Traditional vs Modern Manager

Distiguish between traditional managers and contemporary managers.

The traditional manager is said to be a manager who manages using the early theories of management will the contemporary manager is that whose management style is based on ,modern theories.

Tradtional managers, have often been equated to it to the pointy-haired bosses who dictate every action. They talk about total reliance on command and control authority, process for process sake, and rigid conformance to the plan. The contemporary manager has been described as inspiring a team to perform. Two famous sayings associated with the modern manager are;

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."   General George Patton

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves."   Sun Tzu *(author of the art of war)

Specific characteristics of the traditional managers are;

✓ Management desire to be in control prevents people being creative

✓ Middle managers prevent innovations getting top level visibility.

✓ Poor leadership style

✓ Maintaining traditional ways of thinking eg rule of the thumb.

✓ Intolerance of fanatics wanting to change the world

✓ Excessive rules, constraints and bureaucracy

✓ Unwillingness to change a winning formula

✓ Resistance to change

✓ Excessive demands to produce lengthy written reports

✓ No free time allowed for new ideas

The traditional way of management focused on internal activities. Quality had a meaning which was totally internally defined. Products or services provided by organization were assumed to be good in quality, if this organization has done its best in producing that product or service. A manager using total quality management, focus is the customer. So that ultimate decider of the quality is the customer. Fitting to the customer requirement was the least...