Management Concepts, Research Paper Example

Managers in organizations are able to make a positive contribution by encouraging and promoting concepts of entrepreneurship. By adoption of this approach it stimulates a learning organization and promotes growth activities.  This activity essentially involves bring teams of people together in order to explore opportunities within the organization.  It is aimed at making people become more ‘business aware’ and able to take a more holistic view of the organization. It is particularly powerful when gathering people together from different realms of the organization and getting them to resolve an organizational problem .. ” Entrepreneurship has three dimensions: innovation, risk-taking and proactive behaviour. Innovation requires an emphasis on developing new and unique products, services and processes” (Morris, 1995).

Managers promote entrepreneurship by influencing three types of employee behaviour. These being: (i) Becoming more innovative and creative in the way they conduct business at work (ii) The ability to take calculated risks and as such become more competitive at work and (iii) adopting a proactive and positive mindset at work.  The concept of ‘staying on top of the game’ and becoming an assertive leader.  There is an old saying that ‘ leaders are born not made’ but in this case these skills can be taught and can lead to considerable individual performance improvement.  Every organization has a wealth of good human resource talent, after all that is the reason you hired them in the first place.  It is the Managers that should stimulate this talent and optimize individual performance in order that the best results can be achieved.  This works well when the economy is buoyant but ..  “innovation requires taking risks, and these are risk-averse times.” (Arndt, 1999).

One of the dangers for organizations is the perceived vision of stability performance.  This is where you believe the organization has reached peak performance and as such starts to plateau out.  From this position it becomes a question of maintaining the status quo and as such the energy of positivism is eroded in the Company .. ” While reaching a point of “being there” is an achievement, a real concern for most businesses is that somehow becoming an established business means that the entrepreneurial spirit has been lost. Hence, the growth of intrapreneurship – fostering entrepreneurism within established organizations.”  (Small business notes, 2009).

The current trend towards fostering improved levels of entrepreneirship is particularly evident in the USA.  This is less so in Canada but the US is known to have a much more dynamic and proactive approach towards Marketing.  For example, of the total working population in the USA it is estimated that 1/3 of all jobs entails an aspect of marketing entrepreneurship.  The goals of this new culture is really aimed at improving the innovation of individuals and gaining improved successes by creating new Corporate values.  ” The need to pursue corporate entrepreneurship has arisen from a variety of pressing problems including: technological changes, innovations, and improvements in the marketplace (Miller & Friesen, 1985).

Another reason for pursuing a reason for Corporate strategy for improving individual entrepreneurship has been related to that of technological change and innovation with perceived weaknesses of Corporate Management being able to keep ahead of the change and subsequently safeguard the interests of the organization from external threat and competition.   By pushing for this  cultural paradigm shift it has imposed a significant organizational challenge at the practical level.  This is to say that in order for organizations to be effective in such a strategy they need appropriate guidelines in place i.e. how will this be implemented, what are the risks involved, what are the critical success factors etc.  There have been a number of research studies carried out on organizations that have adopted these change parameters, however none have adequately tested the results of the hypothesis.   ” As the world economy becomes more globalized it becomes more important to understand the entrepreneurial process at an international level. From the standpoint of the United States, interaction with Canada can create tremendous opportunities for both countries. Differences in management style and expectations can, however, pose a set of unanticipated problems. ”  (Kuratko, 1999)

The Human Resources Management team play a major part in influencing entrepreneural development within organizational cultures.  Some of the most significant developments in improving the learning process centre around performance appraisel practices, training needs analysis, and development of individual employee innovation concepts.  Visionary firms build in increasded tolerance levels for failure, thereby promoting risk taking and being creative or innovatory in the job.  The Management team are also much more results oriented and interested in the evaluation of those results i.e. how were they achieved? did they demonstrate concepts of creativity or innovation? were risks taken and managed – how were these successfully mitigated?

The management team also tend to be much more oriented towards teamwork and how group performance work, as opposed purely to that of individual assessment.  Another means of promoting entrepreneural work is in the compensation package.  Firms pay a base rate but reward based upon performance and innovation.  This creates a spirit of competition and those able to rise up to the challenge receive higher rates of compensation.  Other firms use a reward base for Executives that are innovative i.e. luxury holidays for the family, executive automobiles, etc.  Entrepreneurial firms on the whole tend to be more obsessive about business orientation and ensuring that new employees understand the corporate values i.e. mission, goals, objectives and code of ethics towards customer service.  Training in such organizations is much more likely to be customized to an individual career path rather than just generalized training schemes.  This is where the private sector firms tend to score higher than the public sector

In the recruitment process those entrepreneural firms are much more prone to look at external surces for new employees, they are likely to cast a wide net in looking for the best talent in the market place.  In addition, such firms offer better career paths and training schemes and are more likely to work closely with the professions.  Managers in these organizations often find the environment is less complicated  than those of traditional firms.  The consultancy arm of IBM in the United Kingdom is a good example of such a firm.  A very open management structure, promotes service excellence, hires the top graduates from leading business schools, provides excellent in house training schemes, encourages continued professional development and rewards innovation.

Individuals responding to entrepreneural coaching tend to be self-aware, respond readily to challenges, prepared to take risks, innovative and motivated towards profit generation and the creation of wealth.  Such people are also much likely to be in a position to convert threats into potential opportunities. They also tend to be more extrovert as opposed to introvert personalities. They have a tendency to be very persuiasive and win arguments.

Works Cited

Arndt, M. (1999, 12 21). Promoting Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Retrieved 3 8, 2010, from Enterprise Resilience Management Blog: http://enterpriseresilienceblog.typepad.com/enterprise_resilience_man/2009/12/promoting-innovation-and-entrepreneurship.html

Kuratko, D. F. (1999, 12 22). Perception of Internal Factors for Corporate Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Canadian and U.S. Retrieved 3 8, 2010, from Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice : http://www.allbusiness.com/business-planning-structures/business-structures/390477-1.html

Morris, M. H. (1995, 5 1). HR practices that promote entrepreneurship. Retrieved 3 8, 2010, from HR Magazine: http://www.allbusiness.com/management/501301-1.html

Small business notes. (2009). Small business notes. Retrieved 3 8, 2010, from Small business notes: http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/choosing/intrapreneurship.html