Managers and Management

Managers and Management an Introduction:

Managers:

Organizational Members (Employees) are divided into two categories: Operative and Managers.

Operatives are people who work directly on a job or task and have no responsibility for overseeing the work of others. The clerks at railway reservation counters, the cashiers at your local Kirana shop, or the administrative officers who process your course registrations in your institute are all operatives.

In contrast, managers direct the activities of other people in the organization.

Customarily classified as top, middle, or first-line managers, these individuals supervise both operative employees and lower-level managers. This distinction does not mean, however, that managers don’t work directly on tasks. Some managers also have operative responsibilities themselves. The distinction, then, between the two groups-operatives and managers-is that managers have employees who report directly to them.

Level of Manager:

There are 3 levels of Management/Manager in an Organisation. which are:

1. First-Line Managers are usually called supervisors. They may also be called team leaders, coaches, or unit coordinators. They are responsible for directing the day-to-day activities of operative employees.
2. Middle-Level Managers represent levels of management between the first-line manager and top management. These individuals manage other managers and possibly some operative employees and are typically responsible for translating the goals set by top management into specific details that lower-level first managers can perform.
3. At or near the top of an organization are Top Managers. These individuals are responsible for making decisions about the direction of the organization and establishing policies that affect all organizational members.

Management:

The term management refers to the process of getting things done, effectively and efficiently, through and with other people.

The term process in the definition of management represents the primary activities managers perform. Effectiveness deal with what we are doing and how we are doing it (doing the right task, goal attainment). Efficiency means doing the task correctly and refers to the relationship between inputs and outputs (doing the task correctly, refers to the relationship between input and outputs; seeks to minimize resource cost). For instance, if you get more output for a given input, you have increased efficiency. Management is also concerned with completing activities. In management terms, we call this ability effectiveness. Effectiveness means doing the right task, which is an organization translates into goal attainment.

Management Process

In the early part of the twentieth century, the French industrialist Henri Fayol wrote that all managers perform five management activities (function) referred to as the “management process.” They plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control. In the mid-1950s, two professors at UCLA used the terms planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling as the framework for a textbook on management. The most popular textbooks still continue to be organized around the management processes, though these processes have generally been condensed to the basic four: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Managers must be able to perform all activities simultaneously and realize that each has an effect on the others; that is, these processes are interrelated and interdependent. “If you don’t much care where you want to get to, then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” the Cheshire cat said in Alice in Wonderland.

1. Planning Includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing plans to coordinate activities.
2. Organizing Includes determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.
3. Leading Includes motivating employees, directing the activities of others, selecting the most effective communication channel, and resolving conflicts.
4. Controlling is the process of monitoring performance, comparing it with goals, and correcting any significant deviations.

Role of Managers:

Specific categories of managerial behavior, often grouped under three primary headings; interpersonal relationship, transfer of information, and decision making.

Through different experiences and practical knowledge that a manager can become an effective leader. But first. Henry Mintzberg, a Canadian management expert, and author came up with the idea of interweaving practical experience with business theory. In his 1990 book Mintzberg on Management: Inside our Strange World of Organizations, he listed clearly defined roles for managers to become effective team leaders.

10 Roles of Manager by Mintzberg are listed below;

1. Figurehead,
2. Leader,
3. Liaison,
4. Monitor,
5. Disseminator,
6. Spokesperson,
7. Entrepreneur,
8. disturbance-handler,
9. resource-allocator and
10. negotiator.

Skills of Successful Manager:

1. Developing Your Managerial Skills
2. How much Important Does the Market Place put on Managers?
3. Why Study Management?
4. Ethical Dilemmas in Management:
5. How does Management relate to other Disciplines?