Essay synopsis
Introduction to Management
Introduction
The management challenges are those problems with that the manager and administration make hard struggles to come up with the solutions. Most of the field experts and research studies have found that most business problems and challenges are usually derived from the lack of communication or unorganized communication (Njomo 38). Drucker (17, 18) has stated in his book that the management challenges are not new but they have been remained a part of the organisations and business from decades. Some of the major challenges include technology, leadership, creativity, innovation and competitive advantage. These challenges are faced by almost all managements in different organizations in general (Van De Vrande et al. 423). The management style plays very important in reducing the issues in the context of the mentioned challenges. The management and administrative manager of People with Disabilities (PWD) that is a national disability rights and advocacy organization is also facing these types of issues and problems (Straver). Therefore, the paper is going to analyse the management challenges of People with Disabilities (PWD) in the light of theoretical background and critical analysis to provide the solutions for the management to resolve the management issues, currently exist in the organisation.
Key Challenges of Management of PWD
The leaders as the people who hold a dominant or superior position within its field must have additional skills and talent to lead others in different contexts and situations (Yang et al. 40). Situational leadership theory of Hersey & Blanchard states that the leaders must be trained and developed to adopt different practices and strategies to deal with different situations, complexities, and problems. According to the theory, the style of leadership must be aligned with the given situation and practices (McCleskey 118). However the given case study shows that despite the administrative manager of PWD spread the awareness of the changes required, he was hired without the proper training and development of how to communicate with the organization and how to deal with the challenges and resistance come across from the staff and employees. Therefore, the lack of skills and training is one of the major problems of the management of PWD.
The study has found that the people are the major challenge in the field of management. Managing the people within the workplace is one of the most difficult tasks for the management. Tuglan (1) has found in the open ended question survey that there are many major problems faced by the management of the companies in managing people. In the result of this survey, the study has found that the negative response and feedbacks and the insufficient time to the people is the major problem in the management of people within the company. To deal with these challenges, the management is required to understand the effective leadership style to deal with the workplace and people to lead them to achieve the organisational goals and objectives. The negative feedback to the performances of the employees can impact badly on them and can discourage them to improve their performances (Brooks). Now again, the same challenges can be seen in the case study as Straver has mentioned that the administrative management of PWD was unable to understand the need to approach the mindset of the people within the workplace and without giving sufficient time to discuss the issues and changes with them, it has adopted the changes that created the panic within the workplace. Hence, the management of people in the workplace was the major challenge faced by the management of PWD.
Further, for the change in the organization, the management is needed to communicate efficiently with the people within the company to understand the reasons for why they resist these changes and how to motivate them. Simple awareness is not considered as enough for the change management in the organizations. To solve the issues of the people within the company, a complete change management practice is required (Hayes 161). Hence, the lack of proper communication is another major challenge faced by the administrative manager in PWD. Lipman has stated in his article that the conflict resolution within the people management for accountability is directly linked with the communication and interactions. Wang (5) has stated that face to face communication is more effective in this purpose. To make the people responsible within the workplace, it is very important for the management to make the people involved in the company to increase their accountability. It shows that Peter being an administrative manager was required to deal with the people and staff within the workplace as well as the top management to increase their involvement and to make them understand that what problems are being faced by PWD and how they can contribute to these problems. On the whole, the lack of communication is another management challenge in PWD.
According to the management practice concept, communication is one of the most important tools in the managerial process to deal with the staff and employees and internal and external public of the organization. The lack of communication increases the dissatisfaction among the employees that directly results in poor performance, turnover, and absenteeism and develops stress among the staff (Optump1-2). Based on the critical communication theory, Mallet-Hamer (9) has stated that the lack of communication is one of the major challenges for the companies and if the management is failed to communicate the changes to the staff, it can face various serious issues and problems as the employees are directly meant to communicate with the customers of the company. It shows that the lack of understanding of the need to communicate the new changes within PWD was the major issue of why the company faced the issues mentioned in the case study (Straver).
How to resolve these challenges
The challenges in the management practices of PWD can be resolved based on few more focused and planned strategies, policies and practices. First of all, the administrative manager is required to get training for the administrative job, role, and responsibilities. The manager must be clearly defined with what he needs to do to solve the problems in PWD.
The study has stated that to solve the conflicts, stress and conflicts issues within the organization, the practice of relational leadership is very important (McCleskey 118). To solve the issues of different team workers, leaders, and managers, the administrative manager is needed to adopt the relation-oriented leadership style that will help him to develop concord relation with them and equal participation of each member of the organization to achieve the organizational goals.
It has been suggested by many studies that the involvement and participation of employees is very important for the efficient performance of the organization (Sofijanova&Zabijakin-Chatleska 31). It means that the administrative managers have to bring all members and employees of the organization together with their leadership skills and practices and to motivate them to participate in the organization. As it is mentioned in the case of PWD that the field workers are de-motivated because of the lack of care and response from the administration (Straver), it means that the administrative management is failed to maintain the work quality of the employees and increase their involvement in the organisation and thus, the staff got frustrated. Therefore, the administrative management is required to hear the field workers as well as other employees and to motivate them to work better than before. Along with this, the management is also needed to focus on the attitude towards the performance of the employees as already mentioned above that the negative feedback and responses create challenges for the effective management of the staff within the workplace.
For bringing changes in the organization, the administrative manager has to follow the eight Step Kotter’s Model of Change Management which states that for the change management, urgency for change is the first major step in the company and then the communication and vision for change are also important to bring the change (Appelbaum et al. 765). Kotter (2) has stated that the motivation is one of the important aspects to make the people understand and support the change required within the organisation. He added that creating the vision of the change within the company is one of the major and important ideas of how to motivate the people to adopt the activities and practices that can support the organization. It directs the people in the right way. For further motivation, Kotter claimed that the behaviour of the management and leaders of change also impact on the organisation and therefore, the management is required to efficiently communication the developed vision in the well effective style to motivation to the employees (3). In general, Kotter emphasised on the changes both in the attitude of management and behaviour of employees for the successful management and implementation of change (Mourfield, 8). The model is extremely important and fundamental in the field of change management. Therefore, the proper change management practice is required by the administrative manager to bring changes and to reduce the resistance from the employees in the company for the successful change.
Conclusion
In summary, it is revealed that the leadership plays an important role in the smooth practice and performance of the organization as well as People Management and Teamwork. Hence, it is concluded that the administrative manager is needed to change his leadership style and has to learn situational and relation oriented leadership practices to solve the issues and problems of People with Disabilities (PWD). Along with understanding the situational leadership, it is also important for the administrative management to increase the flow of communication within the workplace to deal with the employees as well as the top management to make them understand their responsibility to increase their participation and involvement within the workplace.
References
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Appelbaum, Steven H., et al. "Back to the future: revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model." Journal of Management Development 31.8 (2012): 764-782.
Clegg, Stewart R., Martin Kornberger, and Tyrone Pitsis. Managing and organizations: An introduction to theory and practice. Sage, 2011.
Hayes, John. The theory and practice of change management.Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
McCleskey, Jim Allen. "Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development." Journal of Business Studies Quarterly 5.4 (2014): 117.
Mester, Cheryl et al. “Leadership Style And Its Relation To Employee Attitudes And Behaviour.” SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 2003, 29 (2), 72-82.
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Sofijanova, Elenica, and VesnaZabijakin-Chatleska. "Employee involvement and organizational performance: evidence from the manufacturing sector in Republic of Macedonia." (2013).
Tulgan, Bruce. The 27 Challenges Managers Face: Step-by-Step Solutions to (Nearly) All of Your Management Problems. John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
Yang, Li-Ren, Chung-Fah Huang, and Ting-Jui Hsu. "Knowledge leadership to improve project and organizational performance." International Journal of Project Management 32.1 (2014): 40-53.
APPENDIX: Assessment 2: Rubric 80/100
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