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Closing soon: 2010 WYEF-WYEA International Leadership Training Conference - Feb and March Sessions
About this event: 2010 WYEF-WYEA International Leadership Conference
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Dear Colleagues,

The booking for the 2010 WYEF-WYEA International Leadership Training
Conference for February and March Sessions are closing soon.

Information about the conference is available on the event website:
http://www.wyea.org/conference

To secure a seat for yourself or your group, please complete and send
the expression of interest form as soon as possible. Preferably,
before 10th of November 2009.

The expression of interest form is available on this web page:
http://worldyouth1.tripod.com/id28.html

This will enable us dispatch you or your group's invitation letter on
time, and also enable you or your group to start your Visa processing
at the Australian Government Department of
Immigration and Citizenship in your region. Visa information is
available here: http://www.immi.gov.au/contacts/overseas/

Looking forward to receiving you or your group's completed expression
of interest form, and welcoming successful delegates to the
conference.

If you have already sent-in your expression of interest information,
we will review and send feedback on or before 15th of November 2009.

Thank you.


Yours sincerely,

John Nze-Bertram
For: World Youth Empowerment Foundation and World Youth Empowerment
Association Inc.
Adelaide,
South Australia
Mob: 0449061457
Website: http://www.wyea.org/conference

October 29, 2009 | 6:25 AM Comments  0 comments
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CHANGE
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

This article written by John Nze-Bertram

* Summarises the reasons put forward by Pat Row as to why individuals find change difficult to achieve

* Discusses why people dislike (indeed, fear) change

* Examines the reasons why the difficulty faced by individuals in accepting change is an issue that warrants examination in the academic study and ‘real world’ practice of management

* Puts forward means that managers should implement to best overcome reluctance to change



Assessment:
School of Commerce/School of Management
University of South Australia


INTRODUCTION

Savery and Luks (2000, pp. 309-317) explains that, an organization experiences three major changes including structure, technology and people. In response to these changes, an organization ought to plan for change that can be anticipated, and at the same time, create contingency measures that are flexible and can timely and accurately respond to sudden changes as they are occuring (Bungi, Victor & Lentz 2004, pp. 28-34). To assist management in minimising sudden changes, strategic management and planning techniques is important in order to forecast and predict the future of an organization. This enhances management’s ability to make informed decision about possible outcome of different change scenarios (Bungi, Victor & Lentz 2004, pp. 28-34). Consequently, this case study would discuss why people find change difficult, why they fear change, and the reasons why the difficulty faced by individuals in accepting change is an issue that warrants examination in the academic study and ‘real world’ practice of management. In addition, this case study would put forward means that managers should implement to best overcome employees’ reluctance to change.




REASONS WHY PEOPLE FIND CHANGE DIFFICULT, A SUMMARY OF PAT ROWE’S ARTICLE

Pat Rowe, a Managing Partner of the Rowe Partnership and an inspirational organizational leadership trainer, published an article titled ‘The Queen: Are We ‘Hard Wired’ or Can We Change?’ on the 8th of March, 2007. In this article, the author emphasises the importance of change, particularly, referencing a movie called ‘The Queen’ where an Oscar winning Helen Mirren portrayed the courage needed by the British Royal Family to embrace change, this is, despite their ‘hard wired’ regimental lifestyle. The article, informs that change is not easy but it is unavoidable and it is ‘critical to professional growth.’ The author, using the research by Jeffery Schwartz, the author of ‘The Mind and the Brain’, and Sharon Begley, author of ‘Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain’, demonstrated that individual can develop acute fixation to their own ways of doing things (Hard wired) that they resist any attempt to change. According to the article, this phenomenon is influenced by the brain. To illustrate this further, the article gives an example of how Rose the counsellor would find being confrontational (an area of less skill and experience) an energy sapping experience and therefore, would maintain her status quo and would resist any change that could expose her to confrontational situations. However, the author reiterates that ‘change is possible but requires effort.’ Furthermore, pleasure and pains was emphasised to be the primary motivation for change. Next, the article briefly states four steps taking to achieve change–these are: awareness, analysis, alternatives and attack. Finally, people were encouraged to critically focus on the positive end goals derived from change and stick by their self declarations, because those who constantly break their vows to change will never achieved change.




WHY PEOPLE FEAR CHANGE IN THE WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT

Greiner (1972, pp. 37-46) asserts that, once an organization is stabilized and a unilateral organizational culture is formed, and everyone has developed routines and regiments, any changes that are perceived to destabilize this state of comfort would be resisted. Change resonate fear in people, particularly, when such change is sudden and unanticipated (Bungi, Victor & Lentz 2004, pp. 28-34). Academics believe that, ‘uncertainty’ is the primary reason why people resist change; other reasons include threatened self-interest, different perceptions, peer pressure and bureaucratic inertia (Davidson et al. 2009, pp.538-39). For example, uncertainty about job security could lead an employee to resist change (Bijlsma-Frankema 2001, p. 192).

Resistance to change can be as a result of perceptual expectation or distortions (Kitchen & Daly 2002, pp: 46-53). For example, if a change is anticipated to diminish the influence, authority or role of an individual in an organization, he or she will resist the change (Foegen 1998, pp.2-5). In addition, having formed a regimental and organised way (habits and routine) by which an individual tackles their daily job routine (habituation), any ambiguity that displaces this bureaucratic system of coordination of work activities would be resisted (Burton-Jones & Hubona 2006, pp. 706-717). This resistance to change may be induced by perceived psychological or physiological stress. Older workers are most culpable to resisting change that involves learning new routines or skills, as this could be technically or intellectually challenging to them (Burton-Jones & Hubona 2006, pp. 706-717). People can also resist change in the workplace for fear of making mistakes or fear of exposing their hidden weaknesses (Pierce, Kostova & Dirks 2001, pp. 298-310). So also are individuals that have invested their life time specialising in a specific job task and have organised their family or social life to align with this workplace routines, they would resist any change that threatens this engrained morals, values and ethics (Burton-Jones & Hubona 2006, pp. 706-717). People’s resistance to change could be as a result allegiance to informal groups within an organization that are opposed to change (Steiner 2001, pp: 150-167). Other reasons employees resist change includes: feeling of guilt (survivor syndrome); and fear of loss of investment such as life savings.

Fieldler’s contingency theory on leadership behaviours explains that inflexible leaders (autocratic, democratic or laizzez-faire) would be threaten by a change in organizational culture, and therefore, they would resist change (Davidson et al. 2009, p.362).




INDIVIDUALS’ RESISTANCE TO CHANGE, ACADEMIC STUDY AND ‘REAL WORLD’ PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT.

According to Yoo, Lemak & Choi (2006 pp: 352 -368), critical analysis of Henri Fayol ‘s fourteen principles of management exposes the key factors why change is inevitable. It features unilateralist contexts such as unity of command, unity of direction, centralisation, stability of tenure of personnel, and esprit de corps. On the other hand, the same principle emphasises the need for innovation and creativity in order to facilitate organizational growth and competiveness. It is this later principle that creates change which displaces the equilibrium achieved with the former principles. This results to a dilemma where individual would have to restructure their formal and informal lives to congruent with the prevailing innovative change (Rodrigues 2001 p.880). And those who cannot change ‘fall-out’ of the system. From this inference, it becomes obvious that at one time or the other, even the most traditional and regimental organization or individual would have to change unconditionally or forced to change against their will (Davidson et al. 2009, p.42-3). This means that for an organization to retain their most valuable staffs, management would have to plan for change, and also prepare their staffs for change (Feinstein, Mann & Corsun 2002, p.732).

Considering the paradigm shift from the traditional to the contemporary model of change processes, it is imperative that efforts are being made to catapult the traditional managers (such as the baby boomers) to the contemporary business environment including blending their traditional know-how to contemporary best-practices, systems and dynamics (Easterby-Smith 1990, pp.24-8). For a traditional manager, using the Lewin’s three stage hypothesis of change process is what he/she would have been used to. This theory explains that to effectively implement change three stages have to be undertaking – these are: Unfreezing the status quo; changing the status quo; and refreezing the new status quo (Davidson et al. 2009, p. 537). However, this hypothesis is only ideal in a stable environment, therefore, limited in its application to this era’s dynamic business environment. This means that, the traditional Manager would have to change to a new ideology and concept in order to remain valuable.

This new paradigm is explained by Davidson et al. (2009, p. 537) to include a seven stage of change process. These include: recognising that change is necessary, setting the goals for which the change aims to achieve, using multi-dimensional analysis strategy to examine various scenarios of change (and its effect and outcome), then, selecting the appropriate change technique, planning how the change can be efficiently and effectively implemented, executing actual implementation, and lastly, evaluating the change to ensure that it has achieved maximum outcome and follow-up on feedbacks.

Dunphy and Stance (1990) cited in (Dawson 1996, p.60) asserts that the scale of change and the mode of change influences the approach a manager adopts in responding to specific situations in the organization. For example, in a stable environment where employees understand the reasons why change is needed – the best change process is to get the employees to participate in the change process and then, gradually implement changes on an incremental base. Whereas, Charismatic transformation is an enterprise-wide change that is implemented in response to an unexpected situation, but where the workforce welcomes the change (Dawson 1996, p.60). Forced Evolution is a timely implementation of change in phases, particularly, for the reason that a lingering tug-of-war among stakeholders is hindering the implementation of certain aspects of the change. And, Dictatorial transformation is an unexpected large-scale change that is implemented by coercing the workforce to accepting the change (Dawson 1996, p.60).
As part of an organization’s development strategy and in view to increasing efficiency, effectiveness and productivity in a dynamic environment, experts from external best-practice firms are contracted to analyse, develop and implement a phase by phase, or incremental change within an organization. This may involve up-skilling the employees in order to reduce the fear of change while introducing innovative ideas (Bowman & Daniels 1995, p.157).

According to Davidson et al. (2009, p.551-4), ‘Innovation is the managed effort of an organization to develop new products or services or new uses for existing products or services.’ Creativity is an aspect of innovation and involves: creation of new products and services or markets; modification of existing business structures, processes or products; and synthesis or combination of two or more existing things in the organisation to create new outcomes. Innovation can be classified as, radical innovation, incremental innovation, technical innovation, managerial innovation and product innovation (Davidson et al. 2009, p.551-4). Resistance to change is a serious impediment to innovation. Therefore, in order to facilitate innovation, management must encourage creativity, empower staffs to develop intrepreneurial skills, implement cross-functional and cross-specialisation programs; adopt organisational culture that encourages innovation and creativity (Davidson et al. 2009,p.556).

According to Davidson et al. (2009, p.555) ‘an organization’s culture consists of the set of values, beliefs and symbols that help guide behaviour.’ Dawson 1996, p.64) explains that to effectively coordinate an enterprise-wide change, the top level management would set the strategic goals that focuses on the broad general plans and goals; middle management would focus on the tactical plans including identifying specific actions to achieving positive change outcome; and the first level managers would handle the operational plans by directly utilising the tactical strategies to effectively motivate employee’s to support change.




OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

According to Davidson et al. (2009, p.541), Force-field analysis ‘help a manager identify those forces that are driving the change and those that are resisting it’. Robbins et al. (2006) recommended six steps for reducing the resistance to change - these are: Firstly, through education and improved communication: The aim of this strategy is to empower the employees through up-skilling or training on new job and informing them of the reason for the change and how they, the employees could benefit from the change (Middlehurst & Barnett 1994, pp.48-66). This will increase employees’ morale and their solidarity with management. Second method is, through participation: As employees participate in decision making towards implementing change, they become stakeholders in the change process and are more cooperative towards change implementation, thereby, reducing resistance to change (Iles & Mabey 1993, pp.103-18). Third method is, through facilitation and support: This strategy is to notify employees of the impending change well in advance so that they can have time to adjust. In addition, incentives could be given to potential oppositions so as to induce them to step aside for a while during the period of change implementation .Next method is, Negotiation: This strategy involves coming to a common understanding with the oppositions through compromise (Robbins et al. 2006).
Next method is, plain manipulation and cooption (Robbins et al. 2006): This strategy involves, cleverly using rumour, distortion of facts and misinformation to divert the attention of employees, but at the same time, subtlety wooing the employees to accept the proposed change. Coercion is the last method (Robbins et al. 2006): This method involves out-rightly forcing the employees to accept change. Academics warn that the last two methods are toxic to an organisation’s human relations management (Folger & Skarlicki 1999, p.35). It can cause permanent damage to the interpersonal relationship between management and employees, and result in business turnover, absenteeism, loss of confidence, and outright deviant behaviours across the organisation (Folger & Skarlicki 1999, p.35).

Mayo and Hawthorne studies on human nature informs that, informal structures, counter cultures and frames of reference are other contexts by which management could explore to reduce resistance to change (Budd & Bhave 2006, pp. 5 -30). This involves targeting key informal leaders within an organisation and using them as conduits to pacify those resisting change or to rally support for change. According to Budd & Bhave (2006, pp. 5 -30) , when planning to reduce resistance to change , ideas from different schools of thought within the organization should be considered - This includes unitarism, pluralism and marxism frames of reference. Also, alliance with countercultures’ leaders within the organization are useful to reducing resistance to change and harnessing alternative view point that can improve decisions making (Fisher 1997, pp.37-48).

Unitarism views the organisation as a single unit consisting of like-minded people all geared towards the achievement of organisational goals under the single authority of the collective’s head [in organisational terms that would be management]. Phrases such ‘we’re all one big happy family’ and ‘we’re all team players’ are indicative of a unitarist frame of reference. To the unitarist, anyone who disagrees with the central authority or the way things are done is regarded as some kind of deviant troublemaker and the main method of dealing with them and the trouble they cause is to somehow eradicate them and reduce their influence.

Pluralism on the other hand accepts that any organisation, social entity or collective consists of individuals with their own self-interests as well as accepting, for one reason or another, organisational interests. Eventually any individual’s self-interest will impinge upon another’s or upon the interests of the organisation, just as organisational interests will of course sometimes impinge on an individual’s self-interest. To a pluralist therefore conflict is inevitable: it’s a fact of life, and the important thing is not to attempt to eradicate it because such a course is self-defeating as it inevitably leads to more conflict. The answer is to lessen the damage, conflict and dissension it creates and attempt to manage it by dispersing power more evenly via rules and procedures governing how conflict is resolved. Unlike unitarists (who view all conflict as basically bad and unwelcome), the pluralist sees it as both a source of possible innovation via different ideas and perceptions as well as a useful check on malpractices within the organisation.

Marxism however views the whole organisation (and capitalist society generally) as a means by which a small elite of wealthy owners (who possess the vast share of the unequal distribution of capital) coerce and exploit the large majority of the less-well-off to service that capital for the sole benefit of that elite. The Marxist therefore does not so much see conflict as inevitable, but as endemic within the very structure of society and the organisations run by capitalists for capitalists. In short, conflict is built into the system and it is a class-structured conflict based on the raw exercise of asymmetrical economic and social power. The way to eradicate conflict, therefore, is to change the whole system and replace it with a system that does not contain such an endemic source of conflict and oppressive exploitation. This type of view, if one removes the communist political overtones, is often referred to as radicalism. Radicals tend to go for large-scale systemic change, rather than the pluralist line of containment and incremental change.

All three of these frames of reference are present within any organisation and society at any given time. However each has their problems:

• Unitarists are in danger of creating organisations full of drone-type or sycophantic ‘yes people’ who never question the status quo and therefore are incapable of thinking beyond the square creatively or innovatively. Even if people are able to do this, they keep their mouths shut in case they are regarded as troublemakers in the face of centralised management prerogative.

• Pluralists on the other hand are in danger of being overrun by the rules and procedures they develop; in some cases the rules and procedures governing conflict and behavioural norms become more important than what they are designed to achieve.

• Radicals are in danger of smashing the system, but often have no better or viable alternative with which to replace it. Despite their criticisms of the system (which can often be valid), they merely want the change they want and can be completely unwilling to accept any counterargument from others – as Galbraith (1969, p. 87) once famously said ‘The man who argues with a Marxist has always been assaulting a rock fortress with a rubber flail’.

In order to reduce resistance to change, Hinterhuber & Popp (1992, pp.105-13) recommends a combination of the leadership and management approach. Path-goal theory of leadership and Transaction leadership involves ‘guiding and motivating followers in the direction of established goals, by clarifying task and role requirements’ (Davidson 2009, p. 369). Transformational leadership theorist suggests examining an individual’s personal fears towards change and helping that individual with a tailored solution to overcoming such fear (Davidson 2009, p. 369). Overall, managers should be able to adopt the best leadership approach in response to the change context.




CONCLUSION:

Academics have conducted extensive research in the field of change and the result is that change is constant, inevitable and a part of life. This is supported by Pat Rowe’s article where he explained that though people maybe ‘hard wired’ to resist change, but they can still change if motivated by ‘pleasure or pain’. Other scholars blame uncertainty, threatened self-interest, different perceptions, peer pressure and bureaucratic inertia as the reasons why people fear change. In the contemporary work place, the fear of change is a great obstacle to innovation and creativity. Therefore, to solve these problems, the management need to have strategic plans in view to managing change and reducing resistance to change. This includes participation, education and facilitation. Also, managers have to understand the personality, motivation and perceptions of their subordinates including how to build effective teams in view to reducing an individual or a group’s resistance to change (Helms & Haynes 1992, pp. 17-21).




Reference:
Allcorn, S 2003, The dynamic workplace: present structure and future redesign, Greenwood Publishing Group, p.14

Bijlsma-Frankema, K 2001, ‘On managing cultural integration and cultural change processes in mergers and acquisitions’, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 25, no. 2/3/4, pp: 192-207

Bowman, C & Daniels, K 1995, ‘The influence of functional experience on perceptions of strategic priorities’, British Journal of Management, Vol. 6 No.3, pp.157-67

Budd, JW & Bhave, D 2006, Values, Ideologies, and Frames Of Reference

Bungi, P; Victor, B & Lentz, J 2004, ‘Case Study: Modelling how their business really works prepares managers for sudden change’, Strategy and Leadership, Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., vol.32, no. 2, pp. 28 -34

Burton-Jones, A & Hubona, GS 2006, ‘The mediation of external variables in the technology acceptance model’, Information & Management, vol.43, Issue 6, pp. 706-717

Cooperrider, DL & Srivastva, S 1987, ‘Appreciative inquiry in organizational life’, Research in Organizational Change and Development, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, vol. 1, pp.129-69.

Davidson, P, Simon, A, Woods, P & Griffin, RW 2009, Management: Core Concepts and Applications, 2nd Australasian edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, Qld.

Dawson, P 1996 ‘Beyond Conventional Change Models: A Processual Perspective’ Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, vol. 34, no. 57, p.60

Dunphy, D & Stace, D 1990, Under New Management: Australian Organisations in Transition, McGraw-Hill, Sydney.

Easterby-Smith, M 1990, ‘Creating a learning organisation’, Personnel Review, Vol. 19 No.5, pp.24-8.

Feinstein, AH, Mann, S, Corsun, DL 2002, ‘Charting the experiential territory: clarifying definitions and uses of computer simulations, games and role play’, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 21 No.10, pp.732-44.

Fisher, J 1997, ‘The three dominant cultures of the workplace’, National Productivity Review, Vol. 16 No.2, pp.37-48.

Foegen, J 1998, ‘Are managers losing control?’, Business Horizons, Vol. 41 No.2, pp.2-5.

Folger, R & Skarlicki, DP 1999, ‘Unfairness and resistance to change: hardship as mistreatment’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 12, No.1, pp: 35-50

Greiner, LE 1972, ‘Evolution and Revolution as Organisations Grow’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 50, pp. 37–46.

Helms, MM & Haynes, PJ 1992, ‘Are you really listening?, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 7 No.6, pp.17-21.

Hinterhuber, HH & Popp, W 1992, ‘Are you a strategist or just a manager?’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 70 No.1, pp.105-13.

Iles, P & Mabey, C 1993, ‘Managerial career development programmes: effectiveness, availability and acceptability’, British Journal of Management, Vol. 4 No.2, pp.103-18.

Budd, JW & Bhave, D 2006, Values, Ideologies, and Frames of Reference In Employment Relations, Industrial Relations Center, Minnesota, ch. 5, pp. 5 -30

Kitchen, PJ & Daly, F 2002, ‘Internal communication during change management’, International Journal of Corporate Communications, vol. 7, no. 1, pp: 46-53

Middlehurst, R., Barnett, R 1994, ‘Changing the subject: the organization of knowledge and academic culture’, Managing the University Curriculum: Making Common Cause, The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press, Buckingham, pp.48-66.

Pierce, JL; Kostova, T & Dirks KT 2001, ‘Toward a Theory of Psychological Ownership in Organizations’, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 298-310

Robbins, S, Bergman, R, Stagg, I & Coulter, M 2006, Management, 4th edn, Prentice Hall, Frenchs Forest, NSW.

Robbins, SP & Barnwell, N 1994, Organisational Theory in Australia, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Rodrigues, CA 2001, ‘Fayol's 14 principles of management then and now: a framework for managing today's organizations effectively’, Management Decision, Vol. 39 No.10, pp.880-90.

Savery, LK & Luks, JA 2000, ‘Organizational change: the Australian experience’, Journal of Management Development, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 309-317

Steiner, C 2001, ‘A role for individuality and mystery in “managing” change’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 14, no. 2, pp: 150-167

Yoo, JW, Lemak, DJ & Choi, Y 2006, ‘Principles of management and competitive strategies: using Fayol to implement Porter’, Journal of Management History, vol.12, no. 4, pp: 352-368

June 12, 2009 | 8:44 AM Comments  0 comments
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Management – it’s all about controlling the workforce...or is it?
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

ESSAY WRITTEN BY:
John Nze-Bertram

EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT :
School of Management/ School of Commerce
University of South Australia



MANAGEMENT – IT’S ALL ABOUT CONTROLLING THE WORKFORCE...OR IS IT?

Leading financial experts including professionals from the IMF and World bank in a communiqué titled ‘G20 Working Group on Reinforcing International Cooperation and Promoting Integrity in Financial Markets (WG2)’ proposed ‘supervisory colleges for all major cross-border financial institutions, as part of efforts to strengthen the surveillance of cross-border firms’ in view to addressing the global financial crisis. (G20 WG2 2009, p. 3). The report also emphasises that ‘Regardless of the scope of regulatory regimes, the effectiveness of enforcement mechanisms (to control people) should be considered.’(G20 WG2 2009, pp.37-38).This report facilitated the unanimous support by the G20 leaders of a philosophy proposed by Gordon Brown , the UK prime minister, of ‘Capitalism with a conscience’. (Weisman & Macdonald 2009, p.8). This is in order to stop the culture of corporate greed. According to Barte (1984, p.45), organization culture means ‘the company’s way of doing things’ and Reynolds (2009, p.333) asserts that organizational culture determines organizational performance. Pursuant to this preamble, while defining the meaning of management, role of managers, functions of management, internal, external and international environment affecting contemporary management systems, this essay will critically discuss the importance of management’s ability to effectively and efficiently control the workforce in order to achieve organizational goals.


Human beings are complex and diverse, and are difficult to manipulate due to ethical reasons. Human beings resist change, and always strive to maintain status quo.(Watson 1971, p.8). On the contrary, machines, information systems and technologies, infrastructures, business processes and other micro and macrocosms of an organization can be manipulated, changed, restructured or programmed to achieve desired organizational goals. Since it is the human beings that are needed to design, coordinate and integrate the holistic aspects of a business, it becomes imperative to assume that once the human factor is right all other aspects of a business will be right. (Reynolds 2009, p.333). This includes good organizational culture, quality products and services, and healthy relationship with the environment. This may explain why notable academics such as Fryer et al. (2004, p.1) defines management as using people and co-ordinating their specific tasks to achieve organizational goals.


However, it is arguable that this definition of management above is a misfit considering the complex functions of management in a contemporary business environment. (Cravens et al. 1997, p.493). The contemporary business environment is constantly changing, and is affected by globalization, socio-cultural and political-legal changes and the advancement of information technology, especially, the internet. Therefore, this pressure from external environmental factors demands that management response to the changing business climate quickly, timely and accurately, and constantly modify business process to suite emerging trends. (Cravens et al. 1997, p.494).This is achieved by flattening management hierarchy in order to speed up decision making in response to external environmental factors. (Cravens et al. 1997, p.495). This paradigm shift from the traditional to the contemporary business atmosphere has inspired some academics to question the notion that management is all about controlling people. For example, when recommending a contemporary management approach to managers in the construction industry, Fryer et al.( 2004, p.1) ‘have called for improved collaboration between industry and academia in research, increased focus on diversity and equality issues, and performance based approach to tackling challenges of modern day.’ This means that, management is now extending outside of the internal workplace to managing complex alliances with other organizations in view to remaining sustainable.


When discussing management hierarchy, Jones and George (2003, p.4) explains that there are three management levels that are occupied by managers. Managers ‘are people who are responsible for supervising the use of an organization’s human and other resources to achieve its goals.’ (Jones & George 2003, p.4). These three levels of management hierarchy are the first line management, middle management and top management. On the bottom of the management hierarchy is the first line managers whose duties includes effectively and efficiently supervising the non-management employees and co-ordinating individual work activities to achieving organizational goals – in this category is the marketing manager, finance manager, human resources manager, and others. Next, is the middle managers – their duties include ensuring that the first line managers are efficiently and effectively utilizing human, material and other resources to achieve organizational goals , in accordance with the mandates, plans and visions of the top management. They also give feedbacks to the top managers about the business progress, and recommend what need to be improved – managers in this category include the general manager and division manager. Lastly, on top of the management hierarchy is the top manager – key duties include ensuring that the organization succeeds, and expectations from customers and investors are met. In addition, the top manager, monitors, evaluates and analysis’s the socio-cultural, political, economic and international environment, and utilizes the feedback to improve business focus and processes, value chain, and competitive advantage. This is to say that, the success or failure of an organization is in the hands of the management, particularly, the top manager. According to Fredrickson, Hambrick and Baumrin (1988, p.255) ‘CEO’s get fired... when their organization performs poorly.’ Practical example is the recent sacking of Rick Wagoner, the GM motors’ CEO, by the US government, for the collapse of the 100 year old organization.


Despite the plurality in the definition of management, academics agree that four basic functions of management including planning, leading, organizing, and controlling are key functions undertaken by a manager, in view to, efficiently and effectively use organization’s resources to achieve its goal. These functions are integrated with one another. Kliem and Anderson (1996, p. 4) explains that - Planning: is a process of careful analysis of business initiatives and goals, and strategic design of activities to achieve them. Leading: is empowering people to work individually or as a team, through motivation, influence, and effective communication. Organizing: involves quantifying, mobilizing, distributing, positioning and allocating resources and coordinating activities. Controlling: is monitoring and evaluating the holistic business processes, and scanning through the internal and external environment of a business - including organizational culture, human resources, quality of goods or services, customers’ response, emerging trends, competitive forces, socio-cultural, political, economic, and international environment - in view to generate feedback that can be utilised by management to increase productivity. (Kliem & Anderson 1996, p. 4)


Taking into consideration the meaning of control above, the view by Flamholtz (1996, p.2) that ‘organizations must influence or control the behaviours of people, if they are to fulfil their plans and achieve their goals’ becomes debatable. Flamholtz ( 1996, p.2) enumerated workforce control techniques as including personal supervision, standard operating procedures, rules, accounting measurement and performance appraisal systems. While Flamholtz’s assertions are debatable, it cannot be ignored, because, the global economic recession is directly linked to people’s greed. In a best seller book titled ‘Infectious greed: how deceit and risk corrupted the financial markets’, the author portrays how greed-driven culture and dubious or illegal corporate finance and accounting have lead industries and economies to a perilous crossroad. ( Partnoy 2003, p.1)


In conclusion, the global financial crisis has been linked to corporate greed and has resulted in a recommendation by world leading financial experts and supported by world leaders that the workforce (leaders of top financial institutions) must be controlled through a new cultural philosophy called ‘capitalism with a conscience’ in order to revive the global economy. Though, academics argue that the contemporary management is more than just controlling the workforce, but involves, controlling and integrating the holistic internal and external environmental forces. However, the current depression amidst smart technologies implies that if the workforce (people) is not controlled effectively, an organization cannot achieve its goals.


References:

Bate, P 1984, ‘The impact of organizational culture on approaches to organizational problem-solving’, Organization Studies, Sage Publication, California, p. 45

Cravens, DW, Greenley, G, Piercy, NF & Slater, S 1997, ‘Integrating contemporary strategic management perspectives’ , Long Range Planning, Elsevier Ltd, Missouri, vol.30, no. 4, pp. 493 -506

Flamholtz, E 1996, Effective Management Control: Theory and Practice, Springer, New York, p.2

Fredrickson, JW, Hambrick, DC & Baumrin,S 1988, ‘A Model of CEO Dismissal’, The Academy of Management Review, Columbia University, New York, vol.13, no. 2, p.255

Fryer, M, Egbu, C, Ellis, R & Gorse, CA 2004,‘The development of management thinking’, The practice of construction management: people and business performance,4 edn., Wiley-Blackwell, USA, p.1

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June 6, 2009 | 5:43 AM Comments  0 comments
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