Using Integrated Management Studies to Improve Skills (Essay Sample)

Using Integrated Management Studies to Improve Skills to Manage Complexities and Challenges in the Modern Workforce
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Using Integrated Management Studies to Improve Skills to Manage Complexities and Challenges in the Modern Workforce
Introduction
The modern workforce requires managers with adequate skills to manage their employees to ensure optimum performance. At the same time, employees have developed to organizational assets that require to be treated with utmost care to reduce employee turnover because it is expensive for any business. Therefore, managers ought to have competent skills to ensure that their employees are satisfied in their jobs to improve their performance and commitment to the firm (Thorogood & Crichton, 2013). In this regard, it is important to incorporate integrated learning in colleges to ensure that graduates understand the essence of applying what they learn from one subject to other fields and real life experiences. In practice, integrated learning enables students to use what they learn in one subject in another field. Therefore, such students develop competent decision-making skills that enable them to make the best choices under different circumstances. Consequently, when such people become managers in various industries, they learn how to incorporate their expertise in the field with skills to manage others. The management of people does not involve giving them directions on what they should do but involves understanding their abilities and encouraging them to use their skills to achieve their potentials. Therefore, besides technological know-how on a given subject, people ought to understand the importance of interpersonal relationships if they are to become effective leaders in the future.
In essence, every sector of the economy has gone through numerous changes that ought to be reflected in the management of the workforce. For example, in the retail businesses, several investors open stores in the same localities, which mean that they have to compete for the same customers to achieve sustainability and profitability. The declining of natural resources, which guaranteed the success of businesses in the old days, has led to changes in the management of workforce to create a competitive advantage. Traditionally, managers viewed employees as liabilities; as a result, businesses hired and fired workers for no apparent reasons. However, the challenges that modern business face today such as increased competition means that workers have to be treated as business assets. In the retails business, employees interact with customers on a daily basis, in effect; the employees understand the needs of the clients better than the managers do (Teixeira, 2010). The managers can take advantage of integrated studies in management to encourage their workforce to develop different skills to learn how to deal with customers efficiently.
On the same note, the development of different skills enhances workers' motivation and commitment to their work. At the same time, committed workers perform their duties to organizational expectations, which ensure that the business creates a competitive edge. In practice, an organization cannot be successful if the workers are non-committal to achieving organizational vision and mission. For instance, in the retail business, workers require information technology skills that would enhance the use of technology in the workplace. The importance of communication between customers and employees has been on the rise over the recent years. As such, several firms have adopted enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to improve communication with consumers. Therefore, workers require the skills to use these systems to achieve the best results with ERP systems (Zhuming, Xu, & Chengen, 2014). Even though ERP system providers provide workers with minimal training on the use of their systems, the employees ought to be willing to adopt the systems because they improve efficiency in service delivery.
The Importance of Integrated Studies in Management
In practice, people learn many things in their lives, which mean that they should understand the importance of incorporating every new thing people learn to their line of work. Management skills could be acquired at school or in the workplace but without adequate skills to learn how to use different acquired concepts to develop leadership skills dissuades many would-be successful leaders from becoming successful managers (Ulaga & Loveland, 2014). Therefore, integrated studies offer an ideal solution to the problem given that such studies enable people to learn the essence of transferring what they learn to real-life situations. Ideally, integrated studies improve people’s cognitive abilities, which give them the ability to make independent decisions suited to unique situations. Changes in leadership styles require a workforce that can make instantaneous decisions without the support of the management (Teixeira, 2010). In essence, employees ought to base their decisions one company’s objectives and code of conduct. In this way, workers do not make decisions that could hurt the reputation of the firm.
At the same time, integrated enables employees to understand the importance of collaboration in the workplace. Teamwork improves workers problem-solving abilities. However, employees cannot understand the essence of teamwork if they lack effective communication skills to reduce interpersonal conflicts at the workplace. In the studies, workers learn to appreciate colleagues from different cultural backgrounds. In effect, they learn that diversity in the workplace improves performance as employees learn new ways to solve organizational problems that affect them in their everyday work. Notably, the workers do not have to learn these skills from the workplace but they can acquire them from different settings such as schools and social places. Fundamentally, people who possess social skills have higher chances of transferring the same abilities in the workplace to transform their relationships with others. On the same note, managers with improved social skills understand the need to appreciate workers regardless of their positions in the company (Teixeira, 2010). In return, employees develop respect to their leaders and perform their duties diligently to meet organizational targets.
Moreover, integrated studies give workers an opportunity to learn the importance of time management. Modern businesses' success depends on the ability of employees to keep time in the delivery of services. Consumers will be dissatisfied if their deliveries are always late. However, workers who respect time management are in a better position to meet the needs of their consumers, which enhances satisfaction and loyalty. In this regard, loyal clients play an integral role in the success of a business because they act as the company's advocates. Such customers recommend the business to their friends and families, which in turn improve awareness. Importantly, such customers provide free marketing platforms for the business as they share their experiences with their friends. Modern customers require personalized treatment from their businesses of choice. As such, employees and managers ought to understand how to serve clients as individuals as opposed to having a generalized treatment of all customers. Consumers face unique challenges, which need specific solutions. In this regard, employees should not hide any customer complaints from their managers because they would fail to solve the underlying problem that affects the business (Pakhomova, Buriakov, Vasenev, Gornostaeva, & Kornienko, 2014). The workers have to share such information with peers as well as leaders to find lasting solutions to the problems.
Additionally, modern organizations are mobile and do not depend on geographical locations to succeed. Therefore, managers should be ready to develop employees who can work in different parts of the world. Some organizations realize the need to diversify risks by investing in different regions. As such, workers should not insist on working at certain locations for the rest of their careers because organizational needs could push them to work outside their countries or localities. As a result, modern workers have to be psychologically prepared to work in new and challenging environments. Nevertheless, integrated studies prepare people for such eventualities by encouraging learners to study different dialects to improve their chances of succeeding in regions using other languages other than their mother tongues. Even though employees could learn different languages in schools, managers should encourage workers to engage with people from other cultures to improve their communication skills. Further, integrated studies enable people to learn the truth of stereotypes that they hold over other cultures (Pakhomova, Buriakov, Vasenev, Gornostaeva, & Kornienko, 2014). Interpersonal interactions with people from other cultures help people to understand their cultural preferences better; however, integrated studies gives the platform to learn how to interact with different people with the least conflicts.
Complexity of the Modern Workforce
The world of business has become very competitive, which implies that managers ought to recruit the best-qualified persons to create a competitive advantage for their organizations. However, different organizations search for the best workers in the same job market; therefore, managers ought to understand how to guarantee commitment because it reduces employee turnover. Rival organizations poach the best workers from other organizations in the same line of business that affects the organization‘s performance in the long run. Even though traditionally employers viewed employees as liabilities, changes in the modern business have change...