CHAPTER 1 MANAGEMENT TODAY Learning Objectives Upon completion of the chapter, the student should be able to: 1. Summarize the challenges of developing and maintaining career readiness in the new economy. 2. Describe what organizations are like as work settings. 3. Discuss what it means to be a manager. 4. Explain the functions, roles, and activities of managers. 5. Summarize how we learn and use essential skills for career success. Chapter 1 Overview Work in the new economy is increasingly knowledge-based, and people, with their capacity to bring valuable intellectual capital to the workplace, are the ultimate foundation of organizational performance. The chapter begins with a section on understanding the challenges of working today. The world of work is undergoing dynamic and challenging changes that provide great opportunities along with tremendous uncertainty. These changes are due to the impact of important trends regarding worker talent, technological change, globalization, ethical standards, workforce diversity, and careers. After setting up this framework for the changing environment in which organizations operate, the chapter goes on to describe organizations as open systems which interact with their environments in the process of transforming resource inputs into finished goods and services as product outputs. From this point, the bulk of the chapter describes managers and their work; detailing that managers directly support, supervise, facilitate and help activate the work efforts of other people in organizations. Next, the chapter explores the management process consisting of the four functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, followed by the roles and skills managers need for success. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the essential managerial skills and how they are leaned.