Your Suggested Management Process

You would have helped Joan’s boss prevent the situation you saw in the case incident if your general outline of the management process included the following points:

1. define the problem

2. set objectives

3. assign responsibilities and delegate authority

4. allocate resources

5. design controls (such as work plans, milestone charts, or schedules)

6. monitor progress

7. solve problems along the way

8. appraise performance

These points and others—and their applicability to all management situations—will be discussed in later chapters.

MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

Many skills are required to master the challenging nature of managerial work to meet the changing trends in management described in Chapter 25. The most important skills and competencies are those that allow managers to assist others in becoming more effective and productive in their work. Robert L. Katz classified the critical skills of managers into three categories: technical (or operational), human, and conceptual (see Figure 1-3). Although all three skills are essential for managers, their relative importance tends to vary by level of managerial responsibility.

If we view the levels of managerial responsibility in the form of a triangle as depicted in Figure 1-3, we can then reverse the triangle and align it oppo­site the levels of management depicting how each of the three skills relates to the levels of management.

		the ability to think conceptually and solve complex problems with longer term consequences /or the enterprise
	Vice president and higher
		the ability to work well with others with intermediate-term consequences
	Managing other managers or supervisors
		the ability to apply expertise and perform a special task(s) with proficiency with shorter term consequences
		First level of supervision

Levels of Management Essential Managerial Skills

Figure 1-3. Levels of managerial responsibility—essential managerial skills.

Managerial competency is a skill that contributes to a high performance in a managerial job. In this regard, the American Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB International) is urging business schools to assist practicing and potential managers in developing the following personal competencies for managerial success:

PERSONAL COMPETENCIES FOR MANAGERIAL SUCCESS

• Leadership—ability to influence others to perform tasks

• Self-objectivity—ability to evaluate oneself realistically

• Analytical thinking—ability to interpret and explain patterns in information

• Behavioral flexibility—ability to modify personal behavior to reach a goal

• Oral communications—ability to express ideas clearly in oral pre­sentations

• Written communication—ability to express one’s ideas clearly in writing

• Personal impact—ability to create a good impression and instill confidence

• Resistance to stress—ability to perform under stressful conditions

• Tolerance for uncertainty—ability to perform in ambiguous situa­tions

Today, managers in public, private, and nonprofit organizations deal with unexpected events on a more frequent basis than in the past. According to Richard L. Daft, “the shift toward new ways of working, enabled by technology, puts additional demands on today’s managers. Many employees are always on the move, juggling laptops, mobile phones, and Blackberry’s to keep in electronic touch with customers, teammates, and managers who may have limited face-to-face contact. In the new world of work, managers need a new approach that relies less on command and control and more on coordination and communication. The field of management is undergoing a i evolution that asks managers to do more with less, to engage whole employees, to see change rather than stability as the nature of things, and in inspire vision and cultural values that allow people to create a truly collaborative and productive workplace.”

An important challenge in the new workplace, as Daft describes it, is “to build a learning organization by creating an organizational climate that val­ues experimentation and risk taking, applies current technology, tolerates mistakes and failure and rewards nontraditional thinking and sharing of knowledge. The role of managers is not to make decisions, but to create learning capability where everyone is free to experiment and learn what works best. To succeed in the new workplace, you have to learn to network and build collaborative relationships. Expect to manage with little command and control and to master skills such as communication, guiding others, and inspiration.”[1]

YOU SHOULD REMEMBER

A manager gets results effectively through others by the process of delegation. Although a manager cannot delegate ultimate responsibility, he/she can delegate authority. It is through the combination of sharing responsibility through assign­ment and delegating authority that a manager can hold other levels (persons) accountable for getting things done.

DO YOU KNOW THE BASICS?

1.What is management?

2.How does the 1980 definition of management differ from the current definition?

3.What is the difference between management activities and technical activities?

4.What should happen as a manager moves up in an organization in terms of management activities vs. technical activities?

5.How would you explain the process of delegation to a new manager?

TERMS FOR STUDY

accountability management activities

authority management competencies

delegation management skills

learning organization responsibility

management technical activities

[1] Richard L. Daft, Management, Eighth Edition (Ohio: Thomson South-Western, 2008), pp. 6, 27-28