Managerial roles has changed last 5 years Essay

Managerial roles has changed last 5 years - Essay Example Technology has become the driving cause in organizational change and development. In order to preserve an organization's existence or to sustain its profitable growth, management must adopt and react to the changing world. Managerial roles evolved from traditional specific functions to a more cross-functional role and having cross-business knowledge with higher expectations from stakeholders and better performance in the organization. Today's information age organizations operate in an integrated and complex business processes that goes beyond traditional functions like manufacturing, purchasing, distribution and marketing (Kaplan & Norton 2001, Chapter 1). Technology has combined the specialization benefits from these functional skills with the speed, efficiency and quality of an integrated business processes. Andrew S. Grove, CEO of Intel, attributes much of his success to a terminology he called strategic inflection points. These are moments when massive change occurs in the company, the industrial environment they compete in, and the market they played at. Strategic inflection points are results of different factors, may it be, mega-competition, entry of a better substitute, or a change in technology. (Grove 1996, p. 126) There exist unrelenting pressures to managers these days. These managerial pressures may include compelling needs of organizations to become leaner, to be good citizens, and to grow profits at double-digit rates. Managers become navigators through these pressures and strategic inflection points that threaten their organization and turn them into positive forces to win in the marketplace and emerge stronger than ever. They stop being passive spectators and hesitant observers. As the organization changes to adopt to the forces of the market, the managerial role changes in order to adopt to the demands of the organization. The demand for change and innovation is enormous. Fiercer competition arises from traditional companies and brand new entrants while the boundaries of markets and industries are increasingly colliding. The demanding environment has created a shortage of skilled employees and knowledge workers. The changes also strain the relationships between employers and employees. People work at an organization as long as it is beneficial to them where there are still a lot of milk in the cow, so to speak. Once it no longer gave them the advantage, they move on to greener pastures, to fatter cows, to other companies. The traditional autocratic managers have become extinct. Managers nowadays value the importance of individual employees and are accountable in attracting and keeping good people.(Chopra 1999, p. 40) With these shortage of good workers, th e managers are enormously pressured to challenge their team to continuously improve and to stay on top of the competitive game. Effective managers go beyond managing change, they become champions of change, innovation and continuous improvement in the organization. The organization's survival and success depends on how management responds to change with the right value equation by coming up with original, creative and innovative solutions while being resourceful through taking what is available and making it