Text 8. Managers’ Roles and Responsibilities

Organizations are two or more people working together in a structured, formal environment to achieve common goals. Managers provide guidance, implementation, and coordination so those organizational goals can be reached. The modern manager coaches employees of the organization to develop teamwork, which effectively fulfils their needs and achieves organizational objectives. The modern manager provides an atmosphere of empowerment by letting workers make decisions and inspiring people to boost productivity.

Managers can be differentiated by area and level. Kinds of managers by area include marketing, financial, operations, human resource, administrative and specialized managers. By level they are defined as top, middle and first-line managers. Top managers are people at the very top level of hierarchy who are ultimately responsible for the entire organization. They are few in number and their typical titles include president, executive vice president, chief executive officer, executive director, senior vice president. Top managers usually oversee the overall planning for the organization (goals, strategy, operating policies), work with middle managers in implementing that planning, and maintain overall control over the progress of the organization. They also officially represent the organization to the external environment.

Middle managers are managers beneath the top levels of hierarchy who are directly responsible for the work of other managers below them. Middle managers sometimes supervise operating personnel such as administrative assistants and several specialists. Their typical titles include manager, chief, department head, division head. They are mainly responsible for implementing overall organizational plans.

First-line managers (or first-line supervisors) are managers at the first level of hierarchy who are directly responsible for the work of operating employees. They often have titles that include the word supervisor. First-line managers are extremely important to the success of an organization because they have the major responsibility of seeing that day-to-day operations run in pursuit of organizational goals.     

To meet the many demands of performing their functions, managers assume multiple roles. A role is an organized set of behaviours. Henry Mintzberg has identified ten roles common to the work of all managers. The ten roles are divided into three groups: interpersonal, informational, and decisional. The informational roles link all managerial work together. The interpersonal roles ensure that information is provided. The decisional roles make significant use of the information. The performance of managerial roles and the requirements of these roles can be played at different times by the same manager and to different degrees depending on the level and function of management. The ten roles are described individually, but they form an integrated whole.

The three interpersonal roles are primarily concerned with interpersonal relationships. In the figurehead role, the manager represents the organization in all matters of formality. The top level manager represents the company legally and socially to those outside of the organization. The supervisor represents the work group to higher management and higher management to the work group. In the liaison role, the manager interacts with peers and people outside the organization. The top level manager uses the liaison role to gain favours and information, while the supervisor uses it to maintain the routine flow of work. The leader role defines the relationships between the manager and employees.

The direct relationships with people in the interpersonal roles place the manager in a unique position to get information. Thus, the three informational roles are primarily concerned with the information aspects of managerial work. In the monitor role, the manager receives and collects information. In the role of disseminator, the manager transmits special information into the organization. The top level manager receives and transmits more information from people outside the organization than the supervisor. In the role of spokesperson, the manager disseminates the organization's information into its environment. Thus, the top level manager is seen as an industry expert, while the supervisor is seen as a unit or departmental expert.

The unique access to information places the manager at the centre of organizational decision making. There are four decisional roles. In the entrepreneur role, the manager initiates change. In the disturbance handler role, the manager deals with threats to the organization. In the resource allocator role, the manager chooses where the organization will expend its efforts. In the negotiator role, the manager negotiates on behalf of the organization. The top level manager makes the decisions about the organization as a whole, while the supervisor makes decisions about his or her particular work unit.

The supervisor performs these managerial roles but with different emphasis than higher managers. Supervisory management is more focused and short-term in outlook. Thus, the figurehead role becomes less significant and the disturbance handler and negotiator roles increase in importance for the supervisor. Since leadership permeates all activities, the leader role is among the most important of all roles at all levels of management.

 

Exercise 5 6 . Answer the questions.

1.What are the manager’s responsibilities? 2. How are managers differentiated by area? 3. How can we define managers by level? 4. What posts do top managers occupy? 5. What are typical middle-level managers posts? 6. What does the work of middle-level manager consist in? 7. Why are first-line managers important to the success of an organization? 8. What are the three groups of roles all managers perform? 9. What are interpersonal roles concerned with? 10. How are informational aspects of managerial work carried out? 11. What four decisional roles are described in the text?

 

Exercise 5 7 . Give Ukrainian equivalents.

To coach, team work, to achieve objectives, to boost productivity, human resources, operating policies, progress of the organization, department head, to perform functions, liaison role, to be primarily concerned with, to expend efforts, resource allocator.

 

Exercise 58. Find English equivalents.

Досягати спільних цілей, надавати керівництво, впровадження, прийняти рішення, загальне планування, задовольняти потреби, міжособистісні відносини, збирати інформацію, розпочинати зміни, поширювати зусилля.

Exercise 5 9 . Find and analyze –ing forms in the text, define their role in the sentence.

Exercise 60 . Match the verbs in the first column with the most likely noun in the second column. More than one combination may be possible.

to meet	functions
to achieve	plans
to provide	demand
to make	goal
to perform	guidance
to implement	information
to get	decision

 

Exercise 61 . Choose the appropriate words in brackets and complete the following sentences.

(direction, goals, running, employees, evaluating, subordinates, to implement plans, overall strategy, strategy issues)

1. Operational planning translates general … into more concrete objectives. 2. Senior managers set a … for the company. 3. First-line managers implement plans in major … . 4. First-line managers are also responsible for assigning … to specific jobs. 5. Each manager supervises a number of … . 6. Middle managers develop detailed plans and procedures based on the firm’s … . 7. Supervisory managers are responsible for … the performance of non-managerial employees.    8. Supervisory managers have … developed higher up the hierarchy. 9. Most Board members are not involved in … the company. 

 

Exercise 62. Translate into English.

1.  Менеджери забезпечують керівництво, впровадження, координування, для того, щоб цілі організації були досягнутими. 2. Топ-менеджери стежать за загальним плануванням організації (цілі, стратегія, принципи діяльності), працюють з менеджерами середньої ланки у впровадженні цього планування і підтримують загальний контроль за розвитком компанії. 3. Виконання менеджерських ролей може бути здійсненим в різний час одним и тим менеджером і різною мірою залежно від рівня і функції менеджменту. 4. Унікальний доступ до інформації ставить менеджера в центр прийняття рішень організації.  5. Як тільки лідерство поширюється на загальну діяльність, роль лідера є найважливішою на всіх рівнях управління. 6. Роль лідера визначає відносини між менеджером і працівниками. 7. Менеджер вищого рівня отримує і передає більше інформації поза організацією, ніж контролер. 

Exercise 6 3 . Rank the words in each group according to importance or size:

- director / line manager /supervisor / project leader / foreman

- department / division / branch / unit /office / subsidiary /company section

- task / job / assignment / project

 

Exercise 6 4 .  Learn the following words and word combinations.

heightened	– посилений
executives	– керівники
uncertainty	– невизначеність, невпевненість
focal point	– основний момент, головне питання
operational planning	– оперативне планування
venture	– підприємство; справа
outcome	– результат, підсумок
road-mapping	– складання карт доріг
vision	– концепція
mission statement	– перелік цілей та цінностей компанії
to break down	– класифікувати, розділяти
to imply	– мати на думці, значити
milestone	– віха, етап
shareholder value	– акціонерна вартість
solution	– рішення

 

Exercise 65. Read, translate and give the gist of text 9.

 

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