Managers are responsible for coordinating resources and actions to achieve goals. They lead people and coordinate actions with resources. Management involves planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. Managers work at an unrelenting pace with brief, varied and discontinous activities oriented towards action. Their work involves both routine duties like meetings and exceptions handling. Effective managers engage in agenda setting and network building.

1. What is a manager?
‘A person who is responsible for coordinating resources and the actions of others for the achievement of
goals. ‘Therefore managers are involved in two tasks namely,
• Leading people to achieve goals
• Need to coordinate the actions of people along with the other resources
Peter Drucker sees management as a task. Management is a discipline. But management is also people.
Every achievement of management is the achievement of a manager. Every failure is a failure of the
manager.
Factors that affect a manager’s job role
• External Environment
• Internal Environment
o Nature of the organisation
o Activities and tasks
o People
o Structure
o Technology
o Level in the organisation
Difference between managers
• Based on the levels and the functions of management
o First Line Managers (Junior Managers)
o Middle Managers
o Senior Managers
• Based on the functional area
o Marketing Managers / Finance Managers

2. o General Managers
Is Management similar to Administration?
There is a usual confusion between management and administration. It is generally seen that
Management is a general descriptive label while administration refers to the implementation of systems
and procedures instigated by management.
Administration takes place in accordance with some form of rules or procedures while management
implies a greater degree of discretion.
Management as a Science Successful managers are those who have learned
the appropriate body of knowledge and have
developed an ability to apply acquired skills and
techniques
Management as an art Successful managers are those born with
appropriate intuition, intelligence and personality
which are developed through the practice of
leadership
Management as Magic Successful managers are those who recognize that
nobody really knows what’s going on and who
persuades others of their own powers by calling up
the appropriate gods by engaging in the expected
rituals
Management as Politics Successful managers are those who can work out
unwritten laws of life in the organizational jungle
and are able to play the games so that they win
Qualities of Managers
Different sets of skills are required at different levels of management.
Technical Competence – This relates to the application of specific knowledge, methods and skills
at discreet tasks. Technical Competence is more required at the operational level management.
Social and Human Skills – This refers to interpersonal relationships in working with and through
other people and the exercise of judgment. A distinctive feature of management is the ability to
secure the effective use human resources of the organisation. This involves effective team work,
direction and leadership of staff to achieve coordinated effort.
Conceptual Ability – This is required in order to view the complexities of the operations of the
organisation as a whole including environmental influences. It also includes decision making
skills.

3. Eleven qualities are put forward by Pedler et al of a successful manager.
1. Command of Basic Facts
2. Relevant professional understanding
3. Continuing sensitivity to events
4. Analytical, decision making and judgmental skills
5. Social skills and abilities
6. Emotional resilience
7. Proactivity
8. Creativity
9. Mental agility
10. Balanced learning habits and skills
11. Self Knowledge
Managers Job Role
According to Gulick and Urwick the main activities of managers are
1. Planning
2. Organizing
3. Staffing
4. Directing
5. Coordinating
6. Reporting
7. Budgeting
Mullins has identified three broad categories of managerial roles.
• Interpersonal Roles

4. o Figurehead
o Leader
o Liaison
• Informational Roles
o Monitor
o Disseminator
o Spokesperson
• Decisional Role
o Entrepreneur
o Disturbance Handler
o Resource Allocator
o Negotiator
Minzberg’s Folklore and Facts
Folklore Fact
Study after study has shown that managers work at an
unrelenting pace that their activities are characterized by
The manager is a reflective systematic brevity, variety and discontinuity and that they are strongly
planner oriented to action and dislike reflective activities.
In addition to handling exceptions, managerial work
involves performing a number of regular duties, including
ritual and ceremony, negotiations and processing of soft
The effective manager has no regular information that links the organisation with its
duties to perform environment

5. The senior manager needs aggregated
information which a formal management Managers strongly favour the oral media namely phone
information system best provides calls and meetings
The managers programmes to schedule time, process
Management is or atleast is quickly information make decisions and so on remain locked deep
becoming a science and a profession inside their brains
Lawrence’s Results
Percentage of managers time
Activity German British
Attending regularly scheduled meetings 9.78 15.5
Attending irregular meetings 12.62 14.46
Ad hoc discussions 20.07 17.93
Being on the shop floor 16.87 17.35
On the phone 10.56 7.23
Working in the office 11.56 11.16
Talking to researchers 10.45 13.08
Various other activities 8.02 4.08
• From a study of 15 general managers Kotter found that although their jobs are different and
they undertook their jobs differently all of them had two significant activities in common:
Agenda Setting and Network Building.
• Luthans did a study to find out what manager really do. Following are his findings.
Communication Exchanging information, paper work 29%
Traditional Management Planning, decision making, controlling 32%
Networking Interacting with outsiders, socializing 19%
Motivating, reinforcing, disciplining,
Human resource management managing conflict 20%

6. The way in which managers approach the performance of their jobs and the behavior they display
towards subordinate staff is likely to be conditioned by predispositions about people and human nature
and work.
Drawing on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model McGregor put forward two suppositions about human
nature and behavior at work. He argues that the style of management adopted is a function of the
managers attitudes towards people and assumptions about human nature and behavior. The two
suppositions are called theory X and theory Y.
Theory X assumes on the carrot and stick approaches on which traditional organisations are built on. It
assumes the following.
• The average person is lazy and has an inherent dislike of work
• Most people must be coerced, controlled and directed in order for the organisation to function
• Average person avoids responsibility and prefers to be directed and told what to do
• Motivation occurs only at physiological and security levels.
Theory Y assumes that the individual and organisation goals are well integrated. It assumes the
following.
• For most people work is as natural as play or rest
• People will exercise self direction and self control in the services of objectives to which they are
committed to.
• Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with their achievement.
• Given the right conditions the average worker can learn and accept and to seek responsibility
• The capacity for creativity in solving organizational problems is distributed widely in the
population.
• The intellectual potential of the average person is only partially utilized.
• Motivation occurs at social, self esteem and self actualization levels as well as the physiological
and safety levels.
The two views of Theory X and Theory Y tend to represent extremes. In practice the actual style of
management behavior adopted will be influenced by the demands of the situation.

7. Theory Y approach is better for jobs where the output is more qualitative. Further it is more suitable for
scientific, professional jobs or organisations where the commitment is a prerequisite such as voluntary
or charity organisations.
Theory X approach is suitable for jobs which offer little intrinsic reward or limited opportunities to
satisfy higher level needs.
Building from the work of McGregor, Ouchi has put forward a theory Z approach. Theory Z environments
are mostly seen in Japanese business models. Characteristics of theory Z approach are as follows.
• Long term employment
• Relatively slow process of evaluating and performance
• Development of company specific skills and competencies
• Informal control mechanisms supported by formal measures
• Participative decision making
• Broad concern for welfare of subordinates and coworkers.
According to Ouchi, Theory Z organisations would be more effective as a result of an emphasis on trust
which goes hand in hand with productivity, a less hierarchical and bureaucratic structure and higher
levels of worker involvement.
Managerial / Leadership Grid attempts to evaluate different styles of management. There are two main
dimensions of this model namely Concern for Production and Concern for People.

8. The way in which managers approach the performance of their jobs and the behavior they display
towards subordinate staff is likely to be conditioned by predispositions about people and human nature
and work.
Drawing on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model McGregor put forward two suppositions about human
nature and behavior at work. He argues that the style of management adopted is a function of the
managers attitudes towards people and assumptions about human nature and behavior. The two
suppositions are called theory X and theory Y.
Theory X assumes on the carrot and stick approaches on which traditional organisations are built on. It
assumes the following.
• The average person is lazy and has an inherent dislike of work
• Most people must be coerced, controlled and directed in order for the organisation to function
• Average person avoids responsibility and prefers to be directed and told what to do
• Motivation occurs only at physiological and security levels.
Theory Y assumes that the individual and organisation goals are well integrated. It assumes the
following.
• For most people work is as natural as play or rest
• People will exercise self direction and self control in the services of objectives to which they are
committed to.
• Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with their achievement.
• Given the right conditions the average worker can learn and accept and to seek responsibility
• The capacity for creativity in solving organizational problems is distributed widely in the
population.
• The intellectual potential of the average person is only partially utilized.
• Motivation occurs at social, self esteem and self actualization levels as well as the physiological
and safety levels.
The two views of Theory X and Theory Y tend to represent extremes. In practice the actual style of
management behavior adopted will be influenced by the demands of the situation.