Management Thinking

Some people are excellent at managing in situations when things are going very well. There are also people who succeed in managing when things are going badly. But not many people can manage successfully in times of great uncertainty.

It's official. The average manager spends far more of their time on admin and pushing paper around a desk than they do actually managing their people.

Dr Michael Jarrett, one of Europe's leading experts on organizational change, talks to us about the five factors that most influence the success or failure of almost every change initiative.

Every now and then there will be a crisis. Look around and you might even conclude that there is always a crisis. Crises force a choice between inertia and innovation. So when faced with one, ask: How can we use this crisis to make thing better?

When times are tough, it's often the training budget that suffers first. But that's a big mistake, because organisations that invest in their employees in a downturn have a better chance of surviving.

The economic downturn will result in the dominance of Western economies giving way to those of emerging nations such as India and China.

With the economy experiencing a major shakeup, every day presents new challenges and opportunities. How managers adapt to the changing horizon can make the difference between surviving or thriving.

All the discussion about how companies, particularly financial organisations, are regulated seems to be ignoring one glaring structural weakness. That is the erosion of the boundaries between a company's board and its management – between its leadership and management.

It may sound like a contradiction in terms, but if bankers had been rather less confident about what they were doing with our money over the past few years, we might not be in the financial mess we are today.

Despite all the warnings, a third of U.S bosses and a fifth of their UK counterparts have sat back and made no contingency plans whatsoever for managing their workforce through the downturn.

The meltdown of US financial sector illustrates the dangers of a society that has glorified the pursuit of personal power rather than achievement. And unless it is able to reinstill that desire to achieve, the US will continue to decline economically.

Most managers claim that they're bullish about their ability to ride out the economic meltdown – except when they wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night.

If the tough economic times have given you cause to become angry and you feel justified in taking that anger out on your employees, I've dug out a great article for you that will help you reach the pinnacle of "bad boss-ness."

If your boss likes to strut around the office puffing out his chest, or starts wearing a particularly loud tie to go with his suit, he's not just being a prat. It's all down to evolution.

It's a hard thing to say in the current climate, but businesses need to be anticipating what the workplace will look like in a decade's time if they want to retain a competitive edge.

Robert moved from the UK to a management job in China a year ago. While things went well at first, one of his team has recently been openly challenging his working-style and being dismissive of his decisions. What should he do?

Why are so many employees disenchanted and disillusioned by their jobs? The answer isn't rocket science. In fcat there are four main areas that cause friction between employees and their bosses.

I'm just a lowly manager. The big things – like global economic melt-down - are out of my control. So I'm going to turn off the news for a while and focus on the little things that make a manager's life at work so complicated.

The collapse of America's financial system is as much down to an failure of corporate social responsibility as it is the arrogance and incompetence of the banking community.

Reading a book is one thing. But to incorporate what you've read into your life is quite another. Which explains why managers continue to flounder, in spite of reading all the "recommended" books on management.

In times of adversity it is always better to see ourselves for what we are and face up to all the vulnerability that comes with it. Each tomorrow is another journey into the unknown. Far better to go into it with an open and inventive mindset than one which views success as just surviving another day.

Western businesses will have to look to emerging economies to plug their skills gaps as their own workforces age and shrink – creating a whole new set of management challenges.

What's the difference between leadership and management? And what makes an effective business leader? These two perennial questions have generated a staggering volume of discussion over the years, but little that is more pertinent than two absolutely essential posts on Bob Sutton's blog.

Peter Senge, once described as the "strategist of the century", explains to Stuart Crainer the steps we need to take towards creating a more sustainable world and why this change is imperative.

Management is out of date. Managers are failing to take advantage of a unique moment in history where the gathering pace of change opens the door to revolution and new types of organisation.

Managing growth and attracting talent used to be the key priorities for UK managers. But the deteriorating economic climate has brought maintaining cashflow and curbing costs to the top of the agenda.

Managers need to adopt a seven-step strategy based on communication, partnership and clear management if they want to give themselves the best chance of riding out the downturn.

In tough times, the temptation is to slash jobs at the first sign of trouble. But knee-jerk cuts can prove more costly - and be more damaging - than trying to hang on to your staff.

Robert Heller discusses how, faced with rising complexity, managers make the situation worse with overly complicated reactions

Whenever an organisation makes changes, they inevitably affect the behaviour patterns of its various stakeholders. But they don't necessarily change its personality.

HR pros might love the phrase "human capital", but most of their colleagues think it's just another piece of jargon which undermines HR's chances of getting the high-level management support it needs.

Do you manage a team or a group? The distinction is an important one, because there's no point in trying to develop a team ethos amongst a group of people who do no real need to work cooperatively together.

It may well be the last thing you want to hear as you're thinking about your holiday, but firms that respond to customers 24/7 are more likely to win business than those that don't.

The credit crunch and economic downturn have caused CEOs to pull back from making bold, imaginative decisions and concentrate instead on the 3Cs: consolidation, communication and customer service.

One thing that is consistent around the world is the need for good managers and management development. In fact a few good management practices could save us from a lot of the trouble the world is in at the moment.

Want to know why so many M&As end in failure? According to a new study, it's because they destroy the leadership continuity in target companies' top management teams. And the damage can last for decades.

Entrepreneurial individuals are often branded as risk takers and mistrusted by major employers. But their imagination and creativity is exactly what modern businesses need.

The context in which people work is of vital importance. That means articulating a concise and relevant purpose which defines the shared tasks of all staff.

Far from being omnipotent, the "boom generation" of business leaders have been caught unawares by the current downturn and are at a loss as to how they'll respond to it.

In a slowing economy, don't be tempted to chain yourself to your desk and work even harder. Management by walking around is more vital than ever.

It's been said that there is more social commentary in science fiction than in any other form of popular writing. And the Hithchiker's Guide to The Galaxy contains an incredible amount of wisdom on the subject of the despairing workplace.

Cutting corners on the fundamentals to save a few dollars in the short-term may end up costing you big time. It's far wiser to budget for known costs rather than risk unknown costs that could wipe you out.

They might make great newspaper copy, but high-profile "celebrity" CEOs brought in to deliver rapid results often have exactly the opposite impact.

We're always hearing that ineffective managers cost billions in lost productivity. But we're also being told that the shortage of managers is the end of business as we know it. So which is it?

Does the perfect boss actually exist? And if they do, what does he or she do that makes them perfect?

HR is still thought of as a "necessary evil" in many organisations. But its hardly a surprise when just a fifth are considered to be any good at what are meant to be their basic tasks.

Middle managers are a much maligned as a breed. But they serve a vital role in keeping deeply distrustful workers and senior management talking to each other.

How could a project as high-profile and important as the opening of Heathrow airport's new Terminal Five have gone so disastrously awry at such a sensitive moment? Robert Heller dissects the fiasco.

What's your Dramatic Difference? What sets you apart from the rest? Don't have one? Well get working on it and raise that bar. Because the chances of achieving success simply by being the same as everyone else are reducing rapidly

Big companies want big products. They want big ideas. They place big bets on a big future. But what they're doing is putting all their eggs in one big basket. Or worse – putting all their faith in just one egg.

Knowing who its customers are is the foundation for any successful organisation. And as the US Federal Aviation Administration has demonstrated, getting this wrong can be disastrous.

No longer just the domain of geeks and teenage boys, the growing popularity of virtual, computer-generated worlds is something businesses should be looking at tapping into.

Every time there's a downturn, organisations seem to become fixated with "business development" in the belief that there's some magical breed of executive who can wave a magic wand and save the business.

Time once again to visit the Corporate Cynic as he takes an in-depth look at the unintended effects of outsourcing.

When you're not experienced, being on the receiving end of a heated conversation can be tough. But verbal challenges can be addressed tactfully and professionally as long as we've thought through a process for how to do it.

The Millennial economy represents the era of the Naked Plutocrat. While their super-fortunes are alleged to be rewards for super-success, they are beginning to resemble a much earlier group of self-servers: the Robber Barons.

The three founders of Allan's company are technically brilliant but just aren't interested in management. Staff turnover is high and the problems are mounting. Charles Helliwell has some ideas how they might be persuaded to change.

Fewer than a quarter of managers mange to create a high-performance culture in their organisation – and four out of 10 actually act as a demotivating influence on their staff.

Forget about juggling work and kids. The biggest challenge for workers over the next decade will be holding down a job while looking after ageing relatives.

Des Dearlove talks to psychologist Howard Gardner about the qualities of thinking that will allow people to survive and prosper in the 21st century, both in work and life generally.