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Management and Globalization: How to turn the Company around

This paper has two parts. Part I talks about managerial qualities. Since the onset of globalization, tremendous changes have been undergoing in almost every facet of life. In managing businesses, the old-style top-down approaches are being replaced by economically-astute ways. The first part talks about five managerial skills that a manager must have in order to successfully steer her company to financial zeniths.

The second part is a paper on a hypothetical case of managing a company. The paper talks about the re-organization of a company specifically in matters of communication and decision making which are its current problems.

Introduction

Historically, the image of the leader was a strong, usually male, heroic figure who knew what needed to be done and directed others to do it. This model of leadership dove-tailed with the hierarchical, top-down model of bureaucracy that came to dominate both business and educational organizations during much of the twentieth century. The old models were reasonably serviceable until a series of economic, social, and technical changes forced a transformation in thinking about organization and leadership. Only a century ago, most human activity and organizations were much smaller, simpler and more localized. In such a world, a single decision-maker could process much of the relevant information make decisions, and announce them. In the modern world of rapid change, globalization, and gigantic institutions, no one individual can possibly process all the information or make all the decisions (Sullivan 2002). Leaders now need to be sophisticated analysts of complexity who focus less on deciding and more on designing systems of multiple decision nodes.

The new circumstances call for a view of the leader as a creator of possibilities - dreams of mutual learning and appreciation, and visions or creative ways to work constructively and collaboratively at cultural boundaries. To weather this transitional context, managers need to know these five skills for effective management.

Five Managerial Skills

The first quality a good manager should have is the talent for communication. As a manager in an increasingly complex business world, one should possess exemplary communication skills to effectively relate to people within and outside the organizations, with superiors, with the rank and file and with business partners (Scott & Bruce 1995). Effective communication dispels the gap between contrasting ideas, shortens intervals for cooperation, consolidates basis for mutual trust, improves efficiency of management and helps managers fulfill their purposes smoothly. Here, flexibility is needed. In today’s modern world, the antiquated communication methods akin to a superior ordering a soldier to do something he would not really want to do does not anymore find useful application.

An effective manager knows how to build a working rapport with the people she works with. Research indicates that important managerial information is obtained even when talking through generalities and interpersonal association (Beatty 1989). Spontaneity is the word. Communication does not have to be planned. Oftentimes, this is more effective, than say, holding a formal meeting.

Today’s increasingly heterogeneous culture calls for astute manners in negotiations. During negotiation it is significant for managers to analyze the standpoint and intention of opponents, utilize various methods and techniques or develop cooperative relation or influence opponents from different aspects. Thus the negotiator must have good communication, as well as analysis skills.

The second quality is skill on planning and administration. Planning refers to how managers optimize the allocation of resources including the design. The world is increasingly getting crowded and resources have to be optimized so as to achieve premium profits. To do a good job of planning managers are supposed to collect and analyze information from multiple channels, scientifically forecast the trend of development and put forward suitable resolutions (Yelpaala 1994).

In addition, managers should have accurate knowledge about budget items, cash flow and financial statements to be utilized for proper budgeting. Third comes teamwork management. A good manager needs to create team culture to fully inculcate values of teamwork (Coscarelli, Burk & Cotter 1995). This will enable a smooth sailing inter-personal relationship between and amongst the team and make way for the effective carrying out of company plans and goals. An effective manager knows how to bring out the best in every team member by periodically praising their strengths. This way, each of the team members will learn what are the positive skills needed and may motivate them to “learn” other qualities they do not have while retaining their own positive skills.

The fourth quality is the talent in crafting strategy and action management. Strategy refers to decisions concerning assumptions and tasks made by managers according to analysis on internal and external environment of the organization. In today’s complicated business world, the right tactics and the right decisions usually make the difference between success and bankruptcy. Actions taken by managers are of great importance to fulfill strategic aims. To make strategic actions work managers should be familiar with the industry they are specialized in, be constantly updated with scientific, timely and accurate forecast and knowledge on the changes of their opponents and strategic partners as well as their own conditions. As a famous Chinese saying goes “Know the enemy and know yourself, you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat” (Lam 2000). Last but not the least is globalization awareness. Globalization savvy managers have the knack in knowing what actions are to be taken in the light of the heavy competition. Managers must have accurate understandings on the dynamics of political, social and economic affairs of the world and timely evaluate how such global affairs impact upon their organizational culture (Lee 2001). Managers shall not only acknowledge the diversity of cultures but recognize the difference as well, thus adjusting their behaviors and avoiding prejudice in contact with people from different backgrounds. Here, sensitivity is needed to cultural signals within and outside the organizations. As globalization results in changes of social and market environment managers may increasingly feel uncertainties towards the future, however, those who have a good commando on the law and theme governing the development of everything can rise to any occasion.

Corollary to observing globally-healthy attitudes to further the company, managers should possess all the modern skills required to manipulate and utilize the advances in technology. Primarily in communication, the computer, the Internet and other various connecting devices enhances a company’s ability to gather information and process them in astounding speed and precision. Coordination and contact with team members and business partners is expedited, saving time and money. A 21st century savvy manager thus must know how to utilize all these technological gadgets in order for her to keep abreast with the rest of the business world.

Re-engineering a Losing Company

I am the assistant manager in a company going bankrupt because of ill-conceived decisions and strategies. The company’s main weaknesses include communication within and outside the organization and its decision-making process. What should I do, as part of the company and as assistant manager to rescue my organization from eventual ruin? I start with communication and then determine the best possible way to arrive at decisions after the former has been addressed.

What is communication? It’s a relationship of behaviors that exist between a sender and a receiver arriving at a shared understanding (Falk, G. 1982). That not only includes spoken communication, but nonverbal cues as well. That means each member of the interaction understands what every other member understands in the same way the other understands it. Unfortunately, most businesses perpetuate a translation problem that hinders successful interaction, with no universally accepted decision-making models to find common ground to work from.

I draw from a myriad of communication guides from experts to present a simple yet effective means of communication within a business organization (see for example Schweiger & Jago 1982; Gastil, &Sager 1999). First, the company has to be dynamic. In the corporate world, things change fast. Especially with the onset of globalization, managers must need to think fast and effect out good strategies. Advances in technology help in ascertaining present and future moves in speedy ways. Thus as assistant to the manager, it is my duty to see to it that the different tools of communication and information-gathering are being utilized well. As the assistant manager, I must see to it that in every department of the organization, there is at least one communications officer who is the main communications link to these departments. It is taken for granted that management is organizationally responsible for “soft” skills — including communication. Technology people design, create, and update platforms that will report, measure, assess, implement, and blend the company’s vision into supporting procedures that can be used across contexts and departments for consistency throughout the organization.

As communications officer, they will have the task of collecting all pertinent information within their respective departments and then reporting it to the manager. From contingent needs to intelligence information on the performance of the rank-and-file to employee complaints, etc. the communication officer should see that all of these are relayed to the manager for meaningful action.

Every month, there would be a meeting involving the manager, me (the assistant manager), the different department heads and their assistants, and the communications officer. The purpose will be to ascertain the various information collected and determine which are important and which need immediate action. The meeting will also be a brainstorming process wherein department chiefs are queried on what should be done to address the different concerns. Here, the role of the manager would be that of an interpellator. The rest will be involved in the discussions and debates over the issues presented by the communications officers. After each issue is presented and debate upon, the manager will formulate her decision upon the merits of the arguments presented. This will be the flow of the meeting until all of the issues have been addressed.

Another task to be assigned to the communication officers is to oversee the utilization of modern communication tools within each department. They will also see that these tools are being used efficiently and optimally. As the assistant manager, I will be the one in charge of this. The officers will directly report to me. I will then relay the information gathered to the manager for the needed action. For example, they will see to it that the employees target possible customers via one to one communications, 10 or thousands, at home or at work, through print, E-mail, voice mail or pagers. Our communication experts well versed with communications with the nuances and vicissitudes of technology will determine the best channels for communicating and explore the potential of new technologies.

From this communications process outlined, I proceed to the formulation of an effective decision-making process. Important persons here will be the manager, the department chiefs, the communications officer, and the rank-and-file. Indeed, everyone belonging to the organization should be involved in the company’s decision-formulating process (Castellan 1993). Of course there would be no need to gather all these people together and then all will decide. This would be a very messy and costly endeavor. The effective means would be for the group or organization to “decide on different levels”. A bottoms-up approach will be used to successfully determine what are the pertinent things to be addressed.

Although most models of decision-making work from an information processing basis, the decision facilitation process makes it possible to bring parties together and drive consensus across functional, organizational, and inter-organizational boundaries (Zeidner 1987).

Of course before embarking on decision-making, there are things first to be ascertained and made clear by the top officers of the company, the manager most importantly. First is to determine what goals the company would want to uphold (Slade 1984). Knowing one’s purpose will facilitate a smooth working ethic within the organization. I will work with the manager to set the organization’s priorities, incorporate them, and use them in the company’s systems design. Here, the barriers to reaching those goals should be identified. Together with the manager, we would plan how to succeed with our stated company goals.

I show my plan of bottoms-up decision-making process by presenting an example. For example, in the preparation of a project proposal, there should be an informal discussion first at every department (Bormann 1975). Each communications officer for in every department would start these consultations in coordination with the department chiefs. After a well-ventilated free-flowing discussion has been done, each department will make a written report about their respective discussions, taking note of the more important details including the general proposals formulated. I then compile these reports per department and then return them to each department including copies of the other departments’ opinions with a request that the respective departments make their final proposals with consideration of the other departments’ proposals. I then collect the final proposals which I present to the manager. In this part of the decision-making process, the department chiefs and communication officers are called in to explain their respective proposals and the reasons why. After that, the manager and I, as top officers of the organization, will formulate the final decisions.

Reference:

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Bormann, E. G. (1975). Discussion and group methods: Theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York: Harper and Row.

Castellan, J. Jr. (1993). Individual and group decision making. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Coscarelli, W. C., Burk, J., & Cotter, A. (1995). HRD and decision-making styles. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 6, 383-395.

Falk, G. (1982). An empirical study measuring conflict in problem-solving groups which are assigned different decision rules. Human Relations, 35, 1123-1138.

Gastil, J. &Sager, K. (1999). Reaching consensus on consensus: A study of the relationships between individual decision-making styles and use of the consensus decision rule. Communication Quartely, vol. 47.

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Zeidner; J. (1987) Human productivity enhancement: Organizations, personnel, and decision making vol. 2. Praeger Publishers.