The aim of the current research is to determine the main topicalities and necessary changes in the manager's professiogram in the 21st century. Managers should change their old 20th century attitude (mainly oriented on goals, structural resources) and transform themselves to humanoriented leaders.
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Isbn 978-9955!18!355-6 Modelling the European Future: Integrating the Old And
The aim of the current research is to determine the main topicalities and necessary changes in the manager's professiogram in the 21st century. Managers should change their old 20th century attitude (mainly oriented on goals, structural resources) and transform themselves to humanoriented leaders.
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The aim of the current research is to determine the main topicalities and necessary changes in the manager's professiogram in the 21st century. Managers should change their old 20th century attitude (mainly oriented on goals, structural resources) and transform themselves to humanoriented leaders.
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INTEGRATING THE OLD AND THE NEW 2008, Vol 4, 291-296 Vizma Kūlupa, Aivars Strautnieks Latvia University of Agriculture (Latvia) THE CHANGES AND CHALLENGES OF A MANAGER’S PROFESSIOGRAM IN THE 21ST CENTURY Abstract. The paper expounds the results of a theoretical research about changes in the manager’s professiogram (skills, traits, professional attitude, knowledge, behaviour) in the 21st century. The aim of the current research is to determine the main topicalities and necessary changes in the manager’s professiogram in the 21st century. Latest tendencies in world’s society define human resources as the most important and valuable resources in order to provide sustainable effectiveness in enterprises. Managers should change their old 20th century attitude (mainly oriented on goals, structural resources) and transform themselves to human- oriented leaders. Under conditions of fast changes, the manager’s professiogram has to integrate into itself leader’s traits and functions. In order to transform oneself to a manager – leader, the current manager’s professiogram has to be supplemented or a proportion of current traits in it has to be increased with the following ones: skills and knowledge in mutual relations, emotional intelligence, an ability to inspire oneself and others, an ability to cognize oneself. KEY WORDS: leadership skills, competencies of manager, leader. Introduction Several factors impact the content of features required for professional duties of a manager, including both specifics of the organisation’s internal environment and changes in its external environment. The external environment of a 21st century organisation is characterised by the terms like globalisation and fast changes which explicitly impact the organisation’s internal environment - organisation’s resources, organisation’s culture and the manager’s working style. If moving from the industrial paradigm to a post-industrial one, one has to understand that in the 21st century completely another approach is required for managing human resources and human capital unlike it was in the 20th century for managing industrial workers. In the 20th century any human was managed as a physiological creature, in the 21st century we talk about managing human resources and human capital. The largest attention was paid to the role of science and practise in the 21st century as structural (material, financial, time) factor management was of primary importance. In the 21st century, the management of activating factors (humans) is of primary importance, along with the importance of science and practice, dictates a need for recognising management as an art, too. Changes make it necessary to review, perfect and develop new skills, knowledge, behaviour and attitude which are required for professional performance of a manager. In her previous publications, Kūlupa V. has justified and developed a definition for the features required for manager’s professional performance. A professiogram is the totality of skills, capabilities, knowledge, person’s traits, behaviour and attitude used in the working process. The characterisation of a manager’s professiogram was a central topic in many studies since the beginning of the first half of the 20th century when so called “The Great People Theory” emerged, which said that person’s traits determine the manager’s efficiency, as well as in the concepts of managerial behaviour in 1950ies and later in the theories of situative approach and transformation. Considering the fast changes in the organisation’s external environment and their influence on the specifics of the organisation’s internal environment, new approaches were developed over the recent 5-10 years. Yet in practice, both in a real management process and, in most cases, in training courses related to management, the approaches and theories developed for organisations of the industrial period are still used. The research authors, considering the importance and impact of the newest studies in this field on organisation’s competitiveness, have set the aim: to determine the main topicalities and necessary changes in the 21st century’s manager’s professiogram. The following tasks have been set to achieve the aim: To discuss theoretically the content of the 21st century manager’s professiogram and its topicality in Latvian and foreign studies and publications. To determine and characterise the accordance of elements included in the manager’s professiogram of Latvian enterprises with basic concepts of 21st century’s theories from the point of view of employees. V. Kūlupa, A. Strautnieks / MODELLING THE EUROPEAN FUTURE: INTEGRATING THE OLD AND THE NEW – 2008, Vol 4, 291-296 292 Object of research: Latvian and foreign studies, publications, theoretical conclusions on the content of manager’s professiogram in the 21st century. Materials and methods To carry out the research, the authors have chosen the monographic research method, surveying and mathematical statistics. Publications of leading American and European researchers on the problem of the nature of managers in the 21st century were used in the analysis of literature data – J.Eider, J.Koters, D.Goleman, M. Wheatley, R.Goffe, R.Kuran, V.Benis, S.Goshal, E.Shein, J.Maxwell, J.Pfefer, P. Sydanmaanlakka and the Gallup Institute. Unfortunately in Latvia, the publications of the mentioned authors are rarely available; besides, their availability and use opportunities are limited for the Latvian public due to the fact that very few works of these authors have been translated into Latvian, for instance, J.Eider. We have to mention the contribution and efforts of I.Forands in popularising the newest this field studies who introduces readers with the authors of studies in his book “Management Authorities”. At the end of the paper, the authors show a part of not published data from a study carried out by V.Kūlupa in previous years. In the spring of 2006, a study was done on the attitude of employees to the manager’s leadership style. A larger part of the study results (except for the data included in this paper) was published in V.Kūlupa’s paper “Leadership Style in View of Employees of Latvia Small and Middlesized Enterprises “ presented at the International Scientific Conference “Economic Science for Rural development 2007”, volume No.14. By using e-mail, computerised questionnaire forms were sent to randomly selected employees of Latvian small and medium enterprises. As a result, 127 completed and valid for data processing questionnaire forms were received from about 30 enterprises. Characteristics of the respondents: Gender: males 52%, females 48% Age: 21-57 Education: secondary or secondary professional 46%, higher 52%, other 2%. Mathematical statistics was applied for processing research data. Results and discussion 21st century’s organisations are influenced by eight forces that tend to increase their influence and cause changes and dominate in the present world of business. According to M.Marguardt’s concept, they are as follows: 1. Globalisation and the global economy 2. Computer technologies (including information distribution technologies, the Internet) 3. Radical changes in the labour market 4. Increase in consumer demand and power 5. Knowledge and education as the most important value of organisations and the state, property 6. New roles of employees and expectations 7. Biotechnologies 8. A pace of change (Marguardt, 2000) According to M.Wheatley, if over the next ten years the way of managing business is not changed, it might be ruined. Any management has to admit that they alone are not able to control an organisation, and they have to be ready to cooperate with others as no progress can be achieved without support and involvement of employees (Wheatley, 2004). T.Stewart also believes that the time of modern corporations as well as that of modern art is over; it has to be replaced by an entirely different approach in management that is appropriate for post-modern cooperation. The main difference is that an enterprise’s management have to define what a labour force is. It is much more correct and efficient to view employees in a new way – not as resources, but as investors. Co-owners invest funds in enterprises while employees invest their time, energy and intelligence (Stewart, 2001). The sustainability of an enterprise will be based on its employees and their human capital invested in it. Besides, the development of an enterprise is not imaginable without a wish of employees to cooperate in the time of innovation and change by offering their skills, knowledge and experience to the enterprise (Mourbourgne, 2001). Therefore, it is necessary to create an approach in management that pays the main attention to human resources and enterprise’s abilities to attract, retain and use efficiently emV. Kūlupa, A. Strautnieks / MODELLING THE EUROPEAN FUTURE: INTEGRATING THE OLD AND THE NEW – 2008, Vol 4, 291-296 293 ployees, including development of their human capital. Considering the fact that the head of an enterprise is the key person responsible for implementing all managerial functions, these necessary changes will affect primarily his or her professiogram. The head has to be able to answer just a single question: Why the world’s best employees would like to work right in this organisation? (Leider, 2002). This is a question that will most obviously become a serious challenge to many Latvian managers, besides; the first symptoms in some sectors of the economy can be observed already now. In 1990ies, potential employees were those who looked for a job, actually not raising any claims and setting any conditions to a potential employer or organisation. The present situation in Latvia is vice verse – enterprises are forced to look for various alternative solutions in attracting and retaining their personnel in necessary number and quality. K.Nowack characterises changes in the business environment in the USA in a similar way. Before enterprises played a role of buyers, which just had to choose and take, to buy the most appropriate talent. In the modern global economy, enterprises have to compete, make an effort to find, attract, develop and retain talented employees. In some way enterprises are clients to whom employees voluntarily decide to sell or not to sell their talents. Often employees sell their talents to many enterprises (Nowack, 2006). If no unpredictable and radical changes take place in the processes impacting the current labour market then, considering the present tendencies, managers would have to accept and admit a need for reviewing and changing their approach in management. In Japanese management, the head is advised to pay the main attention not to work, but to the employee. After a delay of half century, the need for introducing this approach is increasingly popularised and emphasised in the newest American and European studies. In many of them a key idea is that employee’s satisfaction, loyalty to the organisation and his or her working efficiency is mostly dependent on mutual relations and interaction with organisation’s leaders (Eisenberger, R., Stinglhamber, F, Vandenberghe, C.; Sucharski, L., Rhoades, L., 2002; Ribelin 2003). The most important is to understand that the need for change in the professiogram is the same for all level managers, not just, for instance, for the higher one. A study on the most significant elements for an organisation in attracting and, what is most important, in retaining the best employees, conducted by the Gallup Institute in 1998, revealed that one of the determining factors for employee’s satisfaction with the job and the working environment is his or her immediate manager. According to I.Forands, the research authors affirm that employees leave their immediate manager, not the enterprise (Forands, 2007). A similar tendency was found in studies carried out by the Career Systems International in 2005. One fourth or 25% of 7500 respondents admitted that the most essential reason for staying at a particular workplace was “supportive, good manager” (Nowack, 2006). The newest studies reveal variations for a manager’s professiogram oriented toward human resources and human capital. The authors of studies at the Gallup Institute conclude that the manager must consistently define what is expected from each employee, but at the same time each employee has to be treated differently. Make employees feel that they are at the right place where they can use their talents and at the same time stimulate their professional development. The manager has to be interested in each employee, praise employees and, if necessary, the manager has to be able to lay employees off even if they were praised and interesting to the leader before (Forands, 2007). So, the leader has to possess communication, contact and general skills and abilities. Or according to R.Kaca – skills and knowledge of mutual relations, which includes an ability to work with individuals, conversations, meetings, motivation (Praude, Beļčikovs, 2003). It means to the whole organisation that its leadership structure has to be developed in a way that the manager would be able to have individual contacts of sufficient quantity and quality with his or her subordinate employees. Two solutions exist: whether to improve the skills and knowledge of mutual relations of higher-level managers or to employ more lower-level managers, thus, the number of subordinate employees per manager is reduced. An optimal solution is to try to improve the existing skills and knowledge and the motivation to use them. It has to be concluded that the content of bibliographical sources used most often for educating management specialists has to be reviewed, and more attention has to be paid to theories relating to manager’s professiograms. For example, R.Kaca’s approach explaining how important is that three-level skills and knowledge are in accordance with the level of management. Quite often, when expounding the Kaca theory (e.g., Praude, Beļčikovs), it is assumed that lower-level managers mostly need technical skills and knowledge, and the great importance of mutual relations for this level managers is not stressed. In the same way, conceptual and analytical skills and knowledge are emphasised for higher-level managers. However, according to the newest studies on the influence of an immediate manager on his or her subordinate employees, one has to realise that each level managers have subordiV. Kūlupa, A. Strautnieks / MODELLING THE EUROPEAN FUTURE: INTEGRATING THE OLD AND THE NEW – 2008, Vol 4, 291-296 294 nate employees and, therefore, all-level managers have to develop their skills and knowledge of mutual relations to an equal level. Goshal stresses that the basic function of a manager is the mobilisation of human capital under modern competition conditions for organisations. In addition to knowledge provided by human capital, also social capital and emotional capital (an ability and wish to cooperate) have to be taken into account (Forands, 2007). In a similar way the basic function of managers is defined by Sydanmaanlakka in his study in 2003 – it is an ability to motivate and convince employees driven by their own and voluntary wishes to work continuously for the benefit of an organisation. The manager has to see not only two employee’s hands, but the whole employee’s personality (Sydanmaanlakka, 2003). In a publication in 1960, French and Raven have pointed in their classification of five types of power that employees cooperate in the best way in case of referent power which is related to a personality and his or her charisma (French, Raven, 1960). However, only during the last two decades of the 20th century leadership theories started developing. In Latvia, too, in spite of many errors in translations causing confusion with terms, the difference between the manager and the leader, the key features and functions characterising them have been defined. Besides, in order not to regard these terms as synonyms, an idea is emphasised that not every manager is a leader and not every leader can be a manager. V.Kūlupa in her Ph.D. paper has extended a definition of manager by V.Praude and J.Beļčikovs, stating that a manager is an officially elected, appointed or authorised person in an organisation who makes decisions as a responsible executive to achieve organisation’s goals by planning, organising, motivating and controlling all resources. However, a leader is an individual who is able to influence individuals or a group of them to achieve goals collectively without using coercion or other formal methods of power (Forands, 2007; Wright, 1996). Thus, in case of leader, personality’s power, sometimes expert’s power is applied. With the role of skills and knowledge of mutual relations becoming more important in manager’s work, more often a new point of view is introduced in research. The terms “manager” and “leader”, viewed before separately, are conditionally integrated into one model or hybrid “manager-leader”. In an international conference in 2005, J.Kotera admitted that the only way for maintaining the competitiveness of an organisation during a period of rapid changes and economic growth is an ability of the manager to combine in himself or herself both leader’s and manager’s functions. Kotera points that more and more often the manager has to help employees to understand their given tasks, to be interested in these tasks, to convince employees of a need for changes and overcoming them. The more the surrounding environment changes, the larger demand is for leaders who can help individuals adapt themselves to the restless, unpredictable surrounding world (Forands, 2007). In the beginning of 1990ies V.Bennis also developed an idea about competencies required for the manager who guides an organisation through changes to a goal, i.e., an ability to inspire others to accept manager’s ideas as their own; an ability to be a mediator, a helper and a signpost between the presence and the past; an ability to achieve unity and trust between him or her and his or her followers, to form a team; self-guidance (cognition, development, motivation, purposefulness) (Беннис, 2006). Bennis used a term “social architect” to describe these competencies (Forands, 2006). J.Eider is one of the founders of an idea about the role of leaderism in manager’s work; he regarded leadership as a skill that can be learned, but not just a phenomenon that is inherited (Eider, 2007, 2008). It enables any manager to develop particular skills and abilities in himself or herself, especially in relation to mutual relations, contact and communication skills, by breaking stereotypes and preconceptions about leadership as an inherited talent (“given by God”) and a privileged advantage for a limited number of managers. The newest studies offer numerous solutions for developing and integrating necessary leadership traits in manager’s work. Sydanmaanlakka in his book “Intelligent leadership” has developed a model of six leadership styles with an idea that an individual has to become a leader for himself or herself and only after that – for others (Sydanmaanlakka, 2003). R.Goffe with co-authors point that a primary characteristic in a manager-leader’s professiogram, which makes employees voluntarily follow their manager in order to reach a goal, is “genuineness” (Goffe, 2000). The principal emphasis was placed on manager’s roles in the last century (Goffe, 2000) which have to be played irrespective of personal traits, whereas Goffe stresses that “genuineness” cannot be imitated. Therefore, the manager has to cognise himself or herself, his or her traits and, when playing the necessary role, use only his or her genuine traits (Forands, 2007). D.Goleman regards “a self-critical leader who praises others” as a key of success for a 21st century’s manager. The manager has to convince others of being just one of employees, and there is nothing superhuman. According to Goleman, a good manager is efficient because he or she causes resonance. V. Kūlupa, A. Strautnieks / MODELLING THE EUROPEAN FUTURE: INTEGRATING THE OLD AND THE NEW – 2008, Vol 4, 291-296 295 Goleman believes that an efficient manager is harmonised (or like a musical instrument is tuned) with other people feelings and, thus, leads them in a direction of positive emotions. Such a manager talks authentically about his or her own values, priorities and orientation toward a goal and resonates with emotions of other individuals. Under guidance of such an efficient leader, employees feel mutual comfort. Goleman believes that an ability to induce resonance is naturally inherited by those people who are endowed with high emotional intelligence (self-confidence, self-guidance, social responsibility, guidance of relations), including general intelligence aspects as well. Resonance can be induced in six ways, and it allows us to classify six management styles which have to be applied depending on a situation (Goleman, 2002). Initially in studies related to leaderism a charismatic leader was emphasised, but presently, according to Forands, a leader being able to inspire is the most efficient for organisation’s performance. They are less showy and striking, maybe a bit more introvert in behaviour relative to the first type of leader, but they possess sometimes even nonverbal abilities to inspire. A charismatic leader receives energy from his or her followers, whereas an inspiring leader gives energy to the followers, so that they can redistribute and boost it and move toward a goal themselves. A charismatic leader is on the top of pyramid, whereas an inspiring leader is in the middle of the team’s network, allowing any team member to receive energy from the leader and return energy back to the common network (Forands, 2007). Like in Goleman’s or Goffe’s studies, it implies that the leader learns to inspire others through his or her own examples of performance. Inspiration and enthusiasm not only by words, but also deeds, real ardour and full conviction is required to achieve the goal. V.Kūlupa in her study in the spring of 2006 ascertained that Latvian employees perceive their bosses in three categories: “manager-lord”, “manager-supervisor” and “manager- master”. It was proved that 79% of the employed working for a “manager-master” were convinced that the influence of manager’s professional performance on their work quality is “positive” or “more positive than negative” (Kūlupa, 2007). This type of manager possesses a great deal of traits of an inspiring leader, e.g., care of subordinate employees, both employs and rewards, free communication with subordinate employees, human resources and the manager’s own work process is of primary concern, makes others enthusiastic with a personality and professionalism. Everything new is well-forgotten old. Historically one of the work organisation forms was joint work. According to ancient essays, the master or, in case he is physically disabled, his authorised person was the one who reaped crops in the front of others without looking back, calling on others with singing and his enthusiasm to follow his example. Why there are so many folk songs in Latvian folklore about work as the idea of life and a life’s calling? Folk songs were sung most often while working in order to convince oneself and others of the importance of reaching a goal and of an internal wish not to resist the working process. A folk song says: “It was fun to work where masters are joyful; they were busy like bees around their reapers” (Endzelīns, 1932). Along with the basic problems about the application of management styles in Latvian enterprises, the respondents were also questioned about the types of power their immanent managers use. The classification of types of power by J.French and B.Raven (French, 1960) was used for working out response options in the survey questionnaire, which included the following types of power: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent (charismatic). The respondents were asked about a style of power their manager applies most often to make subordinates to fulfil a task. The responses were as follows: 34% of respondents believe their manager most often uses coercive power, 27% - reward power, 26% - legitimate power and 8% - expert power. Only 5% mentioned referent or charismatic power. It shows how relatively small proportion of surveyed managers presently applies the best type of power for a “manager-leader” that is oriented toward human resources. Conclusions and Recommendations 1. Under conditions of fast changes, the manager’s professiogram has to integrate into itself leader’s traits and functions. 2. In order to transform oneself to a manager – leader, the current manager’s professiogram has to be supplemented or a proportion of current traits in it has to be increased with the following ones: skills and knowledge in mutual relations (communication, contacts) emotional intelligence (self-confidence, independence, empathy, social responsibility, elasticity, tolerance against stress, impulse control, optimism, an ability to resonate, an ability to express own emotions adequately) V. Kūlupa, A. Strautnieks / MODELLING THE EUROPEAN FUTURE: INTEGRATING THE OLD AND THE NEW – 2008, Vol 4, 291-296 296 an ability to inspire and motivate oneself and others, an ability to cognize oneself. 3. According to the respondents, only 5% of managers apply referent and 8% - expert power, which would fit the nature of a “manager-leader”. 4. 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