Unit 4 - Managing Your Business
Learning Target 1: I can explain what management is
At the heart of every successful organization are great people. Management is the process of controlling, organizing, planning and leading an organization to its organizational objectives. Across the world there are millions of people who are employed in management positions. Every industry has positions ranging from shift manager to chief executive officer (CEO).
There are three main levels of management. Top-level or executive management, mid-level or middle management and first-line or supervisory management. For each of these levels managers don’t always do the tasks at hand but they need to make sure that the jobs get done by the employees they oversee.
Mangers in the Top-level or executive management make sure the operation of the entire business is on the correct path and going smoothly. This level of management has the fewest amount of managers but is the highest paid. The reason is they have the most authority and responsibility. If a business begins to fail it is often blamed on the decisions of the executive managers. These types of managers need to be good at decision making, organizing and goal setting. These types of managers spend a good amount of time conducting strategic planning as well as monitoring and evaluating the businesses performance.
People who are middle managers or mid-level management positions are responsible for implementing the goals set by the executive managers. They are considered middle management because they report to the executive management but yet oversee the first line managers. Middle managers need to be good at developing short term tactical plans. In a sense the executive team decides where to go, the middle managers decides what route and what car to drive and the first line managers will decide who drives the car and what speed they should go.
The largest amount of managers at businesses are first line managers or also called supervisory managers. Theses are the individuals in an organization that carry out the actions, ideas and plans from the middle managers. These people spend most of their day directing employees and are responsible for day to day operations. If a store does not meet its daily sales goal it is the supervisory manager who is held accountable. First line managers would be considered in the “trenches” as they work alongside with the employees and need to hire, evaluate, terminate and motivate them on an ongoing basis.
In regards to managing people management seems quite easy. All you need to do is get the best people to work in your organization, get to know them, get the most out of them in terms of productivity and retain them to continue to work for your organization. Seems pretty simple, if it was this simple there would not be thousands of management books on amazon. Management is a very complex and deep concept that is changing every day.
Let’s watch this video to learn a little more about management.
Show What You Know: Select 1 of the many management gurus found here. Provide a summary of their management beliefs and then compare and contrast to three other management gurus.