1.7 Complexities of the Modern Day Manager

Many studies have been conducted by Mintzberg and others observing the activities of managers. Among the most notable findings are that manager's activities are very fragmented; they tend to only spend a few minutes (3) (Molinsky, 2012) each on a wide variety of tasks; 80 percent of their time is spent in direct communication (talking) with others; they work far more than 40 hours a week. Based on these observations, it is imperative that managers have good organizational skills or the ability to multitask, shift focus from one task to another to another in rapid succession, and prioritize those tasks and follow up on the most important first. Some people are better equipped for multitasking than others. One of the driving forces in changing the way we manage is the advancement of technology. Think about 30 years ago—before the internet, before computers, before cell phones. If you were the sales manager of a national company, how did you communicate with your salespeople? Suppose your largest account in Atlanta called in and said, "Hey, your sales rep didn't show up today and we need some help." What did you do? You would call around in an attempt to track down the missing rep. If that wasn't successful you might ultimately have to get on a plane and go take care of the account yourself. Fast forward to today. If that same situation occurred a quick text would go out to the missing rep. If there was no reply, your corporate cell phone company could go online and, with the gps device, locate his vicinity. But chances are, after checking your email, you already found that he tried to contact you the night before informing you of a medical emergency in the family that he had to fly off to and requested that you call on his customer for him. The point is that technology has broadened our span of management.

Span of management has to do with the number of subordinates that report to a supervisor. Historically, that span was about seven—an average of how many people one person could effectively manage at a time. But with the technology of today, that span has greatly increased. Some companies have as many as 60 employees that report to a single supervisor. What allows that manager to effectively manage so many? Technology! In many cases managers have instant feedback of an employee's efforts. Think about our sales manager again. Today the salesperson electronically submits his orders from the field with a handheld device. That order goes to the billing office, warehouse, and sales manager's office simultaneously and instantly. Before the sales rep leaves the account, the sales manager sees what and how much was ordered and whether the amount met the goal. The sales manager can send a quick text that says "Did you pitch the XYZ promotion? I didn't see any on the order." You get the picture. With this kind of communication and feedback, all made possible by today's technology, a manager can greatly broaden his/her span of management and be even more effective than in the past. What does this lead to? Greater efficiency. Doing more with fewer resources. What does that lead to? Better prices and/or service and ultimately better value for the customer.

But what does it mean for the manager? There is a greater need for organizational skills to manage the additional people and systems. Fortunately, technology, in the form of hardware and software, helps us keep track of things. The market is full of "management aids" from contact lists to prioritized, daily updatable to-do lists. Information systems provide real time data that can be used instantly. What used to be done in quarterly review sessions is often done weekly and sometimes daily. But the manager has to be skilled in using the technology to his or her advantage. Managers who fail to utilize the systems available are quickly weeded out. Can you imagine a sales manager overseeing 30 sales people, and not knowing how to send group texts or emails? This is where many of you have the opportunity to excel. Young people have grown up with the new technologies that older folks don't understand. For example, opportunities abound for young people that know how to do social marketing. There are many recent stories of corporations downsizing their marketing divisions to make room for young people that know the ins and outs of social media.

As technology advances and managers' span of management expand there is a natural flattening of the traditional pyramid hierarchy. Industry no longer needs multiple layers of management (managers managing managers). Middle management positions have been done away with in many organizations. But other opportunities, especially in management information systems, have risen.

Technology also allows us to outsource many labor and production components. Outsourcing is the assignment of labor or production to an external organization, usually with the intent to save money. For example an engineering firm today may outsource many of its basic jobs to firms in India. Indian engineers cost one third the amount of an American engineer, they speak English, and are fairly competent. Most manufacturing firms have outsourced some or all of their production to Asia. Orders, specifications, and contracts can be sent instantly. Shipping times have been streamlined. The world is being flattened. But with all the outsourcing comes the necessity to manage the process with foreign individuals/entities. This necessitates a manager understanding foreign cultures and being able to adapt to the appropriate style. For example, as we will explore in our leadership chapter, a recent trend in management is something known as the servant leader, or as Jim Collins (Collins, 2001) puts it, a Level 5 leader. A Level 5 leader is someone who is very driven but also very humble. A servant leader passes the praise but takes all the blame. He looks to develop others and has a complete lack of ego. But to the Chinese, humility is a sign of weakness. A manager that shows humility to his Chinese constituents would not be accepted as a leader. So a manager must adapt his or her style to the culture.

A recent Harvard Business Review (Molinsky, 2012) article listed three skills every 21st century manager should have that illustrate what we are talking about:

1. The ability to switch management styles between cultures

2. Effective use of online networks

3. Purposely dividing our attention

Purposely dividing our attention? The author contends that people that allow some distraction are actually more productive. The problem is we only spend three minutes on any given task, but it takes us 25 minutes to refocus on the work at hand once interrupted. The idea proposed is to schedule interruptions so that they occur after a task is accomplished and before the next is started. Interruptions can be both internal and external. One might choose to take personal calls during specific times. Or a disciplined manager might only respond to emails once per hour. News is only surfed on lunch hour and breaks, etc. Again, good management comes down to discipline.