Introduction
The backbone of any good business is reflected in the way a manager handles the various roles in an organization. The toll that a manager would receive in this regard is that there are also consequences to the daily management of a business as it critically requires a manager to fulfill tasks essential to running a successful business. Some of these tasks include being the “leader, negotiator, figurehead, liaison, and communicator” (The role of the manager in an evolving organization, 2016). These roles are made even more complicated by the fact that contemporary managers are no longer confined singularly to local business management but work in multi-national companies which consequently implicate the social and economic circumstances for them on top of dealing with the global dynamics and neglecting social issues.
This paper focuses on this subject and examines these consequences and circumstances.
Social Consequence
One of the social consequences for managers is pointed towards how society accepts women’s managerial abilities in an organization. It is evident that women are now recognized as essential contributors to a company, that many women are seen to find their way into the business as leaders of big companies. Women whose positions rose to even higher positions are such as Irene Rosenfeld, who is the chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods (Storm, 2012) and Indra Nooyi, who is the chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. (Storm, 2012). Both have positioned themselves and made their names as successful managers for established multi-national corporations. Nevertheless, there are still many multi-national companies are still traditionally led by male managers. Proof and example of this is that “Women on corporate boards represent less than 1 percent of directors in Japan; 5–8 percent in countries like France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile, or South Africa; and only 10–15 percent in China or the United States” (OECD as cited in Festing, Knappert, and Kornau, 2014).
This perspective in the social view of the preference of male managers over female managers is globally observed, although no law or rule is passed with regards to gender preferences for deciding leaders in a company. Looking at a different perspective, however, the changing times already showed that women are better leaders than men. A survey Gallup (as cited in Smith, 2015) showed that “employees who work for a female boss are, on average, 6% more engaged than those who work for a male manager”. This is a relevant finding in the sense that statistics from the same study contradicts a survey that shows “33% said they preferred a male boss, while 20% said female and 46% said they have no preference” (Gallup in Smith, 2015). Still, what the findings suggest is that there is an increasing awareness towards the role and the importance of female managers in the corporate world.
Secondly, employee performances are also placed on the shoulders of the managers. A business reflects so much of the management systems implemented within the organization. So that how a manager treats his inferiors is what is given back to him. In the social context, the manager is either feared or respected. But then, it is important for a manager to establish and maintain a good manager-employee relationship so that a productive outcome for the business is realized. Therefore, the manager must see it to it that “employees must be comfortable with each other and work in unison towards a common goal” (“Role of managers,” n.d.). It is important that the manager is not feared, but treated with respect. The manager must also be aware of and exposed to what the employees perceive of him. At the same time, the manager must be able to bridge the gap between management and employee towards better understanding and supervising the goals of the company without instilling fear. Also, he or she should create an environment that encourages and motivates employees to work positively and productively for the business.
Economic Consequence
Not only do managers have to deal with the social consequences, but they also have to deal with the economic implications for the business. The business sense dictates that revenue generation is a primary responsibility of a manager for the company. Subsequently, whatever the outcome of the business is thrown back to the manager. Thus, a manager is one that designs a business strategy and analyzes a foresighted result for that business strategy. In the same way, the business’s competitive advantage or disadvantage becomes reflective of how the manager handles the business.
Managers in the top level position, for instance, are socially and economically blamed when revenues for the business declines or when a company loses valuable revenue. One example to this is Al Jazeera America CEO, Ehab Al Shihabi who was “replaced as CEO of the media company after it was sued for $15 million, over alleged sexism and anti-Semitism at the company” (Fell, 2015).
Another example is Sophia Amoruso who is founder and CEO of the fashion and e-commerce company, Nasty Gal who decided it was time to step down from her position and turn over the management of the company to the President, Sheree Waterson after the company had “three rounds of layoffs in 2014” (Fell, 2015).
Global And Local Issues
The roles and responsibilities that managers take on will recognizably affect both the local and global operations of the business. Each move a manager makes in the local perspective for multinational corporations will either affect only the local issues of the company or in the long run create a global impact for other aspects of the company and its other business affiliations or branches in different locations. Sometimes, what one manager fails to observe in the local setting does not affect other operations globally. For example, sales of international products such as PepsiCo. Or for Oreo cookies are varied from one place to another and managers from local areas focus on their location’s individual sales, and only become concerned with relevant changes in the global context regarding production and material sourcing.
It should be noted, however, that it does not necessarily go to show that global dynamics do not significantly affect the role and functions of the manager. To tie the manager’s social consequence with an awareness of the global dynamics, it points towards how managers deal with the elements essential to running a business. It is undeniable that while employees are still composed of baby boomers, millennials are slowly becoming both locally and globally significant and the number of millennial employees continues to rise.
Observably, “Managers become accustomed to using certain practices to engage boomers are going to have to change their ways – and practices – if they hope to engage and retain the newest heavily scrutinized employee cohort, the millennials” (Gilbert, 2015). What this means is that in the global perspective, managers must be able to engage themselves with two generations of employees. The problem lies where managers do not bridge the gap between the two generations working for the company. Managers must weigh in what both the boomers and the millennials have to offer.
Secondly, the awareness that this time and age are quickly pushing towards innovation and technology which millennial employees are more accustomed to echo how relevant they will become in the future. While local issues such as revenues are not neglected, it seems to take a longer time to see the effects of revenue loss given that there must be observable and significant evidence to show that revenue generation is a problem. In this sense, revenue trends are often not given much attention to a visible impact on profits is observed.
Another local issue is that as many multinational companies aim to be recognized internationally, it fails to see how local revenues can be earned. For example, the HTC Company is one that is established in China. But management placed its focus on other countries such as the US where it gained the attention of mobile companies such as “AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, O2, Vodafone and Orange” (History of HTC, 2008) in 2002. Thus, what the manager missed here is that while it gained a global market scale, it did not achieve a significant market for its own country.
Managers positioned at different levels have varying responsibilities. These responsibilities impact the performance of both the employee, revenue and the success of the business. A manager must be able to put a balance in his actions for both the local and global perspective while at the same time deal with organizational and human resource management as well.
Bibliography
5 Examples of Managers That Don’t Perform (no date) Available at http://omgcs.net/singapore/5-examples-of-managers-that-dont-perform/ (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
Fell, J. (2015) 9 CEOs who were fired or decided to step down. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/246043 (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
Festing, M., Knappert, L. and Kornau, A. (2014) ‘Gender-specific preferences in global performance management: An empirical study of male and female managers in a multinational context,’ Human Resource Management, 54(1), pp. 55–79. doi:10.1002/hrm.21609. Gilbert, J. (2015) The Millennials: A new generation of employees, a new set of engagement policies. Available at:
http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-millennials-a-new-generation-of-employees-a-new-set-of-engagement-policies/ (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
Haines, R.M. (2015) The differences between men and women business owners. Available at
http://whenruthspeaks.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-differences-between-men-and-women.html (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
History of HTC (2008) Available at
http://www.phonearena.com/news/History-of-HTC_id3255 (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
Role of managers in employee relationship (no date) Available at
http://www.managementstudyguide.com/role-of-managers-in-employee-relations.htm#
(Accessed: 6 January 2017).
Smith, J. (2015) Study finds women are better bosses than men — here’s why. Available at http://www.businessinsider.com/why-women-are-better-managers-than-men-2015-4 (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
Storm, A. (2012) Top 10 Female CEOs & Influential Business Women of American Companies. Available at http://www.moneycrashers.com/female-ceos-influential-women-business/ (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
The role of the business manager (2016) Available at
http://www.altran.com/careers/specific-roles/manager.html#.WG9Kcht97IU (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
The role of the manager in an evolving organization (2016) Available at https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/organizational-theory-3/evolving-organizations-32/the-role-of-the-manager-in-an-evolving-organization-184-5510/ (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
Want an essay like this? Visit www.wedoyouressay.com for more information.
