Regardless of how many levels of organization management are present in the company, the tasks of the manager can be different - based on what category a specialist of this type occupies:
- Top link.
- Middle link.
- Lower link.
Top management
The tasks of a senior manager represent the highest organizational level of management, which in the modern organizational structure is the smallest. Specialists of this format are directly responsible for various strategic issues in terms of the activities and development of organizations, as well as are involved in the adoption of various strategic decisions. The tasks of managers of this type are formed due to the need to organize, coordinate, and subsequently manage and control the activities of various structural divisions of the company.
What is their responsibility?
In the field of classical management, top management is considered as the main persons who are directly responsible for making the most important decisions for the company as a whole, as well as its various components. The complexity of the work of specialists of this level lies in the fact that they must constantly analyze the data provided by other managers, comparing them with information regarding the environment surrounding the company, including making various adjustments to the organization.
Middle link
The tasks of middle managers include the organization of activities, as well as the solution of various issues directly at the level of each structural unit. In other words, such a specialist is engaged in planning, organizing, coordinating, and also monitoring the activities of employees of the unit that is within his competence. This type of specialists includes the heads of various functional departments of the company, as well as directors of individual commercial structures.
What are they doing?
The work of junior managers is coordinated and supervised by middle-level managers. Moreover, it is worth noting the fact that sometimes they are divided into two levels. But at the same time, as a rule, they are heads of various independent divisions of a certain company. It should be noted that it is precisely this level that is today considered the most important and specific in the entire management system, since in some companies the main tasks of the middle manager include the rights and responsibilities that are inherent in senior managers. That is why this level is often called "management".
In the overwhelming majority of cases, middle managers differ from top-level specialists in that they have certain limitations in terms of making some independent decisions. Basically, they are in their functionality a kind of buffer between the specialists of the lower and upper links. In other words, the main tasks of the mid-level manager include preparing the basic information necessary for decision making by senior management, and they will turn those decisions that will be made into a “technically” convenient form of perception, and then inform managers about these decisions lower echelon.
Features
It is worth noting that since the 80s, this level of managers as a social group to the greatest extent experienced the influence of all kinds of changes from the point of view of the economic, technological, managerial, as well as socio-psychological plan. This is what determines the main characteristic of this level as the main managerial in any company.
It should also be noted that it is rather difficult to generalize about what the main responsibilities and functions of the mid-level manager include, since the features of his work may vary depending on what the structural unit under his control is specifically engaged in. The leadership provides such specialists with a rather large independence, but at the same time also responsibility and rights. Thanks to all this, the tasks performed by the mid-level manager are very similar to the work of top-level specialists, but, of course, belong to a narrower circle of management.
Lower link
The lowest level of management includes specialists who are organizational management level various individual groups within a certain structural unit. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the manager’s tasks in the organization, in addition to various managerial functions aimed at managing a group of performers, also include direct participation in the activities of these groups aimed at fulfilling the tasks assigned to them. In particular, these are the tasks of the sales manager, advertising, development and many others.
Among specialists, this category of employees, which provides direct work with performers, is often called technical, or operational managers. In accordance with the studies, it was determined that the tasks and functions of the lower-level manager carry the greatest load, and are also the busiest of various actions that directly depend on specific points in terms of the work performed. Thus, a fairly large part of the time of such specialists is busy with active communication with performers.
What are they doing?
The five most important composite factors of the work of such specialists are recognized as criteria for belonging to this category of managers in both domestic and foreign practice:
- Setting goals and objectives for which these tasks are performed.
- Preparation as well as making responsible decisions.
- Personal responsibility for the correctness of decisions.
- Performing various functions related to managing your subordinates.
- The ability to delegate their own rights and functions.
Of course, in practice of each particular company, the goals and tasks of the manager of each link are slightly different from those presented here. In particular, this is directly related to the level of organization and work culture the observed practice of separation of functions and responsibilities, the absence of various regulatory documents that will regulate the content of labor, responsibility and law, which leads to the fact that the responsibilities of managers are drawn up literally spontaneously.
What kinds are there?
The modern economic literature describes several categories and types of such specialists. One of the classifications is exclusively horizontal in nature, when specific managers are established at the head of individual structural divisions of the company. In accordance with a different approach, the vertical distribution of labor and, consequently, the categories of managers is in the first place. The third approach is based on the classification of these specialists in accordance with the nature of their activity, as a result of which today the duties of specialists are divided into the following groups:
- Tasks of a sales manager.
- By procurement.
- On marketing.
- By advertisement.
- By transport.
- By development.
- Brand manager.
- Tasks of the financial manager and many others.
Special attention should be paid to such an issue as the tasks of the innovation manager.Unlike other specialists, its focus is the introduction of any new technologies into the business that could contribute to its development, as well as increase the efficiency of doing business. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to consider the full list of managers who currently operate in domestic companies, but in the economic literature you can find several dozens of different names of these specialties.
What functions do they perform?
The tasks of the personnel manager (and many other types) are to perform general management functions, each of which includes a whole range of actions, which, in turn, are divided into operations. Next, the operations are divided into elements, and elements into microelements.
The manager as an official has the corresponding rights that allow him to function on the basis of the principle of collegiality and unity of command. In other words, it is this specialist who is personally responsible, within the limits of his competence, for how efficiently and correctly the team provided to him works, since it is he who assumes the management functions, as well as prepares and makes responsible decisions.
It is worth noting that the content of the work and tasks of the financial manager (or any other) includes not only the preparation process, but also decision making, based on the processing of written or oral information. In the labor activity of such specialists there are tasks such as organization, persuasion, training, re-education, and, if necessary, punishment, coordination and careful monitoring. Among other things, the manager should evaluate the work of the team entrusted to him and make sure that he is encouraged to perform his work as efficiently as possible. It is these types of work that have always been and will continue to represent the main tasks of the office manager.
What does the content of labor include?
The content of the manager’s work is a combination of various elements, relations and parties that form a full-fledged expedient activity that combines socio-economic and organizational relations. All the diverse work of specialists in this field can be systematized by identifying the three most important aspects of their activities - commercial, economic, social and educational, as well as organizational and administrative.
Organizational and administrative
This type of activity includes the organization of subordinates to perform a specific task. In this case, the manager will have to create all the necessary conditions, as well as motivate employees to achieve their goals in the most effective way, providing for minimal costs of material, labor and financial resources.
Carrying out the functions of the organizer, the manager will create the conditions that are required to ensure fruitful joint work, as well as coordinated and at the same time targeted actions of subordinates. This specialty provides an extremely accurate understanding of the goals of your work, the ability to highlight the most important tasks in a certain period of time, as well as determine the technologies, resources and prerequisites that are needed to complete the task.
In this role, the manager in this case will use his powers in order to ensure the life of the business in accordance with all kinds of orders, regulations, instructions and other norms.Together with employees, a specialist at this level is engaged in the development and subsequent implementation of a personnel policy, which includes the selection, staffing, training and professional development of specialists, as well as the placement and subsequent transfer of personnel.
Why is this needed?
The organizational and administrative work that the manager does is set as the goal of completely eliminating any irresponsible behavior on the part of the performers, as well as motivating employees to fully perform their official duties. It is impermissible to allow the collective work procedure to remain without a leader who could establish responsibility precisely, as well as ensure the strictest order created exclusively by the unity of will of a professional manager.
However, one must understand the fact that the organizational and administrative activities of specialists in this field can even go into dictatorial forms if consciousness and discipline are not respected. A manager who is trying to build his work on an authoritarian style will ultimately not be able to achieve any significant success both in educating the team and in fulfilling the tasks assigned to it. In any case, this refers to lasting and long-term success, since this manager either will not be able to just competently consider all aspects of his work, or, even if he does this, he will soon squander his resource. At the same time, he will not be able to create opportunities in order to further ensure the effective development of the unit and individuals.
It is for this reason that it is extremely important to correctly distribute responsibilities between the manager, as well as the person or people who are his deputies.
Production and commercial, financial and economic
This type of activity is the most important and responsible and should be separately considered by the manager if he wants to really effectively carry out the tasks that were set for him. Moreover, the content of such an activity depends directly on what exactly the unit entrusted to it does.
In this case, a mid-level specialist holding a managerial position must foresee the possibilities for maneuvering the resources provided to him, carry out the geographical direction of import and export of various products in accordance with current requests, in addition, offer, summarize and analyze trends, as well as the current situation in the world market. Such a specialist is involved in identifying the main potential buyers, taking into account the transport capabilities and a number of other conditions, and, in addition, outlines a strategy for action aimed at the expedient expansion of sales markets and attracting new agents.
In addition, for example, the tasks of a financial manager at an enterprise include a number of other operations: it determines a thorough schedule of negotiations with any partners both domestically and abroad, the plan of foreign trips for various specialists is specified, and it is also determined a form of interaction with industry, the conclusion of all kinds of contract agreements or agency agreements.
Socio-psychological
Socio-psychological elements are extremely important in the work of a mid-level manager, since the team headed by him includes a large number of people, personalities with individual character traits, life positions, abilities, interests and many other other features.The labor collective is an extremely complex socio-psychological link in modern society, in which informal and formal relationships, working conditions, personal responsibilities of various people, remuneration, style and tools of leadership, as well as many other factors that directly influence the formation of psychological climate within the team and, consequently, on the results of joint work.
From this point of view, the main tasks and functions of the manager include the formation of an active team. It should contribute to the development of labor activity, as well as the development of personal qualities in all members of the team entrusted to him. More and more modern managers are dealing with various specific social problems that relate to changes in labor motives and incentives, as well as the current payment system, depending on how effective the results of the joint work were.
That is why the overwhelming majority of tools and technologies for personnel management, which developed in Soviet times and took command and administrative principles as a basis, nowadays provide dramatic changes.
