Managerial Roles Essay

Leadership is a facet of management. It is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation. To achieve this managers must undertake the four functions of management: planning, organization, leading and controlling. In some cases leadership is just one important component of the leading function. Predpall (1994) said, "Leaders must let vision, strategies, goals, and values be the guide-post for action and behavior rather than attempting to control others". In some circumstances, leadership is not required. For example, self-motivated groups may not require a single leader and may find leaders dominating. The fact that a leader is not always required proves that leadership is just an asset and is not essential.

To be efficient and effective in management, certain tasks must be performed by all managers. Managers must be able to plan, organize, lead, and control. Manager’s tasks are important no matter the level of the manager. Managers must be able to use and improve these skills depending on their position within the organization.

Kadushin describes a supervisor as someone "to whom authority is delegated to direct, coordinate, enhance, and evaluate on-the-job performance of the supervisees for whose work he/she is held accountable. In implementing this responsibility, the supervisor performs administrative, educational, and supportive functions in interaction with the supervisee in the context of a positive relationship" (Powell, 1993).

Everyone in a managerial role is responsible for establishing the communication needs of the service users, providing appropriate support and ensuring any equipment needed to communicate is available. The Managerial role is to empower and promote the rights of every person taking into account individual needs, wants and rights.

Managers need to ensure that targets are met and improvements if necessary are made. They need to plan ahead to ensure that their targets are achievable and control the workload to ensure all activities are carried out effectively.

Organizations do not change, people do (Sullivan and Decker, 2009). A manager’s responsibility is to manage people. Change is difficult for most people and managing through the change process is not an easy task. Many theories on managing change exist, but they basically have four elements: assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). A manager’s role is to examine each of these elements and apply them to the people that he or she leads.

Managers perform many functions and play many roles. They are responsible for handling many situations and these situations are usually different from one another.

According to C. Cashmore and R. Lyall (1991), information needs of managers across the organisation can be linked to the decisions they make. They suggest these can be split into two broad categories:

The ability to manage information plays a critical role in developing a firm’s capabilities in customer relationship management, process management and performance management (Mithas, 2011).

Many organizations and establishments have philosophies in how an organization is to be functioning and which positions are necessary to execute the plan. One of the crucial positions that make the establishment function is that of a Supervisor. The term supervisor is a word with Latin roots which means “to look over,” however, a supervisor is viewed as a person who is an immediate overseer to an employee at a workplace. The supervisor is the person an employee would directly report to for any work related situation. A supervisor plays an essential part of the management team that gives an organization purpose and leadership by being responsible for employees’ progress and productivity (Bittel & Newstrom, 1992).

The world of business has undergone radical and dramatic changes in the last decade changes that present extraordinary challenges for the contemporary manager. A manager is an organizational member who is responsible for planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the activities of the organization so that the goals can be achieved. According to a widely referenced study by Henry Mintzberg, managers serve three primary roles: interpersonal, informational, and decision-making. Management is process of administrating and coordinating resources effectively and efficiently in an effort to achieve the goals of the organization.

Management in my mind and as the book reinforces the definition to be, to plan, to organize, to staff for the process, and to control the process to the end. These are consider the primary functions of the management role (p.8).

There are many roles a manager has within an organization. Henry Mintzberg explains ten specific managerial roles most commonly seen within organizations. Performing this role is the basis of a manager's job. The best manager is the one who perform his roles in a professional way and face the complications and challenges in a huge market, where several competitors already exist, however Steve Jobs in Apple Inc. proved himself and set an example in the world. Six managerial roles performed by Steve Jobs while he was working for Apple Inc. includes figurehead ,negotiator, leadership ,monitor, spokesperson, entrepreneur.

Schermerhorn (2015) found based on Fayol’s findings that managers of different levels are given the task of carrying out management functions such as planning, organising, leading and controlling.Cunningham (1979) believed that this was the perception a manager had regarding his job and that the effectiveness of a manager inculcating this in his work is the

According the Fayol theory, there are five primary roles of a manager. The five roles of a manager put forward by Henri Fayol may not fully express the managerial difficulties faced on a daily basis by managers. And as such Fayol Proposed roles focuses very little on informal relationships between managers and employee and doesn’t really focus on the maintenance and development of a motivated workforce. (Businessmate.org, 2015) The five main roles as discussed previously are planning, organising, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling. These five functions are customary throughout all organization including Engineering. In order to attain organization success, the above functions are necessary and effective managers understand how to conglomerate them.