Chap 1

Understanding the Manager’s Job

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We are going to learn
about…

• Management
• Levels of management
• Management functions

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Upon completion of this
chapter, you will be able to:

• Define management.
• Describe the kinds of managers found
in organizations
• Identify and explain the four basic
management functions.

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 Management

A set of activities (including planning, organizing, leading, and

controlling) directed at an organization’s resources (human, financial,
physical, and information), with the aim of achieving organizational
goals in an efficient and effective manner.

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• Efficiently: Doing the task accurately
with minimum resources.
-Doing things right (peter Drucker)

• Effectiveness: Completing task or

achieving goals in the required time
period.
- Doing the right things (peter Drucker)

So, Undue emphasis on high efficiency

without being effective is not desirable.
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Levels of Management

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 Top
Managers:
• Top managers make up the relatively small group of
executives who manage the overall organization.
• Titles found in this group include president, vice
president, and chief executive officer (CEO).
• Top managers create the organization’s goals, overall
strategy, and operating policies.
• Officially represent the organization to the external
environment by meeting with government officials,
executives of other organizations, and so forth.
• Example: Brian Niccol, CEO of Starbucks.

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Middle Managers:
• Middle management is the largest group of managers in most organizations.
• Common middle-management titles include plant manager, operations manager, and division
head.
• Middle managers are primarily responsible for
implementing the policies and plans developed by top managers
supervising and coordinating the activities of lower-level managers
• Example: Jason Hernandez, a regional manager at Starbucks responsible for the firm’s
operations in three eastern states, is a middle manager.

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First-Line Managers:

• First-line managers supervise and coordinate the activities of operating

employees.
• Common titles for first-line managers are supervisor, coordinator, and office
manager.
• Example: Wayne Maxwell and Jenny Wagner, managers of Starbucks coffee shops
in Texas, are first-line managers.

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 Basic Management Functions
1. Planning: Setting an organization’s goals and deciding how best to achieve
them. Decision making, a part of the planning process, involves selecting a
course of action from a set of alternatives.
2. Organizing: Determining how activities and resources are to be grouped.
3. Leading: The set of processes used to get members of the organization to work
together to further the interests of the organization.
4. Controlling: Monitoring organizational progress toward goal attainment.

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 Management Skills
1) Technical Skills: Technical skills are necessary to accomplish or
understand the specific kind of work done in an organization. Technical
skills are especially important for first-line managers.
2) Interpersonal Skills: The ability to communicate with, understand, and
motivate both individuals and groups. Managers must be able to get
along with subordinates, peers, those at higher levels of the organization,
and work with suppliers, customers, investors, and others outside the
organization.
3) Conceptual Skills: Manager’s ability to think in the abstract. Managers
need the mental capacity to understand the overall workings of the
organization and its environment. This ability allows them to think
strategically.
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4) Diagnostic Skills: The manager’s ability to visualize the most
appropriate response to a situation. Example: Doctor.
5) Communication Skills: Manager’s abilities to both effectively
convey ideas and information to others and effectively receive ideas
and information from others.
6) Decision-Making Skills: Manager’s ability to correctly recognize and
define problems and opportunities and to then select an
appropriate course of action to solve problems and capitalize on
opportunities.
7) Time Management Skills: Time management skills refer to the
manager’s ability to prioritize work, to work efficiently, and to
delegate work appropriately.

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The Historical Context of Management

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 The Classical Management Perspective

Scientific Management: Concerned with improving the performance of individual

workers.
• Father of Scientific Management: Frederick W. Taylor
• Productivity emerged as a serious business problem during the early years of the
twentieth century.
• Business was expanding and capital was readily available, but labor was in short
supply. Hence, managers began to search for ways to use existing labor more
efficiently.
• In response to this need, experts began to focus on ways to improve the performance
of individual workers.
• Their work led to the development of scientific management.
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 The Classical Management Perspective

• In Taylor’s first job in the Steel Company, he observed what he called

soldiering—employees deliberately working at a pace slower than
their capabilities.
• He determined what each worker should be producing, and then he
designed the most efficient way of doing each part of the overall task.
• Next, he implemented a piecework pay system. Rather than paying all
employees the same wage, he began increasing the pay of each
worker who met and exceeded the target level of output set for his or
her job.
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Steps in Scientific Management

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 The Classical Management Perspective
Administrative Management
• Focuses on managing the total organization
• The primary contributor to administrative management were Henri
Fayol

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 The Behavioral Management Perspective
Emphasizes individual attitudes and behaviors and group processes.

The Human Relations Movement:

• Argued that workers respond primarily to the social context of the workplace.
• Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y model best represents the essence of the
human relations movement.
• Theory X and Theory Y reflect two extreme belief sets that different managers have
about their workers.
• Theory X is a relatively pessimistic and negative view of workers and is consistent with
the views of scientific management.
• Theory Y is more positive and represents the assumptions made by human relations
advocates.
• In McGregor’s view, Theory Y was a more appropriate philosophy for managers to
adhere to. 18
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