Conclusion of Management for Success 1st Series

Reflection

When I began these series, I had the impression that my materials will come mainly from management journals or HR journals. However, I find most materials relevant to the subject are from psychology journals.

I realise that at least for this first management series that the study of organisation behaviour (OB) is mainly the study of people and the many aspect of their behaviour in the workplace. We always know what makes us get up in the morning, that is, to “bring home the bacon”, so to speak.

 

Conclusion

I believe that for most people in their career building, they may have always relied on “self” motivation to be successful and to climb up the corporate ladder. There are many "self-help" books such as “Seven Habits..” by Stephen Covey and “Who moved my cheese” by Spencer Johnson to “tune our minds” for success. I especially like and concur with Herzberg’s two-factor theory on the motivational-hygiene factors of job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction.

 

However, as a manager, it is not only self and self interest that makes the organization successful but the people working with you in that organization that had to be supported and whom we have to motivate to attain personal and organization goals. It will possibly be more challenging as a manager to manage people than to non-people related resources. It is indeed difficult to understand and manage people.

 

After understanding the three factors of management, some “mysteries”,hopefully will not be so mysterious after all and this added understanding of organizational behaviour and people behaviour will support you and your future managerial work.

 

However, even though most of the fundamental theories can be applied today in the organization, I believe even more new challenges will emerge in the organization and that continuous improvement in one self will entail continuous learning on our part. The abundance of research done in the academic world in this area is expanding and I am confident we can continue to learn from others doing and publishing those researches.

 

It is appropriate to end this series with a quote from Covey (2006): “You lead (empower) people. You manage and control things”.

 

Reference:

1. Covey, SR 2006, ‘Leading in the knowledge worker age’, Leader to Leader, Vol. 2006 Issue 41, pp. 11-15