The General Manager

General management decision making requires the coordination of all aspects of business into an integrated management program. In other words, general managers are concerned with strategy implementation. This means a continual assessment of what business to be in and how one will do business both in general and very specific terms. The functional areas of business- finance, marketing, production and human resources- are essential for understanding general management problems. The general manager must relate financial issues to a proposed marketing program, changes in techniques in production to human resources implications, and so on.

What are the responsibilities of a general manager? Usually they include the following:

1. Long-term planning for new products, production/operation processes, new markets, financial flexibility, and organizational changes.

2. Finding and training competent subordinates. The general manager’s goal would be to delegate as much responsibility and authority as possible to subordinates in finance, marketing, production, and human resources in order to be free for the major decisions concerning the overall company.

3. Coordination. The general manager’s goal would be to ensure that the various activities of the company reinforce one another, rather than work at cross-purposes. The general manager would act as a liaison, ensuring that coordination is sought and achieved among the various functional areas of the business.

4. Decision making. The general manager will make decisions that subordinates cannot make, either because of disagreements or because they lack a sufficiently broad perspective on the issues that need to be considered.

In short, the general manager must understand all functional areas of business and be especially competent in human resources management. As one can see, the general manager is concerned with strategic making (longer-term directions for the business) and operational decision making (shorter-term specific actions to accomplish shorter-term goals). The general manager delegates, coordinates, and facilitates decisions to the extent possible, and where necessary makes the ‘big’ decisions affecting company welfare. To perform this demanding role adequately, the general manager must be able to appraise the company and its environment thoroughly and objectively.

V. Find key words, phrases and the topic sentences which best express general meaning of each paragraph.

VI. Speak about the meaning and the responsibilities of a general manager using key words and phrases and the topic sentences.