The Evolution Of Management Approach In Nanjing

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

This report is about the changes to the nature of work between Nanjing and Japan that have happened in the past 50 years. Through evaluating the management approaches of Nanjing which is my hometown (section 2) and analysing situations of the two places accroding to the theoretical framework of leadership, organizational structure, human resource management, and technology and organization (section 3,4), the changes of the two countries which focus on current situation are used to compare (section5 )and give the predictive changes on patterns of work, organisations and society of Nanjing in the next 10 years (section 6).

The evolution of Management approach in Nanjing

Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu provice in China which is an important cultural and educational center. It locates in the lower Yangtze River drainage basin and Yangtze River Delta economic zone. So far, the population of Nanjing has been about 6.5 millions and a total area of 6509 square kilometers. Seasons in Nanjing are distinct and tourism industry is popular (Jiangsu.NET, 2013).

The main management approach of Nanjing is hierarchical management since the Industrial Revolution happened in the early 60s. Hierarchical management can be described as arranging individuals within the organization according to power. It is a top-down organizational structure. The reason for this approach is because traditional bureaucratic governance of china (Brian, 2013).

Then there was a shift towards scientific management around 1980s. Scientific management is the management in analyzing and synthesizing workflows to improve labor productivity. The reasons of this approach are because China was in a state of reform and opening up and has increased contacts with West in diplomatic, economic and cultural aspects, and these contacts have great influence in Chinese society (Julia, 1987).

Nowadays, knowledge management approach plays a key role in Nanjing which focuses on management of knowledge as a strategic asset and encourages sharing them (Sanchez, 1996) .Knowledge management becomes important because of the development of knowledge –based economy and society. Furthermore, knowledge is the basis of modern organizational existence. It can facilitate organizational knowledge work and maintain competitive advantages

(Burrows, 2005) .

3. Situational Analysis of Nanjing

The four major areas of Nanjing which are leadership, organizational structure, human resource management, and technology and organization will be discussed.

3.1 Leadership

Leadership can be defined as a relationship or a dynamic process by which one individual influences the behavior or actions of others towards attainment of group or organizational goals (Mullins, 2007). It cannot be separated from the activities of groups. Viweing leadership in Nanjing was based on leader attributes, skills and traits in the past. Leadership development today provides real performance support to help people gain skills and allow organization to solve real-time problems, such as training programs, and action learnin. The goal of leadership development ultimately involves action not knowledge which means providing opportunities to learn from their work rather than taking them away from their work to learn (Dotlich & Noel, 1998) However, leadership focuses on the interaction of leaders and collaborators rather than focusing on only the competencies of the leader currently. Such as, establishing a close and high-quality relationship with them will lead to better performance and good job satisfaction. The issues of health and well-being at work related to leadership are increasing interest and attention because of the career competence, stress and responsibility. Leadership effectiveness is related to better health and exercising (Campbell, 2002).

3.2 Organizational structure

An organizational structure depends on the organizational aims and includes activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision (Pugh, 1990). Organizational structure determines how to assign roles, control power and coordinate responsibilities, and how to flow information between the different levels of management (Business Dictionary, 2013). At present, horizontal structure has been used instead of the traditional organizational structure which is vertical and focuses on hierarchy or a top down structure according to bureaucratic governance of china. Because it de-emphasizes job specialization, is informal, and decentralizes authority. The process of making decisions and setting organizational goals can be shared with employees who are at all levels, and communication flows more freely throughout the whole organization. In order to develop horizontal connection and flatten the organization, technology has been paid more attention to flatten the organization. Using computer networks and software designed is more effective which can facilitate group work within an organization. Moreover, various kinds of teams has been built which can expand the scope of jobs, involve workers in problem solving and planning, and foster open communications which can bring better performance on works and greater job satisfaction with jobs , for example establish work teams which directed by themselves as basic production group (E-notes, 2013).

Human resource management

Human resource management is a culmination of strategically coordinated efforts to manage people. Managing people involves, employing them, teaching and developing their skills, and utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services (Mello, 2010). Traditional human resource management focuses on personnel functions such as recruitment, performance appraisals and payroll administration. With development and growing of organization, the way to manage human resource has changed to make a strategic contribution to the future directions and developments of the organization rather than only handle simple personnel issues. It coordinates all human functions for employees in strategic planning and decision making processes and aligns the HR functions with mission, vision and strategies of the organization to gain competitive advantage. New human resources management links HR practices with the strategic management process, and emphasizes that HR practices are integrated and support each other (Andersen, 2007). The impact of the changes is that can attract, develop and retain high quality people by matching people to the strategic and operational needs of the organization and make it a great place to work by developing a clear vision and a set of integrated values (Michael Armstrong, 2006).

Technology and organization

With the development of society, technology becomes more and more important in the organization which improves the communication between employees and customers. For example, email is inexpensive and convenient to communicate indirectly instead of face to face. Organization allows staff to communicate, share ideas and transfer information without regard to physical locations by using online tools. Moreover, supervisors will be able to monitor the activities of a larger number of subordinates without requiring them to report directly to them. Technology used on the data management becomes instantly available to everyone in the company. Companies can store and maintain a large number of data which have been happened in the past economically, and employees can access the documents what they need immediately. When the organization needs to manage inventory and maintain enough stock to meet demand in case the requirement of them more than inventory, technology like inventory management system can help a lot. Organization also can use information technology to improve the way they design and management customer relationships (Small business, 2013). The influence of information technology has great influence on organizational structures to be simplified and improve coordination between employees, increase supervision and move towards flat structures.

4. Situational Analysis of Japan(2nd country)

Leadership

Leadership of Japan is that to make the final decision only after taking into consideration the opinions of everyone involved. Leaders’ decision represents the consensus of the people working under him. The Japanese value of creating harmony and the family style of organization in a company requires that everyone agrees with the final decision. However, most of leaders who are lack of skills and talent strategies have been neglected and affected current leadership quality in Japan. Majority of the organizations in Japan also have ineffective selection and succession management system ( Jazmine Boatman, Richard S. Wellins, Kiyoyuki Takeuchi,2011).

Organizational structure

Because Japanese has traditionally been hierarchical, the organizational structure of Japan is a classic hierarchy with divisions and the rules of status are important. Each staff belongs to several groups or teams and cares peer evaluation. Japanese workers would like being given goals and direction rather than direct and specific work, so they are not especially good at tasks requiring high degree of specialization, but good at tasks requiring lots of coordination. Japanese avoid conflicts, discuss and express their opinions openly at meeting, while making decisions with bosses quietly and slowly after meeting. There is much cohesion with each group, but it still has much competition and it is not advisable to get individual to do some work outside his ability. It is also difficult to achieve consensus. Therefore, this results in difficult decision -making during long meeting time.

Human resource management

Traditional human resource managemt focuses on long-term employeement which results to senior wage system (SWS) model. The seniority system that the salary is based on age or experience and plays an key role in Japanese HR management because it can help to encourage loyalty (Kim & Park, 1997). However, something has changed to"selective"lifetime employment and diversify the employment portfolio. For example, use non-regular employees to make workforce flexible to meet business needs. Companies use seikashugi which is performance–based pay system instead of using SWS model. It can improve job competition between employees and motivate them. Nowadays, companies grow demand of specialist and need for new educational methods, not just provide training programs to create generalists. Organization also pays more attention on the women power and flextime work hours system, such as part time workers (The Japan HR Society, 2010).

Technology and organization

Technological inadequacies in Japanese context, workers in that society thought information system was not fitting Japanese way of doing things and the economy slowed down substantially are the reasons why Japanese refuse to change. The impulse of US which dominated IT industry force them recognize the need for transformation. Information technology of multimedia, voice-activated and mediated application improve efficiency of working. Emerging multimedia industry provides more profit for organization, such as consumer electronics and video games. Deregulation of the IT, IT education and literary on the national agenda are the organizations’ policy also be considered. The development of technology affects the recruitment of employees who are familiar with new technology and forces organization to become more efficient, cost efficient and faster to respond (Ben & Michael, 2013).

Comparative analysis between Nanjing and Japan

Though situational analysis of nanjing and Japan accroding to leadership, organzational structure, human resource management, and technology and organization, there are some difference between of them.

Leadership of Nanjing focuses on the change of ways. Nanjing develops high quality and close relationship with employees instead of viewing attributes, skills and traits of leaders. However, the ways to choose leaders are strict and the final decision is made by them. It will leads better performan and job satisfaction, and reduce pressure by communicating with subordinates. While the quality of leadership in Japan is not high, because most of leaders are lacks effective selection and succession management system. The advantage of leadership in Japan is that the final decision is consensus and only after taking into consideration of everyone’s opinions.

Traditional organizational structures of Nanjing and Japan are both vertical structure and focuses on hierarchy because of the governance of bureaucracy. Noways they change to horizontal struture which de-emphasizes job specialization and decentralizes authority. Cooperation plays an important role in the organziational structure. Difference between the new organizational structure is that employees in Japan do not like discussing and expressing their opinions openly during the meeting, they analysis the problem after meeting, so the process of making final decision usually is slow. Working always focus on cohesion in the form of group in Japan, and it is not advisable to get individual Japannese to do some work outside their ability. In contract, workers in Nanjing prefer to challenge project which even beyond the ability of them when the project give to them. They thought it was the trust by their subordinate and they could exercise themselves.

The range of human resource management in Nanjing is very big and in the direction of strategy. Comparing to traditional human resouce management which only focus on personnel functions, it has changed to link human resource practices with the strategic management process of the firm to gain competitive advantage, such as stategic planning , building mission and vision related to strategy. While the changes of Japan are in detail accroding to the working time and systems. Some features of human resource management in Japan are very special, for example, demand of generalists than specialist and lifetime employees in the past, wowen power and part time workers at present.

The uses of technology in organization of Nanjing focus on functions, such as inventory management system which help to manage inventory and maintain enough stock to meet demands, customer relationships management system which can improve the way they design and manage the relationship with customer, data managemnt which provides convenience for employees to access to the documents they need. Email, online meeting tools and video-conferencing systerm are also the the way improve the communication. Information technology of Nanjing has a big influence on the process of working. In contrary, changes on technology of Japan affact a lot. Multimedia, voice-activated and mediated application are the changes in organizational equipment. Consumer electronics and video games are the emerging multimedia industry affected. Organizational policy and recruitment are also need to considered.

Predictive changes in Nanjing for the next 10 years.

There are some predictive changes of Nanjing accroding to leadership, organizational structure, human resource management, and technology and organization in the futrue.

Organization will pay more attention on the role of technology in leadership. It has changed the ways information and knowledge are used and the ways in which people can communicate and share with others. Combining leadership and technology will make most effective in leadership development. Leaders will need to have the ability of technology, such as communication technology and internet. Employee can use technology to communicate with leaders at all level and at any time when they need. Technology in leadership will provide opportunities for leaders who are on business trip to have meeting and reduce the the need for training programs. Technology can extend learning over time rather than limiting it to time spent in the classroom. Technology will also strengthen communication and sharing of knowledge among participants. It can save time for leaders to communicate face-to-face and coaching experiences with technology- based tools and processes (Cacioppe,1998).

Faced with rapid changes in technology, the workforce and the economy, there might not be a physical change in our organizations as much as a cultural one. Organizational structure will be related to leadership in the future. Spreading the wealth of leadership, mentoring and coaching in organizations will make the organization stucture more professional and effective (Russ, 2013). There will be fewer levels of management which means managers will be reduced and more workers are empowered to make decisions due to the need for increasing speed and improving the quality of employee. Changes in information technology mean less need for the communication and control functions of middle managers. In order to deal with the continuous changes in environment, organization structure still need to focus on online communication and flexibility. In addition, police departments will affect the organizational structure, so it need new specialized functions in response to both emerging issures and those that continue to require law enforcement attention (Stephen, 2001).

Human resource management will change some places in detail but still towards strategic direction. There will be number of women employees woking in the companies because more and more new jobs are becoming suitable to women such as service industry and women have equal opportunies and security in the workplace. Educational qualifications of people will increase at entry level because of increasing technical skills and automation. In order to meet new technology, organizations need new skills and young people who can develop new technology to improve business efficiency and increase employment rate. However, some skills are going redundant, such as typists. Moverover, better working conditions will be provided such as better lighting. Jobs will be made more challenging in order to stimulate employee do not feel that the job is boring. Furthermore, employers will be leaders rather than manager, organizations will care for employees’ personal life and share with them the company’s fortunes. In the future, government policy will be changed in labour laws possible, especially focus on employing child labour, women workers and minorities. Government will encourage setting up of industries in rual and backward areas. It will reduce the gap between urban and rual (Ajithsrc, 2010).

Technology will still plays a key role in the organizations. With the development of new technology, companies will use new computers and personal digital products or design attractive websites to develop competitive advantages in the competitive market. In addition, they will consider using technology in planning process. This will allows owners to create operations using the best technology available. Comparing today, there will be no big changes in organization. Organizations use technology to reduce business costs and help some functions automated, such as record keeping, accounting and payroll. Technology can also be used to protect the privacy of consumer to creat a secure environments. Updating technology continuously will improve employees’ communication processes and receive feedback from customers as soon as possible. It can also increase employees’ productivity by using computer programs and business software instead of human labor. Organization will use technology to reach new economic markets nationally and internationally rather than only selling goods or services in the local market. It will affect the reputation of the place, improve the economy of the society and increase the rate of employment (Osmond, 2009).

7. Summary

This report focuses on changes to the nature of work by comparing Nanjing and Japan. After discussing the four major areas which are leadership, organizational structures, human resource management, and technology and organization, both of the two countries have changed a lot but still need to improve in the future. With the development of the society, good and continuous changes to work will lead better performance and outcomes.