How to be a top manager

Dr Peter Murray with Masters students

After managing million-dollar profit centres for companies such as Union Carbide and KFC Australia, Dr Peter Murray now teaches Masters of International Business students from all over the world how to become top managers.

A Senior Lecturer in Business and Human Resource Management at Macquarie University, Murray teaches knowledge management and facilitates students’ understanding of how organisations learn using case studies, role-play and videos of interesting examples.

Murray’s industry experience has taught him that what people in organisations discover for themselves is far more valuable than what’s imposed on them, and that the inter-relationship between individuals, teams and the company is basic to such learning. 

Organisational learning

“Organisational learning is about how to manage the future by leveraging resources such as people, physical and capital resources, and technology,” Murray says.

He says it’s first necessary to recognise strengths, and how people deal with challenges such as communication, conflict and performance measures. To assess how people at different levels fit together, a team learning instrument (TLI) can be used. Then audits can be conducted, and the results incorporated into an improved TLI.

To conduct the audit, people within an organisation at all levels fill out the same questionnaire. Then in consultation with decision makers, ideal and actual levels of learning are mapped, and the top management team has a better idea of where potential output could be improved, and how the organisation might usefully develop.

What has worked?

There are different ways of sharing to deal with uncertainty, says Murray. To solve really complex problems, sometimes boundaries have to be tested.

“We need to allow people to have their say, and find creative ways of tapping into their ideas,” he says.

An example of productive creativity is how teams came up with the idea of the Swatch watch. In the early 1980s, the Swiss were losing their commanding position in the watch industry. They were under threat from cheaper products from manufacturers in places such as Japan. By reducing the parts in a watch from 350 to 50, and using a plastic moulding process, costs were dramatically reduced without loss of time-keeping quality.

Research and learning

Murray says a grant to set up TLIs with top management teams, and to establish their credibility through use is now being extended into key organisations. Eventually, tested and improved, it will be available on the Web.

To find about more about Murray’s work, contact him at peter.murray@mq.edu.au

The Department of Business website is at www.bus.mq.edu.au

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