Transition To Management For The Economic Development Practitioner

Abstract

Economic development professionals are faced with significant challenges due to the complex demands of their jobs caused by the increase in organizations with an economic development component. They are required to make a transition into management yet there are few programs available to facilitate the process. This paper delves into the topics that were discussed by professionals to help economic development professionals incorporate management concepts in their work to make them more effective. Effective management entails incorporating strategies that facilitate the achievement of organizational goals. Management is significantly broad hence it is not possible to cover the entire spectrum in three days. Hence, the current paper integrates the most viable and widely accepted concepts from all major schools and approaches: decision-making, human resource management, interpersonal communication, and motivation. Managers must incorporate planning, organizing, leading, controlling, measurement, and feedback in decision-making. In human resources, managers must understand planning, recruitment, selection, orientation, training and development, performance evaluation, rewards, and separations to deal with the issues inherent in the sector. Interpersonal communication is the foundation of the activities and functions performed by economic development managers. They must understand the process, types and models of communication to deal with the barriers that limit its effectiveness. Besides, managers must understand the reasons for the differences in performance observed among staff since they are varied and complex. These variations can be explained through the content and process approaches developed by scholars. One emergent area is the management of volunteer and political organizations, which calls for managers to establish a spirit of co-operation and create strategies while maneuvering through the special demands of the various individuals. These factors create complexities that need managers to possess different qualities for organizations to meet their goals.