Describe the levels of management and the skills needed by managers at each level. This is from my management course syllabus...I'm doing a diploma...

In any common managerial functions performed by managers in any organization can be classified in four main management functions. Managers in all organizations and at all levels of management perform all these management function. All managers need skills to perform all these functions, although, not necessarily in the same proportions.

The four management functions are:

1.       Planning

2.      Organizing

3.      Leading

4.      Controlling

Planning covers the process of objectives and deciding on actions to be taken to achieve these objectives. Organizing is the process of designing and developing structure of relationships between members of the team or group assigned to carry out the planned tasks, and filling and keeping filled the positions in the organization. Leading refers to motivating, directing and guiding people in the organization It involves ensuring that the people in the organization are willing and capable of performing the required tasks. Controlling involves ascertaining the actual results and situation of the organization and taking corrective action when significant deviations from expectations occur.

These management functions are common to all managers at different levels in organizational hierarchy. However, the importance and of each oh these function and the effort managers need to put in, is influenced significantly by the hierarchical level of managers. Accordingly, the skill requirements of managers also change with their level in management hierarchy.

For examining the relationship between hierarchical level of managers and the skill required by them we can group managers in any organization in three broad groups..

1.      Top-management: This refers to the top one or two hierarchical levels in the organization structure. Managers at these levels have responsibilities for the total organizational performance covering multiple business activities.

2.      Middle-management: These are the managers between the top- and first-level management. They generally do not have the responsibility for more than one type of business activity, and even within that may be responsible for only a segment of the total work in the organization.

3.      First-level-management: They are at the lowest one or two levels of management hierarchy. They are the people responsible for directly supervising the work of operational staff, and form a link between them and the management.

As we move down the organizational hierarchy the importance of planning and controlling functions tends to decrease, and on leading function tends to increase, as we move down the organizational hierarchy. There is a drop in amount of organizing effort requirement also with decreasing level of organization hierarchy, but much less pronounced drop in comparison to that for planning and leading. In view of this we can conclude that importance for planning and controlling skill required in managers tends to reduce with reducing level in management hierarchy. However, importance for leading skills increases with educing level of management hierarchy. Thus the first line managers, dealing directly with the operating personnel need very high leading skills to motivate, supervise and guide their subordinates. The importance of organizing skill does not change very much with hierarchical level, however, there is small drop in importance of organizing skill as we go down the organizational hierarchy.