INTRODUCTION
The concepts of manager and managing are
intertwined. Management refers to the process of using organizational resources
to achieve organizational objectives through the functions of planning,
organizing and staffing, leading, and controlling. In addition to being a
process, the term management is also used as a label for a specific discipline,
for the people who manage, and for a career choice.
DEFINITION
A manager is a person responsible for the
work performance of group members. (Because organizations have become more
democratic, the term group member or team member is now frequently used as a
substitute for subordinate.) A manager has the formal authority to commit
organizational resources, even if the approval of others is required.
How Are Managers Different from Nonmanagerial Employees?
Although managers work in organizations,
not everyone who works in an organization is a manager. For simplicity’s sake,
we’ll divide organizational members into two categories: nonmanagerial
employees and managers. Nonmanagerial employees are people who work directly on
a job or task and have no responsibility for overseeing the work of others. The
employees who ring up your sale at Home Depot, make your burrito at Chipotle,
or process your course registration in your college’s registrar’s office are
all nonmanagerial employees. These nonmanagerial employees may be referred to
by names such as associates, team members, contributors, or even employee
partners. Managers, on the other hand, are individuals in an organization who
direct and oversee the activities of other people in the organization. This
distinction doesn’t mean, however, that managers don’t ever work directly on
tasks. Some managers do have work duties not directly related to overseeing the
activities of others. For example, regional sales managers for Motorola also
have responsibilities in servicing some customer accounts in addition to
overseeing the activities of the other sales associates in their territories
LEVELS OF MANAGERS
Top-Level Managers
Most people who enter the field of
management aspire to become top-level managers—managers at the top one or two
levels in an organization. C-level manager is a recent term used to describe a
top-level manager; these managers usually have the word chief in their title,
such as chief operating officer. Top-level managers are empowered to make major
decisions affecting the present and future of the firm. Only a top-level
manager, for example, would have the authority to purchase another company,
initiate a new product line, or hire hundreds of employees. Top-level managers
are the people who give the organization its general direction; they decide
where it is going and how it will get there. The terms executive, top-level
manager, and c-level manager can be used interchangeably.
Middle-Level Managers
Middle-level managers are managers who are
neither executives nor first-level supervisors, but who serve as a link between
the two groups. Middle-level managers conduct most of the coordination
activities within the firm, and they are responsible for implementing programs
and policies formulated by top-level management. The jobs of middle-level
managers vary substantially in terms of responsibility and income.
First-Level Managers
Managers who supervise operatives are
referred to as first-level managers, first-line managers, or supervisors.
Historically, first-level managers were promoted from production or clerical
(now called staff support) positions into supervisory positions. Rarely did
they have formal education beyond high school. A dramatic shift has taken place
in recent years, however. Many of today’s first-level managers are career
school graduates and four year college graduates who are familiar with modern
management techniques. The current emphasis on productivity and cost control
has elevated the status of many supervisors.
MANAGERIAL ROLES
Interpersonal Roles
1. The figurehead role, As the head of an organizational unit,
every manager must perform some ceremonial duties as taking visitors to dinner,
attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies and the like. These activities are
typically more ceremonial and symbolic than substantive.
2. The leader role, Managers are also
responsible for the work of the people in their unit. Hiring, training, and
motivating employees. A manager who formally or informally shows subordinates
how to do things and how to perform under pressure is leading.
3.The liaison role, in which managers establish and maintain
contacts outside the vertical chain of command, becomes especially important in
view of the finding of virtually every study of managerial work that managers
spend as much time with peers and other people outside of their units as they
do with their own subordinates. this role often involves serving as a
coordinator or link among people, groups, or organizations.
Information Roles
1.The monitor role, managers are constantly scanning the
environment for information-seeks information that may be of value-, talking
with liaison contacts and subordinates, and receiving unsolicited information,
much of it as a result of their network of personal contacts. A good portion of
this information arrives in verbal form, often as gossip, hearsay, and
speculation.
2.The disseminator role, managers pass privileged information
directly to subordinates, who might otherwise have no access to it. Managers
must not only decide who should receive such information, but how much of it,
how often, and in what form. Increasingly, managers are being asked to decide
whether subordinates, peers, customers, business partners, and others should
have direct access to information 24 hours a day without having to contact the
manager directly. when the roles of monitor and disseminator are viewed
together, the manager emerges as a vital link in the organization’s chain of
communication.
3. The spokesperson role, managers send information to people outside
of their organizations: an executive makes a speech to lobby for an
organizational cause, or a supervisor suggests a product modification to a
supplier. Increasingly, managers are also being asked to deal with
representatives of the news media, providing both factual and opinion-based
responses that will be printed or broadcast to vast unseen audiences, often
directly or with little editing. The risks in such circumstances are enormous,
but so too are the potential rewards in terms of brand recognition, public
image, and organizational visibility.
Decisional Roles
1.The entrepreneur role, the voluntary initiator of change. Managers
seek to improve their businesses, adapt to changing market conditions, and
react to opportunities as they present themselves. Managers who take a
longer-term view of their responsibilities are among the first to realize that
they will need to reinvent themselves, their product and service lines, their
marketing strategies, and their ways of doing business as older methods become
obsolete and competitors gain advantage.
2.The disturbance or crisis handler role,
depicts managers who must involuntarily react to conditions. Crises can arise
because bad managers let circumstances deteriorate or spin out of control, but
just as often good managers find themselves in the midst of a crisis that they
could not have anticipated but must react to just the same.
3.The resource allocator, involves managers making decisions about
who gets what, how much, when, and why. Resources, including funding,
equipment, human labor, office or production space, and even the boss’s time are
all limited, and demand inevitably outstrips supply. Managers must make
sensible decisions about such matters while still retaining, motivating, and
developing the best of their employees.
4.The negotiator role, Managers spend considerable amounts of time
in negotiations: over budget allocations, labor and collective bargaining
agreements, and other formal dispute resolutions. In the course of a week,
managers will often make dozens of decisions that are the result of brief but
important negotiations between and among employees, customers and clients,
suppliers, and others with whom managers must deal.
REFERENCES
1-A.DUBRIN, Essentials of
management.
2- EBERT & GRIFFIN, 2020.
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