LESSON 3
FUNCTIONS, ROLES, AND SKILLS OF A
MANAGER
DEFINITION OF TERMS
MANAGER
- An individual engaged in management
tasks such as the supervision, sustaining,
upholding, and assurance of obligations for
the work of others within their workgroup,
team, department, the organization in
general.
MANAGERIAL ROLES
- The different roles of managers, such as
interpersonal, informational, and decision-
making roles.
MANAGERIAL SKILLS
- The different skills that managers could
acquire, such as human and technical skills.
The managers are on of the key persons in
an organization. Organizational success
depends on managers who make the best
possible use of their human and material
resources and who promote high levels of
results, productivity, and quality among the
individuals under their control.
MANAGERIAL LEVELS
Organizations usually have three levels of
management for their corresponding
managers. These are the top-level
managers, middle-level managers, and
frontline or lower-level managers.
TOP-LEVEL MANAGERS
- Top-level managers are the general or
strategic managers who focus on long term
organizational concerns and emphasize the
organization’s stability, development,
progress, and overall efficiency and
effectiveness.
- Traditionally, top-level executives set the
company’s general direction by designing
strategies and by controlling various
resources.
MIDDLE-LEVEL MANAGERS
- Middle-level managers are the tactical
managers in charge of the organization’ s
middle levels or departments. They
formulate specific objectives and activities
based on the strategic or general goals and
objectives developed by top-level
managers.
FRONTLINE OR LOWER-LEVEL MANAGERS
- Lower-level managers are also known as
operational managers and are responsible
for supervising the organization’s day-to-
day activities; they are the bridges between
management and non-management
employees.
MANAGERIAL ROLES
- As a manager, you probably fulfill many
different roles every day. For instance, as
well as leading your team, you might find
yourself resolving a conflict, negotiating
new contracts, representing your
department at a board meeting, or
approving a request for a new computer
system.
- Managerial roles are classified into three
types: interpersonal, informational, and
decision-making.
- Henry Mintzberg, professor at McGill
University, conducted research on what real
managers do.
INTERPERSONAL
FIGUREHEAD
- As a manager, you are accountable for
social, formal, and legal duties.
LEADER
- As a leader, you oversee everyone in the
group’s performance and duties while also
providing direction to your team,
department, or even the entire
organization.
LIAISON
- Communication with internal and external
contacts is required of managers.
INFORMATIONAL
MONITOR
- In this position, you routinely look for
information about your company and the
industry in order to spot important
environmental changes.
DISSEMINATOR
- This is where you share information with
your team and colleagues that might be
helpful.
SPOKESPERSON
- You are in charge of communicating
information about your organization's
objectives to those outside of it in this
capacity.
DECISION-MAKING
ENTREPRENEUR
- As a manager, you instigate and oversee
organizational change.
DISTURBANCE HANDLER
- The manager is responsible for taking
control when a team or organization faces
an unanticipated challenge.
RESOURCE ALLOCATOR
- In addition to distributing people and
other organizational resources, this involves
allocating financial resources.
NEGOTIATOR
- In your team, department, or organization,
you may be required to lead or participate
in significant discussions.
MANAGERIAL SKILLS
CONCEPTUAL SKILLS
- Conceptual skills enable managers to think
of possible solutions to complex problems.
Through their ability to visualize abstract
situations, they develop a holistic view of
their organization and its relation to the
wider external environment surrounding it.
HUMAN SKILLS
- Human skills enable managers in all levels
to relate well with people. Communicating,
leading, inspiring, and motivating them
become easy with the help of human skills.
Dealing with people, both in the
organization’s internal and external
environment, is inevitable, so it is necessary
for managers to develop these human skills.
TECHINICAL SKILLS
- Technical skills are also important for
managers for them to perform their tasks
with proficiency with the use of their
expertise. Lower-level managers find these
skills very important because they are the
ones who manage the non-management
workers who employ varied techniques and
tools to be able to yield good quality
products and services for their company.
MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
STAFFING
- Includes writing job descriptions, putting
ads for open positions, reviewing resumes,
interviewing applications, and prospective
applicants, hiring and, firing. Managers
oversees his or her employees and ensures
that they are trained properly.
BUSINESS GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY
- It is a manager’s primary responsibility to
ensure the success of the company. His or
her actions should be geared toward
business growth and sustainability.
Managers must also constantly review the
company’s financial, budgetary, and
production goals.

COMMUNICATION
- May be one of the most important
responsibilities of a manager to keep the
workplace running efficiently. Managers
should be able to resolve conflicts, motivate
employees, interact with the public on
behalf of the company, and preserve
customer relations.

TRAINING
- Managers schedules orientation of new
employees and subsequent training to
perform better in their jobs and must also
evaluate their progress on a regular basis to
determine whether additional training is
required.

ADMINISTRATIVE INVESTIGATION AND

DISCIPLINE
- It is the job of the manager to investigate
any employee who violates company rules
and discipline them when proven guilty. He
or she may also terminate and employee,
after due process, who habitually fails to
perform under the known and agreed
standards established by the company.

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
- Maintenance of good employer-employee
relations is very important. Happy
employees are proven to be motivated and
more productive in the workplace.