Why and how does the world change? What causes all these changes and how they affect our future and present? These and many other similar questions bother so many people day by day, and it turns out to be not very easy to find the proper answers all the time. Changes take place in each sphere of life: politics, science, education, business, religion, etc.
The world of business is one of those spheres, which undergo certain changes at first, and when people entered the new millennium not long time ago, they faced certain challenges like fear of something new and unknown, generation gap between the employees, necessity of communication between employees and their managers, this is why people have to be ready to catch every detail at their working places, process it, and use in accordance with the requirements.
It is impossible to avoid or neglect changes, which are inherent to the sphere of business, this is why it is crucially important for both employers and employees to comprehend why this or that change takes place and what should be done to correspond to new demands. “Change can be friendly for people who embrace it. But in this environment, you’ll have to be alert and move fast to capture the opportunities that change creates” (Bossidy and Charan, 57).
Without any doubts, changes make people worry, be anxious, and even start panicking, so, to cope with any challenge, people should be able to evaluate the situation, even try to help each other, and comprehend that only two things matter for out society – capital and knowledge. Nowadays, capital means a lot for managers, and they try to enlarge it as quickly as possible and have enough reasons to improve it day by day.
Together with the new millennium, new generation of workers comes as well, and managers should find ideas to unite the already working employees with those, who just come. If the managers fail to do so, numerous misunderstandings and miscommunications can happen and spoil the results of the whole work. In fact, “the meaning of work has changed over the centuries” (Smola and Sutton, 363), and any worker should be able to define work values in accordance with current changes and demands.
To my mind, maturity is one of the issues, which are always overestimated. Elder people truly believe that their experience always plays a significant role at work, and new comers with their fresh ideas should disturb them with possible innovations and changes. It is better to provide new generation with a chance to improve work and conditions to evaluate the results and come to conclusion that certain innovations may be rather beneficial and helpful.
Another change that was brought by Millennium is communication that happens between workers and their managers. Lots of sources and investigations prove that employees prefer to communicate with managers by means of their iPods several times per day.
Such frequent communication allows employees to listen to critique, evaluate personal achievements, and get more inspiration for work. This is why managers should be able to help employees by means of “singling out strong performance, steering them toward improvement opportunities and offering plenty of support along the way” (Downs, 29).
In general, the changes in the new millennium should not frighten employees and managers, but encourage them to improve personal skills and work. By means of innovative technologies, abilities to exchange information quicker and safer, people can save their time and spend it on self-improvement and mutual assistance. Only in this case, our society will be ready to any challenge and be able to present successful outcomes of their work in the new millennium.
Works Cited
Bossidy, Larry and Charan, Ram. “What the World Is Changing.” In Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right. Crown Business, 2004: 29-58.
Downs, Kathleen. “Managing Gen Y in Recessionary Times.” Business Credit (Apr. 2009): 28-29.
Smola, Karen, W. and Sutton, Charlotte, D. “Generational Differences: Revisiting Generational Work Values for the New Millennium.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 23 (2002): 363-382.