Management Levels and Skills

Henry Fayol Identified three basic skills:-

1. TECHNICAL SKILL
Ability to use procedures, techniques and
knowledge of a specialized field.
E.g. Surgeons, engineers, musicians,etc.
Pertain to knowledge and proficiency in
processes, procedures, methods and
techniques which are used in doing a work.
Also called as hard skills.


2. HUMAN SKILL

Ability to work with, understand, and motivate
other people as individuals or in groups.
Management is a process of getting things done
with and through people.
No manager can be effective without suitable
human skills irrespective of being technically and
conceptually competent.

3. CONCEPTUAL SKILL

Ability to co-ordinate and integrate all of an
organization's interests and activities.
Involves seeing the organization as a whole.
Anticipating how a change in any of its parts will
affect the whole.

MANAGERIAL ROLES
Henry Mintzberg discussed ten activities of
managers in his book The Nature of
Managerial Work.
Role is defined as the pattern of behaviour
which is defined for different positions.
Mintzberg identified three major categories of
roles of a manager each of which has
different defined roles.
I. INTERPERSONAL ROLES
Concerned with interaction with other persons,
both the organizational members and outsiders.
Three types of interpersonal roles:-
i. Figurehead:-
Perform activities which are of ceremonial
and symbolic nature.
These include greeting the visitors, attending
social functions involving employees,
handing out merit certificates and other
awards to outstanding employees.



ii. Leader Role
Involves leading the subordinates and
motivating them for willing contributions.
Requires those leadership and
motivational activities that are essential
for the management of people.
These include-
staffing
maintaining a productive work
force,etc.

iii. Liaison Role
Includes activities by which the executive
develops and maintains a network of
contacts outside the organization.
Manager serves as a connecting link
between his organisation and outsiders
or between his unit and other
organisational units.
Major objective- to maintain a link
between the organisation and its external
environment.

II. INFORMATIONAL ROLES
Mainly involve management of information.
Include communication- giving and receiving
information- both within and outside the
organisation.
Three types of informational roles:
i. Monitor Role (or Recipient Role):-
Involves constantly collecting information about
those factors which affect a managers activities.
Factors may be within the organisation or outside
it.
Manager uses interpersonal roles to seek
information from many sources, both inside and
outside the organisation.
ii. Disseminator Role

Distributes the information to his
subordinates who may otherwise not be in a
position to collect it.

Dissemination may be written or oral, formal
or informal.

iii. Spokesperson Role

As a spokesperson, the manager represents
his organization or unit while interacting with
outsiders.
Transmitting information to those outside the
organisation.
Information is related to corporate plans,
strategies, policies, actions, performances,
etc.
III. DECISIONAL ROLES
Involves choosing the most appropriate alternative
out of the available ones.
A manager performs four roles:
i. Entrepreneur Role:-
Process by which manager seeks and identifies
opportunities to promote improvement and
needed change.
Manager assumes certain risk which is involved
in terms of the outcomes of an action.
Since these actions can be affected by dynamic
and constantly changing factors, manager is
required to bring suitable changes.

ii. Disturbance-Handler Role

Equips the manager to take corrective
actions needed to resolve important,
unexpected disturbances.
Disturbances can be in the form of strike by
employees, shortage of raw materials,
employee complaints and grievances, natural
disasters, etc.
iii. Resource Allocator Role

Manager allocates resources human,
physical and financial- to various
organisational units according to their needs.
Specific activities might include developing
and monitoring budgets, predicting future
resource needs, forecasting future resource
problems, etc.
iv. Negotiator Role

Manager negotiates with various interest
groups in the organisation.
Such interest groups are shareholders,
employees and outside agencies.
For example- a manager might represent the
corporation to negotiate a trade union
contract, a joint venture, or a trade
agreement.
Limitations of Mintzberg Approach
Sample of five executives used in his
research is far too small.
Type of roles identified by Mintzberg are not
applicable to all types of managers.
Managers have to do some work that is not
purely managerial.
Many of the activities Mintzberg found are
evidences of planning, organizing, leading
and controlling.