Management Challenges with Ms. Yiling Ge of Donghua University Cip

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1. Autocratic

2. Democratic (consultative & participative)

3. Laissez-faire

As globalization continues to grow and competition in the business world gets bigger, companies are forced to decide how they are going to handle challenges facing management and its functions. Current management practices represent a set of economic, social and political problems of the first order, which cannot be resolved by a single fix. Because of this, managers have to recognize if their businesses are going to lean more toward their customers and/or shareholders in order to remain functional. The purpose of this paper is to identify the differences of those orientations in 5 specific points, observed from the “Tents of Management” and “The Reinvention of Management” and how they can be applied to management of academic staff.

- The firm’s goal

- Role of Managers

- Mode of coordination

- Values Practiced

- Communications

The Firm’s goal

To successfully continue to be relevant, companies have to consider if they are going to structure themselves by growing from inside-out or outside-in. (Denning, 2011) There are two possible scenarios for this: either the company will establish itself from within with a finished idea and then use a management technique to draw customers in by consumer interaction. Or the company will be assembled from outside in by creating itself out of market needs.

Role of managers

Since one of the leading factors of turnover is employment dissatisfaction caused by the negligence of humanity and personal identity in the workplace, managers have to decide how they are going to treat their workers. (Denning, 2011) Enablers allow more comfortable and in theory more creative environments, designed to make the working process interactive. The downside of this is that enablers risk creating anarchy and disorientation. Controllers, however try to keep up productivity by giving specific instructions to each of the workers while keeping strict supervision over them, which can cause stress and employee dissatisfaction.

Mode of coordination

The way managers coordinate the activity of their employees can change depending on market requirements. To maximize efficiency and to make sure the company meets those requirements, managers have to decide if they are going to use command and control to make sure each of those tasks get carried out by a certain individual, or if they are going to organize the workforce in a group oriented way. (Denning, 2011)

Values practiced

Weather the company is going to be more oriented toward its investor or toward its customers, solely depends on the type of business they are doing. Companies that use third party funding in order to operate, like let’s say stock exchange firms or construction companies are more likely to be leaning toward their investors, as they need big capital in order to function. On the other hand, service oriented businesses like hotels, restaurants or even educational institutions tend to be more customer-oriented businesses as they strive off of customer interaction. (Denning, 2011)

Communications

Another thing managers today have to deal with are the ways in which they are going to set up communication with their employees. (Denning, 2011) This communication can be set up in a one-way manner, where the managers direct an order to their employees who then have to obey it and carry out the task. Or it can be set up in a two-way conversation, where employees can have a chance to express their ideas and opinions about the tasks.

Aims

1. Identify the managerial challenges and try to determine solutions for those challenges.

2. Analyze the validity of the concept of “The reinvention of management”.

Methodology

Interview with Ms. Yiling Ge of Donghua University CIP about management challenges, based on the managers experience.

Discussion & Conclusion

Leadership

As the styles of leadership can depend solely on the type of person the manager is, this could also influence their decision-making. In the case of Ms. Yiling Ge of Donghua University CIP, we have determined that her management style is Democratic (consultative) as she is the type of person who greatly benefits from interaction with her employees. Moreover, in her eyes it is better to involve her staff into the decision-making process, as her staff is highly educated and skilled. By doing this, even if a mistake is made, she creates a learning concept for everyone involved.

The Firm’s goal

In order to thrive in the educational industry, Universities have to adjust their programs according to students needs. Because of this, Ms. Yiling Ge’s strategy for improving the quality of Donghua University CIP is to open more courses and make the courses more practical to real world business situations so that they could benefit the student’s future careers. In addition, she also created a career consulting service for the students. Therefor, her strategy validates the shift from outside to inside.

Role of managers

Since Ms. Ge’s decisions affect her academic staff, she has to choose the right approaches for different employees in order to properly motivate them. She thinks that giving too much freedom to her employees can result in a loss of control over them. On the other hand, if she supervises them too closely, it could cause stress for her employees and make them dissatisfied. While managing her employees, she tries to observe her own decisions in order to find out if they were the right ones, and if they were not, she faces them head on and tries to learn from them.

Mode of coordination

In order to achieve the University’s goals, Ms. Ge needs to maximize the efficiency of her staff. She does this by including her staff into the decision-making process. By doing so, she gets more input on different problems, and encourages