MANAGEMENT AS A PROFESSION

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 433.

No school, professor or book can make you a manager. Only you can do this, and you can become a manager only by managing. Of course, you can learn the skills that are extremely helpful, particularly in such clearly defined areas as accounting, statistics, law, and finance. But this will not make you a manager. Experience is the only teacher. Experience is, however, is not the uniformly effective teacher. An old aphorism crit­icizes the person who has worked for 20 years but has only reexperienced the first year 20 times. Learning is not automatic. What schools can do, and what books can do is to provide you with some insights and intellectual tools to be applied against your experience. Most of managers are practical people. We are more concerned about doing things than about thinking about them, are more con­cerned with action than with contemplation. Most business students and managers are uneasy about theory. It is abstract and difficult, too unrelated to real problems, it seems, 'too academic' and just 'too theo­retical'. But theory is very important because you and all men and women of action are also theorists. No matter how rooted in reality a manager views himself, he operates on theories. You all possess your own theories about motivation, authority, objectives and change. You will be a better manager if you are aware of your assumptions and you examine them periodically and modify them when necessary. Nothing is as practical as a good theory. A great deal of management theory and practice must be described as 'common sense'. For the objectives of management may be defined as the formulation of priorities and plans.

But what criteria are necessary for professional status of a manager? They include three major components:

1. An acceptable level of competence in a specified field of knowledge.

2. The placing of the interests of society before personal interests in carrying out functions of the profession.

3. A code of conduct as behavior imposed upon members and usually enforced internally.

If we examine the field of management in light of these characteris­tics, what shall we find out?

There is no question that management as a discipline has developed a body of knowledge, which is becoming more and more sophisticated part of the curriculum in many academic institutions. Research in the field shows promise of making even more significant advances in the future. More and more academic institutions offering business programs are devoting their pri­mary attention to graduate education in the area of management, with a particular emphasis on both theoretical and practical research.

With respect to the second criterion of professionalism the issue is much less clear-out. One difficulty facing the manager, however is determining what is meant by the "inter­est of society". Many corporations fear to allocate significant resources to social and ecological programs because stockholders would complain that such allocation is not consistent with their own financial interests. Corporations that fail to allocate stockholders' resources for social and ecological programs receive criticism from political and civic groups ac­cusing them of being interested only in profits. But we should admit that corporate management is indeed becoming more involved in the prob­lems of society, whether because of self-interest or concern for others.

It is in the third criterion of professionalism that the case for manage­ment is perhaps the weakest. I mean, that each person in business looks to his or her own personal code of ethics to determine acceptable behavior in a given situation. There is a wide variety of behavior results, since individuals view a given situation in different ways, as their personal values and principles dictate. We recognize that each member of our society must answer ultimately to his or her own conscience. But it remains for the field of management to develop a position that is consistent with the profes­sional, ethical status of its members.

Every student or just everyone, who is going to become a manager, asks himself one the same question: “Oh, what do I need to become not a simple manager, but a really successful manager?” And this question has not been left without an answer. There have been many studies that have attempted to identify the characteristics of successful managers. The results are presented in the following list of expected characteristics of a manager. So, if you want to become a successful manager, you should possess:

High level of physical energy

Ability to set clear goals and plans to reach goals

Strong positive attitudes

High levels of moral strength

Willingness to take chances

High level of reasoning ability

Positive attitude towards others

Restless eager to do something new

Desire to satisfy the needs of others

Also you should be:

Industrious - need to be always working at something

Able to make decisions

Willing to lead others

Organized

Able to use time effectively

Willing and eager to learn

Able to change and adapt to changing environment

Able to seek and find information needed to achieve their goals

Able to avoid procrastination

Informed about latest trends and needs

Willing to take responsibility

Able to motivate others -Always looking for opportunities

Willing to recognize and reward contributions of others

Able to learn from failure and move on.

These characteristics a good manager is likely to possess.

When speaking about management as a profession, we shouldn't forget about a very important field of management – international management. Managers who can operate effectively across cul­tures and national borders are invaluable players in the global business arena. As the world grows ever smaller, improved cross-cultural skills and an international perspective are critical executive qualities. Global selection systems enable a company to find the best person anywhere in the world for a given position. The system measures appli­cants according to a group of 12 character attributes. These twelve cate­gories are: motivations, expectations, open-mindedness, respect for oth­er beliefs, trust in people, tolerance, personal control, flexibility, patience, social adaptability, initiative, risk-taking, sense of humour, interpersonal interest, spouse communication.

Beyond superior technical and managerial skills, an effective inter­national executive displays a combination of desirable personal qualities. These include adaptability, independence, leadership and even charisma.

What part can management education play in developing the inter­national manger'? A good deal. Management education can provide train­ing in the so-called "hard" skills such as international marketing and finance and in the so-called "soft" skills such as international relation­ships. We can easily define certain "hard" skill and knowledge areas that the international manager will need and which are very susceptible to formal education and training approaches. These include an understand­ing of the global economy and foreign business systems, international marketing, international financial management, political risk analysis and the ability to analyze and develop sophisticated global strategies.

We can also point to some "soft" skill areas such as communication, leadership, motivation, decision-making, team-building and negotiation where research indicates that national cultural differences can have im­portant effects. (The international manager is said to spend over half of his or her time in negotiation.) International managers need at least to be aware of some of the issues involved. They need, furthermore, not only to be aware of how foreign cultures affect organizational behaviour and management style, but also to understand how their own culture affects their own style.

So in the conclusion I'd like to say, that to become a good manager is not a simple thing to do. One must work hard to improve his knowledge in science and behavioural skills. And if you want to be an international manager, you should also take into consideration cross-cultural skills.