Entry 1: The Manager

My interview was with an operations manager from Campaign Complete Solutions Company. My interviewee is Mr Ragunathan.

Mr Ragunathan, an operations manager working with CapitaLand started working with Campaign Cleaning Services in 1998 as a supervisor. The building that he was assigned to be in charge of was a prestigious building by the name of Raffles City Shopping Center. Though it was an honor to look after a Shopping Centre which many people come to and is one of the busier ones in town, Mr Ragunathan felt that it was a heavy responsibility and that it was his rightful duty to look after the building well and delegate necessary jobs properly in order to maintain order and smooth progression in the Shopping Centre.

In year 2006, based on his good performance and recommendation from the Raffles City management, he was promoted as an Operation Manager. Being an operation manager meant that he had more duties to fulfill than a supervisor. Nevertheless, he readily took on the job. It has been about 3 years since Mr Ragunathan has been given the post of an operations manager.

Mr Ragunathan felt that a manager was to understand very well the product and services that the company is into. Once it was understood, it would make the objective clearer and delivering it will be meaningful. Therefore, he had taken the approach of understanding his job in order to get it done well.

As a manager, Mr Ragunathan had several duties which include:

• To ensure the building cleanliness being taken care off.
  
• To have a preventive and corrective maintenance in place
  
• To oversees 88 cleaners and 6 supervisors
  
• To ensure materials and chemical stocks in place
  
• To ensure the machine and equipment in order
  
• To coordinate assignment with Raffles City management representative
  
• To ensure proper training for cleaners and supervisors
  
• To attend meeting with company head office.

In order to manage this company, Mr Ragunathan has to have a certain style. Based on the interview I had with him and the different management styles that I have been taught, I feel that Mr Ragunathan’s style of management is classical management- administrative management and human relations.

Firstly, administrative management is observed as Mr Ragunathan follows Henry Fayol’s 14 principles quite closely. According to him, he believes in understanding the work before doing it in order to accomplish it well. Mr Ragunathan believed in explaining and providing reasoning as he noticed that it is with reasoning that there would be better outcomes. He also stresses that there must be a systematic approach in handling the situation or project in order for it to be in place. For instance, if there are VIP visit, he feels that it would always be good if the timing and the expectation was provided, thus the follow up will be in accordance to the expectation.

Secondly, he also follows the human relations school of management as he believes that the productivity is also affected by the people. As mentioned in the Hawthorne Studies, productivity is affected by the human aspects of work and not the physical conditions. He also believes in motivating the workers in order for them to do a better job and it would also make them enjoy doing their work. In Herzberg’s Hygiene and Motivator Factors, it mentions that the management must recognize a dual typology of employee needs in order to maintain job satisfaction. This branches out into two parts namely, hygiene, which is the physical working environment and motivators which are namely recognition and achievements.

Mr Ragunathan handles 88 cleaners and 6 supervisors under his management. This is not an easy task as he needs to understand his worker’s behaviour. Handling human behaviour to him is a challenge. As most of his workers are from the golden age, he feels that he must be careful in handling them as they might be a little more sensitive than usual or that they might not be as fit as others. Therefore, facing each and individual cleaners working style, attitude, health, and welfare will be the toughest. Thus Mr Ragunathan feels that knowing their background will be of great help.

Mr Ragunathan concluded that in order to be a good manager, he personally feels the person must have a few requirements which should be met in order to manage the company successfully. And naming few are as follows:

• The person must understand company objective and goals
  
• Good inter personal communication,
  
• Presentable and approachable, knowledgeable
  
• Good motivator, care and share
  
• Positive, work safety and health concern