The Changing Environment of Management

Prepared by: Prof. Emilia. S. Bio Source: Principles of Management by Krietner, 11th Edition

The Changing Workplace

Young people from age 18-25 (better known as Generation Y) comprise most of companies workforces. This growing trend tends to create a brewing conflict of work ethics with the older higher-ups of the management. Demands for Gen Y greatly exceeds supply; hence, they are in a strong position to dictate terms to their prospective employers.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

-Alan Kaye

The Changing Workplace

Companies successfully integrating members of the new generation in to their operations do more than merely cope with change; they thrive on it. Accordingly, present and future managers need to be aware of how things are changing in the world around them. To aid in further understanding these, we must study the demographics of the new workforce.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

-Alan Kaye

The Social Environment

Demographics are statistical profiles of population charateristics. These are a valuable tool for managers; those with foresight who study demographics can make appropriate adjustments in their strategic, human resource, and marketing plans.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

-Alan Kaye

The Changing Workforce

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

-Alan Kaye

The Changing Workforce

In summary, the U.S. workforce demonstrates the following trends:
It is getting larger.
The workforce will be expected to grow more than the national population. The resulting labor shortage will continue to be magnet for legal and illegal immigration.

It is becoming increasingly female. It is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. It is becoming older.
This applies to the Gen Y people that are continuing to stabilize the median age to 39 years old.
Knowledge is entry ticket to todays computerized service economy. -Modern adage

Myths about Older Workers

Myth: Older workers are less productive than the average worker. Fact: Research shows that productivity does not decline with age. Older employees perform as well as younger workers in most jobs. Moreover, older workers meet the productivity expectations.

Knowledge is entry ticket to todays computerized service economy. -Modern adage

Myths about Older Workers

Myth: The costs of employee benefits outweigh any possible gain from hiring older workers. Fact: The costs of health insurance increase with age, but most other fringe benefits do not, because they are tied to length of service and level of salary.

Knowledge is entry ticket to todays computerized service economy. -Modern adage

Myths about Older Workers

Myth: Older workers are prone to frequent absences because of age-related infirmities and aboveaverage rates of sickness. Fact: Data show that workers age 65 and over have attendance record equal to or better than most other age groups of workers. Older people who are not working may have dropped out of the workforce because of their health. Older workers who stay in the labor force may well represent a self-selected healthier group of older people.
Knowledge is entry ticket to todays computerized service economy. -Modern adage

Myths about Older Workers

Myth: Older workers have an unacceptably high rates of accidents at work. Fact: Data show that older workers account for only 9.7 percent of all workplace injuries, whereas they make up 13.6 percent of the labor force.

Knowledge is entry ticket to todays computerized service economy. -Modern adage

A New Social Contract Between Employer and Employee

Until the 1970s: Be loyal to the company and the company will take care of you until retirement. Today: The employer-employee relationship will be a shorter-term one based on convenience and mutual benefit, rather than for life.
There was a time when someone would come to the front door of AT&T and see and invisible sign that said, AT&T: a job for life Thats over. Now its a shared kind of thing. Come to us. Well invest in you, and you invest in us. Together, well face the market, and the degree to which we succeed will determine how things work out. -Harold Burlingame, AT&T Senior VP of HR

Under The Glass Ceiling

According to a recent study, lifetime earnings for women in the U.S. equal, on average, 44 percent of the lifetime earnings for their male counterparts. As such, the gender pay gap can be summed up in two words: large and persistent. In addition to suffering a wage gap, women (and other minorities) bump up against the so-called glass ceiling when climbing the managerial ladder.
glass ceiling: the transparent but strong barrier keeping women and minorities from moving up the management barrier

Part-timer Promises and Problems

An increasing percentage of the U.S. (and the Philippines) labor force is now made up of contingent workers. This just-in-time or flexible workforce includes a diverse array of part-timers, temporary workers, oncall employees, and independent contractors. Their common denominator is that they do not have a long-term implicit contract with their ultimate employers, the purchasers of the labor they provide.
contingent workers: part-timers and other employees who do not have a long-term implicit contract with their ultimate employers

Part-timer Promises and Problems

Employees are relying more on part-timers for two basic reasons:
First, they are paid in lower rates and often do not receive the full range of employer-paid benefits, part-timers are much less costly to employ than full-time employees. Second, as a flexible workforce, they can be let go when times are bad, without the usual repercussions of a geneal layoff.

contingent workers: part-timers and other employees who do not have a long-term implicit contract with their ultimate employers

The Politicization of Management

Prepared or not and willing or not, todays managers often find themselves embroiled in issues with clearly political overtones. As in the case of Google:
The online search giant is taking a novel approach to the problem by asking U.S. trade officials to treat Internet restrictions as international trade barriers, similar to other hurdles to global commerce, such as tariffs.

Google sees the dramatic increase in government Net censorship, paritcularly in Asia and the Middle East, as a potential threat to its advertising-driven business model, and wants government officials to consider the issue in economic, rather than just polictical terms.

The Economic Environment

The Current Job Outlook in Todays Service Economy

As in other important aspects of life, you have no guarantee of landing your dream job. However, as you move on through college and into the labor force, you will probably end up with a job in the service sector.
Occupations that require a bachelors degree are projected to grow the fastest, nearly twice as fast as the average for all occupations. All of the 20 occupations with the highest earnings require at least a bachelors degree Education is essential in getting a high paying job.

Education is essential in getting a high paying job.

-U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Coping with Business Cycles: Cycle-senstitive Decisions

The business cycle is the up-and-down movement of an economys ability to generate wealth; it has predictable structure but variable timing. Important decisions depend on the ebb and flow of the business cycle. These decisions include ordering inventory, borrowing funds, increasing staff, and spending capital for land, equipment, and energy.

Timing is everything.

-Popular business adage

The Business Cycle

Timing is everything.

-Popular business adage