Common Management Errors (113)
Cxiii) Not taking a holistic approach (the western scientific method has dominated the approach to management analysis, ie break things into parts
"..our search for truth and knowledge has been very effective at isolating problems and fragmenting the answers and solutions, but we need to see the whole picture. One of the critical features in management today is seeing the patterns in the chaos, and understanding the impact of these abstract forces that influence organisational performance..."
Bruce Millet et al, 1999
Some factors include
- demographics (population changes and location, standards of living, etc; changes in influences like geopolitical, economic, social, etc and include globalisation, identity like tribalism, climate, etc),
- technology (as an enabling factor; computer linked like Internet, digitalisation, AI, automation, etc; innovation; development of fields like neuroscience, ie understanding how the brain works, etc)
- management (growth of the knowledge worker, ie move away from industrial to information society; growth in service industries and decline of manufacturing; workers are not machines; outsourcing, etc)
There is a need to develop competencies to detect such trends and changes, and to develop ways to handle; the following questions can help
"...1) Do you feel that you have a good grasp of what macro forces are influencing micro changes in your workplace?
2) Do you think of organisations as contextual?. What does the statement mean?
3) How could you developed your own competencies for 'reading the environment?..."
Bruce Millet et al, 1999
NB There is general acceptance the world is changing and changing more rapidly with
"...discontinuities caused by change are occurring more frequenlyt...... we need to identify and understand some of the forces at play at the macro level to be unable to articulate how these factors influence the business environment and the nature of work..."
Bruce Millet et al, 1999
(for more details see elsewhere in the Knowledge Base)