Leading is inspiring and motivating orkers to work hard to achieve organisational goals. Controlling is monitoring progress toward goal achievement and taking corrective action when needed. Studies show that performing these management functions well leads to better managerial performance. 3. Know the different kinds of managers. There are four different kinds of managers. Top managers are responsible for creating a context for change. developing attitudes of commitment and ownership, creating a positive organisational culture through words and actions and monitoring their company’s business environments.
Middle managers are responsible for lanning and allocating resources, coordinating and linking groups and departments, monitoring and managing the performance of subunits and managers, and implementing the changes or strategies generated by top managers. First-line managers are responsible for managing the performance of non-managerial employees, teaching direct reports how to do their Jobs, and making detailed schedules and operating plans based on middle management’s intermediate-range plans. Team leaders are responsible for facilitating team performance, managing external relationships and facilitating internal team relationships.
Students should be able learn the major roles and subroles that managers perform Managers perform interpersonal, informational and decisional roles in their Jobs. In fulfilling the interpersonal role, managers act as fgureheads by performing ceremonial duties, as leaders by motivating and encouraging workers, and as liaisons by dealing with people outside their units. In performing their informational role, managers act as monitors by scanning their environment for information, as disseminators by sharing information with others in the company, and as spokespeople by sharing information with people outside their departments or ompanies.
In fulfilling decisional roles, managers act as entrepreneurs by adapting their units to incremental change, as disturbance handlers by responding to larger problems that demand immediate action, as resource allocators by deciding resource recipients and amounts, and as negotiators by bargaining with others about schedules, projects, goals, outcomes and resources. 5. Understand what companies look for in managers. Companies do not want one-dimensional managers. They want managers with a balance of skills.
They want managers who know their stuff (technical skills), are qually comfortable working with blue-collar and white-collar employees (human skills), are able to assess the complexities of todays competitive marketplace and position their companies for success (conceptual skills), and want to assume positions of leadership and power (motivation to manage). Technical skills are most important for lower-level managers, human skills are equally important at all levels of management, and conceptual skills and motivation to manage increase in importance as managers rise through the managerial ranks. . Discuss the top mistakes that managers make in their Jobs. Another way to understand what it takes to be a manager is to look at the top mistakes managers make. Five of the most important mistakes made by managers are being abrasive and intimidating; being cold, aloof or arrogant; betraying trust; being overly ambitious; and failing to build a team and then delegate to that team. 7. Understand the transition that employees go through when they are promoted to management positions. Managers often begin their Jobs by using more formal authority and less people management.
However, most managers find that being a manager has little to do ith ‘bossing their subordinates. After six months on the Job, the managers were surprised at the fast pace and heavy workload and that ‘helping their subordinates was viewed as interference. After a year on the Job, most of the managers had come to think of themselves not as doers, but as managers who get things done through important part of their Job, most of them had abandoned their authoritarian approach for one based on communication, listening and positive reinforcement. 8. Be able to realise how and why companies can create competitive advantage through eople.
Why does management matter? Well-managed companies are competitive because their workforces are smarter, better trained, more motivated and more committed. Companies that practice good management have greater sales revenues, profits and stock market performance than companies that don’t. Plus good management matters because good management leads to satisfied employees who, in turn, provide better service to customers. Because employees tend to treat customers the same way that their managers treat them, good management can improve customer satisfaction.
