The Competencies for 21st Century Manager
By
Aurobinda Panda
B.B.A.LL.B 2nd year, 4th semester
KIIT LAW SCHOOL
Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India -751024
Email: aurobindapanda2003@gmail.com
Mobile no: +91-9040428313
(Key words: '21st Century Manager', 'modern manager', ‘Management practice' and 'competencies for manager')
Never before there were so many challenges before the managers as are in 21st century. Not only the complexion of work force changing quickly but the environmental risk, rapid technological changes, globalization forces acting on organizations, severe competitive environment and Increasing demand on organizations by various stake holders make the role of modern managers complex and stress full. The traditional theories of management that developed from time to time in last 150 years including those from Adam Smith, Max Weber, Taylor, Fayol, Mayo and Peter Drucker and so on have given immense contribution to the management of organizations in twentieth century.
However the modern challenges before managers give scope for identifying some competencies that are crucial for 21st century management. The traditional view of manager as boss is long extinct. The management practice has over the decades transformed from supervision to the service role.
We do remember the punch line of Rotary International: 'Service above self'.
The phrase "Servant Leadership" was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, he said:
The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the