The Role of a Modern Industrial Manager

The Role of a Modern Industrial Manager

The role of a manager is a collaborative exercise that entails a lot of activities ranging from directing, controlling, staffing and coordinating employees to managing industrial processes. Simply put, a manager is a person who is charged with the responsibility of supervising the general operations of an organization. In a general perspective, management entails leadership activities conducted by chief executive, coaches, foremen, presidents and even bishops. According to Clegg, Kornberger & Pitsis, (2011) the manager plays the role of interconnecting all the organizational resources while ensuring that the interpersonal relationship between the organization, the government and the neighboring communities is sustained at all times. By virtue of the job description and the position held by a manager in an organization, he or she has access to more information regarding operations and this gives the manager an opportunity to access a wide pool of information. This information includes private and confidential data relating to a company and that could help in formation of effective strategies that could help improve not only profitability but also the general performance of a business (Gomez-Mejia, David & Robert 2008).

The role of management accentuates critical reasoning and analysis necessary when defining the scope of management in relation to human resource and industrial processes. As a result it is prudent to ascertain that a good manager has the inert ability of integrating both human resource and industrial functions in such a way that the employees will gain confidence in his or her management style (Kleiman 2010). As a result such a manager will gain continuous support from the employees unlike managers who fail to demonstrate their ability to manage and utilize the potential exhibited by the workers. Based on this premise, management plays a vital role in attainment of the organizational goals and increasing the value chain which defines the channel which distributes industrial goods and services to the final customers. According to Guillen, (1994) management can be conducted in various ways among them being strategic management activities involving cost cutting, price leadership or resource planning and management or management by luck.

Henry Mintzberg who is a renowned proponent for management theories and literature supports the fact that managers have different roles (Cottrell 2010). Based on the management theory adopted by a certain manager, a manager might increase his roles or reduce them. For instance the application of theory x which stipulates that all employees are self-motivated, responsible and that they can manage industrial processes by themselves limits the work of the manager because the employees are bound to be responsible for their individual actions. On the other hand Mintzberg supports that managers who apply theory y are bound to have more organizational roles because the theory states that employees need to be monitored in order to deliver. This means that the role of a modern manager in charge of industrial processes is limited to the scope defined by the two theories postulated by Henry Mintzberg (Daft & Marcic, 2010).

In accordance to this realization, there are three basic roles of management. The first one is the interpersonal role which stipulates the need for managers to coordinate and foster the interaction among employees. The second role is informational role whereby the manager is required to ensure that employees are properly informed in a way that will eliminate possibility of grapevines and other unofficial channels of communication that might jeopardize the trust of the employees in the managers (Lutans 2011). This role demands that the managers should define suitable protocols for sharing, handling and analyzing the impact of information before presenting it to the employees. The third role of industrial managers is decisional role which requires experience and critical thinking that will enable the manager to predict the impact of the decisions made on the employees and other industrial activities. In order to achieve these roles, a manager requires both skills and knowledge on the managerial functions. The basic managerial skills mandatory to managers include conceptual, technical, diagnostic, political and interpersonal while on the same note the manager needs to define his managerial functions among them being planning, organizing, staffing, directing, monitoring, motivating and communicating. Striking a proper balance between these functions and skills would be essential in directing the manager towards accomplishing his or her management roles.

In order for managers to effectually carry out the role of managing interpersonal relationships between the various organizational environments, the manager needs to draw knowledge from experience and theoretical studies attained from attending managerial seminars and classes. This is because modern management is interactive unlike traditional systems of management where the manager was the overall decision maker. For a modern manager to be successful, he or she must learn to involve the employees, investors, consultants and other business partners (James 2007). The contribution from all these stakeholders is vital in creating a wide pool of informational resources required by the manager in order to make favorable decisions that will stir organizational growth.  Apparently modern managers can apply contingency theories of management in order to improve the employee’s behavior and in return enhance the management of industrial resources. Contingency theory deals with the shaping or employee behavior thus it is also referred to as a behavioral theory and it is built on the premise that management is a unique venture thus there is no best way to organize relationships, employees and industrial operations in an organization (Pfeffer 1997).

Winter, (2003) adds that the theory further appreciates that there is no single defined management model that guarantees 100% success thus the creativity of the manager matters a lot. The theory emphasizes that optimization of operations is contingent or dependent on both internal and external factors among them being interpersonal relationships which add up to fostering customer and employee loyalty as well as a positive publicity. Generally it is assumed that organizational structures and management styles selected by an industrial manager can influenced the organizational environment making it either suitable or unsuitable in promoting good cohabitation among the employees and other stakeholders. The contingency theory leads to the discovery of the alternative theory of organization and management which is a proposed approach to scientific design of organizational management that encourages managers to improve interpersonal relationships among stakeholders as a way of boosting industrial productivity (Silver, Pyke & Peterson 1998). The alternative theory is strict in the observance of organizational rules and regulations which emphasizes on professional conduct among employees especially when relating to customers, specialization of labor, employee motivation and training, and finally it emphasizes on the need integration of the three roles of management into the organizational policies as a way of complementing organizational structure.

Based on the theories stated by Simchi-Levi & Kaminsky, (2003) there emerges the need for a definite code of conduct which should be institutionalized by the manager as a way of defining channels of communication which goes a great deal into fostering interpersonal relationships among the stakeholders. Specifically there is need to incorporate the alternative theory into shaping the relationship between investors because they are represent the shareholders who allocate capital resources that facilitate the attainment of human resources and raw material for industrial processes. The simplest way of maintaining good interpersonal relations with the investors and business partners is giving them value which is implied through increased profitability indices. The best way to ensure interpersonal relations with the customers for a service company is to deal with their concerns while for companies producing goods, the customers’ only need to get value for their money. Creating an interpersonal relationship can be as easy as redefining the value chain in such a way that the customers concerns are served with due care. The manager can also ensure that it researches and invent new products so as to ensure that customers remain loyal to the organization. Such activities will win them and their loyalty. Likewise consumer organizations, labor unions and government agencies will be in a good relationship with the firm thus easing the work of the manager especially when he or she needs to mobilize employees when implementing policy change.

Modern managers need to play the informative role. For any manager to be successful, he or she needs to access in informational resources. Given the fact that the position held by the managers gives them access to private and confidential information that is necessary for decision making and furthermore it is the adequacy of informational resources possessed by a manager that will determining the extend of organizational success. The accuracy of information regarding the industry and real time information relating to activities conducted by the competitors as well as possessing information on the latest technological advancement contribute into defining the success of a manager (Hopp & Spearman, 2000). On the same note the availability of information will be necessary for a manager to effectively administer the other basic functions. The extent to which a manager might require information is varied to the level of management whereby there are four basic levels of management. The first and top most level is the top managers, middle level, first level and second level managers (Zyzik 2008).

As for the top level manager, access to industrial and organizational information will help them keep the employees and the other managers informed. Modern organizations have gone an extra mile of creating a department in charge of conducting market research on the progress of business activities in the organization. Courtesy of these departments, the managers at the other three levels are informed of the new trends and activities. Access to information has facilitated directing activities which is among the basic functions of the modern management practices. The need for effective management of organizational resources has made managers to employ specialized workers and where possible some services can be outsourced or sub-contracted to specialized agents who then enjoy advantages accrued from large scale production of goods and services (Slack 2008). Availability of information also helps the managers evaluate employees and identify initiatives aimed at motivating and upraising the employees. In the same process, the employees are rewarded through promotions which then add value to the whole organization.

The third role is decisional whereby the manager has to creatively incorporate the other two roles of managing interpersonal skills and informational role. The role of decision making is tied to the other roles directly and indirectly. As transformational leaders, industrial managers need to define their performances with the magnitude of successes accrued from their decision making practices. The need for decision making is fostered by the realization that managers need to know when to make decisions regarding employee motivation because researchers have shown concern that the level of employee motivation is directly proportional to the level of organizational success (Chopra &  Meindl 2006). In spite of the fact that industrial success if a composition of many factors such as the quality of decisions, stakeholders, government policies and the employees personal contribution, more productivity could be realized from an upraised and motivated workers.

To be a progressive manager, therefore, it is essential to for all the modern managers to be equipped with skills on formulation of business strategies. For a strategy to be viable, a manager should consider such factors as short and long term goals of the organization, capabilities, availability of machinery, labor and resources because  these factors determine the distinctive competence of a firm. By so doing, a business has to position itself on a scale weighted against attractiveness of the industry and other dynamics of competition such as the environment, rivals and potential buyers. Decisions made by a manager should be aimed at fulfilling customers’ needs as well as being on the lookout for competitors. There are two main classes of strategies; emergent and deliberate strategies where the former is an unplanned strategy that emerges due to urgent need while the latter is a list of intentional strategies that incorporates a firm’s missions and vision statements. A contradiction often emerges when synchronizing the two strategies thus a strategic manager needs to apply the three roles in varied magnitudes to facilitate decision making in addition to application of theoretic works relating to rational policy perspective analysis (McGregor & Cutcher-Gershenfeld 2006). Generally industrial managers need to create a synchronization of human resource and capital resources as the most suitable way of maximizing profits while simultaneously minimizing resource use.

 

 

List of References

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Clegg, S, Kornberger, M & Pitsis, T 2011, Managing & Organizations: An Introduction to Theory & Practice. Sage Publications, London

Cottrell, S 2010, Skills for success: The personal Development Planning Handbook, 2 Ed., Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Daft, R & Marcic, D 2010, Understanding Management. Cengage Learning. Liverpool.

Gomez-Mejia, L, David, B & Robert, L 2008, Management: People, Performance, Change. (3^rd Ed). McGraw-Hill, United Kingdom.

Guillen, M 1994, Models of management: Work, Authority and Organization in a comparative perspective. University of Chicago Press, U.K

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Pfeffer, J 1997, New directions for organizational theory. Oxford University Press: United Kingdom.

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Simchi-Levi, D  & Kaminsky, P 2003, Designing and Managing the supply chain. Mc-Graw-Hill: Sydney Jones Library.

Slack, N 2008, Operations Management, Financial Times, Prentice Hall: Harold Cohen Library.

Winter, S 2003, Understanding dynamic capabilities, Strategic Management Journal.

Zollo, M & Winter, S 2002, Deliberate learning and the evolution of dynamic capabilities, Organization Science. U.K

Zyzik, M 2008, Business Process Model: An Objective Description. Proceedings of the 12th World Multi-Conference on Systemic, Cybernetics and Informatic, The International Institute of Informatics and Cybernetics, Manchester City.

Kleiman, L 2010, Management and executive development. Reference for Business: Encyclopedia of Business.

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