What do managers do? How important is managerial leadership for the running of effective organizations?
Name: Xiaochao Peng (BA. IBFE. 1st year)
Tutorial Group: 18 (Monday, 13.00-14.00)
Topic: What do managers do? How important is managerial leadership for the running of effective organizations? (non-assessed)
A manager is a person who plans, organizes, directs, and controls the allocation of human, material, financial, and information resources in pursuit of the organization's goals. The many different types of managers include department managers, product managers, account managers, plant managers, division managers, district managers, and task force managers. What they all have in common is responsibility for the efforts of a group of people who share a goal and access to resources that the group can use in pursuing its goal. An important responsibility of managers such as Laing is to ensure that their groups understand their goals and how achieving their goals is related to the success of their organizations. Saatchi & Saatchi's primary goal is to "make clients' brands famous." While achieving that goal, the company also has the goal of making its own name famous. It achieves these goals by producing excellent advertising for its current clients and by attracting new accounts (Brodin, 1997). The purpose of this essay is to talk about what the managers do, and how important is managerial leadership for the running effective organizations.
Now let us consider systematically what managers do - the functions they perform and the specific tasks included in these functions. The successful managers capably performs four basic managerial functions: planning, organization, leading, and controlling.
Planning
In general, planning involves defining organizational goals and proposing ways to reach them. Managers plan for three reasons:
(1) To establish an overall direction for the organization's future, such as increased profit, expanded market share, and social responsibility;
(2) To identify and commit the organization's resources to achieving its goals;
(3) To decide which tasks must be done to reach those goals.
Organizing
After managers have prepared plans, they must translate those relatively abstract ideas into reality. Organizing is the process of creating a structure of relationships that will enable employees to carry out management's plans and meet organizational goals. By organizing effectively, managers can better coordinate human, material, and information resources. An organization's success depends largely on management's ability to utilize those resources efficiently and effectively.
Leading
After management ...
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(2) To identify and commit the organization's resources to achieving its goals;
(3) To decide which tasks must be done to reach those goals.
Organizing
After managers have prepared plans, they must translate those relatively abstract ideas into reality. Organizing is the process of creating a structure of relationships that will enable employees to carry out management's plans and meet organizational goals. By organizing effectively, managers can better coordinate human, material, and information resources. An organization's success depends largely on management's ability to utilize those resources efficiently and effectively.
Leading
After management has made plans, created a structure, and hired the right personnel, someone must lead the organization. Leading involves communicating with and motivating others to perform the tasks necessary to achieve the organization's goals. Leading is not done only after planning and organizing end; it is a crucial element of those functions.
Controlling
The process by which a person, group, or organization consciously monitors performance and takes corrective action is controlling. Just as a thermostat sends signals to a heating system that the room temperature is too high or too low, so a management control system sends to signals to managers that things are not working out as planned and that corrective action is needed.
Also, we looked at some of the different theories of management and grouped them into four quadrants based on whether the individuals espousing these theories were more internally or externally oriented, more focused on control or flexibility. We will continue to use this framework to consider the roles of the manager. Let us see the following table:
Rational Goal Model - Externally Oriented, Focused on Control
Director Role
No nonsense, take charge attitude
Competitive
Takes initiative
Sets goals
Delegates effectively
Producer role
Task oriented and work focused
High energy and personal drive
Motivates others to be productive and to accomplish stated goals
Maintains high personal productivity
Administrative or Internal Process Model - Internally Oriented, Focused on Control
Monitor Role
Knows what's going on
Good at analysis
Cares for details
Gathers and organizes information
Evaluates routine info and responds to it
Introduces/Uses measurement and control systems
Coordinator role
Maintains structure and flow of system
Dependable, reliable
Work facilitator
Plans
Organizes, Schedules
Controls
Handles crises
Human Relations Model - Internally Oriented, Focused on Flexibility
Facilitator Role
Process-oriented
Has gift for getting folks to see big picture
Helps folks cooperate
Fosters collective efforts; Builds teams
Manages interpersonal conflict
Encourages participation in decision-making
Mentor role
Sees people as resources to be developed.
Helpful, considerate, sensitive, approachable
Develops subordinates
Listens, supports, conveys appreciation
Gives compliments and credit
Open Systems Model - Externally Oriented, Focused on Flexibility
Innovator Role
Creative Thinker
Insightful
Good at convincing others
Entrepreneurial
Facilitates adaptability and change
Monitors environment and identifies trends
Conceptualizes new projects and processes
Broker Role
Politically astute
Persuasive
Influential
Liaison/ Spokesperson
Builds/maintains power base
Negotiates agreement and commitment
Negotiates and sells ideas
Leadership is the lifting of a man's vision to higher sights, the raising of a man's performance to a higher standard, the building of a man's personality beyond its normal limitations. Nothing better prepares the ground for such leadership than a spirit of management that confirms in the day-to-day practices of the organization strict principles of conduct and responsibility, high standards of performance, and respect for the individual and his work. For to leadership, too, the words of the savings bank advertisement apply: "Wishing won't make it so; doing will." (Drucker, 1955). Leadership can be thought of us the process of influencing others to direct their efforts toward the pursuit of specific goals. In the context of organizational behavior, leadership is mainly concerned with managerial style. We can learn a lot of experience from successful leadership. First, trust must be established. Giving employees more freedom to act autonomously and make decision is a necessary first step. Second, leaders must clarify the direction in which people should be headed. Clear, consistent communication helps people feel confident that they can make the right decisions. Third, effective leaders encourage others to take risks. A project's failure should not derail a person's career.
Manager leaders have the following power, which is the ability to influence the behavior of others. Leaders exercise power, and effective leaders know how to use it wisely. The types of power used by a leader reveal a great deal about why others follow that individual. Let us have a look leader's power together:
Legitimate Power: Influence based on the leader's formal position in the organization's hierarchy.
Reward Power: The influence stemming from a leader's ability to satisfy followers' needs.
Coercive Power: The ability of a leader to obtain compliance through fear or punishment.
Referent Power: Influence based on followers' personal identification with the leader.
Expert Power: A leader's specialized knowledge grants that person expert power.
The leader's use of different types of power, or clout, can lead to one of three types of behavior in followers: commitment, compliance, or resistance. Expert and referent power tend to result in subordinate commitment, legitimate and reward power tend to result in compliance, and coercive power tends to result in resistance. Referent power usually leads to high levels of performance. Hence effective leaders are likely to rely on expert, referent, and reward power, using legitimate and coercive power only minimally. Legitimate power is effective when a manager simply requires an employee to perform a task that is within the employee's capabilities and job description.
In conclusion, we have known that managers are very important in a company. Also, managerial leadership for running of effective organization is very necessary. Therefore, how to be a good manager and how to use the power of managerial leader is a very serious point for every organization. It is related to a company's life and future, and which should be always regarded.
Bibliography
Brodin (1997), The Two Faces of Management, London, Thomson.
D. Knights & H. Wilmott (1986), Managing the Labour Process, Aldershot, Gower.
F. Drucker (1955), The Practice of Management, Heinemann, London
Gareth Morgan (1997), Images of Organization, Sage (2nd edition).
Quinn, R. E. and Cameron, K. S. (1984). Organizational life cycles and the criteria of effectiveness, Management Science 33-51.
