The Concept of Managerial Escalator - Coursework Example

The role of a manager Prepared by Submitted to Word count 2055 words excluding content and references pages Contents Page: Pg 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY…………………………………………… 4 2. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………….. 5 3. AN INTRODUCTION TO MANAGERIAL ESCALATOR……….. 5 4. BACKGROUND DATA ON THE TWO MANAGERS THAT HAVE BEEN INTERVIEWED……………………………………… . 6 5. COMPARISION BETWEEN THE FINDINGS AND THE MODEL... 7 6. THE PROBLEMS MANAGERS AND ORGANISATIONS FACE….. 8 7. CONCLUISON AND RECOMMENDATION……………………….... 10 8. REFERENCES…………………………………………………………… 11 9. APPENDICES.............................................................................................. 11 1. Executive Summary The concept of managerial escalator is capable of expressing the difference between the managers and the specialists. There is articulated argument why specialists cannot be good managers in some contexts and why people urge to attain managerial positions. There are some cases like information technology for example, where people are not ready to take up managerial responsibilities for a meagre increase of pay. There are some cases having managers paid less than the specialists. The different cases and contexts show various effects on the people in the hierarchy of the organisation. When people urge for the managerial positions, the cause may be the more pay and authority. The people who want to be escalated to the managerial post just for the cause of authority or pay cannot manage the things under him. The reason is that the authority of the manager can be obtained by good management of his resources, not by commanding his subordinates. Some times subordinates show reluctance towards their managers, who do not understand their problems and was weak in problem solving. The problem solving capacity of the manager may not depend on his specialist capabilities also as it may result in diverting funds towards a specialist activity he was expert of. This may create further problems. The managerial skills can be understood as a right blend of specialist understanding and managerial problem solving. In UK and other western countries the management is comparable to parenting, which is considered as an innate skill that requires no training. In other words, it cannot be developed or up to a minimum extent only if developed, through training. There is a notion in Asian and developing countries that the manager who cannot answer specialist’s questions about a subject cannot be valued as a good manager. This results in specialists climbing up the ladder of hierarchy in the organisation to the managerial level. This results in loosing competence in the work, for which the specialist was trained. 1 2. Introduction The concept of managerial escalator (Rees & Porter, 2001) will be discussed and that will be compared with the two managers’ experiences in two firms. The two managers of different firms operating in different fields will be taken in to consideration. Their experiences and the course that made them a manager will be discussed and the viability of managerial escalator will be examined in the two cases. The problems they faced with the specialisations they possess if any will be examined. If they are not specialists, then the manner they deal with the specialists, they have to manage will be discussed from the responses given by them. For this purpose the managerial escalator will be given an introduction for the further usage of it in the paper. 3. Introduction to Managerial Escalator The managerial escalator can be understood as the specialists becoming managers. The advantages of a person who specialises in a particular work being a manager. This managerial nature of the specialists was being adopted extensively in the Asian and developing countries. When a specialist is having innate management qualities, he can be a manager in the department or the section in which he was specialised. The increasing necessity of the specialists as managers, in the growing technological world, the companies need to train their specialists as managers. Though there is a belief that managers cannot be trained, there are management colleges and institutes that offer courses in management. This can prompt the companies to train their specialist staff into good managers. The training given to the specialist staff should keep in view that the managing capabilities will not undermine the specialist nature of the person. If that is done, the very reason that a specialist appointed as a manager will be lost. Modern education is offering management courses for different circumstances. The new comers in to the industry can have specialist degrees in management. They may be like human resources manager, financial applications manager and some more like that. The modern institutions are making their efforts to produce managers designed specially for a field. Generally managers come from climbing the ladders of hierarchy in the organisation. In that case there will be competition between the specialists and non specialists from the administration to be a manager. In this case the quality of making the subordinates work in the person can be regarded as qualification for the post of manager. This is because the management is termed as the quality of making people work. The specialist having this quality can move on managerial escalator and can maintain advantage. 4. Background data on two managers that have been interviewed Manager 1: The first manager interviewed is Raja Sekhar of HSBC bank. He was a manager of advances and credits in that organisation. His age is 38. He is working in Hyderabad, India branch of HSBC regional office. He is an Indian and works in the department of credits and advances. As he works in HSBC, his sector and industry is banking. He spends almost three fourths of his time in managerial activities. He is MBA in Human resource management from a reputed management institute. He worked as a specialist in the form of field officer in the same bank previously and was promoted on the basis of both experience and educational qualification. The fulltime career before acquiring the supervisory/ management responsibilities is of 5 years. The formal management training he received is from the three year MBA course. He found that the formal management training he received in his MBA degree is useful. Manager 2: The second manager interviewed is Albert Augustine. His age is 42. He is a Briton. He works in communications industry as the company he works in Vodafone. He spends almost three fourths of his time managerial and supervisory responsibilities. Remaining time he spends on technical issues. He is having a master degree in engineering and technology. He did not have any formal management training. He worked as a communications engineer before he was promoted to the post of manager. His fulltime career is 10 years before this managerial post and 5 years in the managerial post. As there is no formal management training, he was promoted to the post of manager depending on exceptional specialist qualities. He was successful in being a manager for the risk management department in communications firm. 5. Comparison between the findings and the Model As the subject is managerial escalator and concentrates on the roll of specialists as managers, one manager having formal training and the other is a specialist having no formal management training. Generally it was found in the model that some sectors need specialists as managers. Though the first manager considered was not a specialist he is managing the credits and advances department well. Though he has done his masters in Human resource development, he was working well with the credits and advances department of the Bank. The reason may be the commerce back ground he had in his bachelor’s degree. Though it cannot be considered as a specialisation in the banking sector, the commerce background mixed with the managerial training in masters degree helped him to coop up with the specialisation problems. This context tells about the understanding of special issues by a manager. The fundamental knowledge about the sector he works will help the manager in making his subordinates work properly. As it is the credits and advances department, the major work is to identify a potential customer and getting payments back in time from them. This needs a little commerce skills and more human resource and personality management skills. This can be observed from the fact that he spends three fourths of his time in management activities and only one fourth time on supervising accounts. His qualifications are suitable to the managerial post he works on. In the case of second manager working in Vodafone, he is a specialist climbed up to the manager post. He too spends more time on managerial activities after being posted as a manager. Contrast to the previous case the specialist was a successful manager here. As he was the head of the risk management his specialist skills are useful to him in forecasting and avoiding the possible risks. As this can be termed as management in his department he needs specialist skills to lead his team. One should have a substantial technical knowledge to avoid risks in communications industry. Though he spends three fourths of his time in managerial responsibilities, he needs technical expertise in them also. As a specialist his technical capabilities are very useful in the department he works. This is an example of managerial escalator as a specialist has been a successful manager. 6. The problems managers and organisation face 5.1 The problems managers face The problems of a manager without a specialist training is answering the subject related questions from his subordinates. In an Asian country like India, it is very difficult for a manager to be in that place without the fundamental knowledge about specialisation. Though the manager 1 is having a commerce background, it is not sufficient to have a specialist knowledge regarding banking industry. As he was able to combine his commerce skills with human resource management skills, he was successful in his career. He admits that there is a lot of pressure on him regarding the technical (here, accounts and commerce) expertise as many of his subordinates are holding a master’s degree in commerce. Answering them in the specialist matters and managing the credits and advances department is not an easy task for the manager like him. His skills regarding the coordination and specific use of human resources by classification, training and timely use he was being successful in his work. In case of 2nd manager, he was in managerial position in a communications firm. As he was a specialist in communications engineering, his skills raised him to that position. Here as has to deal with lot of people (more than 250) regarding technical, IT and field staff. When field staff will come into his contact he may find problem in dealing with them as he has not received any formal management training. As he has technical expertise he can deal well with the technical and IT staff as he has enough experience in dealing with those activities. The main problem that can be posed to him may be from the field staff who are not technically aware and need some good managers to deal with them comfortably. 6.2 The problems the organisations face The problems faced by the organisation will be regarding the managerial issues in case of specialists and specialist issues in the case of managers without specialist background. In the first case of manager in HSBC, he lacks specialist background and the problem faced by the company is the lack of banking knowledge in their manager. As he is from commerce background and having HRD masters degree, he can be trained by the company in banking issues. This training provided by the company can reduce the problems faced issues regarding the specialist conditions. The problems that can be posed to the company from the second type of manager was regarding the human resource and financial maintenance. As he possesses a masters degree in technical expertise, the company may have a problem regarding human resource development with him. When the company decides the technical persons like him to promote to managerial cadre, training regarding human resource management is needed. The problems of the organisation will can be minimised if the company provides required training for the specialists turned managers. 7. Conclusions and recommendations It was observed from the above facts that the specialists require HR management training and manages require the specialist training. When managerial escalator model was to be used, the companies must be ready to provide required training for the professionals they want to promote as managers. If, in the manager of the first case of HSBC, the company need not provide any training for the person if he holds a degree regarding banking and financial management along with masters degree in management. For this purpose, the company should recruit the managers having specialist background. As the masters degrees in management are offering special courses for different sectors, the future may see specialist managers for a particular sector and industry. References 1. Rees, W. D, Porter, C. 2004. Skills of Management Fifth Edition. ISBN 1-86152-550-8. London: Thomson Learning 2. Manager, Raja Sekhar, HSBC bank, an IIM graduate, Telephone no: 0091-04032401678 3. Manager, Albert Augustine, Vodafone, Engineer, Appendicies Questionnaire used Age Nationality Description of department in which they work Description of industry or service sector in which they work Amount of the time spent on managerial and/or supervisory responsibilities How long was this formal management training Did they work as a specialist before becoming a supervisory or manager How long they have been in a full-time career was it before they acquired supervisory/management responsibilities? How long was this formal management training? Was this formal management training effective or not Read More