Middle Management

          The second level of management in a business organization is middle management; it is responsible for large segments of the organization and is concerned with specific operations. Middle managers have such titles as department head, plant manager, personnel director, factory superintendent, or production manager. While top management determines broad policies and objectives, middle management develops specific plans and procedures for carrying out those policies. Middle managers are responsible for such things as achieving departmental goals meeting productions schedules, determining personnel requirements for specific operations, selecting needed equipment, operating branch plants or stores, and developing ways to measure and evaluate the performance of the firm's resources.

Top Management

          Top management coordinates efforts at the highest level; it is responsible for the entire organization's activities. In a private business firm, top management usually includes the president, the chairman or chairwoman of the board (if one exists), the chief executive officer, and key vice presidents. These managers make decisions about the firm's policies and long-range plans; they establish procedures for carrying out policies and plans approved by the board of directors; and they make decisions about new operations, products, and expansion plans. These executives also carry out the firm's policies relating to community and government matters.

The Three Levels of Management

Usually, management in large business organizations is divided into at least three levels, as shown in Figure 3-1: top management, middle management, and supervisor management.

How Does Management Accomplish Its Assignment?

          We've said that management involves coordination to direct the efforts of others. But our definition does not say how that coordination is achieved. We shall see that an organization's effort are directed in two ways:

1.  By separating management into three different levels of authority and responsibility.

2.  By separating management into its basic functions to ensure that adequate attention is given to each part of the total job.

          Serious attention to each of these methods will bring an understanding of how management works. Let's investigate.

Who Needs Management?

          It is a popular misconception that only business firms seeking to make a profit need management. This is not true. Our homes, farms, unions, churches, hospitals, charitable organizations, colleges and trade schools, and - yes - even our governments need management. All these organized units of society need to apply management principles to achieve their goals in the best manner.
          Management principles are important in all human activities. We've seen that profit-motivated business firms must be efficient and produce profits in order to survive. For that reason, such firms pay the greatest attention to good management. But all other organizations need management, too. In political organizations, health services, and athletic contest - as well as in business - good management coordinates the best use of human, natural, and capital resources. (Even students will find that applying management principles will increase their efficiency and "profit.")