The Emerging Trends or Challenges in the Management of Organizations

The Emerging Trends or Challenges in the Management of Organizations The Emerging Trends or Challenges in the Management of Organizations INTRODUCTION Organizational Behavior studies brood the study of organizations from multiple viewpoints, methods, and levels of analysis. Whenever battalion interact in organizations, m either factors come into tackle. Modern organisational studies blast to generalize and model these factors. Like all modernist hearty sciences, organisational studies seek to control, predict, and explain. in that location is whatever enmity all all over the ethics of controlling utilisati whizzrs fashion.As much(prenominal), organisational bearing has at cartridge holders been acc practice sessiond of being the scientific tool of the powerful. Those accusations notwithstanding, Organizational behavior arse play a major role in organizational bring onment and achiever. whizz of the main goals of organizational theorisers is, tally to Simms ( 1994) to revitalize organizational theory and develop a better conceptualization of organizational life. An organizational theorist should c befully consider levels assumptions being made in theory, and is concerned to help rulers and administrators. 1 Organizational behavior is soon a growing field.Organizational studies de servingments generally form amic commensurate do work of wrinkle schools, although many universities likewise pee industrial psychology and industrial economics programs. The field is passing influential in the business humankind. Organizational behavior is becoming more than(prenominal) important in the global economy as multitude with respective(a) backgrounds and hea accordinglyish values fetch to play together effectively and efficiently. It is also under increasing criticism as a field for its ethnocentric and pro-capitalist assumptions. Views on wariness realize changed substantially over the past coke oddly in the past few deca des.Organizations consent entered a clean era characterized by quick, dramatic and turbulent changes. The accelerated pace of change has vary how deform is performed by employees in diverse organizations. potpourri has truly become an inherent and integral part of organizational life. Several rising trends atomic number 18 impacting organizational life. Of these emerging trends, five volition be examined in this paper globalization, diverseness, flexibility, flat, and net ferments. These five emerging trends create emphasiss for organizational leaders and employees as they go through waves of changes in their organizations.These strains present opportunities as salubrious as threats, and if these emphasiss be not managed well, they will result in non accommodateive and dire organizational outcomes at the end of any change figure out. CHALLENGES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONS GLOBALIZATION Organizations pop kill in a global economy that is characterized by gre at and more intense competition, and at the analogous time, great economic interdependence and collaboration. More products and act as atomic number 18 being consumed extracurricular of their country of product line than ever before as globalization brings just about great convergence in call of consumer tastes and preferences.Yet at the same time, in the midst of greater convergence, in that location is the opposite force of divergence at work where companies get under ones skin to adapt corporate and business strategies, selling plans, and production efforts to local anaesthetic domestic help securities industrys. To stay war-ridden, more organizations ar embracing offshore outsourcing. Many functions ar being shifted to India, the Philippines, Malaysia, and new(prenominal) countries for their low labor cost, senior high school gear levels of manpower education, and technological vantages.According to the 2002-2003 Society for Human vision Management (SHR M) Workplace Forecast, companies much(prenominal) as Ford, full general Motors, and Nestle employ more mess outside of their headquarters countries than within those countries. 1 Al to the highest degree any company, whether in manufacturing or services, provoke find some part of its work that squeeze out be through off site. Communication and information sharing argon occurring a peril the globe in multiple languages and multiple cultures. world(prenominal) competition and global cooperation coexist in the new world economy.One major takings of globalization is greater mobility in international capital and labor markets. This creates a global marketplace where at that place is more opportunity, because there are more potential customers. However, there is also more competition, as local companies cook to deal with foreign companies for customers. According to Dani Rodrik, professor of international policy-making economy at Harvards Kennedy School of Government, the pro cesses associated with the global integrating of markets for goods, services, and capital have created two sources of tautnesss. 1 First, reduced barriers to bargain and investment accentuate the asymmetries amidst groups that stand cross international borders, and those that cannot. In the first category are owners of capital, highly mean workers, and many victors. Unskilled and semiskilled(prenominal) workers and most middle managers belong in the gage category. 1 Second, globalization engenders conflicts within and amidst nations over domestic norms and the social institutions that embody them.As the technology for manufactured goods becomes order and diffused internationally, nations with very different sets of values, norms, institutions, and collective preferences flummox to compete head on in markets for quasi(prenominal) goods. Trade becomes contentious when it unleashes forces that undermine the norms implicit in local or domestic workplace practices. 1 prof Rod rik concluded that the most serious contest for the world economy in the years ahead lies in making globalization compatible with domestic social and political stability (Rodrik 1997, p. 2).This implies ensuring that international economic integration does not lead to domestic social radioactive decay. Organizations that are confronted with this challenge will have to manage the tension created by the global integration versus local disintegration dilemma. The overall picture as a consequence of globalization is one of turbulence and uncertainty, in which a variety of contradictory processes present a vast range of both opportunities and threats that defy established ways of doing business and working in organizations. Integration and forcing out coexist uneasily side-by-side in organizations.For example, many unmingled dichotomies or paradoxescompetitions versus collaboration, market forces versus state intervention, global actions versus local solutionsare losing their sharp edges as contradictory forces count to converge and reinforce distributively other in organizations across the globe. Companies that compete fiercely in some markets form strategic alliances in others government direction and regulation are use upd to wreak markets work effectively and think globally, act locally has been adopt as business strategy (or as a mantra) to deal with the challenges of doing business in the globalize economy.As organizations transform themselves to stay free-enterprise(a), they will bring to confront and break down some, if not all, of these dichotomies or paradoxes. 1 On another level, because of globalization, the fates of people living and working in different part of the world are becoming intertwined. Global events whitethorn have significant local impact. September 11, 2001 has been called the twenty-four hours that changed the world. Heightened security concerns are changing expectations for people in organizations, and the role of organ izations themselves.The threat of terrorism continues to be an ongoing concern worldwide. It has created a renewed concenter on workplace security as employees hold up a heightened sense of vulnerability in the workplace. Employee supervise and screening are occurring more frequently. Concern over travel for business purposes is resulting in the increased use of alternate forms of communication such as teleconferencing and videoconferencing. 1 DIVERSITY Globalization is impacting how organizations compete with severally other.In conclave with changing demographics, globalization is causing a rapid increase in variety show in organizations. neer before have people been required to work together with colleagues and customers from so many different cultures and countries. renewal is moving American society away from aggregate society to Mosaic society. Organizations reflect this mosaic society in their more diverse workforce (in terms of not only race, ethnic or culture but a lso in terms of age, sexual orientation, and other demographic variables).More than ever, people have to interact and communicate with others who come from diverse backgrounds. This in turn has meant that employees take away new relational skills to succeed. An emerging stream of research in international solicitude has called these new relational skills cultural intelligence. pagan intelligence is defined as the capability to adapt effectively across different national, organizational and professional cultures (Earley, Ang and Tan, 2005). More managers take up global work assignments in industries around the world.They learn how to work with people who not only think and communicate otherwise but also do things differently. Managers will take away to develop their cultural intelligence to manage greater revolution in organizations. 1 Diversity in organizations will continue to increase. The world population is growing at a high rate in ontogenesis countries, while remaining s table or decrease in the developed world. The result will be income inequities and economic opportunity leading to increased immigration and migration within and between nations.More temporary workers will be used for specific tasks, and there will be a greater demand for highly skilled workers. People of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds experience different attitudes, values, and norms. Increasing cultural vicissitude in both public and private sector organizations focuses perplexity on the distinctions between ethnic and cultural groups in their attitudes and performance at work. This greater focus can result in the tension between finding similarities and accentuating conflicts in the face of greater diversity in organizations.There is an on-going debate between the heterogenists and the homogenists concerning the impact of greater diversity in organizations. The heterogenists contend that diverse or composite groups in organizations have performance advantages ov er analogous groups while the homogenists take the opposing viewthat homogeneous groups are more advantageous than heterogeneous or diverse groups in organizations. 2 According to the heterogenists, organizations with greater diversity have an advantage in attracting and retaining the best on tap(predicate) human talent.The exceptional capabilities of women and minorities offer a risque labor pool for organizations to tap. When organizations attract, retain, and promote maximum utilization of people from diverse cultural backgrounds, they gain competitive advantage and sustain the highest musical note of human resources. 2 Organizations with greater diversity can understand and penetrate wider and raise markets. Not only do these organizations embrace a diverse workforce internally, they are better desirable to serve a diverse external clientele.Organizations with greater diversity also display higher creativity and innovation. Especially in research-oriented and high technol ogy organizations, the stray of talents provided by a gender- and ethnic-diverse organization becomes invaluable. Heterogeneous or diverse groups display better problem declaration ability as they are more loose of avoiding the consequences of groupthink, compared to highly cohesive and homogeneous groups that are more susceptible to conformity. 2 On the other hand, greater organizational diversity has its drawbacks.With the benefits of diversity come organizational cost. in like manner much diversity can lead to nonadaptive outcomes. Diversity increases ambiguity, complexness, and confusion. Organizations with greater diversity whitethorn have difficulty reaching consensus and implementing solutions. In many organizations, diversity can produce blackball dynamics such as ethnocentrism, stereotyping and cultural clashes. 2 The homogenists argue that homogeneous groups very much outperform culturally diverse groups, especially where there is a serious communication problem.Cros s-cultural facts of life is incumbent to modify culturally diverse groups to live up to their potential and overcome communication difficulties. The diversity movement, tally to the homogenists, has the potential to polarize different social groups and misemploy productivity while breeding cynicism and resentment, heightening intergroup frictions and tensions, and threatening productivity, just the opposite of what managing diversity is intended to accomplish. 2 The challenge therefore is for forethought to manage the tension produced by heterogeneity versus homogeneity. If properly managed, organizations can reap the benefits of greater diversity. Aside from proper management, organizations need to learn to send word and value diversity before the benefits of diversity can be fully realized. To achieve this, diversity training programs may help people in organizations understand and value diversity. FLEXIBILITY Globalization and diversity trends are forcing organizations to become more pliable and adaptable.To be able to function globally and to embrace diversity, leaders and employees in organizations have to become more flexible and develop a wider repertoire of skills and strategies in working with diverse groups of people in the workplace as well as in the marketplace. The rejoinder to increased diversity has, in many cases, been increased organizational flexibility. near organizations allow workers to have very different work arrangements (e. g. flex-time) and payment schedules. Some organizations (and workers) have found it contented to treat some workers as independent consultants alternatively than employees.In certain occupations, advances in communication and information technologies have enabled telecommuting working at home via computer. One consequence of this is the blurring of boundaries between work and home, and where and when work occurs. The benefits of greater flexibility may be countered by the negative consequences of workin g 24/7 including higher focussing and burnout. The response to increased competition, however, has resulted in a tension generated by the demands to be flexible and yet obligate some stability as changes are employ in organizations.To stay competitive, organizations are constantly changing and restructuring to increase flexibility and decrease costs. Business process reengineering, business process out-sourcing, job redesign, and other approaches to optimize business processes have been implemented to increase practicable and process cogency while reducing the costs of doing business. repositions in business and operational processes need time to stabilize for employees to learn the new processes, become old(prenominal) with them, and be able to operate effectively and efficiently.Yet, competitive pressures can cause organizations to go through a series of changes without giving employees adequate time for learn and training, and for the benefits of the change to be fully re alized in the organization. FLAT In a greater competitive marketplace, speed or response time is fine. How organizations response to customers and other stakeholders or be the first to market may authorize a significant difference as time is at a premium. Organizations that can develop new technologies blistering or can adapt to changes in the market faster are the ones that will survive the competition.To maximize response time, organizations have been flattening their hierarchies and structures, in addition to other initiatives such as downsizing and networking. Flat organizations make decisions more right away because each person is closer to the ultimate decision-makers. There are fewer levels of management, and workers are empowered to make decisions. Decision-making becomes modify. However, flat organizations create a new tension between decentralization and centralization. Among the drivers of decentralization are communications technologies that allow companies to push decision-making away from the core.Proponents of decentralization express the idea that less hierarchical organizations mirror the efficiencies of the networks that enable them they are faster, more resilient, more antiphonal, more flexible and more innovative. Also, they argue, people who work within decentralized organizations feel empowered and energized. They do not need to focus on the chain of command and they do not feel constrained by it. Organizations are caught between the opposing forces of centralization and decentralization.They want to supplement the opportunities offered by decentralization and create more warm and forceful organizations, but they cannot always do so because the forces of centralization come into play. There are lucid benefits to centralization as control is comparatively tighter and obligation is watcher compared to a flatter, more decentralized organizational structure. condition the example of IT operations. The key to a centralized organiz ations success is its responsiveness. If the centralized operation can be responsive to the need of the business, then that approach can make sense.Several companies, such as DaimlerChrysler and PepsiCo, have migrated back to modify IT operations after attempts at decentralization. 3 The debate over the centralization versus decentralization of operations in organizations is an persistent one. It is an age-old battle of standardization versus autonomy, corporate efficiency versus local effectiveness and pressure on costs and resources versus accommodation of specific local needs. 4 Vacillation between centralization and decentralization is both non-productive and unnecessary.Organizations, as they confide to become flatter, will need to be clear about how they need to respond to the tension between centralization and decentralization. 4 NETWORKS Organizations that flatten tend to encourage level communication among workers. Rather than working through the organizational hierarc hy, it is often faster for workers who need to coordinate with each other simply to communicate directly. Such organizations are highly networked. Another meaning of networked organizations refers to their relations to other organizations.Organizations that have downsized to just their core competencies must then outsource all the functions that used to be done in-house. To avoid losing time and effort managing contracts with suppliers, organizations have intentional to develop close ties to their suppliers so that social mechanisms of coordination convert legal mechanisms, which are slow and costly. Networked organizations are particularly important in industries with complex products where technologies and customer needs change rapidly, such as in high technology industries.Close ties among a set of companies enables them to work with each other in ways that are faster than arms-length contracts would permit, and yet retains the flexibility of being able to cut the relationship if needed (as opposed to performing the function in-house). The trend towards networked organizations and structures create a new tension between interdependence and independence. The forces of aggregation and disaggregation throw up new challenges for organizations, for example, the use of independent contractors, joint ventures, strategic partnerships and alliances even with competitors. 1 One advantage of networks is that organizations have greater flexibility and thus they can become more competitive in the global marketplace. Another advantage is that organizations do not require that many resources such as employee benefits, office space, and financing for new business ventures. 1 On the other hand, networks have distinct disadvantages. Organizations may find it more difficult to control lumber of goods or services as they now have to depend on their partners in the networks to deliver the quality that is desired.Legal and contracting expertise as well as negotiation experti se will also be important for networks. Alternative forms of control may need to be developed to control quality. Alternative mechanisms for coordination may also need to be developed to manage the growing constellation and sometimes tenuous spirit of other partner organizations in the network. 1 CONCLUSION on the whole the five trends Globalization, Diversity, Flexibility, Flat, and Network and the tensions they produce result in greater organizational or system complexity for both leaders and employees in organizations. The tensions produced by these trends cannot be solved.They have to be managed. Effective approaches in organizational change will involve not one strategy but many alternatives and will require leaders and employees to develop greater resilience in confronting these tensions. ChangeTrends and Tensions in Organizations Trends Tensions 1. Globalization Global versus local anesthetic 2. Diversity Heterogeneity versus Homogeneity 3.Flexibility Flexibility versus stability 4. Flat Centralization versus Decentralization 5. Networks Interdependence versus liberty Planning and managing change, both cultural and technological, is one of the most challenging elements of a leader in an organization. Obviously, the more a leader can plan in anticipation of a change, the better he/she serves her subordinates or employees and the organization.Diagnosing the causes of change and structuring a program to promote a smooth transition to the new process, structure, and so on, is critical to the leader as well as the managements success.BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 -No Author Trends in Organizational Change. Available at http//www. referenceforbusiness. com/management/Tr-Z/Trends-in-Organizational-Change. html