Managerial roles and effective managers in the workplace

In today’s world effective managers are the ones who succeed in not only driving their organizations towards profits but also in making an impression on their workers and the world. For a manager to be effective, a lot of different requirements have to be fulfilled. Being an effective manager is a diverse and difficult job.

Defining Managers:

Manager in simple words has been defined as an individual who directs a business or other enterprises. He is a person who actually gets things done. Managers have various different tasks and functions. Some of them are:

Setting objectives and scheduling: it has been observed that for a manager to be considered good, he has to think ahead for the company and how to utilize its resources. Managers, hence set up strategic objectives which are delegated to the lower levels. Setting objectives is not enough though. Planning after setting these objectives is crucial. Planning needs to be done to put these objectives into effect.

Organizing resources: organizing resources means deciding how resources are to be allocated efficiently. Moreover, people throughout the business need to be recruited with care so that they can accept some accountability through delegation. The structure of the business has to be thought of in such a way that tasks can be clearly divided, and that each part of organization is organized in such a way that they are able to fulfill their part of the task effectively.

Motivating staff: employees are an integral part of an organization. Therefore, keeping them motivated is a crucial factor to ensure that the organization’s goals will be met. Not only the employees should be motivated, but along with it they should be guided and lead in such a way that the organization’s aims are achieved.

Coordinating activities: this is an essential task for a manager. Coordinating activities not only means welding the staff together to achieve a common sense of rationale, but also if a company has other branches, it will mean ensuring that all branches are consistent with each other in their goals.

Measuring performance against targets: this particular task of a manager ensures that the objectives that they are working for are being met on time and are using the defined set of resources only. This can be achieved through management by objectives where a manager takes action if under performance occurs and appreciates if performance against target is on schedule. (Stimpson. P, 2002)

Management roles:

Managers today have to take up many different roles to ensure that they are working effectively. If a manager is only performing one role, and neglecting the others, he will not be able to brand himself as being an effective manager. Some of the roles that a manager can take up to ensure effectiveness in him and in his organization are as following:

Interpersonal roles: these roles are focused to deal with and motivate employees at all levels of organization. They concerned with relationships with others and are related to human skills. In the interpersonal roles, three distinct roles are seen.

Figurehead role: this is defined as being a representative leader of the organization and under this managers undertake duties of social or legal nature.

Leader: this particular role is very crucial for any organization to thrive. If a manager lacks leadership qualities, he will not be able to keep employees motivated and engaged in their work. Leaders have been seen to make changes that have amazed people throughout the world since they have the respect and full attention of their workers.

Liaison: this role is the one where a manager keeps in touch with managers of other branch and divisions.

Informational roles: under this role a manager acts as a source, receiver and transmitter of information.

Monitor: through this data which is relevant to the business operations is collected.

Disseminator: by adopting the role of a disseminator, a manager is able to transfer information from internal and external sources to the desired people within the organization for completion of a task.

Spokesperson: information regarding the company and its operations is communicated to stake holders and external groups.

Decisional roles: this is an important role that a manager has to accept. Under this role, a manager makes decisions regarding key factors of organization and allocates resources to meet organizations objectives.

Entrepreneur: under this role, new opportunities are sought to develop the business

Disturbance handler: this is an important role. If a manger is able to perform this role well, he is able to respond to the changing environment to reduce risks for the company and assume accountability when hostile factors rise.

Resource allocator: a manager through this role is able to allocate resources efficiently. Not only are the financial resources allocated properly, but also the human and physical resources of the company.

Negotiator: a manger by being a negotiator is able to represent his organization to external forces like as government and peer groups. (Daft, R.L., 2008)

Through these different roles, a manager is able to be as effective as he can be. Moreover, through these roles a manager is able to communicate with the employees easily, keep their morale high and hence keep the employees motivated and happy.

Effective Managers and diversity in workplace:

Today’s world along with being competitive and complicated has become increasingly diverse. This is because now the workplace is not an independent body; rather it has to deal with the whole world since competition is not only coming from within the country that the organization is set up in, but from every continent. Managers therefore are required to identify how the workplace is changing, evolving and diversifying. However, only identifying is not enough. Rather the managers have to deal with this changing, evolving and diversifying workplace in the best possible way. Hence, the managers today should have the skills to deal in a multi cultural workplace.

In every country today, diversification has occurred due to increasing differences in their populations. Diversification is defined as understanding and accepting differences amongst people. By accepting diversity and exploiting it, a manger is able to yield greater productivity and competitive edges for his organization.

The biggest diversification that the world today has seen is the increasing participation of women in organizations. Hence, ignoring women and their rights will result not only in the business losing out on profits, but also in getting a bad name by the world. Therefore, companies today should revise their policies making them flexible towards women and also include certain benefits for women within workplace like as providing day care for mothers within their organizations.

Recognizing differences amongst people is not sufficient when dealing with a diverse work force. A manager has to deal with a large number of other issues associated with diversity. First and foremost, a manager has to understand discrimination, its roots with the organization and its consequences. By doing so, a manager is able to develop an environment within workplace of respect for all individuals. The second most important factor for a manger is identifying his cultural and religious prejudices and biases. This is an important revelation for a manager since he will be then able to correct his behavior towards employees whom he might be treating differently due to the biases that are deep inside him. This will result in not only the manager changing his behavior, but this will also change the behavior of other employees who had been following the mangers example of holding prejudices against certain employees within the organization. This particular correction on manager’s part will lead to the workplace environment becoming healthy and friendly for everyone.

The last issue that the manager will have to sort out is changing the workplace environment if necessary to encourage diversity within workplace and keeping employees happy and motivated. This may not be so easy, since some companies have policies that are being followed since decades. Changing or even making such policies flexible for a certain group within the organization will prove to be difficult and challenging. However, by bringing the change in the organization, a manager ensures success and profits in future for it.

To promote diversity within the organization a manager should make sure that every employee is heard and that no employee’s views are ignored. To make sure that this happens, a manager can set up meetings where all employees are given equal chance to speak and express themselves. Training programs can also be organized to make employees aware of how important diversity is within an organization and how to respect values and views of people different from you. (Green A. K., 2009)

Effective Managers and self confidence:

It has been observed that managers have destroyed themselves with over self confidence and others have been destroyed because they did not have enough self confidence to carry out what they thought was right. Hence, for a manager to be effective, recognizing the balance between over and low self confidence is really crucial.

Having self confidence does not in any way mean that a manger becomes an egoistic individual and fails to listens to his employees and carries out all decisions himself without any feedback from others. Having self confidence on the other hand means encouraging employees to give their views when a problem has to be solved or a decision has to be made, with the view that employees feedback is crucial for a business to succeed. Moreover, these managers do not deny when they make mistakes or hide behind other people’s backs. Instead, they admit their mistakes because their self confidence assures them that this one mistake will not break them. Instead it will help them learn what went wrong and also make their employees motivated that their manager did not blame them for the fault that occurred.

These managers also do not die for publicity and limelight. Instead, they try to push the limelight towards their workers to keep their morale high and ensure that motivation levels run high which fulfills the employees need for achievement under the motivational theory, Acquired Needs theory, developed by David McClelland. This theory states that employees have a desire of accomplishing something difficult or attain a high standard of success. (Daft, R.L., 2008) hence, by pushing employees towards limelight and giving them the credit of performing a job, a manager with a healthy self confidence is able to fulfill this particular need of employees.

Such managers are hard to find, but they do exist and working for such effective managers who use their self confidence to make their company rather break it, is an experience for all the employees. (Holder S., 2007)

Effective Management styles:

The style with which a manager works ensures how effective he is and how well he can manage the workforce, resources and the overall complications of an organization.

One of these styles is participatory style. This is a style where a manager encourages his workers to complete an entire task. However, if this is not possible due to the workers not being capable enough to complete an entire task, it should be made sure by the manager that the employees at least know how their part is essential for the task to get completed. This will enable the employees to know the importance that they play in the particular task, and this will make them feel important and motivated enough to get their work done.

Moreover, employee should be motivated at every stage and their feedback should be taken. They should be made felt that they are crucial for the company and for the task to get completed. They should be made felt like a part of the whole process. This not only motivates the employees but also gives them a sense of purpose. Moreover the employees should be rewarded not only for performance but also for the motivation shown. (Dun, 2011)

The other style of management which is widely recognized is McGregor’s Theory X and Y. His theory explains that there are two style of management X and Y and it depends on the manager whatever style he chooses. A manager who chooses theory X style is the one who thinks that the employees are generally lazy, have no motivation or desire to work and that they need to be pushed to work through strictness and firmness. Such managers do not believe in delegating work or in team works. Rather they act as autocrats. The mangers who adopt theory Y style however, are the ones who believe that workers are motivated to work and have the desire to complete their tasks. Such managers are usually democrats who believe in team works and delegations. They even encourage their workers to participate in the work through feedback and giving their views. (Stimpson P., 2002)

Another style through which managers can become effective is to promote delegations in their environment. A delegation is a process through which a superior passes down authority and powers to his subordinates enabling them to perform a task better. By forming delegations a manager is able to divide the work and give it to his sub ordinates. This enables him to concentrate on the more important and critical issues. Secondly, a manager’s energy is also saved from doing the tasks that his employees can also perform as well as he can. Through delegation, subordinates are able to get the room for growth that they desire. They also end up feeling important since their superior has considered them responsible enough to delegate work to them. This nurtures the feeling of self esteem in the employees in the “hierarchy of needs” defined by Maslow. (Kotler P., 2009) Delegations make a manager effective since now a manager is not only keeping his employees happy and motivated but he himself is free from the stressful workload that was diverting his mind from the more important issues. (Daft, R.L., 2008)

The other style which managers today usually adopt is encouraging teams within their organizations. This is because employees as a team are brought forward to pool in ideas which might come handy and give their insights on how to be more productive. When people are brought together in a team, the results expected usually exceed expectations. Through teams employees are given the chance to pertain relationships with others which is a must for employees of today who feel isolated in workplace. This is in favor of Clayton’s ERG theory. (Daft, R.L., 2008) Successful teamwork depends on good coordination and solid communication skills. The most important part is giving credit to teams when they accomplish a task and recognizing their efforts. Teamwork is usually adopted by those effective managers who want to accelerate a project and optimize the process for completing the task. (Dun, 2011)

Delegations and teamwork is an important aspect for a manager to be effective. However, sometimes managers need to make quick decisions especially at the time when the deadline is due or when a critical situation rises. For this type of situation, a manager needs to adopt autocratic style of management where little empowerment and control is given to employees rather the manager is the one is in total control and snap decisions are made. This ensures that time is not lost in taking views and insights of employees which might get dragged and situation might end up getting worse or the opportunity being lost. Mangers who adopt such leadership style are confident enough to make decisions, sometimes even hard ones and stick to their decision. Such managers usually explain to their employees that they need to be flexible to easily switch from one task to another when necessary and to avoid asking questions and wasting time. This type of leadership will however result in employees getting de motivated since they are never felt like a part of team in the organization or even delegated tasks. (Stimpson P., 2002)