The ABC Manager-How to Manage People More Effectively in Today’s Challenging and Demanding Work Environments

Abstract

It is recognized by academics and the community of practice that the management of people plays an important role in today’s challenging and competitive working environments. Recent people skills research expresses the need to investigate how knowledge of the concepts of attitude and behaviour can help managers to improve their managing people skills and competences. Social Psychology plays an important role in establishing what makes an effective people manager. This paper proposes what practising social psychologists consider are the attitudes, behaviours and competences (ABC) of an effective people manager. A combination of literature review and contributions from a focus group meeting with practising social psychologists provided new insights to answer the main research questions and to confirm whether the research hypotheses are valid. The results suggest that managers would benefit from adopting and applying the suggested ABC skills set for their own benefit and the benefit of those they are managing. It is suggested that managers with an ABC skills set are highly likely to make significant contributions towards business growth the organizations they work for. The outcome of this research is applicable and relevant to managers in any working environment such as Construction, IT, Finance or Consultancy. The proposed skills set of what makes an effective ABC manager can be universally applied although some modifications may be necessary to meet the needs of cultural diversities.