Text 5. The role of a manager in company’s activity

A role is one of several behaviours a manager displays as he/she functions in the organization.

There are ten kinds of roles managers play in their organizations:

Interpersonal roles: executive; leader; connective.

Information roles: receiver; disseminator; representative.

Decision making roles: entrepreneur; remover; negotiator.

Sometimes a manager has to “wear different hats” in interaction with various members of the organization. Below some of the role will be named:

1.Figurehead role.   As a head of a unit, the manager must perform certain ceremonial duties. He may be requires to entertain visitors, attend a subordinate’s wedding or jubilee celebrations, or participate in a group luncheon.

2. Leadership role. Manager plays this role by working to improve employees’ performance, reducing conflicts, providing feedback on performance, and encouraging growth.

3. Liaison role. Managers interact with others besides superiors and subordinates; they work with peer level managers in other departments, staff specialists, other department employees and outside contacts.

4. Monitor role. The manager is constantly monitoring the environment to determine what is going on. He collects information both directly, by asking questions, and indirectly, through unsolicited information.

5. Spokesperson or Representative Role. The manager speaks for his/her work unit to people outside the work unit. One part of this role is to keep superiors well informed and a second aspect is to communicate outside the organization.

6. Entrepreneur Role.  In this role the manager initiates activities that will allow and encourage the work unit to use the ideas or methods most advantageously.

7. Disturbance Handler Role.  If some parts of the work environment, such as schedules, equipment, contracts, etc. get out of control, the manager must handle these crises as they develop.

8. Resource Allocator role.  The manager is responsible for determining who in the work unit gets the resources, and how much each person gets. These resources include money, facilities, equipment, and access to the manager’s time.

9. Negotiator Role.  Managers are required to spend a good portion of their time in this role. Negotiating may be required on contracts with suppliers or on reallocating resources inside the organization, and so on.

Text 6. Delegating Authority

The hallmark of good supervision is effective delegation. Delegation is when supervisors give responsibility and authority to subordinates to complete a task, and let the subordinates to figure out how the task can be accomplished.. Effective delegation develops people who are ultimately more fulfilled and productive. Managers become more fulfilled and productive themselves as they learn to count on their staffs and are freed up to attend to more strategic issues.

Delegation is often very difficult for new supervisors, particularly if they have had to scramble to start  the organization or start a major new product or service themselves. Many managers want to remain comfortable, making the same decisions they have always made. They don’t want to risk losing any of their power and stature (ironically, they do lose these if they don’t learn to delegate effectively). Often, they don’t want to risk giving authority to subordinates in case they fail and impair the organization.

However, there are basic approaches to delegation that, with practice, become the backbone of effective supervision and development.

Below the following general steps are listed to accomplish delegation:

1. Delegate the whole task to one person. This gives the person the responsibility and increases their motivation.

2. Select the right person. Assess the skills and capabilities of subordinates and assign the task to the most appropriate one.

3. Clearly specify your preferred results. Give information on what, when, who and where. You might leave the “how” to them. Write this information down.

4. Delegate responsibility and authority - assign the task, not the method to accomplish it. Let the subordinate complete the task in the manner they chose, as long as the results are what the supervisor specifies. Let the employee have strong input as to the completion date of the project.. Note that you may not even know how to complete the task yourself- this is often the case with higher levels of management.

5. As an employee completes the task and renders an account to you summarize, their impression of the project and the results you prefer.

6. Get ongoing non-instructive feedback about progress on the project.

This is a good reason to continue to get weekly, written status reports from     all direct reports. These reports should cover what they did last week, plan to do next week and analyze potential issues. Regular employee meeting provides this ongoing feed back as well.

7. Maintain open lines communication.  Don’t hover over the subordinate, but sense what they are doing and support their checking in with you along the way.

8. If you’re not satisfied with the progress, don’t take the project back. Continue to work with the employee and ensure they perceive the project as their responsibility.

9. Evaluate and reward performance. Evaluate results more than method. Address insufficient performance and reward successes.