Custom «What Is Management» Essay Paper

This refers to the process of organizing people and their activities within an organization, to ensure they reach the goals of the organization, using the resources within their disposal effectively and efficiently (John & Cohen 2002). Management is an important part of the running of an organization, because it directly affects the output and sustainability of the organization. It starts from the planning process where the mangers determine the order through which activities within an organization would run. It also include organizing the processes, keeping in mind the available resources to ensure that the processes do not result into flops due to diminishing of resources along the way (Luis, David & Cardy 2008). A major aspect of management is the resource allocation and control. This is the most critical part because it does not only deal with monitorial, technological, natural and technological resources, but also human resources which creates the base of performance of an organization. Human resource is determined by qualifications of the employees and the needs of the organization, hence a very important aspect of management. In order to effectively manage an organization, the process of hiring new employees should be thorough and should consider long term aspects as well as the short term goals of an organization. Effective managers develop systems within their organizations (John & Cohen 2002). When every system is effective, the whole organization tends to be effective, thus effective management.

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Management is a very old exercise that dates back to as early as during the development of social system among human beings. Many people have created many tools and proposals to ease management (Luis, David & Cardy 2008). However, there have been difficulties in the effectiveness of managing organizations because firms have been undergoing turbulent times and new management skills are always needed (John & Cohen 2002). Most of the tools that have been developed have had objectives to ensure that the management process is easier and more workable. However, the complexity of the process has remained a nagging issue to managers. Some of the challenges that managers face in the execution of their duties in the modern society are discussed in this paper.

Challenges Associated With Management

Turbulence in Workforce

Managers have had to deal with an emerging problem of changes in the diversity in the workplace. As time passes, new generations with different ideas is taking over and these new generations require different treatment from their predecessors. Millenials, for instance, have had a very different approach to issues than the preceding generations. They have adopted new strategies. For instance, they have continually been associated with reduction of competition through collaborations. This way, the older employees have been left with difficulties in handling this new generation of employees.

The employees in workplaces have also failed to take responsibilities in their organizations. They have declined to prove that they can become departmental managers, which has become a big worry to the senior managers (Luis, David & Cardy 2008). With the generation increasingly becoming dominant in organizations due to their boom in the 1980s, this is forecasting a managerial gap in future which could easily fail organizations (John & Cohen 2002). Since managers are supposed to come up with strategies that would ensure sustainability within their organizations, they face the challenge of having no successors, which they should ensure they solve by nurturing the new generation.

The millennial generation is having problems articulating their thoughts with the older people. Due to their numerical dominance in organizations, they form a rift between them and the older people which has resulted into mistrusts among employees (John & Cohen 2002). This is a big challenge to managers as they need to bridge the differences. These differences are very huge and rooted on the generational views, thus extremely hard to solve. If the differences are left to prevail, they cause redundancy in organizations, which eventually lead to failure in the output of the organization (Luis, David & Cardy 2008). It should be therefore ensured that every employee is working with each other with an aim of improving the organization as opposed to personal brilliance. Managers should ensure that employees have the organization in mind at all times, in spite of their generation or interpersonal differences.

Despite the turbulence in the workforce within an organization, managers are required to ensure that they empower their employees (Luis, David & Cardy 2008). This is a hard task for them because they need to have efficient systems that would enhance this process. Therefore, the process of harmonization of a workforce despite the difference and diversity on many aspects makes management process a very complex and difficult task to those responsible.

Social responsibilities

Traditionally, organizations did not bother to consider the rest of the world that surrounded them. This has changed a lot in the present day and legislations have demanded that every organization operation within certain regions have social responsibilities (John & Cohen 2002). Manufacturing industries have to ensure that the society that surround their factory was enjoying their presence and not bring suffering to them. Employee rights have been improved and firms are liable to almost everything that happens top employees during their performance of duties (Luis, David & Cardy 2008). The firms have to ensure that every stakeholder, including shareholders, the society, customers, and even the nation as a whole is not negatively affected by the organization. Instances such as the BP oil spill have attracted numerous expenses to the company in a process to try and compensate for the losses caused by their operations. This has eventually resulted into more responsibilities to managers than ever before, making management even harder.

Globalization

This is the new development in the global economy where businesses from all over the world, no matter how small they are, can easily spread to other parts of the world. Therefore, managers are facing global competition and have to ensure that they develop their organizations with that fact in mind. When they fail to do this, they face a dilemma of being overtaken by smaller organizations, as they encroach into any part of the world. Planning for an organization with a global outlook may be hard and may result into many complex decisions, which many managers may not be very competent to handle (John & Cohen 2002).

Globalization has brought together people from different cultures and managers are expected to create an environment that would ensure that the cultural differences among employees does not affect their performance. Traditional perceptions are a big hindrance to this, with people from certain regions being perceived in certain ways that would disintegrate harmony within organizations (John & Cohen 2002). For instance, people with Saudi Arabian decent working in the United States faced hostility in their working places after the 11^th September attack on the US. Managers had to devise ways that would ensure that the hostility was eliminated because such perceptions result into racial and cultural abuse which undermines the productivity of the victim.

Globalization has resulted into organizations trying to reach global standards of items and services. Organizations in developing countries have been forced to quickly improve the standards of their products quickly, which is not an easy task (John & Cohen 2002). They have been forced to upgrade their services at a very high rate which is difficult in a normal scenario. Meanwhile, those organizations in developed world have to come up with strategies to ensure that they remain at the top because products from another developed country can easily infiltrate into their market, making them lose grip (Luis, David & Cardy 2008).

This aspect has also led to the increased need to adopt foreign systems that the firm might not have been familiar with. For instance, organizations need to face the different political and legislative requirements from what they would have been used to. Eventually, mangers are compelled to make hard decisions, which make their work very challenging.

Knowledge-Based Economy

The global economy is changing from the traditional richness in currency performance to the extent of innovation and talent among the people. This has also been translated into organizations, where hiring is being selectively done on the most creative people (John & Cohen 2002). This is not an easy task for managers, because they have to ensure that they get the best personnel, so that they remain competitive within their industry. It is vital that organizations hire the best available personnel because it would eventually translate into diminishing of the quality of their output. Managers are therefore required to develop organizations that are based on searching for innovation and creativity. It is therefore becoming complex for managers to get the best employees, especially they are not among the leaders in their field. Utilization of information is integral in the process of  management, thus leaving the leaders in organizations with extra efforts as opposed to the traditionally known recruitment process (Luis, David & Cardy 2008).  In some organizations, the innovators are the pillar to the organization, because they develop the brand and ensure that the firm remains on top. Laura Ashley Plc, a UK based clothing company lost its market and profitability for over a decade after the death of their main innovator, Laura Ashley. Similarly, technology company Apple faced a huge blow when their innovator, Steve Job left the company in the 1990s. When this happens, companies need to replace these main figures with equally competent people and when they fail to do so, the organization is usually faced with problems of maintaining their brands and may eventually fail to keep their place in the market.

Sustainable business

The sustainability of organizations is quickly shifting. With uncontrollable factors such as global warming, organizations are compelled to tow along the lines that would ensure sustainability. Further, many businesses are becoming threatened as they become hard to maintain due to the compensations that they need to give to the bodies that check global warming (John & Cohen 2002). As a result, they have higher expenses that are usually made very significant by the increased shifts in global economies. These economies affect the whole organizations, leaving them very susceptible to fall in the near future. Managers have therefore been faced with the threat of ensuring that their organizations remain competitive even after the change in both financial and physical environment (Luis, David & Cardy 2008).

The radical changes in technology has given managers more to consider while making their organizational decisions. The speed at which these decisions need to be implemented have been compelled by these technological decisions (John & Cohen 2002). However, some organizations are more affected by these changes than others. For instance, an United Kingdom based organization such as HMV group has plunged into difficulties due to technology. While other firms have adopted the technology where they sell their entertainment material through downloadable channels in the internet, the organization has remained with the old technology which is now turning to be obsolete. This has created difficulties as the company managers have tried to sell the organization, but have failed to get an investor. This leaves the firm in a turmoil because their old technology cannot effectively compete with the new technologies in the market. In this case, the organization managers are continually being faced with hard decisions to salvage the sustainability of the organization.

Technology is also a big hindrance to long term decision making process of an organization. The radical changes in the industry have restricted the managers because they may invest heavily in a technology that may become obsolete within a short moment. While this factor limits their adoption, the market demands that they take up every new technology. This leaves managers faced with a dilemma on when to make an investment into a technology.

However, it should be taken into account that the same technology has brought efficiency in the management process as models have been created to help managers make decisions. It has also brought interaction which has made the work of managers easier through interconnectivity and sharing of ideas and managerial skills across nations and continents.

Conclusion

Management has become a challenging task in the recent past. This can be attributed to the continued evolution of the society because management is as old as human kind and the dynamic society has forced people to ensure that they manage their organizations in a more competitive way.  These challenges that have marred the management process ensures that organizations improve their service delivery. As managers’ work progressively gets harder, consumers are the gainers because they get the end product as firms improve their quality of output.