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Table of Content Page

Executive Summary......................................................................................................2

Introduction...................................................................................................................3

Management in business terms....................................................................................4

Activities of Managers at different levels......................................................................5

Making Decisions..........................................................................................................6

Type of Decisions.........................................................................................................7

Role of Information Systems........................................................................................9

Conclusion..................................................................................................................11

Bibliography................................................................................................................11

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 Executive Summary

When one fails to plan, he actually plans to fail. However greater the vision may be

without proper planning and management, the chances of failure are very high.

Hence, it is of paramount importance that for any organization, the success is hinged

on the proper management of the organization. Managers are key personnel in any

management team. They play a pivotal role right from conception and planning

through up to the implementation and review of the plans. Since, they are needed at

all levels of the organizations, they ought to have different roles and skills according

to the positions they hold in the organization. Any mistakes they make will directly

affect the organization either in the short run or the long run. Therefore, every

decision they make in the process of management, be it strategic, tactical or

operational, is of utmost importance to run the organization like a well-oiled machine.

Decision making is a crucial process where the manager is to weigh the pros and

cons of different alternatives to achieve the goals efficiently and effectively. Since,

they are in the lead role, they are also squarely responsible for any success or failure

of the organization. Hence, the author has made an attempt to summarize the roles

and decisions of the managers in brief, in the assignment paper enclosed herewith.

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Introduction

Managers have an imperative role to play in business organizations in the 21st

century. Their management skills and decisions will affect the reputation, the

profitability and sustainability of the organizations. Organizations, realizing the

importance of managers, have come forward to train their managers by sending

them to internationally recognized trainings such as Lean Six Sigma and Harvard

Management Degree. In this assignment, the author has explained the function of

management, role of managers at different levels, types of decisions they make and

the mechanism of making decisions and finally, how information systems assist

managers in going about to make their decisions efficiently.

Management in business terms

Management, in simple words, involves coordinating and overseeing the work

activities of subordinates, so that their tasks are completed efficiently and effectively.

Management includes a set of principles pertaining the four main core functions,

namely planning, organizing, leading and controlling a business organization. There

are a lot of definitions offered by plethora of management thinkers. For an instance,

Van Fleet and Peterson define management, ‘as a set of activities directed at the

efficient and effective utilization of resources in the pursuit of one or more goals.’

Besides, as per Harold Koontz, ‘Management is an art of getting things done through

and with the people in formally organized groups. It is an art of creating an

environment in which people can perform and individuals and can co-operate

towards attainment of group goals.’ In a business organization, management is

indispensable to bring together the contributions of various departments across the

company to achieve its business goals. Once the underlying strategy is set,

management will organize by determining the tasks to be done, allocating the

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resources needed and setting up the line of reporting. Subsequently, the

management will lead the team by coordinating each individual’s task to ensure the

target of the organization or department is achieved. Finally, management will

evaluate if the progress is as per determined in the planning stage and implement

controlling measures to ensure the progress is in track with the plan.

Activities of Managers at different levels

The managers are expected to have various skills and play various roles in their

work. Henry Mintzberg, a management researcher, defines the managerial role as a

play of three different roles, namely interpersonal role, informational role and

decisional role. The interpersonal role involves interacting with people, subordinates

and performing other symbolic duties. The informational role involves collecting,

receiving and disseminating information. The decisional role involves making

decisions and choices in the process.

In an organization, managers can be divided into three levels namely Top Level,

Middle Level and Low level managers. The Top Level managers usually have the

titles such as President, Vice President, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer

etc. and they are involved in the strategic planning and set the plans and goals for

the entire organization. They use the strategic information available from within the

organization and outside the organization to make decisions which have a long term

impact on the establishment and running of the organization. They play more of a

decisional role and are expected, in particular, to possess more of the conceptual or

intellectual skill. They are also expected to possess the human and technical skills

but they do not have much importance.

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The Middle Level managers have titles such as Senior Manager, Department

Manager, Office Manager and etc. They are supposed to analyse the information,

likely scenarios and to make tactical decisions to implement the plans set by the top

management effectively. They are expected to have equal levels of conceptual,

human and technical skills. They play more of an informational role and liaise

between the top level management and front line managers.

The Low Level managers are Front line Managers who oversee and control the day-

to-day operation of the organization. They are expected to have more of the

technical and human skills in order to execute the plans efficiently and effectively.

Making Decisions

Decision making is a crucial process in the job of a manager at all levels. Effective

problem solving is a key to success in the career of a manager. The process of

decision making is involved at all the four managerial functions of Planning,

Organizing, Leading and Controlling. The nature of the problems and the availability

of solutions may differ at different levels but the process remains the same. The

decision making process basically involves seven steps, as shown in the figure

below.

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 1. Identifying the problem

2. Identifying the limitting factors

3. Gathering the alternatives

4. Considering the alternatives

5. Choosing the right alternative

6. Implementing the decision

7. Monitoring and evaluating

Figure 1 7 steps of making decisions

First of all, the manager has to identify the problem clearly and the limiting criteria

that affects the decision to solve the problem. Based on the limiting factors and its

weightage, the manager then collects information on the alternatives available. With

the collected information, he then proceeds to consider the different alternatives

against the limiting factors and its weightage. At the end of the analysis, the Manager

will arrive at a decision either by a rational analysis of the alternatives or by intuition

guided by past experience, expertise, knowledge, culture, emotions or data from sub

conscious mind or by the presence of evidence at hand. Based on his decision, he

chooses an alternative and proceeds to implement the same. Upon implementation,

he monitors and establishes a control and further evaluate the outcome.

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Type of Decisions

Depending on the problems and situation, the managers have to take different types

of decisions. The following is the list of some of the different types of typical

decisions.

1) Programmed and unprogrammed decisions: In decision making, some problems

are straight forward and the solutions are readily available from the past experiences

in the form of guide books, rules and regulations. Usually these decisions are

repetitive in nature and taken by Middle and Low level managers. These decisions

have only a short term impact in the organization. Examples are purchase

procedure, disciplinary action, pricing of orders etc. Unprogrammed decisions are

the opposite of the programmed decisions. These are non-repetitive in nature and

the problems faced are new or unusual. These decisions are usually taken by Top

level managers. The manager has to study the problem, analyse, look for

alternatives, consider the choices and choose one to implement, forecast and

prepare strategic plans. These decisions have only a long term impact in the

organization. Examples are choosing the type of business to start or its location.

2) Individual and group decisions: If a manager makes certain decision on his own,

then it is an individual decision. Usually, these decisions are common in very small

organizations. In large organizations, if the problems are repetitive in nature and

having short term impact, the manager may make an individual decision. In large

organizations, certain decisions have to be made as group decisions, that is, they

have to be made with the consent of others such as Top Level managers or

shareholders etc.

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3) Tactical and Strategic decisions: Tactical decisions are decisions often taken by

Middle managers to achieve a higher degree of efficiency in the ongoing works.

Examples are working hours, providing parking facilities, cafeteria services and

deputing employees, etc. This decision requires the experience and intellect of the

managers. Strategic decisions are decisions made on more important problems,

which requires in depth analysis of the problem. These have a long term impact on

the organization. These are usually taken by the Top Level Managers.

4) Policy and Operating decisions: Policy decisions are taken by Top level managers

regarding the change in the organizational rules, regulations, persons and visions.

Whereas, the operational decisions are taken by the Low Level managers in the day-

to-day running of the organizations.

5) Major and Minor decisions: The decisions that are more important, that involves

policy, finances or risks, such as expansion of business, venturing overseas, pay

cuts are considered major decisions and these have a long term impact. On the

other hand, minor decisions are of less importance and have short term impact.

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 Individual
and
Group

Programmed
Major and and
Minor Unprogram-
med
Types of
Decisions

Policy Tactical
and and
Operating Strategic

Figure 2 Type of Decisions

Role of Information Systems

To support managers to make and implement decisions, information systems such

as applications and software are being developed. In other words, these tools are

serving as decision support systems to improve their managerial effectiveness. In no

certain order of importance, managers use information systems to assist them in the

following functions; scraping data items, analysising data files, obtaining pre-

specified aggregations of data in the form of standard reports, simulating results of

various combinations of inputs, proposing and making decisions. In this age of

‘Internet of Things’ (IoT), information systems can help managers to gather data from

various sources such as over the internet, millions of sensors and articles, and then,

compile tailor made report according to their needs, either in graphical or tabular

form. In addition, information systems also will enable managers to analyse the data

that has been compiled in various ways to get interesting insights. For an example,

portfolio managers at a bank or fund managing institution can analyse either

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individual portfolios or groups of portfolios from different viewpoints, such as ranking

them in different ways, obtain breakdowns by industry or risk level. Once the

analysis is done, applications can be used to develop model and simulate the

various solutions that a manager have at hand for the problem to evaluate which

solution yields the most profitable and sustainable results. As a result of the

simulations, a manager can confidently propose and make decisions to overcome

the issue at hand. For an instance, a consumer products company faced with short-

run supply problems for many of its raw materials. Thus, it developed an optimization

model to solve the equations of choosing and balancing among various product

recipes. The inputs to the model include a series of different recipes for many

products, short-run supply levels for raw materials, and production requirements for

finished products. The output is the choice of recipes that maximizes production

using existing supplies. The system brought a shift in perspective in how the

managers determine allocation policy. Previously, they will allocate scarce raw

materials to products by setting priorities among products. However, the model

proved that it was more advantageous to start with production requirements and then

allocate scarce resources by optimizing the mix of product recipes.

In addition to the above mentioned functions, information systems also aid managers

in communicating and coordinating across departments and divisions. Information

sharing becomes easier across various people and thus, enable managers to make

decisions in collaboration with others easily. Other than that, these systems also

enable administration tasks such as meeting-scheduling, collaborative working and

online discussions, such as what happening worldwide nowadays due to the COVID-

19 pandemic.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, managers at different levels are cornerstones to an organization to

ensure the strategy laid out are being executed and evaluated continuously. They

need to possess different skills and the assistance of information systems in order to

carry out their roles more efficiently. As we are stepping into the Industrial Revolution

4.0, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence can help managers to step up their game by

exploiting data that were invisible to the naked eyes. These state-of-the-art

technologies are important to managers because as stated in the introduction, their

timely and accurate decisions will determine the reputation, the profitability and

sustainability of the organization.

Bibliography

Books
Title of
Year of
No. Author’s Name Reference Publication
Publication
Book
Stephen P. Robbins Management
1. 2016 Pearson
and Mary Coulter (Global Edition)
How Effective
Harvard
Managers Use
2. Steven L.Alter 1976 Business
Information
Review
Systems
Business Asmita Book
3. Dhrub Raj Pokhrel
Studies-XII Publication

Websites

Year of Title of
No Author’s
Publica Reference Website
. Name
-tion Book
Concordia 7 Steps of https://online.csp.edu/blog/business/dec
1 2017
University, the ision-making-process

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 Decision
St. Paul Making
Process

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