Challenges of Management
The challenges of management encompass various aspects such as leadership, decision-making, communication, and resource allocation. Managers often face obstacles related to organizational change, employee motivation, and achieving strategic goals. These challenges require effective problem-solving skills, adaptability, and the ability to navigate complex and dynamic business environments.
7 Key excerpts on "Challenges of Management"
- Benoit Aubert, Suzanne Rivard, Michel Patry, Guy Pare, Heather Smith(Authors)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...PART IV The management challenges Organizing a business is similar to putting together a puzzle; it all comes down to execution. The frame may be right, the picture clear, and the pieces carefully selected, but if the puzzle cannot be pieced together or the pieces do not fit properly, then you have nothing but an assortment of pieces. Unlike jigsaw puzzles, how-ever, the management puzzle does not have carefully machined pieces with edges that are designed to interlock closely. Instead, it must be put together with the skills, techniques, and practices that enable each part of the business to connect seamlessly and present a coherent picture to the outside world. It is the execution capabilities of the organization's managers that enable the strategy, structure, information Technology, and leadership pieces to work together smoothly and effectively in a given environment. These capabilities are created in four ways – people management, IT management, knowledge management, and change management (Figure IV.I). Like everything else in the management puzzle, the manager's job in today's organization has become much more complex and challenging. Only a few years ago, the staff of most organizations consisted of full-time, dedicated employees and a few contract staff. While people and work are still essential to execution, today it is a radically-changed world for both workers and their managers. Staffing options such as outsourcing, telecommuting, partnerships, alliances, and a global workforce (to name just a few), are all being used by companies as they grapple with the economic challenges and technology choices confronting them. New organizational structures and interorganizational projects mean that staff may be reporting to not one, but several, different managers. Through information and telecommunications, staff can now work anywhere, anyplace, and anytime. Thus, the very nature of work is changing...
eBook - ePubEngineering Management
Meeting the Global Challenges, Second Edition
- C. M. Chang(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
...1 Introduction to Management Challenges for Engineers 1.1 Introduction In our modern-day economy, customers’ needs are changing rapidly, the marketplace is becoming global, and technology is advancing at an ever-increasing speed. To maintain competitiveness in such a challenging environment, companies need effective leaders who understand both technology and business. Engineers with proper management training have great opportunities to make valuable and lasting contributions (Chang 2005; Merino and Farr 2010). In industry, managers are select employees entrusted with the responsibilities of putting communications means to use, making critical decisions, taking decisive actions, applying resources, and guiding the behavior of internal teams and external business partners to achieve company objectives (Shah 2012; Gomez 2014). The communications means applied by managers may be verbal or written, with or without body language. The decisions made take into account technical feasibility, resources conservation, and economic viability. The actions taken include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The resources utilized involve people, time, capital, equipment, facilities, technology, know-how, and business relationships. The teams guided by managers are individual employees (teams of one), projects, task forces, quality circles, and others. The external business partners may include customers, suppliers, networked partners, and joint ventures or otherwise aligned companies. For individual science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professionals to succeed in such an environment, they need to heed the advice of Henry Ford, who said, “The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.” This chapter starts with a brief review of the major sectors of a national economy...
eBook - ePubFractal Sustainability
A systems approach to organizational change
- Isabel Canto de Loura, Robin Dickinson(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Nevertheless, it is better to keep them as challenges, as in this way they will be on the agenda, and drive and inspire individual staff members and decision-makers. We may summarize the internal and external challenges as follows: a Internal challenges: financial value – it is imperative to change mindsets so as to think about creating value, instead of how much something will cost; culture, leadership, and trust; communication – transparency; accountability and risk management; performance metrics – efficiency and savings; innovation and growth. b External challenges: global change and demographics – climate, socio-economic and geopolitical; innovation – technological, procedural and other; competition; financial capital – external sources such as investors and banks; global security and environmental regulation – global issues around security (food, water, energy), environmental regulation, corruption and human capital; reputation – from organizational ‘selfies’ to societal betterment. In Chapter 3, we will refer to these internal and external challenges and explain how they are integrated into the overall framework. 2.5 Summary This chapter has addressed the key challenges and drivers facing organizations when they feel ready to embrace the change towards a sustainability-led organizational culture and best practices. It described the leading external drivers, giving particular emphasis to the societal challenges that world leaders and scholars agree upon as being the most pressing ones for organizations to make the definitive move towards becoming proactive, sustainability-led organizations. It then focused on the internal compromises, such as the existing culture, structure, policies, standards and values that need to be reinforced in order to achieve and improve the sustainability-focused ethos of the organization. In Chapter 3, we will refer to these internal and external challenges, and explain how they are integrated into the overall framework....
eBook - ePubStrategic Management of Diversity in the Workplace
A Comparative Study of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia
- Emile Chidiac(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...2000). However, to make these factors an essential element of the strategic management of diversity, organisations must value and pursue diversity effectively in the workplace. This will lead to attracting and retaining employees, and encouraging their contributions to better serve their customers and suppliers and satisfy their shareholders. Gandz (2001) indicated that there are two processes needed to achieve diversity in organisations: (i) moving from a non-diverse workforce to a diverse workforce and (ii) managing diversity by realising its benefits at a minimal cost. However, this requires acknowledgement of the costs associated with a diverse workforce and an effective strategy to address them. Gandz’s study did not directly address the question of how these processes can be achieved. Challenges of Strategic Management of Diversity While the benefits are clear, diversity and its management are not without challenges. Just as the opponents to diversity have been vocal, the challenges must also be considered to provide a balanced perspective. The literature on managing diversity in the workplace provides extensive insights on the benefits and challenges associated with managing a diverse workforce. According to Bhadury, Mighty and Damar (2000), the effect of diversity management on organisations does not depend on diversity itself, but on the type of diversity climate that exists in organisations. Hence, organisations that have well-designed diversity management strategies can effectively manage the challenges derived from the diversity climate in which they operate. These approaches can also convert diversity into a strategic tool to increase organisational effectiveness. The other side of diversity in the workplace encompasses negatives and risks, which may lead to misunderstandings, suspicions and conflicts, resulting in absenteeism, low work morale, loss of competitiveness and problems in employees’ social integration...
eBook - ePubSocial Media Storms
Empowering Leadership Beyond Crisis Management
- Pernille Rydén, Muhammad Ismail Hossain, Efthymia Kottika, Vatroslav Škare(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In order to adapt to these changing demands and expectations, managers should learn how to interact in a more resilient manner with consumers and other stakeholders. But more importantly, managers need to intentionally change their way of thinking according to the particular context and address strategic challenges in more resilient ways. In the context of the above mentioned, what are then the remaining main challenges that managers face? Challenge #2: Understanding and managing the social media runaway train At the organization level, it is reasonable to talk of social media as disruptive technology when they are considered as offering a significant impact that will substantially alter the structure, processes, and practices of the organization. In a social media storm context, the social media disruption stems from a shift from “one-to many” distribution to a “many-to-many” configuration, where customers are both the providers and consumers of content (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). The first challenge is how the company should deal with the viral effects of social media, which is one of the triggering forces of social media storms. As over 3.8 billion people use social media (We are social, 2020), we have seen how these media can be a catalyst for consumers engaging with each other in social media storms. Like any virus, it is very hard to assess the speed and scale of their disseminating effects and their long-term impact. This means that the companies who are using social media must understand these dynamics and their own role in the negative mentions and how they interfere with--and distort--the business-customer engagement...
eBook - ePubThe Strategic Communication Imperative
For Mid- and Long-Term Issues Management
- James Mahoney(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...10). It also requires an ability to advocate with senior managers, and across organisational boundaries so it is, then, a complex discipline for which one person is unlikely to have all the required attributes (Dougall, 2008). Harrison (2011) argued that an issue rarely had a simple, single dimension and that therefore the definition of an issue needed to be agreed with a usually cross-functional management team. While these points might be described as a normative view involving a dialogic approach to issues management, Moloney (2006) has argued that issues management could be against the public interest, especially when it involves a business, or an industry association, lobbying against a regulatory policy wanted by an elected government. However, Moloney notes that this problem is diluted by a general public competition of ideas in which pressure groups counterargue the business case put, and so alert public opinion and government. Roper and Toledano (2005) took a similar critical approach to issues management. They argue that the dominant view of issues management typically involves proactive identification, and subsequent ‘defusing’, of problems before they escalate, and that it is closely linked to the development of public policy. However, in their critical view from what they describe as ‘the edge,’ contemporary issues management should also be concerned with a wider range of stakeholders and issues than those involving economic matters; it should include considerations about the environmental and social sustainability of organisations (Roper & Toledano, 2005, p. 480). Responding to issues How organisations actually deal with issues involves decisions about appropriate response strategies. The key to doing this is to identify the issues that need attention early and work out how they can be used in an organisation’s ‘strategic guidance system’ (Heath & Palenchar, 2009, p. 89). Heugens et al...
eBook - ePub- Peter Drucker(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...There may be one best way, but it is heavily conditioned by the individual and not entirely determined by physical, or even mental, characteristics of the job. It is temperamental as well. Multinational and Multicultural Management There is need for business managements to be multinational. Economically the world, and especially the developed world, has become one market. And the underdeveloped, the poor, countries differ from the developed ones only in their inability to afford what they would like to have. In terms of its demands, its appetites, and its economic values, the whole world has become one global shopping center, however divided it may be politically. The multinational enterprise which optimizes productive resources, market opportunities, and talents beyond and across national boundaries is thus a normal, indeed a necessary, response to economic reality. But all these developments introduce complexity into management well beyond what earlier generations had to deal with. For management is also a culture and a system of values and beliefs. It is also the means through which a given society makes productive its own values and beliefs. Management may well be considered the bridge between a civilization that is rapidly becoming worldwide and a culture which expresses divergent traditions, values, beliefs, and heritages. Management must become the instrument through which cultural diversity can be made to serve the common purposes of mankind. At the same time, management increasingly is not being practiced within the confines of one national culture, law, or sovereignty but multinationally. Indeed, management is becoming an institution — so far, almost the only one — of a genuine world economy. Management, we now know, has to make productive the values, aspirations, and traditions of individuals, community, and society for a common productive purpose...
