Managers and You

in the Workplace

Learning outcomes
1. Tell who managers are and where they work
2. Explain why managers are important to organizations
3. Describe the functions, roles, and skills of managers
4. Describe the factors that are reshaping and redefining the
manager’s job
5. Explain the value of studying management

6. Describe the benefits of the Employability Skills Matrix

(ESM).

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 Who is a Manager?

• Manager
– Someone who coordinates and
oversees the work of other
people so that organizational
goals can be accomplished.

Classifying Managers
• Top Managers
– Individuals who are responsible for making organization-wide
decisions and establishing plans and goals that affect the
entire organization.

• First-line Managers
– Individuals who manage the work of non-managerial
employees.

• Middle Managers
– Between first-line managers and the top level of the
organization

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 Exhibit 1-1:
Levels of
Management

Top
Managers

Middle Managers

First-Line Manager

Nonmanagerial employees

Where Do Managers Work?

• Organization
– A deliberate arrangement of people assembled to accomplish
some specific purpose (that individuals independently could
not accomplish alone).

• Common Characteristics of Organizations

– Have a distinct purpose (goal)
– Are composed of people
– Have a deliberate structure

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 Exhibit 1-2:
Characteristics of Organizations

Why are Managers Important?

• Organizations need their managerial skills and abilities
more than ever in these uncertain, complex, and chaotic
times.
• Managerial skills and abilities are critical in getting things
done.
• The quality of the employee/supervisor relationship is the
most important variable in productivity and loyalty.

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 What Do Managers Do?
• Management involves coordinating and overseeing the
work activities of others so that their activities are
completed efficiently and effectively.

Effectiveness and Efficiency

• Efficiency • Effectiveness
– “Doing things right” – “Doing the right things”
– Getting the most output for the – Attaining organizational goals
least inputs

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5
 Exhibit 1-4:
Efficiency and Effectiveness in Management

Efficiency (Means) Effectiveness (Ends)

Resource Goal
Usage Attainment

Low Waste High Attainment

Management Strives for:

Low Resource Waste (high efficiency)
High Goal Attainment (high effectiveness)

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Management Functions
• Planning: Defining goals, establishing strategies to
achieve goals, and developing plans to integrate and
coordinate activities.
• Organizing: Arranging and structuring work to
accomplish organizational goals.
• Leading: Working with and through people to
accomplish goals.
• Controlling: Monitoring, comparing, and correcting
work.

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6
 Exhibit 1-5:
Four Functions of Management

Planning Organizing Leading Controlling

Lead to
Setting goals, Determining Motivating, Monitoring
establishing what needs leading, and activities Achieving the
strategies, and to be done, any other to ensure organization’s
developing how it will actions involved that they are stated
plans to be done, and in dealing with accomplished purposes
coordinate who is to do it people as planned
activities

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Management Roles
• Roles are specific actions or behaviors expected of a
manager.
• Mintzberg identified 10 roles grouped around interpersonal
relationships, the transfer of information, and decision
making.

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7
 Management Roles
• Interpersonal roles
– Figurehead, leader, liaison

• Informational roles
– Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson

• Decisional roles
– Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator,
negotiator

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Exhibit 1-6: Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

• Interpersonal Roles
– Figurehead
– Leader
– Liaison

• Informational Roles
– Monitor
– Disseminator
– Spokesperson

• Decisional Roles
– Entrepreneur
– Disturbance handler
– Resource allocator
– Negotiator

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8
 Skills Managers Need
• Technical skills
– Job-specific knowledge and techniques needed to proficiently
perform work task

• Interpersonal skills
– Ability to work well with other people both individually and
in a group

• Conceptual skills
– Ability to think and conceptualize about abstract and complex
situations concerning the organization

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Exhibit 1-7:
Skills Needed at Different Managerial Levels

Top
Managers
Conceptual Interpersonal Technical

Middle
Managers
Conceptual Interpersonal Technical

Lower-Level
Managers Conceptual Interpersonal Technical

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9
 Managerial Challenges Today and
Into the Future
• Focus on Technology
• Focus on Disruptive Innovation
• Focus on Social Media
• Focus on Ethics
• Focus on Political Uncertainty
• Focus on the Customer

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Why Study Management?

• Universality of Management
– The reality that management is needed
• in all types and sizes of organizations
• at all organizational levels
• in all organizational areas
• in all organizations, regardless of location

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 Exhibit 1-8:
Universal Need for Management

All Sizes of Organizations

Small Large

All Organizational Areas

Management All Types of Organizations
Manufacturing–Marketing
Is Needed
Human Resources– Accounting
in... Profit Not-for-Profit
Information Systems–etc.

All Organization Levels

Bottom Top

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Exhibit 1-9
Rewards from Being a Manager
• Create a work environment in which organizational members can work
to the best of their ability

• Have opportunities to think creatively and use imagination

• Help others find meaning and fulfillment in work

• Support, coach, and nurture others

• Work with a variety of people

• Receive recognition and status in organization and community

• Play a role in influencing organizational outcomes

• Receive appropriate compensation in the form of salaries, bonuses,

and stock options

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 Employability Skills
1. Critical thinking
– Purposeful and goal-directed thinking used to define and
solve problems, make decisions, or form judgments across a
variety of situations.

2. Communication
– Effective use of oral, written, and nonverbal skills; effective
listening; and use of technology to convey both information
and understanding.

3. Collaboration
– Actively work together on a task, negotiate differences, and
produce final outcomes reflective of their joint and
interdependent actions.
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Employability Skills
4. Knowledge application and analysis
– Ability to learn a concept and then apply that knowledge in
another setting to achieve a higher level of understanding.

5. Social responsibility
– Ethics: sets of guiding principles that influence the way
individuals and organizations behave.
– Corporate obligations: form of ethical behavior that requires
organizations understand, identify, and eliminate unethical
economic, social, and environmental behaviors.

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 Terms to Know
• manager • management roles
• first-line managers • interpersonal roles
• middle managers • informational roles
• top managers • decisional roles
• management • technical skills
• efficiency • human skills
• effectiveness • conceptual skills
• planning • organization
• organizing • universality of management
• leading
• controlling

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