SUMMARY OF CHAPTER ONE BY JANET AUSTIN!

A manager is an individual who is the coordinating body of n organization. He is the one who has the responsibility to supervise the work of his sub ordinates to make sure that everybody employed works in collaboration with each other for the best interest of the organization. There are three types of managers:
1) First –line managers are the ones that operate on the lowest level of management. These mangers usually supervise the laborers who work on the production plant. E.g. shift managers, foreperson etc.
2) Middle managers: they handle all the levels of hierarchy that exists between the top and the lowest level of the organization. These managers supervise the first-line managers. e.g. regional managers, divisional managers etc.
3) Top managers: this post is held by the top level of the hierarchy. These are the people who are responsible for the overall working of the organization. They establish plans and set goals for the organization to act upon.
Management is the process of coordinating and supervising the work of others so that the task assigned is carried out effectively and efficiently. It is also about making sure that the desired results are achieved. Efficiency is about getting the maximum output from minimum input. Effectiveness is giving priority to the right things which will prove fruitful for the organization and will play vital role in achieving its goals.
The work of the manager is divided into three sections:
1) Functions: A manager performs different functions. These include planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Planning involves identifying goals and defining it to the subordinates, establishing strategies for going about the project and developing plans to achieve the goals. Organizing is all about arranging structuring the tasks involved in the project. Leading means that the manager needs to work with his sub ordinates and make sure they are working to their full capacity. Controlling is the evaluation of people’s work and making sure that things are working out and everybody is working towards getting the job done as per plan.
2) Roles: A manager has to perform different roles such as interpersonal, information and decisional. Interpersonal roles involve people and duties that are symbolic. These include figurehead, leader and laison. The informational role involves the job of collecting, receiving and transferring information. These include the roles of monitor, disseminator and spokesperson. The decisional roles involve, making decisions in the process.
3) Skills: A manager needs specific skills to obtain the post of the manger. These include technical, human and conceptual. Technical skills are concerned with having complete knowledge of the job and techniques involved in performing that job. Human skills re the ability of working with other people. This actually means how well u get along with your peers. Conceptual re used by the managers to ponder and grab the concept of specific situation the organization is in and then make appropriate decisions. Whether these skills re important or not depends on the managerial levels.
The job of the managers is changing in today’s world. This is due to various reasons which are technological advancements, increase in security threats, ever increasing emphasis on ethics and increased competitiveness. The job of the manager depends a lot on the importance of customers. It is highly observed that customers’ satisfaction is highly influenced by the attitude of the employees. Managers should train his sub ordinates in such a way that they form a nice and loud impression of the customers. Innovation is of high importance in order to make a particular project successful as it means doing something unique. A manager’s job is to constantly motivate his sub ordinates to come up with new and innovative ideas.
Organization is an intentional arrangement of bringing people together under one platform and making them work hand-in-hand towards achieving some specific targets and goals. An organization always keeps changing and updating itself. This is mainly due to the dynamic environment we live in.
The need to study management is enlisted in the following points:
The universality of management: The need of management is widespread. Management is important to realize the reality of work. Every individual has two options, either to manage or be managed. Either ways one has to deal with management so it’s important to know all the ins and outs about it.
Being a manager is a challenging job and has its rewards. There is always something new in it and being manager your success is highly dependent on the work performance of others.