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Writer's pictureDr. Karl Larson

Ongoing Trends and Management Values


Elements for Consideration

  • Companies will become flatter, leaner, and more aggressive in the market place.

  • Layers of management and supervision will continue to be eliminated as a way to eliminated overhead expenses.

  • New technology will enable managers and employees at the lowest level to make critical decisions.

  • With flatter organizations there will be fewer opportunities for advancement.

  • No job will be secure…an average person will work in at least ten or more different jobs and in different companies before retirement.

  • Employees will be required to buy into the company culture and values or be asked to leave.

  • Competitive demands on business will result in lots of pressure for improved financial performance.

  • Mindset change involving flexibility, creativity and innovation will become more important for success.

  • Most valued workers will be those who can be flexible are multi- skilled and can work a number of different functional jobs.

  • Employees who want to succeed will need the skill to analyze data, draw conclusions and present recommendations. Computer literacy and knowledge of statistics will be critical to survive.

  • Prerogatives of status such as executive dining rooms and private parking spaces will go away but if they are continued will be based on performance.

  • Praise and token rewards will be used to reinforce results and behaviors of importance to the company.

  • The sharing of internal information will be important to maintain performance and technology will this sharing happen in a quality way.

  • Feedback on individual performance at all levels will be critical for the success of the company’s business.

  • Employees will be disciplined for poor performance not only by their managers but also by their peer group. Peer pressure will result in changes in pay practices.

  • Teamwork will be reinforced vs. individual performance in many companies and rewarded accordingly.

  • Companies will stop the growth in base compensation or lessen it considerably. Emphasis will be on incentive pay tied to group or company performance.

  • Many organizations will move away from managerial control and layers of management and supervision to employee self-control.

  • Continuous learning will become commonplace to create a more flexible work force especially as old jobs are replaced by technology and changes in customer demands, as well as how people want to work flexible hours and at home.

Evolving Company Management Values

  • Away from viewing employees as being lazy and untrustworthy towards seeing them as being motivated towards personal and social ends.

  • The value of providing positive feedback and encouragement to the employee during the performance review.

  • Moving away from fearing individual differences towards accepting and utilizing them, valuing diversity is OK…involving race, religion, personal values and personality.

  • Away from viewing the individual as a job description realizing that the employee has more to contribute as an untapped resource with additional skills and interests.

  • Moving towards allowing employees to express his feelings realizing that face-to-confrontation is healthy and can be very constructive.

  • Moving away from game playing with authentic behavior. The fact that I don’t trust you is out on the table is only then can it be dealt with in an effective way.

  • Away from the use of status…. titles or to obtain permission from ones boss to consult another one on an internal problem. Open communication is encouraged. Those who can help regarding knowledge, experience and expertise are sought out to help with the problem.

  • Moving away from distrusting employees towards trusting them, “Distrust begets distrust”.

  • Valuing prudent risk taking. It takes courage on the part of the company to foster risk taking behavior and allowing employees to fail.

  • Away from setting up competitive work environments towards more emphasis on collaboration.

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