Managing people

Published on September 27, 2010   20 min

A selection of talks on Management, Leadership & Organisation

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0:00
Hello, my name is Professor Rowley, I'm the Director of the Centre for Research on Asian Management, and my interests are the development and management of people over time and also internationally.
0:13
Today what we're going to look at is the development of people and their management over time. We'll cover this with an introduction, five main themes, and a conclusion looking at the future of management of people. These five sections are: 1) what it is, 2) its development and traditions over time, 3) differences from the past and these traditions, 4) rhetoric versus reality, and 5) important context.
0:46
So firstly the introduction, it's important to note the topic's relevance and importance to business today, as well as historically. After all, businesses are social organisations, they comprise people, they don't exist without people. Of course, people are the organisation, they're those key assets to operationalise and achieve business strategies, to put them into place and to operate them, and organisational performance depends on people's efforts and people's management. Finally, the importance of the topic can be seen in that every area and aspect of management is influenced by how people are managed, and how they perform.
1:29
A useful way of looking at this importance is summed up in this very pithy quote: "People are the only elements with power to generate any value. All the other variables in the business offer nothing but inert potential. By their nature, they add nothing, without people, those cannot be put into play or leverage".