Management takes place within a company that exists in a rapidly changing environment. The changes have a dramatic impact upon the practice of management. Forecasting the future is more of an art than a science, but it appears the emerging trends in the environment are shaping the directions of management. It is hard to know which events will have a significant impact and what that impact will be.

This section will cover eight emerging trends that have the potential of dramatically impacting US business and the practice of management. Awareness of trends allows the anticipation rather than a mere reaction, which may be nothing less than organizational survival.

Our economy seems to be shifting to informational-based service instead of the traditional industrial base. This change represents a structural change in US industry. Such as changing from manufacturing to information processing.

The United States has seen structural changes before as we started an agricultural economy, then to mercantilism and manufacturing and finally to services and information processing. So, the greatest number of workers has been , farmer, laborer, clerk and informational workers. This shift in jobs has been one of the most dramatic in the last thirty years. Defining productivity will be quite different then the assembly line and managers will have to be more skilled at motivating employees.

With this shift in job will come an attraction to higher levels of education by individuals.

The second major change that will have an impact on management will be the shift from the lower skilled to the higher skilled jobs. Managers will be dealing with greater levels of informational and technical education