Being a great manager is a legitimate skill, and not everybody is well-suited to this type of leadership position. In business, companies can make and lose millions of dollars in the blink of an eye, because the business climate can be volatile. In order to keep a company running and maintaining prime output, they must deal with many factors such as ever changing technology, an aging workforce, globalization, the economic fluctuation, and a much more demanding consumer base. This paper will look at the typical challenges a good manager must face on a daily basis.
Technological advancements are changing the way companies are managed and are affecting large corporations such as Walmart to small "Mom and Pop" operations.(Dessler, 2001). In the 1980's, companies used fax machines to receive and send orders. In the 1990's, companies upgraded and switched over to computers to facilitate and expedite operations, speeding up the business process - errors have decreased and the speed of operations has increased (Dessler, 2001). The Internet has revamped the way many companies conduct business by allowing the use of viral marketing to build a new client bas. Managers must be familiar in the technology useful to their industry in order to succeed.
Another challenge that managers face is an aging workforce. Due to declining birthrates, the number of people who considered of working age will naturally lessen. The average age of the workforce will rise, together with the level of education. Senior citizens will make up a large percentage of the population, limiting the pool of potential employees for a manager. Many managers will have to accommodate young employees needing a work-life balance (i.e. having to provide and care for elderly parents as well as supporting their families). .
Globalization is a new challenge that most managers of the past did not have to deal with. Globalization is an extension of the firms sales or manufacturing to a new market abroad (Dessler, 2001).