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Management theory and practice
Management theory and practice
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I’ve chosen to compare management styles between two countries, my home country of the USA and Switzerland.
The USA is the wealthiest nation when GDP is considered, but ranks third per capita for wealth. It only ranks 13th in happiness despite an enviable rank for wealth. Because happiness is so valuable, I’ve searched for a happy nation that also has wealth in order to consider adopting management practices of that nation.
Switzerland is the wealthiest nation per capita, and is the 2nd happiest nation in the world. With such high rank in both wealth and happiness, the nation is well worth the effort to learn from their management practices.
Managers in Switzerland tend to be lower key in their personalities compared to the USA, and also more often specialists in the area they manage. Conversely, the USA’s common practice is to hire generalists for management positions. Swiss management choices typically involve group discussions, peer review, and agreement among the majority before any decisive action is taken more often than in the US. In the USA, one powerful person making decisive choices without consulting peers or people below their own rank is standard. Taking into consideration that an idea needs to be accepted by the majority to really take hold in an organization, the slower process of decision implementation is understandably offset by the grip a decision made has in the Swiss community. In contrast, while managers in the US may be able to make large decisions with little consideration for the input of others and without hearing any objections others may have, the decisions made are not as likely to be implemented. As a result of people in the US workforce more often disagreeing with decisions of management, the dec...
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...n salaries of managers in the US may in part explain the lower life satisfaction since greater distances in wealth are a correlation found in nations with lower levels of happiness.
The differences in management styles of Switzerland compared to the United States is admittedly not irrefutable evidence to explain the difference in levels of happiness, and doesn’t necessarily entirely account for the higher per capita wealth in Switzerland. Though the evidence is circumstantial, it is worth taking into consideration. I believe the more cooperative management style, shorter work hours, optional flexibility of part-time employment, slower changes to organization practices, and smaller salary discrepancies of Switzerland’s employees in management all indicate that management styles in Switzerland is responsible in large part for the country’s greater wealth and happiness.
According to Forbes, a site that consists of the world happiest countries, countries like Norway favor freedom, fair health, education, and political systems. The general welfare, rank high in the happiness rate whereas countries like Chad, Congo, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, and Yemen. Who only focus on individual needs showing that they have one of the lowest happiness rates due to them showing greedy behaviors or having no proper education. So, did the happiness rate go up when people from nowadays preferred general welfare than the individual needs? Yes, because general welfare which provides freedom, peace, health system, education, etc.make people delighted. General welfare is more important for a democratic government to
In “The Real Truth about Money” (2005), Gregg Easterbrook discusses the effects of money on the people’s happiness. He presents his article with statistics of the generation immediately after the World War II and the current generation. He has experienced both generations as he has lived in both and is very familiar with the difference of people’s lives now and back then. Easterbrook is a highly reputed journalist, he is an authorized writer, editor, and professor. He worked with many professional magazines and newspapers; accordingly, he has enough knowledge to write about the people’s happiness in terms of money. Easterbrook has well convinced the readers with psychological facts from university researches and credible
Helman, Christopher. “The World's Happiest (And Saddest) Countries, 2013.” Forbes.com. Forbes Media LLC., 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2014
The research article "If We Are So Rich, Why aren 't We Happy?" By Professor of psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihaly is written to provide information to people and psychologists, with various examples and techniques from his books. Mihaly is the founder of "Positive theory" (1990), and originator of the "flow" concept, so through his studies Mihaly shows us that people in the United States believes materialism and having and excess amount of money will bring more happiness. This however is not the truth his studies show the opposite in fact, and it is clear that his article is more about providing information to the average person, rather than simply stating the facts of his books for a professional study. This is proven to be true when he talks
Businesses in Germany companies have a tendency to have rigorously hierarchical management structures where individual's specific roles and responsibilities are tightly defined and compartmentalized. Business are oriented to allocate the Top-management in small ...
Ashley Janowiak Human Happiness and External goods Happiness is a goal every human pursues, yet the ways in which it is pursued differs amongst people. Some believe prosperity will bring them happiness. Others believe material, power, fame, success, or love will bring them happiness. No matter what one believes is the right way to conquer this goal, every person will take their own unique path in an attempt to find it. But what is happiness like?
A well-known expression is that money can’t buy happiness, yet people fantasize of winning the lottery, living in their dream house, and possessing enough tangible objects to feel satisfied with their lives. Most are under the preconceived notion that the absence of wealth and power translates to hardship and despair. This, however, is not the case, because a self-effacing lifestyle is not an indication of a lower quality of life, and often is better than one of great fortune. People yearn to have the financial independence and capabilities of those in higher ranking positions, and are willing to abandon their morals and own personal well-being if it means being successful. It seems that by reaching a level of wealth in which money is no longer
In Michael R. Hagerty’s and Ruut Veenhoven’s article “Wealth and Happiness Revisited – Growing National Income Does Go with Greater Happiness” they talk about the effect wealth has on your emotions...
They also see their managers as task masters and expert problem solvers rather than as motivators and they value production roles more than leadership roles (Hofstede, 1993, p. 83). In Japan, they value employee loyalty. They expect their workers to join a company and remain there for the duration of their working life. They have a groupthink outlook and spend a lot of time working in groups. They value what is good for the company and the team rather than looking for individual recognition and tend to be more peer led than manager led, which means that US management cultures are not a good fit for countries like Japan (Hofstede, 1993, p. 83-84). In France, employees who are educated are more highly respected and their workers are divided into two categories. There are the properly educated workers (cadres) and the not properly education workers (non-cadres). There is no crossing between the two and the cadres are given privileges that the non-cadres are not regardless of their actual job title or task (Hofstede, 1993, p. 84-85). In Holland, they manage by consensus (Hofstede, 1993, p. 85). China has many smaller, family run businesses and because of this, many times the manager and the owner are the same. They tend to be more specialized and less global, and most of the decisions are made by the most dominant member of the family that owns the business. They are very thrifty when it comes to cost and spending and apply Confucian values on money. Their management system is very lacking of modern business management practices (Hofstede, 1993, p. 86). In short, all these comparisons can be summed up by saying that all companies everywhere have a concept of management, but what it means and how it’s practiced is different around the world (Hofstede, 1993, p. 88-89). So, if
Switzerland is also one the world's most prosperous countries in terms of private income. In 2003 the median household income in Switzerland was an estimated $54,000 (U.S.), 26% higher than the 2003 U.S. median income of $43, 000. They also consistently rank high on quality of life indices such as high concentrations of computer and internet usage per capita, high insurance coverage per individual, and high health care rates.
All of us want to make money to gain some status, some comfort and some luxurious. This money has brought; is bringing; and will bring so many differences between some of you and me. These differences will be later named as differences between the rich and the poor. If I ask you ‘Do you know what is happiness? You would thrillingly and pleasingly answer me YES, OF Course Then lets share some examples of the happiest man. One would experience happiness when a leads a luxurious life. One may also experience happiness when he had expanded his business almost across the globe. One may also experience happiness when he had his meal in the most famous and expensive hotel. One may also experience happiness when he attends honorable parties.
What is happiness and how is it achieved? This question has been debated in the past and without question will continue to be the focus of discussions far into the future. In particular, the significance of money in achieving happiness has been of particular interest. One foundation of our wealth may be our employment earnings. A 2011 study by a collaboration of five major universities revealed that their exists a complex relationship between our level of happiness and our pay (Wyld, 2011).
Over 50 years ago, English-speaking managers were directly introduced to Henry Fayol’s theory in management. His treatise, General and Industrial Management (1949), has had a great effect on managers and the practice of management around the world. However, 24 years after the English translation of Fayol, Henri Mintzberg in the Nature of Managerial Work (1973) developed another theory and stated that Fayol’s work was just “folklores”.
While the life of a manager might seem easy, the reality behind a manager who is successful in performance and efficiency shows that many people would think twice upon that idea. Throughout the decades, the role of a manager has changed drastically. With the Classical and Neo-Classical Movements, the specific requirements of a manager have been debated and explored to see which the best for an organization is. Managers need to keep the organization efficient and productive through delegation and specialized training while also making sure their employees’ human needs have been solved. With all of the aforementioned reasons and evidence being accounted for, it is clear that manager’s decisions have to be both helpful for the company and also cannot dehumanize their employees.
Money can provide a lot of opportunities for people like never before, in which people have more choices in what they can do. But happiness is not necessarily the result for people with a high income. Only after considering all the aspects of the issue, one will realize that “money can, to some extent, create conditions that promote happiness, but it cannot buy happiness in the absolute meaning of the term” (Aamir). For example, if you are a materialistic individual, people are only going to want to be around you for your money. Once the money is gone, so will the people be gone too. Money cannot buy the internal things that makes a person happy. Internal things such as the people you love or your friends and family cannot be bought. Many people