Management denotes a process of doing things via individuals, by means of their participation. It entails planning and direction of efforts, together with the organization and application of material as well as human resources, for achieving preset goals. One can determine administrative functions in the overall management context. Actually implementing everyday business decisions and strategies necessitates the application of certain admin actions which might be allocated by management to administrative or executive officers. Management responsibilities might also extend to cover, besides overall organizational running, exclusively administrative tasks. Corporate departmental leaders’ regular day at the office may incorporate a blend of generic management duties and comprehensive administrative tasks (Liebler and McConnell, 2016).

Societal recognition of the managerial role’s salience is associated with the encountering of progressively greater expectations and challenges. Hence, the challenges managers are confronted with in the present day (and which they will confront even in the near future) reflect the unpredictability and swift changes occurring in the current era of the corporate environment. A majority of companies have endured and enjoyed success owing to their managerial staff’s outstanding organizational capability. Therefore, executives who look carefully into and constantly monitor management challenges and problems will be able to most positively impact their firm. On the other hand, corporations housing a defiant and unskilled workforce unready and incompetent when it comes to tackling such problems and challenges will end up losing their market share to rivals and being forced to close down (Ngige, 2014).

Sound management has immense positive effects with regard to tackling corporate challenges. Modern-day companies are forced to handle innumerable radical changes, trials and forces. Management responsibilities have expanded to integrate the improvement of resource productivity, direction of resources towards where desired outcomes can be achieved, remaining progressive and addressing change, particularly technological and product related transformation, providing adequate motivation to unsatisfied personnel and knowledge workers, paying attention to global competition, etc. Such challenges have transformed the corporate playing field. Specifically, modern-day challenges have drastically enhanced companies’ need for maintaining flexibility and responsiveness, and developing competences to respond swiftly and compete well within the international market (Ngige, 2014).

Present-day and imminent management challenges will revolve around the improvement of resource productivity. Liberal capitalists of the 19th century held that resources could be self-developed and apportioned automatically. Socialists of the same era and the last century’s communists held that resource development was a systemic activity, somewhat similar to the earlier belief. Contemporary experts, however, know better. Management creates and apportions resources, and is accountable for what results they yield. Thus, the most salient duty and objective of the managerial role is productivity (Ngige, 2014).

Further, clearly, resources (especially the main corporate resources, namely, funds and labor) are man-made, rather than natural. While humans aren’t resources per se, they do come under the category of resources after receiving appropriate training, developing capabilities, and being assigned productive tasks. This represents the management function’s chief challenge. It is of particular significance within emerging economies. The key characteristic of emerging economies is the fact that they face a great shortage of efficient, skilled and productive workers. Hence, the transformation of humans from mere individuals into productive human resource, entailing the activities of individual training, development, allocation and management, constitutes one among the pivotal management issues within developing economies (Ngige, 2014).

However, from several standpoints, capital has been accorded much greater importance as compared to labor, particularly within the context of emerging economies. Further, capital or funding may be acquired only if one provides a surplus amount from current production over current expenses, in the absence of which capital formation is not possible. Formation of capital might prove to be a critical element in emergent economies’ progress, and in industrialized economies’ ongoing affluence (Ngige, 2014).

The corporate environment of the near future will work on the principle of recurrent change. In other words, the current turbulent corporate environment will become ever more turbulent with time. Turbulent corporate climates may be defined as those that are dynamic, growing, volatile, and variable. In such a setting, firms commonly receive conflicting information. Managers are only able to make “guesstimates” when it comes to the long term; erratic environmental changes also implies unexpected, swift obsolescence. In such a climate, the capacity of careful risk-taking despite uncertainties is essential. In this regard, rapid technological advances, political instability and key resource shortages in some countries are examples of the kinds of changes that are likely to occur more frequently in the future. Thus managers and management of today and tomorrow must develop strategies of staying ahead of change and for coping with change (Ngige, 2014).

Management of worker productivity entails being accountable for labor cost investment returns optimization, in the same way that other functions are accountable for their tasks. Certain human resources personnel claim the management should be charged with enhancing productivity, but one can safely presume that they aren’t specialists in this regard and lack sufficient knowledge on doing so. HR managers of corporations seeking a chance at key strategic impact ought to take into account establishing an in-house productivity consultant unit which offers superior quality guidance akin to that offered by BCG or McKinsey (with the added advantage of being more familiar with the firm’s culture, issues and opportunities) (Sullivan, 2016).

In a majority of instances, improvement in one of the two elements discussed below brings about improvements in the other. Decreased cash-cash cycle time implies lesser time taken for inventory to reach clients. This successively implies the need for less available inventory for fulfilling demands. Therefore, effective tackling of one problem usually ensures effective tackling of the other. Further, organizations may seek internal opportunities. Innumerable means exist for freeing up production process- connected working capital. A chief means of achieving this would be by ensuring modularity in the firm’s offerings. The development of modular products helps the organization fulfil market demands whilst simultaneously bearing lesser inventory. This is accomplished through the development of a base item and presenting minor design variations; the finished product may be completed after order placement on the client’s part. Thus, cash-cash cycle time is lessened owing to the reduction in the quantity of complex goods required for manufacturing articles and allowing production completion in units situated nearer to clients (River Logic, 2016).

Organizations must grasp rivals’ ambitions and objectives for surviving within the marketplace. While American organizations set great store by shareholder value, the Japanese give importance to market share. The next step is comprehending rivals’ shortcomings and fortes. General Motors, for instance, enjoys extensive reach within America; however, it falls short in the area of quality; Toyota, on the other hand, delivers quality products but lacks a wide dealer network. Moreover, a corporation needs to pay particular attention to the operational patterns of rivals, including rival actions to cope with challenges facing their market standing. Intelligence systems are a requisite for the purpose of handling market competition. Organizations must discern parameters that assist with rival analysis. This will be succeeded by collection of data after deciding source and approach. The acquired data must be scrutinized and directed to the right decision-making entity. Since the planning and maintenance of intelligence systems requires cost allocation, certain firms outsource this task to organizations specialized in intelligence collection (MSG Experts, 2015).

References

Liebler, J. G., & McConnell, C. R. (2016). Management principles for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Publishers

MSG Experts. (2015, May 19). MSG Management Study Guide. Retrieved September 18, 2017, from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/competition-strategy.htm

Ngige, C. D. (2014). The Challenges Facing Management Today and Tomorrow. COOU Interdisciplinary Research Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1. Retrieved September 18, 2017, from http://www.coou.edu.ng/journals/

River Logic. (2016, May 20). The River Logic Blog. Retrieved September 18, 2017, from https://blog.riverlogic.com/working-capital-management-two-challenged-how-to-address-them

Sullivan, J., Dr. (2016, September 26). Increasing Employee Productivity: The Strategic Role That HR Essentially Ignores. Retrieved September 18, 2017, from https://www.ere.net/increasing-employee-productivity-the-strategic-role-that-hr-essentially-ignores/