Interview With Manager Essay

Through step to the fore the essay, the carriages will be referred to as Mr X and Mr Y and their comp boths will be referred to as confederation X and Company Y respectively due to confidential reasons. The set-back autobus that was referenceed in order to fulfil this task was Mr X. He kit and caboodle for Company X, which is, a large service sourced organisation at the position of Head of Corporate Credit Administration. His key responsibility at this bank is to provide credit administration support to Corporate, Investment banking and SME business. within Company Xs hierarchy Mr X appears to be a set take aim motorcoach at he is evaluate to storey to the CEO of the company while he also supervises. The second converse that was conducted for this task was with Mr Y. He is a Creative Marketing Director at Company Y which is a marketing consultancy and IT development enterprise rigid in Malaysia. His organisation is also service based however, it is a medium sized ane . As a conduct level manager, Mr Ys task is to direct and oversee the overall projects and ensure that they argon carried bug out as planned and ar successful. Management is the process of coordinating and overseeing the reverse activities of others so that their activities atomic number 18 completed efficiently and effectively (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter, 2012).In the later(prenominal) essay, the commonplaceity of management will be discussed in swooning of Fayols four functions and Katzs three skills and how relevant these theories appear while analysing the culture gathered from the interviews. Henri Fayol proposed that that all managers perform five functions planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter, 2012). During the hunt of the essay, however, the emphasis will remain on the four functions planning, organising, leading and controlling. A skill is the ability either to perform several(prenominal) specifi c behavioural task or the ability to perform some specific cognitive process that is functionally related to some incident task (Peterson, 2004). For the purport of this task Katzs skills will be related to the interviews collected. Namely these atomic number 18 Conceptual, Human and Technical skills. Mr. X is involved in a objurgate heart and soul of planning as he defines the credit policies for the corporate portfolio. Moreover, he has to cascade the defined goals to soulfulness job levels and monitors them closely for accomplishment.In his government activity, heights achievers be often rewarded with awards and cash bonuses which serve as a motivation. Reports are alsocompiled frequently to monitor portfolio behavior and to make sure that customers expectations at various(a) occasions are fulfilled. At the equal time, he is also expected to be able to progress to with various other departments to ensure smooth transactional processing. These tasks of Mr. X relate to the organizing function of Fayol, that is, the providing of e very(prenominal)thing demand in performing a particular task i.e. the remunerate equipment and tools with right people and right amount of capital (Fayol, 1949, as cited in Lamond, 1998). It is not enough to just organize the employees and assign them jobs to perform. But what is to a greater extent meaning(a) is to know that which employee is narrow down in which job (best suited for a particular task) and assign them jobs accordingly (Fayol, 1949, as cited in Lamond, 1998). Mr. Xs interview conveys that he is the most involved in leading, organizing and controlling with a check into amount of planning. All this is in line with the existing theories of what a middle level manager ought to do.However, he has rated controlling as 4 which is kind of high for a middle level manager. supposition says that a inferior manager is only expected to contribute 14% of his tasks to controlling (Stephen Robbins, 2012, p.19). Mr. X rated the need of human skills as 5. These skills are important for managers at all levels (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter, 2012). Hence, it falls in line and con quicks Katzs hypothesis. However, Mr. Xs paygrade of the other two skills and the conjecture related to those seem to be contradicting as he rates technical foul skills and conceptual skills as very much while according to Katz, a middle level manager is expected to possess moderate amounts of each. Thus, in Mr. Xs case, Fayols four functions seem to be evident while Katzs theory appears to not be relevant to his job description and tasks expected out of him. Managers can manage action directly, they can manage people to gain ground then to take necessary actions, and they can manage information to twist the people in turn to take their necessary actions (Mintzberg, 1994).Being a part of a board member, Mr. Y claims that he is involved in a moderate amount of planning (rating of 3), along with, employing the mighty skilled people for a task that is most suitable for them. Mr. Y feels that it is his responsibility, creation a senior, to inspire his subordinates and provide them with the recognition that they require to be able to excel in their respective fields. A weekly account system is used in Company Y to check done the companys progress and its employeesefficiency and effectiveness. Thus, there is rather a lot of leading and controlling, followed by organising and planning is the least of them all. Fayols four functions seem to be in accordance with Mr. Ys job description overleap for the function of controlling which, for a glide by level manager, should be the lowest and in this case it is rated as a 5 (very much). Technical skills are defined as the understanding of, or proficiency in, specific activities that require the use of specialized tools, methods, processes, procedures, techniques, or fellowship (Peterson, 2004). Relating back to Katzs theory, a top level manage r is expected to possess very little of technical skills which contradicts with Mr. Ys rating of 3 for technical skills.The real performance of the manager is the knowledge base of the manager (Carroll & Gillen, 1987). Being a top level manager, it is generally simulated that Mr. Y should have very much of conceptual skills which will enable him to think outside the box as he also claims that it extremely hard to be creative on demand, which is something that his job requires of him. Conceptual skills are generally thought to be needed more(prenominal) as the level of managing gets higher. Along with this, human skills are also vital for a manager at all levels. These skills allow the manager to train, direct, and evaluate subordinates performing specialized tasks (Peterson, 2004). However, Mr. Y has overrated technical skills and underrated conceptual skills in relation to his job. Hence, this contradicts with the outlined theory and Katzs skills come across as irrelevant while analyzing Mr. Ys job.Hence, it can be concluded that Fayols functions are more relevant and evident in Mr. Ys descriptions of his job, as compared to Katzs theory which is mostly contradicting with the information provided by Mr. Y. Although there is some experiential support for the influence of hierarchical level and functional specialty on managerial role requirements, the influence of these factors on required skills, knowledge, and abilities remains more speculative in nature (Pavett & Lau, 1983). If management is truly a generic principle, then what managers do should be essentially the same whether they are top level executives or low-level supervisors, in a business firm or a non-profit arts organization(Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter, 2012). With advancements in technology and ever-changing ideologies, the traditional definition of an organization is changing along with the traditional definitions of a manager. The roles thatmanagers play and the expectations that other s have of them are evolving to reflect new forms of organization (Chapman, 2001).During the onetime(prenominal) ten years or so, the usefulness of the classical functions for classifying managerial work activities has been questioned by a number of writers (Carroll & Gillen, 1987). Similarities can be observed betwixt the two managers with reference to moderate amounts of planning and organising involved. Both managers also recognize human skills as highly important. These similarities could be due to twain the managers being linked with the service sector. On the other hand, there are some evident differences that cannot be ignored. Mr. X requires very much of technical skills and conceptual skills, while Mr. Y needs only a moderate amount of both. No significant difference can be obtained in light of Fayols functions. Mintzberg (1980) proposed that differences in managerial work involve the relative immensity of the roles across hierarchical level and functional specialty (La chman, 1985). Hence, these differences are plausibly due Mr. X being a middle level manager while Mr. Y is a top level one. Also, Mr. X comes from a public sector while Mr. Y relates to a private one.Furthermore, Mr. Y works for a medium sized organization where the need for technical and conceptual skills rises very seldom which is why he rates it so low. On the other hand, Mr. X, working in a large organization rates them higher as the circumstances are different. Managers in both small and large organisations perform essentially the same activities, but how they go about them and the proportion of time they spend on each one are different (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg & Coulter, 2012). Regardless of their level, all managers make decisions and all managers are viewed to be performing the four functions of planning, organising, leading and controlling.However, the time dedicated to any particular function cannot be merely stated as a fact as it tends to vary from manager to manager. A fter analyzing the interviews, it can be concluded that Fayols four functions are found to be relevant in the light of the managers interviewed, but at a varied degree. How relevamt are Katzs skills? Examining the interviews separately, the skills stated do not seem to support the theory, except for the human skills. Although these skills are defined and explained separately, they will be interrelated when enforce to managerial problems. Therefore, looking at the general overview of the functions and skills, they appear to be the universal guideline for managerseven though the level of importance for each individual function or skills may be different.Reference ListCarroll, S., & Gillen, D,. (1987). argon the classical management functions useful in describing managerial work? academy of Management Review, 12(1), 38-51. Chapman, J.A., (2001). The work of managers in new organisational contexts. Journal of management development, 20(1), 55-68. Hales, C,. (1999). why do Managers Do What They Do? Reconciling Evidence and Theory in Accounts of Managerial Work. British Journal of Management, 10, 335350 Lachman, R,. (1985). Public and Private sector differences CEOSs Perceptions of their Role Evironments. Academy of Management Journal, 28(3), 671-680.Lamond, D,. (1998). Back to the future Lessons from the past for a new management era in G. Griffin (Ed.) Management Theory and Practice Moving to a New Era. MacMillan Melbourne. 3-14. Lau, A.W., & Pavett, C.M,. (1983). Managerial Work The cast of Hierarchical Level and Functional Specialty. Academy of Management Journal, 26(1), 170-177 Peterson, T. (2004). Ongoing legacy of R.L. Katz an updated typology of management skills, Management Decision. 42(10), 1297-1308.Robbins, S., Bergman, R., Stagg, I. & Coulter, M. (2012), Management, (6th ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW, Australia Pearson Education.