Critical Challenges For Implications And Management Skills

Thesis Statement

Discuss about the Critical Challenges for Implications and Management Skills.

In this article bigger organizations of New Zealand have been surveyed, where their chief executives   of 265 large organizations belonging to various sectors have been surveyed (Boxall & Purcell, 2011). This article tries to analyse the biggest challenges and risks that are faced by chief executives of these large organisations that belong to private, public and not-for-profit sectors, while examining the implications for their management skills. The article suggests clearly that the income and the productivity gap in comparison to Australia is major concern for New Zealand  . The results of the survey indicate that with the rapid changes in technologies and markets the chief executives in New Zealand are also facing several challenges, on one hand they have to face “war of talent” both nationally as well as internationally and then they have to adjust to constrained funds on which they have very less control (Yukl et al., 2002).  Thus in this economic environment where the costs are escalating and  the climate of higher demands prevails  some major challenges that  they have to face are :  management of partners & stakeholders;  managing renewal and uncertainty as well as  managing resources along with people . The article states that the HR specialists of the organizations have a major role to play in the entire development process. This essay will critically analyse the various aspects like strengths and weaknesses, thesis statement/ questions in the article along with my personal viewpoint on the subject.

A particular statement  that is able to provide the summary  of the major idea of entire research paper  while expressing it ion clear cut manner ,  what is the main purpose for conducting research  in relation to specific topic of study  is called as Thesis statement . Thus it helps in finding out the particular topic that is to be studied and analysed and the aim that the paper will serve (Purdue University, 2016). Thus on the basis of the definition given above the thesis statement or the research question that has guided the above article is:

Finding and examining the highest level major challenges that the chief executives of large organizations in New Zealand face in the current business environment, while also discussing their managerial implications for the management skills of New Zealand, while considering the manner in which the human resource practitioners can promote and support such kind of skill development (Hutchison & Boxall, 2014).

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Article

Some of the major strengths and weaknesses that have been found in this article while analysing it in-depth have been discussed below: One major strength of this research article is that the topic chosen for study that is the “critical challenges  facing New Zealand’s  chief executives : implications for  management skills” is  very much conducted timely  because after the  global financial crisis ( GFC)  that occurred in 2008-09  in New Zealand (Bücker & Poutsma, 2010) , the country just like other nations has been experiencing  lower economic growth. Then the literature review that has been conducted completely provides an outline of the organizational landscape as well as key features of New Zealand, while reviewing the maximum existing researches conducted on management capabilities. The article has also conducted a clear cut and valid comparison with not juts neighbouring countries like Australia but also the economically stable nations like UK and US. Then the research also considers various sectors that are very successful as well as the sectors in which the nation is lagging behind have also been considered (ResearchGate, 2010).

 The main focus of the literature review is to fund the research gaps  while mentioning the previous research  that have focussed on related topic of study , considering the various opinions of chief executives  who are capable of understanding  these challenges in much better way (Randolf, 2009). Chief executives have been chosen as the population for study because they are the major decision makers in the management and all the three sectors have been covered for study including private, public and not-for-profit organizations. Thus the sample chosen for study is well representative one comprising of wide range of organizational sizes as well as range of industries as well (Salant & Dillman, 1994) .

The survey used mixed methods for conducting research that is combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods was used. The quantitative section of questionnaire had questions on which respondents need to rate the challenges and risks on Likert scale. A pilot test was also conducted before sending the questionnaire to the respondents on MBA executives. The qualitative section of survey questionnaire has five open-ended questions that helped in getting elaborate responses from the respondents (Bergman, 2008). Thus by using qualitative method the researcher has been able to get different yet quite insightful perspective regarding the topic. It has been found that   mixed methods provides an opportunity for exploring both the worlds permitting an in-depth discovery related to various kinds of indigenous practices, traditions as well as patterns that can be discovered (Collins & O’Cathain, 2009). Moreover higher level of generalization done during mixed methods survey provides advantages through large scale empirical research at the same time.

Personal Viewpoint

The article has major weakness that although it identifies the need to manage the uncertainty  as the major and critical management skill  but it has not been able to find out what  all managerial behaviours combine to   form “  managing uncertainty  and renewal” (Hitt et al., 2010). Another weakness of this paper it that the scope of this paper does not discuss the manner in which all the managerial capabilities that have been stated can be best developed. Thus this analysis does have certain limitations that need to be addressed. A better and bigger picture could have been obtained by the researcher if the opinion of more than one   respondent from one organization had been sought.

Another weak spot of this study is that the data is very much descriptive in nature, so it does not directly measure the assessments of skill deficits or the needs of chief executives. On the other hand there might be few challenges and risks that  might be different from the ones faced by chief executives of large organizations so further research can also be conducted  on smaller organizations (Lin et al., 2013). Moreover just the top management chief executives have been included in the research; rather some people from middle management should also have been included in the research in order to get better insight into the research topic.

As per my viewpoint the use of mixed methods for conducting study is best as it allows in depth analysis of the topic of research as it includes both qualitative as well as qualitative method of study. However I think that the reactions of chief executives regarding analysis of the management skill needs should have also been obtained by the researcher as this would have helped in finding out the presence of any kind of skill groups which this study has completely missed out.  In order to further explore the extent up to which the New Zealand managers currently show the capabilities or skills that have been identified, the researcher should have added few more questions in the survey questionnaire. According to my perspective the researcher should have also included executives from middle management of the organization to gain better and in-depth view point on the topic. Moreover these are the people who are in direct contact with the employees so they would be providing much better stance in relation to the topic of research.

References

I feel that by implementing the right kind of policies and training modules for executives the organizations can handle the challenges and risks in better manner. This will help in making available better opportunities for the employees  and this will also help in decreasing the  migration of better workforce from country to Australia  who move away looking for better jobs , thus making the business climate in New Zealand more innovative , stable as well as flexible for the executives.

In order to handle the economic downturn  as well as various other critical challenges  that the current economic environment is posing for the businesses  it is very much important  to analyse the  their implications  on managerial skills  so that the HR practitioners can follow  the right  kind of skills (Kamble, 2011). This will certainly be helpful to the organizations in New Zealand to handle the current situations like war of talent etc. and help in developing the right kind of skills. The main strength that is visible is use of axed methods and a large sample size which is very much representative of the population chosen. Moreover all the sectors of the economy have been considered for the research in order to find out the issues and risks faced by executives and their managerial implications, so that the HR practitioners can develop all these crucial skills amongst the employees with the help of proper training. However few weaknesses have also been found like too much descriptive nature of data which does not allow direct measurement of needs or skill deficits of the chief executives of the organizations.

References

Bergman, M.M., 2008. The straw men of the qualitative-quantitative divide and their influence on mixed methods research. London Uk: Sage.

Boxall, P. & Purcell, J., 2011. Strategy and human resource management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bücker, J. & Poutsma, E., 2010. Global management competencies:A theoretical foundation. Journal of Managerial Psychology , 25(2), pp.829-44.

Collins, K.M.T. & O’Cathain, A., 2009. Ten points about mixed methods research to be considered by the novice researcher. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, 3(1), pp.2-7.

Hitt, M.A., Haynes, K.T. & Serpa, R., 2010. Strategic leadership for the 21st century. Business Horizons , 53(5), pp.437-44.

Hutchison, A. & Boxall, P., 2014. The critical challenges facing New Zealand’s chief executives: implications for management skills. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 52, pp.23-41.

Kamble, R.R., 2011. Managerial Skills for Organizational Performance :An Analytical Study. Indian Streams Research Journal, 1(1), pp.23-27.

Lin, M., Lucas, H.C. & Shmueli, G., 2013. Too Big to Fail: Large Samples and the p-Value Problem. Information Systems Research Articles in Advance, pp.1-12.

Purdue University, 2016. Writing A Thesis Statement. [Online] Available at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/general/gl_thesis.html [Accessed 16 September 2016].

Randolf, J.J., 2009. A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation, 13, p.14.

ResearchGate, 2010. The Literature Review. [Online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/file.PostFileLoader.html?id.assetKey. [Accessed 22 September 2016].

Salant, P. & Dillman, D.A., 1994. How to conduct your own survey. John Wiley & Sons, Inc..

Yukl, G., Gordon, A. & Taber, T., 2002. A hierarchical taxonomy of leadership behavior. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 9(1), pp.15-32.