Ch 2-mgmt

Chapter 2
Management’s
Changing Landscape:
Demographics, Global
Economy, and Technology
Microsoft clip art photos reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 2
Chapter Objectives
1. Summarize the demographics of the new U.S.
work force and define the term managing
diversity.
2. Discuss how the changing political-legal
environment is affecting the practice of
management.
3. Discuss why the global economy is a vital
economic consideration for modern managers.
4. Describe the three-step innovation process
and define the term intrapreneur.

Dimensions of the
Social Environment
• Demographics
– Statistical profiles of population characteristics.
• Inequalities
– Persistent barriers encountered by women,
minorities, and others in the workplace.
• Managing diversity
– Creating organization cultures that enable all
employees to realize their potential.

Demographics of the
New U.S. Workforce
• Growing larger.
• Getting increasingly female.
• Becoming more racially and ethnically diverse.
• Getting older.

Source: Data and bottom figure from U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics,
“Tomorrow’s jobs,” Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2002-2003 edition, http://stats.bls.gobv.
Figure 2.1
The Changing U.S. Workforce

Figure 2.1
The Changing U.S. Workforce (cont’d)

Figure 2.1

Nagging Inequalities
in the Workplace
• Under the Glass Ceiling
– Women continue to experience a significant gender-
wage gap and strong barriers to advancement.
– Women are demanding more equitable
compensation and workplace opportunities.
– Women are leaving to become entrepreneurs.
• Continuing Pressure for Equal Opportunity
– Women, minorities, and the physically challenged
are all expected to press harder for more
employment opportunities.

Managing Diversity
• Managing Diversity
– The process of creating an organizational culture that
provides all employees, including women and
minorities, with assistance and opportunities to help
them realize their full potential.
• More than EEO
– The moral necessity and commitment in going
beyond EEO and affirmative action to create flexible
organizations that encompass and value diversity.

The Political-Legal Environment
• The Politicization of Management
– General political responses
• Defending the status quo against all comers.
• Adopting a “wait and see” approach.
• Proactively trying to identify and respond to issues.

Figure 2.2 Management’s Political
Response Continuum

The Political-Legal
Environment (cont’d)
• Specific Political Strategies
– Campaign financing
– Lobbying
– Coalition building
– Indirect lobbying

Increased Personal
Legal Accountability
• Increases in Demands for Accountability
– “Cooking the books,” price fixing, and bid rigging are
serious white-collar crimes likely to draw stiff
penalties and a jail sentence.
• Political and Legal Implications for Management
– Increased use of legal audits
• A review of all operations to pinpoint possible legal liabilities
or problems.
– Use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
• Settling disputes with less costly methods, including
arbitration and mediation.

The Economic Environment
• The Job Outlook in Today’s Service Economy,
Where Education Counts
– Service sector job growth in high paying occupations
that require at least a bachelor’s degree is twice as
fast as that of all other occupations.
• Benefiting from Economic Forecasts
– The consensus approach uses a
wide variety of economic forecasts
in creating an average opinion of
future economic conditions.

The Challenge of
a Global Economy
• A Single Global Marketplace
– Global trade is causing a shift to a
single economy.
– The commercial world is no longer
East-West, North-South.
• Globalization Is Personal
– Working for a foreign-owned company is a growing
trend.
– Meeting world standards for quality and costs (through
lower wages) is necessary to be globally competitive.

The Technological Environment
• Technology
– All the tools and ideas
available for extending
the natural and mental
reach of humankind.
– Technology is
facilitating the evolution
of the information age.
– Information has
become a valuable
strategic resource for
gaining competitive
advantage.

The Technological
• The Innovation Process
– The systematic and practical
application of a new idea.
• Steps in the Innovation Process
– Conceptualization: when a new
idea occurs to someone.
– Product technology: creation of a
working prototype.
– Production technology:
development of a profitable
production process.

Figure 2.3
The Three-Step Innovation Process

The Technological
• Innovation Lag
– The time it takes for a new product to be translated
into satisfied demand.
• Shortening Innovation Lag
– Goal setting: creating a sense of urgency and
purpose.
– Empowerment: pushing decision-making authority
down to the level of the decision.
– Concurrent engineering: using a team approach to
product design involving specialists from all functional
areas including research, production, and marketing.

Promoting Innovation
Through Intrapreneurship
• Intrapreneur
– An employee who takes
personal responsibility for
pushing an innovative idea
through a large organization.
• Fostering Intrapreneurship
– Focus on results and teamwork.
– Reward innovation and risk
taking.
– Tolerate and learn from mistakes.
– Remain flexible and change-oriented.

Ch 2-mgmt

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Ch 2-mgmt

Similar to Ch 2-mgmt (20)

More from Cyrus Helf

More from Cyrus Helf (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Ch 2-mgmt