Contemporary Management Issues in the 21st Century Essay - LSC UoS

This essay addresses contemporary management issues in the 21st century, focusing on the impact of information and communication technology and examining Tesco as a case study. It evaluates Tesco's pre-pandemic policies regarding talent acquisition, learning and development, and change management, highlighting the role of leaders in implementing new initiatives. The essay recommends new initiatives for Tesco to thrive in the new normal, such as adopting flexible policies and leveraging new technologies. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of these adaptations for organizational success in the face of modern challenges. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Contemporary
Management Issues
in 21st Century

Table of Contents
Contemporary Management Issues in 21st Century........................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
The impact of information and communication technology on the management workforce.....3
Evaluation of existing policies of Tesco in context to talent acquisition, learning and
development and change management process...........................................................................4
Role of leaders for implementing new initiatives.......................................................................5
Recommendations on new initiatives that Tesco should adopt in order to survive and thrive in
the new normal............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Contemporary issues in management are that which are currently affecting the employees
and organization and that are tough to resolve. In 21 century the major contemporary issue was
the pandemic of COVID-19 which impacted various organization in different ways(Rosenbach,
2018). Tesco is the chosen organization for this project. It is the multinational groceries and
general merchandise retailer headquartered in England, UK. In this report, the theories of
management workforce are used to evaluate the effect of information and communication
technology in Tesco. The policies which was existing in the company before the pandemic in
context to hiring, training and development and then the change in it after COVID-19 is
explained in this report. It is discussed that how the leaders of the company effectively guide the
teams to adapt in new initiatives and what steps and strategies a company could take to survive
normally in such a new change.
The impact of information and communication technology on the management workforce
Information and communication technologies is various set of technological tools and
resources to store, transfer, share, create or exchange of information. It impacts the management
workforce in following ways: Staying innovative: With the help of technology, workforce of an organization became
more innovative it means they identify the needs for any improvement then make
changes accordingly. With the use of technology Tesco started online selling of its
products to help its customers. The company use innovation to stay connected with its
clients. Initially, it faced loss and decrement in sale but from the mid COVID till now its
online marketing has also being increased(Kamysbayeva, Koryakov, Garnova and et. al.,
2021). Industry efficient: Due to the innovation in technology any company will able to work
efficiently. Technology will allow the company to work fast without mistakes and make
better records of any data or information. Technology helped Tesco during COVID as it
allows the company for online marketing of its products. This is the reason for the
survival of the company during and after the pandemic. Hence, technology helped the
company to become more efficient and able to reach and fulfil the desires of customers.

 Communicate better, collaborate more: Technologies enables everyone to stay
connected with each other through effective communication and collaboration. With the
help of internet and various social media, Tesco remained connected with its customers.
It continued to serve its customers during pandemic with the help of online
communication. It also helped its employees by collaborating with them. Technology
allows the company to stay connected with its suppliers which prevents the company
from loss. Security and Safety: Invention of technology helped the business organizations to keep
their data private and secure. Without any security software its impossible to store any
information safe. Tesco uses Amberstone security to prevent its data from leakage. It
helps the company to keep the money of the clients safe. It helped the company to keep
the trust of their customers, clients, investors and colleagues. Tesco also uses CCTV to
capture day to day activities in its stores.
 Increasing productivity: Technology allows any organization to work with more speed
and efficiency. It allows the customers to stay connected with the company so that they
could take advantages of the service they are providing. Technology enabled Tesco for
online marketing during COVID. It means Tesco keep earning during such a pandemic
situation. Hence, its productivity is increased.
Evaluation of existing policies of Tesco in context to talent acquisition, learning and
development and change management process
Existing policies in context to talent acquisition Recruitment process: It is the process of searching for desired candidates for the required
position and then scheduling their interviews. Tesco used to search candidates at various
social media, asks their employees and colleagues that if someone is available for the
required position and others then call them for interviews before COVID-19.
 Interview process: Before the pandemic of COVID-19, Tesco used to interview new
candidates in step wise process starting from: identifying hiring needs, then plan how to
hire an efficient candidate, then creating the description for particular job, posting and
promoting the job openings, then applicant screening and scheduling interviews and
asking the candidate to come for interview(Shehzad, Zaman, Ahmad and et. al., 2022).
Existing policies in context to learning and development

 Organize seminars and events: Before the pandemic, Tesco used to organize seminars
through which they could get to know necessary things required for the job. These
seminars allowed the employees to develop new skills and knowledge. The company
used to plan events or business meetings in which they enabled their employees to learn
corporate things such as how to treat business guests, how to talk with the, how to behave
properly in a professional manner and others.
 Weekly public speaking and presenting activities: Tesco keep scheduling these activities
before COVID-19, so that their employees could be able to speak and present confidently
in front of their dealers and clients and they become professional.
Change management process Communicate employees: Tesco keep communicating with its employees on a regular
basis before COVID-19 to identify about any change if they required or if any change the
organization required for improvement within the working culture(Albert, 2019).
 Regular meetings: Tesco keep organizing meetings on a regular basis to discuss about
the change and how it is important and necessary for the organization to improve its
growth, beat with competitors and achieving desired goals and targets.
Role of leaders for implementing new initiatives Set clear objectives: A leader must have a clear vision as he have to guide the employees
towards the path of achieving future goals for any organization. The leaders of Tesco set
effective objectives for their teams to achieve future goals. Clearly defined objectives
help the company to have employees who knows what have to do, how to do and what
have to achieve. They posses a clear vision and have clear focus. Able to motivate employees: A leader has the responsibility to motivate his employees so
that they could work effectively and confidently and become able to get success for the
company. The leaders at Tesco keep motivating their employees with the help of regular
meetings, seminars and they keep rewarding to those employees who are working well.
This will motivate them to work more hard to gain more rewards.
 Create an environment for success: It is the responsibility of a leader to make a healthy
working environment for the employees. It will help them to work with efficiency and
hence achieving success for organization. The leaders of Tesco keep effective
communication with the employees. They listen and supports their teams. This will give

them motivation to work properly which is the reason for the growth and success of the
company(Kaczmarek, Perez, Demir and et. al.. 2021).
Recommendations on new initiatives that Tesco should adopt in order to survive and thrive in the
new normal
From the above analysis it can be recommended that as COVID-19 affected the work of
many people and organizations such as Tesco in various ways, they suffer a lot of things such as
loss in profits, downfall in sales, employee ineffectiveness, problems in meetings and
communicating with clients and many more. Following are some important adaptations Tesco
should use to survive and thrive in the new normal Making effective policies: The company could make flexible and effective policies
which allows the organization to accept the changes and they could be able to work with
speed and able to get success(Bokhari, Khan, Khalid and et. al., 2019).
 Using technologies: New technologies will help the company to work more efficiently. It
would save and manages the time for further work. It would help the company for further
promotions and the company could approach more customers.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that how contemporary issues in 21
century such as COVID-19 affected many people and business organizations such as Tesco. It
can be concluded that what is the impact of information and communication technologies on
various organizations such as keep them innovative, make them more efficient and others. It is
evaluated that what is the process of talent acquisition, learning and development and change
management in Tesco before the pandemic and how the leaders of the company keep motivating
and guiding the teams to adopt and survive in the new change. In the above report some
recommendations like making effective policies and using technologies is given to Tesco for its
success and survival in the new change.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals

Rosenbach, W.E., 2018. Contemporary issues in leadership. Routledge.
Kamysbayeva, A., Koryakov, A., Garnova, N., Glushkov, S. and Klimenkova, S., 2021. E-
learning challenge studying the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of
Educational Management.
Shehzad, K., Zaman, U., Ahmad, M. and Liu, X., 2022. Asymmetric impact of information and
communication technologies on environmental quality: analyzing the role of
financial development and energy consumption. Environment, Development and
Sustainability, 24(2), pp.1761-1780.
Albert, E.T., 2019. AI in talent acquisition: a review of AI-applications used in recruitment and
selection. Strategic HR Review.
Bokhari, I.H., Khan, S.N., Khalid, R. and Noman, M., 2019. Climate change management, data
sharing and government policies for sustainable agriculture to eradicate
poverty. Paradigms, 13(2), pp.26-32.
Kaczmarek, T., Perez, K., Demir, E. and Zaremba, A., 2021. How to survive a pandemic: The
corporate resiliency of travel and leisure companies to the COVID-19
outbreak. Tourism Management, 84, p.104281.