The manager is a key figure in any work environment, as this is someone whose direct responsibility is to ensure that the employees of an organization all fulfill their tasks and duties in a consolidated, high-quality, and all-round beneficial manner.
Effective management ensures that employees show effective performance while being satisfied with their job conditions and environment. Two main variables that effective managers focus their primary efforts are task performance and job satisfaction (p.15). Undoubtedly, when an employee performs their assigned duties on a satisfactory level and, at the same time, feels comfortable and appreciated enough to generate new ideas and come up with new approaches for executing usual tasks, it is beneficial to both employee and the company they work for. Therefore, one of the major implications a manager or a team lead can introduce to the way they distribute workload among their employees is carefully assessing the employee’s capabilities, strengths and areas of improvement in order to supply them with the best possible conditions for self-growth and development.
A manager cannot be effective without knowing and performing the four main functions of management. Four functions of management are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (p. 15). In any organization that aims at development and competitiveness increase, planning is the initial step toward it. Naturally, goals cannot be met if they have not been properly defined. Therefore, if an organization attempts to form a strategic plan for a specific period of time in order to set achievable goals, distribute its human resources, revisit its priorities, and establish plan of actions for goals accomplishment, its manager has to understand the vital role they play in this initial managerial function. Once the goals and plan of actions are set, the manager has to organize the work, as in fulfilling the second managerial function. Goals and plans of actions will never come to fruition unless the organization’s employees are all assigned particular tasks and goals suitable to the positions they hold and skills they showcase. Therefore, in order to do it properly, the manager has to arrange resources to meet the objectives set in the initial stage. The human nature is such that people tend to get distracted and lose motivation in the course of completing some tasks. That is why, leading is mentioned as one of the key managerial functions. Once the goals are set and the resources are distributed, manager is to ensure that all employees are motivated to work hard in order to fulfill their duties. Also, an effective manager understands that friendly working environment is vital for maintaining good work ethics and establishing enthusiasm in employees. Therefore, the third managerial function instructs managers to pay close attention to the working environment and interpersonal relations between the colleagues. This allows the manager to rest assured that all employees enjoy what they do and do not encounter any time-management or communication issues. Although, should they do have work-related or interpersonal problems, an effective manager is to promptly locate and put the required amount of effort in order to eliminate those. Finally, the fourth managerial function is controlling. Irrespective of how smart the goals and objectives have been set and how motivated the personnel is, an effective manager still has to monitor the performance and ensure that everything is going as planned. If any issue comes up, the manager has to learn about it at once and take correspondig measures to bring any possible loses and obstacles to the minimum.
While these four management functions are usually listed in the said order, experts agree that, ideally, they all are executed simultaneously and are interconnected (p.16). These four functions also comprise of other roles effective managers perform while taking care of the main four functions. Henry Mintzberg, for example, outlined ten roles of effective management, where certain roles are united under correspondent variables (p.16):
Interpersonal Roles:
Leader
Liaison
Informational Roles:
Monitor
Disseminator
Spokesperson
Decisional Roles
Entrepreneur
Disturbance handler
Resource allocator
Negotiator
This extensive list of skills confirms that an effective and successful manager engages in cooperation with people on many different levels, and needs to apply different skills and competencies respective of a particular situation.
Speaking about skills, Robert Katz divides them into three main categories: technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills (p.16). Depending on a person, some type of skills may appear to be more challenging to manage and successfully perform, than others. For example, some experience difficulties with their emotional intelligence management. Others find it hard to master some technical skill required in a modern high-tech working environment. Of course, no one is perfect, and it is impossible to perform all managerial skills equally well. Yet, an effective manager, given their advanced analytical and critical thinking capabilities, is able to identify own strengths and areas of improvement and make the necessary steps toward self-development. As analytical and critical skills account for conceptual skills, according to Robert Katz’s classification, it can be assumed that conceptual skills, among others, are vital for ensuring that the rest of the skills are being worked on and developed.
Finally, provided that all mentioned above is visibly observed in actions and words of a manager, it is not just the mere fact of managerial functions and skills in action that matters, but also the fashion in which the manager fulfills and develops them. Based on the way of how a manager’s behavior and moral compass influence the overall working environment and conditions, three types of managers are named by Archie B. Carroll: immoral manager, amoral manager, and moral manager (p.18). Therefore, ethic principles and their incorporation into manager’s personal behavior influence not only the way the manager works and fulfills their duties, but also the way employees view them. In the end, organizational culture directly depends on the ethical behavior and leadership of the organization’s manager.
