management philosophy paper
...key part of the planning process. If the objectives are not realistic or understood by the ones who are to reach them, then every effort of planning is of no use. Keeping the teams’ objectives in accordance with the organizational goals is my responsibility as manager, for I am the one who has to overlook and control, and make the final decisions on every matter, leading the people to success. With this approach, I am not only looking for an increase in the teams’ productivity, but I am also motivating the employees and making them feel that they are important to the company, and that they are trusted. I will rely on the people and ask their opinions in what they know best, using their experience to make the optimum decisions. I will take the knowledge each employee has to build a team that will work as one, and will feel as one, augmenting the efforts with efficiency. The decisions I will have to make as manager, I will use, as I said, a contingency approach, evaluating each situation separately and choosing the best alternative. I am aware that my experience is not broad, and I do not have the specific knowledge some decisions have to be made on. To avoid any cognitive dissonance, I will use a group-aided decision making approach (Kreitner, 261). If I have doubts or I am not fully capable to make a resolution on my own, I will use the best tool I have on hand, my people. They have the expertise and the experience necessary for me to be able to learn and with their help I shall make the right choices. CHANGE The only certainty a manager has is change. I need to understand that decisions must be made and that I need to be informed with the variables that affect each decision. In the world today, everything is related, and the resolutions that I make for the team will cause an effect on some other variables. Understanding this, I shall evaluate each choice independently and see which one will result in the best outcome for the company as one. I will use this constant change in life, taking all the opportunities the environment offers, and turning the threats into new opportunities. Change is a source of competitive advantage, and if I am to stay competitive, I will use change to do so. Being a pioneer is being a step ahead of your equals, and that is what will differentiate me and my company from my competitors. As a manager, I have to adjust all the variables mentioned above to the global world. As I said before, the only certainty in life is change. And the world has change in the past years, and will keep on changing. Now I do not see countries or barriers, I look at the whole picture as one big market that has to be targeted. To do so in the most efficient and profitable way, I will employ a geocentric attitude (Kreitner, 117). I will take the best each culture is offering me, each opportunity, and I will face the markets with the tools that I have collected. This will give me the benefits of being more productive and efficient; I will employ the best people and tools. I will also expand my horizons by working transnationally and choosing the targetable markets; acting locally, thinking globally. Using this strategy the company will be more fruitful and it will be able to satisfy the real needs of each society, gaining in the way cost effectiveness and increasing economies of scale. The strategy I will use is to the most qualified person for the job, regardless which ethnical background he or she comes from, as long as the values, morale, culture, and beliefs are in accordance to the company’s, and I shall make a leader out of every employee. I will look for the best personnel in every country, and I will permeate my company with a strong corporate culture of “act locally, think globally”. If I am to send an employee abroad, I will train them in order to succeed in a different culture. A cross-cultural training for the employee and his or her family are a priority, and the costs of the training are outweighed by the decrease in the risk of the employee’s failure, and the costs will also be diminished by the high rate of local employees (Kreitner, 131). Due to globalization, many other tools have appeared. The internet is one of them. I will use this tool as a communication channel, fastening the transfer of information within the company, and the company with its environment. With this speed system of information, more data will be available for me and for the company to make the right decisions and to realize the effects the changes in the environment are causing, coping with uncertainty. This I will use as an advantage, remaining a pioneer and a prospector, facing the threats and opportunities more efficiently and effectively (Kreitner, 181). The internet also gives me the possibility to open new systems of distribution, and to establish brand awareness globally. By connecting the company to this device, I can create a virtual organization based on e-business, opening and reaching several new markets without having to invest in construction or warehouses, giving me the chance to be cost effective and maximize my profit (Kreitner, 218). My idea of implementing this virtual organization must be accompanied by strategic positioning of warehouses or constructions, because “bricks and mortars must earn their keep”. I will not center all my operations in an internet driven company, I will diversify the risk, keeping in mind that if I am to stay competitive in the world we are living today, I cannot ignore globalization, and the internet is the tool to make a company global in a fast and cost effective way. In this race to globalization, I have to keep track of the technology. I have to research constantly on what new machinery is created and consider how this will affect my production or service, analyzing if its worth of investing in change the current assets. Independently if I invest or not, I need to make clear to the company that investments in new technology must be made eventually to avoid entropy. A company has to evolve to survive, avoiding the tendency to chaos. In addition, I will have to deal with the politization of management, or issues management (Kreitner, 88), and how it affects my company worldwide. If I am working for a transnational company (Kreitner, 113), I will be involved with many different governments, and each one of them will ask for certain behaviors of the company I run. These issues in management are mainly solved by the approach of “act locally, think globally”, hiring local personnel who will understand the requirements the government places, and which strategy should be use to face them, such as lobbying, bribing. This last issue takes us to an ethical dilemma. The corporate culture that I want my company to be permeated with has to be ethical. I want ethics to be an intangible asset of the company, and treat it as a competitive advantage. In spite of what government regulations and cultural differences, a company that behaves ethically is most likely to succeed. Ethics is like truth and it can be perceived differently by every person, and even though values change in every culture, the background is basically the same for every person, words which sums up the basis of all good conduct – “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself”, idea that can be traced to Confucius, Jesus, Buddha, the Prophet Muhammad, and in every single ideology. Based on this philosophy, I will infuse my company with making the right decisions. Ethics will become a part of every single area the company has, from human resources to production. The hiring process will look for people with a certain behavior, and a useful code of ethics will be of help when ethical decisions have to be made. This “golden rule” approach will be accompanied by a proactive strategy for social responsibility, building an asset out of this fusion (Kreitner, chapter 5). My idea of management is that of a creating a competitive advantage out my corporate culture. But being a manager is not only having to deal with people and making decisions, is about leadership. Every person is a manager, and I as a leader have to bring out this quality in each of them. Delegating tasks, giving the people choices, making them feel involved in the company, that is not only of the stockholders or the owner, but everyone’s, that is ours, and that every single effort they make is for themselves and to improve what belongs to them. I will strongly encourage intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship. I will support the people’s initiative to start and lead their own ideas, and I will give them recognition for their work. I need them to be pioneers and creative to make their best for the company, and I cannot keep them from being who they are and from pursuing their goals. I have to help them succeed in their own goals, because the company will benefit from it, becoming more competitive and up to changes. Brainstorming and creativeness (Kreitner, 267), complemented with intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship, are keys to remain competitive and to survive, not just as a company, but as human beings. As...