The Role of Management
Understanding the Role of Management
Managers organize the enterprisersquo;s physical and technical resources; they manage the organizationrsquo;s financial resources; they develop and maintain market share; they deal with external constituencies, such as government and suppliers; and most importantly, they manage others or their work. Management is the process of getting others to perform activities necessary to achieve organizational and personal goals. There fore, we are not surprised when Tom Monahan, founder and president of Dominorsquo;s Pizza—one of the wonder firms of the 1980s—stated,“You cannot have a successful business with just good management at the tophellip;Good management has to go right down to the lowest levels of the organization.”
Given the key role that human resources play in determining organizational productivity this book focuses on the interactions between managers and their subordinates, and managers and relevant others. Relevant others include individuals with whom managers must interact in order to obtain desired levels of output and quality. By focusing on these areas, it is possible to provide the required depth of study necessary to facilitate understanding and the transfer of newly acquired skills to the job.
The ability of 1990s managers to successfully fulfill their responsibilities in these two areas has come into serious question. A key reason we experience difficulty competing with such countries as Japan, Germany, and Korea is our lack of good managers. Tom Peters emphasized this problem in his book,
Thriving on Chaos:
Consider this statement from Nucor Corporationrsquo;s president, Ken Iverson:“Irsquo;ve heard people say that Nucor is proof that unions per se have a negative impact on worker productivity. Thatrsquo;s nonsense! That conveniently ignores vital questions like: What is the quality of direction being given the workers? What are the resources the workers need to get the job done? Wherersquo;s the opportunity for workers to contribute ideas about how to do the job better? The real impediment to producing a higher-quality product more efficiently isnrsquo;t the workers, union or nonunion, itrsquo;s management”W.Edwards Deming is a little kinder, insisting that management is merely 90 percent of the problem.
The New York Times argued that American managers hold the view“that there is no need to invent, build or develop anything yourself—given the capital and good financial management, anything of value can be bought and any problem can be sold. A sense of commitment—to onersquo;s workers,customers,suppliers,even onersquo;s fellow managers—is an impediment.”Similarly,Mintzberg,in Canada, concluded that management has become so ineffective that it prevents economic growth.Organizations,in Mint bergrsquo;s view, put people last, foster the growth of political warfare, undermine loyalty, and prevent creative leadship.Excellence in North American organizations may become a thing of the past.
Without productive employees there are no productive organizations.As Tom Peters stated,“despite the accelerating technology/automation revolution, our organizations must become more dependent on people(line workers).To be sure, fewer people will work on the line in a given factory or operations center, but those who do will be more important to and responsible for the companyrsquo;s success than ever before.”What we must realize is that technology is introduced not for the primary purpose of replacing human labor, but rather to make the human resource more productive. This only occurs if the human resource is managed effectively and thereby accepts the new technology.
The need for new management skills and behaviors not only applies to senior managers but to front-line supervisors as well.“Experts agree that the first line supervisorrsquo;s role will change dramaticallyhellip;They arenrsquo;t going to control people anymore. They have to coach them, help to do the planning, approve organization direction, and make sure the directions are clear. It will be an enabling faction rather than a control function.”The era in which managers function as heroes and “carry” their group is rapidly drawing to a close.Instead, the adaptive manager must recognize the changes in the environment and take the time to continually improve existing skills and acquire new ones.
An Environmental Imperative
As managers attempt to develop and grow, create an environment that empowers employees, and at the same time remain competitive, they will encounter fundamental changes in their enviroment.If managers refuse to adapt to these changes, it is unlikely that they will be able to create an organizational climate in which their subordinates can perform at, or near, their peak capabilities. To fully appreciate the changes that managers face, it is necessary to articulate a number of trends shaping their environment in the 1990s.It is within this changing environment that managers must learn to apply the material.
When consider these trends, it is important to keep these points in mind:First,the impact of many trends has already been felt by managers and their organizations.However,their ultimate impact has not yet fully worked its way through the North American enterprise system.Second,the trends are often interdependent. For example, the fact that employees are demanding a greater role in organizational decision making is a function of their increased education, better training，an increased awareness of personal rights, an increased reliance on self-help, and other related factors.
Increased Desire on the part of Employees to Participate
Employees in Canada and the United States want to function within a work environment that provides some level of participation in decision making. The pressure for greater participation is likely to increase as employees continue to increase their education, and as organizations attempt to restructure themselves in an e
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