Module 3

Subject: ABM 083: Introduction to Agribusiness Management

Chapter Title: Introduction of Management in Agribusiness

Lesson Title: Managerial Roles and Skills

Lesson Objectives:

1. Describe the challenges facing managers.

2. Discuss the integrative framework for the different managerial schools of thought.
3. Identify the essential managerial roles.
4. Identify the essential managerial skills and knowledge.

Overview/Introduction:

The managers at Starbucks have demonstrated that they have the knowledge and skills to
allocate resources and motivate employees in a way that allows the organization to compete
successfully. Developing managerial knowledge and skills for people entering agribusiness
is what this chapter is all about. This chapter begins with a brief discussion of the challenges
facing managers today and tomorrow. Next, we present an integrative framework that
synthesizes the different managerial schools of thought. Using the integrative framework,
we will explore the different roles that managers play. Then we present the essential
managerial skills and knowledge every manager needs to activate the managerial roles.
Finally, we discuss how managers develop managerial skills and acquire managerial
knowledge.

Activity:

1. Describe yourself as a leader/ member in a particular group (religion,

academics, etc). How do you lead/participate in the group in your own style?

Analysis:
1. What is the importance of your role as a leader/member of the group?
2. What are your worthy experiences as a leader/member of the group?

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Abstraction:

The Challenges of Managers Today and Tomorrow

1. International and Global Competition

- As international competition heats up, organizations will need to turn to their
most valuable resource for new ways to compete. That resource is people. But this
means all people, not just a select class or group of people. One of our greatest
resources and challenges is the diversity of our culture, but in the past many
businesses have often wasted this resource.

2. Higher Quality
- Another challenge that managers face is producing goods and services of high
quality. The concept of total quality management has become a hallmark of
progressive companies. Total quality management (TQM) has to do with making
an organization-wide commitment to continuous improvement and to completely
meeting the customers’ needs.
3. Increased Productivity
- At the same time that managers are trying to satisfy customer needs, they are also
trying to increase productivity within the organization. Productivity is a measure
of output (product or service) as it relates to inputs (people, materials, money,
and information).
4. Risk Management
- It still another challenge to managers, especially in agribusiness. In addition to the
risks associated with changes in weather, consumer buying habits, regulatory
policies, pests, and bacteria, they also must plan for risks such as safety, security,
workplace violence, and even terrorism, including bioterrorism. Violence in the
workplace is an increasingly common problem for managers.

An Integrative Framework
An integrative framework has been developed to help managers better understand this
relationship as shown in the figure below. The horizontal continuum runs from an internal
focus to an external focus. The manager moves along this continuum trying to satisfy both
the internal needs or forces of the organization and the external needs or forces of the
environment. The internal focus helps to maintain the organization. It might include
activities such as employee participation in decision making and the management of
information. At the other end of the spectrum, an external focus helps to make the
organization competitive. This focus might include such things as organization growth and
productivity. The vertical continuum extends from an efficiency emphasis to a flexibility
emphasis. The manager moves along this continuum trying to make the organization as
efficient as possible yet simultaneously flexible enough to adapt to environmental forces. The
efficiency emphasis helps the manager use resources in the best way possible. The flexibility
emphasis helps the manager to adapt to change. While the efficiency dimension seeks
stability and direction, the flexibility dimension seeks employee participation and
innovation. The two axes demonstrate the dynamic tension placed on a manager.

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Managerial Roles: Essential Activities
Managers work long hours at an intense pace. They are frequently interrupted. Most of their
work is disjointed and fragmented. Most of their encounters are brief and seldom with the
same person or group. While managers use many different communication methods, they
usually prefer face to-face communication with subordinates, peers, superiors, and others
inside and outside the organization. In addition, managers play definite managerial roles to
get their work done. A manager’s role in an organization is similar to an actor’s role in a play.
It consists of certain actions that the manager is expected to perform and ways in which he
or she is expected to behave. Managers activate the different managerial models through the
managerial roles that they play. Managerial roles fall into three general categories. Roles
begin with the formal authority bestowed on managers by their organization. This authority
is accompanied by a certain amount of status. This status causes all managers to be involved
in interpersonal relationships with subordinates, peers, and superiors, who in turn provide
managers with information they need to make decisions.

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Managerial Roles of the Integrative Framework

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Managerial Skills and Knowledge: Essential Competencies

Managerial skills - reflect the ability to perform the various behaviors managers need to
execute their roles effectively. Effective managers tend to possess a certain
mix of skills that sets them apart from others. Skills, then, are behavioral
in nature, such as the ability to present a strategic plan to the board of
directors or conduct a performance feedback session with an employee.

a. Technical skills - are the skills a manager needs to perform specialized tasks
within the organization.
b. Human skills - are the skills a manager needs to work well with other people. They
include the ability to understand someone else’s position, to present one’s own
position in a reasonable way, to communicate effectively, and to deal effectively
with conflict.
c. Conceptual skills - relate to a manager’s ability to think in the abstract. Managers
need to be able to see relationships between forces that others may not see, to
understand how a variety of factors are interrelated, and to take a global
perspective of the organization and its environment.

Managerial Knowledge - To enact a skill, a manager must possess managerial knowledge.

Cognitive psychologists have identified three types of knowledge that a
person has to have to perform any task: declarative, procedural, and
process. For example, for a manager to make an investment requires
knowledge of investment terms (declarative), of tax procedures
(procedural), and of the stock market process (process).
a. Declarative knowledge - deals with facts and definitions. It is sometimes called the
“what” of a topic.
b. Procedural knowledge - outlines a set of steps to be taken to accomplish a task. It has
often been called the “how to” of a task. A manager who sits down to prepare a budget
is following a set of steps to accomplish this task. Procedural knowledge activates
technical skills.
c. Process knowledge - provides a manager with a mental map for a specific topic. It is
often referred to as knowledge about “how something works.” Just like a road map
helps you get around town by providing you with a model, a mental map helps the
manager understand the relationships between different factors by providing a
mental picture of the situation.

Developing Managerial Skills and Acquiring Managerial Knowledge

1. Education - An education leading to a college degree is the first step in most people’s
managerial careers. In fact, a college degree is almost a requirement for promotion to
upper levels of management in most organizations today.

2. Experience - An education alone, of course, does not promise a person an executive

position. Most people must still work their way up an organization, sometimes
making mistakes and suffering setbacks along the way. Experience adds to your
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 managerial knowledge. It provides you with specific declarative knowledge about
your industry. It provides process knowledge in the form of specific work flows for
your company. It provides specific procedural knowledge for tasks such as budgeting,
hiring, and goal setting.

Application:

1. It has been argued that there is no one best way to manage. Do you agree or disagree
with this assertion? Why?
2. Which roles do you think managers spend most of their time playing? Is an effective
manager more likely to use one or two roles exclusively, or does an effective manager
go back and forth between all of the roles? Why?
3. You hear two classmates arguing over which is more important for a manager:
education or experience. How would you help them see that it is not an either/or
question? Which managerial role are you enacting during this discussion?

Assessment:

1. Make a personal reflection paper that would describe who you are when you become
a manager someday. (1 page only)

Prepared by:

Keno Jay M. Balogbog, PhD