Management

A rapidly accelerating trend in recent years has seen management become a significant part of
everyone’s job duties, from front-line employees serving customers to the executives who are
at the top of the organization hierarchy. Therefore, each part of an organization (employee or
owner) now have responsibilities of managing information in addition to managing their
relationships with customers both internal and external to the organization and with
organizational peers, subordinates and managers. How well they can manage these relationships
and the information for which they are responsible will have a critical impact on their success
or failure. Commented [GD1]: Page 3 => Management: people,
performance, change - second edition
Many management thinkers have defined management in their own ways. For example, Van
Fleet and Peterson define management “as a set of activities directed at the efficient and
effective utilization of resources in the pursuit of one or more goals.” Organizational Commented [GD2]: https://www.managementstudyhq.c
performance depends, to a large extent, on how resources are allocated and management’s om/what-is-management.html
ability to adapt to changing conditions. In successful organizations, people are managed wisely
and resources are used efficiently and effectively. This helps managers reach hey organizational
goals, such as keeping the company functioning in a changing external environment in which
technology, governmental activities and competition create constant challenges.
The twenty-first century world of business is strongly influenced by three issues (, which the
management must deal with.) The first is the management of change. Organizational leaders
must cope with and adapt to rapid change on daily basis. Change creates uncertainty and risk.
The number of competitors and offerings is greater than ever before. Globalization means that
most firms are exposed to competitive challenges, such as the rapid development of
technology, as many products (usually software) become obsolete in a matter of a few
years or even months, forcing the firm to continuously innovate or die.
The second is an increasing emphasis on customer services. The company must satisfy the
needs of customers in ways that contribute to long-term loyalty. The term customer is now used
in a broader sense. It refers to anyone who receives a service from an employee. Customers are
both external (current or prospective consumers of the firm’s products or service) and internal
(other managers or employees who depend on the manager’s performance or inputs in some
capacity). For most successful operations, the customer represents the starting point and the
ending point for almost every activity.
The third critical issue affecting the management profession in the twenty-first century is the
need for higher business ethics. Ethics are the standards and values which are considered
necessary for the collective interests pf employees, shareholders and society. Recently, several
well-publicized examples of cheating, dishonesty and use or the firm’s resources for personal
gain have emerged in many firms (as WorldCom, Tyco, General Dynamics, Enron and Arthur
Andersen). In the long run, these violations will have a negative impact on those who are
influenced by such managers’ decisions, including employees, other managers and customers. Commented [GD3]: Page 8-9 => Management: people,
performance, change - second edition
On these general issues faced by management, it is known that managers must be competent
and knowledgeable people in the organization to make the best decisions for it. That means that
managers must have both some skills which enable them to understand the problems faced by
the organization and its employees, and knowledge of the structure and organizational culture.
In the broadest sense, management skills can be nearly anything that enables people to manage
others effectively. While some skills will vary based on a specific industry, there are several
that are universal across nearly every work environment. Robert L. Katz has identified three Commented [GD4]: https://www.careerbuilder.com/advi
broad skills as those used by all managers – technical, human and conceptual. ce/what-are-management-skills-and-why-are-they-
important
Technical skills involve skills that give the managers the ability and the knowledge to use a Commented [GD5]: Page 25 => Management for
variety of techniques to achieve their objectives. These skills not only involve operating effective performance
machines and software, production tools, and pieces of equipment but also the skills needed to
boost sales, design different types of products and services, and market the services and the
products. Commented [GD6]: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.co
m/resources/careers/soft-skills/management-skills/
Human skills come into play in getting things done through and with other people. The human
Commented [GD7]: Page 25 => Management for
or the interpersonal skills are the skills that present the managers’ ability to interact, work or effective performance
relate effectively with people. These skills enable the managers to make use of human potential
in the company and motivate the employees for better results. Commented [GD8]: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.co
m/resources/careers/soft-skills/management-skills/
The last category, the conceptual skills enable the manager to visualize the relationships among
the various component and activities in organization. The manager is able to see an entire Commented [GD9]: Page 26 => Management for
concept, analyze and diagnose a problem, and find creative solutions. This helps the manager effective performance
to effectively predict hurdles their department or the business as a whole may face. Commented [GD10]: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.c
om/resources/careers/soft-skills/management-skills/
How it is mentioned above, a manager must also be “a man from inside”. That means he is used
to the processes and activities from the organization, but also to its culture. Organizational
culture includes an organization’s expectations, experiences, philosophy, as well as the values
that guide member behavior, and is expressed in member self-image, inner workings,
interactions with the outside world, and future expectations. Consequently, the manager
understands the traditions and needs of the organization. As an example, we can mention
Google, who has become known as the company with endless perks for its valued employees.
Some of these include coffee bars, free meals, lounge breaks and even the option to bring your
pet to work. Google has locations worldwide and management embraces the idea that a happy
employee leads to a productive workplace. The company’s long-term success ties back to its
corporate culture and values. Commented [GD11]: https://courses.lumenlearning.com
/wm-principlesofmanagement/chapter/reading-
A great example for a good management is Anne Mulcahy, who has managed to lift the organizational-culture-as-a-competitive-advantage/
american company named Xerox from a difficult time. At the end of 1990s, the good name and
image of Xerox have become seriously tarnished and the company has been in some very deep
financial trouble, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, with weak sales, high costs, troubled
employee morale, customer dissatisfaction and increasing debt. In addition, the Securities &
Exchange Commission (SEC) has investigated the company for possible accounting
irregularities.
In may 2000, the board of directors dismissed G. Richard Thomas, president of Xerox, after
only a little more than a year in office. The same month the board of directors turned Anne
Mulcahy, a long-term Xerox insider, and appointed her president. At first blush, Mulcahy
seemed an unlikely candidate to lead Xerox from its deep financial and legal abyss. She did
have various-level job experiences during her past 25 years at Xerox, but she had not been part
of a deliberate corporate succession planning model where she was taken “under the wing” of
the CEO and “groomed” for the presidency. Moreover, her work experiences did not seem too
put her on the prospective high flyer CEO track. More than a half of her work experience at
Xerox was in sales and her most recent leadership experience was as vice president of human
resources and chief staff officer to then company CEO Paul Allaire.
Mulcahy’s educational background was different from most aspiring CEOs. She was not an
attorney, nor a Ph.D. in the sciences or technology field, nor was she a holder of an
undergraduate business degree or an MBA. Rather she attended Marymount College (NY) and
graduated with a degree in English / Journalism.
Colleagues and underlings alike have remarked at the variety of her personal traits. She is very
focused and very decisive. She is also open to criticism, but more important than her openness
to criticism is her ability to listen carefully and attentively to what various stakeholders are
saying. She is a person of polarities – both compassionate and tough. Her tenacity is legendary
and her competitiveness has been attributed to her parents, who encouraged her to compete with
four brothers. Finally, she combines a “can-do” attitude with a fierce company loyalty and
strong customer focus.
Despite these appealing characteristics, some outsiders believed that her appointment as
president of Xerox was a problem: an insider and not up to the task at hand. So the question
was: Could Mulcahy cut $1 billion from Xerox costs? In addition, Mulcahy had a limited
understanding of accounting and finance. But here to, she was different as she brought in an
expert in finance to tutor her to bring her up to speed.
People should always work from their strengths. And that’s exactly what Mulcahy did. She
began to turn the company around by doing what she does best: She used her popularity and
experience with customers to get them on board; she began changing the image of company
form “just a copier company” to a company that offered varied customer services similar to
IBM model. Within her first year on office, to assuage employee morale problems, she created
and circulated memo, “Turnaround Talk”, held dozens of meeting with employees and traveled
more than 100.000 miles to meet with employees. As part of her corporate persona, she adopted
the military mantra of “anywhere, anytime” to help close a deal with CEO’s of client companies.
In her first two years in office, she dealt with the unpleasant task of reducing management staff
(14.200 employees) to cut $1 billion. She outsourced many functions that existed outside
Xerox’s core business, eliminated low-end product lines (ink jet copiers) and focused on the
high-end product lines (color/commercial copying/printing) and sold business operations in
China (for $550 million in 2000) as well as half interest in Fuji Xerox (for $1.3 billion in 2001).
Finally, she was able to eliminate the SEC accounting problem. Overall, she reduced product
prices, cut expenses by $1.7 billion and sold (noncore) businesses to the tune of $2.7 billion.
As a result of her management and leadership, Mulcahy has increased market share, created a
more stable management and developed a stronger customer focus. On July 26, 2001, Mulcahy,
president of Xerox, added the title of CEO and in January 2002 she added the title of
chairperson. She is the first woman to hold these positions at Xerox. In 2005, Mulcahy ranked
sixth on Fortune’s list of the most powerful businesswomen. She shared at that time the
limelight with superstar Carly Fiorina (#1), CEO/chair at Hewlett-Packard (HP); Meg Whitman
(#3), president and CEO at eBay; and Andrea Jung (#5), chair and CEO at Avon Products. Anne Commented [GD12]: Page 45-47 => Management:
Mulcahy is now an example for an efficient management strategy and a good personal and people, performance, change - second edition
leadership skills. She demonstrated that also a great sense of courage and determination can
make an employee to become a successful manager who leads the company to its best times.
In conclusion, a manager’s job is highly crucial to the success of any organization. The more
complex the organization, the more crucial is the manager’s role in it. A good manager makes
things happen. ++ Commented [GD13]: https://www.managementstudyhq.
com/what-is-management.html