Flattening hierarchies and delegating responsibility

A problem with very hierarchical organizations is that people at lower levels can't take important decisions, but pass on responsibility to their boss. However, the modem tendency is to reduce the chain of command, take out layers of management, and make the organization much flatter. Advanced IT systems reduced the need for administrative staff and enabled companies to remove layers of workers from the structure. Many companies cut back and eliminate jobs in recessions. Typically, the owners of small firms want to keep as much control over their business as possible, whereas managers in larger businesses want to motivate their staff and often delegate decision making and responsibilities to other people.

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What is management?

Management is important. The success or failure of companies often depends on the quality of their managers. But what do managers do? One well-known classification of the tasks of a manager comes from Peter Drucker. Drucker was an American business professor and consultant who is often called 'The Father of Modern Management'.

Drucker suggested that the work of a manager can be divided into five tasks: planning (setting objectives), organizing, integrating (motivating and communicating), measuring performance, and developing people.

• First of all, senior managers and directors set objectives, and decide how their organization can achieve or accomplish them. This involves developing strategies, plans and precise tactics, and allocating resources of people and money.

• Secondly, managers organize. They analyze and classify the activities of the organization and the relations among them. They divide the work into manageable activities and then into individual tasks. They select people to perform these tasks.

• Thirdly, managers should have skills of motivation and communication. They also have to communicate objectives to the people responsible for attaining them. They make the people, who are responsible for performing individual tasks, form teams. They make decisions about - pay and promotion.

• Fourthly, managers have to measure the performance of their staff, to see whether the objectives or targets set for the organization and for each individual member are achieved.

• Lastly, managers develop people - both their subordinates and themselves.

A company's top managers also have to consider the future, and change the organization's objectives when necessary, and introduce the innovations that will allow the business to continue. Top managers also have to manage a business's relations with customers, suppliers, distributors, bankers, investors, neighboring communities, public authorities, and so on, as well as deal with any crisis that arises.

Although the tasks of a manager can be analyzed and classified, management is not entirely scientific. There are management skills that have to be learnt, but management is also a human skill. Some people are good at it, and others are not. Some people will be unable to put management techniques into practice. Others will have lots of technique, but few good ideas. Excellent managers are quite rare.

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