Change Management

Management In Future -  Change

No one can deny that the role of management in contemporary society is changing. There are certain factors responsible for changing role.

Forces for change

In general, four basic forces currently shape the manager’s job. First, more and more firms are recognizing the need to cut back and retrench aimed at eliminating unnecessary flattening their structures by eliminating unnecessary costs and unprofitable operations. In, addition many firms are flattening their structures by eliminating levels of management, which is called as downsizing.

Second, advances in computers and communications technology are greatly altering the nature of managerial work. Machines replace the human resources and software is being developed that can significantly aid managers in their jobs.

Third, the rapid growth in the service sector promises to continue. This means that a greater array of services will be available for all types of consumers, more and different kinds of managerial positions will be available with in service firms, and new services not yet imaginable will emerge.

Finally, the emerging importance of small businesses and entrepreneurship will play a major role in shaping the future of management. More people than ever before are choosing to work for themselves. Small business growth is mushrooming, and successful entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Sam Walton have increasingly become popular figure in the United States and the world.

Effects of change

The effects of this change can demonstrate by two dimensions, which in turn Directly affect the degree of uncertainty, which managers and organizations face. One dimension is increased dynamism – that is, an increase in the rate of change. Other dimension is complexity refers to the sheer number of issues, problems, opportunities and threats that must be considered. In the past most managers needed to concern themselves with only a limited number of environmental elements. Now the number of competitor regulators, suppliers, and customer continue to increase rapidly. This combination often results in surprising relationships. For example, General Motors and Toyota are competitors in the world market place for automobiles, but in California, they are collaborating in a venture.

Figure demonstrated that both the dimensions, dynamism and complexity rises, the level of uncertainty will also rise in the same proportion.

Organizational governance

Organizational governance refers to the rights and privilege of the organizations and the individuals in those organizations. The trend toward even more employee participation in decision making through such arrangements are semiautonomous work teams and quality circles suggests that workers will have increasing influence on what occurs in workplace.

Other issue involves the constitutional rights of employee while they are at work. Another governance involves the employee’s legal claim to his job. The doctrine of

“employee at will” generally governed the implied employment contract between the worker and the organization. This doctrine held that the organization was free to employ someone at will and could therefore dismiss the employee at any time for any reason. All these practices affect the future of management.

Global interdependence

The increase in international competition and movement toward a truly global economy will mean that many future managers will need to be fluent in more than one language. In addition, these involve the heighten level of uncertainty and complexity managers will face in future. Balance of payments deficit and international world war will affect the future of managers significantly. Another implication is with the increased global interdependence; the distinction between domestic and foreign is blurred.

Information technology

We have also considered some of the dramatic changes and effects on management caused by innovations in information technology in general and computers in particular. The advent of computers, computer networks, and electronic mail helps managers to access information, sort and process information and disseminate the information to others very quickly. Secondly, Managers will need to assess new generation of computers as well as each new developed application, so that productivity can be enhanced. Lastly, every organization will have to contend with issues of supervision and coordination.

Organizational dynamics

The way in which organizations structure themselves and manage their employees is called as organizational dynamics. For example, the distinction between line and staff workers is already becoming blurred. Employees are better educated and more and more women and members of minority groups are entering the workplace and competing effectively for higher level positions. Organizations find that they must explore a variety of compensation arrangements, benefits offering and flexible at work schedule.

Beyond general issues there are certain specific issues affecting the future activities of managers.

Stress

The problem of occupational stress has emerged as an important concern for individual managers and organizations alike. Stress or physical or emotional tension occurs when a person is subjected to unusual situations, to demands that are difficult to handle. Starting a new job, trying to win a promotion, long working hours, being pressured by a demanding boss all includes stress. Of course, a moderate level of stress is normal, and in fact healthy.

Career issues

Other significant issues in the manager’s future relate to his/her career, particularly to what might be called forced mobility. In the past people started working for a company right after college. One or more job changes in the early years were normal, but by mid career most people had settled with one company. In this age of retrenchment and downsizing, however, it is becoming increasingly common for organizations to fire people in the middle of their career. It is also becoming more common for managers to move frequently, some to get extra pay, some to accelerate advancement, and others to find new challenges.

Changing demographics at work

Organizational demographics refer to the age, sex, education, race, ethnic background, country of national origin, and experience of the work force has begun to change. The more obvious aspects of that change are reflected in the increasing presence of women and minority group members in management. Communication patterns will also change. Mobility and dual career problem will increase; this complexity will further contribute to the stress problem.

Preparing for the future

To become better equipped for the future managers must develop an awareness of change, continue to train for changes, learn to adopt and develop a professional view of their work. Simply, managers need to be aware that things are changing. Education is a life long experience for the manager. Throughout his/her career he/she will learn new thing from his/her job, and he/she will participate in training and development programs.

Summary

This chapter attempted to provide a broad perspective of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. Beginning with the concept of entrepreneurship, advantages and disadvantages have been discussed. Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs have been discussed. Today’s entrepreneurs are a reflection of our diverse society and reflect recent changes in orientation to life and career. Women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs. Many part time entrepreneurs now “test the water” before making a total commitment. Family owned businesses still dominate in the number of business firms in America. Many of new ventures are targeted at market opportunities that will allow the firm to grow at a faster rate and produce major employment in the economy.

In assessing a new venture, entrepreneurs considered a number of different environments. One of them is economic environment and other is industry environment. In relation to this, marketing research has to be included in present chapter. Marketing research includes gathering of information proceed to analyse, evaluate and interpretation of data. Entrepreneurs do not carry out marketing research due to cost, complexity and collection of irrelevant data.

This chapter also focused three main forms of legal organizations viz. sole proprietorship, partnership and corporations. The advantage and disadvantages of each form were highlighted and compared. In addition franchising was also discussed with emphasis on advantages and disadvantages. In addition to this, many ways of strategic planning for a new venture with its benefits was discussed. Entrepreneurs do not use strategic planning due to scarce time, lack of knowledge, lack of experience etc. A typical life cycle of a venture has been explained with its five distinct stages.

Finally, future trends in management have been discussed with factors responsible to affect the management practices. Some of them were considered as general factors and other were treated as specific like stress, career issues etc. At last, we have discussed about the solutions of these problems.