Three main objectives of management

Since the early days people needed somebody to lead and coordinate efforts of group members in defense, hunting or other activities. Management, however, is relatively new phenomenon in the history of mankind – it is approximately 150 years old. Today, management is an established discipline and it has undisputable influence on modern society. Management changed social and economic structure of developed world. Global economy is based on principles of management. Management is in constant change – in today’s organization managerial activities are different than 20 years ago. Management practice challenges psychological, social, managerial and other theories. Many theories and practices that seemed to work five years ago, now are considered obsolete. The art and science of management also was influenced by society. Twenty years ago, managers concerned mostly about effectiveness – how organization achieved its organizational goals and efficiency – total organization resources that contribute to productivity during the manufacturing process. Today, they concern about:

  • "What?" – what strategy should company pursue, what market enter,
  • "How?" – how to increase productivity, how to do same things faster or with less waste,
  • "What for?" - what is the higher purpose of the organisation to exist.

In the last few decades, the notion of management has changed: the main objective of managers is not to increase shareholders value in the next quarter. Managers should balance interests of all stakeholders of the company: shareholders, employees, creditors and community.

Many believe that the main objective of managers is to bring maximum value to shareholders. Today, however, directors should consider interests of all stakeholders – all groups of people influenced by a company: employees, shareholders, customers, creditors as well as government and society.

But how good are today’s managers in management?

Deloitte Research

Several years ago, Deloitte started to publish a research called Global Human Capital Trends. In 2017 more than 10400 top-managers and HR professionals from 140 countries participated in this survey. Careers and Learning is identified as second most important trend and challenge for corporate leaders, Efforts to Build organization of the future being the first. The consequence is clear: today’s leaders are unhappy with Learning and Development process within their organizations.

Similar research reported that 78% of 3300 top-managers thought that quality of management is very important to success of their organizations and only 42% of respondents were happy with it. It means that almost 60% of top managers think they companies could be managed more efficiently!

58% of global leaders are not happy with quality of management in their organizations.

How can we measure quality of management?

Many HR managers get used to constant complains of their colleagues: "We have two managerial vacancies, but can’t find right candidates", "Our managers fail to do the basics – they can’t delegate properly, can’t encourage their teams, are bad at setting priorities"."N was an excellent lawyer (salesman, auditor, operator), but after he (she) was promoted to a managerial position everything changed. Team results are awful, and former valuable contributor is unhappy". This situation should be changed, but what can be done?

Earlier, organization would hire an expensive consultant company to get idea of what is happening. Today, due to development of HR-technology, assessment can be done online. SNAPSIM system offers you detailed assessment of skills and competencies gaps by providing easy-to-use online assessment tool.