and managing the day-to-day work of my team. Within the company, I work closely with other teams to collect their requirements and feedback and coordinate with all employees. I also transmit and receive information to and from the technical teams of our partners and clients. I also represent the company in various legal and professional matters.

Q3. What is the day-to-day work like for you?

Mr. John said: As a manager in a newly established startup, I need to perform more responsibilities than a manager in a well-established company. He listed a few of his daily responsibilities, which I listed in the table below, along with the relevant P-O-L-C framework function that I think they fall under:

Role/Responsibility P-O-L-C Framework
Screening new hires, conducting interviews, and then deciding on the hiring -
Answering technical questions team members or outsiders (e.g., clients or partners) -
Deciding on the technology stack to be used in the company Plan
Receiving new requirements from the business team Plan
Analyzing the feasibility of the gathered requirements Plan
Dividing new requirements into smaller tasks and entering them into the project management tool Organize
Assigning tasks to team members and ensuring that they are on track Organize
Conducting weekly/monthly/quarterly meetings with the team to discuss the progress and any issues Lead
Conducting a daily standup and ensuring that everyone is on track resolving any blockers Lead
Ensuring that the team is following the best practices and coding standards Control
Ensuring that the business team is aware of the progress of the technical team Lead
Ensuring that the team is motivated and that they are happy with their work without any burnout Lead
Representing the company in various legal or professional matters -
Reaching out to partners and clients to collect feedback and requirements Control

The interview with Mr. John has ended here. The text now will discuss each function of the P-O-L-C framework and what it serves:

Planning is the process of dividing company goals into smaller and achievable tasks within the team’s capacity (Carpenter et. al., 2010). It requires a thorough understanding of the business model and the market dynamics; and how the company fits into the market such that its vision and mission are within the market’s reach and capacity. Planning also requires awareness of all input and output channels and how they are interconnected along with up-to-date knowledge about the company’s resources.

Organizing is the process of allocating resources and team members to the tasks (Carpenter et. al., 2010). It requires understanding the team’s dynamics, individual strengths and weaknesses, and individual-level skill sets so that members can complement each other. It also requires coordination with other teams and partners to ensure work is aligned and no process is hanging waiting for the output of another process.

Leading is the process of cheering and keeping the team spirit high (Carpenter et. al., 2010). It is easy for teams to slow down under the weight of the tasks, especially in a startup where the tasks are not well defined and the market is not well understood. The leader needs to keep the team motivated and be ready to step in when needed.

Controlling is the process of monitoring the progress of the tasks and making sure the output is aligned with the company’s mission and vision (Carpenter et. al., 2010). It requires a deep understanding and imagination of the expected output and the use of tools to monitor the progress of individuals, groups, and processes. A good manager will sense the deviation from expectations and will act to correct it before changes become expensive.

While the P-O-L-C framework is a good starting point and is widely adopted; it has its limitations. For example, there 3 responsibilities that Mr. John mentioned that I could not map to any of the P-O-L-C functions (where I marked them with a dash in the table above). The framework may fit an established company where they use strategic planning for a few years ahead and have a clearer vision and solid processes. However, life in startups is more agile and managers need to be more flexible, agile, and ready to adapt to changes quickly. The framework is also too generic and does not provide enough guidance on the details of each function and how to implement them or respond to unforeseen situations. The framework also focuses on the manager and does not detail the functions of other team members in the process.

To conclude, the art of management involves processing inputs from various sources like company, market, clients, and team members, and then making decisions that benefit the company and delegating the work to the right team members; the challenge is that the situation is unique for each company and the manager should be equipped with the right tools and skills to be effective in their job. The P-O-L-C framework has a lot of benefits, but it has its limitations and does not fit well in all situations.

Word Count: 1,156.

References

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