Management - Organizational Awareness Versus Business Awareness

The manager has to balance his abilities between the business and the organization. This is exactly what makes one a manager; he must bridge the gap between business and organization.

To show this the following example will help.

Think about the tennis player. His "business" is to win a match, a tennis game. But this is not the only thing. There are many matches and tournaments and the player must sometimes select one and pass for another. Why? Sometimes for he is not yet in shape, and sometimes for the number of tournaments will exhaust his overall condition and increase the risk a failure.

That is where the manager comes in.

The example with the tennis game also shows that business awareness and organizational awareness have nothing to do with the size of the team.

The size of a tennis team - Rafael Nadal - is one (1). Yet he needs a manager. The size of a team in a company is larger than one, but they also need a manager.

When the size of the team gets larger, the business awareness becomes more of an issue. This is when we compare business (large teams) with sport (smaller teams). Organizations grow and with the increase of business scope the organization of activities becomes more complex. And the growth of the organization flaws the business awareness. People are so involved with organizing that they often fail to keep in touch with the business (focus). This is more likely to happen when the team support only indirectly the business is in quality assurance activities, etc.

The bigger the team, the more focus on business awareness. The smaller the team (until individual player) the more focus on organizational awareness. Rafael Nadal doesn't need a manager who tells him to play tennis, but he needs someone to tell him: skip the next match and regain some energy. The next match is a sure victory.

So when the tennis player looses the Final in the Rotterdam Tournament; who's to blame? The professional player (focused on the business) or the manager (focused on the organization)?

2009 Hans Bool