New Trends in Management

NEW TRENDS IN MANAGEMENT

ASSESSMENT I (CONTRIBUTION ON DISCUSSION BOARD &

REFLECTIVE SUMMARY)

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INTRODUCTION

The current business world is marked by emerging trends that range from fast globalisation to implementation of the technological advancements within its operational structure. This trend helps contemporary management to guide their organisation to be relevant, stable and creative. Among a vast number of trends in the modern market, the key trends that are discussed in this report are Green Management, Employee Empowerment, Participative Management and Stress Management. Organisational management initiatives of this era are directed towards the creation of value for customers, employees, the surrounding environment as well as society. The rationale for selecting these trends is in their emergent nature and increasing relevance of organisations across various sectors as the result of increased environmental consciousness, concern for the welfare of employees, and the demand for engaging stakeholders in decision-making. These trends help companies to attract and retain consumers and maintain public trust and thus consumers are more willing to engage with them. Therefore, within this context, it reviews the themes to determine how they relate to the subject, how they have developed, and how they can be applied within business environments with an illustration of cases from various global organisations (Xu et al.,2018).

CONTRIBUTION ON DISCUSSION BOARD BASED ON THE NEW TRENDS IN MANAGEMENT

GREEN MANAGEMENT

Green management has become one of the trending concepts within the contemporary business environment because organisations need to focus strongly on their contributions to reduce their adverse influence on the environment. This management approach involves support of sustainable business activities and conservation of the environment by avoiding the negative impacts of business on the environment and by supporting energy conservation and waste-reducing approaches. The significance of green management lies in its efforts to protect the environment and at the same time, replenish corporate value for future generations and gain profitable margins. With increasing globalisation, the rising cause of climate change and depletion of natural resources has become an alarming concern, thereby forcing the management to undertake sustainable actions in order to become socially responsible and gain competitive advantages in the fast-paced market (Abbas and Sa?san, 2019).

The advancements in green management have been escalated by growing environmental concerns and the enhanced contributions from various regulatory bodies like UNESCO on climate change practises. The approach to sustainability has changed over the last few decades, as a result, it has imparted an extra cost to global organisations and is also considered as an opportunity to generate growth. Some of the important factors within green management are a cause of concern for global business management. These are reducing its carbon emissions, implementing supply chain sustainability and abiding by environmental laws strictly. The next is the rise in consumer consciousness towards environmental issues, forcing companies to adopt green management in each of their operations in order to retain customers and maintain their own brand image. This change is supported by environmental and sustainability theories including Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which proclaims organisations should be socially responsible and contribute well to society and the environment fairly. Also, the circular economy framework adoption by the companies will provide the best strategy in the business environment by integrating the concept of sustainable development through reusing the waste, recycling the waste, reducing the overall waste generation and hence redesigning the product (Anser et al., 2020).

One successful industry example of green management implementation is the company of Patagonia, a clothing brand focused on outdoor wear. The company’s commitment to green management is encapsulated in its mission statement. The mission statement is: “We’re in business to save our planet” (Patagonia, 2022).  The Worn Wear initiatives allow the selling and promoting the use of second-hand clothing, the repairing of used clothes, or recycling the products demonstrating how green management contributes to building an effective circular economy that will help to reduce wastage and Conservation of resources (Patagonia Worn Wear, 2024).

From an evaluative perspective, it can be seen that the company's green management strategy can indeed improve its image and thus foster customer loyalty especially because the market is making more and more shifts towards being environmentally conscious as seen in the case of Patagonia. However, the main issue connected with it is the attempt to combine green strategies and profit-making because the utilisation of environmentally friendly measures and policies requires huge investments. Furthermore, green management is essential to ensure business success factor as it promotes moral and fair practices within its operational activity (Song and Yu, 2018).

EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT

Employee Empowerment is defined as the delegation of authority and control in organisational functions and processes where subordinates are offered the necessary tools to perform those functions. It has its origin in the empowerment approach which asserts that by empowering the employees, more commitment, productivity and creativity are encouraged. The way to empower employees is very important as it not only results in job satisfaction but also considers the strength and effectiveness of organisations. It identifies the key success factors in utilising the talents and assets of the employees. In today's competitive realm of the business world, empowered employees give rise to more scope for innovations within the workspace (Vu, 2020).

Employee Empowerment can be understood based on the improvement in the management movement from a hierarchical management structure to a participative one. The rapidly increasing concern about the health and well-being of workers, actually reflects that happy workers are more productive workers, thereby moving towards the increased need for empowerment in the workplace (Dahou and Hacini, 2018). Employee empowerment relies on motivational models including Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. The self-actualization and autonomy postulated by Maslow are given much importance whereas the elements such as recognition and responsibility are laid in Herzberg's theory and are important motivational criteria (Ihensekien and Joel, 2023).

Within employee empowerment, factors like trust, decentralisation and culture are critical determinants within the workplace. Many employees resist change because they are not necessarily motivated by suggestion power, but rather by the promotion of employee power, whereby managers trust employees to make decisions without supervision. Another issue may be an incorrect approach or ignorance to provide effective support for employees, in order to align with the goals of empowerment may create ambiguity or less responsibility within the workplace.

An example of successful implementation of the concept of employee empowerment is at Google through its '20% time' project. This policy permits the workers to engage in the acquisition of experience within productive projects outside their work domains by dedicating 20% of their working time to such projects. From this, new applications like Gmail, Google Maps, and Google News have been invented. Google's practices towards empowering employees work by encouraging people to develop their interests and contribute their expertise through which the company can benefit. Google also enables the concept of empowerment in communication in the organisation, openness in the workspace such as the promotion of open channels of communication, provision of workspaces to employees and lastly providing opportunities to the employees for their professional development (Clark, 2021).

Employee empowerment can be evaluated as it helps to build trust and make employees more inventive and responsible. The approaches to employee empowerment must be implemented with utmost care, with proper policies and guidelines for the workers as poor implementation can lead to disintegration of the organisational goals. Consequently, the measures aimed at empowering a subordinate should impose certain constraints which would ensure that an employee’s contributions are in harmony with the goals of the organisation. Thus, the suggested concept of employee empowerment can be considered as one of the most significant management trends contributing to personal and organisational development as well as ensuring sustained competitive advantage in the context of the overwhelming market uncertainty (Murray and Holmes, 2021).

PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT

Participative management is a leadership style where workers are actively engaged in decision-making processes therefore contributing to the organisation's decisions. Participative management is considered a valuable tool in promoting a platform for people to work together better, makes them satisfied with their jobs and imparts enhanced productivity. It also makes employees feel that they are valued in the organisation hence they contribute through their opinions during decision-making in order to make their ideas implemented. Participative management is an important key management trend embraced by organisations today to encourage diverse and democratic leadership (Griffin et al., 2020).

Participative management evolution can be seen from its roots in the Human Relations Movement in the mid-20^th century which focuses on satisfaction and group behaviour to enhance productivity. This concept within management has evolved over the years from inflexible bureaucratic systems to more flexible systems at every level of the management structure to ensure all the employees remain attached to the organisation.

The model that can be considered in this context is the management systems developed by Rensis Likert, a strong theory of leadership which points to several organisational factors and features.

Rensis Likert first introduced his famous systems of management in the 1960s in terms of observation of organisational relations between employees and managers. He has developed four systems to demonstrate and illustrate differing aspects of organisations and their nature based on relations between people. These systems raise and analyse a range of soft management issues including trust and how they impact the social factors of an organisation.

In his point of view, the less distance between the organisational culture towards the participative system, the more satisfied and effective the employees will be. In addition to productivity, this organisation will gain other benefits such as higher staff retention, higher profitability, and ultimately lower expense levels in the longer run. Thus, the model helps in the formulation of goals, the decision-making process and the settling of issues among the employees to bring about a high rate of commitment among the employees (Britannica, 2024).

One limitation is that due to increased employee participation in the decision-making process, it may take considerable time and failed harmony among the employees, thus it may create some inconvenience in organisations with a high work pace. Besides, the concerns of how to make individual voices heard by allowing them to speak out by providing them with trusted platforms are often ignored.

One good example company which adopted participative management is Toyota, which has been implementing long ago are the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Kaizen. These approaches provide each worker and manager of all levels with their contribution to improving the processes of the production line. Participative management applied at Toyota describes how engaging employees in decision-making processes can lead to better outcomes in everyday operations and enhance both employee morale and ownership of the decisions made (Toyota EU, 2024).

From evaluative management style, the advantages of participative management styles include an increase in employee motivation, innovations and performance enhancement. Where participative management is well practised, including in companies like Toyota, the growth strategy of the organisation becomes real. Hence, the concept of participative management is very effective in creating increased employee involvement as well as improving organisational success (Lamet al., 2021).

STRESS MANAGEMENT

Stress Management has become a vital elements in contemporary workplace stress management programs and provides support on strategies to help employees to tackle stress. This has become more prominent in the contemporary workplace with the increasing work pressure with tight deadlines, maintaining high standards and increased agility of the workspace. These are the sources of the unmanaged stress that ultimately causes burnout, less productive workers, unstable mental health and a higher rate of turnover. This is why efficient stress management should be considered as a more important element in order to keep the entire workforce healthy and the performances occurring efficiently. Companies understanding the increasingly competitive global marketplace can help their employees to decrease stress thereby not only benefiting the well-being of employees but also improving the overall performance and retention (Holman et al., 2018).

Employee stress management practices have been generated drastically because of the growing awareness of mental issues and their potential impact on business success. In the past, stress was seen as an individual issue but now organizations know that workplace conditions can act as major contributors to stress. There has therefore been movement away from efforts only towards individual coping and towards developing organizational systems that decrease sources of stress.

The importance of stress management ensures balancing workload, clarity of role, and supportive work-life balance. Thus, excessive stress among employees has the power to damage morale as unclear or overloaded expectations continue to be tough for employees to handle. For business, it can lead to disengagement, absenteeism and higher healthcare costs (Foy et al., 2019).

Google is the classic example of implementing effective stress management programmes within their organisation. The company organises frequent health and wellness camps in order to reduce stress through various training programs, motivational elements and introducing flexible timings for their employees. This has not only improved the mental conditions of the employees of Google but also has given them proper work-life balance and the necessary resources they require for their overall development. Thus, all these initiatives by Google have led the organisation to become one of the best places to work (Elias, 2020).

Thus, it can be evaluated that promoting effective stress management strategies within the organisational culture can make it more engaging, productive and encouraging. This has been studied in Google's organisational culture. This not only helps in prioritising the wellbeing of an employee, but it also guides the organisation with various avenues to deal by restructuring their working style that aims to pressure reduction. Though, it is not possible for all organisations to implement stress management strategies as they often have limited budgets, so small and medium-sized companies can collaborate with large firms to participate in such health and wellness activities (Griffin et al., 2020).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the report has studied the most probable and impactful trends in contemporary business management. It has studied the impact of green management, employee empowerment, participative management and stress management by going through its impact, applicable theories, case studies of real-life examples and evaluation of all these trends. Thus, it has been found that implementing these trends within the management will help the organisation to flourish in the competitive landscape.

REFLECTIVE SUMMARY BY USING KOLB’S REFLECTIVE MODEL

Concrete Experience: This paper has enlightened me much on the new management trends including Green Management, Employee Empowerment, Participative Management, and Stress Management. This is important bearing in mind that the writer is at the moment in the process of transitioning into these positions that require leadership and decision-making. Both the emphasis on sustainability, worker welfare, and decision-making reflect ideals, which I have been gradually adopting as ‘proper’ management. Each one of these trends is relevant in today's business environments and speaks about a growing pattern that defines how organisations operate and engage their workers and society at large. I joined discussions that addressed issues of how these trends impact the formulation of business strategies currently, and interestingly, it reflects many of my own goals and visions, as a business leader of the future (Morris, 2020).

Reflective Observation: While learning these management trends I was able to notice how they impact not only the life of a professional but also their career goals. For example, green management gives knowledge about corporate social responsibility and shows the new mandate in business management, one that embeds sustainability as a core value. This was a big eye-opener for me as the concept of environmental awareness in management decisions is something that I have come to realise in my career path. Similarly, employee empowerment and participative management demonstrate how organisations consider their staff as the valuable resources they are, and how organisational rewards are important as they offer higher levels of freedom and include them in the decision-making process. They inspired me to reconsider the highly centralised management concept that I used to incubate and encouraged me to embrace decentralisation.

Among them, stress management was the most self-based when managing a stress level and an employee’s job demands. In large organisations, I learned how to deal with the workload besides learning what I understood from this task. Also, I gained insights about organisational stress through discussions with colleagues on the discussion board on the effects of stress on job performance and general health. Those examples like Google and other companies explained how a company can approach the issue of mental health in the workplace and let me realise that prevention is the best way to address stress in the long run to thrive in one's career (Morris, 2020).

Abstract Conceptualization: It is pivotal to claim that studying these trends has influenced my perception of further work endeavours largely. For instance, green management will evidently shape the legal and business environments, and which I shall be practising. As the importance of sustainable practises is becoming more relevant in the strategies of various organisations, this would require the need to adhere to environmental laws and policies strictly. This realisation has pointed out the need to keep updated with new information and always be ready to embrace change when it comes to environmental and business law. This research highlights the trend towards increased employee empowerment and participation to support the argument for the development of leadership skills that are more engaging rather than superficial. During my career progression, whether in the human resource department or moving to the managerial or even legal department, I will follow these trends that will assist me in working towards creating a culture that considers the employee as a valuable asset for the organisation (Wijnen-Meijer et al., 2022).

When it comes to the analysis of these trends, I have found Kolb’s reflective model to be useful to lay down my experience of the task. For example, the Concrete Experience allowed me to reflect on what I have learned about these trends and engage it in this discussion. In the Reflective Observation stage, I studied how such trends are different from conventional management practices, and during the Abstract Conceptualization stage, I started establishing links between these trends towards my career goals. Thus overall, through this task, I learned the dynamics of flexibility are important for the creation of an empowering and sustainable work environment which is the need for constantly embracing change as far as I understand from the reflection. Finally, in Active Experimentation, these insights shall be put to practice in my organisational positions, as I shall try to execute change toward increased decision-making, focus on employee welfare and integrate sustainability into business operations.

Active Experimentation: As I proceed towards the last stage, I will focus more on meeting every compliance to tackle challenges. Specifically, green management shall guide my interaction with firms, which have an interest in minimising their impact on the environment. This is an area I have started exploring with the aim of finding applicable tools and frameworks that firms employ in determining sustainability so that I could serve them better by offering strategic plans. In the case of participative management, using the culture of employee empowerment has shown me the importance of leadership and practising it will enhance my leadership skills (Wijnen-Meijer et al., 2022).

For these purposes, I can apply appropriate self-reflective models to review my action strategies, and the results of my actions based on the workplace culture. These models will assist me in evaluating the extent to which I am practising what was discussed as the principles of employee empowerment and participative management, making me aware of the teams' requirements. In addition, stress management strategies can be applied in my daily practice because the position of leadership is accompanied by pressure that I have to deal with cautiously. Hence, this reflective practice will assist me in overcoming the problems of modern management and coping with the complex business environment in the current scenario.

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