• Leadership
• Motivation
• Business Studies
• Management
• Sales Management

Other electives may be considered

Course Excerpts

Personnel Management

INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP BEHAVIOUR

The role of a supervisor is to manage individual and group behaviour in the workplace in order to achieve desired outcomes. To do this successfully, the supervisor should have some understanding of human behaviour, whether it is gained from experience or learning, or a combination of both. It is not the supervisor’s role to psychoanalyse employees, but it is part of his or her role to try to understand what influences the behaviour of employees, and to use that knowledge to elicit desired, productive behaviour and limit

Observations about a person’s behaviour should always be taken in context. People often behave differently in the workplace than they might act in their private lives, and they also tend to behave differently in a group than they do as individuals. For example, in the workplace, people might be more organised and goal-oriented than they usually are. In part, this might be because we often participate in groups in order to complete a task or achieve a goal, and also, because we seek to meet group expectations.

An individual’s behaviour can also be strongly influenced by informal groupings, where people come together for other reasons than shared interests or common goals. For example, sitting together at lunch may be involved in completely different areas of work, but because of their association, they may demonstrate collective behaviour, such as sitting at the same table each time, or taking lunch together each day, or agreeing with each other about things that they might not usually agree with.

Either way, individuals do adapt their behaviour, and sometimes, even their thoughts and feelings, to others. The behaviour of an individual employee or staff member, therefore, might be affected by the nature and behaviours of the groups in which he participates, and those groups can be formal and structured, or casual, unstructured, and spontaneous. As part of a group, an individual can lose touch with his or her own ideas and feelings, and act impulsively and out of character. This can be seen in the behaviour of crowds, where individual identity seems to give in to group identity, often with ugly results. On the other hand, identification with, and conformity to a group can bring out the good qualities of an individual, and lead him or her to strive harder and be more productive than otherwise.


Supervision

To function effectively within an organization, you must know how that organization works.

This information might be provided, to a large degree, in the organisation’s procedure manuals and charts. It might be learned through training, or from people who have worked in the organization for a while. However, it is often the situation that management’s perception of how the organization works is different to the reality of how it works. For instance, management might believe that it leads all decision-making and insist on participating, where in reality, the workers make better decisions on how to get things done, and make them through general consensus among key personnel.

Official channels of power and communication might be hierarchical, from the boss at the top to the workers on the bottom, but the reality might the boss is largely ignored, not being seen to know or care much about how things are done, and therefore, only being given essential information.

To function effectively, you need to know how things really work, who really holds the power to implement decisions, whose cooperation is essential, and whose ideas are most valuable. This can even be someone not in the official framework of the organization, such as the boss’s wife or husband, or his/her son or daughter.

The real power might lie in the person with the greatest understanding of the business, who might be the secretary or a supervisor whose opinion and approval are widely respected and sought. The person who really decides what money can be spent, including on bonuses and new equipment, might be the bookkeeper.

Knowing where the power to get things done or the power to make decisions are really invested will enable you to go directly to the sources of power, or to obtain their support and cooperation, to get things done.


Industrial Psychology

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
People in industry are engaged in various forms of work, and in order to know how each individual is suited for a particular job, it is necessary to know why they behave as they do and also to find out how people behave under differing circumstances. To find the answers to these questions it is necessary to study a person’s emotional and mental makeup, and their reactions to external stimuli and to internal thoughts. To do this we must understand the processes of sensation and perception.

The study of perception is one of the oldest objectives of psychology. Artists, philosophers, physicists and psychologists have long been intrigued by this phenomenon, and there is good reason for this fascination on how we sense the world. Sensation is a stimulus to the brain, which causes an emotional reaction, while perception is the understanding through memory, ideas or imagination.

There is pleasure and profit in being sensitive. There are beautiful things around us - things that our senses alert us to, which provides us with an opportunity to explore. Our eyes are used to telling us about colour and design. Smell and taste are gratified by attractive scents. We can be soothed by soft touch and wakened by a caress. Our senses however are not only for pleasure. We can just as easily be displeased by what we sense. We tend to avert our eyes and ears when our senses tell us that information being received is too intense. Bad smells & tastes also repel us.


Workplace Health and Safety

DUTY OF CARE

Most WH&S laws require that participants in the workplace observe certain obligations to ensure that WH&S measures are effective and that practical steps are taken for that purpose. These responsibilities, referred to as 'duty of care', apply to all staff and employers. A particular onus is placed on those people controlling workplace activities to determine necessary and appropriate WH&S standards and to make sure these standards are maintained.

(a) Employer duties.

Employers are required to:

• take all practical steps necessary to protect the health and safety of employees,
• provide a healthy and safe working environment,
• take all practical steps necessary to protect the health and safety of other people at or near the workplace, such as sales representatives and pedestrians,
• provide a healthy and safe environment for people visiting the workplace.

(b) Employee duties.

Employees are required to:

• act responsibly and perform their work in accordance with established WH&S standards
• take reasonable care to protect the health and safety of other staff, non-staff and others.

(c) 'Other person' duties.

People other than employers or employees are required to:

• comply with the WH&S standards and obey directions of staff at the workplace.

(d) Manufacturer duties.

Designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of equipment, materials or substances are required to:

• provide such items at a reasonable and acceptable standard,
• provide all information relating safe use and handling,
• provide for suitable safety mechanisms within the design of the item used in the workplace.

HOW DOES STUDY GET YOU A JOB?

Although doing a course may not guarantee you a job – it will set you apart from those that have not studied at all and it will improve your personal choices when applying for jobs.

Each job listed usually gets a huge amount of response – when employers choose people to interview they will look at a range of factors – what you have studied will be just one of those factors. You need to be able to catch a potential employer’s attention – stand out from the rest.

So what do employers look for?

• Great communication skills: verbal, written and also the ability to use a computer.
• Problem solving skills: thinking on your feet and working through problems in an orderly way.
• Efficiency: doing things in a logical order without compromising accuracy improves efficiency.
• Knowledge and skills demanded of the job.
• A passion for the work and willingness to learn.
• Presentation and grooming - people who present as being well organised and well-groomed will impress.

How Will A Course Help Me To Gain those Skills?

Choosing the right course will help i.e. one that develops knowledge, practical and also your problem solving skills. Not all courses do this. At ACS our courses focus on Problem Based Learning so this enables the student to develop these skills and at the same time using this learning method also improves you knowledge retention and recall.

What Can You do to Improve Your Career Prospects?

• Choose a course that you are passionate about – be open to learning and use this course to start building your future. Today we are expected to keep learning and studying in order to keep up with a world that is rapidly changing. Learning is a lifelong experience. Study a course that makes you stand out - a qualification that is different to all the other applicants will always catch the attention of a boss, and may be the difference between getting an interview or not.
• Network with people in the industry, attend conferences and trade shows – make yourself known to people in the industry in general.
• Try to build a range of skills – multi-skilled people catch the eye of the employer or potential employer.
• Write a good CV and ask for help if you need it. Tutors at this school will help our students with their C.V.'s if you ask -no cost. Resume Writing services can also be used, but they charge.
• Recognise your weaknesses and work on improving them - not just academically. And also know your strengths and demonstrate them.