Description

Legal practice management

Shadrack Otieno has recently been appointed as the Finance Manager of Nyaga Et Associates Ltd., a law firm based in Mbita County in the country of Isidor,

The finance department is headed by a finance director and consists of finance manager and eleven accountants. The eleven accountants have been working for Nyaga Associates for several years but because they did not have the needed qualification, they were not considered for the vacant position of a finance manager.

Though a good accountant, Shadrack has chaltenges interacting with his team of accountants and many complain that they have had litt\e social contact with him. For official communication he hard{y relies on ora\ communication but instead sends memoranda and places instructions on the notice board as the main method of conveying information to his team. These new ways of conveying information have not been received well by the members of the department and have resulted in numerous complaints  to the Finance Director regarding Shadrack’s inability to communicate effectively.

After discussion with Shadrack, the Finance Director has ascertained two reasons for Shadrack’s reliance on written communication:

Every time he attempts to use meetings as a means of communication, he feels intimidated by many employees with more experience in the system of financial operations used by Nyaga & Associates and the meeting ends up in chaos without accomplishing their stated objectives.

ii .       He uses written word to avoid confusion of his instructions since the employees can refer back to the instructions any time.

As an experienced manager in a law firm, you have been consulted by Nyaga Associates Ltd to help Shadrack improve his communication skills to the finance team,

• Explain to Shadrack why he should use different styles of communication to improve the working retations in his department. (7 marks)
• Discuss with Shadrack the guidelines he could use to conduct effective meetings with members of his department. (7 marks)