Although all managers participate in planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, not
all management positions are created equal.
In fact no two management position are alike.
Consider the job requirements for a chief executive officer or CEO of a company.
Chances are the day in the life of a CEO is vastly different from a first-line supervisor
at a McDonalds.
This contrast highlight the management hierarchy which represents the different types of managers
that are commonly seen in an organization.
There are a total of four kinds of managers in an organization top managers middle managers
first-line managers and team leaders.
Each of these groups, although similar in some ways, has different responsibilities
that we’ll discuss.
Working from the top down, we start with top managers.
Top managers represent managers that reside at the highest levels of the management hierarchy.
Common top level management positions include chief executive officer chief financial officer
chief marketing officer and the chief operations officer.
Depending on the organizational structure of the company vice president of marketing,
finance, etcetera may be used in lieu of chief marketing officer or chief financial officer.
Top managers are responsible for the overall performance of the company and must be able
to articulate a vision to everyone in the organization so that employees can focus their
energies.
Once this vision is established, top managers must be able to obtain the commitment of their
employees towards the established vision.
Obtaining buy-in is extremely important as employees who are not committed to the vision
will not perform in a manner that allows the organization to achieve its goals.
Top managers are also responsible for creating a positive organizational culture.
Every organization has its own unique culture, which is in large part created by its top
managers.
The important thing here is for managers to be consistent and act out the culture they
want to establish.
For example, if top managers wanted to establish a an environment where risk-taking and innovation
is encouraged they shouldn’t reprimand employees for failed efforts.
Doing so would reduce the incentive for employees to take risks, thus eliminating the very culture
top managers were hoping to establish.
Likewise top managers shouldn’t preach the importance of ethics while allowing family
or friends the opportunity to use the company jet for what is clearly non-business use.
The last general responsibility for top managers is to continuously scan to external business
environment for possible opportunities and threats.
Since managers cannot control what happens in their business environments, it’s important
that they remain aware of changes such as new regulations, emerging competitors, shifting
consumer preferences, or even changing economic conditions so that they can better prepare
their companies.
The next kind of managers are middle managers.
Middle managers often serve as the intermediary between top managers and first-line supervisors.
Common middle-management positions include district managers branch managers plant managers
and regional managers.
Middle managers are responsible for executing on the goals and objectives established by
top management.
This involves developing separate goals, objectives, and strategies for their own business units
that ultimately lead to the achievement of the larger goals and objectives.
In order to meet these objectives, middle managers must be able to allocate resources,
which is a primary responsibility of middle managers.
This includes utilizing money, labor, equipment, and property in an effective manner.
Middle managers are also responsible for coordinating various groups in order to achieve their goals.
Since middle managers often oversee larger business units, they must be able to shift
resources around as necessary whether it be to accommodate a sudden spike in demand, shift
production to a new facility due to a work stoppage, or even prepare for a natural disaster.
Lastly, middle managers must monitor the performance of their direct reports and make the necessary
changes to improve performance.
The third kind of managers are first-line managers, often referred to as first-line
supervisors.
First-line managers are commonly responsible for supervising the performance of those that
are directly responsible for producing a company’s goods or services.
First-line supervisors include department managers office managers and even store managers
for small operations.
Because first-line managers directly oversee those who are producing goods or performing
services, their primary responsibility is to oversee the performance of those entry-level
employees.
Because they maintain a close working relationship with entry-level employees, first-line managers
are also responsible for training new employees so that they can adequately perform their
job responsibilities.
After all, it gets difficult to hold an employee responsible for tasks, duties, and responsibilities
that you haven’t instructed them how to perform.
In addition to monitoring performance and training, first-line managers will also perform
functions like scheduling for their direct area.
This involves forecasting sales or production requirements and ultimately staffing to ensure
that demand is met.
The last group of managers, and one this is relatively new, is what are known as team
leaders.
Although all organizations do not use team leaders, many are finding value out of the
use of self-managed teams.
But in order to understand the roles and responsibilities of the team leader, lets first discussion
the more traditional management hierarchy.
Traditionally, organizations include top managers, middle managers, and first-line managers.
In this hierarchy, first-line managers are responsible for the performance of their direct
reports and ultimately were in charge of staffing.
However many organizations have transitioned to a structure in which teams manage themselves
as a way of fostering innovation and increasing performance.
In a self-managed team, the team is collectively responsible for hiring new employees, firing
ones that don’t perform well, assign job responsibilities, and other tasks that are
typically performed by the first-line manager.
Team leaders are generally responsible for facilitating team activities in an effort
to accomplish group goals.
However, they are not held accountable for the performance of the team, in fact the group
as a whole is.
So really the role of a team leader is more of a facilitator as they try to ensure that
the group performs in a productive manner.
In addition to serving as the master-facililitator, team leaders are responsible for managing
both internal and external relationships.
The difficult thing with self-managed teams, is usually everyone within the team is equal
in authority, which often makes it difficult to coerce people into doing their job.
Although coercion is rarely a good long-term motivational strategy, some employees could
take advantage of the lack a formal manager in the group.
Team leaders are responsible for managing these internal relationships and also serving
as a liaison to the outside world.
They commonly report on performance as well as the status of the group, and can even get
first-line managers involved in special circumstances like if there is a problem employee.
As you can see, where the kind of manager is located on the hierarchy is a significant
driver behind their primary responsibilities.
By performing a different set of responsibilities, each level of management works together to
ultimately lead to the accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives.
This has been The Management Hierarchy.
In our next video, we’ll discuss the different type of managerial roles.
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