The job of managers has been used to be giving orders, ensuring that orders are followed and to hold people accountable if orders are not complied which is ubiquitous everywhere around the world. However, in today’s increasingly complex business world, this is no longer the case. In fact, managers are increasingly becoming coaches, colleagues, and cheerleaders for the employees. They allow their employees to make mistakes or to disagree with them (Nelson, 2005).
Generally, the jobs of managers are typically more or less similar regardless of their positions in the organisations or whether the organisations these managers work in are large or small (Robbins et al., 2006). Typically, in a small organisation of less than twenty employees, there is only one level of management which is usually the founder or the owner of the organisation (William, 2004). In a larger organisation however, they could be three levels of management namely; the first-line, middle and top management.
Despite the many levels of management, the functions these managers perform tend to be similar in each of the levels. They are planning, organising, leading and controlling. Nevertheless, the only real difference is that managers perform more planning and less supervising as they move up the organisation (Robbins et al., 2006). These four commonalities of managerial functions are applicable to all levels of management. These commonalities are also sometimes known as generalisations. Even the distinctions of management between profit and non-profit organisation have more similarities than differences (Robbins et al., 2006).
Planning includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and setting plans to achieve the ...