Managers in the 21st Century Managers nowadays do not actually do what a manager really should do back in the eighties. Changes that occurred in the new economy, the increasing use of technology in business, and the effects of globalisation towards business world have led management into a whole new dimension. New managers are expected to be able to manage on an international scale, act strategically, utilize technology, establish values, and of course, act responsibly as well. (Crainer, 1998) Henry Mintzberg once asked, "What do managers do?" After conducting his research based on a study of five CEOs, he concluded that managerial work involves interpersonal role, decisional role and informational role. And the fact is that, managers get things done through other people. Therefore, managers are required to possess certain skills and competencies which allow them to play these roles effectively and efficiently throughout the four functions of management. (Mintzberg, 1998) Technical Skills First and foremost, effective managers are of course, required to have the basic management skills in order to be able to manage an organisation. Any managers has to possess certain technical skills which allow them to perform specialised task, particularly those first-line managers as they spend more time helping employees to solve work-related problems and they are mostly involved in supervising individual performance and instructing subordinates, for instance, ensuring that the products and services are being delivered to customers on a daily basis. (Robbins and Coulter, 2005) In other words, managers are required to possess "the ability to utilise tools, techniques, and procedures that are specific to a particular field." (Lewis, Goodman, and Fandt, 2004:12) In fact, managers are the first to look up for whenever employees encounter problems. (Griffin & Ebert, 2004) Geoff Castledine, for instance, who holds the post of manufacturing plant manager at the Uncle Ben's plant in Wodonga, Victoria, needed different technical skills in order to be able to make good judgment and decision about putting in a new cooker for the pet food. Thus, he encourages integration of different technical skills where his team of managers could make a sound decision on dealing with the problems they faced. (Samson & Daft, 2003) Human Skills Any managers in an organisation would need skills that enable them to understand and get along with other people while getting the most out of them, for instance, their subordinates or colleagues in order to be able to get the jobs done and attain the organisational goals and these involves human skills.
Managers have a multitude of formal responsibilities and are accountable for the actions of their employees. Managers must lead and direct an organization through manipulation and deployment of an organization?s resources. People in a management position are expected to carry out specific functions, jobs, and responsibilities; they must influence people, manipulate the environment, money, and time to achieve
Critically discuss the extent to which Fayol's classical analysis of the management function has largely been made redundant by the more recent empirical studies of what managers actually do, such as that favoured by Mintzberg.
Sandra Reid answer is that a manager has to be a great visionary and have a vision. They have to understand
In order for a company to be successful, the employees must have a leader who can motivate and guide them. That is the role of a manager. The best managers in the world are different in all aspects, except that they break set boundaries and take risks to thrive in the business world. The methods that may seem unconvientional and unethical to most, are what sets apart good managers from great ones.
According to Williams, 2014, “when companies look for employees who would be good managers, they look for individuals who have technical skills, human skills, conceptual skills and the motivation to manage,” (Williams, p. 14).
In today’s competitive business environment, effective management plays a crucial role. The article Five Minds of a Manager by Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg, identify some important aspects of effective managers. According to the author, “The world of the manager is complicated and confusing.” Consequently, mangers need to think above ordinary employees. In particular, managers should, think global and act local, collaborate through competitions, be agents of change and maintain order. This paper provides a reflective review of the article Five Minds of a Manager by Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg.
"In everyday language usage, management refers to the people in organizations who manage, and to the activities they perform." (Fulop, Frith, Hayward 1992 p. 187) To be more specific, management is the process of organizing work activities with and through people to ensure the activities are completed efficiently and effectively (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter 2006, p. 9). Through management, the goals of the organization or business are to be achieved. Henri Fayol, one of the most influential contributors to modern concepts of management, proposed that there are five primary functions for management, which consist of planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling. Nonetheless, the functions of commanding and coordinating have metamorphosed into leading (Crainer 2003).
However, while the functions that Fayol regarded as the most important elements of managerial work are not what can be observed from managers’ day to day activities, Mintzberg made some problems in his method of study to find out the nature of management. Also, while Fayol failed to draw a picture of management work in reality, Mintzberg was unsuccessful in giving an idea about what managers should do to be successful and effective. To some extent, Fayol and Mintzberd did not develop competing theories but theories about different dimensions of managerial work. In terms of gaining effectiveness in management, Fayol was performed better by indicating what managers should do to rather than just responding to the pressure of their job as what Mintzberg described. Therefore, it can be concluded that Fayol’s work is superior to Mintzberg’s and the latter is of rather ineffective
One of the core element of supervision is having managerial skills. The manager is one who has the obligation to study the time taken to execute the task. Then, the standards are set to accomplish the task for employees. Along these lines, manager measures the productivity of each employee. He is also responsible for arranging and managing the equipment, tools, machinery required for doing the work. This requires the manager to have a good education, experience, technical knowledge and the ability to perform administrative functions. Thus, the main aspect of managerial skills is to match the performance of employees with the limits ascertained (Sargent, 2003).
An organisation is a deliberate arrangement of team consisting different personal identities to accomplish some specific goals and managers are the ones who hold the responsibility of mastering and placing them together to strive for that purpose (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, and Coulter, 2008). Robbins et al. (2008) have stated that managers are people who coordinate and oversee the work activities of others so that the goal is accomplished effectively and efficiently. Managers usually possess qualities such as having strong communication skills, flexibility, imagination, enthusiasm, problem solving skills, and of course the desire to be a great leader (Phdinmanagement.org, 2014). The structure of management conducted by a manager is often influenced by the four functions introduced by Henri Fayol (planning, organising, leading, controlling); how Henry Mintzberg’s management roles play in the organisation and also the three essentials management skills proposed by Robert L. Katz (Robbins et al., 2008).
Mintzberg(2013, P.44) stated that managing combines all these skills, like leading ,doing, thinking, and deciding and more, together, not applying individually. A good manger should be able to mater all these skills to fulfill the job of management. But the thing is what helpful competencies should a manager have to be able to fulfill? Mintzberg stated his own theory which is managing can be known from on three main aspects : information, people, and action. For the information aspect, a manager should be able to communicate and control; for the people aspect, a manager should be able to lead and link; and for action aspect, a manager should be able to do and deal. These are the good methods for a manager to actually manage something well.
In the 21st century they consist of various barriers that prevent managers and leaders from achieving their goals and improving their organizations work. Managers constantly try tackle this issues that drive towards lowering productivity. Challenges of management include :
Management is vital for any organisations regardless of the size and the types of the organisations. In general, management is defined as “the application of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling functions in the most efficient manner possible to accomplish meaningful organizational objectives.” (John M. Ivancevish and Thomas N. Duening, 2007)
The skills approach to leadership focuses on what a leader can accomplish. Katz (as cited in Northouse, 2013) identified two skills for lower level managers. The skills are is technical and interpersonal proficiency demonstrating the ability to work with things and people. Katz included a third skill, conceptual, but stated its relevance to high level managers. Petkevičiūtė and Giedraitis (2013) concur with Katz that first level managers 1) run day to day operations which need less conceptual skills and 2) technical and human skills are critical for business success. Thus, conceptual skills are not part of the discussion on skills. The skills most applicable to the managers’ position will be discussed.
my hard work ethic. It taught me that to be able to work in a team