Select a range of theories and concepts from those encountered within the three components of this module and

provide a critical evaluation of their contribution to our understanding of the scope and challenges of management. Within the three introductory sections on management, there are many theories and concepts that help us understand the scope of management and the challenges involved within management. These theories include not only the management of people, but also the external factors involved, such as, living within the planets limits without jeopardising the futures needs for resources, the environment and biodiversity. Also, the theories include the difficulties involved in coming to a conclusion on the improvements needed within a company, as the position you hold determines your main focus. This is then in conjunction with the scope of what management entails, that being, the use of employee assistance programs (EAPs) for stressed workers, keeping staff motivated and also understanding cultural differences in workplaces. This essay will be touching upon all three introductory sections but then will investigate a few theories and concepts in more detail. Living within the earths limits without jeopardising the futures needs is one of the main challenges faced by management. In other words, integrating sustainable development into management. Since the resources on earth are finite, and since many of the worlds most commonly used resources such as petroleum and natural gas take millions of years to regenerate, allocation of these resources have to be such that future generations have a similar availability as todays population. Though solutions such as reserves have been drawn out to enable this, once peak oil1 is reached businesses based on transport, or those that rely on transport, will either find costs to high to bear or have to change to slower transport methods. This may be seen as a relevant challenge as people in managerial positions have, for a few years already, faced rising petroleum prices. There are also the environmental implications that managerial staffs have to be aware of these days. Climate change and global warming are both part of todays main concerns. This is due to the fact that almost every large firm has a hand in both helping the environment and destroying it. To expand on this, as stated before, transport is crucial in almost every industry in todays world. Considering the amount of companies that require transport it is obvious that there is a large carbon footprint associated with it. Awareness of these implications may also tie in with a managerial staffs challenge of sustainable development, though they may also be used as tools to stay on the positive side of the publics views, thus maintain or boost a companys reputation. Many managerial staffs have tried to overcome this challenge by implementing a green policy in their companies to help reduced their carbon footprint. Though it may not always be through reducing or completely stopping what causes the majority of the footprint, many managerial staffs have set up recycling initiatives and have even set up goals where they significantly reduce their carbon footprint. Though developing a plan for this may be easy, implementing it also creates challenges for managerial staffs, as budgets may be tight while the costs that are associated with having a green policy, high.

Refers to the maximum rate of the production of oil in any area under consideration, recognising that it is a finite natural resource, subject to depletion (Colin Campbell)

When managerial staffs use analytical tools such as SWOT and PESTLE there are also challenges that arise. SWOT is an acronym for the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. PESTLE is an acronym for the analysis of the political, economic, social, technological, legal and the environment. Though they are good tools to use in the analysis of a company, they both have drawbacks. To begin with, the SWOT analysis main criticism is that the analysis is subjective. Moreover, the challenge faced by managerial staff when using SWOT is that where you sit determines what you see (Stevenson, 1976). Those who are in the top managerial positions are more concerned with the financial problems of a firm as oppose to those who are in the middle positions, whom are more concerned with the practical problems within the firm. Furthermore, the SWOT analysis is not only easily influenced by people that hold the top positions in a company, but it is also influenced by language (Whittington, 1993). Language influences SWOT in the sense that the words weaknesses and threats have the ability to mislead people and therefore prevent a cohesive SWOT analysis to take place. This then leads to neglect towards some of practical problems as employees tend not to address all of them, this either out of fear or out of the feeling of seeming weak. Though SWOT is a good analysis tool, all these factors mentioned above should be taken into consideration when applying it. The other tool that is useful to managerial staffs is the PESTLE analysis. PESTLE analysis looks at the bigger picture, the macro, and thus does not look at the microand internal- environments of a company. By focusing on the macro-environment, PESTLE looks at the long term and is thus slower when changes are imposed after its use. This also means that it makes it hard to predict whether changes will have a positive effect in the future and therefore it has to be carried out regularly (Markwell, 2009). Another challenge with the PESTLE analysis is that there needs to be a clear objective where all useless information has to be taken away as it causes paralysis by analysis. This means that too much useless information makes the aim vague and unclear (Markwell, 2009). When looking at the scope of management we see that it is not only about managing staff but also keeping staff efficient, mentally healthy and safe at work. This then leads to the danger of stress. Stress is defined as, when perceived pressure exceeds ones ability to cope and may be derived from one main or several different issues. These may include heavy workloads, relationship tensions, the environment of work and among many other reasons. Stress in any job makes the likelihood of mistakes more plausible and when the job involves the lives of other people it creates a very dangerous environment where mistakes are likely. In order to avoid this, there are many ways in which managerial staffs have tried to help employees that feel stressed at work and feel that it is preventing them from working properly. One way of reducing stress is by creating a stress free environment where employees can take time off to think. Another is though the use of employee assistance programs where they can talk to someone about any issues that they may be having. Though these programs may be beneficial, one difficulty with them is that employees must seek out for help in order for these programs to work. Motivation is another aspect of management with which managers try to keep employees efficient. The question though arises about how much is the right amount of, and what type of, motivation works best for the employees. This was discussed in

relation to McGregors theory X and Y, both referring to a managers motivation style. McGregors theory X manager thinks that workers are lazy, dont like to work and are looking for security, this may be seen on Maslows hierarchy of needs as the fulfilment of their physiological and safety needs. Moreover, in an X managers views, money may be the only incentive in the motivation of workers. The problem with this is that once they receive a monetary raise and their needs have been fulfilled, they will become satisfied and then would have to be motivated again with more money. On the other hand, theory Y managers believe the opposite. They believe that people like to work, will take on responsibility and are looking for esteem and selfactualization, the higher needs on Maslows hierarchy of needs. Since these are needs that can never completely be fulfilled, this may be a better way to motivate workers. The challenge though, that may be faced by theory Y managers, is having a staff that is at the maturity level of what theory Y managers think of in terms of their workers2. Another aspect of management, that plays an important role, is the understanding of different cultures. The movie, Gung Ho, may be used as an example in this case. The collision of American culture with Japanese culture in the workplace almost closes down a reopened auto plant. The movie depicts the Japanese as coming from a culture where workers work hard, take pride in their companys success and feel shame for its loses and if any worker makes a mistake, they work overtime with no pay to fix the imperfections they caused. In contrast to this, the Americans are depicted as being workers who like to work in an environment in which they feel comfortable, and do the jobs that they want to specialize in. This is what causes conflict between the American workers and Japanese managerial staff. With such a large range of international companies, respecting and understanding different cultures is another challenge that managerial staffs have to be aware of in order to achieve the goals and targets of that company. Management covers not only how a company functions internally, with stress management programs, the use of analytical tools, motivation of workers and, understanding and respecting different cultures, but also with the environment around a company, by setting goals to reduce carbon footprints and becoming more green. Throughout the three introductory sections of management it can be seen that there are a numerous amount of challenges and a large range of theories and concepts that are involved in management. To overcome these problems management involves everything from being aware of sustainable development to having good communication skills and knowing how to interact with different people. Being such a wide subject, there are always challenges that have to be faced and overcome.

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References
- Websites Markwell, S. (2009). Assessing the impact of political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental and other external influences | Health Knowledge. 2011. Available at: http://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/organisationmanagement/5b-understanding-ofs/assessing-impact-external-influences. - Books Stevenson, H. (1976) Defining corporate strengths and weaknesses, Sloan Management Review Spring: 51-68. Whittington, R. (1993) What is Strategy and does it matter? London: Thomson business Press.