“How in the World?” is an article written by Stuart Crainer in the Business Strategy Review journal in 2010. Crainer focuses on the emergence of management as a profession and observes how the modern mode of management leads to absurdity of issues. Crainer tries to explain how the current situation in the management profession can be changed to achieve better results in the field. There are various challenges encountered by the managers in meeting their objectives. These challenges include meeting deadlines and ultimatums, boosting the motivation of the employees considering family issues, how to address the firm’s values and principles and advice the stakeholders on the organisation (13).
The main question Crainer is trying to address is what the people know about management. Since the emergence of the civilisation era, management has been widely practised, with the ninetieth century, management emerging as a profession. It has revolved from an unheard, informal and minor role into a routine role that is analysed, recognised, taught, formalised and reviewed now and then. Management has become a driving force of the economy and social life. Every institution and organisations is under the realization of the management and its objectives are within the scope of the management.
Crainer recognizes the work of Peter Drucker who says that management involves more than just business and is equally essential from multinational companies to local government. Drucker states that the emergence of “city managers” in the ninetieth century marked the beginning of management practice in certain jobs. Drucker recognizes that there are differences in management styles depending on an institution’s strategies and objectives, for instance there is a difference between managing a wholesale shop and managing a church although the managers commit the same amount of time and the people’s problems or confessions are almost the same. The distinctiveness is usually in the application and not in missions (Crainer 14).
Crainer concludes that no matter what someone is managing, whether a bank, a church, a blue-chip company or a club, the differences between these contribute to only 10 percent of the individual’s work and the rest is interchangeable. The 10 percent is attributable to the organization’s precise objectives, vision and particular culture. Management can be used to gauge an organization’s achievements both financially and ethically in the industry. Cameron and Green a manager must possess must traits; be visionary, be firm, confident, humble, trustworthy, friendly, and be observant.
Gary Hamel argues that management is spinning wheels in the sludge of upholding the corporate status quo. Managers are not involved in innovation unlike strategists, or marketers and most managers are appointed, trained, and remunerated highly for their influence to achieve more of the same that seems unattainable and efficient. Crainer gives an example of Warren Buffet, the chief of Berkshire Hathaway, who invests in well-managed firms. Warren believes that if good managers are put in the right positions they can build successful businesses.
Crainer explains that management is deal-making, the art of salesmanship, decision making, motivating factor, budget formulating and it is an element of leadership. Crainer assumes that management is something that people just fall into without a calling at all. For instance, someone can land a job in the customer care department and gradually rise to the post of chief executive officer and people are convinced that one is truly a manager. This misconception has led to the wrong definition of management. William McGowan assumes that most managers are human message relays who collect information, pull it together, encrypt it, and hold on to the information, to retain their power. Henry Mintzberg argues that most managers say that they plan, organize, coordinate and control the business operations but in the real sense, they do not even relate to these functions (Crainer 15).
Crainer implies that it is the top manager’s driving philosophy that motivates other employees. For instance, Bill Hewlett, the owner of Hewlett-Packard, says that his pride to nurture a company that by withstanding its practices and missions has impacted tremendously on the mode of managing businesses globally. Management has received criticism from the media trying to pin it down. Crainer relates this to nailing jelly. Management is complex; it does all the strategic work, organizes undertakings, motivates people and does marketing. If management is compromised, this leads to the breakdown of the system and normal operations.
If considerable measures are not taken to manage an organization or a project, it cannot carry on business or operations satisfactorily and is bound to fail in its mission. Poor management leads to a lack of coordination among the various segments of the organization thus operations cannot assume normally.
Management as a profession has been perceived as an absurd thing. Unlike other professionals like doctors, lawyers, engineers and others who must be certified and reapproved for their jobs so that they can be certain of the standards of the profession, managers do not necessarily go through the formal routine as professionals. A manager has a responsibility and owes due care to people who have invested in a company and one has to stay focused, and connected like other professionals. The management profession must find ways to reinvent itself and differentiate ancient ways from modern ways of management. To achieve this, the profession must recruit, train and motivate the many other aspiring managers to succeed and not become exceptions (Crainer 16).
Works Cited
Crainer, Stuart. “Business Strategy Review.” How in the World? 2010: 13-16. Print.