By Ibrahim Adam Ghalib, Borama

Globalization is one of the major factors affecting managers and management today. Executives are challenged by increasing number of competitors and consumer markets as part of internal and external environments. We live in a time of continuous technological change. Technology is radically changing the fundamental ways that institutions are structured and the way that mangers manage. Managers must adapt their practices to the changing expectations of the society they operate. Gone are the days that managers command in a centralized environment. The new dynamic environment means both reward and challenge for those managers in today’s institutions. Today they must listen before they offer solutions and exercise authority as the top brass.

Delegation is the assignment to another person. Managers now get things done through other people. This recognizes that there is trust between the executive and his subordinates. Executive managers need to understand the value of delegating and participative decision making. It is not possible to do the job by yourself. It is ideal to break the jobs into narrow repetitive tasks. Allowing the employees the freedom to use their own judgment increases trust between the managers and the employees and enhance accountability. If the work team falls short of reaching its goals, alert and reaffirm to the employees that you expect future performance to improve and then take the necessary corrective action to turn the expectation into reality.

The establishment of controls to monitor the subordinate’s progress increases the likelihood that important problems will be identified early on. A well control system is required which permits the subordinates to alert you when a big mistake is imminent. Managers who made a difference are those involved employees in decision making, delegate authority, encourage participation and use feedback controls as an opportunity to coaching employees. New ways of organizing work are radically altering the old approaches. The information technology changed how work is done and the relationship between workers and managers.

In this country since the proclamation of Somaliland in 1991 no much progress has been made to bring about changes in the decentralization, the organizational culture, management skills and the decision making. Both the government institutions and the private sector still suffer capacity weaknesses such as planning, reporting, transparency, accountability, leadership and service delivery. The administration knows fairly well that the economy plays an important role in this respect. There is no good financial return and incentive that move the inner instincts of the work force. Corruption is in wide spread and in this respect it is difficult to maintain neither professional ethical standards nor meet the fiduciary responsibility required.

Why do people work? There are many reasons people work but the main one is that it pays an amount of money that allows them to satisfy their needs and wants. Monetary compensation is an important type of reward that managers use to motivate high levels of employee performance. Employees have different personal needs and goals that they are hoping to satisfy through their jobs. A diverse array of rewards is required to motivate employees and if corruption is combated the financial resources is enough to meet their needs.

In Somaliland managers are reluctant to delegate any function to their subordinates because they do not want their employees to know their source of income and that is why opportunities are not provided at all to them to learn and acquire work experience and in this respect even routine work cannot be accomplished on time.

I want to alert the elected and appointed officials that it is never too late to plan for the future. We have to catch with the fast moving world. Curb corruption and regulate our resources. Employees should be rewarded by their efforts. When employees know where the work unit is going and what they must contribute to reach the goals, they can coordinate their activities, cooperate with each other and do to accomplish those goals. We need to look ahead, anticipate change, consider the impact of change and develop appropriate responses.

If the work activities are coordinated around established plans, waste of time and resources can be minimized and when means and ends are made clear efficiencies become obvious and it is easy to correct or eliminate it. The distrust that have been developed through the years between the society is likely to linger for some time and we need to overcome these difficulties and build trust to make positive changes then and only then we can make a livelihood recovery.

kaalib33@hotmail.com