s and competencies of a BD org with related strengths and challenge

Prepared For,
Jasim Uddin (JDN)
Lecturer, North South University

Prepared By,
Mayisha Alamgir
ID: 1010227030,
HRM 370, Sec: 1

Submission Date: November 26, 2013

Letter of Transmittal
To
Jasim Uddin (JDN)
Lecturer, School of Business
North South University
Date: Noveber 26th, 2013
Subject: Submission of HRM 370Research Report
Dear Sir,
As part of our Developing Managerial Skills course, I have completed this report under your
instructions. The topics you have assigned to us are relevant to the contemporary managerial
skills and competencies of a BD org with related strengths and challenges in the light of
underlying theories and concepts.
For my research report, I have chosen an NGO called Friendship Bangladesh. I havegathered the
necessary information and tried my best to answer the questions as required by this project in the
context of this organization.
I humbly request your acceptance of our submission of this report.
Sincerely yours,
Mayisha Alamgir (ID: 101 0227 030)

Declaration Statement
This research paper contains academic analysis done by me.The main text is the work done by
using information derived from primary,secondary and tertiary sources. Theories and ideas
borrowed from other sources havebeen properly cited and referenced. The sections of this paper
contain confidentialinformation about a Friendship Bangladesh, used with permission on
condition that theconfidentiality is maintained. This research was done as part of an academic
course andthe information contained herein must be used only for academic purposes and
onlyupon authorization by the course instructor.

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to our course instructor Muhammad Jasim Uddin (JDN) for
giving me the opportunity and guideline to conduct this research, as well as for teaching us the
definitions, theories and techniques that I have used in writing this paper. I also greatly
appreciate the warm welcome we received from the staff at Friendship Bangladesh. I am grateful
to the Director for directing me towards this organization. Heartfelt thanks to the Assistant
Director for her time in giving me a most enlightening Friendship orientation. Special thanks to
the Director Operations for rearranging his busy schedule to let me interview him regarding the
managerial skills and competencies, and also for trusting me with the confidential appraisal
forms. Thanks to the Communications team for supplying me with a rich archive of pictures,
video and publications that helped me learn all about Friendship and design my project. All of
these individuals have provided immense support to me and will not be forgotten.

Table of Contents

Topic Name
Executive Summary
Objective
Methodology
Literature Review
Data Analysis
Discussion
Scope
Limitations
Conclusion
References
Appendix

Page No.
5
6
6
7
8-19
20
20
21
21
22
23

Executive Summary
For non-profit and charity organizations that typically have employees from manydifferent
backgrounds, management and administrative tasks becomes a key challenge.As part of our
4

study, the organization I have chosen is Friendship Bangladesh, a15-year old venture that serves
underprivileged people in remote regions of the countryby providing free medical services,
education facilities, and engaging in differentprojects to make their lives better and more
sustainable. Friendship currently has over600 employees all over the country. Field employees
include doctors, paramedics,teachers, trainers and community representatives. Office employees
include regionalheads, programme heads, programme officers, doctors, communications officers,
ITconsultants and more. Through the course of our study, we found out that all employeesare
subject to managerial skills through a detailed system of performance evaluation andrating. The
rating scale is the technique used for their skills measurement. As the organization grows the
need for development in theseareas become more and more apparent. Despite this, there is
positive hope for thefuture, as Friendship slowly adapts more formal management styles,
constantlylearning from the examples of corporations and some foreign NGOs. Overall,
doingthis assignment helped us understand the managerial skills needed for implementing proper
HR methods ingrowing NGOs like Friendship.

Objective
The purpose of this report is to discover the contemporary managerial skills and competencies of
Friendship with related strengths and challenges in the light of underlying theories and concepts.
5

Since NGOs traditionally do not have very organized HR activities or policies, this can prove to
be a challenge. Using Friendship as an example, I will try to find out the contemporary
managerial skills and competencies of this organization. The HR function has become very
dynamic and significant in the corporate world. Similarly, as NGOs grow larger, the need for
more skilled employees becomes more evident. The question of how these skills of the
employees can be carried out by these charity organizations is definitely an issue worth
exploring.

Methodology
The major findings in this report come through a series of interviews arranged with the Director
of Operations of Friendship, at their head office in Baridhara, Dhaka. The information provided
by him corresponds to the human resource objectives and activities or Friendship. Even though
the organization does not have a department dedicated to human resource management yet, it
was revealed that they aim to have one eventually, when the organization grows large enough.
Consequently, current HR activities are limited to recruitment, appraisal, some forms of
outsourced training and a few workshops in which employee managerial skills is playing a vital
role. Detailed information about other aspects of the venture were collected from Friendships
ownpublication made in 2012, a book named A ten-year journey through Friendship, aswell as
a documentary film that tells the story of how the organization started and how efficient their
employees are as they have to deal with a lot of issues and activities.

Literature Review
Management skills are behavioral. They are not personality attributes or stylistic tendencies.
Management skills consist of identifiable sets of actions that individuals perform and that lead to
6

certain outcomes. Skills can be observed by others, unlike attributes that are purely mental or are
embedded in personality. Managerial skills are controllable. The performance of these behaviors
is under the control of the individual. Unlike organizational practices such as selectively hiring
or cognitive activities such as transcending fear skills can be consciously learned.
Before conducting this research I looked for the secondary data sources from this similar
organization to see if similar research has been already done on this topic or not. I used the
internet and the papers and magazines present in the North South University library and on other
sources. But I could not manage any information which in particular can represent the research I
have conducted here. So I left out of the entire secondary data source and then I had to go for
primary data collection.

Data Analysis

Now that I have introduced the organization and identified the topics for investigation, I begin by
finding relevant information that will help me answer the following questions about Friendship.
7

The following pages will help us address the research questions mentioned in the appendix. The
entire analysis section is based on information collected at the Friendship head office from five
of this NGSs managers (E Hoque 2013, pers. comm., 20th and 25th November).
Measurement of the managerial skills at Friendship starts immediately after an employee is
recruited. All new recruits go through a 6-month probation period before being confirmed as a
Friendship employee. During this period, the existing staff and supervisors try to familiarize the
new employee with Friendships culture and norms. The management refers to this as a two-way
learning approach, in which the organization learns as much as possible about the new recruit
and vice versa. Because this is essentially a trial run, either party is allowed to terminate the
contract during this probation period if they fail to sustain interest in the other.
After the probation period, the employees immediate supervisor fills up the End of Probation
Assessment Form. This evaluates how the employee performed and how skilled they are in
different sectors, and grading on a scale from outstanding to poor is done based on areas of skills
measurement such as Verbal Communication, Managing Time and Stress, Team Building, Selfawareness, Delegating, leadership quality etc. It also requires the managers to answer brief
questions about the employees performance and skills. As a result of this assessment in certain
situations, management may decide to extend the probation period to analyze further.
So, with all these things I have done my data analysis based on the quantitative questionnaire I
made and also with the personal interview I conducted. All the analysis from my research are
presented where with the help of some charts which described in which skill how many
managers are doing well. I have explained this graphical data for every question with the
information I gathered from the personal interview with these managers.
1

Verbal Communication:

Verbal Communication is a very crucial

term to work as a manager. It is the word

Verbal Communication

from your mouth which matters most in

3.5

the situation of regular communication. In

Friendship Bangladesh, when conducted

this research, I found that most of their
managers were moderate in the sense of
verbal communication. Only one manager,

2.5
2
1.5

who works as a big time manager in this

organization said he thinks he is very

0.5

good with his verbal communication

0
Best

skills. And only one manager felt like he

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

is not so skillful about this matter.

Managing Time and Stress:

I found this particular information in

favor of Friendship Bangladesh. Two
employees said they are not worried

Managing Time and Stress

2.5

about managing their time and skill.

2

Other two said that they think they are

ok. Only one said because of some

1.5

family issues he often make delay in

some serious tasks. But other than him,

others are doing very well in both

managing their schedule and the work

0.5

stress from their senior managers.

0
Best

Managing Individual Stress:

9

Good Moderate Bad

Worst

There was indeed an interesting thing I

have observed when I was conducting

Managing Individual Stress

this specific question for my research. I

came to see that in case of managing
individual skills none from my selected
five specific managers of Friendship
Bangladesh said they are the best. Only
two said that they are good. But others
said that either they are moderate or bad.
Even one manager said that he is the
worst if any situation comes where it is

2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

necessary to manage the individual

stress.

Recognizing, Defining and Solving Problem:

When I came to analyze this particular

Recognizing,
question from my research
question
paper, I found it was really good for
Friendship Bangladesh.

Defining and Solving Problem

2.5

Two of the

managers among whom one is a big

time manager of this NGO, said that
he believes he is skillful enough in the
sense of identifying a problem and in

2
1.5
1

taking necessary steps. Others were

not too bad regarding this matter. Just
one manager said that he waits for the
upper management to clarify steps

0.5
0
Best

before taking his own action regarding

major problems.
5 Motivating and Influencing Others:
10

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

This analysis of mine was one of the

Motivating
best I found regarding Friendship
Bangladesh. It actually proved to me

and Influencing Others

2.5

that how organized they are in case of

working as a group. They had great
tendency to motivate and influencing

2
1.5

other through different means. It can

be verbal motivation or by doing

intrinsic or extrinsic reward to the

bottom level employees. None of the
managers I selected said that they are
not skillful in this particular job.

0.5
0
Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

Delegating:

Delegating is a very serious job for a

Delegating

firms successful manager. Friendship

Bangladesh is not exceptional in this
case. I found the result for delegation
in this NGO on an average. Most of

3.5
3

the managers said that they are

2.5

moderate in case of showing the skill

of delegation. None said that they are

1.5

great and none also said that they are

horrible in this sector. But I think it is
not bad for this organization as most
of them are in the good side of

1
0.5
0

showing this skill.

7

Best

Setting Goals and Articulating Vision:

11

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

In Friendship Bangladesh, I found this

Setting
skill is the best among all the managers.

Goals and Articulating Vision

And the general idea I got after talking

3.5

with them that why they think they are

good in this skill was answered by

praising the organization. They said that
the structure and the planning of the

2.5
2

organization is so clear that it makes them

1.5

very easy to understand the vision of this

NGO. That is why they can set up a

0.5

perfect goal for them and can work in the

specific way. They also said that they get
enough

help

from

their

0
Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

immediate

supervisor in the organization regarding

any kind of situation regarding this.
I got a very mixed response in case of
8 Self-Awareness:
self-awareness skill among the managers
upon whom I conducted my research in

Self-Awareness

Friendship Bangladesh. There was a wide

variation in result about what these

2.5

managers think about themselves from the

perspective of having the skill of selfawareness. One manager said that he is
bad in this skill as he is more reactive than
being proactive. But more percentage said

2
1.5
1

that they are on an average level in case of

having this skill. But others said they are
really

conscious

about

happening around them.

9

the

things

0.5
0
Best

Team Building:
12

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

This was another good thing I found on

Team Building

Friendship Bangladesh. From my visit

there for this research, It became clear to

3.5

me that the managers and employees are

very friendly in nature with each other.

2.5

And that is exactly what I got from my

survey also. Most of the employees said

1.5

that they are good in the team building

skill. One said he is really good

especially in this skill. Just one manager

0.5
0

said that he is an average. But great

Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

thing for this organization is that none

said that they are bad here.

10 Managing Conflicts:
When I found the result of this survey

Managing Conflicts

question, I immediately started thinking

that this can be one of the biggest
problems

happening

in

2.5

Friendship

Bangladesh. Because only the big shot

manager of this NGO said that he is really

good in managing any kind of conflict
inside the organization but most said that
they are average. Not only this but also
one manager said that he is not at all good

1.5

0.5

in doing this. Worst part is, one manger

said that he is really bad in case of

0
Best

managing any kind of conflicts which can

be as silly as stopping two employees
from getting into a quarrel.
13

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

11 Multidimensional Perspective:
This

particular

skill

for Friendship

Multidimensional
Bangladesh was also not bad. There was
good resemblance of the NGO managers

Perspective

2.5

skills in this case. Most of them said they

are really comfortable in working in more
than one dimension. They said it is part

2
1.5

of the job to do more than one at the

same time. Only one person said that he

does not feel so comfortable in doing a

lot of tasks at the same time. He said that
he is more comfortable if he can do one
thing after sequentially. In that case he

0.5
0
Best

said his work quality remains better than

attempting a lot altogether.
12 Proficiency In Line Management:

14

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

This particular skill was not so bright in

Proficiency
Friendship Bangladesh. I personally
thought that line management skill

In Line Management

2.5

would be a very crucial part of an

NGOs operation. But few of the

managers said that they are not very

well in case of line management. But
two of them said that they are pretty fine
with this skill and face no problem in
this field.

1.5

0.5

0
Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

13 Prudent Decision-Making Skills:

Prudent decision making is one of the most
Prudent
important job for a manager. A little mistake

Decision-Making Skills

2.5

can turn into a huge one if prudent decision

goes wrong. In Friendship Bangladesh I

found out that most of the managers here

said that they are moderate in case of taking
any prudent decision. The top managers said

1.5
1

that they were very comfortable in taking

these decisions as they have experienced

0.5

situations like this in many cases. Only one

manager who was very young at age seemed

0
Best

to have not so comfortable with this

decision making skill.
14 Resourcefulness:

15

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

I was really astonished with the result of this

Resourcefulness

survey of mine. Though the managers of this

organization are from very good educational

background they seemed to put marks on the

4.5

fact that they are not so well with their

resourcefulness skill. When I talked with

them they said that they think they need
more time, experience and different training
throughout the years to make this skill go
high.

3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

15 Cultural Adaptability:
Another thing which can lag Friendship
Bangladesh behind is their adoptability with
the culture. As this is an NGO, they need to

Cultural Adaptability
2.5

work not only from the organization but

also from the field. So the managers need to
be like
that in mind
that they
willmatter
be ableofto
The
sensitivity
in culture
is big
cope up Because
with the ifcultural
differences
and
concern.
the manager
of an
through theiris skills
they will
solve and
that
organization
not careful
enough
problem.
Butissue
mostwhich
of theismanagers
of this
touch
in an
very sensitive
organization
said that
theyother
are employees
not so good
for
his coordinates
or the
this organization
skill.
ofin the
will make him pay in
the long run, in case of Friendship

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Best

Bangladeshs managers, the presence of

this skill is not so much, but that does not
Cultural
Sensitivity:
really16mean
that they
are not at all bad at it
as many of them said to be average in this
skill.

16

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

Cultural Sensitivity
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

17 Physical Fitness and Mental Maturity:

In this part of my research, I found out a

Physical
very strong point of skill for Friendship
Bangladesh. It is the managers physical

Fitness and Mental Maturity

2.5

fitness and mental maturity. All of the

managers I asked answered positively about
their physical fitness to do the job and said
they believe they are matured enough
mentally to work perfectly from the position

2
1.5
1

they are holding now.

0.5
0
Best

18 Curiosity and Learning:

17

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

Another

great

thing

about

Friendship

Bangladeshs managers is their skill of

Curiosity and Learning

curiosity and the skill to learn new things.

3.5

They are very open minded in case of

something appears where they want to know

in details. They do not hesitate to show their
curiosity in case of any kind of management
situation and learn anything they found can
be useful for their job skills.

2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

19 Computer Literacy:
Computer literacy is a very important skill

Computer Literacy

for any managers working in any type of

organization

these

days.

Friendship

2.5

Bangladesh is not different. I found out that

most of the managers said that they think
they have moderate knowledge about the
computer skills. One manager who is very
young said that he is very proficient in

2
1.5
1

computer skills. But one manager who is

holding a very big post and is a senior one
said that he is not really at all good at the
computer skills. He needs an assistant for

0.5
0
Best

him to do these computer jobs for him.

20 Prudent Negotiating:
18

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

Negotiating is a very important skill for

Prudent Negotiating

any level of manager. Prudent negotiation

with different level of people is very

2.5

important job for a manager. But in

Friendship Bangladesh, I did not find this
skill in very high among the managers.
Many of them said that they are not good in
prudent negotiating. One manager even

2
1.5
1

said that he is horrible in case of these

negotiations.

0.5
0
Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

21 Ability as a Change Agent:

The skill of the ability to work as a
change agent in Friendship Bangladesh is

Ability as a Change Agent

moderate. Some managers said that they

3.5

are good at it and some said that they are

not. Most of them said that they are

moderate in case of doing these things.

2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Best

22 Visionary Skills:

19

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

Visionary skills are normally present in

Visionary Skills

the top management in any organization.

Friendship

Bangladesh

is

also

not

2.5

different. I have seen in this organization

two of the topmost managers said that
they are good and very good in having
visionary skills respectively. But the
junior managers response was negative.

2
1.5
1

They did not feel so comfortable in

mastering in this particular skill.

0.5
0
Best

Good Moderate

Bad

Worst

Discussion
From the research I have conducted on five managers of Friendship Bangladesh, I found out a lot
of important things about the skill they possess. Among these skills some were core skills and
some were not. But all skills have its own need in different section of an organization. In this
organization, I found out that the skill of managing time and stress, the skill of defining and
solving a problem, motivating employees, self-awareness of the managers, the skill of team
building, skill of doing multidimensional jobs or the skill of physical and mental fitness is very
high in this organization. But they are really lagging behind in the skill of managing individual
stress, managing conflicts, adopting in a culture or in case of doing prudent negotiating.
But it is impossible to have all the skills present in one single person. If this research was
conducted upon all the managers of Friendship Bangladesh the result might have altered into
other things. But as this research is done only on five managers of this organization not all

20

aspects of skills are covered here. But still from my opinion I will say based on my research that
Friendship Bangladeshs managers are highly skilled and doing great job in their own fields.

Scope
I will essentially introduce the programmes of Friendship Bangladesh, and then identifycertain
managerial skills of the employees under the human resource management activities. I will have
a brief look over the employee performance and skills evaluation of Friendship, followed by
detailed exploration of those whichare relevant to the field of research. My scope of analysis is
bounded by theapplications of the contemporary managerial skills and competencies of the
employees with related strengths and challenges in the light of underlying theories and
conceptsin Friendships programmes andoperations.

Limitations
Most of the resources and information in this report were collected from the Friendship head
office. Due to the political unrest in the country, not as many trips to the office could be made as
I initially wanted. Moreover, my primary source of HR related information; Muhammad Ehsanul
Haque (Director Operations) was unavailable on some days due to his visit to the field. Also,
there was no scope of visiting the regions in which Friendship operates, and therefore all data
had to be accessed from the head office in Dhaka. After collecting all the information, the
preparation of this report itself came under obstacles. It was difficult for the authors of this report
to meet in person, much of the time due to the prolonged strikes. Most of the work had to be
collaborated in the limited time available at university and through online communications.

Conclusion
21

As I wrap up the analysis, it is worth mentioning that this paper has only been able to provide a
small window of vision to the vast deal of work being undertaken by this organization every day.
In studying the culture, the purpose and work methods of Friendship I have found enough
strength and passion that lies in the ideals and ethics of the Friendship family. However, the
weaknesses in the formal management areas should be looked into. To end with a positive note,
this era in Bangladesh is important for all organizations because we are seeing a transformation
in work environment. Corporations are trying to hire more skilled and efficient employees in
order to get their human touch, whereas NGOs are realizing they have been too relaxed, and
are starting to reorganize and adapt some of the management disciplines of corporations and
differentiate the employees from their skills. I am also seeing more collaboration between the
two sectors, and this new trend of shared learning is definitely the way that NGOs like
Friendship will eventually become more structured and efficient.

References

1. Friendship Bangladesh. 2012, Ten Year Journey Through Friendship

2. Friendship Home Page n.d. Retrieved from http://www.friendship-bd.org

3. A Voyage: Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital 2012, video recording

4. Whetten, D 2011, Developing Management Skills 8th ed., Pearson Education, New Jersey

22

Appendix

Sample of Survey Question

1. What do you think about your verbal communication skill as a manager?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
2. How good you think you are in managing your time and stress?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
3. And how good you are in managing individual stress?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
4. How efficient you think you are in recognizing, defining and solving a problem?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
5. How you judge yourself about motivating and influencing others?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
6. How good you think you are in delegating?

23

a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
7. How good are you in setting goals and articulating vision?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
8. How much self-aware do you think you are?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
9. How good is your team building ability?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
10. How do you see yourself doing when managing any kind of conflicts?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
11. How do you perform in time of doing multidimensional jobs?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
12. How proficient you think you are in line management?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
13. How well can you make prudent decisions?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
14. How much resourceful do you think for your job?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
15. How well can you adapt to a new culture?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
16. How much cultural sensitivity do you think you show in work field?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
17. How is your physical fitness and mental maturity regarding your managerial job?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
18. How much curious you are to learn?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
19. How efficient you are in computer skills?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
20. How good you think you are in prudent negotiating?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
21. How good is your ability as a change agent?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst
22. How much visionary skill you think you have in yourself?
a. Best
b. Good
c. Moderate
d. Bad
e. Worst

24