Learning Moment the Successful Manager

Learning Moment

The successful manager maximizes productivity with less or fewer organizational inputs, skillfully handles a diverse workforce and complex processes. He proficiently performs the four key functions and roles, adjusts his managerial skills to the natural life cycle of an organization and its stages. He is prepared for the proposals he makes, builds partnerships and alliances to maximum effectiveness, and possesses excellent communication and networking skills. He also uses the appropriate tools in achieving balance and rendering ethical decisions on responding to the competing needs of customers, the organization's stakeholders and employees.

Today's manager is confronted with a host of new things. He must maximize productivity, tackle a diverse workforce, develop novel skills and manage the ever-changing work environment and processes (Bateman and Snell 2004, Kinicki and Williams 2003, Rue and Brays 2003). He must be proficient in all new key functions and in the natural life cycle of organizations, internal and external forces that affect the organization. His decisions and proposals must conduce to building partnerships and alliances and strike ethical balance between the competing needs of employees and organization stakeholders (Bateman and Snell, De Janasz et al. 2003). In a word, the modern-day manager must exceed the qualifications of the manager of the past if he must cope the changing business and organizational environments.

This paper is a brief review of four authoritative sources on management in this new environment and era. Bateman and Snell (2004), Kinicki and Williams (2003), Rue and Brays (2003) and De Janasz et al. (2003) discuss these challenges, key functions and roles, the impact of managerial proposals on partnerships and alliances and that of ethical decisions on balancing the needs of organizational stakeholders with those of employees.

The descriptive-normative method of research was used in recording, describing, interpreting and analyzing the information gathered from the required readings for the six weeks of study.

Findings and Discussion. Readings of Week 1 point to the modern manager's challenges as maximizing productivity with less resources, more demanding customers, more complex decision-making processes that require greater innovativeness, an increasingly diverse workforce, the work environment and processes, such as the complex information technology systems (Bateman and Snell 2004, Kinicki and Williams 2003, Rue and Brays 2003). The manager's key functions of planning, leading, organizing and controlling and the different roles he must play at different times are the topics during Week 2 (Bateman and Snell 2004, Kinicki and Williams 2003). These functions and roles are determined largely by the type and level of the manager and the size of the organization. An organization's natural life cycle is the topic during Week 3, using the Jones and Associates Construction as a case study (Bateman and Snell, Kinicki and Williams). The cycle consists of startup, growth, maturity and decline stages. External forces, such as competitors, regulations and market conditions, influence this cycle and, therefore, compel the manager to adjust his practices according to the demands of these forces. The proposals the manager makes are the topic during Week 4 (Bateman and Snell 2004, De Janasz et al. 2003). It must possess adequate support beforehand so as not to miss opportunities and must build and maintain partnerships and alliances for increased managerial effectiveness. The manager must review their impact on internal and external partners. He must also have the required excellence in communication and networking skills. And the formation of ethical decisions is the topic during Week 5 (Bateman and Snell). It has been observed that rapid changes in the business and organizational scenario have often led to a manager's unethical decisions in his desire to satisfy customers or the organization's shareholders. Employees may also apply pressure and expectations for more meaningful career opportunities and greater participation in management. Readings for this Week explore the competing needs of these stakeholders against those of employees and the decision-making tools the manager can use in rendering wise and ethical decisions (Bateman and Snell). Broken trust with constituents due to unethical behavior and support options for advanced health care are common examples or arenas where unethical decisions are made.