6.2. Management

DISCOVERING CONNECTIONS

1. Can you imagine a company performing successfully without management?

2. What is management? Is it an art or a science? An instinct or a set of skills and techniques that can be taught?

3. Do you agree that a manager is a continual problem-solver, decision-maker, and innovator?

READING

Text 1

While reading the text focus on the following issues:

− variety of resources used by most businesses;

− functions of management;

− levels of management;

− tasks managers face;

– company policy, strategy, vision and mission.

Nature of Management

Management is a set of activities designed to achieve an organization’s objectives by using its resources effectively and efficiently in a changing environment. Effectively means having intended results; efficiently means accomplishing the objectives with a minimum of resources.

Managers work in an organization. An organization is a managed system designed and operated to achieve a specific set of objectives. A system is a set of interdependent parts that processes inputs (such as raw materials) into outputs (products). Business inputs are usually called resources. Most businesses use a variety of human, financial, physical, and informational resources. Managers function to transform these resources into the outputs of the business, i. e. goods and services. In fact, managers’ work can be organized within five functions, often classified as planning, organizing, staffing, leading/ directing, and controlling/monitoring.

• Planning: deciding what needs to happen in the future (today, next week, next month, next year, over the next 5 years, etc.) and generating plans for action.

• Organizing/implementation: making optimum use of the resources required to enable the successful carrying out of plans.

• Staffing: job analyzing and hiring individuals for appropriate jobs.

• Leading/directing: determining what needs to be done in a situation and getting people to do it.

• Controlling/monitoring: checking progress against plans, which may need modification based on feedback.

Organizational members are divided into two categories: operatives and managers. Operatives or rank and file are people who work directly on a job or task and have no responsibility for overseeing the work of the others. Managers are individuals who initiate and oversee new projects, make decisions about the use of the organization’s resources, and are concerned with planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the organization’s activities so as to reach its objectives. A manager’s job is to achieve high performance relative to the organization’s objectives.

Managers may be classified according to their level or position within the organization. Most organizations have three levels of management – senior management (or top management or upper management), middle management and low-level management or supervisors.

Top managers require an extensive knowledge of management roles and skills. President (Am. E.) or chairman (Br. E), managing director (Br. E.) or chief executive officer (CEO – Am. E.), chief financial officer (CFO) are common titles at this level. Conceptual and interpersonal skills underlie their activities. Top managers are executive in nature and define the company’s vision, mission and objectives. The vision reflects the company’s aspirations and specifies its intended direction or future destination. It is a picture of where the whole team is meant to be going. The mission of the business is its most obvious purpose which may be, for example, to make soap. Besides it states the company’s responsibilities to their customers, employees, stockholders and communities. The objectives of the business refer to the ends or activity at which a certain task is aimed. Top-level managers are also responsible for the company’s policy and strategy. The business’s policy is a guide that stipulates rules, regulations and objectives. It must be flexible and easily interpreted and understood by all employees. The business’s strategy refers to the coordinated plan of action that it is going to take, as well as the resources that it will use, to realize its vision and long-term objectives. It is a guideline to managers, stipulating how they ought to allocate and utilize the factors of production to the business’s advantage.

Mid-managers are those managers who receive broad statements of strategy and policy from executives and develop specific objectives and plans. They spend a large portion of their time in planning and organizing activities. Conceptual and technical skills underlie these activities. Examples of the titles of middle managers are product manager, department head, plant manager, and quality control manager.

Lower or first-line managers are those concerned with the direct production of items or delivery of services. They plan the day-to-day work of employees they supervise. They make sure that needed resources are available and used wisely. Low-level managers often evaluate the work of their employees and solve problems that occur in their area. Supervisors spend most of their time implementing the plans of executives and mid-managers. Mostly technical skills underlie their activities. The common titles of first-line managers are office manager, store manager, loan officer and others.