Lecture No. 1 (29-Jan-18)
                     
PowerPoint Presentation



Managerial Role in Organizations

Department of Business Administration
Master of Business Administration


INTRODUCTION


Lecture Content

Introduction to Management & Managers
• What is Management?
• What do managers do?
• Management functions
• Management roles
• Management skills


Why are managers important?

Three Reasons
1. Organizations need managerial skills and abilities more than ever in these uncertain, 

complex, and chaotic times

Today’s challenges: Worldwide economic climate, financial management, changing technology, customer 
service, ever increasing globalization, regulation and compliance etc. 

Managers play an important role in identifying critical issues and crafting responses.

2. Critical to getting things done

Responsible to ensure that all the employees are getting their jobs done so the organization can do what 
it’s in business to do. If work isn’t getting done or isn’t getting done as it should be, they must find out 
why and get things back on track.

Manager create and coordinate the workplace systems and conditions so that others can 
perform their assigned tasks


Why are managers important?

Three Reasons (contd.)
3. Managers do matter to organizations! 

How do we know that?

The Gallup Organization’s study found: The single most important variable in employee productivity and 
loyalty isn’t pay or benefits or workplace environment; it’s the quality of the relationship between 
employees and their direct supervisors.

Global consulting firm Towers Watson’s study found :  The way a company manages and engages its 
people can significantly affect its financial performance.

Also, a recent study of organizational performance found:  Managerial ability was important in creating 
organizational value.

What can we conclude from such reports?

Managers are important and they do matter!


Who are managers and where do they 
work?

Who are they?
• Under the age of 18 or over age 80?
• They run large corporations or entrepreneurial start-ups?
• They’re found in government departments or hospitals or small businesses or not-

for-profit agencies or museums or schools?
• In every country on the globe?
• Can be a women or only men?
• At the top-level or first-line?

Managers may not be who or what you might expect!


Who are managers and where do they 
work?

Who managers were?
Organizational members who would tell others what to do and how to do it.

It was easy to differentiate managers from nonmanagerial employees. Now, it isn’t quite that simple. In 
many organizations, the distinction between managers and nonmanagerial employees is now blurred. 
How?

Cross-trained and multi-skilled employees can take the role of a team leader as well as a team staff 
(example: equipment operator, maintenance technician, quality inspector, or improvement planner etc.)

Who managers are? 
A manager is someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other people so that 
organizational goals can be accomplished.

Manager’s job is not about personal achievement — it’s about helping others do their work.

What does that mean?
He may need to coordinate the work of a departmental group, or might supervise a single person. 
Manager’s job could involve coordinating the work activities of a team with people from different 
departments or even people from outside the organization, such as temporary employees or individuals 
who work for the organization’s suppliers.


Who are managers and where do they 
work?

Levels of Management

First-line managers: Manage the work of nonmanagerial employees who typically are involved with 
producing the organization’s products or servicing the organization’s customers. 
Example titles: supervisors, shift manager, district manager, department manager, office manager etc.

Middle managers:  Manage the work of first-line managers and can be found between the lowest and 
top levels of the organization.
Example titles: Regional manager, project leader, division manager etc.

Top managers: Responsible for making organization-wide decisions and establishing the plans and 
goals that affect the entire organization. 
Example titles: Executive vice president, president, managing director, chief operating officer, chief executive officer 
etc.

Traditionally structured organizations (pictured as a pyramid because more employees are at lower organizational 
levels than at upper organizational levels)


Who are managers and where do they 
work?

Where do managers work?
Managers do their work in organizations!

What is an organization? 
A deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish some specific purpose.
Examples: College or university, government departments, grocery store, Clinic etc.

Three common characteristics of organizations
• Organizations have a distinct purpose (typically expressed through goals that the 

organizations hope to accomplish)
• Organizations are composed of people (it takes people to perform the work that’s necessary 

for organizations to achieve their goals)
• Organizations develop some deliberate structure within which members do their work 

(structures may be open and flexible, with no specific job duties or strict adherence to explicit 
job arrangements)


What is management?

“Management” is what managers do!

What is management ?
Management involves coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that their 
activities are completed efficiently and effectively.

Efficiency - getting the most output from the least amount of inputs
Why? Managers deal with scarce inputs, including resources such as people, money, and 
equipment. So they’re concerned with the efficient use of those resources. 

“Doing things right” — not wasting resources

Effectiveness – producing desired result/output 
“Doing the right things”— doing those work that will help the organization reach its goals


What is management?

Efficiency is concerned with the means of getting things done, whereas effectiveness is concerned 
with the ends or attainment of organizational goals 

In successful organizations, high efficiency and high effectiveness typically go hand in hand.

Poor management (which leads to poor performance) usually involves being inefficient and 
ineffective or being effective, but inefficient.


Management Functions: What do managers do?

Three approaches to describe what managers do: functions, roles, and skills

Functions Approach: Managers perform certain activities or functions as they efficiently and 
effectively coordinate the work of others.

What are these functions?
Henri Fayol (a management theorist) developed the general theory of business administration, 
proposed in the early part of the twentieth century that all managers perform five functions: 

planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling

Today, these functions have been condensed to four:
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling


Management Role: What do managers do?

Roles Approach: 
Henry Mintzberg (a management researcher) studied actual managers at work and concluded 
that what managers do can best be described by looking at the managerial roles they engage in at 
work.

Managerial roles refers to specific actions or behaviors expected of and exhibited by a manager. 

There are 10 managerial roles which are grouped around interpersonal relationships, the transfer 
of information, and decision making.

Interpersonal roles involve people (subordinates and persons outside the organization) and 
other duties that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature.
Informational roles involve collecting, receiving, and disseminating information.
Decisional roles involve making decisions or choices


Management Role: What do managers do?

Roles Approach (contd.)


Management Skills: What do managers do?

Skills Approach: 

What types of skills do managers need? 
Robert L. Katz proposed that managers need three critical skills: 

technical, human, and conceptual

Relationships of these skills to different managerial levels


Management Skills: What do managers do?

Skills Approach (contd.)

• Technical skills are the job specific knowledge and techniques needed to proficiently 
perform work tasks.
More important for first-line managers because they typically manage employees who use tools and 
techniques to produce the organization’s products or service for customers.

• Human skills are the abilities to work well with other people both individually and in a 
group.
Because all managers deal with people, these skills are equally important to all levels of management.

• Conceptual skills are the skills managers use to think and to conceptualize about abstract 
and complex situations. 
Using these skills, managers see the organization as a whole, understand the relationships among various 
subunits, and visualize how the organization fits into its broader environment. These skills
are most important to top managers.