Surprises in JA1 and JA2 - Assignment Example

Task Surprises in JA1 Since the mid 20th century, the status of management and managers has seen a dramatic growth, although, of late it is in serious decline due to a number of factors. The article “Management: The Work That Dares Not Speak Its Name,” explores this decline in status of management and the designation of manager by particularly discussing managers who avoid being describes as managers. The argument in the article entails the exploration of the overuse and derogatory connotations of the word manager in today’s management business world. This argument is rooted on the nature of bureaucracy and its inflexibility, both of which have become synonymous with managerial work (Brocklehurst, Grey & Sturdy, 2010). According to the authors of this article, in order to avoid the negative connotation that have become associated with the title ‘manager,’ they have resorted to titles like professional, entrepreneur or project leader. The author not only expresses strong feelings about the behavior of managers but also condemns it, thereby calling for changes to be made on the responsibilities that go with this title. The way every context that the authors looks at the title is simple spellbinding, which therefore calls for serious research and analysis on management as a discipline in order to correct the situation (Brocklehurst, Grey and Sturdy, 2010). Surprises in JA2 Academicians and intellectuals in our business school are increasingly joining the chorus of castigating and condemning management practices which is a complete departure from the initial support that they exhibited on the management practice as we know it today. This article explores managers’ obsession with the so-called intellectual slavery with roots in explicit ideas that senior personnel in organization acquired in their respective business schools. According to the authors, the MBA has become a means of acquiring appropriate ways of management to gain self confidence for legitimate social privileges in senior management (Sturdy, Brocklehurst, Winstanley, et al, 2006). They are taught that managers cannot be trusted hence should maximize shareholder’ wealth in order to reconcile their interest and that of their employers (shareholder) as a way of overcoming the agency problems. This is particularly evident in cases where opportunities for application of management practices in organization are viewed as inappropriate within organizations. Therefore, tight monitoring should be an appropriate strategy of preventing people from pursuing opportunistic behavior at the expense of practices that are of the common good to the organization. It is in the context of this disparity that a regulatory framework should be devised as a mean of safeguarding the interests of the suppliers, customers, employees and most importantly, shareholder. The article however, points out the need to explore academic knowledge beyond that of transforming ideas of the discursive content to identify towards ideas associated with effective work .I suggest business school should provide moral theories inspired to free them from immoral responsibility by ensuring centrally based education in the organization. The evidence In both articles, authors defend their work by use of books, journals, web pages and research and study institution. According to Sturdy, Brocklehurst, Winstanley, et al (2006), there is more concern on the de-legitimization of a company as institutions and management as a profession. This will be brought about partly by the acceptance of these thoughts when ignored as vital elements of management. Several scholars have recently voiced their concern about the current state of management research and pedagogy. While training people on organization design focusing on transaction cost economics, it is imperative for trainers to ensure that there is firm monitoring as well as control of people so as to curb opportunistic behavior (Brocklehurst, Grey & Sturdy, 2010). Comparison The term management generally refers to personnel with the temperament, techniques and skills to organize, motivate and direct actions, ideas and practices towards achieving goals and success of organization sector. Management and administration go hand in hand and it’s possible to mistake the two terms for each other, however distinct differences are highly witnessed. To manage generally refers to the act of conduct by use of all resources at a person’s disposal to ensure smooth working while administration is only one of these actions. There are two types of management namely; public and private management. The two involve similar temperaments, skills, techniques, ideas and practices relating to corporate success but for public management, it involves solving issues of public sector while private sector manages to meet its own managerial needs. Therefore, from structural perspective they are different, which therefore means that public management requires access to more sources of knowledge to meet needs of various populations in the public sector. Therefore, management is a broad term that requires good scrutiny according to various sources of information to bring out clean understanding of the term to all levels of population. Analysis The theme management according to the two sources JA1 and JA2 above clearly express the attitude of writers towards managers and management sector. Both writers tend to condemn the evil, egocentric, selfish, corrupt, powerful and immoral behavior of most managers. Brocklehurst, Grey & Sturdy (2010) state that managers overuse the term “manager” and avoid being referred to as managers. Instead they find justification by using self descriptions terms such as project leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals. The two articles also describe management and manager’s role to have fluctuated over years and gives remedy to overcome the current situation through education and learning, by propagating for moral theories in schools to bring a sense of moral responsibility to future managers. However, the two articles show some contrast. While Brocklehurst, Grey & Sturdy (2010) only condemns and give remedial action to take while Sturdy, Brocklehurst & Winstanley et al. (2006) goes further to describe how managers have acquired their evil behavior. According to Sturdy, Brocklehurst & Winstanley et al, (2006), schools are sources of the opportunistic behavior that later-day managers have been exhibiting. Courses on agency theory taught students that managers cannot be trusted to their jobs hence need to maximize shareholder value to venture managers interests making stock options a better part of their pay. Brocklehurst, Grey & Sturdy (2010) use their own words by expressing strong feelings to condemn managers while Sturdy, Brocklehurst, Winstanley, et al. (2006) simply uses quoted words to bring out the whole notion of condemnation. Conclusion Management is essential for prosperity in every institution both public and private and therefore skilled professional managers are required in every managerial setting. This will ensure smooth running of the sector to yield recommendable output of great success and economic development. The article brings out the bad behavior portrayed by our managers which requires immediate action to correct since in order to progress as organizations, good managers are required. Therefore, well-thought-out and strict laws should be set to guard against such un-toward behaviors of managers as well as quality training for managers as well. Schools providing management courses should have set standards to meet if they are to produce qualified managers to the corporate world. Similarly, before employment, manager’s scrutiny should be done to in order to ensure that the one who gets the job is a perfect manager who has also never been involved in any scandals of evil behavior and practices. Nevertheless, retrenchment of all old managers should be done and the employment of fresh managers instituted to stem the current situation of uncertainty. Last but not least, no one is perfect and man is to error but good professional responsibilities should be upheld in every institution. Reference: Brocklehurst C., Grey, M., & Sturdy, A., 2010, Management: The Work That Dares Not Speak Its Name, Management Learning, vol. 41(1), pp. 7-19. Sturdy A., Brocklehurst M., Winstanley, D., et al, 2006, Management as a self confidence Trick: Management Ideas, Education and Identity Work, Organization, Vol (13), pp.841- 860. Read More