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Security Financial Corporation based out of South Carolina is a financial institution that does personal loans and tax preparation. They have been in business since 1955. Their web site tells the story of the founder and why he started the business. “The vision of the Companies' founder, Jesse L. Bridges, was to fulfill the financial needs of people in the community and provide superior service while doing so. After serving in the United States Navy, Mr. Bridges returned to the land his grandparents farmed in rural South Carolina.
Bartering was the only form of credit he knew growing up on a farm, until he found a job as an assistant manager with a consumer finance company located in Spartanburg, SC. His goal with this job was to save enough money to be able to help his grandmother who had raised him and then finish his college education at a local college. When he was offered the job as manager, Mr. Bridges decided to put his college plans on hold.
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He enjoyed working with his customers, so after several years, his new dream was to start his own company. He found several investors and borrowed money to pursue his dream. Mr. Bridges opened the first office of Security Finance on Church Street in Spartanburg, SC in October 1955.” (www.securityfinance.com, 2018) The tradition of customer relationships continues today and is at the forefront of their thousands of offices. The managers are trained to fulfill the needs of their clients in a friendly and efficient way.
There are four main principles of management that leader use to manage a business.
The branches of the Security Finance locations all have a manager and often an assistant manager. The type of management style will depend on the manager’s personal style and their employees. Planning is done by the regional and corporate managers and then the managers at the branch level. This is known as a centralized management structure. In centralized type structures, (Robbins, 2018)Robbins, “a centralized structure has the upper level managers making decisions that are passed to the lower level managers and supervision.” The plans for this type of business are goals set for loans paid out to individual clients. The employees use a white board and put their names and the number they have reached. Maxine Clark, a manager at the Gladewater, Texas branch said, “the corporate and regional level managers would come in with plans for goals and we would have meetings with employees to pass the information to them.” She went on to say” I like to make it a friendly competition to motivate my employees to perform better.”In an article by Steve Goldstein President of Engaged Leadership Advisors titled “Why the Best Office Cultures Encourage Both Teamwork and Competition Some businesses encourage competition while others promote teamwork.
Here are why the best teams have both.” Steve says “During the past decade, many leaders have begun to realize that both teamwork and competition are critical to success. How can these two traits coexist in the same office? It seems like a blatant contradiction. However, for a business to thrive, its leaders need to encourage a balance of coworker collaboration and a drive for personal growth.” Mr. Goldstein is talking about encouraging teamwork through cross-functionality. He says it is important to maintain open communication with employees and make it fun. The idea is reaching the organizations goals.
All managers must organize tasks and daily assignments, schedules and work load for their employees. At security finance, this is done at branch level by the manager. Each week the manager will go over the goals and plans and develop an organized case load and list for each employee. The manager also must look to see if anyone is having difficulty meeting their goals. Maxine Clark explained that “if an employee is having trouble reaching their goals, I find someone that they work well with to help them.” This type of organizing, uses team work to unify the branch and helps everyone make their goals. “Sometimes, she said, they just need a little help, but I like to see everyone succeed.”Most of the branches have around 4 full time employees. This requires the manager to use some part time employees to fill in. The manager also must cover lunches sometimes. “Organization is key to the success of the business,” Maxine said. “Many people come in to pay their bill at lunch, so I have to make sure someone is going to be there.” There is also a need for coverage during vacations and sick days. So, organizing schedules must be done to be sure the work will get done.
Leading people can be challenging, but being a function of a manager, it is necessary to be able to lead employees. Once goals are set, plans are organized, and they are set into motion, the manager must lead everyone to accomplish the goals. During the week at Security finance there are people to call, collections, and starting new loans and taking payments on existing loans. This requires all the employees to do their part to insure the office is running smoothly. A good manager should have people that can handle the day to day office tasks without her/him. Maxine Clark said, “I am different than some managers. I do not mind training a good employee to do all the jobs in the office. A lot of managers are afraid to do this, but I think it’s great that someone can do several different jobs. It frees me up for my other duties and it helps them if they want to move up. I have had several of my employees go on to manage their own facilities.” Maxine was referring to something Robbins and Coulter call cross -functional training (p.430), where employees are trained to be able to do many different tasks. Maxine being a more transformational styled leader believed that by cross-training her team members could fill multiple roles in her branch. This gives them some autonomy and helps the manager to be able to do more of their work. Some managers may be threatened by this but ultimately this mentoring style is a way to help people develop their skills. This is ultimately what a good manager needs to do if employees are to be successful.
When a manager has planned, organized, and found their leadership style, they must then maintain the momentum by controlling. Controlling is the last principle of management and possibly the most difficult to maintain. In Robbins, Coulter (p.595), Management14E, managers must control whether goals that were established during the planning process are being carried out efficiently as planned. In this process, on (p.597). Coulter, Robbins explain that there are three steps to ascertain whether the plan is working. They are Measuring, Comparing, and Correcting if deviations are found in the plan.Maxine explained that when her group was having trouble following the plan and reaching goals, she and her other staff would jump in and make calls and help that individual. “As a manager, I felt partly responsible for the success of my staff. I was not above staying after and helping my people catch up on their tasks.” This type of management is discussed in Management 14E (p.562), Coulter, Robbins, as “The Path-Goal model. Developed by Robert House (Contingency or Transactional Leadership Theory Year: 1971, revised in 1996) who developed the theory with four basic leadership behaviors these were Directive Leader, Participative leader, Supportive leader and Achievement oriented leader. Maxine’s style leaned toward supportive leader, but she was also by nature Achievement oriented. In Pearson’s PIA exercise titled Emotional Intelligence, the survey asks a series of questions to see where a person’s emotional intelligence level is. The theory of emotional intelligence is to gauge impulse control, emotions and feelings. This is important in a manager’s job.
ConclusionIn conclusion, many might think that a manager at a small finance company is not important. This is simply not true. One person can make a big difference in customers lives as well as their employees lives. Maxine wanted to be a manager to help change a small piece of her world. She trained many people who are out carrying on the teaching she started. Managing a business is just part on being a manager. The true litmus test comes when you are planning, organizing, leading and controlling the people that make up the organization.
Security Financial Corporation: Principles Of Management. (2024, Feb 27). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/security-financial-corporation-principles-of-management-essay
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