by Ron
Siddell
I think that in a typical management textbook, readers
would find references to both management and supervision. Are they not the
same? Or are they quite different? I would suggest that management pertains
to organizations and resources and supervision addresses the direct reporting
relationships among employees. What do you think about this?
Management can be defined as the attainment of
organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through four
functions commonly referred to as planning, organizing, leading
and controlling. The four functions of management will be found in all
organizations (Well, not always. I have encountered organizations that do not
exhibit activity in all four functions, which, of course, creates significant
problems) in some way or another, whether for-profit, not-for-profit, private
or public. Every organization requires and consumes resources in order to
accomplish its goals and these resources must be managed.�
So, what is meant by effective and efficient and what are
those four functions all about?
When planning, people deal with issues of current
status and desired future state, goals, tasks and how resources will be used
to get to the desired future, even if that future looks pretty much like the
present. I throw in the last comment because often time’s organizations get
so caught up in change (for change sake sometimes) that people forget to take
care of what they have already got. Of the four functions, I consider
planning the most critical and usually the most neglected. I relate this to
what a good carpenter does: measures twice and cuts once.
Organizing addresses how people in an organization
will accomplish the plan. This involves assigning goals and tasks and
allocation of resources. Important to the assignments is establishing clear
responsibility and accountability.
I see leading as intimately related to
decision-making, something that isn’t particularly well done in most
organizations (in my opinion and from my experience). Leading, officially,
could be defined as the use of influence to motivate employees to achieve
organizational goals. I am concerned with the idea that managers �motivate�
people. Perhaps you would like to take a shot at why I would be concerned
about this.
I believe the most significant component in effective
leadership is clarity about decision-making, that is, who makes what
decisions and how these are made, and who influences what decisions and how.
Controlling is not, as some folks might think and
do, making people do what �the boss� wants and if they do not, punish them in
some way. Controlling is really a process of creating information and
measuring systems to determine progress towards desired goals. If the
organizing and leading is going awry in some way, it is nice to detect this
as soon as possible so corrective action can be taken. You might want to
become familiar with Deming�s �plan, do, check, act� as a good model.
Now, let me address organizational performance; this is
where we can get back to effective and efficient. First, let us describe an
organization as a method to bring together knowledge, people and resources
such as raw materials to perform tasks that one individual could not do
alone. Have you ever thought how many hundreds of people are brought together
to create a program like Microsoft Word or Adobe PageMaker? An organization
is a social entity, which means it
is made up of two or more people, is goal
directed, a common goal is making a profit, and deliberately structured so that tasks are appropriately assigned
to individuals and groups.
Okay, how about effective and efficient: effectiveness is
the degree to which the organization achieves goals, or, �Are we doing the
right things,� like providing customers with valued received; and efficiency
pertains to the amount of resources used to produce a product or service or,
�Are we doing things right?�
In your text you will find plenty of information about
types of managers. This is all pretty well defined and I don’t need to dwell
on it here, other than to mention that management positions are both vertical
(first line, mid and senior/executive) and horizontal (basically line and
staff).
More importantly, I would want you to focus on management
skills and the deployment of these skills in the various positions described
as types. These skills can be categorized as conceptual, human and technical.
Now, some folks will get into a debate on which set of skills is most
important. What I would like you to think about and dialogue is the
application of skills in the various types. I might suggest that all are
important, but each skill set is more important at times. While you are at
this, also pay particular attention to manager roles, which has a lot to do
with behaviors.
Back to decision-making: This is a role that I consider
critical for any manager at any level and in any function. I believe clarity
about this is essential for healthy organizations where �empowerment� is more
than a buzzword. Let me elaborate by borrowing from some of my own work:
The three components of cooperation:
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Who makes what decisions and how they are made, and
who influences what decisions and how this influence is exercised. .
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Eliminating the gap between intentions and
interpretations.
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Understanding diversity in work behavior styles
(patterns).
How best do we gain cooperation in the workplace? For me,
the answer has three components. First, I believe this happens when people
are clear about authority in terms of who makes what decisions and how they
are made, and when people are clear about who influences what decisions and
how this influence is exercised. This clarity
is an essential ingredient (perhaps the only one) of �empowerment.�
The second component in cooperation is clarity in the
interpersonal communication process, including skills in mitigating or
eliminating the disparity between intentions and interpretations.
The third component is an understanding of our own work behavior
styles and those of the people we are associated with, whether in intact work
groups or project teams. By work behavior styles (or patterns), we address,
among other things, individual decision-making strategies, amount of
information needed before starting a task or project, approaches to dealing
with change and more.
Depending on how these three components are operating in
any workplace environment, they will either be the sources of unresolved
conflict or cooperation.
I do want to close this with some thoughts about
individual transitions from non-management jobs into management. Typically,
the most critical and toughest transition is into that first management
position, typically first line of some kind regardless of title. This is a
letting go process and development of boundaries involving people with whom
one worked with and quite often developed close relationships. A separation
must happen and new relationships must be formed if a new �manager� is to
succeed. This can be difficult enough that some first time managers choose to
�go back,� and some flounder for a long time before they figure things out.
In sum, you cannot be someone�s boss and a buddy at the same time. I’m
certainly open for your �push back� on these thoughts. Email me at [email protected].
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