The Impact of Increased Competitiveness on a Managers Job - Essay Example

The impact of increased competitiveness on a manager’s job BY YOU YOUR ACADEMIC ORGANISATION HERE HERE HERE The impact of increased competitiveness on a manager’s job Introduction Today’s managers, in many organisations, are facing increased competition from a variety of sources including other businesses in similar marketplaces as well as internally in terms of staff competencies. Internally, managers must consider the capabilities of subordinates, work to maximise their productivity, and also make use of careful planning tools to ensure that the business is structured to meet the demands of the business. Increased competition leads to a new brand of manager who can successfully motivate workers and align them to long-term strategic goals. This paper identifies how increased competitiveness creates opportunities for change and how it impacts the manager’s role. Making it happen One particular management theorist suggests that contemporary managers, in the face of rising competition, must be results-oriented by identifying specific goals as part of the planning process, measure whether these goals have been achieved, and determine whether or not the end results led to peak effectiveness and efficiency (McLean, 2006: 16). This suggests a manager who must make careful use of internal strategy whereby goals are identified and internal staff members are aligned to meet business needs as part of a planning model. Effective measurement of whether goals have been attained could include a total performance management system which provides employees with reward for maximum contribution toward meeting goals or offering criticism or training in the face of subordinate inability to assist the business. As one example, it would seem that in an environment where a business has a great deal of external competition, the manager must remain focused on achieving maximum productivity by effectively controlling the activities of workers and assessing their progress. Additionally, employees seem to be a considerable resource for making a company more competitive. McHenry (2008) identifies that increased competition also comes in the form of whether or not a business sustains top talent under a talent management model. This model suggests that managers must consistently assess the business structure to look for opportunities to motivate staff members to meet long-term goals. The author identifies that effective talent management, as part of management planning, involves maximising career opportunities for workers and also assessing whether the current recruitment and selection criteria is designed to bring the business top talent over that of competing businesses (McHenry). This talent management model would seem to point out that managers must remain focused on creating internal opportunities which will motivate workers to perform effectively by offering career opportunities to top performers as part of the leading responsibilities with a focus on the development of human resources. Assessing current recruitment and selection structures would seem to also create a model where a business understands its strategies and attempts to align just the right talent, as part of the hiring process, to attain business goals (McHenry). Using internal staff members as a means to achieve goals and remain competitive also involves examining whether or not the current business structure is sufficient for business needs. Malone (2004) offers that many of today’s businesses cultivate motivation in employees by giving them flexible job structures and also through the decentralisation of the management hierarchy in order to give workers more autonomy and a voice as decision-makers. A decentralised hierarchy seems to involve flattening out existing layers of management, or restructuring management presence, so as to provide workers with more freedom and creativity in their job roles. This is part of the planning process for managers whereby companies can more effectively compete when workers are satisfied and more willing to work hard to meet performance expectations. This would also seem to come under the management role of leading by showing employees that the business is concerned about employee needs and is taking the steps to provide a more rewarding work environment. It would seem that the end result of these management activities is a business which is internally-aligned to meet the demands stemming from other businesses which have very effective staff. Interestingly, under the talent management and motivational models, Pizza Hut, a multi-national restaurant chain, found increased competition from other restaurants and needed to come up with a new method for motivating its staff and managers to achieve long-term goals. The restaurant chain provided a change management seminar at an “ancient Cistercian abbey” so that Pizza Hut’s managers and leaders could be exposed to new change management principles to ensure that the internal staff was properly motivated and aligned to meet the changing demands associated with rising restaurant presence in London (Griffiths, 2006: 44). Such efforts by large multi-national companies really seems to illustrate that companies are taking dramatic steps to revitalise the planning and leading functions of today’s managers in order to remain competitive. The focus of this retreat seemed to be in the pursuit of giving managers an opportunity to discuss how to best implement change policies which would most effectively improve motivation at Pizza Hut, thereby giving this restaurant a better competitive advantage over other local restaurants who likely had a better staffing and motivational model. Two experts in business and economics identify that competition is often “simultaneously supported as a way of increasing productivity, but feared because it makes work life harder” (Bloom and Van Reenen, 2006: 10). What this statement is essentially suggesting is that businesses should embrace rising competition because it provides the opportunities for businesses to change in order to sustain competitive advantage, however there is often resistance to this change because internal staff members will have to perform to higher efficiency standards in order to give the business this edge. Under the control responsibility, which involves the process of comparing actual performance to business standards and taking necessary corrective action (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin and Cardy, 2005), managers should assess competing businesses and their practices and use this as a model as a business standard. For example, if a competing business has found significant success with its customer service focus, which has led to large-scale increases in sales revenue, then the manager should benchmark these activities and create a new performance model in customer service and then create a plan of action to align the business and staff to meet or exceed competitions’ efforts. This new benchmark (or new performance standard) would then require the manager to organise the business and then lead others to accept and embrace new change policies which provide similar or better customer service focus. Conclusion Clearly, a manager must first understand what the business is attempting to achieve as part of the planning process and then organise the activities of the organisation to meet these goals. Identifying the activities of competing businesses, determining their level of effectiveness compared to his or her own business, and then creating a new benchmark of performance is part of this planning process when competitive forces prompt a need for change. Leading others is especially important when implementing these changes as part of talent management and the ability to motivate others to meet these new benchmarks of performance. It would seem that the establishment of an organisation-wide performance management system, which uses the new benchmarked performance standards as a guide to monitor employee contributions to the new company goals. All of these processes would appear to give much more responsibility to managers in terms of reorganising how the company is structured in order to ensure the business is on track to outperform competition. References Bloom, Nick and Van Reenen, John. (2006). “Management Practices, Work-Life Balance, and Productivity: A Review of Some Recent Evidence”. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 22(4): 10. Gomez-Mejia, L., Balkin, D. and Cardy, R. (2005). Management: People, Performance, Change, 2nd ed. London, McGraw-Hill Irwin: 666-667. Griffiths, Julie. (2006). “Express yourself”. People Management, London. 12(4): 44. Malone, Thomas W. (2004). “Pioneers that cultivate a new model of work: Information technology is leading to greater decentralisation and more flexibility and creativity in business”. Financial Times, London. 12 Aug: 11. McHenry, Theresa. (2008). “Moving up is not the only way forward”. Personnel Today, Sutton. 21 Oct: 12. Retrieved 3 Apr 2009 from Factiva database. McLean, Jacqueline. (2006). “Making things happen”. The British Journal of Administrative Management, Orpington. Oct/Nov: 16. Retrieved 4 Apr 2009 from www.proquest.com. Read More