Abstract
Over the last ten years, changes in organizational culture and globalization have impacted greatly on management of manufacturing and service organizations. Organization culture is formed by the behaviors, beliefs, values and norms practiced by members of an organization so as to align their individual and collective expectations with the objectives of the organization. This paper seeks to explain how these changes in these factors have made current management practices different from those practiced ten years ago.
Globalization has had immense effects on management. It has resulted in changes in the firm’s market and customer base and this has forced the management to change its management strategies to accommodate the increased size of the markets which are spread over very large geographical locations. The customer base has also increased to cater for different customers from different parts of the world and from different cultures. Management has changed to cater for this increased customer base and market size and is different from the management ten years ago which did not have large global markets and customer base. Firms like Microsoft and General Motors have had to adopt management strategies which cater for a global market and increased customer base.
Globalization has resulted in international employee transfer rates which were not present ten years ago. Management has to develop the best ways of planning and controlling staffing needs which are spread all over the world and this is a large contrast to management practiced ten years ago which did not have to deal with management of employees spread all over the globe. Firms like Google have employees spread all over the world their management has to develop strategies of handling the company’s global staffing needs.
Globalization has resulted in increased competition since the number of firms offering the same products and services from all over the world make inroads to the markets considered local by the firm. The management has to develop new strategies which counter this increased global competition. This is a management phenomenon which was not present ten years ago.
Organizational culture has changed over the last ten years and management methods and strategies have had to change accordingly.
Organizational culture has been changing from collectivism to individualism. Individuals seek to align their own expectations with the organizational objectives as opposed to having the collective expectations of a group aligned with the organization. Management has had to adopt strategies which deal with individual members of the organization and this is in contrast with the management which was dealing with collectivism in the organization ten years ago.
An entrepreneurial culture has also developed in organizations. Members of an organization develop ways of predicting new sources of revenue. This involves promoting innovation and creativity with the intent of seizing new market opportunities and increasing the revenues of the organization. Software firms and clothing firms have developed this entrepreneurial culture where members of the organization are encouraged to be creative and innovative so as to develop new revenue streams for the organization through new products and services.
References
Harigopal, K. (2006). Management of organizational change: Leveraging transformation. New Delhi: Response Books.
