Tag: Marketing Management

Project management. ERP implementations entail multiple phases: discovery and planning, design, development, data migration, testing, deployment, support and post-launch updates. Each phase brings critical tasks, and all elements need to stay on track, which requires meticulous project management. Additionally, successful ERP implementations require participation from all the groups that will be involved in developing and using the system. That can be incredibly challenging, because each department is juggling its ERP project responsibilities with multiple other priorities.

Strong project and people management, which includes setting realistic expectations, time frames and milestones, along with timely two-way communication, is critical to success. As with change management, backing from executives and other top leaders is essential to conquering this challenge, as well.

Project planning: Organizations often underestimate the time and budget necessary for a successful implementation. One of the most common causes of budget overruns is scope creep when a business adds capabilities or features to the system that weren’t part of the original plan and another is underestimating staffing needs.

Data quality: Once the organization has located all data sources, it can start thinking about migrating it to the ERP system. But that may involve a serious data hygiene exercise. Because multiple departments interact with the same customers, products and orders, organizations often have duplicate versions of the same information in their systems. The information may be stored in different formats; there may be inconsistencies, like in addresses or name spellings; some information may be inaccurate; and it may include obsolete information such as customers or suppliers that have since gone out of business.

Data integration: One of the key advantages of ERP is that it provides a single, accurate source of data for the whole organization. A key step in ERP implementation is data migration, which typically involves moving data from multiple older systems into the ERP database. But first, you have to find all of your data. This may be much more challenging than you expect. The information may be spread far and wide across the organization, buried in accounting systems, department-specific applications, spreadsheets and perhaps on paper.

Change management. An ERP implementation involves more than just switching to a new software system. It typically means overhauling business processes to take advantage of the efficiency and productivity improvements possible with the new solution. This requires a shift in mindset and a change in everyday work processes for many employees, which presents typical change management challenges.

Continuous improvement: An ERP implementation is not a one-off effort that ends when the new system goes live. The solution must continue to evolve to support new business demands and technology. The project team needs to continue to manage the project after deployment, fixing issues and supporting new requirements as they come up.

Cost overruns: ERP projects are infamous for sailing past budgets after the implementation kicks off. Many organizations underestimate the amount of work required to move to a new business system, and that results in spending more money than expected. These cost overruns often show up in a few different areas.

MIS Reports are reports required by the management to assess the performance of the organization and allow for faster decision-making. A Management Information System, often simply referred to as MIS, can be understood by looking at each of the words that make up the name. There is the management, the information, and the system. At the heart of it, such a system is one that will provide important information to the management of the company.

The complexities of running businesses, have made us more reliant on advanced technologies which will remove any room for errors. On one hand, it accurately states what a management information system does for the management of the company. On the other hand, it cannot be overemphasized that management information systems are very important to the smooth running of a business. It is crucial that businesses opt for an automated management information system is set up for better decision-making.

Need for MIS

MIS reports are crucial for the smooth functioning and growth of your company. Here are a few key points that highlight the importance of an MIS report:

• MIS reports are used to collect data from various sources. These include employees, management, documents, executives as well as the raw numbers for business sales. All of these are beneficial for identifying and solving problems within your company. They can help in making important decisions.
• An MIS report also helps to track a company’s financial growth and financial health. It is often used to track, analyze, and report business income.
• The data collected from the above-mentioned sources is then visualized. This includes presenting the data in the form of bars, graphs, and charts. This provides ease of analysis and helps to gain faster insights from the available data.

The following are some of the justifications for having an MIS system

• MIS systems facilitate communication within and outside the organization employees within the organization are able to easily access the required information for the day-to-day operations. Facilitates such as Short Message Service (SMS) & Email make it possible to communicate with customers and suppliers from within the MIS system that an organization is using.
• Decision makers need information to make effective decisions. Management Information Systems (MIS) make this possible.
• Record keeping: management information systems record all business transactions of an organization and provide a reference point for the transactions.

Types of MIS Reports

Summary Reports

Summary reports are a type of MIS reports used to visualize aggregate data and provide a summary. This summary could be of different business units, different products, different customer demographics among other things. The report is presented in a format that can be understood by the company’s management.

Trend Reports

Trend Reports are types of MIS reports that allow your company to see the trends and patterns among different categories. Trend reports are also used to compare different products or services. They are often used to draw comparisons between the actual versus the predicted output/growth within an organization. These reports help to pinpoint the problem areas in a company and give potential solutions to them.

On-Demand Reports

The on-demand report is a type of MIS reports that are produced on specific demands from your company’s management team. There is no fixed criteria or format that must be included in an on-demand report. This type of MIS report includes the requirements of a company and the prevailing circumstances will dictate the contents of an on-demand report.

Exception Reports

An exception report is a type of MIS reports that is an aggregate report of exceptions, which are abnormal or unusual circumstances within a company. The exceptions report will collect instances of all such conditions within different departments in your company, and present them to the management in a uniform format. Exceptions reports are useful for catching problems early, and solving them before they cause a major disruption.

Financial Reports

Financial reports are types of MIS reports that can be used to determine the financial condition of an organization. A financial report often includes a company’s balance sheets, income, and expense details, and cash flow statements. Financial reports are used by your company’s financial analysts, investors, the board of directors, and even government units to access the overall financial health of your organization. These reports are used in making critical financial decisions within a company.

Inventory Reports

Inventory reports are a type of MIS report that is used to manage and keep a track of all the products in your inventory. The inventory report includes details about the number of products left in stock, the best selling products, the top-selling categories of products and how they vary by demographic, etc. Inventory reports can help your business to make smarter, data-driven decisions.

Budget Reports

Organizations operate on a variety of budgets. These may include cash budgets, income v/s expenditure budgets, marketing budget, HR budget, production budget, etc. An MIS budget report contains internal information about your organization. It is used to maintain your company’s financial health while driving growth.

Sales Reports

The sales report is prepared by the marketing and sales division of your organization. It includes a visualization of products that have been sold during the last quarter/month in your organization. The sales data is often visualized by taking into account the budgeted and actual sales numbers. It provides an insight into the sales variance (the difference between the budgeted and actual sales), the geographical distribution of products sold, and the timeline of sales among other factors.

Cash Flow Statements

Cash flow statements are a Types of MIS report that underlines the exact amount of cash inflow versus the cash outflow in your organization. The cash flow statements include the cash flows from your company’s operations (the core business), investments (capital investments), and financing (external investors). These are together referred to as your company’s ‘net cash flow‘. Cash flow statements are very important to maintain a profitable business.

Production Reports

Production report is a types of MIS report that contains information about the raw production numbers in your company. The manufacturing division within your company will prepare this report, and provide details of the production targets that were achieved or missed. This report also details the predicted v/s actual products manufactured in the time frame. It may also highlight a production bottleneck or ideas on how to speed up the production process.

Funds Flow Statement

Your company’s accounts and finance department is responsible for the preparation of funds flow statement. These statements give insights into the various sources of funding within your company, and how that funding is being utilized. Fund flow reports usually analyze your company’s balance sheet from the past two years, and understand the flow of funds from the previous year to the current financial year.

Change management risks are factors that may inhibit or prevent the acceptance or adoption of that solution. These risks may involve any individuals involved or connected to the solution both leaders and employees.

Factors of Risk Assessment:

Add credibility to change management: Instead of pointing out the negatives, success factors illustrate the big picture and what is crucial for success.

Reduce barriers with positive language: It is understandable that people may become defensive when negative feedback is attributed to them or their work. Success factors express how leaders and employees contribute to success instead of failure.

Compare outcomes and evaluate success: Identifying the success factors creates a clear definition of success so outcomes can be evaluated.

Critical success factors

When a project is strong in every critical success factor, it is more likely to succeed. And of course, gaps or weaknesses show what can be improved to contribute to better results.

• Strong case for change: The reason or purpose of the change make sense at the time to all audiences.
• Impact of history is acknowledged: The causes of poorly managed changes in the past are identified, analyzed and mitigated as needed.
• Impact of culture is acknowledged: The culture of an organization is taken into consideration when planning the change, and this may require change as well.
• Definition of desired state is clear: All elements of the desired state (structure, process, people and culture) are defined and understood by all impacted people.
• Transition dip is acknowledged: The potential unwanted impacts of the transition are identified and mitigated if possible.
• Impact of multiple changes is understood: Other concurrent or overlapping changes are identified, and the impacts are analyzed and mitigated as necessary.
• Leaders are effective at all levels: Every leader involved understands the change and commits to fulfilling their role and responsibilities.
• Change practitioners are capable and willing: Change practitioners are ready, competent and have the resources necessary to support the change.
• Risk is identified and analyzed: Potential risks during and after the change are understood.
• Risk is mitigated effectively: The change management plan includes strategies and resources to mitigate the identified risks.
• Organization is competent in managing change: The organization has the resources and capability from internal or external sources to manage the entire change.
• Project management is effective: The solution implementation team is engaged, capable and incorporates the change management plan into the overall project plan.
• Decision making structure is operational: The role and responsibilities of all leaders are defined, and the change governance and decision-making structure are clear and operational.

Change Management and Risk

There are risks associated with change, and risks associated with the failure to change. Examples of risks associated with the failure to change include Eastman Kodak’s failure to recognize the market’s shift to digital media, and the U.S. auto industry’s failure to identify the threat of a worldwide oil shortage in the 1970s.

Risks associated with change are influenced by the firm’s preference for change and the rate of change in the industry. A firm’s preference for change can range from low to high. However, a low preference for change will be safe only if the rate of change in the industry is also relatively low. If the firm’s preference for change is low and the rate of change in the industry is high, the firm will be exposed to a higher risk of becoming obsolete. The upper most arrow in the graphic illustration below indicates that a firm with a risk avoidance preference in a rapidly changing industry should move towards a culture that promotes change. On the other hand, there is greater risk associated with a change culture that is too far ahead of the rate of change in the industry. The lower arrow indicates that a firm with a risk seeking preference in an industry with a low rate of change might choose to move towards a culture to inhibit change. Note that the line labeled risk neutral is where the firm’s preference for change matches the rate of change in the industry. The area between the dashed lines is the comfort zone where the firm may be somewhat risk-adverse or somewhat risk-tolerant, but not an outlier with respect to change.

Change Management and Transition

There are essentially two ways that change takes place in an organization: continuous improvement, and change initiated at a tipping point. Continuous improvement has been promoted for many years by statisticians, quality management experts and lean enterprise advocates. However, Malone and Mouritsen point out that improving on a continuous basis is not sufficient. As indicated in the discussion above, organizations must improve at a rate compatible with the rate set by the industry and markets in which it competes.

A tipping point change occurs when a firm faces a severe condition that threatens its competitive position or survival. The examples mentioned above related to Eastman Kodak and the U.S. auto industry illustrate change initiated by tipping points. Eastman Kodak did eventually make changes compatible with the digital media and equipment market, but was too late and took bankruptcy in 2102. The U.S. auto industry survived by producing more fuel-efficient autos, but during the transition lost a considerable share of their market to Japanese and European competitors. To avoid tipping point, change many firms have developed teams of experts who attempt to identify industry trends, threats, and events that might initiate a tipping point change.

Change Management and Strategic Alignment

According to Balanced Scorecard authors Kaplan and Norton, “managing strategy is about managing change”. Aligning change management with strategy includes selling a desired change internally, providing the necessary training, revising performance measurements to fit the change, and adopting the appropriate incentive systems. An organization must be able to sustain the change needed to execute the desired strategy from both technical and human resource perspectives (e.g., culture, leadership, teamwork).

1) Denial stage

Denial is the first stage of the four stages of change management and it is observed as soon as a change is implemented. In this stage, you will first deny that change has arrived, even if you can read the signs boldly. Due to the fear of losing belonging, safety and psychological needs, you usually feel bad and deny the importance of change.

Since denial is normally unconscious, you as a manager will not agree that you are in denial yet the signs can be read, thus putting the business at risk. During the denial period, you push your customers away, because there is an alternative of accessing the same goods and services, with similar qualities at a lower cost.

Denial can happen due to many reasons. You did not like the hostile takeover of the company. You don’t like the new responsibilities being thrust on you. Or any reason which affects the comfort zone of you or your employees.

Common denial signs expressed by managers include:

• Undertaking activities and decisions that will actively sabotage or undermine the change.
• Not participating or engaging in the business discussions.
• Becoming preoccupied with other matters.
• Assuming everything is running smoothly.

2) Resistance stage

resistance stage is the second and very critical, as it is the stage where the productivity, morale, and competency of the employees decline. As a manager, you should know at this stage your employees have accepted the change but they are now rejecting it.

Employees actively know that they don’t want this change to happen as a result of which they will try to switch back to the old ways of working things. This results in several delays and can also result in losses for the company.

It is important to note that at this stage, the employees will resist both incompetence and awareness. They will try to keep their own control on things. and to be aware of the control resulting from the change. Following the resistance, the employees will do the following:

• See anything that is wrong.
• Result in complaints instead of making the change work.
• Get into criticism and blame discussions, or responses with anger.

3) Exploration stage

After the unsuccessful resistance of change, most employees start exploring it, after realizing they cannot stop the change. At this stage, the employees look into the future by searching for new responsibilities. But, resistance makes some retain some skepticism, thus exploring alternatives.

The exploration of alternatives might make the employees be distracted, lose focus, be indecisive and feel like they are doing too much from the many ideas they explore. Since the employees’ alternates for some time between resistance and exploration, you should play your role as a manager well, because the turning down of their ideas and alternatives might make them return to resistance. However, during the exploration, employees are hopeful of making it in a new organization but ready to receive ideas of solving the problem.

Some of the things you can do as a manager in addressing exploration include:

• Initiating temporary and non-binding pilot projects to understand the impacts resulting from the change.
• Conducting a survey of the change.
• Helping the shareholders in modifying their ideas in order to suit the change.
• Accepting the change of attitude by the employees and providing positive feedback.
• Helping the employees in re-evaluating their careers.
• Providing more training and networking the employees to gain competence and knowledge.
• Addressing the lack of focus, fear and indecisiveness of the employees.
• Supporting and encouraging strategy and brainstorming sessions.

4) Acceptance/ Commitment stage

Although acceptance is the final stage of change, it may not be due to consensus. The commitment is brought about by accepting the change, rather than fighting and ignoring it. After the acceptance, the change is integrated into the processes, thinking, and values of the organization. The acceptance stage is where both the managers and the employees embrace the change.

Although the employees are committed after acceptance, they might not agree with everything, but they convinced by the implementation then or later of a firm business strategy and an inspiring vision of the business. Thus, the employees get committed with a feeling that their contribution will lead to a successful implementation.

Through commitment, the productivity, and morale of the employees increases, as well as their self-esteem. As a result, the relationship between employees and team managers gets stronger, deeper and trustworthy.

Change management is fundamentally about successfully guiding people through a behavior change.

Change management is a collection of activities intended to support groups, organizations and individuals during business transitions. These transitions include changes to new business models, technologies or procedures. When businesses change the way they function, the success of the change is reliant on how well its members adopt the new practices. While it’s primarily a way to support the human portion of the change, change management also involves reallocating resources and assisting with the implementation of new technologies. When businesses identify a need for change management, they may organize a team or hire a consultant.

Principles of change management:

• Goal identification
• Organization
• Collaboration and communication
• Implementation

Step 1: Urgency Creation

A change is only successful if the whole company really wants it. If you are planning to make a change, then you need to make others want it. You can create urgency around what you want to change and create hype.

This will make your idea well received when you start your initiative. Use statistics and visual presentations to convey why the change should take place and how the company and employees can be at advantage.

Step 2: Build a Team

If your convincing is strong, you will win a lot of people in favour of change. You can now build a team to carry out the change from the people, who support you. Since changing is your idea, make sure you lead the team.

Organize your team structure and assign responsibilities to the team members. Make them feel that they are important within the team.

Step 3: Create a Vision

When a change takes place, having a vision is a must. The vision makes everything clear to everyone. When you have a clear vision, your team members know why they are working on the change initiative and rest of the staff know why your team is doing the change.

If you are facing difficulties coming up with a vision, read chapter one (Mission and Values) of WINNING, by Jack Welch.

Step 4: Communication of Vision

Deriving the vision is not just enough for you to implement the change. You need to communicate your vision across the company.

This communication should take place frequently and at important forums. Get the influential people in the company to endorse your effort. Use every chance to communicate your vision; this could be a board meeting or just talking over the lunch.

Step 5: Removing Obstacles

No change takes place without obstacles. Once you communicate your vision, you will only be able to get the support of a fraction of the staff. Always, there are people, who resist the change.

Sometimes, there are processes and procedures that resist the change too! Always watch out for obstacles and remove them as soon as they appear. This will increase the morale of your team as well the rest of the staff.

Step 6: Go for Quick Wins

Quick wins are the best way to keep the momentum going. By quick wins, your team will have a great satisfaction and the company will immediately see the advantages of your change initiative.

Every now and then, produce a quick win for different stakeholders, who get affected by the change process. But always remember to keep the eye on the long-term goals as well.

Step 7: Let the Change Mature

Many change initiatives fail due to early declaration of victory. If you haven’t implemented the change 100% by the time you declare the victory, people will be dissatisfied when they see the gaps.

Therefore, complete the change process 100% and let it be there for sometime. Let it have its own time to get integrated to the people’s lives and organizational processes before you say it ‘over.’

Step 8: Integrate the Change

Use mechanisms to integrate the change into people’s daily life and corporate culture. Have a continuous monitoring mechanism in place in order to monitor whether every aspect of the change taking place in the organization. When you see noncompliance, act immediately.

VUCA is an acronym first used in 1987, drawing on the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus to describe or to reflect on the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of general conditions and situations. The U.S. Army War College introduced the concept of VUCA to describe the more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous multilateral world perceived as resulting from the end of the Cold War. More frequent use and discussion of the term “VUCA” began from 2002 and derives from this acronym from military education. It has subsequently taken root in emerging ideas in strategic leadership that apply in a wide range of organizations, from for-profit corporations to education.

• V = Volatility: the nature and dynamics of change, and the nature and speed of change forces and change catalysts.
• U = Uncertainty: the lack of predictability, the prospects for surprise, and the sense of awareness and understanding of issues and events.
• C = Complexity: the multiplex of forces, the confounding of issues, no cause-and-effect chain and confusion that surrounds organization.
• A = Ambiguity: the haziness of reality, the potential for misreads, and the mixed meanings of conditions; cause-and-effect confusion.

These elements present the context in which organizations view their current and future state. They present boundaries for planning and policy management. They come together in ways that either confound decisions or sharpen the capacity to look ahead, plan ahead and move ahead. VUCA sets the stage for managing and leading.

The particular meaning and relevance of VUCA often relates to how people view the conditions under which they make decisions, plan forward, manage risks, foster change and solve problems. In general, the premises of VUCA tend to shape an organization’s capacity to:

• Anticipate the Issues that Shape
• Understand the Consequences of Issues and Actions
• Appreciate the Interdependence of Variables
• Prepare for Alternative Realities and Challenges
• Interpret and Address Relevant Opportunities

For most contemporary organizations business, the military, education, government and others VUCA is a practical code for awareness and readiness. Beyond the simple acronym is a body of knowledge that deals with learning models for VUCA preparedness, anticipation, evolution and intervention.

Volatility

Volatility is the V component of VUCA. This refers to the different situational social-categorization of people due to specific traits or reactions that stand out during that particular situation. When people react/act based on a specific situation, there is a possibility that the public categorizes them into a different group than they were in a previous situation. These people might respond differently to individual situations due to social or environmental cues. The idea that situational occurrences cause certain social categorization is known as volatility and is one of the main aspects of the self-categorization theory.

Sociologists use volatility to understand better how stereotypes and social-categorization is impacted based on the situation at hand as well as any outside forces that may lead people to perceive others differently. Volatility is the changing dynamic of social-categorization in a set of environmental situations. The dynamic can change due to any shift in a situation, whether it is social, technical, biological or anything of the like. Studies have been conducted, but it has proven difficult to find the specific component that causes the change in situational social-categorization.

Uncertainty

Uncertainty in the VUCA framework is almost just as it sounds: when the availability or predictability of information in events is unknown. Uncertainty often occurs in volatile environments that are complex in structure involving unanticipated interactions that are significant in uncertainty. Uncertainty may occur in the intention to imply causation or correlation between the events of a social perceiver and a target. Situations where there is either a lack of information to prove why a perception is in occurrence or informational availability but lack of causation are where uncertainty is salient.

The uncertainty component of the framework serves as a grey area and is compensated by the use of social categorization and/or stereotypes. Social categorization can be described as a collection of people that have no interaction but tend to share similar characteristics with one another. People have a tendency to engage in social categorization, especially when there is a lack of information surrounding the event. Literature suggests that there are default categories that tend to be assumed in the absence of any clear data when referring to someone’s gender or race in the essence of a discussion.

Complexity

Complexity is the “C” component of VUCA, that refers to the interconnectivity and interdependence of multiple components in a system. When conducting research, complexity is a component that scholars have to keep in mind. The results of a deliberately controlled environment are unexpected because of the non-linear interaction and interdependencies within different groups and categories.

In a sociological aspect, the VUCA framework is utilized in research to understand social perception in the real world and how that plays into social categorization as well as stereotypes. Galen V Bodenhausen and Destiny Peery’s article Social Categorization and Stereotyping In vivo: The VUCA Challenge, focused on researching how social categories impacted the process of social cognition and perception. The strategy used to conduct the research is to manipulate or isolate a single identity of a target while keeping all other identities constant. This method creates clear results of how a specific identity in a social category can change one’s perception of other identities, thus creating stereotypes.

There are problems with categorizing an individual’s social identity due to the complexity of an individual’s background. This research fails to address the complexity of the real-world and the results from this highlighted an even great picture about social categorization and stereotyping. Complexity adds many layers of different components to an individual’s identity and creates challenges for sociologists trying to examine social categories. In the real world, people are far more complex compared to a modified social environment. Individuals identify with more than one social category, which opens the door to a deeper discovery about stereotyping. Results from research conducted by Bodenhausen reveals that there are certain identities that are more dominant than others. Perceivers who recognize these specific identities latch on to it and associate their preconceived notion of such identity and make initial assumptions about the individuals and hence stereotypes are created.

Ambiguity

Ambiguity is the “A” component of VUCA. This refers to when the general meaning of something is unclear even when an appropriate amount of information is provided. Many get confused about the meaning of ambiguity. It is similar to the idea of uncertainty but they have different factors. Uncertainty is when relevant information is unavailable and unknown, and ambiguity where relevant information is available but the overall meaning is still unknown. Both uncertainty and ambiguity exist in our culture today. Sociologists use ambiguity to determine how and why an answer has been developed. Sociologists focus on details such as if there was enough information present, and did the subject have the full amount of knowledge necessary to make a decision. and why did he/she come to their specific answer.

Ambiguity leads to people assuming an answer, and many times this leads assuming ones race, gender, and can even lead to class stereotypes. If a person has some information but still doesn’t have the overall answer, the person starts to assume his/her own answer based on the relevant information he/she already possesses. For example, as mentioned by Bodenhausen we may occasionally encounter people who are sufficiently androgynous to make it difficult to ascertain their gender, and at least one study suggests that with brief exposure, androgynous individuals can sometimes be miscategorized on the basis of gender-atypical features (very long hair, for a man, or very short hair, for a woman. Overall, ambiguity leads to the categorization of many. For example, it may lead to assuming one’s sexual orientation. Unless a person is open about their own sexual orientation, people will automatically assume that they are heterosexual. But if a man possesses feminine qualities or a female possesses masculine qualities then they might be portrayed as either gay or lesbian. Ambiguity leads to the categorization of people without further important details that could lead to untrue conclusions.

Uses:

Dealing with Complexity and Situations that Confuse and Muddle Decision Making

The next aspect of uncertainty is closely tied with the points made in the previous paragraph. Therefore, the next feature that is discussed here is complexity, which means that business leaders have to adopt a non-linear approach to solving problems and must think out of the box. Further, they would have to ensure that they not only solve the problems but the business dilemmas brought on due to too much complexity which means that they would have to choose between several competing alternatives that are all attractive but cannot be actualized together.

The world has become so complex even for the layperson that the complexity in the business world is of much higher magnitude and is multilayered meaning that the landscape is now no longer a simple equation where profits mean success. In other words, the business leaders would have to ensure that they take into account the laws, regulations, and policies as well as social and environmental costs of doing business in an increasingly interconnected world where conditions in one region are markedly different from conditions in other regions.

Ambiguity and Out of Box Thinking

The fourth and the final aspect that business leaders must confront is ambiguity, which means that the business landscape presents problems and dilemmas that cannot be reduced to simple yes and no type of solutions and black and white approach to problem solving. Instead, most of the problems that business leaders face now are of the type where the complete information is lacking, where there are no clear solutions in sight, and where the reality of the marketplace is multilayered and multidimensional meaning that leaders would have to resort to unconventional ways of solving problems and confronting situations. Ambiguity also manifests in conjunction with the other features like uncertainty and complexity and as discussed next, each of these features feed into each other creating a mélange that is tough to handle for many firms.

The concept or figure of a manager is mostly related to business environments. Nonetheless, the managing function can be extended to different spheres by applying the underlying concept. A manager is someone that has the responsibility of getting things done. He normally manages both people and resources (physical resources or economic resources, among others). He has to plan, organize, execute and control all the activities he has been delegated with by using all available resources to do it effectively. Managers normally have enough authority to require and dispose resources as needed.

A manager is a person who is responsible for a part of a company, i.e., they “Manage” the company. Managers may be in charge of a department and the people who work in it. In some cases, the manager is in charge of the whole business. For example, a ‘restaurant manager’ is in charge of the whole restaurant.

A manager is a person who exercises managerial functions primarily. They should have the power to hire, fire, discipline, do performance appraisals, and monitor attendance. They should also have the power to approve overtime, and authorize vacations. He or she is the boss.

They can hire or fire employees, ask for supplies and equipment and organize teams depending on the nature of the tasks. Companies normally hire managers with professional background and experience or train their current employees to become managers. Broadly speaking, managers within an organizational structure can be classified as operational, tactical and strategic, depending on the nature of their responsibilities.

Operational managers are in charge of day-to-day activities such as a production-line supervisor; on the other hand, tactical managers deal with whole departments such as a marketing manager or a plant manager; and finally, strategic managers are those with the responsibility of guiding the organization to achieve expected results, for example a Chief Executive Officer.

Types of Managers:

General managers are responsible for the overall performance of an organization or one of its major self-contained subunits or divisions.

Functional managers lead a particular function or a subunit within a function. They are responsible for a task, activity, or operation such as accounting, marketing, sales, R&D, production, information technology, or logistics. Frontline managers manage employees who are themselves not managers. They are found at the lowest level of the management hierarchy.

Top-Level Managers

This is the highest level of the managerial hierarchy and also known as the brain of the management. This level is the final source of authority. Generally, top-level management is constituted with a management committee elected directly from shareholders as members of the board of directors. Besides, this level also involves chief executives like the chairman, president, managing director or general manager.

Top-level managers are responsible for the performance of the entire organization through middle managers. They coordinate among different departments and units of an organization. They perform complex and varied nature of jobs. They work long hours and spend much of their time in meetings and decision making.

Middle-Level Managers

The middle-level manager is the largest group of managers in most organizations. This level of managers consists of departmental heads like personnel manager, production manager, marketing manager, finance manager, procurement manager, and similar other positions.

In some big organizations; this level of management may have two layers i.e. senior and junior middle-level managers. Heads of the department come under the senior level whereas branch heads are under the junior level manager. The top-level manager delegates a major part of his/her authority and responsibility to this level.

This level manager plays the role of mediator between the top and first-line management. The managers of this level have to report about the accomplishment of work to the top level and give instructions to the lower level

Lower-Level Managers

This level is known as the first-line or operating level of managers. It is directly involved in the actual operation of production, marketing, financing, accounting, etc. This level consists of supervisors, foremen, sales officers, accounts officers, superintendents, and other operational heads. They are responsible for the implementation of plans and strategies developed by the middle-level manager. They have a direct relation with the employees who are involved in an operation.

Thus, this level is directly responsible for the completion of works and planned objectives.

On the Basis of Nature or Area of Managerial Job

Job Managers may also be classified on the basis of the scope of activities they manage. Managers work in various areas regardless of their level In an organization. On the basis of function, managers may be classified into three groups:

• Generalist Manager
• Functional Manager
• Staff Manager

Generalist Manager

Managers who perform different types of jobs in an organization as per the requirement are called generalist managers. They don’t have specialization in any area. But they have to look after the overall activities of the organization apart from any particular area of operation.

Generally, the generalist manager desire to manage a complex or difficult department or unit. They lack specialization as they can be transferred to or from one organization to another organization. They have over workload, as they have to perform the diverse nature of jobs.

Chief executive officers, presidents, vice presidents, general managers or deputy general managers fall under this category.

Functional Manager

Managers who specialize in specific areas are functional managers. Their authorities, duties, and responsibilities are already described in the job description. The managers performing functions relating to production, finance, public relation, research and development, accounting, etc. are managers of this category.

In practice, all department heads of a business firm are functional managers. In the normal course of operation, they are accountable for the performance of their department or unit.

Staff Manager

Staff Managers are professionals and experts in a specific area of business. They are given no specific formal position at a management level. However, they play the role of advisors between generalist and functional managers. They provide guidance and suggestions to both the above managers on the basis of requirement.

Legal advisors, external auditors, management consultants are examples of such managers.