To complete this entry, my aunt has kindly allowed me an interview with her, despite her busy work schedule. Let me first thank her for being my life-saver. Here is a little information about her before we get started:
Name: Nancy Ang
Age: 39
Designation: Finance Manager
Company: Instone Singapore
Since she does not want her photo 'displayed to the whole world' up here, I shall give a brief description. She is a fair-skinned, long-haired brunette with a petite body frame. She wears spectacles when it comes down to serious business. When I interviewed her last weekend, she was casually clad in t-shirt and shorts. Other times, it is formal skirts, blouses, dresses and trousers for her.
So what does a Finance Manager do? For my aunt, she has a team of 6 under her supervision in the Finance department. Her job responsibilities, briefly stated, include preparing financial statements, monitoring the company's cash flow and cost control. Besides the routine financial tasks, she is also currently acting as the HR person for her department. Which means that jobs such as hiring new staff, staff welfare and benefits and payroll now fall under her already tight work scope.
"I prefer my staff to be participative. I want them to think when they do work, and not follow blindly, i.e. 'What the boss say is always right'. It's important that you communicate with your staff because then you would know what they're thinking and what problems they're facing."
From there, I could tell that my aunt's management style inclined towards that of the Human Relations, to be exact, Theory Z. While she believes that open communication is important, a certain level of authority should still be prominent within the department.
"During office hours, I definitely expect them to work; I expect them to perform. Outside, I treat my staff like friends."
She also said that the strong team spirit of her department has allowed them to be more efficient and productive all together.
However, nothing is flawless. Despite the camaraderie, there are still certain problems she faced as a manager. The top 2 problems she is facing now are:
- Most of her staff now are not accounting-trained
- She can't find permanent fully-trained workers
How she dealt with the first and second problem is by teaching the temporary staff accounting herself, starting from scratch. And if they are really interested and keen on learning accounting properly, she lets them go for accounting courses, which are subsidised for by the company. She also practises job rotation in her department. After 1 or 2 years, she switches the job roles for each of her staff and gets them to 'cross-train' each other.
"In this way, they can get in touch with the different aspects of accounting, which in turn increases their market value. Also, in the event that a colleague is on leave, there will be another who can cover for him/her."
I thought that this was a really smart move.
To try to prolong the staying period of her staff, she tries to have more company events and outings. This is to get the staff to mingle and create a sense of belonging to the company.
"I'll select a few of my staff to be the organisers of these events; get them to interact and participate in the decision-making process. Hopefully, it would build up on the team spirit."
In her opinion, what makes a good manager is:
- One who is open-minded and receptive
- One who listens and make changes for the better
- One who respects her staff and treat them as equals
- One who is firm, at the same time, and abides by company's policies
- One who could balance staff's welfare and company's interests well
"In the past, it's a top-down approach (boss says, staff listen). Now, it's a two-way approach, the manager is the bridge between the staff and the management."
"Being a manager isn't an easy task," she added, at the end of the interview. I could not agree more.
(P.S. This is my first blog entry in the entire 17 years of my life. MMP, you have powers that no one else has.)
