Question

8. Review the characteristics of “past managers” to “21^st century managers” as contrasted in Chapter 2 powerpoint presentation. Apply this learning to a manager that you have had or are currently involved with. Hoes does this manager rate with respect to the 21^st century characteristics?

Answer 1

Below is how the role of pas managers differs from the role of a manager in 21st century workplace -

1. Earlier managers used to be more of autocratic where they used to make decisions, dictate rules and supervise the employees. Today's managers are more of participative and help the employees achieve their objectives by encouraging them to communicate directly, encourage idea generation and value their opinions while providing the resources to achieve the same.

2. There was hardly any diversity in the workplace in the past as the employee selection is locations specific and hence the managers' role was more of a supervisory role with set processes and procedures where employees are expected to work alike while current workplace has a diverse employees who provide wide range of ideas and work together in a global environment and managers role is more of a facilitator while making decisions when required.

3. In the past, there was hardly a performance management system in place and managers used to evaluate workers based on the time they work, discipline, productivity etc. while today's managers have a strong performance management system in place where the employees are evaluated based on multiple parameters and discussion with managers.