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Land Forces Academy Review
Vol. XXIII, No 4(92), 2018
THE CHALLENGES
OF ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT
George BUCĂŢA
“Lucian Blaga” University, Sibiu, Romania
george.bucata@yahoo.ro
ABSTRACT
Many organizations are driven by the market to set their goals in their
performance. Some of the goals are: cost reduction, achieving sales levels, increasing
the number of customers, increasing the market percentage, improving productivity and
quality, innovative products. Challenge becomes extremely acute in the case of
companies that continue to expand on new markets. In order to be easily understood, the
organization's objectives should be translated into a language easy to understand for all
levels of the organization, that is to be traced in clear objectives, specific to each
position, being imparted to the level of unity, team and individual.
KEYWORDS: challenge, organization, organizational management
1. Introduction
In order to establish a climate of work
performance, modern organizations have
begun to use new methods of management,
with an emphasis on the development of
problem solving, communication, conflict,
motivation and employee involvement in
decision-making, while finding the solution
of the problems within the group. Thus, it
appears that there are increasingly
sophisticated practices in organizational
management, focusing on relations between
people which interact in the same
organization, promoting team work, career
development in an international context
under the new economic challenges.
In their competition to win more
customers, organizations set their goals in
reducing the costs, achieving high sales
level, increasing the market percentage,
achieving higher quality and better
productivity, developing innovative
products. This is possible through good
human resources management. The
knowledge-based organizations are proven
performers in terms of profitability,
competitiveness and capability increase.
Management implies designing the
structure of an organization by considering
making it simple, flexible, reliable,
economical and acceptable. An
organization should be designed in
compliance with the systems thinking
criteria, where the elements of an
organization should not be considered as
separate, but rather indivisible components.
2. Organizational Management
Challenges – Attracting Talents
Today’s volatile economic
environment force organizations to develop
and implement effective strategies in order
to manage endowed individuals. This
become extremely acute in the case of
companies that continue to expand on new
markets. The most challenging struggle of
very company, be it at the beginning of its
activity or full developed is to build and
sustain a management team that is able to
be internationally effective.
DOI: 10.2478/raft-2018-0034
© 2017. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
275
Figure no. 1. The talent equation (talent attraction)
The companies conducting activities
on rapidly growing markets are faced with
the talent gap issue. According to a survey
done by Ernst & Young, the emerging
multinational must overcome multiple
challenges in building and executing their
global talent strategy. It is difficult for them
to create an effective international
management team due to cultural
differences, discrepancies in approaching
talent management, hard times in using
international and local talent in a balanced
manner and lack of reliable leadership.
The survey proves that talent management
has become on of the most important risk
areas in developing the present day's global
organizations.
Ernst & Young establish the
following principles according to which
most major companies try to integrate
talents management to achieve global
mobility:
‒ Alignment and integration with the
purpose of implementing a more
efficient talent management at a
global level; the success of this
process depends on the high business
performance both financially and
non-financially.
‒ Talent management referring to the
means in which an organization
manages and develops its human
resources in compliance with its
business strategy. It should be a
component of the business strategy.
Four important challenges have been
defined following Ernst Young research
which must be overcome when identifying
talents and leading to four mandatory actions
to be taken for a successful management:
1. The central managerial teams lack
cultural knowledge of the markets and judge
them in international terms. A mere percentage
of one out of five managers considers that his
company combines local and foreign talents
on the international markets.
2. Because they lack internal structures,
the companies need to recruit elsewhere. In
order to build an internal recruiting structure
these companies require time and
investments. Otherwise, the companies are
required to find personnel in other
organizations, which is not an end state
desired by the operational managers (30 %),
according to the above mentioned survey.
3. The difficulties that the companies
are face with the retaining and rewarding
employees for top performance in the
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various markets where these companies are
present are particularly difficult to consider
providing adequate incentives for employees
of different markets. That could boost
employees from one culture or might
discourage others elsewhere. Only 20 % of
the interviewees consider that their
companies are effective in evaluating and
gratifying outstanding results on the market
and 23 % believe that the company is
efficient in maintaining their key talents at a
global level.
4. The leaders and the top management
and have conflicting views about talent
management-the leaders in top management
considered that the recruitment of the new
local international markets has a very low
priority level compared to mid-managers
(16 % vs 33 %). On the other hand, there are
perceptions that differ significantly in terms
of the effectiveness of the company's talent
management. Only 19% of the respondents
considered the top company management
efficiency in rewarding the top performers in
the different markets (compared to 26 % of
the managers of the lower hierarchical level)
and only 13 percent consider the company
efficiency in aligning business strategies with
the individual performance goals.
Figure no. 2: Employee Value Proposition – an integrated retention strategy
3. Organizational Management
Challenges – Performance Management
Performance management is a
relatively new concept, being assimilated to
performance evaluation results. One of
those ratings gives the ability to the
manager or management team, but also
their HR Department, in assessing the
degree in which the employee carries
responsibilities, in relation to the position
held. Of course, in the end, you have to
keep in mind the many factors of an
environment in which the company
operates, these factors encouraging or
hindering performance without direct
contact with the employee. For example, a
management style practiced in the sense of
achievements generates less dictatorial than
democratic leadership. A conclusive
economic environment will allow better
achievements. Direct, indirect competition
and how it manifests itself (more
aggressive, more passive) is again an aspect
which must be taken into account by the
management.
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Figure no. 3: Performance management process (steps)
The desired behaviour, performance,
is important because it signifies an
understanding of the employee to carry out
the tasks-as they help the team to
communicate, how to advise others and so
on, are common cases in which an
employee has exceptional professional
results, but it is an unbearable person within
the team or manifests behaviour expenses at
work. In order that such behaviours are
disruptive, it is important to keep in mind,
in its assessment of performance of these
aspects. On the other hand, an employee
can be highly cooperative and interact very
well, but from the point of view of attaining
its position not to arrive at an efficient
level. Expectations regarding the conduct
and the results of an employee, should be
included in the list of strategic goals of the
organization.
Figure no. 4: The performance management process (managers, associate)
278
An effective performance management
system supports behavioral standards that
describe what is expected from employees
in key competence areas. Managers should
discuss these standards of behavior with
employees. It is important for managers to
ensure that they understand how it
interrelates these standards with each
position on a deal in the organization.
Development needs of employees should
also be taken into account in establishing
the objectives of this management system
performance. Development goals aim at
either improving performance on the
position occupied by the employee. In some
situations it is difficult to observe the
interdependence between the long-term
strategic objectives of the organization and
the immediate objectives and means of each
individual in the current activity.
In order to be easily understood, the
organization's objectives should be
translated into a language easy to
understand for all levels of the organization
that is to be traced in clear objectives,
specific to each position, being imparted to
the level of unity, team and individual.
Specialists often claimed as the dedication
of the employees is essential in achieving
the objectives of the company; employees
must feel that they are able to achieve.
Thus, it is important for employees to
participate in the process of setting goals, to
accept them and to be motivated to
internalize them. It is also important for
managers to express their desire to provide
support to employees in the achievement of
these objectives by providing the necessary
resources, guidance and removing
obstacles.
The objectives should be to define by
the final results. They must have a certain
degree of difficulty, but to be accessible to
motivate performance. During this process
of evaluation and performance
management, managers must ensure
feedback whenever there are exceptional
performance or one negative feedback, but
also periodically, tied to the achievement of
the objectives. Unfortunately, this doesn’t
happen in most organizations because many
managers do not have the skills of
constructive feedback. Frequently, when
performance is not the expected, happens as
managers to avoid giving feedback because
they don't know how to communicate
constructively and to downplay the
rejection reaction by the employee. When
there is the need of giving or receiving a
feedback, most people perceive this
experience as negative and uncomfortable.
In achieving the objectives of the
performance management process, core
competencies should be defined in terms of
behaviours and expectations necessary in
the development of the professional
activity. The definition of these behaviors
provides a solid base for the differentiation
between employees performing more or
less effective. Competences should also be
defined to reflect the different levels of
responsibility, complexity and difficulty
what characterizes the positions within the
organization. The advantages of defining
these in terms of behavioral performance
standards are: to help employees understand
what is expected from them and to ensure
the general standards that managers may
apply in the assessment of employees,
increasing the degree of transparency and
fairness of the assessment system.
It is important that employees
perceive this performance management
system as one properly. Using the set of
standards applied to evaluating all positions
of the organization, it must be done through
an explanation for each level, in the form of
specific objectives for each area of
competence. It is self understood that the
use of performance standards is an effective
tool because without them it would be
difficult to calibrate evaluations made by
different managers, with different scales of
values. For example, if an organization uses
a scale that measures if an employee “is
rising to the challenge” to clarify what
279
exactly are these expectations, inevitably
some managers will interpret the subjective
level, which will lead to inconsistency in
measuring performance.
4. Facing Business Challenges in
Romania – Foreign Companies
According to Forbes (January 2016),
the three major challenges facing foreign
companies present on the market in
Romania are changing the frequency of
legislation (54%), obtain appropriate
support from the State (51 %) and
implementation of legislative requirements
(49 %), shows a study by TMF Group
Romania. Because of this context,
companies are willing to outsource tax
assistance services (67 %) and accounting,
payroll and human resources management
(40 %) and legal administration (17 %), to
focus on their core activities.
Beyond these major challenges, the
most difficult aspects of business of foreign
companies present on the market in
Romania are considered to be adapted to
the needs of the corporate policies of local
laws (41 %), finding competent employees
and implementing standardized processes
according to the various jurisdictions
(36 %) and transposition of financial
reports and specific reports in an affordable
way of management (26 %). In terms of
improvements from last year, foreign
companies active in Romania appreciate the
ease with which found suitable offices and
suppliers (29 %), compliance with labour
laws and wages of employees based on
market mechanism (26 %). How about the
local business environment, foreign
companies have a negative perception
regarding the level of the fees and the law
(62%), in collaboration with the authorities
(38%) and in finding work (33 %).
Moreover, the appearance of which
was aggravated most intensely from last
year is finding well trained labour force,
33 % of respondents saying that face
difficulties in this respect In spite of these
obstacles, approximately 85 % of the
respondents reported that revenue from
them have increased during this year: 31 %
of managers reported an increase of
between 5 % and 10 %, 26 %, an increase
of up to 5 % and 14 %, increases between
10 and 15 % and over 20 %. Furthermore,
foreign companies present in Romania have
a good opinion about the employee's
protection (36 %), the competitiveness of
the business environment (28 %), labor
(21 %) and about the legal protection on it
to ensure the employer (15 %).
In 2014, a third of managers consult
TMF Group supported that finding
adequate work force represents a challenge.
The fact that their number has increased
significantly in 2015 can be interpreted as a
signal of alarm concerning the difficulties
encountered to reach the right candidates.
Precisely for this reason, many companies
solve this problem using the outsourcing for
they intended originally to work with us.
Foreign-owned companies in Romania
consider that they would benefit from the
outsourcing of accounting, human resources
and payroll, having more time to focus on
their core activities (64 %). The majority of
the managers who participated in the survey
consider that companies run by her in need
of specialized services in terms of tax
assistance (40 %), payroll and human
resources administration (37 %) and
accounting and financial reporting (30 %).
5. Conclusion
To be the leader of an organisation
represents a significant responsibility.
All interested parties will depend on the
managers decisions. Investors seeking a
return, employees satisfaction at work and
career development opportunities, and to
feel proud and confident in the workplace;
customers and partners are seeking services
and solutions which meet their
requirements and deliver real value.
280
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