Report Proposal On Roles Of Management and Principles

1. Introduction

Effectiveness of organization is substantially defined by the extent to which manager perform his role in effective manner. The roles of managers are diverse and they vary across different organizations, however the core activities remain same in all organizations. The underlying report has focused on; purposes of manager’s activities, varying roles of managers with organizational change, time allocation for a good manager, difference of effective and successful manager along with challenges for becoming a good manager.

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2. Activities performed by managers and its purpose

Manager is expected to perform multiple activities within an organization, whereby; planning, organizing, coaching, information dissemination, interpersonal communication, relationship building, leading and decision making are some of the key activities. These are only a few instances of activities being performed by managers and role requirement might vary across different levels of management as well as across different organizations (Buss & Kuyvenhoven, 2011). Based on the roles defined by Mintzberg, the activities performed by manager can be divided into three categories, including informational role, interpersonal role and decisional role. All of these activities hold substantial purpose, which is linked with strategic goals of the organization at large. For instance, the activities under informational role of manager are purported to maintain association with stakeholders, to seek and receive informational reports on organization’s activities, to disseminate information to organization’s members and to communicate information to external world (Birkinshaw & Caulkin, 2012).

Secondly, the interpersonal role of manager has purpose of establishing and managing interpersonal associations throughout the organization, as well as with the outsiders, such as suppliers, contractors, regulators, community and customers among other stakeholders. Additionally, the leading and inspiring the members of organization to help accomplish the strategic goals of organization, is also the core purpose of interpersonal activities of manager (Tucker, 2017). Finally, the decisional role of manager is considered as of vital importance for organization, as its purpose is to bring improvement in organizational activities on continual basis through sound decision making (Sonenshein, 2010). For instance, innovation related decisions serve as core purpose to adapt in changing business world. Likewise, the disturbance handling, resource allocation and negotiation are also considered as core purposes of decisional role of manager. Based on these evidences, it can be mentioned that role of manager is much diverse within organization and each activity has multiple purposes, which are linked with mission, as well as strategic standing of organization.

3. Variation in manager’s role in changing organizational settings

It is notable that market demands and consumers preferences are changing tremendously, which create demand for variation in internal strategies and approaches of organization to comply with fluctuating market conditions. The compliance with external changes is likely to cause substantial changes in internal environment of organization, which will demand for agility in manager’s role at all levels (top, middle and lower) (Herzig & Jimmieson, 2006). Firstly, the top level management is needed to make agile decision making with an aim of increasing value for the organization. For instance, if the customers’ demands are changing and company is losing its market shares, then top management will make decisions about the pursuit of either new product development strategy or market development strategy (Buss & Kuyvenhoven, 2011). The agility of management will be needed to identify the market dynamics to choose the most feasible strategy for innovating the organization.

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On the other hand, if the top management chooses new product development strategy, the middle level management will be required to carry out extensive analysis of internal and external environment of organization to develop plan for execution of strategy (Sonenshein, 2010). Finally, the lower level management will implement the plans defined by middle level management. It is addressable that in order to implement any new strategy, all levels of management are needed to be adaptable, flexible as well as resilient (Lüscher & Lewis, 2008). Therefore, the management is not only engaged in their routine activities, but they are also managing change while defining new ways to deal with the fluctuating market conditions. There are many hurdles expected during the change management process and agile management will ensure that variety of options are orchestrated and needed actions are performed with flexibility (Buss & Kuyvenhoven, 2011). Inability of management to undertake changing roles, can cause conflict and disturbance across whole organization and thus competitiveness of organization can suffer significantly.

4. Importance of time allocation of managers

It is considerable that most valuable asset for a manager is his/her time, which if allocated accurately across different activities, is likely to generate substantial value for the organization (Nasir, 2017). The understanding about the manager’s allocation of time to different activities is likely to be helpful in prospective role of manager. For instance, the study of Kieran, MacMahon & MacCurtain (2020) highlighted that people are the core resource of a manager to accomplish strategic direction of the organization, and if manager does not spend his time to clarify the expected behaviors and roles from its people, then advancement in organization is less likely to happen. It shows that coaching, supervision, leading and relationship building are some of the core areas, which require time and attention of manager for successful operations of organization (Turner, 2018). Additionally, the encouragement of employees to continuously learn new skills and gain new knowledge, is also the core role which is demanded from a good manager. As noted by Jeoung & Hong (2018) a manager cannot perform each task at his own and delegation and empowerment are the key aspects for driving team based structure of organization. The delegation can be performed well, when employees are well trained and continuously learn new skills. Therefore, managers are required to allocate their time for continuously supporting and supervising their employees, with an aim of developing the skills of employees and for gaining excellence in organizational performance. On the other hand, Tuncdogan & Dogan (2019) have mentioned that managers might like to spend most of their time in reporting, as 50% of time is allocated in reporting related activities. However, the reporting alone cannot help the managers to accomplish the strategic goals of organization. Thus, the study about time allocation of manager has enabled me to gain understanding about the most important activities for managers to spend their time on.

5. Difference between Effective and Successful Manager

The difference between successful and effective managers is mainly linked with their orientation to allocate their time for accomplishment of activities. For instance, successful managers are more likely to be task oriented, as they spend most of their time for accomplishing the underlying tasks of the organization. These managers are likely to set clear goals for workforce and set easy to follow guidelines, which enables to maintain efficiency in performance.

On the other hand, effective managers are likely to be task oriented as well as people oriented. The task orientation allows them to spend time on getting work done effectively, while people orientation enables them to develop relationship with people and offering the prospects of development. The focus on people development serves the purpose of enhancing employee motivation, employee satisfaction and commitment. These managers are engaged in assuring continuous learning of people throughout the organization and thus are better able to deal with any changing circumstances. Therefore, it is evident that the ways in which managers spend their time, is likely to make a difference in whether a manager will be successful or effective.

6. Challenges for becoming good Manager

Dealing with drastically changing business settings is considered as one of the key challenges for being a good manager. If change is not anticipated and managed in appropriate manner, then uncertainty might prevail across the whole organization and success of business might be hindered (Turner, 2018). Additionally, the adoption of different ways to approach and manage various circumstances is also important for a good manager. If a manager does not understand circumstantial requirements of his role and does not adopt appropriate ways of managing then, hustle might be created among workforce (Kieran, MacMahon & MacCurtain, 2020). For instance, adoption of maintaining strict control over delegation is likely to decline commitment and satisfaction of employees, which ultimately affects their performance. In addition to this, as people are considered as core resource of a manager to accomplish the goals of organization, so inability of manager to develop relationship with them and to manage their performance is also an important challenge for being a good manager (Weintraub & Hunt, 2015). For example, if too much focus is maintained on tasks accomplishment and personal development of employees is overlooked by manager, then negative effect will be witnessed in terms of both employees’ as well as organizational performance (Van Dun, Hicks & Wilderom, 2017). Finally, allocation of time to different activities, appropriateness of communication and ability to inspire employees are also important aspects for becoming a good manager and any discrepancy in these might be problematic.

7. Conclusion

To sum up, the activities that are performed by managers have diverse impact on overall success and wellbeing of organization. The changing industry and market conditions, requires agility and flexibility in role of manager. Further, the managers are likely to differ in their styles of managing and have different ways of spending their time. The managers who spend their time in accomplishment of task are likely to be successful, however, the effective managers are one who focus on relationship building along with task orientation. Finally, many challenges are faced by manager in the journey of becoming a good manager, which requires appropriate and timely consideration.

8. References

Birkinshaw, J., & Caulkin, S. (2012). How should managers spend their time?: finding more time for real management. Business Strategy Review, 23(4), 62-65.

Buss, W. C., & Kuyvenhoven, R. (2011). Perceptions of European middle managers of their role in strategic change. Global journal of business research, 5(5), 109-119.

Herzig, S. E., & Jimmieson, N. L. (2006). Middle managers’ uncertainty management during organizational change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.

Jeoung, T. & Hong, J. (2018). Effect of organizational psychological factors on the innovation activities of middle managers (Verification of the moderating effects of middle managers’ management. International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 118(19), pp.347-364.

Kieran, S., MacMahon, J. & MacCurtain, S. (2020). Strategic change and sensemaking practice: enabling the role of the middle manager. Baltic Journal of Management.

Lüscher, L. S., & Lewis, M. W. (2008). Organizational change and managerial sensemaking: Working through paradox. Academy of management Journal, 51(2), 221-240.

Nasir, S.Z. (2017). Emerging Challenges of HRM in 21st Century: A Theoretical Analysis. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(3), pp.216-223.

Sonenshein, S. (2010). We’re changing—Or are we? Untangling the role of progressive, regressive, and stability narratives during strategic change implementation. Academy of Management Journal, 53(3), 477-512.

Tucker, E. (2017). Engaging employees: Three critical roles for managers. Strategic HR Review.

Tuncdogan, A. & Dogan, I.C. (2019). Managers’ regulatory focus, temporal focus and exploration–exploitation activities. Journal of Managerial Psychology.

Turner, P. (2018). The Role of the Board, the Executive Team, Line Managers and HR Professionals in Talent Management. In Talent Management in Healthcare (pp. 315-338). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Van Dun, D.H., Hicks, J.N. & Wilderom, C.P. (2017). Values and behaviors of effective lean managers: Mixed-methods exploratory research. European management journal, 35(2), pp.174-186.

Weintraub, J. R., & Hunt, J. M. (2015). 4 Reasons Managers Should Spend More Time on Coaching. Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business School Publishing, 29(4).