Five Dilemmas Confronting Executive Leaders

Five dilemmas have been identified which confront executive leaders during the course of their work. These include clear and precise versus general and flexible, top-down versus bottomup, substance versus process, conflict resolution through confrontation versus compromise, and tangibles versus intangibles. The strategies that executives employ to resolve these dilemmas can affect the long-term performance of the executive as well as the organization, and the role that subordinates play within that organization, as well.

THE MOST IMPORTANT OF THE FIVE DILEMMAS

Of these dilemmas, the last (tangibles versus intangibles) may be the most important. The first four are intricately related to a manager's management style: whether the manager embraces conflicts or avoids it, whether the manager is flexible or specific, and whether the manager mentors subordinates or commands. These dilemmas focus on how the manager interacts with others. The last dilemma, tangible versus intangible, is the only dilemma that involves the strategic processes of the organization--which resources should be allocated to projects, whether short-term goals should be emphasized over long-term goals, and how compensation programs (as an example) should be structured.

This emphasis on the last dilemma in no way reduces the importance of the other four, however. Still, there are relationships that exist among the first four that are independent of the last one. As an example, a manager who fav

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etplace. If, on the other hand, a company focuses only on long-term performance, it may not be able to meet its short-term obligations and thus may not be in business long enough to realize its long-term objectives. Thus this dilemma is more important than the others because it directly affects the viability of the organization. CRITICAL ASPECTS OF THE DILEMMA What makes this a true managerial dilemma is that both tangible and intangible aspects of a company must be addressed. Often expressed as short-term and long-term issues, tangible and intangible issues affect the company's strategy and performance. Companies that are focused on short-term profitability, for example, may put off investing in new capital equipment that is more cost effective than current equipment because such an investment would affect short-term profitability. While this promotes the short-term goal, it makes it more difficult for the company to compete in the long-term as it has higher costs and less efficient equipment, giving the competition a possibly significant edge (Suutari, 2002). On the other hand, companies that emphasize long-term planning may invest too much in capital equipment without taking into account their ability to finance that eq

Category: Business - F