managers job
In this reading, the author answers the basic question, What do managers do? Contrasting the myths with the facts, he examines the various interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles of managers. He also provides prescriptions for more effective management, along with a list of questions for self-study. He then discusses the importance of training managers to manage.
The author has included a retrospective commentary in which he discusses the diverse reactions to the reading since it was first published, his current perspective, and the important issues that still need to be faced.
If you ask managers what they do, they will most likely tell you that they plan, organize, coordinate, and control. Then watch what they do. Don't be surprised if you can't relate what you see to these words.
When a manager is told that a factory has just burned down and then advises the caller to see whether temporary arrangements can be made to supply customers through a foreign subsidiary, is that manager planning, organizing, coordinating, or controlling? How about when he or she presents an old watch to a retiring employee? Or attends a conference to meet people in the trade and returns with an interesting new product idea for employees to consider?
These four words, which have dominated management vocabulary since the French industrialist Henri Fayol first introduced them in 1916, tell us little about what managers actually do. At best, they indicate some vague objectives managers have when they work.
The field of management, so devoted to progress and change, has for more than a half a century not seriously addressed the basic question: What do managers do? Without a proper answer, how can we teach management? How can we design planning or information systems for managers? How can we improve the practice of management at all?
Our ignorance of the nature of managerial work shows up in various ways in the modern organization-in boasts by successful managers
The author has included a retrospective commentary in which he discusses the diverse reactions to the reading since it was first published, his current perspective, and the important issues that still need to be faced.
If you ask managers what they do, they will most likely tell you that they plan, organize, coordinate, and control. Then watch what they do. Don't be surprised if you can't relate what you see to these words.
When a manager is told that a factory has just burned down and then advises the caller to see whether temporary arrangements can be made to supply customers through a foreign subsidiary, is that manager planning, organizing, coordinating, or controlling? How about when he or she presents an old watch to a retiring employee? Or attends a conference to meet people in the trade and returns with an interesting new product idea for employees to consider?
These four words, which have dominated management vocabulary since the French industrialist Henri Fayol first introduced them in 1916, tell us little about what managers actually do. At best, they indicate some vague objectives managers have when they work.
The field of management, so devoted to progress and change, has for more than a half a century not seriously addressed the basic question: What do managers do? Without a proper answer, how can we teach management? How can we design planning or information systems for managers? How can we improve the practice of management at all?
Our ignorance of the nature of managerial work shows up in various ways in the modern organization-in boasts by successful managers