University Name - MKT01907: Management Flexibility Blog Assignment

This assignment consists of two blog posts, each approximately 200 words, analyzing the concept of management flexibility within the context of the travel and tourism industry. The first blog post critically reviews a non-academic industry article, highlighting the importance of adaptive leadership approaches and flexibility in rapidly changing environments. The second blog post analyzes an academic article, defining flexibility and exploring its implications for organizational adaptability, including numerical and functional flexibility. Both posts connect the articles' themes to the assignment's core topic, 'Management is the pursuit of flexibility,' and relevant course materials, reflecting on personal and professional experiences to illustrate the practical application of these management concepts. The assignment aims to identify and describe management competencies for effective organizational performance, as outlined in the course objectives.

Running head: TRAVEL AND TOURISM
TRAVEL AND TOURISM
Student’s Name
University Name
Author note

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Blog 1
NON ACADEMIC ARTICLE
Industry Article: Building flexibility in the world of uncertainty
Website: https://industrytoday.com/article/building-flexibility-world-uncertainty/
Author: Ken Koenemann
Discussion: “Management is the pursuit of flexibility”
According to Koenemann (2019), leadership styles and approaches are highly essential
in today’s business environment. It is essential for the business organization and its leaders and
managers to adapt to more adaptive leadership approaches such as inclusive leadership
approaches. It is believed by Baron et al. (2018), that flexibility is ambiguous and ill defined. It
is essential for the business organization to be highly flexible and ensure flexible workplace to
encourage and positively influence the employees in the organization. Flexibility is highly
essential in the rapidly changing economic and social environment. Flexible leaders and
managers are considered as someone who can easily modify and transform their leadership styles
and approaches as per the changing scenario and circumstances in the business organization
(McCleskey 2014). The article points out the importance of flexibility in the organization in
today’s business organization. It states the important of management being flexibility and its
needs to overcome challenges and resistance among the employees (Sako and Sato 2013). The
flexible leaders are highly adaptive in nature so as to implement strategies as per the changing
needs and demands of the consumers. Different leaders in the management face different
challenges and they must recognize the opportunities for flexibility to influence the actions of
other subordinates in the organization.

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References
Baron, L., Rouleau, V., Grégoire, S. and Baron, C., 2018. Mindfulness and leadership
flexibility. Journal of Management Development, 37(2), pp.165-177.
Koenemann, K. 2019. Building Flexibility in a World of Uncertainty - Industry Today. Retrieved
19 December 2019, from https://industrytoday.com/article/building-flexibility-world-uncertainty/
McCleskey, J.A., 2014. Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership
development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), p.117.
Sako, M. and Sato, H., 2013. Japanese labour and management in transition: Diversity, flexibility
and participation. Routledge.
Blog 2
ACADEMIC ARTICLE
Academic Article: Strategic flexibility: A management guide for changing times.
Journal: Strategic flexibility: A management guide for changing times.
Author/s: Harrigan, K. R.
Discussion Topic: “Management is the pursuit of flexibility.”
In this article, the Harrigan (1985), defines flexibility as ambiguous and ill defined
concept. Flexibility tends to concentrate on the ideas of numerical and functional flexibility as
well as their implications of adapting one. According to the other, functional flexibility in the
organization is considered as the ability to respond to the changes in the external and internal
business environment by having multi skilled and adaptable employees (Noe et al. 2017). On the
other hand, numerical flexibility is the ability of the business organization to differ from the
quantity of work employed from the changes in the business needs and requirements. According
to different perspectives, the numerical and functional flexibility are complementary and
alternative to each other (Giltinane 2013). In this article, the author has focused on job focused
approach forexternalizing employment relationship and relates it with the desire of the employer
to be flexible by adjusting with the market demand. The author has describes different
approaches that can be adopted by the management to ensure flexibility. The author further states

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that numerical flexibility in the organization plays a crucial role as the organizations depend on
the marketing conditions (Canales 2013). Moreover, the human resource management must
ensure that the working environment for the employees is flexibility so as to attain employee
willingness and ensure greater productivity.
References
Canales, R., 2013. Weaving straw into gold: Managing organizational tensions between
standardization and flexibility in microfinance. Organization Science, 25(1), pp.1-28.
Giltinane, C.L., 2013. Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard, 27(41).
Harrigan, K. R. 1985. Strategic flexibility: A management guide for changing times.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.