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Managers

Managers are people who fulfill organizational responsibilities through the utilization of material resources and deliberate processes and by supervising others in their performance of specialized jobs, leading to desired outcomes. In virtually all organizations, everyone reports to and is supervised by a manager. In every organizational hierarchy, each level is supervised and evaluated by the level above. There are three types of managers who are distinguished by the degree of control, oversight, and planning they engage in. At the lowest level in a hierarchy, the role is dominated by the need for training, supervising, and controlling those below. This role is often identified by titles such as supervisor, foreman, or lead.

The second type of manager is commonly referred to as a middle manager. This person is somewhat removed from the direct supervision of production work but emphasizes the coordination, planning, and control over the supervisory line of managers. People in this role also have a longer time horizon for solving problems related to processes necessary for completing the jobs within their area(s) of responsibility.

The third general type of manager is considered an executive at the highest levels of an organization who is partly responsible for the development and execution of the organization's strategy and operating policies. Executives at the top of organizations are identified by the titles of executive director, vice president, chief information officer, and, of course, chief executive officer. People holding executive positions in the profit sector answer to a board of directors, and in the not-for-profit or nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector they answer to a board of trustees for the overall performance of their organization.

History

The role of manager is as old as human society. In every human group working toward a common objective, at least one person will take on functions that today are considered part of the managerial role. Whether building the Great Wall of China, the pyramids of Egypt, or the lost city of the Incas at Machu Picchu, managers had to plan, organize, supervise, and coordinate the work of countless others. Even the quotidian responsibility of raising a family requires parents to play a managerial role.

It was not until the late 19th century, however, that the modern profession of management began to take shape. As the Industrial Revolution birthed industries such as textiles, railroads, steel, and telegraph, which evolved into huge enterprises, many of the earliest managers were drawn from the engineering, mathematics, and economics professions to create systems of financial and resource controls as well as oversee increasingly distant manufacturing and distribution centers.

These private-sector organizations had three major role models that were useful but inadequate for the emerging industrial society: large governments such as the Chinese bureaucracy, the Roman Catholic Church, and armies. These three institutions evolved various forms of bureaucracy that Max Weber identified as an ideal type that, by the 19th century, could assure an organization's constituents of evenhanded treatment because of adherence to several basic and explicit principles. The first was the expectation of impersonal treatment. This was reassuring to people accustomed to favoritism among officials, endemic corruption, and arbitrariness. The second was the enlistment of what would become a trained career civil service. The third key principle was that each civil servant would be placed within an accountable, meritocratic chain of command under the rule of law (or regulation). This ideal type, which has only partially been realized, hoped to achieve societal stability, institutional predictability, and confidence in the just use of power.

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