The three branches of management are finance, operations, and administration. These three are often interrelated in that there is often overlap in their areas of responsibility. Finance is concerned with the flow of resources in and out of a company. Operations includes how the company’s activities affect its finances; and administration deals with how these activities affect the society in which they exist.
The first phase in every organization is that of the executive manager. This manager is usually the owner or founder of the organization and is responsible for day to day decisions and the allocation of available resources. While the owner/founder has control over most aspects of the organization, the manager also makes decisions. While some managers enjoy greater autonomy than others, all managers are aware of the need to communicate with the staff as well as with customers.
There are several types of managers. Managers can be an owner, an employee, or both. Within any type of organization, however, there will always be some type of specialized manager. In small companies, the manager may be the president or a board of directors. In large organizations, this position is often held by a vice president or a general manager. In any case, the person in this organizational role is required to be knowledgeable about the products and services of the company as well as how the business is run so that he or she can make sound managerial decisions.
Learning to manage, as with any skill, takes time and requires that you develop your interpersonal skills as well as your technical or managerial skills. Those who are successful at both ends of the management spectrum develop the ability to communicate well with a variety of people, to be skillful negotiators, and to be good team players. The ability to communicate effectively both inside and outside the organization as well as with other individuals outside the organization is necessary if you are to be taken seriously as a manager. Top-level managers must also be skilled at managing people in a positive manner, delegating tasks, exercising self-control, building morale and motivation in the workplace, leading projects and teams, and understanding and following directions.
Most managers begin their careers by learning the basics of decision-making. They gain this knowledge through formal education or on the job experience. After gaining such skills, they can apply the knowledge by creating a process or procedure for making decisions. These decisions become more difficult over time as decisions become more dependent on the information that they require to make the decision. To make the most effective use of your decision-making skills, you need a solid evidence-based management plan.
You cannot rely merely on what you have learned in the classroom, on the experience that you have had on the job, or on what you have been told by your superiors. To be a successful manager, you need to understand how people learn and how the process of learning occurs. To be a successful manager, you need to be able to measure your success based upon the type of results that you get from your work. In other words, you need a manager who is good at making choices from the information that he or she has. To do this, you need a manager who can provide you with a quotation concerning the cost of implementing the recommended process for managing the business. By using these simple techniques, you can make sure that you select a manager who will fit your organization’s needs, in addition to the needs of each individual manager.