Managing the difference between individuals is more relevant to Essay

Managing the difference between individuals is more relevant to today's organisations than ever before - Essay Example This essay analyses the necessity of managing the differences between individuals in the current scenario to meet the targets of the organisation, by aligning individuals to organisation goals and effectively making them work as a team and meeting increasing productivity and efficiency goals. A growing economy challenges everyone with problems of finding and retaining the best in the industry. When the multi faceted team comes together, harmonizing the work place and managing the differences between individuals becomes necessary to attain organisational goals. A motivated and contented individual performs better and contributes towards reaching organisational goals. Today, the customer is given a lot of priority and the emphasis is on customer service. It order to meet these expectations, dependence on the human workforce has increased tremendously. In the past organisations often had the upper hand. The organisation culture was more conservative and traditional. The hierarchy was adhered to and the lower attrition rates often contributed to a sense of complacency on the part of the management in making efforts to retain the workforce. Today's organisations boast of "shorter chains of command." Unnecessary levels of management have been done away with. Organisations in the past operated on the basis of "Unity in command " principle. It meant that one employee only reported to one supervisor. This was supposed to avoid the potential confusion when an employee gets directions from more than one source. Today, organisations are using more cross-functional teams, task forces and horizontal structures that cater to customers more than before. Employees often find themselves working for more than one" boss". Past organisations had a narrower span of control meaning lower number of people reporting to one single person. Smaller spans of control require more managers and are more costly, while larger spans are less expensive due to the requirement of a reduced number of managers and also are more efficient because of the reduced levels in the management. Organisations today opt for a wider span of control as chains of command are shortened and there is more trust in "empowerment", individual managers are taking on a larger number of subordinates who act with lesser direct supervision. Organisations today have understood the need to delegate more and empower the employees by giving them sufficient authority to make relevant decisions when required. Unlike in the past, this saves the managers from micro managing and also helps the employee own the responsibility for his own decisions. This has also led to the decentralisation of authority to a certain extent, while centralising the information with the help of the technological advances. Reducing the number of staff by using specialised staff increases the operating efficiency of the organisations today. Also, in the past subtly manipulating the workforce was slightly easier due to lack of myriad opportunities. Today, employees know they have many options. They have the upper hand. If the company needs them, it has to work hard to keep them. They need to have a unique