WHY ARE MANAGERS IMPORTANT?
Managers have an important impact on both employees and the organizations in which they work. The following three reasons address their importance:
Organizations need their managerial skills and abilities more than ever in these uncertain, complex, and chaotic times.
Managers are critical to getting things done.
Managers do matter to organizations.
WHO ARE MANAGERS AND WHERE DO THEY WORK?
Who Is a Manager?
First-line (or front-line) managers (often called supervisors) are typically involved with producing the organization’s products or servicing the organization’s customers. These managers are located on the lowest level of management.
Middle managers include all levels of management between the first level and the top level of the organization. They may have titles such as regional manager, project leader, store manager, or division manager.
Top managers include managers at or near the top of the organization who are responsible for making organization-wide decisions and establishing plans and goals that affect the entire organization.
Where Do Managers Work?
An organization is a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish some specific purpose. Organizations share three common characteristics : (1) each has a distinct purpose; (2) each is composed of people; and (3) each develops some deliberate structure so members can do their work.
WHAT DO MANAGERS DO?
Management involves coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that their activities are completed efficiently and effectively.
Coordinating and overseeing the work of others is what distinguishes a managerial position from a non managerial one.
Efficiency is getting the most output from the least amount of inputs in order to minimize resource costs. Efficiency is often referred to as “doing things right”
Effectiveness is completing activities so that organizational goals are attained and is often described as “doing the right things”
B. Management Functions
Henri Fayol proposed that managers perform five management functions: POLC
Planning involves defining goals, establishing strategies for achieving those goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities.
Organizing involves arranging and structuring work to accomplish the organization’s goals.
Leading involves working with and through people to accomplish organizational goals.
Controlling involves monitoring, comparing, and correcting work performance.
C. Management Roles
Henry Mintzberg, a management researcher, conducted a precise study of managers at work. He concluded that managers perform 10 different roles, which are highly interrelated.
1. Management roles refer to specific categories of managerial behavior
Interpersonal roles include figurehead, leadership, and liaison activities.
Informational roles include monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson.
Decisional roles include entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.
D. Management Skills
Managers need certain skills to perform the challenging duties and activities associated with being a manager.
Technical skills are job-specific knowledge and techniques needed to proficiently perform specific tasks.
Human skills involve the ability to work well with other people individually and in a group.
Conceptual skills involve the ability to think and to conceptualize abstract and complex situations.