Contemporary Management Issues in the 21st Century

This essay discusses contemporary management issues in the context of Deloitte, a multinational company headquartered in London. It explores the impact of the pandemic on talent acquisition, recruitment, and working patterns. The role of information and communication technology in managing personnel while complying with government regulations is also discussed. The essay highlights the importance of effective leadership in implementing changes and dealing with uncertainties. The implications of the pandemic on companies and the need for digital frameworks for talent acquisition are also analyzed.

Contemporary
Management Issues in
the 21st Century
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Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................6
References.......................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Contemporary management is associated with the processes included in maintaining
resources, innovations, procedures, personnel and other aspects of an organisation in order to
achieve its goals. It is related with effective management of an organisation considering the
influence of external environment and developing strategic plans to deal with uncertainties. In
this essay, contemporary management issues are discussed in context to an organisation. The
chosen organisation for this essay is Deloitte, which is a multinational company headquartered in
London, UK. Deloitte is a British based global company having its operations in various
countries dealing in provision of professional services. The company was established in 1845
and is one of the big four organisations excelling in accounting services as well as has the largest
network of professional services in terms of revenues. In this essay, various concepts and
theories is discussed in advising solutions to the company on various contemporary management
practices.
Main Body
Contemporary management is associated with proper monitoring of resources and
optimum utilisation in order to achieve growth and success. There are various issues that is
prevailing in contemporary management including managing employment turnover, regulatory
affairs, effective talent acquisition and communication and so on. The emergence of the
pandemic has created various issues for businesses including recruitment and working patterns.
One of the major issue emerged during pandemic is associated with effective talent acquisition
and recruitment and to manage personnel while complying with standards of social distancing.
Contemporary management is related with dealing uncertainties in an effective manner so that
productivity of an organisation remains same despite the prevailing issues (Direction, Smeiryani
and et.al., 2021).
The role of information and communication technology is crucial in management of
employees while maintaining distances to comply with government regulations. In order to
continue the flow of operations during pandemic and to deal with post pandemic situations,
collaboration tools such as Zoom app, Microsoft teams and other digital applications are proven
very beneficial to assist communication in critical situations (Chae, Koh and Park, 2018).
Information technology has eliminated the requirements of physical presence in offices to
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perform routine tasks. It has redefined the ways of working for organisation. Deloitte has great
expertise in providing accounting solutions through making use of effective system software.
Thus, the company can effectively manage its operations while complying with preventive
measures through ensuring productivity of employees by practices of work from home. Working
from home has became a emerging trend which is helpful in reduction of costs for both
employees as well as the organisation (Albert, 2019). Collaborative digital applications has
facilitated online interaction and instalment of system software allows individuals to work with
same efficiency form home as well. The scope of information technology in assisting operations
amidst pandemic is beyond measure and it is significant how much the digital techniques
contributed in effective contemporary management.
The process of talent acquisition and recruitment has also made possible and effective
with the assistance of modern applications and advanced techniques. During the pandemic, the
emerging trend of performing interviews via online apps helped the organisations in maintaining
its personnel requirements. In context to Deloitte, Change management was facilitated through
adoption of various digital techniques and with the help of developing effective contingency
plans by the organisation. The company is indulged in the process of talent acquisition on global
basis and it owns a professional recruitment team to conduct the procedures of interviews and
other HR functions. The organisation effectively carries out interviews and select highly skilled
employees having great potential and calibre. It conduct the process of selection after a range of
interview sessions and then provides effective training to candidates for enhancement of their
productivity and skills. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has created major issues in
corporations and at the time of uncertainties adoption to changing technologies helps in
responding to sudden changes in a constructive manner. Talent acquisition and recruitment can
be effectively manage through implementing various modern techniques. Through performing
interviews via video conferencing the process of hiring has became less time consuming and
leads to efficiency in results as well. Deloitte was previously focused upon conducting personal
face to face interviews and long group discussions to acquire talent in their organisation. The
company was involved in long time taking procedures and used to conduct the process of
selection after following various processes for enhancing interaction to analyse their skills. After
pandemic, the company has started recruiting employees via online interview sessions.
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Moreover, the training processes were also to be conducted online through meetings facilitated
with collaboration tools such as Zoom app and Microsoft teams etc.
The new initiatives that was implemented by Deloitte in order to conduct the working
process during pandemic was supported with the role of leaders. Leaders play an important role
in directing employees on new practices of working from home. Changes that took place in
policies and patterns of working in the organisation was facilitated with the help of leaders. The
leaders of the company ensured that people are working with same efficiency and productivity.
In fact, leaders plays a crucial role in implementing changes as they provided employees with
guidance and instructions as on how to adopt new methods of working from home (Sergis,
Voziki, and Sampson, 2018). Through applying transformational leadership in practice, leaders
at Deloitte attempts at creating value and leading their company towards achievement through
supporting changes and dealing with them efficiently. Transformational leadership style helps
them in gaining trust of employees through their influential personality and they encourage
employees to perform their best for attainment of organisational objectives. They are inspiring
and promotes changes through motivating employees that changes are essential and could be
dealt with great ease with right planning and vision. The leaders at the organisation ensures that
their team members receives full support and they turn to their leaders in case of queries or any
problems. Leader-member exchange theory suggests that the interpersonal relations among
leaders and followers is a result of their understanding. Through forming a trust based and
mutual coordination relationships with team members, leaders can direct them towards
productivity and can achieve remarkable results. In low quality LMX relations, the leaders and
members denotes lack of trust and respect for each other which leads to chaos and
mismanagement of operations. While dealing with contemporary issues, effectiveness in
leadership through better interpersonal relations is highly important. The leaders played a
substantial role in managing operations during pandemic while attempting at maintaining same
productivity through leading employees potentially. The servant theory of leadership states
that the purpose of leaders is to serve their followers. The major principles of this theory states
that leaders must promote diversity and respects opinions of every individual in order to create a
culture of trust (Chon and Zoltan, 2019). A servant leader always puts concerns of its followers
first and maintains an unselfish mindset where he consider concerns of their team members.
Thus, while dealing with changes regarding work form home procedures and in-office culture
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post pandemic, the leaders at Deloitte ensured effectiveness through focusing upon needs and
requirements of their employees. They consider issues of employees which erupts in adopting
changes and provided effective solutions to them for serving their purpose.
The implications of the pandemic were severe on companies and it created major
disturbances and disruptions in the productivity of the organisations (Kane and et.al., 2021). In
context to Deloitte, the company also faced various issues as result of uncertainties created by
the sudden outbreak of COVID-19. The pandemic has established that in order to cope with
growing uncertainties of dynamic environment, focusing upon responding to changes is crucial
and important for ensuring continuous progress. For the purpose of dealing with challenges
imposed by COVID-19, the company has to effectively develop frameworks establishing
practices of working from home. The new patterns of working in a post-pandemic world
suggests optimisation of technology to maximum for achieving high results and for improving
productivity as well as performance of the organisation. Application of information technology
has assisted operations of the company in constructive manner and to continue with growth and
progress, the organisation has to further establish a range of modern frameworks of digital
technologies (Brinkley and et.al., 2020). The course of pandemic has introduced the process of
talent acquisition via online applications which leads to effective management of personnel even
in tough times of pandemic. To excel and grow in future, the company must develop
constructive strategies for talent acquisition through proper establishment of digital frameworks.
Conclusion
From this essay, it has been concluded that contemporary management deals with various
aspects critical for growth and performance of an organisation. The emergence of pandemic has
created issues of working and personnel management was abruptly affected due to employment
voluntary or involuntary turnover. The regulations imposed by government had serious
implications on the companies which has made them embrace and adopt high technologies to
maintain their sustenance. The adoption of various modern techniques and collaborative digital
tools has facilitated the functions in multinational companies. It has been analysed that leaders
are of great significance in the process of change management as they directed employees in
implementation of changes.
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References
Albert, E.T., 2019. AI in talent acquisition: a review of AI-applications used in recruitment and
selection. Strategic HR Review.
Brinkley, I. and et.al., 2020. Embedding new ways of working: Implications for the post-
pandemic workplace.
Chae, H.C., Koh, C.E. and Park, K.O., 2018. Information technology capability and firm
performance: Role of industry. Information & Management, 55(5), pp.525-546.
Chon, K.K.S. and Zoltan, J., 2019. Role of servant leadership in contemporary
hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Direction, S., Internal communication management: Practices in contemporary businesses.
Kane, G.C. and et.al., 2021. Redesigning the post-pandemic workplace. MIT Sloan Management
Review, 62(3), pp.12-14.
Meiryani, M. and et.al., 2021, July. The Impacts of Information Technology on Accounting
Systems. In The 2021 9th International Conference on Computer and Communications
Management(pp. 1-8).
Sergis, S., Voziki, T. and Sampson, D., 2018. School leadership: An analysis of competence
frameworks. In Digital Technologies: Sustainable Innovations for Improving Teaching
and Learning (pp. 3-25). Springer, Cham.
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