Management Levels

As the organizations grow larger and more complex, they usually develop several
levels of managerial positions, forming a hierarchy of superior and subordinate
reporting relationships. Traditionally, there are three managerial levels which are
usually depicted in the form of a hierarchical pyramid. The total number of personnel
found at each level decreases as the management level increases up the pyramid.
The largest number of people in the organization are at the lower organizational
level, at the bottom of the pyramid and these people are operating in a nonmanagerial
capacity. This group consists of individual contributors who are simply
the employees who work under the guidance of their supervisors. These levels, in
the form of a pyramid are shown as follows:
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Fig 1.1 Management Levels
The top level managers are ultimately responsible for the entire organization.
The top level management, also known as “central management” includes top
executives such as chief executive officer (CEO), chairman of the board of directors,
president, executive vice-presidents and various vice-presidents. These managers
are primarily involved in broad organizational matters such as policy formulation,
long range strategic planning, goal setting and development of organizational
strategies. In general, top management effectively deals with all elements and forces
that affect the survival, stability and growth of the organization.
Middle Level Managers
The middle management level generally consists of divisional and departmental
heads such as a plant manager, production manager, marketing manager, personnel
director and so on. Their responsibility is to interpret policies and directions set by
the top level management into specific plans and guidelines for action. Their
responsibility further is to coordinate the working of their departments so that the
set objectives can be achieved. They are concerned with short-term goals and
specific results. They spend more time on operational planning, information
processing and day-to-day monitoring of their divisional activities. They serve as
a link between the strategic activities of the top managers and operational activities
of first level managers who are the subordinates in terms of information dissemination
in both directions.
Organizations, specially the very large ones often have several layers of
middle managers. During expansion years, at one time, General Motors (GM)
had 14 or 15 management levels. However the tendency now is to have fewer
layers and give the manages greater autonomy and responsibility, part of which is
delegated to lower level managers.
First Level Supervisory Managers
This level of management consists of supervisors, superintendents, unit heads,
foremen, chief clerks and so on. The primary concern of the first level managers is
with the mechanics of the job and they are responsible for coordinating the work
of their employees. They must possess technical skills so that they can assist their
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subordinate workers where necessary. They plan day-to-day operations, assign
personnel to specific jobs, oversee their activities, evaluate their performances
and become a link between the workers and the middle level management. Because
they represent both the middle level management as well as the workers on the
other side, the first line supervisors can easily find themselves in the middle of
conflicting demands. According to Kerr, Hill and Broedling, their greatest emphasis
is evolving around dealing with internal human relations rather than operational
activities because of the trend towards more educated work force, team works
and group cohesions as well as growing use of computers in tracking and monitoring
many activities that were previously regulated by first-line manager.
General Versus Functional Managers
Apart from the vertical levels of managerial hierarchy, there are two types of
managers with different responsibilities. These are “Functional Managers” and
“General Managers”. Functional managers take responsibility for one type of
function or specialized activity and supervise the work of employees who are
engaged in such specialized activities as marketing, finance, accounting, quality
control, production and so on.
General managers, on the other hand, are responsible for the activities of
several different groups that perform a variety of functions and have authority over
both the specialized as well as generalized activities. For example, the general
manager of a plant in a manufacturing company is responsible for monitoring all
aspects of the plant such as production, engineering, quality control, labour relations,
purchasing, inventories and so on. Branch managers are considered as general
managers if employees from different disciplines within the branch report to them.
General managers in non-profit organizations such as hospitals, universities
or government agencies are designated as “administrators”, rather than managers.
For example, the head of a hospital might be known as a chief administrator.
Similarly, the president of a college or the dean of a school would be designated as
an administrator.
Managerial Skills
A skill is an acquired and learned ability to translate knowledge into performance.
It is the competency that allows for performance to be superior in the field in
which the worker has the required skill. All managers need to possess technical,
interpersonal, conceptual, diagnostic, communicational and political skills. While
technical and diagnostic skills refer to the knowledge and ability of understanding
the processes involved and scientifically analyzing problems and opportunities, all
other skills deal with people in one form or the other. These “human” skills are the
most important assets of any successful manager.
It is the manager’s job to achieve the organizational objectives ,through the
proper utilization of its human and material resources. However, since the material
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resources of equipment, capital, facilities, information and so on can only be used
by humans, the human resources are the most valuable assets of any organization.
Accordingly, a manager must be highly skilled in the art of optimally utilizing the
human resources. This art is universal in nature. In every walk of life, human skills
are necessary for success. These various skills are briefly explained as follows:
Technical Skills: These skills basically involve the use of knowledge, methods
and techniques in performing a job effectively. This is a specialized knowledge and
expertise which is utilized in dealing with day-to-day problems and activities. For
example, engineers, accountants, computer programmers and systems analysts,
all have technical skills in their areas and these skills are acquired through education
and training. This skill is highly necessary at the lower level of management and as
one moves to higher levels of management, the relative importance of technical
skills usually diminishes. This is so because unlike first- level supervisors, managers
at higher levels have less direct contact with technical operating problems and
activities.
Human skills: Human skill is the ability to work with other people in a cooperative
manner. It involves understanding, patience, trust and genuine involvement in
interpersonal relationships. These are interpersonal skills and are necessary at all
levels of management. People with good interactory human skills build trust and
cooperation as they motivate and lead and thus become successful managers.
This skill is gaining more importance as the work place is becoming more and
more ethnically diversified and the manager has to be aware and become adaptive
to cultural differences. Furthermore, since the businesses are more and more
becoming multinational and global, managers are required to learn new ways of
dealing with people in different countries with different cultures and value systems.