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The perspective of the Role of Managers in the last 50 years.

The manager plays an important role, contributing primarily to the efficiency and sustainable
development of a team or organization. With their responsibilities, managers assume many
different roles. Over the decades, the managers’ role cannot be denied, as well, the view of the
manager’s role changes in different periods of time. Based on knowledge from experts in history,
whose theories are the foundation of current theories. Through significant changes, the view of
the manager's role is more and more complete. Over time, we inherit a massive and rich legacy
of management and the role of managers. This essay will discuss the changes in the perspective
of the role of managers in the last five decades.
 
The leader is the person who has an organized influence on the governed objects to achieve the
set goals in the changing conditions of the environment (Chiến, 1994). According to Koontz and
O’Donnell, “Management is defined as the creation and maintenance of an internal environment
in an enterprise, where individuals, working together in groups, can perform efficiently and
effectively towards the attainment of group goals.” (Kurmar, n.d.). Managers keep an essential
role in an organization, they have to interact with their subordinates and give the right method to
influence their peers to perform as effectively as possible. In 1972, Chester Barnard published a
book named ”The Functions of the Executive”. Throughout the book, Barnard makes two
significant contributions to governance theory, in which the main principles of executives are
communicating and motivating employees to work harder to achieve the goals of
organizations[ CITATION Pha94 \l 1066 ]. Successful management depends on maintaining
good relationships with outsiders and with whom the organization is involved. Secondly,
Barnard proposes the theory of accepting authority which suggests that employees can obey
orders of superiors on a voluntary basis and a conscious choice. According to him, all members
must understand the information of the system, be specifically divided and openly shared about
the rights of each individual, but in that information system, the manager must play the central
role and has to grasp the whole system (Sản, 1998). Christ Argyris and Donal A. Schon (1974)
created the book "Theory in practice", in which the author declares that in order to successfully
recruit employees, it is necessary for a manager to create an environment of opportunity for self-
improvement in a similar environment as a child reaching their maturity (Anon, n.d.). Theory Z
described by Ouchi (1981) as a kind of management in which the main mission of a manager is
to expand workers loyalty to the organization through the commitment of an enduring occasion
which is based on the workers representative. This theory became popular and ahead of that time
as it was very useful when put into practice and also continues to support modern management
thinking (Chí, n.d.). A year later, Tom Peter’s management theory in the book “In search of
excellence” which based on the efficiency of leaderships believed that “Good leaders believe in
productivity through people, are hands-on and value-driven; they only do what they do best.”
This theory prefers the impact of an efficient manager on the organization to the finance result
(McGowan, 2011). Six years later, Michael T.Hannan and John Freeman published the book
named “Organizational Ecology” which used ecology to measure the data of entry and exit for
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the assortment of an organization. This book argued that the organization depends more on
collective work rather than individually.
 Moving on to the 21st century, Peter Senge has released the book “ The Fifth discipline” which
declares that a Learning Organization is the one that is based on the formerly knowledge
acquainted before getting used to new cases (M.Senge, 2006). Senge’s theory has encouraged the
company to move into more connected thinking, more community to make members feel more
committed. He said that ”In the long run, the only sustainable source of competitive advantage is
your organization's ability to learn faster than its competition.” (M.Senge, 2006). 
John Gardner introduced the book ”John W.Gardner on leadership” in 1993, which affirmed that
the leader is the one who set the object for himself and his followers to persuade that object
(Mustaan, n.d.). In 1999, Peter Drucker with his book “Management Challenges for the 21st
Century” shared the notion which people’s manager is themselves. According to Drucker “More
and more people in the workforce—and most knowledge workers—will have to MANAGE
THEMSELVES. They will have to place themselves where they can make the greatest
contribution; they will have to learn to develop themselves.” (Drucker, 2001). He has covered
the entire field of management in an attempt to change many of the misconceptions and
assumptions that prevent managers and organizations from realizing their maximum potential.
Drive theory was already born in the 1900s, but it was not until Daniel Pink published his book
did this theory become popularized. His book named "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What
Motivated Us" has proved the completely opposite opinion to the old model of driven which
employees can be motivated by reward, Daniel’s book said that the reward is ineffective to
motivate employees. At the same time, he also divided this Driven theory into three main aspects
which are called Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. To explain these aspects, Autonomy is the
aspiration to be self-directed, Mastery is the desire to do better in what we are doing and Purpose
is connected to be able to grow larger than one individual (Anon, n.d.). 
 
In the end, we realized that the view of management work has changed over the past 50 years. In
the 1970s, the role of the manager was supposed to be the motivator, creating certain
environments for employees to work as efficiently as possible to achieve certain goals. Then,
since the 1980s, the manager's job was less heavy but required more professionalism, the
effectiveness of the job at that time did not only depend on the motivation of a manager, it is a
collective way of working. At this point, the manager must know how to manage the association
between members. In the end, experts argue that no one can manage an individual's effectiveness
by themselves, a team that works best when there is a combination of both self-managed and a
manager. Knowing the impact at the right time at the right place makes the team become the
most effective. Over time, the role of managers will be supplemented and more attached to
technology. However, the role of a manager cannot be denied and will remain more and more
important to guide a successful organization.
 

Word Count: 1066 words ( not icluded intext citation, refernces and heading)
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References

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