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What do Managers do?

What do Managers do?
Smith et al. describe management as “Making Organizations perform”. Management is concerned with Individuals who are delegated authority to manage others – Let me call them ‘People with Power’. Activities for achieving goals – ‘Real Action Plans’. A body of knowledge represented by theories and frameworks about people and organizations – ‘Policy Framework’. What do managers do? As we all know they are involved in general management functions like Forecasting Planning Organizing Motivating Co-ordinating Controlling Are you aware of the ‘hidden’ dimensions of a manager’s job? Modern management theories, although highlighting the complexity of the role, have yet to provide sufficient empirical research and advice into key areas that enable both managers and organizations to increase their effectiveness. For example Dealing competently with organizational politics (“You can ignore it, but it won’t go away” – This is how surveyed employees said they viewed office politics) Successfully managing change (Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win) Controlling ethical issues and demands (It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.) Developing the role of  women managers (Women can be better managers than men because they tend to be more conservative and do their homework. Men tend to take more risk without the research) Ensuring personal ‘survival’ and career success in organizations (A successful man is who lays a firm foundation with the bricks others throw at him.) Safeguarding personal health in a stressful environment (Manage stress before it manages you). How to achieve a more comprehensive view of development? Frameworks for setting, linking, and balancing individual and organizational objectives. Systems for identifying and selecting managers Structures to support, motivate and reward Plans to enable career progression Mechanisms to measure and evaluate performance. HRM and Management Development Human resource management as the name suggests is about the effective management of people in organizations. HRM involves the integration of people with business goals and strategies HRM views people as assets to be developed and utilized in a productive way rather than costs to be minimized or eliminated. The philosophies, ideologies, values and beliefs of management that operate and dominate within the organization have an impact on people management. The practices, policies and management styles that managers employ in their managerial role also align people’s behavior towards organizational goals. Senior managers determine the extent to which people are integrated into the organization’s strategic plans. They set the agenda and create the culture climate of prevailing values, attitudes and behavior. Middle and junior managers translate and ‘operationalize’ broader human resource strategies and policies. They give HRM its meaning and reality. It is their perfect management style and actual behavior that decided how the human resources is deployed and managed and thus what people experience as human resource management. The way managers themselves are managed and developed is a significant influencing factor in the way people are subsequently...
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Business Policies-Guidelines to Attain Goals

Business Policies-Guidelines to Attain Goals
Business Policies – Framing and Execution Business policies are the keystone in the arch of management and the life-blood for the successful functioning of business, because without well-laid down policies, there cannot be lasting improvements in the economic condition of the firm and labor-management relations. A policy is a positive declaration and a command to its followers. It translates the goals of an organization into selected routes and provides the general guidelines that prescribe and proscribe programmes, which in turn, dictate practices and procedure. Attainment of Objectives: Buisness policies are general statement of principles for the attainment of objectives which serve as a guide to action for the executives at different levels of management. They pave a broad way in which the sub-ordinates tread along towards accomplishing their objectives. Hierarchy: For each set of objectives at each level, there is a corresponding set of policies. The Board of Directors determine the basic overall corporate policiesThe top management decides on the executive corporate policiesManagers decide on the departments / divisional policiesMiddle managers handle  the sectional policies Consistent Decisions contributing to the Objectives: The policies delimit the area within which a decision has to be made; however, they do allow some discretion on the part of the man on the firing line, otherwise, they would be mere rules. At the same time too much of discretion in policy matters may prove harmful to the accomplishment of organizational objectives and hence it is generally within limits. Mutual Application: Policies in general are meant for mutual application by sub ordinates. They are fabricated to suit a specific situation in which they are applied, for they cannot apply themselves. Unified Structure: Policies tend to predefine issues, avoid repeated analysis and give a unified structure to other types of plans, thus permitting managers to delegate authority while maintaining control. Policies for all Functional Areas: In a well-structured and managed organization, policies are framed for all functional levels of management. Corporate planningMarketingResearch and DevelopmentEngineeringManufacturingInventoryPurchasePhysical DistributionAccountingFinanceCostingAdvertisingPersonal SellingSpecial Promotion, are some areas that require clear-cut policies. Clear-Cut Guidelines: Policies serve an extremely useful purpose in that they avoid confusion and provide clear-cut guidelines. This enables the business to be carried on smoothly and often without break. They lead to better and maximum utilization of resources, human, financial and physical, by adhering to actions for...
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Decision Making

Decision Making
Evaluating the Importance of Decision Making Successful decision making is one that is devoid of any ambiguity or tentativeness. Although there is a wide range of choice and alternative techniques to arrive at a decision, timely decision making is what adds value to the decision. The objective is to execute the action plan immediately to avoid delays that might prove costly in terms of productivity. Defensive behavior of managers: Managers who are the key figures to make decisions sometimes play defense to avoid action, blame or change. They exhibit a variety of defensive behaviors which is a wasted effort; this also makes the workers lethargic in their attitude. Avoiding action is considered to be the best political strategy. Some managers always talk about the rules and regulations that have been followed for ages in that company and want every action to be rigidly adhered to the precedence and neither allows nor admits the need to consider the nuances of a particular case. Policies and Procedures: Policies and procedures are of course the prerogative of the top level management, but it is the duty of the manager to suggest reforms in those policies that are obsolete by bringing it to the perusal of the ultimate authorities. How long will you sing the same song “The rules clearly state that”! Also don’t try to pass the buck or play duals, that clearly showcases your inability to handle things and nobody nowadays is prepared to believe false pretense. Expectation of Sub-Ordinates from the Superiors: Subordinates look up to their superiors for support as well as quick solutions for problems of any kind that comes their way; only a person who is quick in reacting to situations with presence of mind and consideration is well liked by and approved of. If you distance yourself from problems or try to prolong a task in lieu of your inability to make a decision, in the short run it might prove helpful in covering up making you look busy and productive. But what happens in the long run? It leads to organizational rigidity and stagnation in terms of productivity and a sag in the morale of the employees. Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking  Playing it Safe is not Always Safe: Playing safe is not always safe. Some managers always like to lead a team that has taken up viable projects with a high probability of success. There is no pain but lots of gain. This tactics makes you devoid of risk taking -which according to me is the prime and supreme quality that a manager or a team leader must possess or at least try to develop. Also taking a neutral position in #conflict situations makes you a dull leader and not a person to be much sought after. What is the result of Poor Decision Making? The first and foremost thing that managers have to understand and admit is that, poor decision making is the root cause of failed course of action. They should have the guts to admit and take up the responsibility for the negative outcome and not to seek some strategically helpless defense mechanisms. Making others a scapegoat for your helplessness doesn’t shield you for long but puts you in the defending territory forever. Ddefensiveness delays decisions, affects organizational success, sets a bad precedence, increased group conflicts, interpersonal tensions and leads to unreliable evaluations. The long and short of the discussion clearly highlights the importance of recruiting not only a qualified manager but a committed and reliable person who has the ability to take risks and tackle crisis situations with ease and steer the organization smoothly without any hitches by greasing it...
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Organizational Assessment

Organizational Assessment
Organizational Assessment – Motive and Means Organizational assessment involves creating a picture of “what it is”. The snapshot should provide a clear view of the present position of the company and it should indicate whether there is a need to go for a change process. The data provides a baseline which can be used as a reference point to measure change in the future. Employee opinion surveys and climate surveys form a critical part of this measurement process. The key to an effective assessment is being clear about the goal of the process and being specific about the questions the intended exercise must answer. Cultural assessment: This provides information about core dimensions of organizational culture which includes satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with pay and benefits, opportunities for advancement, satisfaction with leadership and supervision, motivation, common values and performance commitment. If the leader proves to be aggressive, committed, value driven, so will be the employees who obviously take after their leader to fulfill his vision. The purpose behind analyzing the culture of an organization is to determine its efficiency level and to generate recommendations for continuous improvement. This exercise should not be a one-time affair as periodical inputs and feedback are excellent ways to align culture with the vision. In this way, management is better able to anticipate and prevent any potential problem, and to assess employee attitudes regularly. Survey administration: Surveys are administered to large groups of employees at one time and it is emphasized to be anonymous to erase any apprehensions in their minds. Open-ended questions allow employees to express their opinions about areas that need improvement and also the problem areas or bottlenecks that hinder their development. Report generation: The statistics collected is summarized and presented for each and every dimension covered in the survey. The report compares the organization’s current culture with previous administrations of the survey. Such open ended discussions bring out the problem areas which the management had not been previously aware of. Feedback to management and employees: The managers discuss the outcome of the survey in order to gain a better understanding of the various issues facing the organization, and decide on a plan to give feedback to their employees. This is a kind of human resource strategy which helps the management to bridge the gap between various levels of the organization and its members. Recommendations to the management: A final report submission by managers of the respective departments along with their recommendations for management’s perusal is the final step in organizational diagnosis and with the approval of “the big boss” action plans are executed that aid in improving the organizational effectiveness. The notion of this entire exercise is to provide insight into the current skill levels of the work force and to design an effective plan for performance improvement based on the assessment of total development needs....
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Costing and Profitability

Costing and Profitability
Costing and Profitability Analysis Relationship between Cost of Production and Sales Volume: The cost of production and volume of sales are the inter-dependent determinants of profit. The analysis of cost behavior in relation to the changing volume of sales and its impact on profit is very important to determine the break even level of a firm. The level at which total revenue equals total costs, is said to be the break even level where there is no-profit or no-loss. Sales beyond break-even volume bring in profits. Generally production is preceded by the process of demand forecasting, to decide on the volume of production, the produce of which will be absorbed by the market. Pricing and promotions come at a later stage. Costing is done to predict the costs of production and resultant profits at various levels of activity. Download this comprehensive power-point presentation on Break-Even Analysis. Cost Volume Profit or CVP Analysis: CVP analysis or Cost-Volume-Profit analysis helps a firm to study the interrelationship between these three factors and their effect on clean profit. The process also includes an analysis about the external factors that affect the volume of production, such as market demand, competitor threat and internal factors such as availability of infrastructure, capital and labor force. This CVP analysis is a boon to the managers to locate the bottlenecks that hinder the productivity and find a way out, by adjusting either the levels of activity or controlling the cost.   Picture Courtesy : The Power of Break-Even Analysis Pricing: Pricing is the most important factor that makes your product competitive. The costs of production can be classified into fixed costs, variable costs and semi variable costs. Fixed costs remain constant and tend to be unaffected by the changes in volume of output; whereas variable costs vary directly with the volume of output and semi-variable as the name implies are partly fixed and partly variable. Cost accountants of the modern era fully support variable costing for the purpose of cost accounting, listing its merits as follows: Variable costing talks about contribution margin, which is the excess of sales over variable costs. If this is going to be high, sufficient enough to cover the fixed costs, then profit is assured for the firm. It is a key factor to determine the percentage of profit. Variable costing assigns only those costs to a product that varies directly with the changing levels of production, which is helpful in making a distinction of profit made from sales and those resulting from changes in production and inventory. Segregating the costs into fixed and variable is done for the purpose of providing information to reflect cost-volume-profit relationships and to facilitate management decision-making and control. Some applications of variable costing that facilitates management decision making: Profit planning: By increasing the volume of sales or decreasing the selling price of the product. Performance evaluation of profit centres:Like, sales division, marketing department, product line etc., Decide on product priorities: In view of market potential and profit potential Make or Buy Decisions: Depending on the production capacity and sales demand. Budgeting: Flexible budgeting and cost control are possible by variable costing technique and the striking feature is the treatment given to fixed costs, where it is treated as a period cost and not apportioned among all the departments and products that enable the firm to understand the movement of profits in the same direction as that of the sales. Although considered to be a controversial technique and weighed against the conventional methods of costing such as absorption costing, it is believed that it is to stay and exist as the next step in the evolutionary method of cost accounting....
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