Are Managers Born Or Made?

Early 19th century researchers and historians such as Thomas Carlyle exalted the ‘Great Man’ theory of leadership citing history’s great and famous such as Julius Caesar, Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln as representing natural leaders taking control in tumultuous times. These leaders and managers of men did not have the benefit of modern management teachings and in many cases, such as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, achieved their leadership roles at an extraordinary young age.  Critics of the Great Man Theory identified that many of these leaders achieved these positions through their birth-right and were subsequently influenced by social, educational and opportunistic factors. Undoubtedly gender was a major factor in the progression of these early leaders and indeed, the recent Ambition and Gender Work Report (2011 Institute of Leadership & Management Development) still finds that nearly three quarters of Women believe that barriers to advancement still exist.

Dolly & Friends '9 to 5'

Early views on the achievements of leaders adopted the ‘Trait Theory of Personality’ identifying the broad dispositions of a person and the interaction of various unique traits of individuals. This identification of the ‘human factor’ in management has continued throughout the twentieth century with the development of management theories and studies from the initial Classical writers on to the Contingency view where more emphasis of human nature is taken. During the latter half of the last century, the role of the manager has now become open to the ‘masses’ reducing both the gender and class distinctions from where it originally evolved.

Nevertheless, there are people who excel in their managerial role -  ‘Management All-Stars’ with a desire to manage. Many relate this desire to manage to an early experience in life although clearly the trait of the person will dictate how such an experience is exploited and  although nurtured and fine tuned during life due to surroundings and stimulus, the basic traits are with you from birth. The Chess Grand Master, Bobby Fischer’s passion for puzzles was combined with endless hours of studying and playing chess. Born with this passion, Fischer became what he was and this was summed up by his rival, Garry Kaspsrov as ‘an innate gift’ .

So the answer to the question ‘Are managers born or made?’  -  they are made but the answer to the more pertinant question, are ‘good managers born or made?’ ; the answer is, without doubt, born.

Condensed extract from Paper

 presented by Daniel Staines

What Role Does Europe have in Shaping the Future of the UK Construction Market?

After 12 years of sustained growth, in the second quarter of 2008, the construction sector entered its worst economic downturn since the Second World War. This year’s Autumn Statement predicated economic growth to be -0.1%, down from 0.8% forecasted in the Spring budget and confidence in the construction business outlook is now the lowest for almost four years.  The CIPS Nov 2012 Index continues to show an ongoing subdued trend in output across the construction sectors of Housing, Commercial & Civil Engineering reflecting the UK economy as a whole. Furthermore, the UK Contractors Group (UKCG) have forecast output to fall by almost 6% over the next two years, before a return to growth in 2014/15 and identifies a bleak 12 month period ahead due to a lack of new projects replacing those recently completed; exacerbated by squeezed budgets and a rise in material and fuel costs.

Public new housing and public non-housing have been the worst hit sectors closely followed by the private industrial and private commercial sectors respectively with 49% of contractors reporting falls in profit margins.

The recession has already had a particularly large negative impact on the house-building sector with a fall from the £4.5bn in 2007/08 to approximately half this at the present time. Infrastructure expenditure, conversely, has continued to rise and is now approximately two thirds higher compared to that of 2007. Unfortunately, house building is invariably undertaken by UK firms whilst the larger infrastructure projects are undertaken by European or International companies. In addition, the UK sources £12 billion of construction materials from abroad whilst only exporting half of this – a net balance of £6 billion - 60-65% of this trade is with the Euro zone countries.

Clearly there is a need for the construction market to take advantage of any opportunities they can and whilst the Government are and, have been, implementing various initiatives and funding for the home grown market, the more robust companies at present are those who have looked to overseas markets. 

Compared to its European counterparts, the UK has suffered from a more pronounced decline in construction activity since the onset of the recession. In May 2011 the Cabinet Office published its Construction Strategy document. It noted that it was widely acknowledged that “the UK does not get full value from public sector construction” and that the Government had “failed to exploit the potential for public procurement of construction and infrastructure projects to drive growth”. 

The Government’s austerity measures have positively contributed to the confidence of the British Pound compared to the majority of the Euro zone but the UK economy remains fragile and the exposure of some of the major European suppliers with UK divisions adds an additional source of risk to any potential recovery.

In order to survive, the UK Construction sector must change and broaden its geographic horizons to prevent the North-South divide becoming a UK-Euro divide. If the government is to lift the economy out of recession quickly, it needs to ensure that it focuses clearly on public and private investment, rather than a series of announcements and initiatives that lead to very little activity. If it is to ensure that the path remains open to growth then it must encourage the industry to embrace the opportunities of Europe.

Success Breeds Success

There is graffiti on a wall in Pompeii dating back over 2000 years that says:

"Si quis stultus nihil aliud. Redderet enim" 

- If anyone wants something for nothing he is a fool. He should pay for it!-

Despite this early insight into the fundamental basis of monetary motivation the primary reason for the Empire's failure and entering the Dark Ages was a combination of a slave-based economy with a decentralized and inefficient trade system.

Human resources can be an organisation’s largest and most difficult to-control expense, but it can also be central to affecting organisational performance and as such is a key task for a company to manage in order to maximise productivity and enhance creativity whilst controlling costs.

High-performance work practices’ (HPWPs) include, for example, incentives, training, employee participation, selectivity, and flexible work arrangements. These HPWPs practices increase employees’ knowledge, skills and abilities resulting in greater job satisfaction, lower employee turnover, higher productivity, and better decision and subsequent increase in performance, all to the organisation’s benefit.  It can be shown that HPWPs improve organisational performance and studies have demonstrated that organisations can increase their performance by 20%.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has defined high-performance work places or organisations (HPWOs) as those that are moving towards a flatter and less hierarchical structure, where people work in teams with greater autonomy, based upon higher levels of trust and communication. It is the role of the HRM department to address these issues in the job design. A boring and monotonous job stifles motivation to perform well whereas a challenging job enhances motivation. Employee commitment and motivation have to be actively managed to ensure employees are attracted, motivated and retained and the old adage of ‘a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work’ is no longer enough to gain a competitive edge. Reward system management is usually associated with monetary values in terms of salaries and bonuses and money is the most motivating factor among most employees. It can, however, include non-financial rewards such as recognition, promotion, praise, achieve,met, responsibility and personal growth.

Belbin identified eight team ‘roles’ including Company Worker, Shaper, Chairmen etc with each role required to act at differing times throughout the groups development. Individuals can perform more than one role and the team selection is crucial and in particular the leaders, who must take an overview, anticipate problems, create an environment for success, and provide direction and vision and, most importantly, motivation. The establishment of the right balance in a team is an essential factor for success. 

Summary

Mia Hamm once quoted "I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it, and I sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion". By establishing HRM high-working performance working practices for all; an organisation can increase its productivity and enhance creativity whilst lowering costs and improve employee's job satisfaction and as Mia Hamm also quoted; "success breeds success".

Summarised Extract of Paper Presented April 2012

by D Staines CEng MIStructE

Week Ending 8th July 2012

The Government has abandoned the pre-2010 policy of trying to encourage house building through regional house building targets and instead house building is being encouraged through the New Homes Bonus, allowing the local authority to retain revenue from the council tax of new houses for six years.

The Government published the final version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in March stressing the need to encourage housebuilding but retaining the need for planning authorities to provide enough land for a rolling five years supply whilst adding the new requirement of an extra 5% "to ensure choice and competition in the market for land".

Although research in June 2011 suggested a major reduction in housing targets, especially in the South East And South West, here at JMS we certainly seem to be bucking the trend with the appointment for the design of the roads, drainage, foundations and superstructure on over 500 housing plots in June alone.

Planning has finally been achieved for the new hotel in Cambridge in which we carried out the preliminary designs at the beginning of the year. This hotel incorporates a large underground car-park and a concrete podium first floor deck with timber framing over. Due to the client's timetable, the design is being shared between our Midlands and Anglia office. This is the third hotel undertaken for this client with the first up to podium level in Ipswich and the Winchester project ready for tender.

Work load in the London sector is expanding faster than ever with a wide variety of work including three Synagogues, two mosques, refurbishment of the Muslim World League HQ building, new students bar for Anglian Ruskin University, two £5m+ houses in Hampstead Heath, apartment blocks, house extensions.....

Week Ending 24th June 2012

I have over 30 years of experience in the construction industry, my colleagues and employees all receive regular training and guidance, we employ an independent Safety Consulting firm but yet, before we are allowed to design a foundation or drainage scheme for a client (who no doubt has the same experience and awareness of construction  health & safety issues as ourselves), we still have to submit, for review, by a ‘qualified’ H&S  consultant, our procedures  on how we lift objects in the office! I am all for H&S in the work place and on site but for goodness sake, take a step back, take the blinkers off and get in the real world – anyway, I can see my wife struggling up the garden path with the grocery shopping – perhaps I should tell her to only carry two bags at time so she doesn’t put her back out otherwise how will she do the ironing!

Fire damaged project at Essex has finally ‘topped out’ after nearly two years. As a Grade Listed building, Conservation officers have been ‘interested’ from the start which has had to be balanced with the Client’s desire to squeeze as much accommodation into the apartments as possible. Anyway, all parties seem to be happy.

It seemed to be a week for housing and apartments as, following on from the appointment last week for the design of 120 houses in Hatfield we were appointed this week for 37 apartments in Kilburn, 24 houses in Lincolnshire, the design of a new, four storey concrete framed apartment block in London and the addition of four flats above an existing Working Man’s club in Edmonton. The highlight, however, must have been driving for two and half hours in the pouring rain in order to look down a hole with five others!

Week Ending 17th June 2012

Good week – started on a high and ended on a high. On Monday we found that we had been successful in our bid for the design of a new multi-million pound distribution centre in Bury St Edmunds and then on Friday we were appointed, out of the blue, as the Structural Engineers for a large apartment block in Northampton. This latter one is particularly pleasing as the client appointed based on our previous performance and didn’t even ask about our fee scale!

 Recently Completed Distribution Warehouse - Sudbury

Had a meeting mid week with the owner of a large manufacturing business of the SIPs (Structural Insulated Panel system) who we have being working with for the last three years. As they are looking double production over the next year, we discussed methods simplifying the design process as well as specifying a regime of testing for them. Unfortunately, few of practicing architects are aware of SIPs let alone the benefits of building in this modern material – luckily we are and I have even built my own garage from the stuff!

 My 'DIY' Garage

Quarry inspections still form a significant part of our work load with us providing nationwide training workshops for site managers and undertaking specific site inspections on a biannual basis - more often when vehicle impact or similar has arisen. Usually the plant is initially designed for a twenty year life but invariable the kit is modified or moved resulting in its life extended by at least twice this.

Week Ending 10th June 2012

Obviously, a significant part of the week was taken up with the bank holidays and the Queens Jubilee celebrations. Soner, from the London office braved the weather on Sunday and managed to get a good vantage point and some cracking shots of the Royal Barge complete with a decent London backdrop.

Meanwhile, back in the office, the week continued with the normal humdrum designs and details for roads, sewers and buildings which make up the staple diet of the consulting engineer. We did, however, manage to secure the appointment on a 120 house development in Hatfield with a new (national) client providing the designs for both the infrastructure and foundations. Should be an interesting one with a cut & fill exercise and foundations varying from standard trench fill through to piles, rafts and vibro.

On a smaller scale, once again we were called in to provide advice on how to improve on the inadequate temporary works being used on site. Although our staff spent Wednesday morning on a CDM refresher training course, it still appears that, when it comes to site, the rules, regulations and guidance continue to be ignored! On this one, two party wall surveyors, threat of high court legal action, police involvement and a dangerous structure notice all thrown into the mix.