Management process is a process of planning and controlling the performance or execution of

any type of activity, such as:

• a project (project management process) or

• a process (process management process, sometimes referred to as the process
performance measurement and management system).

The organization's senior management is responsible for carrying out its management process.
However, this is not always the case for all management processes, for example, it is the
responsibility of the project manager to carry out a project management process

The Ten Management Roles of a Manager identified by Mintzberg!

Mintzberg intensively studied five CEOs and their organizations, along with a calendar of their
scheduled appointments for a month. Additional data collected during a week of structured
observations included anecdotal data about specific activities, chronological records of activity
patterns, a record of incoming and outgoing mail, and a record of the executive's verbal contacts with
others.

On the basis of this data, Mintzberg divided managerial activities into Interpersonal, informational and
decisional roles.

Sharing for your kind perusal and ready reference.

The Ten Management Roles of a Manager identified by Mintzberg

Role Description Identifiable activities

|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| INTERPERSONAL | | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Figurehead | Symbolic head; obliged | Ceremony, status, |
| | to perform a number of | requests, solicitations |
| | routine duties of a | |
| | legal or social nature | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Leader | Responsible for the | Managerial activities |
| | motivation and | involving subordinates |
| | activation of | |
| | subordinates; staffing, | |
| | training, and associated| |
| | duties. | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Liaison activities | Maintains self-developed| Acknowledgement of mail,|
| | network of outside | external board work, |
| | contacts and public | other contacts involving|
| | relations to maintain | outsiders |
| | flow of information. | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| INFORMATIONAL | | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Monitor | Seeks and receives a | Handling all mail and |
| | wide variety of | contacts; categorized as|
| | information (much of it | concerned primarily with|
| | current) to develop a | receiving information ( |
| | thorough understanding | e.g. – periodical news, |
| | of the organization and | observational tours) |
| | environment; emerges as | |
| | the nerve center of the | |
| | organization’s internal | |
| | and external | |
| | information. | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Disseminator | Transmits information | Forwarding mail to the |
| | received from outsiders | organization for |
| | or from subordinates to | informational purposes, |
| | members of the | verbal contacts |
| | organization; some | involving information |
| | information is factual, | flow to subordinates |
| | some involve | (e.g. review sessions |
| | interpretation and | instant communication |
| | integration. | flows) |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Spokesperson | Transmits information to| Board meetings, handling|
| | outsiders on the | mail and contacts |
| | organisation’s plans, | involving transmission |
| | policies, actions, | of information to |
| | results and so forth; | outsiders |
| | serves as an expert on | |
| | the organisation’s | |
| | industry. | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| DECISIONAL | | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Entrepreneur | Searches the | Strategy and review |
| | organization and its | sessions involving |
| | environment for | initiation or design of |
| | opportunities and | improvement projects |
| | initiates ‘improvement | |
| | projects’ to bring about| |
| | change; supervises | |
| | design of certain | |
| | projects as well. | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Disturbance Handler | Responsible for | Strategy and review |
| | corrective action when | involving disturbance |
| | the organization faces | and crises |
| | important, unexpected | |
| | disturbances. | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Resource Allocation | Responsible for the | Strategy and review |
| | allocation of | involving authorization,|
| | organizational resources| any activity involving |
| | of all kinds, in effect,| budgeting and the |
| | the making or approving | programming of |
| | of all significant | subordinates work |
| | organizational | |
| | decisions. | |
|-------------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------|
| Negotiator | Responsible for | Negotiation |
| | representing the | |
| | organization at major | |
| | negotiations. | |

What Makes a Good Manager

Interpersonal Relationship Skill

If you want cooperation from your team or employees, pay attention. Practice empathy and
respect the personal values, opinions and ideas of the people you interact with. Listen and
respond and offer praises and encouragements when they make progress. By doing that you will
enhance their self esteem and build trust.

As the boss, your ability to develop trust and confidence, resolve problems and issues will result
in a productive, goal oriented work group. You should encourage your team to ask for help, get
involved and participate.

Communication Skill

A manager is the middle person in between the top management level and the team that reports
to him. He has to ensure that communication is smooth and conveyed clearly to avoid
misinterpretations and dissatisfaction. It's useful to develop your negotiation and customer
service skills, especially if you deal with clients.

A Good Planner

In order for you to achieve long term goals and commit to strategies for substantial earnings, you
have to communicate the vision of the company to your subordinates. You break down and
clarify the goals that each team or individual has to perform and assign work schedules and
strategies.

It also involves thinking and planning out strategies on how to improve quality and also being
cost conscious and effective. Having goals and planning out the directions allow for effective
time management and saves cost and resources.
Decision Maker

The daily routine of making decisions include determining how to approach an employee who is
not performing or lacking progress and how to bring about change to the organization and its
team. It is essential that your day to day decision is based on what's important, what's right and
not who's right.

Leadership Skill

Your position entails you to guide and give direction so that the team can perform effectively.
You offer on the job coaching, training and support. In order for individuals to meet the needs
and objectives, they may need extra input, information or skills.

The performance of your team depends on your abilities to empower them. How well a person
performs depends on his motivation. Your task as the boss is to encourage and coach others to
improve themselves and the quality of their work. You need to instill in them the desire to excel
and accept responsibility and self management.

Appraiser

You need to have the capacity to evaluate and examine a process or procedure and decide on the
best choice to produce an outcome. You look at the importance, quality and values and then
taking the best approach.

You are also expected to track the progress of each employee's activities and effectiveness,
review them and offer feedback and counseling.

7 Steps in Decision Making: from Identification to Implementation

Identify a problem or opportunity

 The first step is to recognise a problem or to see opportunities that may be worthwhile.
 Will it really make a difference to our customers?
 How worthwhile will it be to solve this problem or realise this opportunity?

Gather information
 What is relevant and what is not relevant to the decision?
 What do you need to know before you can make a decision, or that will help you make the
right one?
 Who knows, who can help, who has the power and influence to make this happen (or to stop
it)?

Analyze the situation

 What alternative courses of action may be available to you?
 What different interpretations of the data may be possible?

Develop options
 Generate several possible options.
 Be creative and positive.
 Ask "what if" questions.
 How would you like your situation to be?

Evaluate alternatives
 What criteria should you use to evaluate?
 Evaluate for feasibility, acceptability and desirability.
 Which alternative will best achieve your objectives?

Select a preferred alternative

 Explore the provisional preferred alternative for future possible adverse consequences.
 What problems might it create?
 What are the risks of making this decision?

Act on the decision

 Put a plan in place to implement the decision.
 Have you allocated resources to implement?
 Is the decision accepted and supported by colleagues?
 Are they committed to making the decision work?

Seven Effective Decision Making Steps

1. Identifying the Problem

The first step is for you to identify and define the problem. A problem is a question that requires
appropriate solution. Here, you find the limiting factors and obstacles.

2. Analyzing the Problem

In the second step you are supposed to analyze the problem. Gather the necessary information or
data regarding that problem.

3. Develop a List of Alternative Solutions

After analyzing the problem, you should develop a list of the alternative answers that solves the
problem. There are resources that are of great help in developing the list such as browsing the
internet etc.

4. Selecting the Best Alternative

From the list of alternative choices, select the best choice. From the list, compare the effects of
each choice. When selecting the best choice, bear in mind the risk element of each choice against
your expected gain. Do proper timing of your decisions.

5. Execution of the Best Choice

In this step, you put the best choice on action. Communicate properly to your subordinates by
being clear, concise and in an understandable manner regarding the choice.

6. Follow up

Keep following up with the progress on how the decision is being implemented. You exercise
this through proper control. This helps you in detecting the areas that require improvement or
modification before the whole decision comes to halt.

7. Monitoring and Feedback

The last step is to get feedback. Feedback from your subordinates helps you to determine the
effectiveness of the implemented decision. If possible, you should come up with a mechanism
that gives you periodic reports on the success of its implementation.

Standing Plans
 Standing plans are used over a long period of time, sometimes indefinitely, and
can be altered to adapt to changing circumstances. A standing plan is often created
with input from a wide range of individuals over a longer period of time than single-
use plans. Standing plans generally encompass a wider scope than single-use plans,
involving more than one department or business function.

Single-Use Plans
 Single-use plans are created to address short-term challenges or provide
guidance for short-term initiatives. Single-use plans can be created in teams or by
individual managers. The scope of these plans is generally smaller than the scope of
standing plans. For example, single-use plans can be created for specific work
groups or departments to guide their contributions to short-term company
objectives.

Examples
 Business plans are an ideal example of a standing plan. Entrepreneurs draft
business plans before opening the doors to their business, and they can use their
plan to guide their efforts for years into the future. Initially used to guide business
owners through the process of addressing every aspect of their operations and
finances, as well as to attract lenders and investors, business plans can also guide
future product development initiatives, marketing campaigns and other strategic
decisions.

An outline for an advertising campaign is an example of a single-use plan. An ad

campaign plan may contain the number and types of advertisements to be used in
the campaign, the specific outlets that will be used, and the frequency and duration
of the advertisements' exposures. After the campaign runs its course, the short-
term plan will lose its relevance, except as a guide for creating future plans.

Read more: Define Single Use & Standing Plans for Business | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/info_7853580_define-use-standing-plans-
business.html#ixzz1FH3UwuyZ

What is PERT?
PERT is also known as the Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review Technique.
For those who wish to know what is PERT, it is a project management model which
basically works towards analysis and representation of the tasks that are a part of
any given project. More specifically, PERT looks into analyzing the different tasks
which are included in a project in order to estimate the time frames needed to
complete each one. This in turn enables a project manager to determine the
minimum time requirements for the entire project management life cycle to be
completed.

As a result PERT tends to be heavily used in large-scale, one-time infrastructure and Research
and Development projects where the time factor holds greater relevance than the inherent costs;
and proves to be a valuable tool to reduce the redundancy in projects which involve multi-
tasking.

The PERT model incorporates uncertainties as well and therefore it would be

beneficial if applying it for scheduling a project, where the exact details and
durations of whose activities are not known.