This is the age of information in which knowledge and knowledge workers are major resources of modern society.
New managers must accept and excel at leadership responsibilities to perform as: a global strategist (understands Interconnections among nations, cultures and economies, plans and acts with due consideration of them); a master of technology (comfortable with information technology, understands technology trends and their implications, able to use technology to best advantage); an effective politician (understands growing complexity of government regulations ND the legal environment, able to relate them with the interests of the organization); and an Inspiring leader (attracts highly motivated workers and Inspires them with a high performance culture where Individuals and teams can do their best work). Text book) What are the implications of this future evolutionary imperative for business and management? First, in the domain of vision, mission and values organizations have to discover a higher purpose which can inspire and trigger this higher evolution within the organization. Second, in the domain of Human Resources Development, here must be a greater attention to the development of the moral, aesthetic, intuitive and spiritual faculties and potentialities of employees which will lead to their higher evolution. Third, in the domain of Organizational Development, creating a corporate environment and culture which felicitates this higher evolution among employees and also helps them to express this inner and higher growth in the outer life.
In this task, the corporate world can perhaps do a better job than the political world because of two reasons: first, in our modern age the world of business is much more yeoman, efficient and Innovative, with a much greater capacity for organization and execution than the world of politic; second It Is easier to Implement or organize the triple values In the smaller space of an organization than on the larger scale In a nation. Fourth, in the domain of corporate social responsibility, there must be a greater integration of the corporation with the community, which means a more creative deployment of the expertise and resources of the corporation for the development of the surrounding community as a whole. Fifth, in the domain of sustainability, a more Integral attainment of the corporate life with the laws and way of Nature In the physical as well as psychological and spiritual dimensions. THE CHALLENGE TO LEAD CHANGE Looking at the requirements to become a change leader: 1. A willingness to attempt to make the future.
A change leader needs to have a continuous improvement plan in place – by which all of the organization’s processes are required to improve at a realistic, sustainable and achievable level year by year. Change leaders also need to focus on exploiting new opportunities vigorously. When new and Innovative services, products or processes have been developed, the change leader is totally committed to exploiting those opportunities to the fullest ; with the most able and best performing people in the company being responsible. 2. Systematic methods to identify and anticipate changes. Change leaders need to have in place a systematic policy for innovation. The organization must have a willingness to create change.
Opportunities to change may arise by examining: unexpected in process technologies, Industry or market changes, Demographic trends, The availability of new information. 3. Techniques for introducing internal and external changes. For almost every breakthrough product or service, markets and applications emerge in entirely different fields from those originally envisaged. Change leaders recognize this, and are therefore willing to run substantial test programs to identify how the consumer will actually react to and use the new products and services. In practical terms, change leaders need two separate budgets: An operating budget for the expenditure required to maintain the existing business enterprise.
A future budget for expenditure of new items designed to be exploited by the organization in the future. Without an ongoing commitment to funding the new changes, the effort is unlikely to produce results of any significance. 4. Policies which balance change and continuity. Change leaders, however, develop internal and external systems that provide continuity where it is needed offset by a willingness to try new systems. High levels of communication are required to keep everyone fully informed. The organization culture must see change as a positive and desired objective. Compensation arrangements, recognition programs and conditional reward programs must be adjusted to reflect the changes taking place.
They are essentially the 21st century successors to skilled workers and craftsmen. Countries that focus on training technologists can gain and sustain a meaningful competitive advantage over those countries which have a culture that physical labor must be menial labor. To make a manual worker productive, all that has to be done is: 1. Provide them with the right tools. 2. Tell, or teach, exactly what has to be done. 3. Let them go to it. Making a knowledge worker productive usually requires: 1. A change in focus from telling to learning. 2. An ability to try a pilot program out first. 3. Enough time and patience to work through all the issues. 4. A scale up from the pilot to the entire organization.
Since the developed countries will have fewer people entering the workforce in the coming century than the undeveloped countries will have, knowledge workers will deed to increase their productivity at least as quickly as the manual workers increase theirs. Otherwise, the emerging nations will quickly overtake their more developed neighbors. With the increase in the importance of knowledge workers to the overall instead of satisfying the shareholders, it will also become desirable for companies to satisfy the requirements of the knowledge workers on whom the company’s successes will be built. The entirely logical result of this is that the sustainable competitive advantage of organizations in the 21st century will be built squarely on their ability to attract and retain the best knowledge workers.
