Introduction
The most critical issue in the contemporary world is how to manage organizations effectively in the wake of the rapid global changes. In global enterprises, technology is changing at a remarkably fast rate and this trend calls for the management to redesign its organization to remain relevant. Competition is increasing in global enterprises as organizations aim at gaining competitive advantage over others.
Different enterprises should change their manner of management in order to respond quickly to global changes. The organization needs to change its processes, structures, systems, and personnel from the inflexible modes to ones that can adapt quickly to global changes (Hunsker, & Alessandra, 1980, p.54).
The transformation of the organization is a crucial step to effective management and remaining on the lead in the global world.
Effective management in a global enterprise involves the use of new management philosophies. The management philosophies start with the top management in the organization. The managers should apply current styles of leadership to lead the corporation. Behavior of management in the workplace determines the effectiveness of employees.
The manners in which organizations manage change show the ability of the firm to survive in a global environment. Effective management in a global enterprise is essential to remain competitive. It is necessary to consider various issues in managing a global enterprise.
This paper describes five key points to effective management in a global enterprise. These points include workplace diversity, effective communication, employee motivation, ethics, and change management.
Workplace diversity
It is necessary for managers to consider diversity in the workplace to manage organizations effectively. A global enterprise faces diversity in the form of “age, race, religion, job title, training experience, competency, and culture” (Mor-Barak, 2005, p.67). Management should address these diverse issues among employees in the organization to ensure effectiveness.
In a global enterprise, management should aim at achieving unity in diversity at the workplace among employees. While workplace diversity may bring many advantages to the organization, it also has its shortcomings. Therefore, management should take the onus to use diversity in a global enterprise to influence change and enhance the effectiveness.
Understanding diversity in the workplace is essential because it enables the enterprise to offer a broad range of services. The collection of different of skills and experiences such as languages allow an enterprise to offer services to customers on a global perspective. An enterprise with a diverse workforce is manageable effectively because employees provide a pool of ideas.
The organization is thus able to choose the best alternative from among the ideas for effective management. Enterprises, which encourage workplace diversity, motivate employees to perform to their best level (Mor-Barak, 2005, p.101). In the end, the organization achieves effectiveness.
To address challenges of diversity in a global enterprise, an organization should develop a workable plan. This plan should ensure equal opportunities for all employees in the organization irrespective of race, gender, culture, religion or disability. The organization should involve all employees in the plan and include their views on the plan.
Consideration of diversity in the workplace is a key step to effective management in a global enterprise. Employees gain motivation if their differences are in consideration. They work towards achievement of the enterprises goals because they put more effort in their duties.
Effective communication
A global enterprise comprises of people from different backgrounds and with different viewpoints. Without effective communication, it is not possible to manage a global enterprise. Communication is always an issue in organizations and management should aim at improving it. Communication facilitates many things in the organization from productivity to morale of employees.
For effective communication, it is crucial to balance between listening and speaking (Heller, 1999, p.89). Communication is a two way process; hence, listening to the sender or receiver of the message is as vital as speaking.
A global enterprise goes through various processes and, therefore, failure to communicate instructions effectively may bring disastrous effects. The flow of communication should be clear in the enterprise to avoid misunderstandings between the management and employees.
In addition, it is crucial to communicate both the good and the bad in an enterprise for effective management. Sometimes managers avoid communicating unwelcome news to employees in the organization because they are afraid of the reaction (Adair, 2011, p.123). However, hiding this information may have adverse consequences to the organization.
With rapid changes occurring in global enterprises today, all information is crucial. Management should find effective ways of communicating different information to employees. Management should encourage feedback from employees after giving information. Communication is often a two way process, and for the process to be effective, information should flow laterally.
Therefore, for effective management in global enterprises communication is a key to success. A global enterprise cannot afford to fail because of poor communication. Management should ensure effective communication to stay in the lead in a truly competitive environment.
Employee motivation
Employees are the main assets in an organization. In a global enterprise, many employees demand attention because they ensure the success of the firm. Without motivation, employees perform poorly, and the result is a failure for the enterprise. In the contemporary society, people have increased skills and knowledge, and thus, if an employee does not feel comfortable in a company, he or she opts to quit.
However, effective management aims at reducing the number of employee turnovers. This reduction is only possible through motivating the employees that work in the organization. A global enterprise has to remain competitive, which is possible through motivation.
There are various ways of motivating employees in the organization. The prime motivator is financial rewards. These include salaries, wages, bonuses and allowances among other monetary rewards. To motivate employees, these financial rewards should be according to the qualifications and experience of the employee.
In global enterprises, the economy keeps fluctuating, meaning that management should adjust employees’ salaries to fit the economy. In addition to financial rewards, non-financial rewards are also the other motivators for employees. These include factors such as challenging work, career development, recognition, and job rotation among others (Hunsker, & Alessandra, 1980, p.101).
These factors encourage employees to remain in the organization and improve performance for the overall enterprise. Employees in many global enterprises demand motivation in the form of non-financial rewards. Therefore, for effective management, enterprises should put emphasis on the factors that motivate employees to improve performance. Motivation of the workforce is vital for effective management.
It ensures protection of the rights of the major assets of the organization without which a firm fails. Considering the interests of employees in the organization is crucial for effective management.
Ethics
Ethics is the moral principles that govern between what is right and wrong in the enterprise. Many failures of organizations occur due to neglect of ethics. Enterprises should practice ethical principles in all their operations for them to be successful. The use of technology in global enterprises has brought substantial decline in individual ethics as well as business ethics.
Some enterprises use false information while advertising their products, which is a breach of ethics. Other enterprises pollute the environment from where they operate affecting the people living around them and the environment. Ethics demand that the organization protects the interests of its stakeholders first.
These stakeholders include employees, customers, shareholders, creditors and the society. The organization should be accountable for all its operations, which should follow ethical principles.
The ethical issues in business are becoming complex because of the global nature and diversity of many enterprises. The complexity also increases with social, economic, political and environmental factors. Therefore, management has to keep adjusting its ethical principles to remain competitive. To foster a culture of ethical behavior in organizations, management must lead by example (Mor-Barak, 2005, p.67).
If employees are expected to follow, the management should practice ethics at the top. Global enterprises rely on management and, therefore, contrary behavior leads to failure from the top to the bottom of the organization. For example, in the case of Enron Corporation, management failed to practice ethics leading to the fall of the whole company.
Management from this company used inside information for their benefits and enriched themselves at the expense of the company. This case led to the fall of a global enterprise and consequently, employees and shareholders shared a terrible loss.
This case represents the importance of ethics in a global enterprise for effective management. Had the management of Enron observed ethical principles, the company would have avoided the collapse.
Change management
Change management is crucial for all global enterprises that aim at succeeding in a dynamic environment. Managing change is a key point to effective management. Most changes in global organizations occur because of advancement in technology. Other changes include mission, strategy, operational changes and changes in the attitudes and behavior of personnel.
Thus, organizations have to monitor change to remain competitive in the current business world. Organizational change should begin with understanding the current situation to determine the areas that require change and the ability to adapt to change.
In managing change, management needs to understand that different people react to change differently. Therefore, mechanisms should be put in place to deal with fears associated with change. Besides, people have various expectations on the change, so management should deal with them. Change also often involves a loss, which management should consider in the process of change (Nilakant, & Ramnayaran, 2006, p.94).
For example, with advancement in technology, machines have replaced employees in most global enterprises. Employees do not take this replacement kindly, and they may plan to jeopardize operations of the firm. Thus for effective management, it is essential to communicate change to employees in the organization before implementing it.
The management should be honest about the facts of the change to employees and give both the good and bad information about the change. Providing personal counseling to the affected employees is critical in effective management (Nilakant, & Ramnarayan, 2006, p.73).
Where the change requires employees to advance their skills, management should provide training classes to keep employees competitive. Therefore, to manage a global enterprise effectively, change management is a key element.
Conclusion
Global enterprises often face challenges in their daily operations. It is vital for managers to find mechanisms to manage organizations effectively in order to remain competitive in a dynamic environment. Workplace diversity is a key point to consider in effective management of global enterprises. Diversity in organizations arises because of the differences in race, age, cultural background, religion or disability.
Diversity in the workplace is inevitable, and management should design a plan that ensures equal opportunities for all employees irrespective of their diverse background (Mor-Barak, 2005, p.70). Employee motivation is another point for effective management. A demoralized workforce cannot perform and compete in a global environment. Organizations should motivate employees with both financial and non-financial rewards.
Effective communication is vital in effective management. A global enterprise involves a diverse workforce that needs to understand the processes of the enterprise. Communication is crucial to pass instructions to avoid mistakes. Ethics is as valuable in organizations for success. Management should be the pioneers of ethics in the enterprise so that others can follow.
Ethics involves putting the interests of stakeholders of the organization first. Ethical principles provide a guide for the overall operation of the firm. Finally, for effective management in a global enterprise, an organization should outline the right mechanisms to manage change. Changes in the enterprise are common because of the dynamic environment, especially in technology.
Management should communicate change employees to because of the repercussions of the process. Therefore, to manage a global enterprise effectively, management should consider the five key points outlined above. These are workplace diversity, effective communication, employee motivation, ethics, and change management.
References
Adair, J. (2011). Effective Communication: The Most Important Management Skill of All. USA: Pan Macmillan.
Heller, R. (1999). Essential Managers: Communicate Clearly. New York: DK Publishing, Inc.
Hunsker, L., & Alessandra, A.J. (1980). The Art of Managing People. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Mor-Barak, M. E. (2005). Managing Diversity: Toward A Globally Inclusive Workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Nilakant, V., & Ramnarayan, S. (2006). Change Management: Altering Mindsets in a Global Context. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.