21st Century Workplace: Management Challenges and Changes

This essay explores the significant transformations in the workplace over the past three decades, focusing on the impact of technology, globalization, and evolving employee expectations. It highlights key changes in organizational structures, employment relationships, and the rise of digital communication, as well as the introduction of artificial intelligence. The essay delves into the dilemmas faced by managers, including adapting to social media, managing a diverse workforce, addressing skill gaps, and navigating cross-cultural issues. It then proposes several strategies for managers to thrive in this changing environment, such as improving internal relationships, fostering innovation, maintaining ethical standards, and developing a strong understanding of technology. The essay emphasizes the need for leaders to focus on communication, leadership, and employee development to maintain a competitive advantage in the modern workplace.

Running head: CHANGING NATURE OF WORKPLACE
CHANGING NATURE OF WORKPLACE
Name of the student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1CHANGING NATURE OF WORKPLACE
In the 21st century the nature of the workplace has changed a great deal. Starting from
the structures, processes as well as strategies of the organisations, changes can be perceived
in the nature of employment relationships, occupations, jobs and occupational structures
(Greenbaum, 2017). There are some most noticeable changes which greatly affect the content
and structures. The nature of the workplace has greatly changed in these three decades. The
operations of the organisations have become more technology dependant which was once
very employee dependant. The organisations in this 21st century have restructured greatly
(Effelsberg, Solga & Gurt, 2014).
Initially, the organisations used to be very hierarchical but current era has a trend to
have flatter hierarchies where the power distance of the higher authorities have been reduced
in respect to that of the employees. The work division and responsibilities are divided among
teams (Ferguson, 2018). After globalisation, the organisations have become more diverse
with the employees from different cultures. This is the reason why the organisations have to
perform more globally and openly. The employees of the organisation previously were more
attached with their organisations and employee turnover were much less than the recent time.
In correct global organisational settings, the employees work more part time and they share
roles as they have more specific parts to play now (Kilduff et al., 2016). Due to globalisation,
the business has reached more markets hence the organisations need to have more data and
innovation to cater diverse customer demand.
Three decades ago, the general professional use of internet was much less than it is
today. Therefore, the information sharing and skill development have started to dependant
largely on the internet. Starting from search engine optimization, social bookmarking, social
networking to other forms of digital traffic generation, various avenues have been applied for
growth of business (Effelsberg, Solga & Gurt, 2014). The introduction of artificial

2CHANGING NATURE OF WORKPLACE
intelligence on the other hand has brought changes in job security and stability. Due to all
these reasons the nature of the organisational operations is changing contentiously.
As the consequences of these changes in the organisations, the managers are feeling
various types of dilemmas as they are responsible to leverage employee engagement in the
organisations in one hand and gaining competitive advantages in the markets (Greenbaum,
2017). First of all, the management in the current setting has faced issues to cope up with the
social media platforms which has pressurised the management to make the workplace more
transparent. These executives are now completed to make the process easier for the
employees so that they can quickly learn about their new jobs and get knowledge about the
corporate culture. Secondly a number of millennials have started to enter the job market.
These people have different perspectives than their older colleagues (Overall, 2016). They
want more work life integration, more open and collaborative work culture and less power
domination. For them, the managers need to change many set ups of their organisations.
Thirdly, the skill credentials of the employees are fast changing as the organisations
have been trying to spread globally. Without knowledge of technology the operations can
never be conducted. Hence the management feel more pressure to recruit right person and
form a right mix of employees otherwise the organisation will lose its ground (Kilduff et al.,
2016). Finally, the managers in the current organisations face the most dilemma regarding the
cross-cultural issues. On the contrary as the organisations are becoming more collaborative in
nature there are more requirement of team work (Effelsberg, Solga & Gurt, 2014). The
organisations are spreading in different countries, the values and expectations of the
employees are changed. In matching perfectly with these issues, the managers feel
contradictions.

3CHANGING NATURE OF WORKPLACE
In order to survive in this changing culture of the organisations, the mangers of the
organisations need to improve internal working relationships especially the cross group
communication as well as collaboration (Askew, Beisler & Keel, 2015). Leaders in current
organisational settings need to focus on controlling and communicating their vision. They
need to lead large client projects and find new methods to develop the workforce. Managers
in the current context need to take more leadership responsibilities as well as pass growing
amounts of responsibilities to the junior employees. In order to maintain the competitive
advantage, the method of innovation can be an important approach. Through creativity the
management can effectively motivate the employees in one hand, allow creativity in product,
process and management innovation (Greenbaum, 2017). The managers, to survive in this
current setting need to be ethically perfect otherwise they will lose self-correctness which can
have a negative effect on the employees as well as the organisation. Finally, the managers of
21st century need to have an excellent technological or digital understanding so that they can
lead the organisation and bring needed changes based on technology.

4CHANGING NATURE OF WORKPLACE
References:
Askew, O.A., Beisler, J.M., & Keel, J. (2015). Current trends of unethical behavior within
organizations. International Journal of Management & Information Systems
(Online), 19(3), p.107.
Effelsberg, D., Solga, M., & Gurt, J. (2014). Transformational leadership and follower’s
unethical behavior for the benefit of the company: A two-study investigation. Journal
of Business Ethics, 120(1), pp.81-93.
Ferguson, A. (2018). Revealed: How 7 Eleven is ripping off its workers. [online]
Smh.com.au. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2015/7-eleven-
revealed/ [Accessed 4 May 2018].
Greenbaum, R.L., Hill, A., Mawritz, M.B., & Quade, M.J. (2017). Employee
Machiavellianism to unethical behavior: The role of abusive supervision as a trait
activator. Journal of Management, 43(2), pp.585-609.
Kilduff, G.J., Galinsky, A.D., Gallo, E., & Reade, J.J. (2016). Whatever it takes to win:
Rivalry increases unethical behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 59(5),
pp.1508-1534.
Overall, J. (2016). Unethical behavior in organizations: empirical findings that challenge
CSR and egoism theory. Business Ethics: A European Review, 25(2), pp.113-127.