85 Examples of Management Challenges

John Spacey, September 26, 2021

Management challenges are issues, problems and inefficiencies that make it difficult to accomplish management objectives. These are the rule as opposed to the exception as managers typically face challenges on a daily basis. In fact, it could be argued that the primary role of management is to surmount challenges by clearing issues and designing-out future issues. The following are common examples of management challenges.

Poor Vendor Performance	Schedule Delays
Budget Overrun	Low Employee Performance
Employee Work Quality	System Reliability
Infrastructure Reliability	Compliance Issues
Absenteeism	Inefficient Processes
Resistance to Change	Overcomplexity of Systems
Quality Control Failures	Product Design Issues
Bad Publicity	Unethical Employee Behavior
Lack of Alignment Across Organization	Supply Shortages
Market Conditions	Economic Problems
Funding Shortfalls	Budget Cuts
Inefficient Organizational Structure	Uncooperative / Unsupportive Stakeholders
Miscommunication	Disengaged Employees
Stakeholder Salience	Rumors & Leaks
Negative Politics	Negative Team Culture
Uncooperative Peers	Competitive Environment
Price Wars	Cost Instability / Increases
Recruiting Talent	Market Failure
Failing Projects	Customer Dissatisfaction
Poor Product Reviews	High Turnaround Time
Unproductive Divisions	Teams and Employees
Poor Creative Output	Business Disruptions
Regulations	Political Disruptions
Managing Remote Work	Monitoring Employee Performance
Conflict Resolution	Legal Disputes
Talent Retention	Planning in an Environment of Ambiguity and Change
Managing Stakeholder Expectations	Setting Team Expectations
Managing Incidents and Problems	Managing Commitments to Stakeholders
Ineffective Meetings	Ineffective Communications
Difficult Customers, Clients and Stakeholders	Risk Management
Issues of Responsibility & Accountability	Low / Inconsistent Executive Support
Influencing Across an Organization	Expensive / Failure Prone Systems Projects
Shortfall of Employee Capabilities / Training	Knowledge Waste
Knowledge Loss	Technology Modernization
Replicated / Unreliable Data	Rapidly Changing Priorities
Poor Change Control	Complex Resource Dependencies
Securing Resources (e.g. Equipment)	Overworked Employees
Inaccurate Cost / Time Estimates	Poor Service From Internal Teams
Lack of Tools	Usability of Systems and Tools
Lack of Governance	Earning a High Value Mandate
Secrecy & Subterfuge	Defeatism & Sabotage
Managing Stakeholder Relationships	Cultivating a Positive Team Culture
Stuck in Reactive Mode (e.g. Firefighting issues)	Ethical Issues

Overcomplexity of systems refers to technologies that are duplicative and needlessly complex such that they are difficult to use, maintain or change.

Stakeholder salience is the tendency for individuals in any initiative to dominate the conversation -- even where they may have low authority. This can result in issues such as requirements, designs and implementations that are later rejected by more powerful stakeholders.

Market failure is when a product you launch to market doesn't do well.

Poor creative output relates to work products that are mediocre such that they fail to capture much value. For example, a product design that resembles your historical products while your competitors are rapidly improving.

Managing stakeholder expectations is the process of clearly communicating what you will deliver and not deliver. It is common for stakeholders to assume things about your work that don't match reality.

Knowledge waste is a situation where employees produce documentation that never gets used.

Knowledge loss is a situation where know-how or valuable information are lost. For example, an employee who forgets why design decisions were made such that the future may repeat the mistakes of the past.

Setting team expectations is the process of communicating what is expected of your team with precision.

Risk management is typically a challenge. For example, stakeholders may push for high risk approaches and then point fingers when these risks turn into issues.

Earning a high value mandate relates to avoiding action items and projects that are low value or doomed to failure.

Ethical issues applies to questions of right and wrong whereby you may disagree with the actions of your firm. For example, the launch of a product that is unsafe or dangerous to the environment.

85 Examples of Management Challenges

Management

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