Nature of Managerial Work P. Subhashini, Ph.D., Centre for Management Studies

Nature of Managerial Work

P. Subhashini, Ph.D.,Centre for Management Studies

Questions to Ponder

Are managers too busy managing to contemplate the meaning of management?

Should managing be restricted to managers alone? Are leaders really more important than managers?Are we now in a situation where we are overled

and undermanaged?

ManagerLeader

1. How would it be to be managed by someone who doesn’t lead?

2. Why would anyone want to be lead by someone who doesn’t manage?

Reflection!

Stay Connected!

Instead of distinguishing managers from leaders, we should be seeing managers as

leaders, and leadership as management practiced well.

The What of Managing

Management is the process of reaching organizational goals by working with and through people and other organizational

resources. In simple words it is a process of ‘getting things done’ through people.

Management as a Practice

ArtVision

Creative Insights

ScienceAnalysis

Systematic Evidence

CraftExperience

Practical Learning

Folklores Vs Facts

Folklore: The manager is a reflective, systematic planner.

Fact: Managers work at an unrelenting pace and their activities are characterized by brevity, variety, fragmentation and discontinuity. They are strongly oriented to action.

Folklore: The manager depends on aggregated information best supplied by a formal system.

Fact: Managers tend to favor informal media of communication like phone calls, meetings, soft information (gossip, hearsay) which primarily remains their information diet.

Folklore: Managing is mostly about hierarchical relationships between superior and subordinate.

Fact: Managing is as much about lateral relationship as it is about hierarchical relationships.

The Why of Managers and Management

• Determining the business objectives in line with the vision of the business,

• Proactive planning for future growth, • Anticipating and planning for changes in the business

environment, • Integrating all the human, physical and informational

resources available, • Administering and controlling business activities, and • Accountability for the business operations and results.

The POLC cyclePlanning Establishes objectives and devises programs to achieve them •Establish mission statement •Determine specific objectives •Select strategies •Implement programs •Review and evaluate

Organizing Develops an organizational structure to implement strategies •Determine the way the business will operate •Choose tasks to be done •Determine the input mix •Assign tasks •Delegate authority and responsibility

Leading Use of power or influence to get the best out of workers •Give clear directions •Set the example •Communicate •Motivate

Controlling Keeping up standards •Assess and monitor performance •Compare with set standards •Identify variants •Take remedial action

Management Activities

ORGANIZING

PLANNING

LEADING

CONTROLLING

Activities

Management of time Strategic Thinking

Scheduling Confidence building

Motivation Evaluation

Interpersonal Forecasting

Team building Leading

Dispute settlement Coaching

Meeting/discussion Conceptual

Analyzing Delegation

Sort the following activities under Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling

Sort of Break!

Planning Organizing Leading Controlling

forecasting delegation team building evaluation

conceptual management of time coaching dispute

settlement

Strategic Thinking

meeting/discussion   Interpersonal

analyzing  Scheduling confidence building

    leading  

    motivation  

Better Done by IndividualBetter Done by Organization

Control

Setting Objectives

Arbitration

Planning

Organization

Leadership

Innovation

Administration

Strategy

Execution

Communication

Managerial Skills• Conceptual skills

– The ability to analyze and diagnose a situation and distinguish between cause and effect.

• Human skills– The ability to understand, alter, lead, and control the

behavior of other individuals and groups.

• Technical skills– The specific knowledge and techniques required to

perform an organizational role.

Skill Distribution at Various Levels

Was this the role that launched a thousand followers?

List out the different roles of Managers

Managerial role - The set of specific tasks that a person is expected to

perform because of the position he or she holds in the organization

Interpersonal RolesFigurehead

LeaderLiaison

Decisional RolesEntrepreneur

Disturbance HandlerResource Allocator

Negotiator

Informational RolesMonitor

DisseminatorSpokesperson

Role Description Identifiable Activities

Figurehead The symbolic head who is required to perform a number of routine social or legal duties

Ceremony, status requests and solicitations

Leader Responsible for motivating and activating subordinates as well as for staffing, training and associated duties

Virtually all managerial activities involving subordinates

Liaison Maintains a self-developed network of outsiders and contacts who provide favors and information

Acknowledgments of mail, external board work and other activities involving outsiders

Interpersonal Roles

Role Description Identifiable Activities

Monitor Seeks and receives wide variety of special and current information to develop a thorough understanding of the organization and the environment so as to be the nerve centre of internal and external information of the organization

Handling mail and contracts concerned with receiving information (including periodical news and observational tours)

Disseminator Transmits information received from outsiders and subordinates to organization members some of it being factual, some involving interpretation and integration of diverse value positions of organizational influencers

Forwarding mail into organization for informational purposes, verbal contracts involving information flow to subordinates (review sessions and instant communication)

Informational Roles

Spokesperson Transmits information to outsiders about organization plans, policies, actions and results and serves as an expert about the organization's industry

Board meetings, handling mail and contracts involving the transmission of information to outsiders

Informational Role

Role Description Identifiable Activities

Entrepreneur Searches internally and externally for opportunities, initiates improvement projects to bring about change and supervises the design of certain projects

Strategy and review sessions involving initiation or design of improvement projects

Disturbance Handler

Responsible for corrective action when the organization faces important, unexpected disturbances

Strategy and review sessions involving disturbances and crises

Decisional Roles

Resource Allocation

Responsible for the allocation of resources thereby making or approving all significant decisions

Scheduling, requesting authorization, budget activities, and programming subordinates' work

Negotiator Responsible for representing the organization at major negotiations

Negotiation

Decisional Roles

Case Study

• Successful managers – defined operationally in terms of the speed of their performance within the organisation

• Effective managers – defined in terms of the quantity & quality of standards of performance & the satisfaction & commitment of subordinates

How Managers Spend their

• Traditional Management: Decision making, planning and controlling

• Communication: Exchanging routine information and processing paperwork

• People Management: Motivating, disciplining, managing conflict, staffing and training

• Networking: Socializing, politicizing and interacting with outsiders.

Study by LuthansAverage Managers

Successful Managers

Effective Managers

ACTIVITY Percentage of Time

Traditional Management

32 13 19

Communication 29 28 44

People Management

20 11 26

Networking 19 48 11

Thank You