WMGM102 - The Changing Nature of Management Roles and Competencies

This essay critically discusses the changing nature of management roles and competencies in the 21st century, considering the evolving business and social climate, corporate needs, and globalization. It explores factors driving changes in managerial roles over the past 50 years, including external environmental forces like globalization, digital advancements, and changing political and economic landscapes, as well as internal factors such as changing employee demands and the need for continuous funding and research. The essay also identifies critical success factors for today's managers and businesses, such as innovation, service orientation, and digital transformation. Furthermore, it examines the shift in managerial roles towards profit maximization with limited resources, balancing efficiency and effectiveness, and managing workplace diversity. The essay concludes by highlighting core organizational competencies like advanced technologies and centralized information systems, emphasizing their relationship with the evolving demands of the market and the need for managers to adapt and leverage these competencies within the organizational structure.

PRINCIPLES
OF
MANAGEMENT
Changing nature of management role and competencies in the 21st Century

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In the past few decades the ways of doing business have changed. This has made changes in
the roles and responsibilities played by a manager. This calls for the new kind of
competencies to be developed in the 21st Century’s managers. With the changing global
business environment along with the changing social domain there are multiple issues and
changes have come up, this has forced the managers to make changes in their competencies
they have (Reilly, 2018). In this regards last 50 years have been significant for understanding
the changes since there were many new factors which have played a prominent role in
making these changes. Globalisation is one of the major factors that in it as it has forced the
managers to think not only the challenges at local level rather than understanding the impact
of the global market on their business (Laud, Arevalo and Johnson, 2016). In this time period
it has been seen that managers need to have a good digital knowledge as the ways of doing
business have taken the digital means. Political domains have also changed which has
compelled the managers to become a better strategist that is capable of dealing with this
changing political environment. Since the economies of the nations are getting dependent on
the each other hence the economic challenges have also increased. Any change in the
environment of economy in any one part of the world is getting reflected in some other
economies as well.
It is also crucial to understand that demands of the society have changed and hence there is a
change in the manager’s role as they had to do more research while making any decisions.
This will help them in making the best decisions that assist in fulfilling the demands of the
market. Along with this it is also crucial for the today’s managers to make sure that they have
an understanding of the changing legal domains in various countries so as to avoid any legal
constraints (Verle, et. al., 2014). In the past 50 years there have been extreme changes in the
climate and environment hence managers need to think about the environmental concerns so
as to avoid penalties for degrading environment.
Apart from this there are many internal factors as well which has impacted on the managerial
roles. First of them is the changing employee demands. Since the employment rules are
changing in various parts of the world hence managers have to think about their demand so as
to avoid any kind of lockouts or other business disruption. Healthy employee relations have
become very important so that high quality performance can be taken out from the
employees. It has become extremely important for the managers to ensure that is there is
continuous funding for different project running in their company (Jena and Sahoo, 2012).
Earlier company needs to think about one time investment but as the demands of the market

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have changed hence it has become crucial for the managers to check about the regular
sources of funding. With this it has also become necessary for the managers to check that
researches are going on in the company so as to meet the global demands of their product and
services. For managers roles have also changed related to supply chain management. Since
management needs to be highly concerned regarding the maintaining the variable demand
and supply hence a better relationship with suppliers and distributors needs to be made. In
this regards forecasting demands plays a very crucial role which can be easily done with the
help of IT tools (Farley, 2011). Along with this information has become very much crucial
hence managers need to focus more on making decisions that are based on information
sources.
In the modern day business, there are several critical factors that are playing a very crucial
role. First is to expand in new business areas so that larger market share can be captured
along with this it is also crucial that company focus on increasing the market share through
current consumers. Innovation and product development has become one of the crucial
factors that could ensure success for which managers have to stress upon. Becoming service
oriented with consumers will help the managers in expanding their business. Becoming
digital has also become a major factor for ensuring success. Rewards and incentives are
playing a major role in managing the employee’s performance.
In 21st century the nature of managerial roles have also change. This can be attributed by the
fact that managers have to increase the profits of the limited resources a company has. Since
mismanagement can lead to sustainability issues hence making a balance between efficiency
and effectiveness is important. Due to globalisation there is huge diversity present at any
workplace hence it has become crucial for the managers to manage it so as to avoid any kind
of conflict in between them (Rajadhyaksha, 2005). For achieving the objectives of the
organisation there is change in the managers role as they have to think about aligning their
strategies and resources in one line.
Several core competencies are exist in the modern day firms namely advanced technologies,
better research capabilities, and highly disintegrated business units, centralised information
systems, advanced strategy making tools, high quality resources. These core competencies
are directly related with the factors that are driving the changes (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1997).
This can be understood by the fact that demands of the market are changing and it has

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become crucial for the managers to use their organisation’s competencies for managing their
business while the changes are going on.
There is a very close relationship between the organisational structure and the new kind of
competencies and roles that managers need to develop. This can be understood by the fact
that there are managers at different levels of organisational structure have different roles.
Since there is change in the requirements that manager have hence roles need to be redefined.
The higher the position of the managers in the organisational structure the higher is the
requirement of building new competencies in them (Guo, Zhao and Tang, 2013). New set of
core competencies will help the managers to reach to higher position in the organisational
structure.

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REFERENCES
Laud, R., Arevalo, J. and Johnson, M., (2016) The changing nature of managerial skills,
mindsets and roles: Advancing theory and relevancy for contemporary managers. Journal of
Management & Organization, 22(4), pp.435-456.
Verle, K., Markič, M., Kodrič, B. and Gorenc Zoran, A., (2014) Managerial competencies
and organizational structures. Industrial management & Data systems, 114(6), pp.922-935.
Jena, S. and Sahoo, C.K., (2012) Exploring competency requirements towards superior
managerial performance: A theoretical construct. Employment Relations Record, 12(2), p.19.
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Farley,S.N., (2011) Core competencies of the new industrial organization. Journal of
Manufacturing Technology Management, 22(4), pp.422-443.
Rajadhyaksha, U., (2005) Managerial competence: do technical capabilities matter? Vikalpa,
30(2), pp.47-56.
Bartlett, C.A. and Ghoshal, S., (1997) The myth of the generic manager: new personal
competencies for new management roles. California management review, 40(1), pp.92-116.
Guo, H., Zhao, J. and Tang, J., (2013) The role of top managers' human and social capital in
business model innovation. Chinese Management Studies, 7(3), pp.447-469.
Reilly, M., (2018) How To Determine Critical Success Factors For Your Business. [Online].
Available at: https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/how-to-determine-critical-success-factors-
for-your-business/