Management. 3 ranks of managers

9.Management

Very often people in our society associate managers just with vocations in business, but they exist not only in business. Managers are found in government agencies, hospitals, churches, and universities. And all organizations in the world are guided by the directions of managers. I think today manager is the most popular and numerous position which includes the post of president and a typical supervisor. Independently on the size of a company its workers can’t operate a business successfully with no one in charge.

We can define a manager as a person responsible for the performance of one or more persons who report to him or her, who plans, organizes, controls and directly supervises them. Here we should add one term connected with the term manager, I mean management- is the process undertaken by one or more individuals to coordinate the activities of others to achieve results not achievable by one individual acting alone.

In the history of management one of the most important figure was Peter Drucker who believes that the work of management is to make people productive. The opposite point of view where Peter and Waterman state,. They think that it’s very effective to treat people decently. According to their theory management’s job becomes more fun and it doesn’t look like boring and serious communication in the office, Peters and Waterman describe the work of managers as an easy communication ‘in the field” with subordinates.

Learning about management is important today for two reasons. First, our society depends on organizations which provide goods and services we desire. And if we want to satisfy our needs those organizations should work efficiently and productively. But it is unreal to attain good results in the organization without good qualified managers. And poor management is at the bottom of most business failures. There is a very good comparison managers with catalysts in one of the most famous chemical reaction – the process by which green plants turn water and carbon dioxide into food. It’s called photosynthesis. And the most important condition that this reaction takes place only in the presence of light.  The light acts as a catalyst which makes things happen. But if the catalyst becomes too strong, if there is too much light the plant dies. We can see the same situation with management, where good managers are catalysts, which make  a business work efficiently. Poor management is anticatalyst is an agent that paralyses activity.. And the second reason why do people study management that individuals not trained as managers often find themselves in managerial positions. Many individuals being trained to be teachers, accountants, musicians or lawyers will one day earn their living as managers.

As usual in most organizations there’re 3 ranks of managers:

-top manager, who functions involve long range planning, policy making, representing a company to the outside world, he also decides how face  up to the competition

-middle manager – makes the day-to-day decisions, deal with unhappy customers

-low-rang manager – has the same functions that middle manager and sort out a technical problem

as for manager’s roles in general they’re similar for all levels:

-communication-controlling-organizing-planning-staffing

Henry Fayol identified five functions in which managers must be engaged:-planning: is the process of setting objectives and then determining the steps needed to attain them-organizing: the process of assigning duties to personnel and coordinating employee efforts in order to ensure maximum efficiency

-commanding: to be successful the manager should be a good example for the personnel, to motivate others to attain stated goals-coordinating: this function includes activities that being together all individual efforts and direct them toward a common objective

-controlling: the process of establishing standards, comparing results against these standards, and correcting deviations.

In Peter Drucker’s opinion, managers perform five basic operations:

-Managers set objectives. They decide what should be done and how the organization can achieve it. For this task managers should have analytical ability.

-Managers organize. They decide how to use organizational resources and how to classify the work. In this case managers should have human skills.

-Manager should motivate and communicate effectively. to make people to work. need social skills.

-Managers have to measure the performance of the organization to set targets and standards.

-Managers develop people, including themselves.

Henry Fayol determined principles of management:

-Authority and responsibility: authority is the right to command which should always be equal to responsibility.

-Devision a  labour: efficiency can be increased through work specialization.

-Unity of command: everyone should have only one boss.

-Stability of staff. The strong and friendly company of people can attain states results more quickly.

-Initiative: managers should motivate people.

-Remuneration of the staff. All staff members should receive compensation that motivates them to do good work.

In the history of development of management there was one more very bright person – Taylor, who argued that work should be studied and analysed systematically, in a logical sequence.

Tailored approach included next steps:

1. Each operation of a job was studied and analysed.

2. Using this information management worked out the time and methods for each job.3. work was organized so that the worker’s only responsibility was to do the job.

4. Men with the right physical skills were selected and trained for the job.

Taylor made a great contribution to management thinking. His main idea, that work can be systematically studied in order to improve working methods and productivity.

Weaknesses of his methods were: 1)it focused on the system of work rather than on the worker. With this system the worker becomes a tool in the hands of management, 2)it leads to deskilling- reducing the skills of workers, 3) it is wrong to separate doing from planning.

Management skills are very important in the management. And the success at the lower levels of management doesn’t require the same combination of managerial skills as does success at the upper levels.

-Human skill- is the ability to communicate, motivate and lead individuals and groups. Such skill is the most important to managers in the middle ranks of the management hierarchy.

-Technical skill- is the ability to use the techniques, , and tools of a specific field. This skill is important at the lower levels of the organization

-Conceptual skill- is the ability to plan, coordinate,. It’s most important at the upper levels of the organization where long-range planning is very important.

in fact the process of management is very creative and still it doesn’t have one universal model. that management is the art based on the science. Science is organized knowledge. Art is the application of knowledge to achieve a desired results in practice. But in real life it doesn’t mean that if person has a great knowledge he will be a good practitioner.

When dealing with people, managers approach management as an art, when dealing with material things they approach it as a science. 

Actor in the theatre