Management Functions in Action

L o r n a M c D o n a l d – H e l e n a G u i n e v a n

2015

Management Functions in Action A view into PwC

DBS – Student Assignment

Management Functions in Action

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Contents

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................................................................2

AIMS............................................................................................................................................................................................................................2

MANAGEMENT – A DEFINITION ............................................................................................................................................................................2

PWC IRELAND – A COMPANY OVERVIEW ...........................................................................................................................................................3

PLANNING ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................4

A SIMPLE SWOT OF PWC IRELAND ...........................................................................................................................................................................4 A BASIC SWOT KEN MIGHT DO .................................................................................................................................................................................5 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................................................................................................5 MISSION AND VISION.................................................................................................................................................................................................5

Mission .............................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Vision ................................................................................................................................................................................................................6

CORPORATE LEVEL STRATEGY OF THE ORGANISATION ..................................................................................................................................................6 OPERATIONAL / BUSINESS LEVEL STRATEGY ................................................................................................................................................................7 FUNCTIONAL LEVEL STRATEGY ....................................................................................................................................................................................7

ORGANISATION ........................................................................................................................................................................................................8

A REPRESENTATION OF PWC’S ORG CHART (SIMPLIFIED) ............................................................................................................................................8 CULTURE...................................................................................................................................................................................................................9 COMMUNICATION.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 10

LEADING .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

CONTROLLING ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 16

DISCUSSION AND CONCL USION ......................................................................................................................................................................... 18

THEORY - V – PRACTICE .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 A FUTURE IN MANAGEMENT................................................................................................................................................................................... 18

BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20

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Introduction

This report will discuss the functions of management in action in a working environment. Ken O’Brien, a Tax

Director with 20 years’ service in PwC Ireland, took part in an interview to help furnish this report with his expertise

and knowledge of management and leadership in a large firm. Through the use of both primary and secondary

data sources this report will help show how Planning, Organisation, Leading and Control are used in PwC

Ireland.

Aims

The aim of the report is to give the reader an insight into how the functions planning, organisation, leading

and control are applied in a large firm. The report will give an overview of PwC Ireland and its associated

global network showing the services it provides, the type of clients and business it engages in and where

they are positioned in the market. There are four main sections to the report, each addressing one of the four

functions mentioned and through the information gathered from Ken and secondary research done on PwC

Ireland, the authors will show how each function effects the overall organisation. Charts, graphs and

diagrams will also be used to show different tools used to carry out these functions. Finally conclusions will

be drawn from the analysis and the authors will make comments and recommendations if any are found.

Management – a definition

“Management in businesses and organizations is the function that coordinates the efforts of people to

accomplish goals and objectives by using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management

includes planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization to accomplish

the goal”

(http://www.ijirt.org/vol1/paperpublished/IJIRT101009_PAPER.pdf)

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PwC Ireland – a company overview

PwC Ireland is one of the Big 4 professional services firms in Ireland, joining them are Deloitte & Touche,

Ernst & Young (EY) and KPMG, but PwC are the largest of these in Ireland made up of over 100 partners,

with total revenues of over €300 million (all-Ireland) and employing over 2800 staff. They offer a broad

range of services through audit, tax and advisory.

2,800

...people employed in PwC across

the island of Ireland

8

...offices in Ireland (including our

Northern Ireland offices)

34

...different nationalities

in the Irish firm

PwC maintains the highest values and standards of business behaviour, their reputation is anchored in their

professionalism, ethics and excellence of service they strive to demonstrate and embrace every day. Their

values and code of conduct encapsulate the way they do business every day – within the firm, with their

clients, suppliers and communities at large in which they are involved in.

Code of conduct

Framework for ethical decision making

Upholding the PwC name

Our responsibilities

Behaving professionally

Corporate citizenship

Respecting others

Globally the PwC network is a diverse organisation and one of the largest employers in the world, with the

expertise of over 180,000 staff from around the world across 158 countries, all committed to delivering

quality and creating value for their clients. They are second only to Deloitte, who became the largest

accounting firm on the planet, just pipping PwC to take the top spot in 20141. Their aim is to create the best

value for clients by constantly attracting and nurturing the best talent. They employ motivated and

energetic people from a variety of backgrounds - arts, business, engineering, finance and law - who ensure

the clients receive the depth and breadth of insight and perspective required to negotiate an increasingly

complex global environment

1 (http://www.big4.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/The-2014-Big-Four-Firms-Performance-Analysis-Big4.com-Jan-2015.pdf

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Planning

“Planning is an ongoing step and can be highly specialized based on organizational goals, division goals,

departmental goals, and team goals. It is up to the manager to recognize which goals need to be planned within

his or her individual area.”

(http://study.com/academy/lesson/four-functions-of-management-planning-organizing-leading-controlling.html)

Planning is a big part of every business, not just the firm’s larger picture or the annual or six monthly plans,

but every day plans. Ken said that as a director his daily plans are structured 80% strategic and 20% tactical,

other managers down the line would be more tactical and less strategic. Strategically Ken needs to develop

the business, this is done through daily news updates on existing and potential clients, monitoring the

markets and being generally aware of what’s going on around them. Business is also developed cross-

divisionally and by word of mouth, Ken could come across a business opportunity for the consulting side of

the business and vice versa, a consultant may come across an opportunity that Ken could expand and

develop. This is one of the strengths of PwC not just in Ireland but globally.

Tactically Ken would be concerned with things like staffing levels, who’s out sick or on leave, what projects

or jobs are in the pipeline and which staff would be best suited, which international clients are calling, what

time zones are they in and making sure the right person is in the office to answer the call. Succession

planning is a constant part of Ken’s plan also, he needs to be keenly aware of the current level of staff

knowledge and experience and what needs to be done if those levels changed. Ken offered the following

simplified SWOT analysis of PwC Ireland in general and one he may do for himself.

A simple SWOT of PwC Ireland

Strengths Weaknesses

Staff

PwC brand & network

Good Culture

Communication (inter-business)

Partners fully invested in developing business

Scale of the firm (potentially inflexible

All partners are equal and therefore need to be

heard, can make decisions making slow

Slow to adapt

Opportunities Threats

Cultivate staff knowledge and experience

Use of ‘Hotspots’ (ref Lynda Gratton)

Stereotyped - ‘all the Big 4 are the same’

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A basic SWOT Ken might do

Strengths Weaknesses

Existing staff

Good dynamic, good reputation

Good knowledge base, understanding of business

Diligent

Managing time in respect of people engagement

Stronger staff members potentially getting more

jobs as they may have a higher knowledge and

completion rate

Opportunities Threats

Developing new ideas

Cultivating staff knowledge & experience

Researching new clients

Awareness of environment

Loosing staff

Goals and Objectives

Goal setting and having objectives are an essential part of planning if you don’t have a clear vision of where

you want to go than no other amount of planning will matter. Every organisation will set short term goals

and objectives on a regular basis within teams, divisions and for the organisation as a whole but the bigger

long term goals and objectives, the ones that are at the core of any business can nearly always be found

within the Mission Statement or Vision Statement of that organisation.

Mission and vision

The following is a mission statement for PwC in general, not specifically for Ireland but none the less

relevant to driving their business goals

Mission

The PwC mission is to deliver a fair and clarified auditing service, in order to improve presentation of

financial information and therefore helping the company gain trust from investors.

They follow three main principles which they base their work on, which are:

Integrity Intelligence Innovation

The company's values are:

Teamwork Excellence Leadership

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Vision

Through their strong work ethic they hope to gain recognition throughout the world.

They are looking for people who are professional and able to adapt to the market in different

situations, as well as following the company's work ethic, to have a leading role in our operations.

All workers are adequate for their job, are knowledgeable and can offer international expertise.

They apply their best practice in all areas of governance and always maintain transparency.

Our goal is to be a leading participant in the process of establishing Spanish and international

accounting and auditing standards, as well as playing a major role in them.

We will be a firm in which all partners and employees feel motivated in their work and proud of their

involvement.

We are specialized in many sectors and we like to foment the participation of young people in the

company.

(http://pwce3.blogspot.ie/2011/11/mission-and-vision-pwc.html)

Corporate level strategy of the organisation

PwC is a knowledge business and what differentiates them is how they use and apply that knowledge for the

benefit of their clients This is obviously driven by the ability and calibre of staff to take this accumulated

knowledge and, through their skills, experience and personal insights, use this in whatever way most

effectively delivers on the clients' needs. The need to hire, retain and reward these people drives corporate

strategy and the biggest element of this is therefore engaging with people.

It's not just about money, it's hugely about giving people the opportunity to work on the best clients and the

best projects, in a genuinely global network enabling everyone to easily work across borders, providing the

best workplace and facilities, the best career development and the best training.

Ken added, “Once you have that in place you can deliver the client strategy - i.e. work with clients not just

as advisors or as technical gurus who know all about, for instance, tax law, (because any of the big 4 can

probably do that) but as business partners who think in terms of the clients' business issues broadly rather

than in any specific and narrow area, who innovate and put themselves in the clients' shoes when thinking

about how to address their business issues.”

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Operational / Business level strategy

From an operational perspective PwC look to develop their business by constantly engaging with clients and

targets, listening to them to try to better understand their needs and structuring their business to deal with

that. This is both in terms of how they structure their teams operationally and how they develop their service

offerings and solutions.

Functional level strategy PwC have a leadership structure that splits their lines of service and has lead Partners in place to drive these.

Within these lines of service are the Partner and Director led client facing teams. Alongside this and

providing support to the leadership team and the client facing teams are the functional areas such as HR,

Finance, IT, Risk, Legal, Infrastructure etc - all Partner led functions that would be mirrored in any large

corporate with appropriate teams supporting core client facing operations. The strategy essentially is to

enable the client facing teams to focus on business development and service delivery with ready access to all

relevant back office support and resources. It's regarded as essential to get this right, so there is substantial

investment in these support areas, both in terms of people and other infrastructure and resources to ensure

that the front end functions are fully supported and to ensure proper reporting, governance, risk management

etc. that would be expected in a firm such as this.

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Organisation

“Organising can be thought of as assigning the tasks developed in the planning stages, to various individuals or groups

within the organization. Organising is to create a mechanism to put plans into action.”

(https://managementinnovations.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/define-management-its-functions)

PwC has a tall, hierarchical structure for reporting lines but operates more as a cross functional, almost flat

style structure in its operations. The business areas are both Partner and Director led but not all partners

would be as hands on as the directors which is why the org chart is styled in the below manner, also the

other operational areas such as HR, Finance, IT, Risk etc. fall within the three main business areas. In order

to draw up a visual aid to use in this report the org structure was stripped back to its most basic form

A representation of PwC’s Org Chart (simplified)

PwC is a large partnership with over 100 partners; it is not a corporate entity although it may appear as one

sometimes. With its size and structure the question of whether it should become a corporate entity has been

raised but as yet there is no other information. The governance structure of PwC Ireland is made up of four

main elements; the Managing Partner, the Territory Leadership Team, the Committee of the Board and the

There are four grades of staff

There are several directors in each area

Headed up by the Partners but run jointly with the Directors

Territory Leadership Team, Committee of the board, The

Public Interest Board

Currently Fergal O'Rourke, newly elected for a 4 terms

since July 2015

Snr Partner

Management Committee

Tax/Legal

Directors

Senior manager

Managers

Staff

Audit/

Assurance

Directors

Senior managers

Managers

Staff

Advisory/

Consulting

Directors

Senior Managers

Managers

Staff

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Public Interest Board. Fergal O’Rourke was just recently elected as Senior Partner on the 1st of July 2015,

succeeding Ronan Murphy for a four year term.

Tradition seams to be the template for the current structure, there are strict regulatory and auditing structures

for partnerships which applied to PwC when it was a much smaller and less diverse service provider, and the

structure of a partnership remained across the whole organisation as it grew. The main benefit of having an

organisational structure such as this is that every partner is fully invested in growing the business as

ultimately, if somewhat cliché, its money in their pockets.

The disadvantages however are on an equal level, due to the sheer size of the organisations it can be come

somewhat cumbersome, as every partner is equally invested they all have a voice and all need to be heard,

which can then lead to delayed or even stalled business decisions.

Culture

There is a very diverse and dynamic culture in PwC that seems to make it stand out from the other members

of the Big 4. A lot of time, effort and money were put in to research and surveys to find out what people,

both staff and clients, thought of PwC and if they were viewed as a stereotype or if they stood out. The aim

is for PwC to have their own unique identity and not be pooled in with the other three professional service

firms. There is a perception out there that when talking about the Big 4 that they are all viewed as the same,

comments like ‘They all do the same job, any one will do’, is what PwC are striving to get away from.

Some results of surveys showed that KPMG can be ‘hardnosed’ and work really long hours, so while PwC

can be a bit hardnosed and some do work long hours but only when needed, they promoted a very good

work-life balance. The offices here in Ireland have just finished undergoing a massive refurb; the floors are

all open plan now, all glass, no walls. There are of course meeting rooms and other offices but these just

have frosted glass in places. Sections of the building have been set out as ‘areas for collaboration’, these

areas have a mixture of tables and chairs, comfy couches and bright colours. Staff can meet just to chat,

have a break or lunch or use it as a change of venue for a meeting. The open plan is to encourage building

better relationships throughout the firm as staff can see each other now, the hope is that these better

relationships can help foster and promote innovations throughout the organisation.

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Communication

Communication, it goes without saying, is paramount in an organisation like this. In order to keep the PwC

network successful globally and to keep the image and brand the same, all offices around the world look and

feel the same, same textiles, same colour schemes. This is all well and good visually but what PwC are

striving for is that the customers experience is exactly the same no matter what office in whatever country

they go to they will receive the exact same high level of customer service and satisfaction. Staff are

encouraged to put themselves in the client’s shoes in order to better understand their needs and provide a

better service.

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Leading

One definition of Leadership comes from Prentice (1961):

‘Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants. A leader is one

who successfully marshals his human collaborators to achieve particular ends.’

Ken was asked from his perspective as a director what did he believe are the key leadership/management

skills for his job. He replied by saying that while they are obviously interconnected, they're not always the

same thing and said, “For instance, where I sometimes need to show leadership, that doesn't necessarily

require management skills and vice versa.”

A few comments from Ken in the conversation about Leadership were that it was important to ‘Empower

people and delegate responsibility (but demand ownership and responsibility in return)’. He mentioned to

‘Be fearless about taking ownership and responsibility. If you want to lead, then the buck has to stop with

you. People respond to that and will not take well to people who try to avoid blame’. And “Understand and

manage upward, peer and downward relations (i.e. the office politics). You need people above to give you

autonomy to manage. You also need to maintain relationships with peers and your team. If you can't achieve

this (regardless of whether or not the personal relationships are great) you'll quickly find it much harder to

get things done (but not the same as being the office brown-nosed)”

‘The Continuum of Leadership Behaviour’ suggests there are a number of leadership styles available to a

manager relating to the degree of authority ranging from authoritarian to non-interventionist. The manager

has to make a choice on the most appropriate style per Tennenbaum and Schmidt based on forces within the

manager, within the subordinates/direct reports and within the organisational situation or environment. From

the evidence provided by the comments above and documentation online which follows I would confidently

place PwC on the delegating side of the continuum.

Charles Handy in the classic ‘Understanding Organizations’ (1993) says:

“A leader we can say in summary is someone who is able to develop and communicate a vision which gives

meaning to the work of others. It is a task too important to be left to those at the top of organizations.

Leaders are needed at all levels and in all situations. Interestingly, the Japanese language has no word for

‘leadership’ the leader being thought of as in separate from the group. “

In view of the Handy comment, it is interesting that PwC have embraced in recent years what they term an

evolving leadership model called the ‘PwC leadership professional’, to involve all employees globally.

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To quote from the PwC Global annual review 2013:

“The heart of the PwC Professional is that everyone at PwC shows leadership every day by guiding,

influencing and inspiring colleagues, clients and communities to be the best they can be…. As ‘whole

leaders’, our people constructively influence others within and beyond PwC, by demonstrating different

forms of leadership at different stages of their careers.”

Graphical representation of the competencies of a PwC Professional.

The PwC Professional is a leadership development framework encompassing five core competencies, the

aim of which is to help employees pick up the skills and behaviours to become well rounded leaders of their

teams, clients and others, and to “deliver results in a way that’s responsible and authentic”. In PwC, this

framework is used to recruit, develop and assess staff at all grades and all areas of the business, because the

expectation is that all PwC staff will be leaders in their own right.

Picking out the ‘Whole Leadership’ competency which is in the centre for special mention, the website

defines this as leading yourself and others in a ‘responsible, authentic, resilient, inclusive and passionate

way.’ It is also clear that leadership is expected of you whether you are leading the team or part of it. The

four additional competencies are the ability to build trust based relationships, business acumen, technical

capabilities and global acumen. Business Acumen is about bringing innovation and fresh thinking and to

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create value for clients and PwC. Technical capabilities is about production of high quality work and

maintenance of professional standards, and building and maintaining technical knowledge. Global acumen is

having the capability to collaborate in a complex changing world environment, and bringing in fresh

insights. Finally, relationships means building and maintaining high value, genuine relationships rooted in

trust.

In conversation, comments made by our manager do provide evidence of the PwC Professional model put in

practice. For example:

“Know your people / team and their needs and listen to them”. This relates to relationships competency. Ken

mentioned that as a manager you should encourage your people to find solutions (not always the same as

answers!), to empower people and delegate responsibility. “You should be open to other people’s views, as

you cannot be right all the time and even if you are its good to be challenged” (Shades of technical

competency, relationships and business acumen competencies are noted here.) He mentioned that mentoring

and coaching to help people meet their potential was important, but that you should not be slow to address

underperformance. Another comment was made about the importance of maintaining relationships with

peers and your team, as it’s much harder to get things done if you don’t have good relationships.

Additionally, he mentioned that he liked to empower people and delegate but demand ownership in return.

Ken’s comment ‘Be great at what you do - then you can legitimately ask / challenge your team to do the

same’ could be demonstrated in all five aspects of the framework. The comment ‘Be decisive (and brave)

when making decisions (note - not the same thing as being reckless). This just means that you're making a

decision because it's the right thing to do in a given situation and has the goals of your team / client etc. at

the centre of your thinking’ demonstrates underlying global and business acumen. Similarly, the following

comment demonstrates business acumen and relationship competencies at work in PwC. “Be open to other

people's view - you can't be right all the time and, even when you are, it's no harm to have your view

challenged.”

The 2013 Global Annual Review notes that in addition to experienced employees mentoring their younger

counterparts, that PwC use a variant where more experienced employees learn from younger colleagues,

called ‘reverse mentoring’. The reason being that younger people are often well qualified to pass on valuable

skills in workplace technology or leveraging social media, or even pass on information to help others

understand the mind set of younger colleagues.

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To finish, the following graphic demonstrates that leadership is one of the three core values PwC use when

conducting business. Leadership in PwC is defined as leading both inside and outside the business.

PwC Core Values

Trust has been defined in research as comprising five components; integrity, competence, loyalty and

openness. (Robbins, DeCenzo & Coulter 2014)

In the 2013 Global annual review, Dennis Nally, Chairperson of PwC International is quoted as saying that

one of the most important roles that PwC was around the area of engendering societal trust and believes that

PwC has an important role to play in rebuilding trust in institutions particularly following the global

financial crash. In a 2014 article, Nally argues CEO’s are no longer just interested in growth, but a longer

term sustainable ‘good’ growth which is real and responsible. It is further asserted that PwC have generated

trust is by focusing on activities reflecting a more socially centred corporate purpose. Building trust with

outside customers and stakeholders depends on ongoing business practices and ethics followed when dealing

with them. Stakeholders are not just shareholders, but also community members, government officials and

others. PwC Ireland has a page detailing the Corporate Social Responsibility activities that they are involved

with under the headings of Community, Environment, Workplace and Marketplace. It is notable that each of

the PWC annual global reviews for the last 3 years have dedicated 6 pages of the total to corporate

responsibility, this figure alone demonstrates its importance to PwC.

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Again in the 2015 PwC Global Annual Review, Richard Sexton talks about harnessing the power of big data

in the battle to help win back public trust. He argues that ‘big data’ analysis can enhance decision making

and downstream provide more insight and greater transparency to stakeholders than ever before.

Previously in the 2014 PwC Global Annual Review, there is a great example of how PwC helped rebuild

trust following the manipulation of the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) scandal. Regulators asked

PwC to help rebuild trust by providing assurance over rates submitted to the Libor administrator. By

working across countries with people in Audit, Performance Insurance, Forensics to name a few they have

helped to rebuild trust in Libor and provide integrity to the benchmarking process.

Looking at PwC for evidence of trust, our manager Ken commented that you should empower people and

delegate responsibility but also demand ownership and responsibility taking in return.

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Controlling

There is a huge focus on attracting, nurturing and developing staff and the PwC Professional framework is

instrumental in describing the behaviours to adopt to meet the expectations of clients, customers and

communities in the ever changing global economy. It is used to assess all staff at all grades over all lines of

business. As it is the roadmap to develop well rounded future leaders in PwC globally, the framework

ensures that employees have the skill sets they need to excel in a constantly evolving work environment. The

manager mentioned in conversation that staff appraisals are carried out bi annually.

The PwC Professional framework is also used as a tool to assess potential new hires, both graduates and

experienced hires. Our manager, mentioned that he does get involved in the interviewing process with new

hires and indeed PwC only recruit graduates with a minimum of 2.1 Honours Degree. Although they don’t

just look at academic measures in isolation, PwC want new hires to demonstrate they have the skills in ‘The

PwC Professional’ to deliver on business strategy.

PwC have a highly regarded award winning graduate training programme going back over many years. As

well as the usual on-boarding programme, a structured training programme builds on technical capabilities.

For example, this could be studying for and passing a professional qualification. Each student has an exam

path mapped out and is given study leave and can avail of an in house exam support programme and are

given every opportunity to excel. There is also more informal in-house buddy/coaching system along with

regular feedback to enable effective development. Performance objectives are linked to competencies for

your role to help you measure your performance so you can see how you are progressing. If you pass your

professional exams, there are opportunities for secondment / international assignments to further broaden

experiences and develop leadership potential.

Maybe as a result, PwC have been voted second in ‘World’s most attractive Employer’ for 2015 among

business students. What is clear from employee engagement surveys undertaken between 2010 – 2015 and

reported on in the 2015 Global Annual Review is that employee engagement levels have consistently risen

from 66% to 76% in this period as shown in the below dialog.

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PwC People Engagement* (FY 2010 – 2015)

*People Engagement refers to the levels of motivation, commitment and involvement employees

demonstrate as a result of key elements in their work environment such as level of leadership, respect,

professional development and inclusion.

Ken commented that as regards planning the Management teams/Partners meet every two weeks to evaluate

the status of current projects and jobs, to discuss what new business opportunities have been brought to the

table and to keep in line with the global plan. Also, there are regular meetings between partners and directors

to ensure the business needs are being met and to discuss any new developments that there may be. It was

also mentioned how key communication was and the high level of communication between partners,

directors and managers in PwC. It was also mentioned that PwC are constantly looking to improve business

models and efficiencies, outsource overly time consuming and unnecessary job or automate some jobs. To

coin a phrase used by Google, “Automate, eliminate, outsource”. (Ken O’Brien)

In terms of softer human relations issues, staff are brought on fun days out and evenings out from time to

time. A recent trip was to Causey Farm, such days allow staff to get to know one another better outside the

office. There are a team of people dedicated to staff wellbeing, they are charged with monitoring stress

levels ensuring they don’t get out of hand. The website also mentions an Employee Assistance Program for

the employee and their family, as well as an onsite gym and being able to avail of onsite holistic therapies.

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Discussion and Conclusion The authors gleaned the following insights into the role of the Manager;

Duties differ greatly and stress levels with it depending on the level of manager

High level of responsibility but being able to delegate is important

Being able to relate to people and always thinking 5 steps ahead is needed

A good manager may not necessarily be equipped with the skill be a good leader, and vice versa.

Communication and relationship management are key skills in all professionals, and even more so in the

information age.

Leadership has a wider relevance than just the person at the top of the organisation!

Management is about getting the best from a team rather than a group of individuals.

Theory - v – Practice

Much of the theory is used in practise but it depends on the size and business of the organisation as to how

much and in what way it is used.

In a learning organisation the theory does get put into practice in different ways, in that they do try to take on

board what is considered best practice.

Management seems to be a skill that can be learned, improved on and honed through training, rather than a

capability one is born with. The evidence provided by our research into PwC would bear this out.

Management in practice is an evolving art, and that’s similar to the body of academic theory on the subject.

A future in Management

In particular, I think that we cannot be successful by standing still in the 21st century. As managers or leaders whether

of ourselves or of others, we must continually strive to find ways of improving, of learning new skills.

I also think that we must look for ways of using the team in ever better ways. I learned that often very diverse groups

of people can become the most productive teams, they encourage ‘out of the box’ thought processes, and people to

take on board new ideas or ideas different to them and can be a form of learning in themselves! When we are looking

for better ways of working as a team and producing products as a team, inevitably then we must strive to reward good

team work. It is of course easier to reward individuals than teams, and how to do it successfully will require

innovative thinking.

Even if we are working in a technical role or organisation, and particularly if we are in a leadership role we must not

forget about relationship building, collaboration and communication skills. These are also key to success in today’s

world.

Helena Guinevan

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In writing this report and from the interview with Ken it is clear to see that being a good effective manager is not just

about applying the theory of management to your job, it is so much more. You really need to know the people you

work with, understand their needs and the needs of your clients. Being a manager means you need to wear many hats

on occasions, from being a co-worker, a mentor, a trainer to being a boss. A mangers role is much more than what’s

written on a job description. The most important insight that I can take away from this is to really listen, to be vigilant

and truly hear what people are saying even if they don’t know it themselves. Ken gave me a great example of this, a

client rang in with a Tax query and through the course of the conversation Ken thought ‘what caused the client to

make this call?’, ‘what happened to make them think it was to do with tax?’. The client was asked to explain what had

triggered this and it turned out to be a query for a different department. This type of insight obviously doesn’t happen

overnight, it is a skill that is developed and honed with experience, but if you know your job, know the people you

work with and know your clients then that is a trinity for success.

Lorna McDonald

Management Functions in Action

Page | 20

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