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Management Strategies We live in post-modern society, where economy is being defined by the efficiency of its components, rather than by its industrial potential, like it used to be not long ago. It is becoming more globalized, so for the manager of small company its not enough anymore to just be competent in the field of production managing, he also has to have a social skills, in order for the company to be competitive on the market. Even 50 years ago the concept of interactive management was virtually unknown. Yet, it is hard for us to imagine any successful business that doesnt deploy it as its managing policy.
The importance of social factors at workplace is now being taken into consideration by every responsible manager, as it impossible to provide the companys effectiveness without making the best use of its employees. To increase its efficiency, every company has to take a specific managing approach, as employees vary greatly in their intelligence, willingness to work hard and their ability to make independent decisions. When managing the team of employees, every manager has to come up with the best possible strategy of how to approach this issue. Basically, the managing strategies can be characterized by two essentially different principles autocratic and participative. The first one is best applied when employees do not show any interest in being productive members of the team. The only real motivation is their salary and they constantly need to be guided and supervised.
This method is not the best one, as itll never result in increasing efficiency of every particular company, yet sometimes, companies simply dont have much of a choice when it comes to hiring employees. Usually this approach is used when it comes to dealing with uneducated personnel, working for minimum wage. Motivating employees with any other means than constant threat of being fired, appear to be ineffective. Usually such employees come from variety of different cultural backgrounds and very often they dont even speak English. One of the biggest mistakes on the part of managers is taking people for what they would like them to be and not for what they really are. If any other motivations are to be used for the management in this situation, it will only lead to misuse of companys recourses.
Another, more progressive style of management is participative one. It is best applied when manager deals with group of intelligent and qualified employees, whose overall goal is to make a career, working for this particular company. In this case, managers task would be - making sure that such employees potential if fully recognized. They should be encouraged to actively participate in discussions of how to increase companys efficiency, as it will also have an impact on their salaries. It is very important, on the part of manager, to have confidence in employees, while participative managing style is being used.
The best scenario is when manager delegates some of its authority to his subordinates. This will boost personnel's ego and it will result in substantial increase of companys efficiency. The most common mistake on managers part, while dealing with skilled and motivated personnel, is failing to recognize its potential. Usually it happens when all the employers are treated equally, regardless of effort they put in work. The participative managing style emphasizes the importance of work-related environment factors skilled and qualified employees will always have job offers and it is very important for every company to provide them with comfortable working conditions, so they wouldnt consider applying for job elsewhere. These two management styles do not necessarily have to be followed in its entirety.
Their elements can be incorporated in one another and this usually happens in real life. After all, participative style is relatively new. Still, there is no doubt that its principles will have to be used by companies on ever larger scale, as time goes by. Among other classical managing mistakes, Id like to mention: failing to communicate and resisting change. The first one corresponds to managers unwillingness to learn and deploy new organizational methods. This applies especially to those, who rose to the position of manager gradually.
The second occur when manager proves to be unable to anticipate any changes that might come as result of new commercial circumstances or certain social developments. It is much wiser to deal with new circumstances by being able to anticipate them ahead of time, rather then reacting to them after fact. Nowadays, all successful commercial enterprises deploy diversity policy, which is supposed to regulate relations within companies teams. Australian Department of Employment attaches a foremost importance to this issue: Workplace diversity is about acknowledging differences and adapting work practices to create an inclusive environment in which our diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds are valued. Since Western societies becoming increasingly multicultiralized, it is logical to suggest that such changes will have to be taken into consideration by companies, when design their employment policies.
Yet, as many companies experience shows us, diversity policy also has some harmful effects. First of all, it encourages secularism on the part of employees, as it emphasizes on their racial, cultural and religious differences. That makes it harder for them to feel like a part of team. The diversity concept also forces employers to encourage such secularism among its personnel, although in many cases it undermines companys efficiency. Whats really important, in the respect of making employees team feel as one, is the corporate encouragement practice. In Japan, many corporations require an oath of allegiance on the part of their employees, guaranteeing them job for lifetime in return.
As it appears, such practice has proven to be more than effective Japan is third economical power in the world, after USA and China. In European countries, companies also began practicing policy of corporate encouragement. When every member of a team is happy with the fact that he has a stable job, with good prospective and good pay, the issue of diversity ceases to have any importance whatsoever. The Japanese and European experiences have effectively proven that. Racism at workplace is like a rush, the more it gets scratched the more it itches.
The impact of strategic decisions cannot be underestimated when it comes to managing workforce. But I think that management principles should correspond to the essence of economical process. In another words, these principles have to be natural in its core. For example, the idea of creating more job opportunities with the mean of improving recreational facilities in the area is very popular today.
Still, as experience show, this policy proved to be failure for one very simple reason: it deprives economy of principle upon which it is based - making profit, and replaces it with something else. Michael Porter in his article The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City, which deals with issue of small companies economical efficiency, rightly notices: While social programs and advanced employment strategies will continue to play a critical role in meeting human needs and improving education, they must support, and not undermine a coherent economic strategy. To conclude what was being said above, we need to lay down following principle of successful management: 1) Emphasis has to be put on making employees to work as a team, by encouraging them to enjoy a certain degree of freedom in decision making. 2) Managers have to provide a free flow of information among personnel. 3) Managers also have to take time, finding out about employees personal problems, is such exist. This will prove to them that theyre important to a company, thus psychological bond between personnel and managers can be established. Once, employees feel that their salaries and career prospects directly depend on their working performance; it will automatically increase the effectiveness on their work.
Economical, is the most important encouragement, though social aspects of management are also very important. Only proper management will guarantee companys competitiveness thorough increasing its efficiency. Bibliography: Porter, Michael The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City. Harvard Business Review. web 27. 10. 2004 Likert, Rensis Management Systems and Styles web 27. 10. 2004 Workplace Diversity Strategy 2003 - 2005. Australian Government.
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. web 27. 10. 2004 Smith, Dirk Ten common management mistakes. Network World, 06. 09. 03. web 27. 10. 2004
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