Material and Inventory Management

Picture yourself owning a laboratory. You're not only required to consider your practice as a medical technologist, but also to be aware of the laboratory's inventory and materials. It is essential for you as an owner to be knowledgeable about material and inventory management. What are they, you ask? Well, let’s see.

Material management is the systematic process of overseeing and controlling the acquisition and utilization of supplies to ensure both availability and cost-effectiveness. First is the choice of instrument. When owning a laboratory, you will want an ideal instrument. But what factors should be considered in order to claim that a machine is ideal? Well, the bases for selection are use, longevity, and volume of the test, inherent accuracy, cost, expected downtime, and ease of operation. When you have already purchased one, you should be reminded about preventive maintenance and repair. Preventive maintenance is a very important ongoing accident-prevention activity while repair pertains to the action performed after the failure of equipment occurs. But isn’t it prevention is always better than cure? The same goes to preventive maintenance is always better than repair. You shouldn’t wait for your machine to be broken before doing anything. Plus, most of the time, repair is more costly.

With regards to inventory management, this is defined as the practice of overseeing and controlling of the ordering, storage and use of components that a company uses in the production of the items it sells. It is also the practice managing the quantities of finished products for sale. Successful inventory management involves creating purchasing plan to ensure that items are available when they are needed - but neither too much nor to little is purchased - and keeping track of existing inventory and its use. Two stock replenishment techniques are the minimum-maximum and just-in-time. In just-in-time method, companies plan to receive items as they are needed rather than maintaining high inventory levels. For minimum-maximum, it schedules material deliveries based on sales forecasts. Other than these, financial control is also associated with inventory. In management, the questions how much should be ordered and when one should order are considered.

After stating all of these considerations when owning a laboratory, hopefully it wouldn’t discourage one to own a lab but rather aid in one’s plans. 

Theories of Motivation

Every time I unlock my phone, a phrase of motivation is what I read. Somehow, it helps me get through a tough day I encounter at school. But there are other forms of motivation; it may be encouragement from my family and friends, or just by remembering why am I at such situation. In management, having a reason for doing things is essential in order to have satisfaction in the end. This is so important that even honorable persons made theories regarding this. And that’s my main idea for this blog.

To start, motivational theories can be divided into two broad groups: content theories, which is associated with internal forces, and process models, which is involves the external stimuli. For the content theories, we have Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Alderfer’s ERG needs theory, Herzberg’s two factor theory, and McClelland’s achievement motivation. Between these four, the one we’re most familiar with is the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If you don’t remember what’s it about, well I’m here to discuss. In addition, I’ll discuss the others plus those under the process models, including Vroom’s expectancy theory, Adam’s equity theory, and Skinner’s reinforcement theory. So, here we go.

In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it states that the primary need take priority and must be satisfied before the secondary needs can be pursued. The division of the said needs includes the physiological, safety, love or belongingness, esteem and self-actualization. In the primary needs, it contains physical and biological needs that are essential to life, like food, water and warmth. For the secondary needs, these are wants, acquired needs and desires, including safety, love and creativity. As it was stated, the physiological needs to be accomplished first before the secondary need are obtained. As the process goes on, self-actualization is the final destination, wherein we have already reached our full potential of human being. If you want to reach this point, just start from the bottom. In Alderfer’s ERG needs theory, it condenses the 5 divisions of Maslow’s hierarchy needs into three: existence needs (safety, physiological), relatedness needs (love or belongingness, esteem), and growth needs (esteem, self-actualization). Another main difference between the two theories is that unlike Maslow’s, Alderfer’s theory allows a person to be operating at different levels at the same time. For Herzberg’s theory, two groups of factors are dependent on each other. These are the hygiene factors (job security, work conditions) which prevents job dissatisfaction, and motivators (authority, responsibility), which stimulate employees to strive for superior performance. With McClelland’s achievement motivation theory, it states that the strength of a specific motive is directly linked to the opportunities offered by the situation. Dominant factors may be achievement (strong need to set and accomplish all goals), affiliation (likeness to belong to a group), and power (wants to control and intervene others). So, what do you think is your dominant motivator? Well, I think I have already encountered people with the mentioned types.

Now, to simply explain Vroom’s expectancy theory, let’s think first that humans are rational and thinking beings, who act in anticipation of their own efforts. There is a belief that effort brings performance, and performance leads to rewards. A person chooses to make an effort, because he expects that in the end, he will be rewarded. Like in the case of courting, a man decides to court the person he likes, and expects that they will end up being together. For Adam’s equity theory, key concepts are comparison and perception. It tackles fairness, wherein input is equal to output. Just picture two workers with the same boss. The one is being praised more often compared to the other, though the underrated worker thinks that he places the same efforts, but is being unnoticed. He will then get demotivated because he feels that his efforts are not being fairly rewarded. In Skinner’s reinforcement theory, it tackles the law of effect, wherein we act in response to the expected consequences. Stimulus leads to response, leading either to the action to be increased in frequency, or reduced (in the case of punishment).

As I have shared all the theories of motivation by famous social scientists, I think you're very much aware now about the essentials of motivation. Well, in all aspects, we want to be more productive with the help of getting motivated. At a simple level, people do things for a reason, but keep in mind that it is different for each person. 

Communication: a Two-Way Process

First off, I’ll be raising query: What is communication? You may be picturing a group of people gossiping, or even two persons talking on the phone. Simple! But really, there’s more to it. Communication does not only cover the act of discussing a topic to the other person. It's broader. How? Well, I’ll be tackling about it, so stay with me, alright?

Merriam-Webster dictionary simply defines communication as an act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc. to someone else. Note the words sounds, signs and behaviors. Most of the time, we generally think that communication involves words but we barely recognize that every sounds we produce and every actions we do, it will be interpreted by other people. We’re like indirectly saying something to them without us knowing, and even them being aware of it. In order to understand it more, I’ll give an example. Let’s say there is this couple that has been together for 2 years. In their first year of dating, the guy continually give surprises to her partner, but then stops in the long run. The boy intentionally acts uninterested, and so the girl will interpret it that the guy wanted to break up. With this, there is communication. The guy sent his message through his actions, and the girl was able to recognize and understood it. That’s what we call body language. But I’m not saying to be too sensitive, paranoid and overreact. It doesn’t mean when your crush gives you a candy, he’s actually saying he likes you. No, we still have the clarification of message, which will be part of what I will be discussing next. For the meantime, I’m just saying that we should be aware that actions could serve as words.

Now, since we have already recognized that communication is very broad, let’s chop the elements to be considered in communication. We have the sender, message, mode of transmission, receiver, decoding, feedback and clarification of message. I’ll link these six with regards to management. First, management is defined as working with and through people to accomplish a common mission. In here, management is being referred to as a purposive activity, working with and through people, so that the main objective of the people involved is attained. How will they do this? One word answer: communication. For an instance, the boss is the sender of a message, wanting to command his employee. It will be transmitted to the employee, the receiver, through a phone. The employee will then decode it but he will further ask since he wanted to clarify his task. That’s what should happen ideally. What about barriers? 

Barriers to communication are ample. These involve structural, semantics, technical, people and outcome. In the structural barrier, we have the organization’s design, size of the physical plant, number of employees and managers and etc. In semantics, it is associated with denotation (dictionary meaning of the word) and connotation (individual’s perspective of the word). With technical barriers, it covers those defect in the equipment, in the medium and in the environment. Example is when you’re at a party and you’re trying to talk to someone. There may be miscommunication since of too much noise. For the people barrier, it includes the individual difference in background and views. Lastly for the outcome, this is when the receiver cannot perform the required task. So all of the things mentioned should be critically considered if we really want to say we have a successful communication.

As I have already delineated this topic, I’ll be now ending my blog. To conclude, I’ll repeat the meaning of management: “Working with and through people to accomplish a common mission.” How? Through successful communication.

Principles of Leadership

With great power comes great responsibility - Spider-Man

I think all of us have already encountered this famous quote (if not, you’re living in a cave for so long). Why have I mentioned this phrase? Well, I’ll be associating it with this blog’s topic - principles of leadership. Here it goes..

First things first, let’s first differentiate managing and leading. Leaders are defined to have people follow them while managers have people who work for them. In order to have a successful business, an owner needs to be both a strong leader and a manager to get there team on board to follow them towards their vision of success. In here, let’s focus on leadership. In order to stand this word more, I’ll be delineating some of the principles regarding it.

The managerial grid, developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton, shows the relationship between a concern to people and concern for production. What does this mean? I’ll ask you; once you own your own business, would you prioritize in focusing the task at hand to accomplish the company’s objective or you’d rather spend more time in understanding the strengths and interests of your workers so that you’ll have great working relationship with them? In managerial grid, it simply implies that some leaders have greater concern for people than results, and vice versa, some have greater concern for results than people. However, some leaders are also weak in both aspects, but in the bright side, some may be great in both of them (the latter being the more ideal one).  

In the pygmalion effect of Douglas McGregor, it pertains to expectations and effect. First, we have this theory X and theory Y. For theory X, the leader  believes that employees have no ambition and have little interest in improving their skills. For theory Y, leaders perceive that employees are self-learners and have their own purpose of working. Though the meaning is frank and simple, I’ll give an instance with this. Imagine yourself as a leader, with two group members. Without really knowing them since the three of you just met, you initially make your own concept on how they work. If you think that they are really great, you’ll get higher expectations and assign more tasks to them, thus increase in performance. But if you think that they are just lazy, you didn’t entrust them with anything, leading to a decrease in performance. In here, perception leads to expectation, which leads to performance.

Every manager needs to be able to make good decisions. However, single decision-making process fits every scenario. So in Vroom-Yetton normative theory, it offers a number of different processes and directs one toward the best decision at a specific situation. There are five decision making-processes that are described by the model, including autocratic 1, autocratic 2, consultative 1, consultative 2 and collaborative. As a leader, it is stated that a leader could adjust into any of the leadership style to meet the particular circumstance given to the staffs.

The three principles explained regard the type of leaders one could be. To give more emphasis, when choosing the type of leadership style to follow, keep in mind the quotation by Peter F. Ducker: "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” 

Concepts of Authority

Before I directly spill my topic for today, I’ll let you guess it for me first. Clue? Trust and commitment. Now where do you think these two are required? No, I’m not implying these with relationships. Rather, I’m implying these with delegation of authority. Yes, trust and commitment as a foundation are not only for relationships but it can also be found in management.

Authority is the empowerment by formal job classification - make commitments and act behalf the organization. In the delegation of theory, as it was mentioned a while ago, it requires trust, commitment and contracting between supervisors and employee. It pertains to the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person in order to carry out a special task. To understand it further, I’ll provide two examples, wherein the second one is related to management.

As a working mom, you’re too busy to look after your children. Though it will be hard for you, you’ll entrust your responsibility of taking care of them to a nanny. However, if something wrong happens to them, you are still held responsible because in the first place, you should be the one taking care of them, not the nanny. Though I understand you’re working your butt off just to give them a good future, still you’re their mom.

Now with regards to management, imagine you’re the boss and you wanted to take a day off, scheduling a trip out of town. However, on that day, you will be meeting with a very important person to make a business deal with. So you assigned your secretary to prepare because he’ll be the one who’ll go on the meeting. Unfortunately, the talk didn’t go too well. You can’t blame your secretary of what happened for the reason that you are still accountable of the outcome.

I’ll end up this blog with a quote that I think everyone should always be reminded with. As Haile Selassie said: There is no power or authority without responsibility, and he who accepts the once cannot escape or evade the other.

Management - Working With and Through People to Accomplish a Common Mission

This is a phrase from our discussion that struck me the most, so I have decided to use this as my main idea for my first blog. First of all, why this phrase? Well, the phrase says it all. As we go through the process in attaining a goal, we apparently work with people who could not only just serve as helping hands but also our key to success. Though in our discussion, it pertains to “management”, more likely; it can also be linked in our day-to-day life. As for me, this is essential (may be a gold standard) that this group of words are engraved in my mind because I am a not only a student, but also a leader that is.

I’ll start off by delineating the phrase with management, and I’ll end up by connecting it with my experience. So I'll repeat: “Working with and through people to accomplish a common mission.” In here, management is being referred to as a purposive activity, working with and through people, so that the main objective of the people involved is attained. In management, it functions in PODC (planning, organizing, directing and controlling). Just think of it this way, if a business runs without any boss to listen to, any plan to follow with, and any companions to be guided with, would you think it would be okay? Well, it’s definitely a no! You have to agree with me that it will be a total chaos. The same goes if a person try to work by himself, no boss to listen to,  no plans to follow with, and no companions to be guided with, so would it be okay? The descriptions mentioned may be ideal for someone who is independent. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that. But why try to isolate yourself from people who have the same mission as yours, when you know for a fact that they may help you to achieve a perfect business? Yes, you may be able to go through challenges thrown at your business, but wouldn’t it be better if people having the same purpose as yours are aiding you? After all, we’re all humans, we get tired and worn out, and by being alone won’t help.

Akin for me, as I have mentioned, I am a student and a group leader in our class. My classmates and I have the same mission of graduating and becoming Registered Medical Technologists someday (hopefully). Though confidently, I know to myself that I am an independent person, I still acknowledge the fact that we have to work together if we want our road to be as swiftly as possible (I’m not talking about cheating here, just to be clear). So again, the definition of management, which goes “Working with and through people to accomplish a common mission.”, should then be ideally observed.