Evolution of Management Issues - Term Paper Example

Managing People Institution Name Evolution of management Introduction Management usually relates to the art of increasing productivity through nurturing people’s talents while also giving them opportunities for advancement and self enrichment (Shepherd etal, 2010). Many theories on management show how management has been evolving. Since way back, management can be divided into different theories. The first theory that began in the 1880s was the scientific management theory. This was developed by people like Fredrick Taylor, Henry Gant and Lillian Gilbreth who recommended that efficiency is usually achieved through techniques like work design, standardization, motion or time studies and specialization (Shepherd etal, 2010). There are various parts of scientific management that are still in operation today. For instance, they recommended that efficiency is achieved when a single person performs the same task throughout the day. For instance, instead of the same person carrying out procurement activities, finance activities or recruitment; a single person should perform one task while others are given the other tasks. Another theory of management was bureaucratic and administrative management. This began in the 1910s. Henry Fayol is the most recognized theorists in contribution to this theory. He defined management roles as commanding, coordinating, controlling, organizing and planning. Maxx Weber was another contributor in this theory through suggesting that bureaucracies were characterized by a unit of command, system of supervision, use of written documents, training, application of rules, and personnel hiring based on experience and competence (Shepherd etal, 2010). The third management theory was Human relations management that began in the 1920s (Bratton etal 2003). It introduced the notions of social interactions in the work place (Shepherd etal, 2010). The act of managing people has gone a long way where it has passed various trends and turned different directions (Theis, 2010). The evolution of managing people has gone through five main stages of development. The first stage was record keeping, and files management on the employee analysis and progress chart. After this stage, the stage of compliance followed where companies must follow specific legislation structure in order to meet the legal provisions. The third stage followed; this is whereby things were characterized by delivered services for the sake of consideration as a partner of the management line as opposed to only a file management and record keeping body (Theis, 2010). In the fourth stage, the employee was considered as important capital for business, and hence treated like the partner of the company, and hence human resource management was handled as a partner in the business. At that time, personnel management was the work of the people taking care of the workers and their matters. In the final stage, the term Human resource management (HRM) took over that responsibility. Today, Human resource (Hr) has been replaced by Human Capital (HC). HR and HC are differentiated by the fact that HRM had a low strategic focus where most of the concentration is on cost whereas HCM mainly focuses on managing and creating value (Theis, 2010). Therefore, the development stage above shows how employees have passed various stages or rather levels being considered a cost to the firm to being considered as capital or an asset to the business. Moreover, HC takes over the strategic role of the business, whereas, HR takes over the transactional role of the business (Theis, 2010). In managing people, managers need to adopt different perspectives and mindsets at the same time (Dubrin, 2008). The first mindset is managing self. This is whereby managers have to pause and reflect on their actions for the sake of understanding what their actions mean. For instance, it would be necessary for a manager to stop and think why a given website advertisement was successful. Secondly, another perspective concerns managing organizations. This is whereby a manager has to get organized through analysis (Getz, 2007). One needs to go beyond superficial data so that one can be able to understand the values underlying specific events. Thirdly, there is the perspective of managing context (Dubrin, 2008). A manager needs to understand culture, context, and environment in taking given actions and making decisions. This involves visiting cultures, countries in order to understand why and how products are used. In this way, it is also easy to understand why and how given policies work or why they may not work. There is also the perspective of managing relationships. It is important to possess skills of managing relationships between people and among people. This involves creating positive attitudes whereby tasks can be accomplished with ease. It also involves the ability to collaborate with others (Evantia, 2011). Managing change is the last perspective. One needs to make some changes where necessary in order to increase productivity, as a way of solving problems, and as a way of coping with competition or current trends. Change management entails the formulation, and structuring of the mechanisms of change adoption in an organization. The management of change finds facilitation from the managers of an organization. The goal of change management is to reduce any risk of failure that may result from change implementation, and maximize on the benefits of change adoption. This involves taking into consideration human aspect of change and industrial psychology. Organization change depicts dynamics that occur in an organization with reference to state, quality and shape of the organization over time. These processes occur after an introduction of new operating, acting and thinking ways (Dubrin, 2008). Organization change aims at improving the performance level of the organization, and adapting to the environmental operation conditions of the organization. Behaviour differences among employees and different types of culture influence the rate of change adoption and implementation in an organization. Change in an organization demands that the organization establishes the necessary mechanisms for managing, controlling, and implementing change (Dubrin, 2008). Most of the organizations have faced the challenge of change management, and have ended up failing to adopt change. Change acts as a steering gear towards optimization of organization performance and gaining better results. Appreciation of change by stakeholders of a given organization is a crucial step that aids in implementation of change (Dubrin, 2008). Feedback Feedback is mostly given during the performance review of an employee; a manager can use this tool as an effective and efficient way of getting or giving feedback to employees, and communicating with employees. This is because evaluations give a platform of providing direction, feedback and leadership to employees. One has to take this time to guide the employee. When giving feedback, one does not only support and encourage employees but also educate them on the areas that need improvements. When giving feedback one has to be careful in ensuring that the employee feels positive about the feedback. Therefore, proper communication skills are very important in giving feedback as a manager. One has to learn to use correct and positive non-verbal gestures, facial expressions and posture. This must be applied, as well as in, verbal communications. This is because communication relays one’s attitude, perception and feelings. Therefore, a manager must ensure that the employee walks away from the manager’s desk feeling good about accomplishments, and with an idea on improvement needed and how to do it (Sarah, 2008). Non verbal communication is important in the place of work, and a manager should observe non-verbal communication to know the position and status of the audience, especially the workers. It is of great importance for a manager to stand upright, shoulders leaning backwards, and hands moving freely to portray confidence when speaking to his audience. Some non verbal communication signs usually portray a negative attitude either to the audience or to the person speaking. Folded arms show disinterest and defensiveness. As a manager, keeping ones head bending downwards and looking at the floor throughout conveys a bad signal to the audience. While sited, one should avoid crossing legs, and consider leaning slightly backwards. A manager should understand that people usually produce, but processes do not. While communicating, it is important to put in to concern that people feel and develop emotions out of communication. One must listen to the opinion of the juniors. It is a big mistake if at all one does not listen to the views and suggestions of the people under his command (Hay, 2001). Bad language that could be disrespectful can make employees run away from an organization or feel de-motivated to perform well. It is also crucial for one to learn to communicate well with his peers and colleagues in the work premises. Learning to control one’s emotions is good in order to keep conflicts to a minimum level, and reconciliation should be achieved without the involvement of emotions. Abusive language must be prevented in order to make life comfortable in the business premises (Principal Investigator and research Administrator, 2007). Through communication (informal/grapevine) people are kept informed of the things that are happening, and which might affect their survival as employees or superiors. Communication prevents substantial losses from occurring where a mishap might be caused by faulty or dissatisfactory communication. It is necessary for employees and managers to ensure information sent is correct, clear, complete, builds goodwill and saves time (Kienzler, 2008). Through effective communication, people are able to carry out their duties well through beating the deadlines communicated, attending meetings organized, and managing their time properly. Effective communication enables one to plan for meetings scheduled, manage time with the help of knowledge of the activities they are expected to undertake and finally, one is able to know the specific responsibilities that they are expected to fulfill without delay or failure. Feedback is a good tool that can be used in achieving employee engagement. It is used in ensuring that employees go for an extra mile in meeting interests of the firm. Staff or rather employees want to feel valued (Team building Tips, 2012). Employees that feel valued and important to the organization are likely to work harder, be better in producing, and perform well in the organization (Mone etal, 2011). A loyal employee promotes the company directly or indirectly, and the companies brand in most situations. Rewards and benefits should be awarded to employees as a source of empowerment (Wellins, 2012). Managers should also be mentors of their employees through maintaining close relationships with employees and providing support where needed (Carmichael, 2012). Teamwork There are four determinants of performance of the team. The first one is the context of the team. This relates to the organizational environment of the team in which it operates (Dyer, 2010). Teamwork is usually an important tool used in completion of complex activities through team member’s interdependence. Team context is determined by the organization’s reward systems, culture and organizational structure. Success of a team is also determined by the criticality of goals of the organization, and the need of the organization to rely on teamwork. Therefore, an organization that values teamwork does not discourage teamwork through giving high incentives in individual oriented projects that can discourage people from working in teams. On the other hand, composition of the team concerns attitudes and skills of the individual members of the team. A team must comprise of the right people in terms of skills, emotional stability and willingness (Dyer, 2010). Teams that comprise of members that are not motivated without skills to achieve the objectives of the team are likely to fail. Members of a team must be committed and aware of their roles in the team. Well performing teams effectively manage composition of the team through establishing processes that ensure that the chosen members are motivated and skilled (Dyer, 2010). Team composition should also ensure that the processes are established with the aim of developing interpersonal and technical skills together with their commitment in achieving the objectives of the team. Processes should also be established in eliminating unskilled and members that are not motivated. Finally, the size of the team should be right by ensuring that the members are not too many or too few. Competence of the team is the third determinant of effectiveness of the team, and it focuses on the independent competency of the team members, and hence processes must be developed to clearly integrate the goals and metrics of achieving the respective goals (Dyer, 2010). There should be effective communication in giving and receiving feedback. In addition, team members should have the ability to solve disagreements and disputes. Individual members of a team should also build trust and commitment. A team must learn to make effective decisions. Change management skill of the team is the last determinant in success of the team. Well-performing teams should adapt to the new environment and working conditions for the team to be effective with time (Dyer, 2010). Effective assessment of team performance Benchmarking; benchmarking involves comparing the performance of a given team from a different organization with that of the team in your organizations. If the team is doing better than that in your organization, then it is easy to identify the weaknesses and loopholes in the organization through monitoring the systematic way of doing things by the rival team. Using an external analyst; an external analyst can also evaluate the team performance without bias using professional skills acquired in dealing with other teams in the past experience. The consultant can look at specific parameters such as timeliness, emotional response during crisis, coordination between team members and contribution of each team member. An evaluator can also cross-examine the team’s progress against the set objectives. If the objectives are not reached the assessor can figure out problems such as lack of coordination. Examining individual contribution; Contribution of individuals involves screening of an employee’s performance individually. This is done through assessing the employee’s participation in team meetings, measuring the way one communicates, co-operation level and volunteering for leading of team projects. Examining team performance; team’s performance involves screening of the processes of the team such as the targets set, meeting effectiveness, and feedback given to the members of the team. Team performance is also assessed through its products; timeliness and goal achievement level (FAA Human Resources, 2012). Strategy to adopt to assess team performance Behavior of individual team members determines the effectiveness of the team as a whole. A team with lazy members is likely to produce poor results. Teams with people that are focused usually produce good results, beats deadline and achieves their goals effectively (FAA Human Resources, 2012). Teams are evaluated through cross-checking the team’s achieved objective against the objectives that were set by the team leader with his members before the commencement of the activities of the team. It is preferably good when teams achieve the objectives within the projected time to prevent delays, and to improve organizational performance. A team’s performance should be based on continuous improvement. When goals are not reached the problems should be identified, and seek solutions. Control and monitoring systems; it involves examination of the operational errors and positive parts of the team. The leader applies a leadership style, and team structure that should help in the determination of the main variables for success of the team where a system of control has to be established hence all the problem areas are identified and monitored to facilitate success (Woodruffle, 2006). Some team members usually do not cooperate when in some groups but can perform well while in other groups. Team members should be rotated during the evaluation with the aim of even distribution of skills and talents of the team members in all the teams and groups of the organization. Uneven distribution of knowledge, skills and talents could lead to a great variability which results to poor performance. Organizations usually have vision and mission statement that must be integrated with team objectives in order to foster consistency in the performance of the organization (Gruman, 2011). When the vision statement is in line with the team’s objectives team members can easily be able to develop common interests that promote cooperation making it easier for evaluation to be done. Inconsistent organizational goals result to poor evaluation that disables team development and improvement. List of References ARTICALSBASE 2009. Good Communication Ensure Improved Employee Engagement. 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