The Role of Managers Within the Functional Areas

The Role of Managers within the Functional Areas

Emerson Sumiyoshi

MGT/521

December 9, 2013

Gregory Luce

Abstract

Changes happen all the time, and within organizations such changes occur increasingly rapid. The dynamic involved in developing new technologies, new products and services, seeking to meet the ever changing needs of consumers, and even the survival of the company against the competition, is entirely linked to the manager's role, as this professional will be in charge of the appropriate progress of the processes and achieve the desired goals. This paper is concerned with the role of a manager within the functional areas of business and the ability to succeed as leaders.

The Role of Managers within the Functional Areas

The role of a manager within the organizations it’s extremely important and has been the reason for studies since early in the twentieth century, as proposed by one of the pioneers of management theory, Henri Fayol. Being ahead of a team or an organization requires from managers a great exercise of management principles, such as planning, organizing, leading and controlling but also they must possess great understanding of how the overall organization is governed, which means, having a good grasp of all the functional areas of business. Such functional areas or departments are responsible to carry out all important business activities efficiently and are segmented in different sections to be more manageable and also accountable in terms of performance.

The most common functional areas within an organization and their respective role as managers in those areas are:

• Law – establish guidelines related to the legal aspect of business. Business law supports managers to ensure the company complies with rules and regulations such as taxation, competition (anti-trust), intellectual property, employment, environment, etc. Managers of the legal department should be able to act as business partner by applying combined...