How Can the Interactive Approach to Management be Successfully Implemented in an Organization - Research Paper Example

Interactive Management Approach Interactive management approach involves increasing of communication between the manager and their employees to improve their effectiveness within the organization. According to Cheese & Thomas (2008), employees will increase their productivity if they can easily relate to their employers. Interactive management involves various strategies such as frequent conversations or use of social media. However, this has to be carefully implemented so that it can accomplish its objectives. Successful implementation depends on the type of organization. Organizations are grouped according to stages, depending on their size: they may either be stage one, two or stage three firms. Stage one organizations are small, single-business enterprises managed by one person. The owner-entrepreneur has close daily contact with employees and each phase of operations (Silzer, 2010). Most employees report directly to the owner, who mates all the pertinent decisions regarding mission, objectives, strategy, and daily operations. Implementation of the interactive approach is easy in such an organization because of the number of staff. Stage two organizations differ from Stage I enterprises in one essential aspect: an increased scale and scope of operations force a transition from one-person management to group management. Stage 3 consists of organization whose operations, though concen­trated in a single field or product line, are scattered over a wide geographical area and large enough to justify having geographically decentralized operating units. These units all report to corporate headquarters and conform to corporate policies, but they are given the flexibility to tailor their units strategic plan to meet the specific needs of each respective geographic area. Ordinarily, each of the geographic operating units of a Stage III Organization is structured along functional lines. Stage one and two organizations have limited communication channels and as such, implementation of the interactive strategy by the management is easy. In stage three organizations, the channels are much more complicated and implementation of this management approach requires a lot of input from the manager and cooperation from the employees. The managers role in the implementation process is in leading and setting the tone, and style of strategy imple­mentation (Hatum, 2010). There are two ways that the manager can use to implement the interactive management approach: They can opt for an active, visible role or a low-key, behind the scenes role; it will be determined by the expectations of the individual manager. Successful strategy execution depends greatly on good internal organization and com­petent personnel. Building a capable organization is thus always a top strategy imple­mentation priority. Three organizational issues stand out as dominant: developing an internal organization structure that is responsive to the needs of the organization, developing the skills and distinctive competences in which the strategy grounded and seeing that the organization has the managerial talents, technical expertise, and competitive capabilities it needs and selecting people for key positions. Successful implementation involves a series of procedures that have a long-term effect on the processes within the organization. Most importantly, it involves matching the organization structure to the strategy of the organization. These processes are aimed at making the staff aware of the interactive strategy that is implemented within the organization. Below are some of the steps that should be followed for effective implementation. Steps essential for effective implementation In any organization, some activ­ities and skills are always more critical to strategic success than others are. The strategy-critical activities vary according to the particulars of a firms strategy and competitive requirements (Pollitt, 2010). To help identify what an organizations strategy-critical activities are, two questions are fronted: What functions have to be performed, extra well and on lime for the strategy to succeed and in what areas would poor performance seriously endanger strategic success. The answers to these two questions should point squarely at what activities and skills are crucial and where to concentrate organization-building efforts Understanding the Relationships among Activities Activities can be re­lated by the flow of material through the production process, the type of customer served, the distribution channels used, the technical skills and know-how needed to perform them, a strong need to centralize authority over them, the sequence in which tasks must be performed, and geographic location, to mention some of the most obvious ways. Such relationships are important because one (or more) of the interrela­tionships usually become the basis for grouping activities into organizational units. The needs of the interactive management approach strategy are to drive organization design, and then the relationships to look for are those that link one piece of the strategy to another. Grouping Activities into Organization Units If activities crucial to strategic success are to get the attention and visibility they merit, then they have to be a prominent part of the organizational scheme: When key functions and critical tasks take a backseat to less important activities. The politics of organizational budget making usually leads to them being given fewer resources and accorded less significance than they actually have. On the other hand, when they form the core of the whole organization structure, their role and power in the overall scheme of things is highlighted and institutionalized. Senior managers can seldom give a stronger signal as to what is strategically important than by making key function and critical skills the most prominent organizational building blocks and, further, assigning them a high position in the organizational pecking order. Determining the Degree of Authority and independence to Gave Each Unit Activities and organizational units with a key role in strategy execution should not made subordinate to routine and non-key activities. Revenue-producing and results-producing activities cannot be made subordinate to internal support or staff functions. With few exceptions, decisions should delegate to those managers closest to the scene of the action. Corporate-level authority over operating decisions at the business-unit level and below is reduced (Ra, 2013). The crucial administrative skill is selecting strong managers to head up each unit and delegating them enough authority to formulate and execute an appropriate strategy for their unit. Providing for Coordination among the Units Providing for coordination of the activities of organizational units is accomplished mainly through positioning them in the hierarchy of authority. Managers higher up in the pecking order generally have authority over more organizational units and thus the power to coordinate, inte­grate, and otherwise arrange for the cooperation of the units under their supervision (Scullion, 2011). The chief executive officer, to chief operating officer, and business-level managers are, of course central points of coordination because they have broad authority. Besides positioning organizational units along the vertical scale of managerial author­ity, coordination of strategic efforts can also achieved through informal meetings, project teams, special task fortes, standing committees, formal strategy reviews, and annual strategic planning and budgeting cycles. Additionally, the formulation of the strategic plan itself serves a coordinating role; the whole process of negotiating and deciding on the objectives and strategies of each organizational unit and making sure that related activities mesh suitably help coordinate operations, across organizational units. In conclusion, an interactive approach would greatly enhance the performance of the organization. However, its implementation should be done carefully so that staff members can fully appreciate the changes and integrate into the new management approach. This role has been left to managers who have the important task of informing junior employees of these changes and helping them implement them appropriately. In addition to this, there are certain tasks that are important and need to be introduced by the manager to ensure effective implementation of the interactive management approach. These involve understanding the relationships between activities in the organizations, grouping of activities in organizational units, determination of the degree of authority to give each unit and providing for co-ordination among the various units. It is only when these steps are followed that the interactive approach of management can be properly be implemented within the organization. References Cheese, P., & Thomas, R. (2008). The talent powered organization strategies for globalization, talent management, and high performance. London: Kogan Page. Hatum, A. (2010). Next generation talent management: Talent management to survive turmoil. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Pollitt, D. (2010). Talent Management. Bradford: Emerald Group Pub. Ra, R. (2013). Talent management. New Delhi: Discovery Pub. House Scullion, H. (2011). Global talent management. New York: Routledge. Silzer, R. (2010). Strategy-driven talent management: A leadership imperative. 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