The Role of the Manager

Presented to
Perry Barton
MGMT2215-Team Project

By
Justin Bridges

Date
February 8, 2015

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The role of the manager is a vital one within the daily activities of the organization. The
managers themselves are typically the head(s) of departments or functional areas within the
organization. Each manager has specific responsibilities, depending on the needs of the
organization itself. The managers each have a certain description of their jobs that briefly depict
certain activities each of them will need to perform on a regular basis. These descriptions vary
depending on the organization they are working in. The question still remains, what is the
managers role in the company they work in? The managers role as well as their job description
is dependent on a pay rate or a job classification in levels of the organization that integrates
functions and departments in order to implement success in the business. A manager who is
responsible for an entire department usually has those subordinates who report directly to the
department managers. These managers are also responsible for the leadership and
guidance of the workforce that reports to them.
As the above paragraph stated, managers have a job description that details the
responsibilities they have been given for their time within the organization. The first would seem
obvious enough that managers must be adequate planners. This includes the operation and
function of the department or region that this manager is assigned to. In addition to this they are
also responsible for achieving the goals of that said portion of the company delegated to them.
Managers must also be well adept in the art of organization and implementation. These
individuals are in charge of organization the production of the work that is done on a daily basis
as well as organizing the workforce itself and their training.
This can also include the resources everyone works with to reach outcomes that achieve
their tasks. Managers must also be directors in a business, in that they are responsible for
providing the employees and resources with necessary guidance and leadership as well as moral
support, all of which are vital aspects to task achievement. Managers must also carefully monitor
every step of the goal oriented processes, keeping in mind that phases should be implemented
and achieved in a timely manner in order to meet deadlines in an appropriate manner. Once these
goals are achieved managers must evaluate the entire process that has taken place, as well as
assessing the goal in and of itself, and the plan along with how the resources and employees
involved in achieving the goal were allocated.
Managers in their respective roles need to be well-equipped in leadership if they are to be
successful in running departments within an organization. However, what exactly does it mean to
be a leader as a manager? What qualities must one possess to become the spearhead of their
workforce they are responsible for? In short, a leader is one who takes command of a group of
people to accomplish a task or goal, same as managers must do in their roles on a daily business
at work. There are qualities that one must either have or groom themselves to become
more so like in order to be a leader of their workforce that is respected and admired.
In my eyes the first quality a manager must possess in order to be an effective leader is
honesty. It has been said many times over that when the workforce is asked what qualities they
would like to see in a good, ethical leader would be honesty and transparency, in that they would
feel a manager such as this would be approachable whenever there is a problem. However you
may look at it as an individual, managers are responsible for a team of people in the workforce,
and its important that you are honest with them so that you set the standard high
enough that they will be honest with you as well as one another. These people you manage are a

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reflection of you and of the company you work for, so this quality should not be taken lightly by
any means.
Taking on the role of a manager when extended as a leader in particular, one must also be
able to delegate. Each member of your team has a set of strengths that you must play to in order
to effectively keep them working productively and efficiently towards their goals. In order to
keep yourself from wearing thin, or wearing out the department or group you are managing, you
must spread the workload out amongst the team members so that quality of work isnt lost. The
key to delegation is finding your teams strengths, once you do that, and use them to
your advantage in accomplishing your goals, youll find that the entire process goes much more
smoothly.
Discover what each member enjoys doing and find a task or objective suited to their likes
and abilities. If your team members enjoy what they are doing, they will put their true thoughts
and efforts behind the task they have been given, ensuring great quality. This also will allow you
to believe and trust in your entire team with whatever work objectives they are presented with,
and will also free yourself as the manager to focus on the higher-chain objectives one in your
position must focus on yourself. This quality is one that has a fine balance to it, but is also one
that could make or break the productivity of your business.
Managers as leaders must also know how to communicate, as communication is a vital
aspect of business at any level, or when performing any work with multiple people at all. Just
because you know what needs to be done when its within your own mind, doesnt mean that its
lost on your workforce in transition from though process to speech. This is where communication
comes into play. If what youre trying to convey to your workforce is met with blank expressions
across the board, you know that youre going nowhere fast. You must be as clear and succinct as
possible with these people if you truly want to achieve results.
Communication is also a key aspect when you are given the responsibility of training new
employees, as well as keeping a productive work environment at all times. Allow your
employees to approach you via an open door policy at all times, and talking to your staff on a
day-to-day basis. Learning to talk to your employees about interoffice issues is absolutely
necessary, your entire team will learn to trust you as well as depend on you and will most
definitely be inclined to work harder when they feel they are working for a manager/leader that
honestly cares for them and talks to them.
Managers in their roles acting as leaders must also have a sense of humor. For when
times come of great stress, it is the one who can cut the tension, not add to it that will benefit
himself or herself as well as the rest of the team they lead. No matter what crisis youre
presented with, whether it be a website crashing, or you lose funding, maybe even a major client
you depend on, your team will depend on you to guide them through the obstacle without panic
or additional stress. This is important, because I believe that productivity is directly linked to
morale. In my own personal experience, I know that the manager who worked with us, not above
us, was the one who I connected with.
This was the one who kept me going positive and got the upmost genuine effort out of
my daily time on the clock. This is where a sense of humor is most vital, encourage your
team to laugh about the mistakes made, rather than crying about them. Finding a healthy means

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to deal with struggles promotes a happy and healthy work environment in which your employees
will look forward to the next days work instead of dreading and finding every possible excuse
not to work either as hard or even come in at all. Encourage conversation and small talk between
them during breaks, as this time away from the task is what will keep productivity high and keep
your employees focused on their work when the focus is truly needed. Leaders need to be
confident so that their subordinates are confident in the decisions that you make. This goes back
to keeping up morale and making sure that even when things arent going to plan, your team is
calm and ready to find a solution thanks to the example youre setting for them.

Managers as
leaders need to have a certain level of commitment, in that if you expect those
working for you to work hard and produce a high level of quality results,
youre going to need to lead by example and do the same by example. There is no
greater motivation than seeing your boss down on your level working hard and
putting in the same amount of effort that you and their coworkers are
performing to. You will earn your teams respect as well as instill the power
in them to work just as hard as you are if not harder. This will allow you to
gain a reputation as a fair leader who pulls their weight in the organization. You
can also keep your teams spirits up by keeping a positive attitude yourself.
This is achieved through making yourself personable to the team, whether this
is through jokes, advice on personal matters they approach you for or even just
random venting. Keeping a balance between the work that needs to be done and
the playful manner of office mingling is good for everyone.
Creativity is needed for managers who are leaders when decisions arent so clear-cut as
usual, youll need to make decisions on the fly, varying on certain situations. In these moments
there will be time only a quick decision that may require one to choose between the lesser of two
evils, thinking outside of the status quo for a route to choose. This will require some thought, and
you may need to look to your subordinates for guidance as to what the best choice may be, not
the first choice. In using your rationale, you can typically reach the solution you find best suited,
without flying off the handle at random. When you arent sure what to do, all leaders must use
their intuition as a guide to what must be done. It is true that the pressure is on depending the risk
involved with a decision, however, intuition will pull you through it by bringing on memories, of
past experiences and reaching out to those who taught you and got you where you are. In the end
it will be your decision to make, and you will learn to trust your gut, which in turn builds trust
between you and your team.
Lastly, in the qualities it takes to be a leader, you must be able to inspire. You have to
show your team the vision it is you see when running an organization, from whatever level that
may be. They need to feel invested in the organization they are working for as well as every
accomplishment that is achieved there, whether this is accomplished through an equity stake or
through bonus opportunities, it is of vital importance to make sure that your workers know that
their efforts are not all for nothing. This will instill a great focus for the future goals to set, but is
also important in the fact that current issues will need to be faced as well. Notice that when you
are exhausted and mired down in the work youre trying to accomplish, that your employees may

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feel just the same. It is your job as their leader to keep their spirits up, keeping them energized
about their work, therefore inducing greater productivity and better efforts wherever needed.
Make your employees feel appreciated for their hard work and the efforts will continue.
Now that weve seen an overview of the manager as both leaders or otherwise, one might
inquire as to the daily duties of a manager in business because this is their role that reoccurs or at
the very least should occur, on a daily basis. This can be examined from many different fields of
work, whether it be a restaurant, a hospital or office setting, managers have a variety of daily
responsibilities. While it is true that these may vary in weighing priority dependent on the day, a
general outlook would be one such as this.
As stated previously, a manager is responsible in his/her role in the company for
coordinating their respective subordinates work to achieve the goal desired by those you report
to as they do to you. That being said, managers also have other responsibilities to think about as
they oversee their subordinates. Managers will always be coaching their subordinates, as they
need to continually grow to benefit the organization. Those who do not respond well to coaching
or simply cannot be taught will most likely die off in the organization, or to be more simply put,
the individual will most likely end up terminated. The subordinates need to be taught where the
right direction for the organization to proceed in at any point in time. Managers with teaching
their employees must develop a business mindset as well as an energy and hunger for business
success in time to all organizational members available.
One reality of business that needs to be known is that there will not be even one day in
which changes are not ever-present. This being said, sometimes managers must delegate the
responsibility of dealing with change to a specific individual. This person is often called a
change agent, an individual from either inside or outside the organization that can aid the
business in transforming itself by focusing on certain tasks such as organizational effectiveness,
development and improvement. These agents are responsible for initiating and facilitating the
entire process of change, lifting a bit of a weight off the managers shoulders. However as the
manager it is your responsibility to select this person carefully, as well as other responsibilities
that go along with delegating responsibility to such an individual.
This entire process must be carefully managed and planned to achieve the desired results.
You must also ensure that the company will continue on the current success path that it is on
whilst this change process is being implemented as well as ensuring that the future plan will
bring on not only future success but a level of such that greatly surpasses previous marks in the
company. Be ready to set projections for the future, in that you need to show based on numbers
how things will look by a certain date and time from a business perspective. This is deemed as a
vital task for managers, for when we have a better grasp on what the future may or may not hold,
the better we can prepare ourselves for whatever lies ahead.
Managers are also responsible for staffing, being that the people of the organization are
the most vital aspect to any type of success, or any achievement towards any objective, truly. Not
only does this decision-making effect the organization merely today, but also affects the future of
its operations as well. The greater the business staff, the better the energy of the organization,
which in turn affects productivity as well as overall success. Managers must also do very well in
controlling, one of the most basic and important managerial functions. This task will allow a
manager to see a greater picture and spectrum of mistakes and failures that one have planned for,

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and the actual numbers you receive by the end of your calendar year or quarter. (However your
business measures in means of time). The optimal goal for this task is to minimize the deviation
between what you planned for and what actually occurred as much as possible.
A manager must also be able to negotiate, in that you must attempt to come to an
agreement through lengthy discussion with other parties involved, or more than likely a
compromise to reach agreeable terms with one another in which both parties gain and lose
through the decision. There are two types of negotiations that can occur in the business world:
internal and external. An internal negotiation is one of which involved the entities within the
organization itself, such as managers of the same caliber as yourself, or quite possibly those who
either report to you or those you report to. Then, there are the external negotiations, which
involve those who reside outside the realms of the organization such as your suppliers, those who
compete against you as well as your most valued customers and the community in which this
business you work within actually is set upon.
The last task set upon managers that will be seen on a daily basis should seem the most
obvious. As a manager, you must always represent your company well, as every action you see
fit to perform is not only reflective upon yourself, but upon the organization you call yours as
well. This is vital for it is how others outside of the organization will judge the entirety of those
who claim a similar name to you as well. This can range from anything to how you dress, to the
very words you speak, or possibly just how you carry yourself. Always be aware of yourself at
all times, do this and your company will receive nothing but glowing remarks and views of those
who see you associated with it.
As managers in an ever-changing, fast-paced and globally oriented market of todays
world, there are many challenges to face when attempting to conduct business. There are many
cross-functions to consider when managing a multi-layered business, even when a single
department may be your only responsibility. There is an effective way to manage without
micromanaging or causing delays and conflict in your effort to manage. These different functions
may not need to be integrated into a plan of management, but there are many different ways to go
about facing these challenges.
One of the first challenges managers may face in todays business world is master data
management. Due to the rapidly evolving technological innovations available to us in the 21st
century, the entire organizations total load of data can be stored in one location and accessed by
all departments at multiple levels whenever and wherever necessary with the right amount of
access being given beforehand. The challenge presented to managers with scenarios such as this
would be who has access to what data, as well as how much access to certain data each
department should be able to have and how this data must be managed, stored and made
searchable to the entirety of the organization so that anyone who needs to access information can
do so as quickly and as effectively as possible without delving too far into things that arent of
any use.
Another form of a challenge would be supply chain management, in that the literal supply
chain is not only vital, it is absolutely necessary to a business being successful by any means.
Specifically for managers, is managing this chain effectively and efficiently. Aspects are reaching
their peaks that make this management difficult as time goes on. Examples like globalization,
thinking worldwide rather than just a persons national borders that create more to problems and

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more to think about/consider for managerial staff. Supply chain management can now extend
across literally thousands of national borders with such supplies as raw materials and finished
products.
This is particularly vexing for managers as this type of managerial responsibility can be
troubling through barriers of that such as different languages in foreign partnering countries. It is
completely necessary for businesses to conduct themselves in this way if they desire to stay
competitive in todays challenging market. In all actuality it may come down to the managerial
performances provided to determine the success or failure of a business. This can be reached
through the assurance that supplies and products are arriving on-time, every time as well as
overseeing the entirety of the day-to-day business activities.
A final look into a truly challenging aspect of management is through the human capital
perspective. The question presented here would be what is human capital in a business? For a
brief description, human capital defined would be the qualities that each individual or group of
individuals possesses to accomplish a task or goal. This would be any type of skills, knowledge
or previous job experience that allows this person or group to have some worth or even cost to an
organization if now assimilated well to one another. Human resources management is truly
challenging due to the fact that, as it is stated in previous paragraphs that as businesses expand
across many countries and other geographical areas.
The challenge being presented would be asking how the needs of a business client all the
way in China could be met just as effectively and efficiently as a client in Los Angeles,
California? The two are obviously different in many various ways, and finding a universal means
to appease both is a challenge that to most would seem improbable or even impossible to
accomplish. To continue, another sort of sub-challenge for managers to overcome would be how
to best utilize their employees and their respective skillsets to the best ability to accomplish
organizational goals. We as managers must also never forget to consider and meet the needs of
these employees as this is all a constant struggle that must always be fine-tuned and looked after
to be successful and overcome all.
For the longest time, the role of the manager has always been viewed as relatively
primitive and basic to most individuals. To give orders, make sure that said orders were followed
specifically as instructed as well as holding those accountable who chose not to comply with
directives given. These managers were paid to make sure that results were achieved, again, basic
instructions to meet numbers each quarter. Now, however, things are changing in a way some
may never have expected. Managers are no longer seen as policemen, or the cold-hearted slavers
that they may once have been seen as in past years. Now managers must provide a sort of heart
felt and supportive role that must spill out into the entire work environment for everyone to
experience, by which productivity will surely increase by substantial amounts when effort is
positively encouraged by superiors.
Over the course of time, management and what the role of the manager truly is has
changed as we move into a post-industrial era and gradually shift into the technological era we
all know is, if not already present, is fast approaching. It seems that the workforce today knows
more about what goes on in the organization more so than the managers that are supposed to be
the direct superior of these employees. This being said, the new changing role of management is

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shifting from the old fashioned top-to-bottom management style to a self-management style of
business where the employees are responsible for themselves.
This is a more efficient system of business, cutting the middle man from manager to
employees and making management of the entire organization everyones business, not just a
select group of superiors. This benefits the business by engaging employees, not restricting or
belittling them by holding some to a higher playing field than others. This allows a new level of
respect as well as better communication across the board, increasing productivity as well as
possible increased profits.
Some may say that this changing role of management is simply getting rid of the concept
altogether, it isnt. This new role used in businesses today is merely new to some more than
others. You still have those old objectives and task oriented individuals, just leveled out into one
mass pool of workers that are all powerful and authoritative, as well as having personally chosen
responsibility that allows for a workload to become more dispersed and that in turn will create an
entirely less strained workforce with heavier contributions than others. Benefits of this different
role will also allow for new ideas to be brought to a larger number of individuals with a voice.
All in all, the role of the manager encompasses a lot of varying aspects that some may not
have considered before. Managers are the heads of departments or teams that must oversee that
the objectives set forth to not only themselves but their teams of workers are being met
effectively and efficiently on a daily basis. They are responsible for organizing and implementing
the plans they have produced, overseeing that resources are used in productive means towards
meeting these goals as well. This being a continuous process every day of operation, there are
many other aspects these managers in their roles are also responsible for.
The role of the manager also requires these individuals to become leaders as they are the
face of their workforces they oversee. There are hugely responsible for their human capital and
making sure each individual knows that they have a manager that is not only honest and
approachable, but is also transparent and willing to work on their level when necessary if
production is falling behind on a deadline. The role of the manager is not one without challenges
that are face with an age that is ever-changing through technological advancement and realizing
who is allowed access to certain material on the organization they reside in.
Managers go through more than their subordinates may realize, but through hard work,
intelligence as well as some tender caring for the ones they are responsible for and the
organization itself, the role of the manager will be a wondrous experience to those who go about
achieving and exceeding expectations set upon them with pleasurable demeanors will go very far
in the business world.

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Works Cited
Heathfield, Susan M. "What Does a Manager Do in the Workplace?" About.com.
N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2015.
"11 Management Tasks That Matter the Most For Your Company."
www.entrepreneurshipinabox.com. N.p., 24 Oct. 2009. Web. 14 Jan. 2015.
"What Are the Management Challenges Across Business Functions?" Houston
Chronicle. Alexis Writing, n.d. Web.