The Changing and Challenging Role of Managers in the Organizations Today

The Changing and Challenging Role of Managers in the Organizations Today

Introduction

The managers of today are obviously different as compared from the past role of managers, not only because of the knowledge but also their ability to face the challenges set before them. The managers in this generation is described to be part of overall function of management in an organization and are daring enough to try other things that can contribute in organization’s effectiveness. Through the movement of an organization towards the organizational change, the behavior, functions and roles of a manager is challenged.

Strategic Role of a Manager

The truth behind the strategic management is different from other change process. Strategic management requires a long-term commitment from the top of the organization, as much as possible including the business leaders within the organization, up to the bottom of the hierarchical organizational structure (Scribner, 2002). All of the energy and effort should be applied to maintain the long-run of the organizational objectives (Bryant, 1997). In association with these actions, an organization that is willing to plunge in taking such efforts in using strategic management is the same organization that survives in the tight competition and economic changes. In short, they became successful and therefore, experiencing the benefits of it. A manager should understand the importance of analysis and assessing the firm’s current situation. In this area, the market, customer, competitors, and organization’s internal function should be duly investigated to determine the capacity f the business’s performance. He must consider the elements that are involved in achieving the competitive advantage such as the latest technology, preferences of the consumers, applicable approach in the marketing, etc. All of these issues are immortal which is a manager should fearlessly answer according to the specified time (Walker, 2002).

Roles and Expectations

According to Mintzberg, there are ten management roles that need to be developed and explored to facilitate the changes that may happen in the environment (Mintzberg, Ahistrand, & Lampel, 1998):

Role

Activity

Figurehead

Handles the social and legal obligations which the manager is respected through the status and authority.

Leader

The responsibilities remain between the manager and subordinates. This is where the motivational approaches, development programs, encouragement and promotion are held towards the aim of effective performance among the subordinates.

Liaison

Information and communication is the obligation of the manager and have an appropriate network of information in the organization.

Monitor

Assessing the internal operation that can contribute in the discovery of the problems and opportunities.

Disseminator

Gives emphasis on the factual or value-based views in the organization which may require the filtering and delegation skills.

Spokesman

Act as a public relations officer who has the capacity in informing the other key stakeholders regarding the operation of the organization.

Entrepreneur

Encourages the subordinate managers in improving the projects and empower the teams towards the fast development.

Disturbance Handler

The role is to be in action in an unexpected situation such as conflict and find resolution to prevent affecting the entire project.

Resource Allocator

Unbiased and justifiable decision is indeed needed in order to allocate properly the resources and avoid overseeing the financial materials.

Negotiator

Has an specific task in communicating with the figurehead and resource allocator to create sound decisions.

Because of these roles, the traditional roles of managers became centered in committing and achieving the goals of the organization. The changes occurred in the modern organization is based on the increasing need of managerial focus on the areas that in the past’s are taken for granted or ineffectively handed.

Problems on Role of Managers in Organizational Change

The first problem is the confusion on the roles and functions of the managers in the organizational change can be the primary problem in every organization. The sudden shift or change on the manager’s role might affect the development of a project.

Second problem is finding the right application of strategies. In the organizational change, the priority of the organization might be also affected and for some reason, the organization might fail to satisfy the consumer’s needs and perceptions.

Changing Roles of Today’s Managers

Managers are usually involved in the planning stage of the organization; therefore, in the application of the plans, it is necessary that the managers are aware on the interventions that can be added in the strategic management. Managers should filter the principles that enclosed in every approach that the entire team might create as a basis of the organization’s decision making (Lucas, 2006). A manager, with the use of all his skills and knowledge must help clarify the future direction of the business – strategically – to solve the major problems and improve the performance of people (McWilliams, Van Fleet, and Wright, 2001).

References:

Bryant, S., (1997) Strategic Management, Public Management, 79(10)

Lucas, S., (2006) Eight Principles of Strategic Wealth Management [Online] Available at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articlepdf/ [Accessed 26 September 2010]

McWilliams, A., Van Fleet, D., & Wright, P., (2001) Strategic Management of Human Resources for Global Competitive Advantage, Journal of Business Strategies, 18(1).

Mintzberg, H., Ahistrand, B., & Lampel, J., (1998) Strategy Safari, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.

Scribner, S., (2002) Introduction to Strategic Management, Policy Toolkit for Strengthening Health Sector Reform [Online] Available at: http://www.lachsr.org/documents/introductiontostrategicmanagement-EN.pdf [Accessed 26 September 2010]

Walker, G., (2002) Economics Meets Sociology in Strategic Management, Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(2)

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