Class No 3: Levels of Management, Managerial skills

Management function pervades across the enterprise and works at all levels. However the position of an individual within the organization's hierarchy determines the nature and content of his or her managerial position. The lowest level of management is called first-line of management which consists of people such as foreman, sales executives etc. The next level of management is called middle-level management which consists of people such as production managers, process engineers etc. Middle management consists of a great bulk of any organization. The next level of management is called Top-Management which the highest powered group in a given organization. In case of a business top management consists of Board of directors, CEO, President etc.

Examples:

SDM Educational Society:

Top Management: Board of Governors

Middle Management: Heads of institutions such as principals/directors

First-Line management : Heads of departments, faculty etc

Managerial skills

Management work demands skills in people. Skill is an ability to translate knowledge into action. The nature of skills needed depends on the work on hand and this itself depends on the level of management. In general three are three categories of skills expected.

Conceptual skills are expected from TOP management. Conceptual skills are those that understand business environments, opportunities that are emerging and conceptualise "business realities" into a business plan

Example: In the 1990's Infosys formulated a new paradigm of business that combines low cost capital, cheap labour, and high profitable market into one profitable model of business called Global Delivery Model

Google came out with a AdSense, Adwords and built a profitable business around that

Human Resources skills are those skills that help managers to get best out of their work force. These include among other things ability to understand people's motives, desires, expectations, tendencies, working styles and to get best performance from them. These skills are required by middle management.

Technical skills are those that help business produce products or services. These skills gained through professional education such as engineering or medicine.