Contemporary Management Today

a) Management Strategy in Context

Some theories pose contradictory arguments against or favor specific thoughts in contemporary management today. Subsequently, there exists no unified management theory. The management theorists today target a higher level of a flexible and comprehensive approach; hence, in some instances, it collides while others flow with the human and scientific relations movement. As a result, it is uneasy about agreeing upon the unification of different management schools of thought due to their distinctive viewpoints (Obradovi? et al. 2016). The big challenge lies in semantics, where everybody says the same thing but uses varying terminology.

Besides, strategy in context is one of the essential attributes for determining the approach to use the knowledge of different fields in line with the need and requirements of the situation. Accordingly, multiple micro factors influence contemporary management today (Hussain et al. 2019). Such factors include diversity, talent, careers, globalization, ethics, and technology.

Today, several organizations are reformed, enabling technological concepts to climb to the top. Currently, computerized technology is considered the most advanced to management to make work and management more effortless (Hussain et al. 2019). Even though the hierarchy remains within the division of labor, a manager that uses expert power in knowledge form to juniors is equalized with technological advancement (Obradovi? et al. 2016). For instance, an employee using a smartphone can answer some organizational questions effectively and fast as the manager would. Therefore, the only difference between the manager and the employee is the title. Therefore, technology has changed the bureaucratic model into a bureaucratic matrix that concentrates on specialization within a more decentralized organization.

On the other hand, the 21st-century workplace is currently more diverse than ever. Different genders are at the workplace, people live longer, and different members of communities work together (Hussain et al. 2019). Hence, demand for diverse knowledge by the management. Management of diversity points to people, together with their needs and backgrounds in an organization. For example, an institution can have a particular department, say, faculty of political sciences, with members from various generations (Obradovi? et al. 2016). Therefore, all the groups have to receive fair treatment and feel valued within an effective organization to manage diversity.

Also, globalization has created open borders leading to new global markets for corporations and businesses. Nonetheless, as the world steadily moves through the 21st century, more troubling trends emerge within the world economy. According to the Global Risk Perception Survey, trends like tension in international and domestic policy, persistent unfairness and inequality, cyber vulnerabilities, and environmental dangers were established.

Consequently, due to globalization, technological growth and interconnectedness have posed multiple challenges for the managers to handle the culturally diversified workforce. In addition, in today's trends, managers assess the environment and themselves to choose a specific approach or style (Obradovi? et al. 2016). Nevertheless, it is also critical that managers also learn to deselect their approach or style due to changing dynamics necessitating different approaches. In other words, in today's contemporary management, adaptability is very vital. Furthermore, there are dynamic forces outside the administrative control and central organization. Such dynamic forces include technological, legal-political, socio-cultural, natural, and economic environments.

On the other hand, some of the recent challenges faced by managers include knowing what suits the employees because concentrating on suiting self would hinder their functionality in the complex business world (Obradovi? et al. 2016). According to Ganson 2013, survival of the business and retention of talent are distinguished challenges for managers today. Considering such challenges, managers should find how to balance approach while handling employees in a competitively intense and dynamic business environment. Today, managers are less worried about the categorization of management into schools but are more attentive to the challenges escalating in different particular situations (Hussain et al. 2019). However, even though there is a transition from traditionalist to current management style, the principle of human relations and traditionalist style still serve as the foundation for handling context, connectedness, and complexities challenges.

Finally, another challenge is that managements applied science nature cannot be distinguished while opting for non-managerial and managerial implications because all aspects, including structure, group dynamics, learning capabilities, personalities, and organizational design, vary (Hussain et al. 2019). Therefore, the managers must operate with a practical yet balanced approach. Therefore, not all management theories applicability can be used for every individual and organization in every situation.

b) Management Skills

With unprecedented pandemic, covid-19 has changed the way people work, and several organizations have adopted the hybrid systems with choices about when, how much, and where employees work. Initially, managers were picked and promoted mainly on their potential to evaluate and manage the performance of the employees who could execute a specific set of tasks (Luna & Renninger, 2021). However, emerging transformative and disruptive trends are changing traditional skills. For example, the normalization of remote work as managers and employees has become widely distributed, influencing their relationship. As a result, managers, and employees are less likely to work on the same project at a particular time. Managers also have less visibility into the employees' day-to-day activities; hence, they have to focus on the outputs other than the process.

Also, due to the increased use of technology in the management of employees remotely, managers' skillset has changed drastically, with AI skills becoming a necessity. For instance, companies have invested in new technologies to monitor their employees, AI-enabled report-expense auditing tools, scheduling software, and in some cases, technology to replace manager feedback using AI. Subsequently, as the use of technology automates the employees' tasks, it can aso replace the role of managers, for instance, the tasks of nudging productivity and assigning work.

Subsequently, due to employees' shifting expectations, the relationship between the managers and their employees has changed to be more supportive and emotional due to the expectation of providing services like child care and mental health. As a result, employees today expect the managers to form part of their support system to assist them to enhance their life experience, not just their workers' experience only. With technology replacing managerial tasks, managers do not need to manage the workflow. Furthermore, with interactions becoming primarily virtual, managers no longer depend on what they see to manage work performance while at the same time, they can no longer limit relationships to the sphere of the workplace because the relationships have become more emotional (Luna & Renninger, 2021). As a result, managers have to focus more on what the employees feel and less on what they are doing in today's management.

Consequently, managers must lead with empathy for success to triumph today. According to the Gartner survey, the most effective managers build a significantly varying relationship with their employees (Jones et al. 2000). Empathy is not a new thing; however, it has to become management's top priority. Empathy needs the development of high levels of care, trust, and acceptance culture within teams. Empathetic managers would ask questions that trigger vulnerable answers minus compromising trust, evaluate the employee's behavior minus making assumptions on the cause, and exhibit socio-emotional intelligence to preempt one another's feelings. Besides, workers at companies with management that practice a high level of empathy are...

…turnover intentions, and organizational culture. Other research studies have also established that organizational culture interrelates to the employee or organizational efficiency. Moreover, the workers can establish an enjoyable work environment when the company has a healthy culture, hence, a positive attitude towards employee work. Therefore, the relationship between employee attitude or behavior and organizational culture has been focused on by varying researchers of different fields. According to Jacobs & Roodt 2018, there is a positive correlation between employee job satisfaction and organizational culture.

To conclude, organizational culture is essential. Culture plays a huge role in determining whether or not the organization is a healthy and happy place of work. By promoting and communicating an organizational vision to juniors and obtaining their recognition of the vision, it is possible to determine the work attitude and behavior (Martins et al. 2019). Whenever there is a good relationship between the manager and the employees, there is a contribution to team encouragement, collaboration, and workers' communication to accomplish the objectives and mission assigned by the firm, which fosters job satisfaction.

e) Management Insights

Technology can transform human capabilities. It is not digital transformation but the transformation of a business that will propagate an organization to becoming top achievers within the digital economy. Technology is a driving force and a trigger to re-determine business models and processes (Lent, 2018). On the other hand, today, unprecedented changes in technology revolutionize how things are carried out, disrupt the business landscape, and revolutionize what things are done. The change is constant and exponential, both in scope and speed. Subsequently, the present transformation in management has resulted in a new division of labor, abrupt change in a business environment, changes in the structure of the organization to support innovation and foster new workflow, and changes in the broader environment; an emerging economy where people of all capabilities and backgrounds are connected by technology.

In addition, the technology-enabled, connected, intelligent, and the vast digital world is moving at an alarming speed, and stakeholders in businesses will have dramatically and quickly grown their leadership skills to lead people and organizations into this uncertain and complex future (Lent, 2018). Through digital transformation, the way people work will soon become unrecognizable to managers and leaders of today. Digital transformation might be about the organizational and people changes needed to harness its power, and maybe not about technology. Digital transformation is about how work gets done and changes in organizational dynamics. Therefore, management skills should be at the heart of digitalization.

On the other hand, soon, leadership styles, systems, and organizational structures will experience far-reaching changes driven by the business environment due to technological-fueled changes.

Also, whether or not there is a need for a total re-invention of management principles remains open for debate. Nevertheless, what is not in doubt is that management norms and practices must align to the fast-changing environment diffusing through every pore of society and economy. Additionally, even those academicians who claim that management innovation will not result in a new paradigm of management altogether appreciate that the idea of management innovation might pose unusual capacity to establish difficult to duplicate advantages.

Consequently, managers will be challenged by technology to redefine their operating principles and reconsider their roles. In the future, automation will shift emphasis from control and coordination to judgment work like innovation and strategy, people and community, and collaboration, dramatically reducing time spent by managers on control and coordination from more than 50% to 25% (Lent, 2018). Moreover, hybrid intelligence, the combination of artificial and human intelligence, will play a critical role in future management.…