Management

Management

Introduction

"Management practice is characterized by power; the ability to influence others'behaviour. By virtue of the power that managers hold, the variations inorganizational design, relations between managers and employees, and HRMpractices will be largely shaped by senior management." (Bratton and Gold, 1999, p.33.)Management is being able to get people to accomplish goals together. (Autry,1991). Business only exists among people for people, so having good managers isas important as having good employees. In this essay I will discuss the relationshipbetween managers and their employees. Specifically the power relationshipinvolved.Body:The power managers have over their employees is actually an illusion. What theyhave instead is authority over their staff. Authority is the ability to influence othersnot the power to force someone to do something against their will. The only powera manager has is the willingness and commitment of their employees to carry outtheir goals and vision. Unfortunately most employees feel their managers havepower over them because they have the ability to hire and fire as well as the say inwho gets a promotion.Managers have been considered to be the boss who sits behind a desk all daypushing paperwork and not engaging with the staff. They are there to monitoroffice hours, dress codes, lunch breaks and coffee breaks by their employees,which results in official warnings or docked pay. This is a constant cause ofconflict between management and staff. It also forces the manager into a positionof distrust. For a good working relationship to exist between staff and management,there needs to be trust and honesty. There also needs to be a change in the waystaff issues are dealt with, instead of punishment, there needs to be reward systemsin place such as appraisals and bonus payments. Encourage the staff to want to dotheir best and achieve the desired outcomes on their own without the fear ofreprisals.Good staff are a company's greatest assest. As good people become a company'smost valuable asset, the company must manage them just as skillfully as it does itsphysical and financial assets. (Cairncross, 2002).For this reason, managers must pay special attention to their employees and whattheir expectations for the job are. If their expectations are not met, they willbecome despondant and their work will suffer. A happy employee is a goodemployee. This may be an old addage but a truer word has not been spoken.Empowering the employee by making the work more personally important andgetting the employee to commit to a goal or task involves getting ...