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Comparing Two Managers Essay

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This essay serves to identify the similarities and dissimilarities of the work of two managers from two different organisations and the extent to which Henri Fayol’s management functions are relevant to their work.
Manager 1 works at a Woolworths Food retail store at a shopping centre called Featherbrooke Village in Ruimsig, Roodeport, Johannesburg, South Africa. Woolworths is a South African based retailer that specialises in clothing, food, home ware and beauty products and was founded by Max Sonnenburg in 1930. Today it has 400 stores across South Africa, Africa and the Middle East (Woolworths: About Us, 2013).
Manager 2 works at Mugg & Bean which is located at the same shopping centre as the Woolworths Food retail store mentioned …show more content…

As is evident by the information shown above and in the questionnaires, which was collected from the two managers, Henri Fayol’s four functions of management are relevant to the work of the two managers.
However, the work of these two managers may not be as clear cut and Henri Fayol’s four management functions may not be as relevant due to the mere fact that each manager’s work may not be broken down by function only.
The work of these managers may very well be described by the roles they play as according to Henry Mintzberg, which are categorised into interpersonal, informational and decisional roles (Robbins,S et al, 2012).Henri Mintzberg argued that managers’ daily work can be categorised into Interpersonal roles (figurehead, liason and leader), Informational roles (monitor, disseminator and spokesman) and Decisional roles (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator) (Stephen J. et al, 1987). Henri Fayol’s classical theory of management suggests that managers’ work is made up of planning, implementing those plans and then sitting back to relax and wait to take corrective action where it is needed. Henry Mintzberg argued that, however, managers are involved in several tasks and activities

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