Contemporary management thinking proceeds from the fundamental fact that the emergence, continuation, and growth of organizations—as well as their decay, collapse, and demise—are all determined by the action of market forces.
Distinguished management starts from the market and ends with the market. Thus, the main goal of management is to secure a competitive position by providing products or services to customers that satisfy their desires and surpass what competitors offer.
Furthermore, the criteria of demand, supply, competitive forces, and market conditions represent the basic indicators for planning and building work programs in a new business organization. This requires mobilizing resources and pooling energies to reach achievements beyond those of competitors. Consequently, this leads to integration and interaction among material, human, and information resources, driving better levels of outstanding performance and developing each resource to its maximum levels of effectiveness and productivity.
It is remarkable that the system of contemporary administrative thought includes key concepts, the most important of which are:
- Performance Management: Considered a collective work charter for teams—a means to mobilize, coordinate, and invest the intellectual, mental energy, and practical experiences of individuals. It serves as a guide to achieving work milestones that an isolated individual would not have equal opportunities to accomplish. In this framework, contemporary management leverages information and communication technologies to connect work teams across different societies, making it essential to rely on job opportunities.
- Intellectual and Human Capital: The contemporary managerial thinker is deeply convinced of the importance of the intellectual abilities and mental energies of human resources (“intellectual capital” and “human capital”) and the necessity of positively investing in them. Hence, the importance of aligning all human resource management processes with comprehensive quality standards has emerged, alongside the need to design a strategy for preparing, managing, developing, and evaluating human resources—raising the organizational and administrative level of those responsible for them.
- Strategic Alliances: Contemporary managerial thought adopts the philosophy of strategic alliances to achieve “short-term” tactical goals and “long-term” strategic goals to face difficulties arising from globalization, technical revolution, and fierce competition. Therefore, it has become imperative that performance management systems be interconnected and integrated with strategic alliances to mobilize joint efforts, ensure greater competitive capabilities, and create a coherent, integrated, and effective entity.
By Dr. Samuel Essam Ammanoeeil
Professor of Management and Strategic Planning – At Egyptian Universities