Managers and Leaders

Introduction to Management Skills and Behaviours

Group Presentation

1. What tasks and processes do you feel a manager carries out?

Peter Drucker, worked as a journalist and studied economics. During his studies he realised, “economists were interested in the behaviour of people.” That led him to create the modern study of management.

Roles he outlined of a manager:

Sets objectives

A manager sets goals for the group, and decides what work needs to be done to meet those goals.

Organises

A manager divides the work into manageable activities and selects people to accomplish the tasks that need to be done.

Motivates and communicates

A manager creates a team out of his people, through decisions on pay, placement, promotion, and through his communications with the team.

Measures

A manager establishes appropriate targets and yardsticks, and analyses, appraises and interprets performance.

Develops people

With the rise of the knowledge worker, this task has taken on an added importance. In a knowledge economy, people are the company’s most important asset, and it is up to the manager to develop that asset.

Henri Fayol – “a French industrialist from the 20th century (1841-1925) who qualified as a mining engineer in 1860, worked for the Commentary Fourchambault combine, which he was then appointed the general manager in 1888, when the financial position of the company was critical, having then bought financial stability to the organisation, he was then credited for having ‘invented’ the definition of management. He wrote that all managers performed five management roles, which today these have been condensed to four, planning, organizing, leading, controlling”. (Buchanan, 2004 p.515).

Fayol’s management views:

Planning

A process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing plans to coordinate activities.

Organising

Making decisions as to what tasks have to be done, who is better equipped to do them and how the tasks are to be...