Managerial Skills And Roles

INTRODUCTION

Before discussing about the various roles and skills required by modern day managers, lets discuss about what managers and what are the various types of management roles and skills.

Who are “managers”?

Managers are people who are responsible of getting organizational work completed not only timely but also effectively and efficiently through its staff. They achieve the goals and objectives laid down by the firm by four basic management functions which are planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

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What is meant by “management”?

Management is the coordination and administration of tasks to achieve a goal. Such administration activities include setting the organization’s strategy and coordinating the efforts of staff to accomplish these objectives through application of available resources.

Now that we have determined what management is and who are managers, we can now thoroughly discuss about what is meant by management roles and skills.

What are “management skills”?

Management skills as the name suggests means the set of skills required by a manager to perform various managerial tasks. It can be defined as a certain set of abilities that a modern day manager should be equipped with to fulfill specific organizational tasks. Robert Lee Katz popularized the concept of “management skills” in his article in Harvard Business Review. He classified the management skills into three categories:

1. Conceptual skills
2. Human skills
3. Technical skills

What are “management roles?”

The role of a modern day manager is to establish an environment in which people can establish and accomplish group goals consuming the least amount of time, money and resources. They are the specific behaviors associated with the task of management. Managers adopt these roles to accomplish the basic functions of management. The various managerial roles classified are:

1. Interpersonal roles
2. Informational roles
3. Decision roles

CORE CONTENT

In order to determine the managerial skills and roles required for a modern day manager, managers from 5 industries were interviewed. The 5 industries shortlisted for the primary research were:

• Hospitality
• Entertainment
• Education
• Telecommunication
• Retail

1. HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Before getting to the managerial skills and roles required for the hospitality industry, let us figure out what hospitality industry is. Hospitality industry deals with a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging services, food and beverage services, event management, travel tourism and others. Hence it is a widespread industry and it is evidently not an easy job to be a manager in the hospitality industry. Hence to determine the managerial skills and roles required for the hospitality industry I have taken as Mr Puneet Chaudhary, The general manager at the Radisson hotel group. (Mr Puneet Chaudhary)

Mr Puneet Chaudhary had a lot to say about the hospitality industry and its management owing to the years of experience he possesses. There were some valuable insights and industry specific information provided by him in order to excel in the industry as a manager.

The skills required as a modern day manager in the hospitality industry are:

• Good interpersonal skills are the very first set of skills which a manager is expected to be equipped with. These skills are required to lead, to communicate, to motivate, to develop team spirit and most of all to work with people.
• Industry awareness is a very important skill. Industry awareness means to be constantly aware about the rapid change in trends, consumer behavior, market conditions and government policies. Owing to the dynamism of the hospitality industry this skill is of utmost necessity.
• Managers of this industry must have capacity to handle immense pressure under uncertain conditions. They must be prepared for any type of contingency owing to the unpredictable industry,
• There must a sense of team spirit. With the absence of team spirit one cannot be a team player and get the work done from a particular department.

The roles to be performed by the managers are:

• The members of this industry have to be very efficient in budget management. Keeping the budget in mind and providing with the best possible output is of the very essence.
• As mentioned hospitality industry is a service oriented industry and makes profit by the customer service provided. Best possible consumer service has to be provided in order to maintain goodwill in the market and to deal with the cut-throat competition.
• A manager in this industry has to keep tabs of the various departments under him and to ensure best possible coordination amongst them. A well coordinated group of departments get the work done more efficiently and saves a lot of man hours.
• Most parts of hospitality industry are dependent on its wide range of vendors. Good relations has to be maintained with the vendors along with regular follow ups and timely payments in order to ensure regular and long term relations.

2. ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

Entertainment and media industry in India consists of many different segments under its folds such as Television, Print media, films etc. It also includes smaller segments such as radio, animation, gaming etc. Hence to determine the managerial skills and roles required for the entertainment industry I have taken Ms. Nitisha Seth, manager at Netflix. (Nitisha Seth)

The skills required for the entertainment industry are:

• Technical skills are the skills required to deal with the day to day operations and activities.
• In this industry networking skills are extremely necessary. It is of utmost importance to network with various people ranging from artists to service providers in order to complete the work in hand and bring out the best possible output.
• Good interpersonal skills are the very first set of skills which a manager is expected to be equipped with. These skills are required to lead, to communicate, to motivate, to develop team spirit and most of all to work with people.
• As the name of industry suggests there must be creativity amongst the managers to give the industry the hundred percent involvement in its proceedings demanded by it.

The roles to be performed are:

• The manager must be constantly updated with the constantly changing trends of the entertainment industry. This industry is extremely dynamic and requires constant market research.
• The industry demands the problems at hand to be dealt not only effectively but also within a stipulated time.
• The manager must possess impressive knowledge about online marketing and sales and must be able to pitch the idea to its clients or convince the concerned authorities about the same.

3. EDUCATION INDUSTRY

The education industry comprises of establishments whose primary objective is to provide education. These establishments can be public, non-public, profit or non-profit institutions. To determine the various managerial skills and roles required of the education industry I have interviewed Mr. Ritobroto Chakravorty, manager at BYJU’s (Ritobroto Chakravorty)

The skills required for education industry are:

• Motivational skills are extremely important in consideration of the education industry. It is of utmost importance to keep the staff personnel as well as the students motivated and satisfied.
• A manager must have analytical skills. Analytical skills refers to the ability to eamine and understand a particular problem and enables them to take necessary decisions.
• Supervisory skills are also an important set of skills required for this industry since the manager has to supervise not only the staff personnel but also the functioning of various departments along with the coordination of various branches of the institution.

The roles to be performed are:

• They need to manage all the staff personnel effectively.
• It is the role of an education manager to design an unconventional curriculum ensuring an overall development of the students enrolling for the same.
• It is the duty of the manager to take timely follow ups from both its staff as well as the students. This develops a sense of belonging amongst the staff since they feel their presence being felt and their decision and opinion taken into consideration.
• The manager should work on development of flexible courses and curriculum to suit the varying interests and aptitude of the students.

4. TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY

The telecommunication industries within the sector of information and communication technology is made up of all telecom industries and internet services. It plays crucial role in evolution of mobile communication and information technology. In order to determine the various roles and skills required for the telecom industry I have interviewed Mr. Abhinav Sharma, manager at JIO. (Mr. Abhinav Sharma)

The skills required to be a manager in telecom industry are:

• Most importantly the manager must possess technological skills. He must have a hang of technology and possess a decent and updated information and knowledge about the same.
• Design skills are of utmost importance in this industry. They refer to the problem solving skills. A manager should not just identify a problem, but design the best solution to solve the problem.
• The managers, especially, at higher levels need to have the ability to frame plans and policies. For this efficient administrative skills are required. They need to be able coordinate the functioning and get the work done.

The roles to be performed by the managers are:

• Their role is to develop and maintain policies and procedures for installing and maintaining telecom equipment.
• A manager also need to set up modern hardware and install updated software.
• He must research on the latest advances made by telecom technology.

5. RETAIL INDUSTRY

Retail industry is the industry dealing with the process of selling consumer goods or service to customer through multiple channels of distribution to earn a profit. To determine the skills and roles required for this industry I interviewed Mr. Jawed Sheikh, manager at Aditya birla fashion and retail (PANTALOONS) (Mr. Javed Sheikh)

The skills required for the retail industry are:

• As mentioned retail industry is a service oriented industry and makes profit by the customer service provided. Best possible consumer service has to be provided in order to maintain goodwill in the market and to deal with the cut-throat competition.
• This specific industry demands extreme patience to deal with the task at hand.
• It takes extreme sensitivity and understanding on the side of the manager to put himself in the shoes of his staff and perform with extreme empathy and rationality.
• As a manager in the retail industry he must possess high persuasive and negotiation skills.

The roles to be performed are:

• He must timely supervise the retail outlets and the staff personnel.
• He must efficiently manage the budget.
• He must at all times monitor stock levels and make sure there is no over stocking of goods or goods being lesser than those being demanded.
• He must know top notch inventory management.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research methodology I have used to gather information for my assignment is Interview method of research. It is a qualitative research technique which involves asking open ended questions to converse with the respondent and collect data about a subject. I asked the managers industry specific questions in order to determine the roles and skills of a modern day manager. Owing to the years of experience the managers had to lots to offer and invaluable insights over the current market conditions. Questions covering the change in industry and consumer patterns in the past decade and the future of the industry were covered. A list of open ended questions resulted in the best possible output of a near perfect list of all the skills and roles which a person should possess who is planning his managerial career in the specific industry.

CONCLUSION

After this assignment I have concluded that being a manager is not an easy task. It takes wide range of skills and abilities to be a modern day manager. A job of a manager is not only to look after day to day proceedings of the firm but also to ensure coordination amongst the various departments of the firm. It is his role to maintain the morale of the employees to keep them motivated and happy to ensure highest possible efficiency and reduce employee turnover. There are wide ranges of industries in the market and all demands different skills to tackle its specific challenges. A manager has to adapt itself to the rapidly changing industry. There are wide range of challenges in industries like change in market conditions, change in current market trends, changes in consumer taste. Hence a manager has to constantly keep himself updated about the dynamism of his industry.