MANAGEMENT MANTRA – THE MANAGER
The word “MANAGER” has no exact equivalent in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian or in Hindi, yet the words used in these languages are as imprecise and elusive as `manager’ is in English. Most people when asked what they mean by manager will reply – “a boss”. But when the signboard in front of an airport restaurant reads “Mr. A B Singh – Manager” everybody knows that this means that Mr. Singh is not the boss or the owner of the restaurant, but a hired hand with a minimum of authority and a salary just above that of the waiters employed there. nemone
Early in the history of management, a manager was defined as “someone who is responsible for the work of other people”. This served a useful purpose at that time. It distinguished the manager’s function from that of the “owner”. This traditional definition has become increasingly inappropriate and a bar to effective management, organisation and true performance. Peter Drucker improved upon this when he defined a manager as “someone who is responsible for the performance of all the people on whom his own performance depends”. This facilitated accountability in the reverse direction as well.
The most rapidly growing group in any modern organisation are people who are management, in the sense of being responsible for contribution to and results of the enterprise. However, they are clearly not managers in that they are not, as a rule, the bosses and responsible for the work of other people. A striking example is that of the so called knowledge workers in the software industry and yet their impact on the company’s wealth creation is phenomenal. What do managers do ? Do they produce goods and services ? Do they create a surplus ? Are they responsible to give a profit or watching the bottomline ? Are they leaders, mentors or the conscience keepers of the enterprise ? Do they add value to the purpose and mission of the organisation ? Do they decide issues, solve problems and satisfy or delight the various stakeholders ?
According to Matsushita, the Japanese Industrialist, the core of management is the art of mobilizing and pulling together the intellectual resources of all employees in the service of the Firm. Only by drawing on the combined brain power of all ils employees can a firm face upto the turbulence and constraints of today’s environment.
TAILPIECE
Managers inevitably allocate advantages and disadvantages no matter what they do – or fail to do.
Brig (Retd) K Hari Kumar ,July 1997