Management Level and Skills

Robert L. Katz, a teacher and business executive, has popularised a concept developed early in this century by Henry Fayol, a famous management theorist. Fayol identified three basic kinds of skills: technical, human, and conceptual (see Theory 1). Every manager needs all three.

Fayol and Katz suggest that although all three of these skills are essential to a manager, their relative importance depends mainly on the manager's rank in the organization. Technical skill is most important in the lower levels. Human skill, although important for managers at every level, is the primary skill needed by middle managers; their ability to tap the technical skills of their subordinates is more important than their own technical proficiency. Finally, the importance of conceptual skill increases as one rises through the ranks of a management system. At higher and higher organizational levels, the full range of relationships, and the organization's place in time, are important to understand. This is where a manager must have a clear grasp of the big picture.

1) Who is a manager?

2) What do first-line managers do?

3) What do middle managers do?

4) What do top managers do?

5) What is a function? What are the main functions in an organization?

6) Who are functional managers?

7) Who are general managers?

8) What is the most important skill for first-line managers?

9) What is the most important skill for middle managers?

10) What is the most important skill for top managers?

SUMMARY-2 POINT

►Translate the phrases below into Russian and make them stick in your mind. Use as many of them as possible to summarize Theory 2:

1) first-line managers/ line managers/ junior managers

2) to direct non-management employees

3) middle managers

4) to direct the activities of lower-level managers

5) to implement the organizations’ policies

6) top managers/ senior managers

7) to be responsible for the overall management of an organization

8) to guide the organization’s interactions with its environment

9) chief executive officer

10) the scope of activities

11) functional managers

12) general managers

13) to oversee a complex unit

14) a subsidiary

15) to tap technical skills of subordinates

16) human skill

17) conceptual skill

18) to rise through the ranks of a management system

PUZZLE-3 POINT

Complete the text using the correct form of these verbs:

achieve allocate balance deal with develop

employ establish follow require set

The top managers of a company (1) have to ………………. objectives and then develop particular strategies that will enable the company to (2)..................................... them. This will involve (3) the company's human, capital and physical resources. Strategies can often be sub-divided into tactics - the precise methods in which the resources attached to a strategy are (4)……………

The founders of a business usually establish a "mission statement" - a declaration about what the business is and what it will be in the future. The business’s central values and objectives will (5)…………………from this. But because the business environment is always changing, companies will occasionally have to modify or change their objectives. It is part of top management's role to (6)……………… today's objectives and needs against those of the future, and to take responsibility for innovation, without which any organisation can only expect a limited life. Top managers are also
expected to set standards, and to (7)………………… human resources, especially future top managers.

They also have to manage a business's social responsibilities and its impact on the environment. They have to (8)……………….. and maintain good relations with customers, major suppliers, bankers, government agencies, and so on. The top management, of course, is also on permanent stand-by to (9)…………………. major crises.

Between them, these tasks (10).................. many different skills which are almost never found in one person, so top management is work for a team. A team, of course, is not the same as a committee: it needs a clear leader, in this case the chairman or managing director.

Complete the following collocations:

1. to set...........

2. to allocate............

3. to........... responsibility

4. to........... standards

5. to........... and................... good relations

6. to........... a crisis

CHECK POINT

1. What are the challenges that managers face in today's competitive world?

2. Describe each of the major functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

3. What is the nature of work agenda and its three main factors?

4. What roles do managers act out at various times?

5. Explain why a knowledge base and the key management skills are important to managers.

6. Describe and compare three management levels.

7. What is the difference between functional and general managers?

(Revised Unit 3 from Business & English by Levon Gzokyan)

‘WARM-UP’ POINT

►Traditionally, business organizations have been given hierarchical (pyramidal) structures. Look at the pyramid below which reflects this sort of structure, do the assignment and answer the question:

1. Describe each layer of the pyramid and the lines or levels of authority involved, i.e. who reports to whom.
2. Is this structure centralized or decentralized? Why?

A – MD (Managing Director)

B – Senior managers

C – Middle managers

D – Junior managers

E – Operatives and support staff

‘TRANSLATION-1’ POINT

►Translate into Russian:

(1) Whatever their structure, large companies, in order to manage their growing complexities, tend to become hierarchical. A hierarchy essentially differentiates people in terms of power in a vertical fashion. Those at the top are the chief decision-makers in the organization, whereas those at the bottom, who carry out the routine activities of the business, have little decision-making power. There may be many layers of management and supervision in between. Each worker in the hierarchy has a definite position, with lines of authority above and below, in a system known as bureaucracy. When we think of bureaucracies, we think of the benefits of efficiency, with each task fitting into an overall whole, as in an assembly line. But we also tend to think of bureaucracies as inflexible and dependent on procedural formalities. They function best in unchanging environments, but in the context of a rapidly changing competitive environment, companies are shifting away from the bureaucratic model in order to introduce more flexibility, more open communication and quicker responses to customer needs.

(2) One of the obvious reforms of bureaucratic structures is to reduce the number of layers, or flatten the structure. The structure may be flattened by reducing layers in the middle if there are too many layers of middle management. Or the power to take decisions may be decentralized to lower levels, through empowerment, one of the major developments in HRM thinking. Empowerment holds that employees at all levels in the organization are responsible for their own actions, and should be given authority to make decisions about their work. The rationale behind empowerment is that those at the lower levels have considerable knowledge of operational matters and are able to respond more quickly.

‘PROS & CONS-1’ POINT

►Fill in the table with the information you have come up with and learned so far:

Table. Advantages and disadvantages of the hierarchical structure

►In order to overcome the drawbacks of the hierarchical structure while retaining its advantages, many large organizations tend to delayer or flatten. What is it? How is this sort of structure called? Draw a figure reflecting this structure and compare it with the pyramid above. What are the points in favor of this structure?

‘THEORY-1’ POINT

Introduction

Organizational structure can be divided into three broad categories. The first is organization based on function. The second is the divisional structure, based on products, brands or regions. Third, there is the organizational structure based on a matrix, the aim of which is to bring together the benefits of the other types.

Date: 2016-01-05; view: 1658