Download Chapter 1: Managers and Management

Chapter 1: Managers and Management
Section 1.3 – What Skills and Competencies Do Successful Managers
Possess?
Key Terms
 Conceptual skills
 Interpersonal skills
 Technical skills
 Political skills
 Management competencies
Summary
Managers need certain skills to perform the varied duties and activities associated with
being a manager. Robert L. Katz and others have found through his research that
managers need four essential management skills. Management skills identify those
abilities or behaviors that are crucial to success in a managerial position. Those skills can
be viewed on two levels;
1. General skills
2. Specific skills
There are four general skills areas,
a. Conceptual skills include the ability to think and to conceptualize about abstract and
complex situations, to see the organization as a whole, and to understand the relationships
among the various subunits, and to visualize how the organization fits into its broader
environment.
b. Interpersonal skills include the ability to work well with other people both individually
and in a group.
c. Technical skills are skills that include knowledge of and proficiency in a certain
specialized field.
d. Political skills are skills that relate to the ability to enhance one’s position, build a
power base, and establish the right connections.
Specific skills, research have identified six sets of behaviors that explain roughly 50
percent of a manager’s effectiveness.
1. Controlling the organization’s environment and its resources
2. Organizing and coordinating
3. Handling information
4. Providing for growth and development
5. Motivating employees and handling conflicts
6. Strategic problem solving
A new approach to defining the manager’s job focuses on management competencies.
These are defined as a cluster of knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to effective
managerial performance. One of the most comprehensive competency studies has come
out of the United Kingdom. It’s called the management charter initiative (MCI). Based on
an analysis of management activities and focusing on what effective managers should be
able to do rather than on what they know.
Why study management? There are several reasons why we may want to study this topic.
First, we all have a stake in improving the way organizations are managed. Second, is
that once you graduate from college and begin your career, you will either manage or be
managed.
Management as a field does not exist in isolation. It embodies the work and practices of
individuals from a wide range of disciplines. Let us briefly look at the disciplines in
popular humanities and social science course that directly affect management practices.
a. Anthropology, the study of societies
b. Economics, concerned with the allocation and distribution of scarce resources
c. Philosophy, inquire into the nature of things, particularly values and ethics
d. Political Science, the study of the behavior of individuals and groups within a
political environment
e. Psychology, the science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the
behavior of humans and other animals
What you learn in humanities and social science course can assist you in becoming better
prepared to mange in today’s dynamic marketplace.
Section Outline
I.
Katz’s Four General Managerial Skills
A. Conceptual
B. Interpersonal
C. Technical
D. Political
II.
Specific Skills
A. Controlling
B. Organizing and coordinating
C. Handling of information
D. Providing for growth and development
E. Motivating employees and handling of conflicts
F. Strategic problem solving
III.
Management Competencies
IV.
Why Study Management
V.
How Does Management Relate to Other Disciplines?