Problem and solution analysis frameworks

¶ … business world, there are front line agents and then there are managers. In the original days of the Industrial Revolution, the job of a manager was to simplify and streamline the jobs of the front line agents to make the job as simplistic as possible. The reason was that most front line agents were entirely uneducated and required constant supervision. Modern management must take on a much more difficult and specialized role, the job of knowing their customers and determining the most masterful ways to retain and acquire business and translate such measures for front line agents. Once basic orders are now replaced with complex forecasting charts and graphs and various customer service theories, all conceptualized and based on modern research and analysis.

In this paper the role of the manager and the problems of modern management will be discussed as presented in three peer-reviewed articles. The overarching problem in the world of modern management is that of keeping up with customer expectations and demands. In line with this issue, comes many smaller problems including determining customer expectations, properly preparing manager's for their roles, and translating the needs of a company into a useable formula for front line agents. Without all of these parts properly combining, a business will not keep up with this fast-paced and highly competitive modern market.

The first problem that modern business face in the management sector is modern customer expectations and demands. Whereas in the past, customers expected little and were often satisfied with front line agents that could simply answer their questions or solve their problem. Modernly, however, customers are expecting more from front line agents are not satisfied when only the basic expectations are met (Gruber, 2011). In a recent study, it was determined that customers expect front line agents to consistently and with full knowledge solve their problems; however, in order to then retain those same customers, the expectation is raised to that of empathizing with the customer and helping the customer feel understood and appreciated (Gruber, 2011). Thus, the only way businesses can retain customers modernly is to rise above the inherent expectations. This is where management steps into the picture. It modernly becomes the responsibility of management to remain apprised of inherent vs. additional customer expectations.

The second problem businesses face is finding well trained and fully prepared management to hire. Often students graduating from management schools have no actual managerial experience nor the knowledge to apply for such a work sector. One suggested solution for properly training managers, or better weeding out managers from the hiring pool is through the use of management games (Musshoff, 2011). Management games are simple computer simulation games that provide the player with various management scenarios and decisions to make within those scenarios. The score of the player can be calculated by the program and compared to both the scores of their peers and the ideal score for the game. This allows managers to enter the management position with some simulated management experience already in place.