Rotating Managers Among Different Managerial Jobs Vs Specialization in a Certain Area

Hello everyone,

Here is my answer to the discussion question this week.

Some Japanese companies have a policy of rotating their managers among different managerial jobs. In contrast, American managers are more likely to specialize in a certain area (e.g. finance or operations). Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches. Which do you prefer? Why?

Japanese Approach: Rotating managers among different managerial jobs

Advantages:

• This method helps managers to reduce the boredom and monotony through diversifying the managerial activities.
• Managers with a wider range of skills give management more flexibility in scheduling work, adapting to changes and filling vacancies.
• This approach broadens the range of experience of managers and is an effective training technique.

Disadvantages:

• Work is disrupted as rotated managers take time to adjust to a new set up.
• Training costs are increased.
• It can demotivate intelligent and ambitious managers who seek specific responsibilities in their chosen specialty.
• Few people have the technical knowledge and skills to move from one job to another job.
• There is no appreciable change in employee satisfaction, unless the jobs are such that the person is really interested in them.

American Approach: Specialization in a certain area

Advantages:

• This method helps to increase manager productivity and makes their performances more efficient
• Expertise of managers is developed over time in their chosen task so managers will have more chance to have higher pay or be promoted.
• Employment prospects can be improved because managers with specialized skills are often more desirable than those with only general skills and many jobs even require managers to have specific knowledge and skills just to be considered.
• Job security is ensured, a manager with a specialized skill that no one else knows is difficult for a company to replace.

Disadvantages:

• Specialization can makes the job become too simplified and leads to job burnout and boredom.
• This method can lead to job dissatisfaction and low employee morale and the quality of work may suffer.
• Absenteeism can rise.

In my opinion, each of these approaches has both benefits and drawbacks. However, I prefer the specialization in a certain area because its advantages seem to outweigh its drawback.  This method helps to solve dominant problems related to productivity, performance, and efficiency of the managers and contributes greatly to the development of the company.

Thank you for spending on my work.

Best Regards,

Thi Giang Tran