The Job Of The Executive

Introduction

Nowadays it’s very common to see the collapse of systems and the failure of companies. Of course, many questions arise wondering what happened. Organizations need someone to blame and consequently measures are taken.

While cutbacks, downsizing and dismissals are the most used tools for “fixing the problem”, there is evidence to show that, rather than working out a solution, these methods only hide the core of the issue, which seems to be present in an even greater number of organizations.

The functions of the directors, managers and executives are and will be key and transcendent subjects related to the survival of the system in this ever changing, highly competitive, and unpredictable environment in which companies are involved.

The idea of the heroic executive with extraordinary endowments, such as inspirational powers or the ability to work miracles like bringing a dying company back to life, is not viable anymore.

An executive must be selected not only due to their technical capabilities or previous achievements but because of their ability to create the adequate conditions for collaboration. Barnard refers to these functions as the essential work that ensures the sustainability and vitality of a company through formal coordination, e.g. all the work done by the directors needs to be related to the coordination of the individuals, processes which are the foundations of communication channels.

These are the four elements that contribute to the success and achievement of the executive’s objectives: the formulation of the systems’ primary task, design of structures, personnel selection and placement, and the administration of incentives. Please note that the second and third element together constitute what Barnard calls “the establishment and maintenance of the system of communication”.

Formulation of the systems’ primary task

The work of the director has to start with the formulation of the organization’s primary task, e.g. the purposes, objectives and goals for which “responsibility”, the “delegation of the objective authority” and the “specification or division of work” make sense. All of these must be accepted by the contributors.

This is the starting point for every director. We can not talk about management if there is no objective for the individuals to act.

The flows of information must be known and reach every member of the organization. This is possible only if there is a mutual effort throughout the system. This process requires the directors of each department to communicate and coordinate objectives so that their delegates can communicate what these objectives mean to the subdivisions in terms of the operations/actions needed to contribute to the primary task.