Developing of Human, Technical, and Conceptual Skills - Essay Example

Organisations need managers with the requisite ability to perform their duties. With the change business has encountered the way managers perform has also changed. The performance as a result has changed. The change is seen everywhere is “reduction of layers, better communication channel, increased competition, boundaries disappearing, and adoption of more flexible work hours”. (Worral & Cooper, 2001) This change has brought a change in the skills managers should have. With intensifying competition the skills needed by managers as provided by Katz has increased. “Managers need to ensure that they have all the skills and some of these skills are picked during the process and some learned”. (Worral & Cooper, 2001) This paper tries to explain why managers need to have those skills and the way it will change their pattern of work. The required skills as provided by “Katz has grown and has been identified as ten which covers various areas to ensure that task is properly achieved with efficiency”. (Peterson & Fleet, 2004) Having these skills will ensure that time and resources will be saved. The skills which is required in the managers are as follows Human Skills: Organisations achieve work through people. Managers need to ensure that they have the “ability to work with others to accomplish work, able to communicate effectively and clearly, ability to solve problems and being a team player”. (Katz, 1955) These are “human related skills” (Peterson & Fleet, 2004). Managers should have the skills to ensure that results are good. These are the skills which managers acquire in their work and some are inherited. These skills help managers to “understand behaviour of people, develop interpersonal relation and improve motivation and communication”. (El-Sabaa, 2001) Having these skills will ensure that managers solve problems at that time. Managers who possess these skills will be able to solve conflicts. In this competitive world business units needs to ensure that managers have this skills. This should also match the culture they are working in. For example, a food and apparel industry needs manager who has the ability to manage the sales force. The ability of the manager to look into ways to motivate should transform the business by getting customers. Organisations should see that the person who holds position of responsibility is able to get the best out of individuals. The concerned person should have the requisite skills to identify people associated with the company. It is important that the person has these skills as it will lead to competitors taking lead thereby affecting performance. Technical Skills: This is the most important skill the manager should have. It is “the understanding of specific talent needed to use specific tools, methods, process, and techniques to achieve the task”. (Katz, 1955) These are the fundamentals which managers should have so that they can perform the task. Managers need to have this so that when they entrust those work to the employee they are able to do it before. A change has also taken place from “technical specialization to important positions for managerial post and from specialised tools to knowledge base”. (Cross, 2000) Managers need to have these skills as it will enable them to get the task accomplished easily. Managers who have these skills will be able to “manage the employees, provide training to them and supervise their work”. (Peterson & Fleet, 2004) Organisations that have this talent will be able to know the ways to accomplish the work. The manager will also know the time required to accomplish it. Having people with this skill will help to ahead of competitors. For example, a manufacturing unit who has a manager who possess these skills know ways and means to get the result. This will help the organisation to get the desired result and stay ahead of competition. This will also ensure that results are achieved by best means. Conceptual Skills: This skill holds prime importance. It helps the manager to “see organisations on a whole and helps to create a viewpoint in the mind”. (Mintzberg, 1973) Organisations having people with these skills are able to solve problems better. They are better able to visualize things. Conceptual skills improve the performance as “it focuses on ideas and concepts”. (Yukl, 2002) This brings the best out of people. Organisations having managers possessing these skills come with new ideas as the extract the best out. Managers with these skills also have the ability to bring ideas out of others. It is important that managers have this skill as they are “able to understand the interaction between the units working in the organisation”. (Yukl, 2002) This will act as a bridge and help to deliver better result. Managers need to possess this as “the change in any part of the system is understood and new ideas developed to bring better result”. (Yukl, 2002) Managers competent with this are able to deliver value. For example, a production manager having conceptual skill will be able to come with new production ways. This will improve production at the same time reduce waste. Organisations look forward to see that people have these skills. Organisations ensure that managers have all the required skills. With changes taking place with “hierarchy slowly giving space to work force at all level so that they can contribute towards the goal” (Bateman & Snell, 2004) is making it imperative that managers have this. This will ensure that strategy formulation is sound. Thus, we see that managers need to have the requisite skills. Having these skills will ensure that the efforts yield better results. Managers who have these skills are able to handle people and resources better. Their ability to solve matters is better and sees things differently. Managers who have these skills are able to get the best out of everyone. With increasing competition and boundaries disappearing managers need to have these skills. Organisations while hiring people for the managerial positions also look into this. This helps to save time and give good result. Organisations that have this talent are able to deliver good results. “It has become imperative that managers have these skills so that they are able to perform the work better”. This will improve efficiency and help organisations grow. References Bateman T & Snell S, “Management: The New Competitive Landscape”, 6th Edition, McGraw Hill, New York, 2004 Cross R, “Assessing the jump to knowledge based work”, Business Horizon, Volume 43, Number 5, Page 29-36, 2000 El-Sabaa S, “The skill and career path of an effective project manager”, International Journal of Project Management, Volume 19, Number 1, Page 1-7, 2001 Katz R, “Skills of an effective administrator”, Harvard Business Review, Volume 33, Number 1, Page 33-42, 1955 Mintzberg H, “The Nature of Managerial Work”, Prentice Hall, 1973 Peterson T & Fleet D, “The ongoing legacy of R. L. Katz”, Management Decisions, Volume 42, Issue 10, Page 1297-1308, 2004 Worral L & Cooper C, “Management Skills Development: A perspective on current issues”, Leadership & Organisational Development, Volume 22, Issue 1, page 34, 2001 Yokl G, “Leadership in Organisation”, Prentice Hall, 5th Edition, 2002 Read More