CAT T5

Well CAT T5-managing people and systems is not an easy paper for most of the students,most likely reason is because it was full of theory which did not motivate students.Students must start to train their skills on reading and learning theory,rather than rely on numbers.This paper provides students the knowledge to manage system,manage people,manage yourself and mange health and safety and security of the organisation,I will briefly talk about each parts.

For managing system,T5 provides you knowledge such as how to analyse environment,what structure is suitable for your organisation,what should be taken into account when doing business planning,how to design the internal control system for your organisation and so on.These introduce how our business environment works and are therefore very important when working too.I know students may be bored by these part of the syllabus but remember,these were an invaluable chance for you all to start to understand on the important role of being able to manage the system of your organisation,especially when you had became a manager one day.

For managing people,T5 provides you some good knowledge on leadership,team management and motivation issues.You have opportunity to learn about the theories or models written by famous writer such as Henri Fayol,Peter Drucker,Henry Mintzberg,Abraham Maslow and so on.The theories written by them are important as their analysis on human had made them able to produce these theories which tell you about how to deal with different types of people.For example,in Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership model(1988),you can understand that to lead people effectively,we should take into account the readiness of people to perform and choose different leadership styles for different readiness of the people or teams.Another example,you will also have opportunity to learn about 9 team roles as identified by Belbin who also said that a good team should have a balance of the team roles.In addition to these,you will also learn that appraisal in an organisation is not just an annual event,but it is part of the performance management.Appraisal has 3 main purpose,reward review,performance review and potential review althought it often goes wrong as many managers do not appreciate the objectives of the appraisal.Therefore T5 tells you that the true purpose appraisal is to improve individual and organisational performance,not to create troubles to employees.Furthermore,you will understand that communication is important in an organisation for good coordination,you will also learn the source of conflicts and how to manage it so that relationship is maintained.Beside that,you will also learn to conduct training programme in a systematic ways which can help to meet the training objectives.These essential skills for managing people are provided by T5 and therefore this paper should be studied well.

For managing yourself,it basically mean managing your own effectiveness on the job.T5 will provide you the knowledge on soft skills such as time management and good communication.You will also learn to plan your personal work better.I think you should already know how to manage yourself well but to improve your effectiveness such as time management,you can follow the suggestion provided by T5,such as using action plan or to-do lists and remember,make yourself follow your plan.Your interpersonal skill must be well trained too and this is an on-going process.

For managing health and safety and security,T5 provides you some guidance on what should be included in the health and safety policies,emergency procedures,accident reporting procecures and security procedure manual.You will also understand what are the responsibilities of individuals(employees and employers) and organisation to health and safety of the organisation.Furthermore you will also learn about some examples of risks to data and what controls you can implement to prevent it.

In conclusion,this paper provides invaluable knowledge for every students who study it.Students should therefore never try to ignore this paper,but try to love this paper.I can say that this paper was special and it does covered a very broad area of the syllabus,but remember,don't say hard,because ACCA paper P1 and P3 are even harder!!!Start to learn on how to study theory paper now,if the problem is caused by your english proficiency,visit http://www.accaglobal.com/ and try the self-check module,you can learn your english there too.I had provided the outline of the T5 syllabus,next time I will provide more guidance for this paper as I do wish to help students to pass this paper easily. :)