Management Report on PwC - Final

Management Functions in Action
L o r n a M c D o n a l d – H e l e n a G u i n e v a n
2015
Management Functions
in Action
A view into PwC
DBS – Student Assignment

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Contents
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................................................................2
AIMS............................................................................................................................................................................................................................2
MANAGEMENT – A DEFINITION............................................................................................................................................................................2
PWC IRELAND – A COMPANY OVERVIEW ...........................................................................................................................................................3
PLANNING..................................................................................................................................................................................................................4
ASIMPLE SWOTOF PWC IRELAND...........................................................................................................................................................................4
ABASIC SWOT KEN MIGHTDO .................................................................................................................................................................................5
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES............................................................................................................................................................................................5
MISSION AND VISION.................................................................................................................................................................................................5
Mission .............................................................................................................................................................................................................5
Vision ................................................................................................................................................................................................................6
CORPORATELEVEL STRATEGYOF THEORGANISATION ..................................................................................................................................................6
OPERATIONAL / BUSINESS LEVEL STRATEGY ................................................................................................................................................................7
FUNCTIONAL LEVEL STRATEGY....................................................................................................................................................................................7
ORGANISATION ........................................................................................................................................................................................................8
AREPRESENTATION OF PWC’S ORG CHART (SIMPLIFIED)............................................................................................................................................8
CULTURE...................................................................................................................................................................................................................9
COMMUNICATION..................................................................................................................................................................................................10
LEADING ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................11
CONTROLLING........................................................................................................................................................................................................16
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................................................................................18
THEORY - V – PRACTICE..........................................................................................................................................................................................18
AFUTURE IN MANAGEMENT...................................................................................................................................................................................18
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................................................................................................20

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Introduction
This report will discuss the functions of management in action in a working environment. Ken O’Brien, a Tax
Director with 20 years’ service in PwC Ireland, took part in an interview to help furnish this report with his expertise
and knowledge of management and leadership in a large firm. Through the use of both primary and secondary
data sources this report will help show how Planning, Organisation, Leading and Control are used in PwC
Ireland.
Aims
The aim of the report is to give the reader an insight into how the functions planning, organisation, leading
and control are applied in a large firm. The report will give an overview of PwC Ireland and its associated
global network showing the services it provides, the type of clients and business it engages in and where
they are positioned in the market. There are four main sections to the report, each addressing one of the four
functions mentioned and through the information gathered from Ken and secondary research done on PwC
Ireland, the authors will show how each function effects the overall organisation. Charts, graphs and
diagrams will also be used to show different tools used to carry out these functions. Finally conclusions will
be drawn from the analysis and the authors will make comments and recommendations if any are found.
Management – a definition
“Management in businesses and organizations is the function that coordinates the efforts of people to
accomplish goals and objectives by using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management
includes planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization to accomplish
the goal”
(http://www.ijirt.org/vol1/paperpublished/IJIRT101009_PAPER.pdf)

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PwC Ireland – a company overview
PwC Ireland is one of the Big 4 professional services firms in Ireland, joining them are Deloitte & Touche,
Ernst & Young (EY) and KPMG, but PwC are the largest of these in Ireland made up of over 100 partners,
with total revenues of over €300 million (all-Ireland) and employing over 2800 staff. They offer a broad
range of services through audit, tax and advisory.
2,800
...people employed in PwC across
the island of Ireland
8
...offices in Ireland (including our
Northern Ireland offices)
34
...different nationalities
in the Irish firm
PwC maintains the highest values and standards of business behaviour, their reputation is anchored in their
professionalism, ethics and excellence of service they strive to demonstrate and embrace every day. Their
values and code of conduct encapsulate the way they do business every day – within the firm, with their
clients, suppliers and communities at large in which they are involved in.
Code of conduct
 Framework for ethical decision making
 Upholding the PwC name
 Our responsibilities
 Behaving professionally
 Corporate citizenship
 Respecting others
Globally the PwC network is a diverse organisation and one of the largest employers in the world, with the
expertise of over 180,000 staff from around the world across 158 countries, all committed to delivering
quality and creating value for their clients. They are second only to Deloitte, who became the largest
accounting firm on the planet, just pipping PwC to take the top spot in 20141. Their aim is to create the best
value for clients by constantly attracting and nurturing the best talent. They employ motivated and
energetic people from a variety of backgrounds - arts, business, engineering, finance and law - who ensure
the clients receive the depth and breadth of insight and perspective required to negotiate an increasingly
complex global environment
1 (http://www.big4.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/The-2014-Big-Four-Firms-Performance-Analysis-Big4.com-Jan-2015.pdf

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Planning
“Planning is an ongoing step and can be highly specialized based on organizational goals, division goals,
departmental goals, and team goals. It is up to the manager to recognize which goals need to be planned within
his or her individual area.”
(http://study.com/academy/lesson/four-functions-of-management-planning-organizing-leading-controlling.html)
Planning is a big part of every business, not just the firm’s larger picture or the annual or six monthly plans,
but every day plans. Ken said that as a director his daily plans are structured 80% strategic and 20% tactical,
other managers down the line would be more tactical and less strategic. Strategically Ken needs to develop
the business, this is done through daily news updates on existing and potential clients, monitoring the
markets and being generally aware of what’s going on around them. Business is also developed cross-
divisionally and by word of mouth, Ken could come across a business opportunity for the consulting side of
the business and vice versa, a consultant may come across an opportunity that Ken could expand and
develop. This is one of the strengths of PwC not just in Ireland but globally.
Tactically Ken would be concerned with things like staffing levels, who’s out sick or on leave, what projects
or jobs are in the pipeline and which staff would be best suited, which international clients are calling, what
time zones are they in and making sure the right person is in the office to answer the call. Succession
planning is a constant part of Ken’s plan also, he needs to be keenly aware of the current level of staff
knowledge and experience and what needs to be done if those levels changed. Ken offered the following
simplified SWOT analysis of PwC Ireland in general and one he may do for himself.
A simple SWOT of PwC Ireland
Strengths Weaknesses
 Staff
 PwC brand & network
 Good Culture
 Communication (inter-business)
 Partners fully invested in developing business
 Scale of the firm (potentially inflexible
 All partners are equal and therefore need to be
heard, can make decisions making slow
 Slow to adapt
Opportunities Threats
 Cultivate staff knowledge and experience
 Use of ‘Hotspots’ (ref Lynda Gratton)
 Stereotyped - ‘all the Big 4 are the same’

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A basic SWOT Ken might do
Strengths Weaknesses
 Existing staff
 Good dynamic, good reputation
 Good knowledge base, understanding of business
 Diligent
 Managing time in respect of people engagement
 Stronger staff members potentially getting more
jobs as they may have a higher knowledge and
completion rate
Opportunities Threats
 Developing new ideas
 Cultivating staff knowledge & experience
 Researching new clients
 Awareness of environment
 Loosing staff
Goals and Objectives
Goal setting and having objectives are an essential part of planning if you don’t have a clear vision of where
you want to go than no other amount of planning will matter. Every organisation will set short term goals
and objectives on a regular basis within teams, divisions and for the organisation as a whole but the bigger
long term goals and objectives, the ones that are at the core of any business can nearly always be found
within the Mission Statement or Vision Statement of that organisation.
Mission and vision
The following is a mission statement for PwC in general, not specifically for Ireland but none the less
relevant to driving their business goals
Mission
The PwC mission is to deliver a fair and clarified auditing service, in order to improve presentation of
financial information and therefore helping the company gain trust from investors.
They follow three main principles which they base their work on, which are:
Integrity Intelligence Innovation
The company's values are:
Teamwork Excellence Leadership

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Vision
 Through their strong work ethic they hope to gain recognition throughout the world.
 They are looking for people who are professional and able to adapt to the market in different
situations, as well as following the company's work ethic, to have a leading role in our operations.
 All workers are adequate for their job, are knowledgeable and can offer international expertise.
 They apply their best practice in all areas of governance and always maintain transparency.
 Our goal is to be a leading participant in the process of establishing Spanish and international
accounting and auditing standards, as well as playing a major role in them.
 We will be a firm in which all partners and employees feel motivated in their work and proud of their
involvement.
 We are specialized in many sectors and we like to foment the participation of young people in the
company.
(http://pwce3.blogspot.ie/2011/11/mission-and-vision-pwc.html)
Corporate level strategy of the organisation
PwC is a knowledge business and what differentiates them is how they use and apply that knowledge for the
benefit of their clients This is obviously driven by the ability and calibre of staff to take this accumulated
knowledge and, through their skills, experience and personal insights, use this in whatever way most
effectively delivers on the clients' needs. The need to hire, retain and reward these people drives corporate
strategy and the biggest element of this is therefore engaging with people.
It's not just about money, it's hugely about giving people the opportunity to work on the best clients and the
best projects, in a genuinely global network enabling everyone to easily work across borders, providing the
best workplace and facilities, the best career development and the best training.
Ken added, “Once you have that in place you can deliver the client strategy - i.e. work with clients not just
as advisors or as technical gurus who know all about, for instance, tax law, (because any of the big 4 can
probably do that) but as business partners who think in terms of the clients' business issues broadly rather
than in any specific and narrow area, who innovate and put themselves in the clients' shoes when thinking
about how to address their business issues.”

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Operational / Business level strategy
From an operational perspective PwC look to develop their business by constantly engaging with clients and
targets, listening to them to try to better understand their needs and structuring their business to deal with
that. This is both in terms of how they structure their teams operationally and how they develop their service
offerings and solutions.
Functional level strategy
PwC have a leadership structure that splits their lines of service and has lead Partners in place to drive these.
Within these lines of service are the Partner and Director led client facing teams. Alongside this and
providing support to the leadership team and the client facing teams are the functional areas such as HR,
Finance, IT, Risk, Legal, Infrastructure etc - all Partner led functions that would be mirrored in any large
corporate with appropriate teams supporting core client facing operations. The strategy essentially is to
enable the client facing teams to focus on business development and service delivery with ready access to all
relevant back office support and resources. It's regarded as essential to get this right, so there is substantial
investment in these support areas, both in terms of people and other infrastructure and resources to ensure
that the front end functions are fully supported and to ensure proper reporting, governance, risk management
etc. that would be expected in a firm such as this.

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Organisation
“Organising can be thought of as assigning the tasks developed in the planning stages, to various individuals or groups
within the organization. Organising is to create a mechanism to put plans into action.”
(https://managementinnovations.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/define-management-its-functions)
PwC has a tall, hierarchical structure for reporting lines but operates more as a cross functional, almost flat
style structure in its operations. The business areas are both Partner and Director led but not all partners
would be as hands on as the directors which is why the org chart is styled in the below manner, also the
other operational areas such as HR, Finance, IT, Risk etc. fall within the three main business areas. In order
to draw up a visual aid to use in this report the org structure was stripped back to its most basic form
A representation of PwC’s Org Chart (simplified)
PwC is a large partnership with over 100 partners; it is not a corporate entity although it may appear as one
sometimes. With its size and structure the question of whether it should become a corporate entity has been
raised but as yet there is no other information. The governance structure of PwC Ireland is made up of four
main elements; the Managing Partner, the Territory Leadership Team, the Committee of the Board and the
There are four grades of staff
There are severaldirectors in
each area
Headed up by the Partners but
run jointly with the Directors
Territory Leadership Team,
Committee of the board, The
Public Interest Board
CurrentlyFergal O'Rourke,
newly electedfora4 terms
since July2015
Snr
Partner
Management
Committee
Tax/Legal
Directors
Senior
manager
Managers
Staff
Audit/
Assurance
Directors
Senior
managers
Managers
Staff
Advisory/
Consulting
Directors
Senior
Managers
Managers
Staff

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Public Interest Board. Fergal O’Rourke was just recently elected as Senior Partner on the 1st of July 2015,
succeeding Ronan Murphy for a four year term.
Tradition seams to be the template for the current structure, there are strict regulatory and auditing structures
for partnerships which applied to PwC when it was a much smaller and less diverse service provider, and the
structure of a partnership remained across the whole organisation as it grew. The main benefit of having an
organisational structure such as this is that every partner is fully invested in growing the business as
ultimately, if somewhat cliché, its money in their pockets.
The disadvantages however are on an equal level, due to the sheer size of the organisations it can be come
somewhat cumbersome, as every partner is equally invested they all have a voice and all need to be heard,
which can then lead to delayed or even stalled business decisions.
Culture
There is a very diverse and dynamic culture in PwC that seems to make it stand out from the other members
of the Big 4. A lot of time, effort and money were put in to research and surveys to find out what people,
both staff and clients, thought of PwC and if they were viewed as a stereotype or if they stood out. The aim
is for PwC to have their own unique identity and not be pooled in with the other three professional service
firms. There is a perception out there that when talking about the Big 4 that they are all viewed as the same,
comments like ‘They all do the same job, any one will do’, is what PwC are striving to get away from.
Some results of surveys showed that KPMG can be ‘hardnosed’ and work really long hours, so while PwC
can be a bit hardnosed and some do work long hours but only when needed, they promoted a very good
work-life balance. The offices here in Ireland have just finished undergoing a massive refurb; the floors are
all open plan now, all glass, no walls. There are of course meeting rooms and other offices but these just
have frosted glass in places. Sections of the building have been set out as ‘areas for collaboration’, these
areas have a mixture of tables and chairs, comfy couches and bright colours. Staff can meet just to chat,
have a break or lunch or use it as a change of venue for a meeting. The open plan is to encourage building
better relationships throughout the firm as staff can see each other now, the hope is that these better
relationships can help foster and promote innovations throughout the organisation.

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Communication
Communication, it goes without saying, is paramount in an organisation like this. In order to keep the PwC
network successful globally and to keep the image and brand the same, all offices around the world look and
feel the same, same textiles, same colour schemes. This is all well and good visually but what PwC are
striving for is that the customers experience is exactly the same no matter what office in whatever country
they go to they will receive the exact same high level of customer service and satisfaction. Staff are
encouraged to put themselves in the client’s shoes in order to better understand their needs and provide a
better service.

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Leading
One definition of Leadership comes from Prentice (1961):
‘Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants. A leader is one
who successfully marshals his human collaborators to achieve particular ends.’
Ken was asked from his perspective as a director what did he believe are the key leadership/management
skills for his job. He replied by saying that while they are obviously interconnected, they're not always the
same thing and said, “For instance, where I sometimes need to show leadership, that doesn't necessarily
require management skills and vice versa.”
A few comments from Ken in the conversation about Leadership were that it was important to ‘Empower
people and delegate responsibility (but demand ownership and responsibility in return)’. He mentioned to
‘Be fearless about taking ownership and responsibility. If you want to lead, then the buck has to stop with
you. People respond to that and will not take well to people who try to avoid blame’. And “Understand and
manage upward, peer and downward relations (i.e. the office politics). You need people above to give you
autonomy to manage. You also need to maintain relationships with peers and your team. If you can't achieve
this (regardless of whether or not the personal relationships are great) you'll quickly find it much harder to
get things done (but not the same as being the office brown-nosed)”
‘The Continuum of Leadership Behaviour’ suggests there are a number of leadership styles available to a
manager relating to the degree of authority ranging from authoritarian to non-interventionist. The manager
has to make a choice on the most appropriate style per Tennenbaum and Schmidt based on forces within the
manager, within the subordinates/direct reports and within the organisational situation or environment. From
the evidence provided by the comments above and documentation online which follows I would confidently
place PwC on the delegating side of the continuum.
Charles Handy in the classic ‘Understanding Organizations’ (1993) says:
“A leader we can say in summary is someone who is able to develop and communicate a vision which gives
meaning to the work of others. It is a task too important to be left to those at the top of organizations.
Leaders are needed at all levels and in all situations. Interestingly, the Japanese language has no word for
‘leadership’ the leader being thought of as in separate from the group. “
In view of the Handy comment, it is interesting that PwC have embraced in recent years what they term an
evolving leadership model called the ‘PwC leadership professional’, to involve all employees globally.

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To quote from the PwC Global annual review 2013:
“The heart of the PwC Professional is that everyone at PwC shows leadership every day by guiding,
influencing and inspiring colleagues, clients and communities to be the best they can be…. As ‘whole
leaders’, our people constructively influence others within and beyond PwC, by demonstrating different
forms of leadership at different stages of their careers.”
Graphical representation of the competencies of a PwC Professional.
The PwC Professional is a leadership development framework encompassing five core competencies, the
aim of which is to help employees pick up the skills and behaviours to become well rounded leaders of their
teams, clients and others, and to “deliver results in a way that’s responsible and authentic”. In PwC, this
framework is used to recruit, develop and assess staff at all grades and all areas of the business, because the
expectation is that all PwC staff will be leaders in their own right.
Picking out the ‘Whole Leadership’ competency which is in the centre for special mention, the website
defines this as leading yourself and others in a ‘responsible, authentic, resilient, inclusive and passionate
way.’ It is also clear that leadership is expected of you whether you are leading the team or part of it. The
four additional competencies are the ability to build trust based relationships, business acumen, technical
capabilities and global acumen. Business Acumen is about bringing innovation and fresh thinking and to

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create value for clients and PwC. Technical capabilities is about production of high quality work and
maintenance of professional standards, and building and maintaining technical knowledge. Global acumen is
having the capability to collaborate in a complex changing world environment, and bringing in fresh
insights. Finally, relationships means building and maintaining high value, genuine relationships rooted in
trust.
In conversation, comments made by our manager do provide evidence of the PwC Professional model put in
practice. For example:
“Know your people / team and their needs and listen to them”. This relates to relationships competency. Ken
mentioned that as a manager you should encourage your people to find solutions (not always the same as
answers!), to empower people and delegate responsibility. “You should be open to other people’s views, as
you cannot be right all the time and even if you are its good to be challenged” (Shades of technical
competency, relationships and business acumen competencies are noted here.) He mentioned that mentoring
and coaching to help people meet their potential was important, but that you should not be slow to address
underperformance. Another comment was made about the importance of maintaining relationships with
peers and your team, as it’s much harder to get things done if you don’t have good relationships.
Additionally, he mentioned that he liked to empower people and delegate but demand ownership in return.
Ken’s comment ‘Be great at what you do - then you can legitimately ask / challenge your team to do the
same’ could be demonstrated in all five aspects of the framework. The comment ‘Be decisive (and brave)
when making decisions (note - not the same thing as being reckless). This just means that you're making a
decision because it's the right thing to do in a given situation and has the goals of your team / client etc. at
the centre of your thinking’ demonstrates underlying global and business acumen. Similarly, the following
comment demonstrates business acumen and relationship competencies at work in PwC. “Be open to other
people's view - you can't be right all the time and, even when you are, it's no harm to have your view
challenged.”
The 2013 Global Annual Review notes that in addition to experienced employees mentoring their younger
counterparts, that PwC use a variant where more experienced employees learn from younger colleagues,
called ‘reverse mentoring’. The reason being that younger people are often well qualified to pass on valuable
skills in workplace technology or leveraging social media, or even pass on information to help others
understand the mind set of younger colleagues.

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To finish, the following graphic demonstrates that leadership is one of the three core values PwC use when
conducting business. Leadership in PwC is defined as leading both inside and outside the business.
PwC Core Values
Trust has been defined in research as comprising five components; integrity, competence, loyalty and
openness. (Robbins, DeCenzo & Coulter 2014)
In the 2013 Global annual review, Dennis Nally, Chairperson of PwC International is quoted as saying that
one of the most important roles that PwC was around the area of engendering societal trust and believes that
PwC has an important role to play in rebuilding trust in institutions particularly following the global
financial crash. In a 2014 article, Nally argues CEO’s are no longer just interested in growth, but a longer
term sustainable ‘good’ growth which is real and responsible. It is further asserted that PwC have generated
trust is by focusing on activities reflecting a more socially centred corporate purpose. Building trust with
outside customers and stakeholders depends on ongoing business practices and ethics followed when dealing
with them. Stakeholders are not just shareholders, but also community members, government officials and
others. PwC Ireland has a page detailing the Corporate Social Responsibility activities that they are involved
with under the headings of Community, Environment, Workplace and Marketplace. It is notable that each of
the PWC annual global reviews for the last 3 years have dedicated 6 pages of the total to corporate
responsibility, this figure alone demonstrates its importance to PwC.

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Again in the 2015 PwC Global Annual Review, Richard Sexton talks about harnessing the power of big data
in the battle to help win back public trust. He argues that ‘big data’ analysis can enhance decision making
and downstream provide more insight and greater transparency to stakeholders than ever before.
Previously in the 2014 PwC Global Annual Review, there is a great example of how PwC helped rebuild
trust following the manipulation of the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) scandal. Regulators asked
PwC to help rebuild trust by providing assurance over rates submitted to the Libor administrator. By
working across countries with people in Audit, Performance Insurance, Forensics to name a few they have
helped to rebuild trust in Libor and provide integrity to the benchmarking process.
Looking at PwC for evidence of trust, our manager Ken commented that you should empower people and
delegate responsibility but also demand ownership and responsibility taking in return.

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Controlling
There is a huge focus on attracting, nurturing and developing staff and the PwC Professional framework is
instrumental in describing the behaviours to adopt to meet the expectations of clients, customers and
communities in the ever changing global economy. It is used to assess all staff at all grades over all lines of
business. As it is the roadmap to develop well rounded future leaders in PwC globally, the framework
ensures that employees have the skill sets they need to excel in a constantly evolving work environment. The
manager mentioned in conversation that staff appraisals are carried out bi annually.
The PwC Professional framework is also used as a tool to assess potential new hires, both graduates and
experienced hires. Our manager, mentioned that he does get involved in the interviewing process with new
hires and indeed PwC only recruit graduates with a minimum of 2.1 Honours Degree. Although they don’t
just look at academic measures in isolation, PwC want new hires to demonstrate they have the skills in ‘The
PwC Professional’ to deliver on business strategy.
PwC have a highly regarded award winning graduate training programme going back over many years. As
well as the usual on-boarding programme, a structured training programme builds on technical capabilities.
For example, this could be studying for and passing a professional qualification. Each student has an exam
path mapped out and is given study leave and can avail of an in house exam support programme and are
given every opportunity to excel. There is also more informal in-house buddy/coaching system along with
regular feedback to enable effective development. Performance objectives are linked to competencies for
your role to help you measure your performance so you can see how you are progressing. If you pass your
professional exams, there are opportunities for secondment / international assignments to further broaden
experiences and develop leadership potential.
Maybe as a result, PwC have been voted second in ‘World’s most attractive Employer’ for 2015 among
business students. What is clear from employee engagement surveys undertaken between 2010 – 2015 and
reported on in the 2015 Global Annual Review is that employee engagement levels have consistently risen
from 66% to 76% in this period as shown in the below dialog.

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PwC People Engagement* (FY 2010 – 2015)
*People Engagement refers to the levels of motivation, commitment and involvement employees
demonstrate as a result of key elements in their work environment such as level of leadership, respect,
professional development and inclusion.
Ken commented that as regards planning the Management teams/Partners meet every two weeks to evaluate
the status of current projects and jobs, to discuss what new business opportunities have been brought to the
table and to keep in line with the global plan. Also, there are regular meetings between partners and directors
to ensure the business needs are being met and to discuss any new developments that there may be. It was
also mentioned how key communication was and the high level of communication between partners,
directors and managers in PwC. It was also mentioned that PwC are constantly looking to improve business
models and efficiencies, outsource overly time consuming and unnecessary job or automate some jobs. To
coin a phrase used by Google, “Automate, eliminate, outsource”. (Ken O’Brien)
In terms of softer human relations issues, staff are brought on fun days out and evenings out from time to
time. A recent trip was to Causey Farm, such days allow staff to get to know one another better outside the
office. There are a team of people dedicated to staff wellbeing, they are charged with monitoring stress
levels ensuring they don’t get out of hand. The website also mentions an Employee Assistance Program for
the employee and their family, as well as an onsite gym and being able to avail of onsite holistic therapies.

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Discussion and Conclusion
The authors gleaned the following insights into the role of the Manager;
 Duties differ greatly and stress levels with it depending on the level of manager
 High level of responsibility but being able to delegate is important
 Being able to relate to people and always thinking 5 steps ahead is needed
 A good manager may not necessarily be equipped with the skill be a good leader, and vice versa.
 Communication and relationship management are key skills in all professionals, and even more so in the
information age.
 Leadership has a wider relevance than just the person at the top of the organisation!
 Management is about getting the best from a team rather than a group of individuals.
Theory - v – Practice
 Much of the theory is used in practise but it depends on the size and business of the organisation as to how
much and in what way it is used.
 In a learning organisation the theory does get put into practice in different ways, in that they do try to take on
board what is considered best practice.
 Management seems to be a skill that can be learned, improved on and honed through training, rather than a
capability one is born with. The evidence provided by our research into PwC would bear this out.
 Management in practice is an evolving art, and that’s similar to the body of academic theory on the subject.
A future in Management
In particular, I think that we cannot be successful by standing still in the 21st
century. As managers or leaders whether
of ourselves or of others, we must continually strive to find ways of improving, of learning new skills.
I also think that we must look for ways of using the team in ever better ways. I learned that often very diverse groups
of people can become the most productive teams, they encourage ‘out of the box’ thought processes, and people to
take on board new ideas or ideas different to them and can be a form of learning in themselves! When we are looking
for better ways of working as a team and producing products as a team, inevitably then we must strive to reward good
team work. It is of course easier to reward individuals than teams, and how to do it successfully will require
innovative thinking.
Even if we are working in a technical role or organisation, and particularly if we are in a leadership role we must not
forget about relationship building, collaboration and communication skills. These are also key to success in today’s
world.
Helena Guinevan

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In writing this report and from the interview with Ken it is clear to see that being a good effective manager is not just
about applying the theory of management to your job, it is so much more. You really need to know the people you
work with, understand their needs and the needs of your clients. Being a manager means you need to wear many hats
on occasions, from being a co-worker, a mentor, a trainer to being a boss. A mangers role is much more than what’s
written on a job description. The most important insight that I can take away from this is to really listen, to be vigilant
and truly hear what people are saying even if they don’t know it themselves. Ken gave me a great example of this, a
client rang in with a Tax query and through the course of the conversation Ken thought ‘what caused the client to
make this call?’, ‘what happened to make them think it was to do with tax?’. The client was asked to explain what had
triggered this and it turned out to be a query for a different department. This type of insight obviously doesn’t happen
overnight, it is a skill that is developed and honed with experience, but if you know your job, know the people you
work with and know your clients then that is a trinity for success.
Lorna McDonald

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