Challenges Faced by Managers in the Workplace - Essay Example

Challenges in management Name Institution Introduction Every business setup or organization that has some specific goals to meet encounters numerous challenges especially in the management concept during the process of accomplishing these goals. Cunningham (2008, p. 45) states that in the wake of technology in the world today, employees in different companies are faced with issues that affect how they perform in their workplace. These issues are very varied, cropping from their interaction with other colleagues in the workplace or in their personal life. It is the onus of the management team in such places of work to ensure that they deal with these issues in the hope of mitigating their effect on the business general performance (Cumming and Hirtle, 2001, p.3). This becomes the challenges that the management team has to cope with on a recurrent scale. As shall be found out from the discussion offered in this paper, managers act as the adhesive that connects the employees to the strategic goals of the company. The management is responsible for the fulfillment of the stretch goals that they have set for the company. The various challenges that the managers face in their endeavor will be outlined here. The solutions that are available to these managers for the issues that they face in their duties have also been highlighted in this discussion. Why manage people at workplace? Before the onset of the discussion into the various challenges that different managers face in their duties and how they solve these issues, it is of paramount importance to understand the reason why management is such a big deal in the world today. Every company wishes to excel in whatever field it engrosses itself in and to enable it achieve this goal, the company management sets up different strategic plans and procedures in motion to make this become a reality (Mayne, 2001, p.4). However, it is worth noting that the achievement of these goals depend largely upon the team of personnel in the organization who are tasked with the achievement of specified goals. People have various issues, both personal and professional. These issues could, to a large extent determine how these employees perform in their duties. If these issues affect the team in a positive way, then they are welcomed, but if they have adverse effects on the team, then it is time for the managers to come up with structures that mitigate these negative effects on the realization of the company’s goals and objectives (Hamel, 2013, p.4; Elton, 1946, p. 12). The management of people is a very hard venture that requires a lot of input and a lot of positive energy. People reason and act differently when faced with certain scenarios. Some people do not have the capacity to handle pressure while others work just fine under pressure. The two categories of people are seen to be present in one team, under one manager. Given the circumstance, the manager is expected to be capable of managing the various issues that emanate from these two different groups of people through an application of conflict resolution procedures as pertains to the specific personnel. Managing people at the workplace ensures that results are achieved faster and easier. It is important to have these people managed in such a way that fosters teamwork so that the goals of the organization are achieved faster. Having understood why managing people in the organization is important, the following paragraphs outline the various challenges that the managers face in the workplace and at the end of each challenge, the various ways through which they can apply to minimize the risks created by these challenges. Challenges faced by managers in the workplace There are a number of challenges that different managers face in the process of execution of their day-to-day duties. Some of these challenges are expressed in the following paragraphs. The achievement of stretch goals that are linked to the achievement of a particular common goal is the responsibility of the managers in the organization (Brooke, 1970, p.2). For the attainment of a common goal, there must be small stretch goals that are given to various departments for execution. The various managers in these departments are given the responsibility of ensuring that the stretch goal their department has been assigned is fulfilled to the letter. The break down combination of these stretch goals ensures that the overall common goal is achieved with relative ease. For instance, take an example of a case of a manufacturing company that has the common goal of clocking a certain figure in profits in a certain financial year. To enable this to happen, the company creates a number of departments and each department is given certain stretch goals. For example, there could be the creation of a finance department that is tasked with the onus of handling all matters that relate to cash in the organization. Similarly, there could be the creation of a manufacturing department that deals with manufacturing issues. Each department has specific stretch goals. The accomplishment of these goals is important as they all intertwine to allow for the accomplishment of the company’s overall objective. The challenge rises in the manager’s capacity to ensure that he or she plans the available personnel and resources in a perfect way to ensure a harmony between the two. The managers meet the challenge of ensuring that they achieve and even surpass these stretch goals where possible. To do this, they must ensure that they have identified the various hurdles that could be standing in the way of accomplishment of these goals and figure out how to get rid of these hurdles. Cultural diversity, religious diversity and workforce is another challenge that many managers face today (Merrill, 1960, p.4). This is especially so in the international companies which span their network of operations to over many other countries. Due to globalization effect, people have the capacity to choose where they wish to work anywhere in the world, unrestricted by geographical boundaries. As such then, it is not uncommon to find many people of different cultural and religious affiliations working in the same place or same company. The key uniting factor in such a scenario is the accomplishment of specific goals of the company in which these people work. Nowadays, it is common to find people of Africa, Asian and even European origin working in the same company for the accomplishment of a certain set goal. The issue of diversity in culture or religion is a very sensitive issue in the workplace. Conflicts have been documented in the workplace arising from the issue of one employee disrespecting the culture or religion of the other employee. It is important to have employees working together in harmony irrespective of their religious or even cultural affiliations. The managers in the organization are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that there is harmony between the workers so that they could achieve their common goal. Any conflict arising from such a scenario should be treated with utmost care and sensitivity that it deserves. It is important to have the employees respect the cultural as well as religious affiliations of the other employees so that they could live together in harmony and in the process achieve the goals of the organization. This is the role of the manager in ensuring that workers respect each other in the workplace and that the workplace ideals and ethics are respected. Another major challenge that managers of big organizations face is the employee turnover challenge. No matter how big or how good an organization or a company is ranked in terms of remuneration and other benefits that workers accrue from the company, people will always leave the company for various diversified reasons (Modigliani, Franco & Merton 1958, p.264). Others will join the company to increase on the staff in the company. Employee turnover is an issue that has been a challenge to many managers all over the world. However, despite this, a high employee turnover in a company could point to some underlying issues in the company. Employees having a high propensity of leaving their work places could mean that they are in one way or the other dissatisfied with their place of work. There are many negative effects that are attached to this high rate of employee turnover. High on the list is the cost of going through the process of rehiring, recruiting and training new employees again. The operation of the various departments are also halted in the process and this could lead to loss of revenue or collapse of the system. A manager has to understand why there is an employee turnover and find ways to increase the employee retention by ensuring that the different challenges these workers are faced with are dealt accordingly (Timmons & Spinelli, 2008, p. 3). Employee motivation is a huge challenge that many managers face in the business world today. In any organization, you will always find two categories of employees; the over-performers and on the other hand, the underperformers. According to Zimmerer & Scarborough (2009, p.14 ), these two categories present a set of their own challenges and the manager has to ensure that he knows how to deal with each at their own level. The employees who are over-performers value themselves and they understand that they make a great contribution to the success of the company. as such, you always find that these employees need to have special recognition for their efforts. Managers of these companies need to take that into consideration so that they can enhance productivity, decrease turnover and increase retention. Needless to say, every manager loves to have a team of employees who are considered to be great performers. As such, he or she would want to make sure that these employees are kept motivated and happy at all times. Financial incentives and recognition of good work are some of the ways in which the employees can be motivated to keep working hard (McClelland, 1986, p.263). According to Ward & Ostrom (2006, p. 225), the guarantee of career development for the performing employee is also a great incentive to keep these employees working hard. On the other hand, the underperforming employees need to be shown special treatment too. The manager should be able to understand first why the employees are not performing as expected. After that is done and the mistake is found to be in the set systems, then it is the responsibility of the manager to ensure that the systems are rectified to avoid such set-backs. On another angle, the manager should act as a guidance and counselor to try and understand the issue a certain employee could be going through which could spill over to affect the performance in the workplace (Cornuel, 2007, p.88). Employees should only be laid off in circumstances where all measures to rectify their performance scale have been exhausted to no change. And the process of laying off the employee should be done in such a way that does not demean the employee in any way as this might set a precedence to the other employees encouraging premature turnovers. Crisis management is also another challenge that managers face in their daily work detailing. Even though a crisis is never a welcome scenario in any company in the world, sometimes crisis that are not avertable could arise (Brown, 2013, p. 465). For instance, during the global financial crisis of the 2008, many managers found themselves with problems and issues that they felt they were too big for them (Lannuzzi & Berardi, 2010, p.280). For instance, there was a high rate of employee turnover and massive retrenchment. The employees who were still in employment were panicking all over, some looking for better options elsewhere in companies they felt were more stable. Managers were faced with a challenge of guaranteeing their employees that they had everything under control. A manager is supposed to be capable of maintaining his or her calm under any circumstance. It is not healthy for the company to have the manager being seen as if he is losing touch and confidence in the brand he expects those under him to worship. Employees look up to their boss for directives in times of crises. If the manager is not strong enough to face these crises, then the employees do not feel secure in the company brand. Therefore, how managers handle crises and conflicts that are inevitable and come from without plays a major role in the assurance of the employees that everything is under control and they can keep on working towards the accomplishment of the common goals and objectives. Hiring the right personnel and ensuring constant improvement in the workplace is also very important. Managers should make sure that the personnel they hire to carry out the duty of accomplishing their set goals are competent and well suited for the role in which they are hired . academic qualification comes handy in here. However, academic qualifications are not the only basis that an employee could be recruited in. Delivery is important too. An employee could be well educated but not capable of performing as required. Constant improvement ensures that the employee undergo constant retraining as well as refresher courses to keep them abreast with the new trends in the industry. Conclusion The challenges faced by managers in the organization are numerous and some of them have been highlighted in the discussion above. It is vital to note that these challenges are very specific to specific organizations and they should be treated in their own special capacity. The challenges that the managers face could also be mitigated if they are identified early and mechanisms set in motion. Planning is also a very important factor in this process and through this process, as the above discussion has shown, the managers could be able to take care of these challenges that face them in their daily business endeavors. 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