CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES OF MANAGEMENT

 Management is the organizational process that includes strategic planning, setting; objectives, managing resources, deploying the human and financial assets needed to achieve objectives, and measuring results. Management also includes recording and storing facts and information for later use or for others within the organization. Management functions are not limited to managers and supervisors. Every member of the organization has some management and reporting functions as part of their job.

According to Theo Heimann, management has three different meanings, viz.,

Management as a Noun : refers to a Group of Managers.

Management as a Process : refers to the Functions of Management i.e. Planning, Organizing, Directing, Controlling, etc.

Management as a Discipline : refers to the Subject of Management.

Management is an individual or a group of individuals that accept responsibilities to run an organisation. They Plan, Organise, Direct and Control all the essential activities of the organisation. Management does not do the work themselves. They motivate others to do the work and co-ordinate (i.e. bring together) all the work for achieving the objectives of the organisation.

Management brings together all Six Ms i.e. Men and Women, Money, Machines, Materials, Methods and Markets. They use these resources for achieving the objectives of the organisation such as high sales, maximum profits, business expansion, etc.

From above definition we have following features

        i.            Continuous and never ending process.

      ii.            Getting things done through people.

    iii.            Result oriented science and art.

    iv.            Multidisciplinary in nature.

      v.            A group and not an individual activity.

    vi.            Follows established principles or rules.

  vii.            Aided but not replaced by computers.

viii.            Situational in nature.

    ix.            Need not be an ownership.

      x.            Both an art and science.

The emerging management issues and challenges are as follows

  1.Globalization: - Globalization phenomenon is getting popular these days. Globalization of business refers to the free flow of goods service, technology, labor, capital information, across the national boundary; it is closer economic integration among different countries in terms of flow of good service, capital labor and technology. Globalization is the tendency of expanding business in different countries. Managers have to work in boundary less world. There is no territory or barrier in export and import business. Globalization invites global competition. Organizations which were competing locally with local competitors now they have to compete with global competitors. It is very difficult to organization to survive and develop in such situation..

2.    2. Workforce diversity: - Modern organizations are characterized by workforce diversity. Diversified workforce is the reality of business these days. Organizations are becoming heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity, gender, nationality, age group, etc. People having different religions, different nationality works together under one roof. Different people have different nature and they show different behavior because they come from different background. How to manage such diversified workforce is a great challenge for managers. If such diversified workforce is managed properly, organization will be highly benefited because they also bring diversified skill and knowledge. But, if they are not managed properly, they create serious problem.

3.      3.  Quality assurance and productivity: - Quality is the ability of the product to satisfy customers need. How to improve quality of the product or how to assure customers about the quality of the product has become a great challenge for management. Quality ensures organizations survival and growth. Organizations use quality to compete with competitors. Only improving quality of product organizations can face the global competition. Therefore, there must be continuous improvement in quality. Quality improvement has no boundary. It is the race without final line. It is said that people buy quality not product. And, to improve quality is a really a challenge for management. Along, with increasing quality to increase productivity again is another challenge for management. Organization must try to achieve higher productivity. Higher productivity only helps to reduce cost. Productivity is the ratio between input and output. Improved technology, employees, regular skill development and better utilization of resources helps to increase productivity. Total quality management is the latest approach or needs to improve quality.

4.       4. Technological advancement: - How to utilize advanced and sophisticated technology has become another challenge for management. Technology has developed beyond the expectation of anybody in the world over last 100 years. Tremendous advancement has been made in production, distribution and information technology. Managers must manage all this technology with the development of computer, the face of information technology has absolutely changed. Introduction of internet, email and other electronic media, have benefitted organizations in the field of productions, distribution and other areas of business. Decision making have been facilitated by information technology. Technological advancement has changed the nature of job. Most of the jobs which were performed by unskilled and semi-skilled labors previously, now they are performed by skilled labors. Number of white collar job is increasing and blue collar jobs are decreasing. Organization must train their employees about new technology. Only with new technology, Organization can compete with other competitors.

5.       5. Ethics and social responsibility: - Ethics is study of how our decisions affect other people. It is the study of people’s right and duties. The moral rules the people to make decisions and the nature of relationship among people. Ethics is to follow social code of conduct, social norms, values and attitude. The decisions made by managers have a broad reach both inside and outside the organization. So, managers must follow ethical norms and consider social responsibilities. Managerial decision must be based on ethical ground. But, these days ethics id\s decreasing in business world. So, many business organizations have unethical practice. Because of the unethical practice of some business houses, all business world is blamed.

6.       6. Innovation and change: - Management must pay attention on innovation and change. Otherwise, they would go out of business. Rapid innovations are taking place in technology, product and service. Product lifecycle is getting shorter and shorter. Product needs continuous improvement if the life span is to be made long. New ideas, new techniques, new methods are being innovated; there must be new inventions of ideas, new invention of product. Old and outdated product cannot satisfy customers.

There is change in external environment, political and legal, socio-cultural, economic and technological environment change rapidly. How to adjust with such change, how to keep pace with such change, how to keep pace with such change that has become challenge for management.

7. Empowerment: - This is the age of empowerment. Role difference between management and workers has narrowed down. Status between worker and manager is very narrow. Most of the decisions are taken at operating level. Workers are free to plan and schedule their work. They are given more and more autonomy and freedom. They participate in major decision making activities. Joint goal setting and joint performance evaluation has become common. Self managed work team had been established, more and more information are given to employees, and how to manage such empower team has become challenge for managers.