Three levels of management in management. Organization management levels

All modern business companies are built on the principle of hierarchy. One person submits to another, another to a third, and so on. Such a structure allows you to organize the work of a large number of people, as well as control the activities of each. Hierarchy modern business resembles a pyramid, when its top is the head of the entire organization, and from it come the levels below, on which all the chiefs are located according to their subordination. And finally, the foundation is the same workforce that performs mechanical labor and is the engine of the entire business.

Moreover, it is important to understand one fundamental law of the hierarchy: there are always fewer representatives of the highest level than representatives of the lower. So, there will be no logical structure of an enterprise in which there are 100 workers and 150 of their managers, exactly as if there are 10 top managers, and no more than five “middle hand” bosses. Next, we will talk about the levels of management in management and about which groups all managers can be divided into.

Hierarchy matters!

Without a structure of subordination and subordination, the existence of an organization is impossible in principle, and this is not a capitalist law, as many believe, but a natural one. Even from the first inception of civilization, the tribes of people had a leader, and there were those people who were close to him (family, retinue, etc.). Even among animals, this principle has been preserved, because in any pack there is a leader.

People by nature are divided into those who want to rule and those who want to obey, and this is natural psychology. Most of us will not be able to do any work with maximum effect without a leader who tells us what to do and how to do it. Therefore, only the methods of hierarchy and management can achieve significant results in business, politics, and any field of activity of a modern person, because even in the company of equal friends there is one person who is a little more important.

Management stereotypes!

Many subordinates believe that some of their bosses are outright idiots and, by definition, cannot do anything worthwhile. They came to work "by pull", but they do not have any skills and cannot have, because "everything can be seen in his face." Perhaps sometimes such judgments are correct, but believe me, even the most stupid boss is better than his complete absence.

And if you think that the manager is a fool just because he cannot understand the specifics of your work, but you are mistaken. This is not his task, he must command, distribute duties and convey to his subordinates the orders of senior management. A normal boss will never pick up a shovel and start working hard with it, because he has completely different tasks. And most managers understand that, to put it mildly, their subordinates do not like them, but they also know that without their work the entire production process will become, which betrays their motivation for further activities.

Basic levels of management in management!

At any large enterprise, there are more than a hundred such levels of hierarchy, however, there are 5 most basic groups of managers into which all managers of the organization are divided. There is also a hierarchy within these groups, but as a rule, it is more of a formal nature, because the orders of power come from one group to another. So, there are such levels of management in management:

1. The first level is the head of the company himself, and you should not confuse him with the CEO. At the very top is not the person who manages the entire process, but the one who is legally the owner of the organization.

In the case of individual entrepreneurs or some LLCs, the owner is one person, who, however, may hold the position of director, but not always. In some cases, the owner hires a manager for the business, but still retains all the power, because at any moment he can innovate the company, take money from there, or completely ruin the business legally. Therefore, it is the owner who participates in many business negotiations, and it is he who signs the most important papers.

As for the system of OJSC or CJSC ( joint-stock companies), then here at the head of the whole business there are several people who appoint CEO and run the company through a board of directors. The more company shares a person has, the more weighty his vote. The board of directors is, as a rule, a collective management body (if one shareholder does not have a controlling stake), which accepts the most important decisions and allocate cash flow.

2. At the second level are the so-called top managers, headed by the CEO. This includes the heads of all major departments (marketing, sales, production, etc.). And although they occupy a lower level of the hierarchy than the owners, they have a much greater influence on the activities of the organization, because they directly manage it.

Most of the documents are signed by them, the CEO represents the interests of the company in the negotiations, because the whole crowd of shareholders will not come to them, and it is the TOP managers who pre-distribute the finances, and then only give it to the shareholders for approval. And if the owners can be passive in managerial affairs, then top management cannot afford such a luxury.

3. The third level of organization in management is the so-called middle managers, who report directly to top managers. Such leaders have many subordinates, and their main task is to convey the orders of higher management to the smallest managers.

As a rule, there are many such people at the enterprise, and from them joint activities depends on the level of awareness, purposefulness and motivation of all employees. All more or less important documents are subject to the approval of the chief of the "middle hand", many of these documents are made by them personally. Perhaps these people in the structure of the hierarchy can be compared with the so-called middle class in the state: the more of them, the better, and although each of them does not have a big role, but in aggregate they can affect a lot, including business profits .

4. At the next level, there are the lowest bosses who have ordinary employees in their subordination. As a rule, they lead small groups and divisions and must convey the orders of the leaders directly to the performers.

At the same time, these people take on some of the responsibilities of motivating people and controlling them. A petty leader should not be too kind and forgive all violations by his subordinates, but he should not be a tyrant either. The best option: a moderately strict person who can both punish a worker and encourage him. At the same time, he himself should not perform all sorts of mechanical work, because his duties include direct management.

5. The last group has no name, and rarely anyone singles it out.
Nevertheless, there are such people, and they play their role in the management system, although they themselves do not always know about it. In every group of workers there is a person who speaks for everyone, who can be assigned to organize his colleagues, although he is not endowed with special powers of authority.
Such an employee is often left “in charge” when there is no boss, or he can take the floor and speak for his entire small team.

This person receives the same salary, without bonuses, and works on a par with the rest, but he is a little more important than his colleagues, and any boss should take this into account. It is better to call this leader and explain to him what to do than to instruct all the workers. Watch out for these people, because highly likely they will soon also become leaders, because leadership is a very rare quality to waste it.

Hierarchy and age!

This may seem illogical to some, but the senior does not always manage the junior, which often causes contradictions between the manager and the employee.
An older person sometimes does not want to listen to a younger one, thinking at the same time that he has more experience and knows better. But this is not always the case, because experience is not everything, and there are young leaders who cope with their tasks much better than older ones.

There can be only one advice here: try to convince your subordinates that you are capable of managing, you know a lot and that you are not in vain in this position. This can be done through speeches, the introduction of useful innovations, etc. You should also not communicate with subordinates who are much older than you the way you communicate with everyone else.
Yes, subordination must be present, but within reasonable limits. It is enough to call the employee by name, patronymic and “you”, and then he, with a high probability, will not consider you an upstart and will begin to respect you.

1. Firstly, any leader must know his place, not go beyond what is permitted and not underestimate his importance. You don’t need to exceed your competencies and try to gain more influence, but you shouldn’t stoop to the level of subordinates either.

I already said in one of my previous articles that if the boss gets behind the machine and starts working on it, then as a person he will gain authority, but as a leader he will no longer be respected. There is no need to breed familiarity, because you, as a leader, should stand above your people, even if you do not like it.

2. Always aim for a higher position, because if you set foot on the path of management, then career ladder almost endless waiting for you. Even if you are the CEO of a company, you can always try to buy back the shares and become the full owner. We live in a capitalist era, where any person, regardless of origin or social status, can achieve everything that his abilities allow.

3. Make connections with more senior leaders, and this will turn out to be more successful for you. Firstly, you will become closer with your immediate superiors, which will give you certain benefits, secondly, you will be able to learn from their invaluable experience, and thirdly, you will increase your chances of getting accelerated career growth.

4. Any leader has in his submission not only ordinary employees, but also his own deputies who help you in business. Moreover, these positions do not have to be official: just select a few specialists among your subordinates who, in your opinion, can help you manage.

Not all managers have the same job; some are responsible for production, others for researching demand, others for sales, deliveries, etc. The differences between the activities of a foreman of loaders and the general director of one company are quite obvious, and there are much more of them than between the activities of foremen or directors of firms. different profiles. The reasons for the differences are horizontal and vertical differentiation management activities within the organization.

In large organizations, the volume of managerial work is so large that it requires separation. Managers are forced to coordinate the work of other managers, who, in turn, coordinate the activities of others, and so on. to a level where managers work directly with performers.

Traditionally, the management vertical is divided into three parts.

Such a division, according to the categorization of T. Parsons, is predetermined by the functions of managers. Managers technical level are busy with current operations and actions necessary to ensure uninterrupted operation (output of products, provision of services). At the managerial level Managers are primarily concerned with managing and coordinating within the organization, they coordinate the various activities and efforts of the various departments of the organization. Persons representing institutional level, ensure the development of long-term plans, the formulation of the goals of the organization, the adaptation of the latter to the shifts in the environment, manage the relationship between the organization and the society in which it exists.

More common is the structuring of the management hierarchy by levels of management, with the allocation of the highest level ( top-management), average ( middle) and linear ( supervisors) or the level of immediate supervisors. Since the levels of management have a clearly defined subordination, they constitute a hierarchy in which top-level managers manage the work of middle-level managers, who in turn ensure the coordination of the activities of line managers. This is the end of the managerial hierarchy; further, outside the hierarchy, there are performers who receive clear tasks, coordinated, directed and controlled (Fig. 5.3).

Managers top level management is responsible for decision making. They set the goals that the organization must achieve.

Rice. 5.3.

The dotted line in fig. 5.3 differentiates top management into the head - the first person of the organization (CEO - Chief executive officer) and a directorate consisting of first deputies. Strength and power at this level lead to the fact that the imprint of the personality of leaders falls on the whole image of the company. But the responsibility here is extremely high. According to G. Mintzberg, the work associated with the management of most organizations can be called extremely exhausting. The amount of work that such managers have to do during the day is enormous, and the pace of execution is very stressful. And after long hours of work, the main leader is not able to relax either physically or in his thoughts. One of the reasons for this is the incompleteness of the work, which for a living and operating organization cannot be considered finished; accordingly, the manager cannot be sure that he has successfully completed his work. High salaries at this level at the same time imply working week at 60-80 hours, holidays lasting no more than 10 days, the subordination of the entire routine of life to the problems of the existence of the organization.

On the middle management level managers play the role of a buffer between higher and lower managers. Their main purpose is to ensure that various departments fulfill the tasks generated by the division of a single goal set by top management. Dividing the whole into parts without losing integrity is a very difficult task, requiring constant coordination of the activities of the elements of the organization working on different parts.

In large organizations, differentiation develops within the middle level of management; in fig. 5.3 the dotted line shows the possible division into the secondary higher and secondary links. The first is made up of the heads of divisions, regional branches, strategic business zones; the second is represented by the heads of functional units. Middle managers receive goals from the highest level, divide them into tasks in accordance with the profile of departments and transform them into tasks with specific technological specifications for transfer to the next level of management. A middle manager leads a major division or department in an organization. It can be called a buffer, because all the dissatisfaction from both above (from incorrectly completed tasks) and from below (about unrealistic and inadequate tasks) goes to him. Most of the working time at this level is occupied by communication (2/3), mainly in the form of conversations with middle-level and line-level colleagues.

Line manager level, direct managers (sometimes there is an incorrect name "grassroots level") ensures the implementation of specific formulated tasks. Receiving them from middle managers, having certain resources to complete tasks, managers of small departments, services, sections are responsible for the correct use of raw materials, equipment, labor resources, distribute and control the activities of the performers who are subordinate to them. Most leaders start their careers in this capacity. The immediate manager is mostly in his team, interacts with his subordinates, for whom he is both a directing, controlling authority and a defender of the interests of the group, unit. The line manager spends most of his time on contacts with subordinates, a little on communication with peers in the management hierarchy, and very little on conversations with superiors. Supervisor activity is characterized by tension, great variety, frequent change of tasks, which on average take from 1 to 9 minutes. The tasks assigned to the line manager have a specific finished look and are almost always implemented within two weeks.

The difference in the tasks facing managers of different levels, in a generalized form, regardless of the specifics of organizations, is reflected by R.A. Fatkhutdinov in the textbook "Management System". Top-level managers spend 60% of their time on strategic tasks, 25% on tactical tasks, and 15% on operational tasks; for middle managers, these figures are 25%, 50% and 25%, respectively; line managers - 10, 25 and 65%.

Dominant strategy in activity top management management, referred to as the institutional level or the strategic echelon, can be explained in terms of the skills required by managers at various levels of management.

The sales manager (any other line manager) uses technical skills because he is involved in the sales process and he himself performs a number of transactions during the day. It requires human communication skills to motivate employees and provide the type of leadership that is needed in this organization. Technical skills allow him to work with objects, while human communication skills help him deal with people. To some extent, conceptual skills are also required to enable the manager to correlate the area of ​​responsibility of his unit with other areas in the organization. Although the last time takes a little.

When a sales manager moves up the corporate ladder to the middle management level, technical skills are no longer used as often. What concerns human communication does not lose its relevance at a new level, since a manager now spends most of his time on motivation, coordination, and maintaining contacts. For the successful functioning of middle-level management, it is necessary to be able to work effectively with the leaders of other functional units, therefore, increased requirements for conceptual skills and their development are added to social mastery.

When a manager rises to the top of the hierarchy, his technical skills are only rarely useful. The same need for communication skills remains, and the requirements for mastery of conceptual skills are immeasurably increasing. The task of the manager at this level is to ensure the unity of efforts in the field of production, research, marketing, finance, personnel to achieve a common organizational goal. Therefore, the ability to recognize, create, maintain and develop an effective integrity, consisting of many heterogeneous, complexly interconnected elements, comes to the fore among managerial skills.

On fig. Figure 5.4 shows the relationship between the skills required of a manager and the levels in the managerial hierarchy 1 . The top level of management is equally active in conceptual and human skills, leaving a very small share of technical ones. With the transition to the lower levels, the demand for technical skills grows, which become dominant at the level of performers. Human communication skills are special meaning for managers of all levels, losing the leading role at the executive level. And conceptual skills turn out to be necessary, albeit to a different extent, for all employees of the organization without exception - from the general director to the leading research engineer and a simple loader.

Levels

Skills

Linear

Performing

Concept

al


Rice. 5.4.

management

  • Lifta J.K. Management: textbook, allowance. 2nd ed., revised. and additional M.: TK Vebli, 2004.
  • Fatkhutdinov R.A. Management system: textbook, manual. Moscow: Intel-Sintez Business School, 1996. Daft R.L. Management: textbook. 6th ed., supplement. and reworked. St. Petersburg: Piter, 2007. 864 p.

is not only an important branch of the economy, but also a complex organizational structure. It is not always possible to determine exactly what is related to tourism: consumers do not notice the close interaction of tourism structures, and representatives of tourism enterprises single out only a part of it in their work. common system. Meanwhile, the structure of tourism determines the place labor collectives and individual workers in tourist regions, organizations and enterprises. This is a kind of framework on which their relationship is built.

In a broader sense, under tourism management structure is understood as an ordered set of interrelated elements that are in stable relations with each other, ensuring their functioning as a whole. In essence, we are talking about the logical relationship between the levels of management and functional services, which, with the help of management, are built in such a way as to achieve the strategic goals of the tourism industry.

To manage the tourism structure means to optimally distribute goals and tasks between structural divisions and employees of the organization1. Components organizational structure management are the composition, ratio, location and interconnection of individual subsystems of the organization. The creation of such a structure is aimed primarily at the distribution of rights and responsibilities between individual divisions of the organization.

In the management structure of the organization, there are links(departments), levels(steps) of control and communication - horizontal and vertical.

To management links include structural units, as well as individual specialists performing the relevant management functions or part of them. The management links should also include managers who regulate and coordinate the activities of several structural units. The formation of the management link is based on the performance of a certain management function by the department. The links established between departments are horizontal.

Under management level understand the totality of management links that occupy a certain stage in the organization's management systems. Management levels are vertically dependent and subordinate to each other in a hierarchy: managers at a higher level of management make decisions that are concretized and brought to lower levels. The pyramidal structure of organization management is shown in fig. 2.12.

Rice. 2.12. Organization management levels

Despite the fact that all leaders of the organization perform managerial activities, it cannot be said that they are engaged in the same type of activity. labor activity. Individual managers have to spend time coordinating the work of other managers, who, in turn, coordinate the work of lower-level managers, and so on to the level of the manager, who coordinates the work of non-managerial personnel - people who produce products or provide services. This vertical deployment of the division of labor forms the levels of management. The shape of the pyramid indicates that at each successive level of government there is less people than on the previous one.


Highest level management of the organization can be represented by the Chairman of the Board of Directors (Supervisory Board), President, Vice President, Board. This group of management employees ensures the interests and needs of shareholders, develops the policy of the organization and contributes to its practical implementation. In this regard, top management can be divided into two sub-levels: empowerment and general management.

Leaders middle level management ensure the implementation of the organization's functioning policy developed by top management, and are responsible for bringing more detailed tasks to divisions and departments, as well as for their implementation. The specialists in this group usually have a wide range of responsibilities and have a lot of decision-making freedom. These are heads of departments, bureaus, directors of enterprises that are part of the organization, heads of functional departments.

The lowest level of management represented by junior leaders. These are managers who are directly above the employees (not managers), most often junior managers responsible for bringing specific tasks to the direct executors.

It should be noted that at all levels of management, managers perform not only purely managerial, but also executive functions. However, with an increase in the level of leadership, the share of executive functions decreases. Calculations show that at the highest level it takes about 10%, at the middle level - 50%, and at the lowest - about 70% of the total time of managers (Figure 2.13).

Rice. 2.13. Classification of time spent by managers by type of activity and levels of management

Such a distribution of total time is due to the fact that managers of all three levels have two types of tasks: tasks in management and tasks in their specialty (Figure 2.14). This means that the head of any level of management spends a certain percentage of time on making managerial decisions and a certain percentage on making decisions in the specialty. As can be seen from Fig. 2.14, with an increase in the level of management, the share of tasks in the specialty falls, and in management, respectively, increases.

Rice. 2.14. Distribution of working time by management and specialty

The given classification of levels has the most general form. Depending on the size and type of organization, its sectoral and territorial characteristics, and other factors, the characteristics of the composition and functions of managers at each of the three levels of management can vary significantly.

As noted earlier, the elements of the organizational structure of the enterprise are employees, services and other parts of the administrative apparatus, relations between which are maintained thanks to connections, having a horizontal or vertical orientation.

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Management levels.

Most firms have three levels of management: top, middle and bottom.

The impetus for the division of management into upper, middle and lower levels was given by the industrial revolution in Europe in the 18th century. First, the upper and lower levels of management stood out. The word "master" has become terrible and hateful. Masters were more often selected according to physical data than to the ability to deal with people. The middle link has emerged as firms have grown in size and complexity, and as management approaches have become more meaningful.

Managers of each level perform the same functions: planning, organization, leadership, motivation, control. The difference is only in what value they attach to this or that function. The top-level manager devotes more time to planning and organizing than lower-level managers. The middle manager spends more time leading and controlling than the top manager. The lower level manager spends most of his time motivating and controlling his subordinates. However, most managers perform all five management functions.

So, it is impossible to separately study or master the management functions of the upper, middle or lower levels. When talking about one of them, in essence, we are talking about all three.

It should be emphasized that it is impossible to clearly and precisely define each of the three levels of management. Therefore, we give only working definitions, because each firm determines the levels of management in accordance with its own characteristics. Here, we should probably recall the influence of the following factors: the complexity of the organizational structure, the number of employees, the essence of the business itself, etc.

Top level managers medium and large firms focus on planning for the future, setting goals, determining courses of action, rules and procedures for their implementation. They are responsible for the prosperity of the company and therefore must plan, direct and control its activities.

The top level of government includes the president and vice presidents. It is clear that the company may have several vice presidents responsible for certain areas of its activity - production, sales, supply, finance, personnel or advertising.

Middle managers head departments or divisions. They must organize their work so that the goals of the company are achieved and its policies are implemented, select and retain good employees. They are primarily responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of their units. The middle level of management includes managers of offices, workshops and warehouses, senior foremen, heads of departments. technical control and product quality. In many large banks, their branches are run by vice presidents. They are responsible for the operation of bank branches and belong to top-level managers. The branch manager reports directly to the vice president of branch operations and is a mid-level manager.

Lower control level- This is the level of officials who directly manage the work of their subordinates. At this level, the functions of planning and organization are implemented in the actions of the manager, stimulating and directing the activities of employees. Typical titles of positions occupied by managers of this level: foreman, foreman, team leader, purchasing agent, forwarder. It is often said that such a lower-level manager is "in the middle", since he is located between the direct executors and the top and middle managers. Lower-level managers play a very important role in the firm. But usually the higher management does not pay due attention to the serious problems of the lower-level managers. These problems include low wages, overburdening, lack of authority, weak professional training ordinary workers, as well as the fact that they may not meet the requirements for them.

The newcomer starts his activity as a manager of the lower level. If he stays in this position for one to five years, he can be promoted up the ranks to a middle manager. In this position, he will be considered a novice manager (all managers consider themselves novice during the first ten years of their activity). No matter how useful and important the training of leaders in universities and courses, it will never replace concrete practical work. This is true even for those with a master's degree from Harvard Business School. To become a good manager, you need to correctly combine the theoretical training received during your studies with practical experience.

Middle-level managers are primarily responsible for performance and efficiency operations they control. Efficiency means the ability to get the job done with minimal wastage of materials and time. Efficiency is the ability to do a job and do it well. It is the middle managers who must ensure that the work is done both economically and efficiently. As they say, the result is important. Managers are fired most often for their inability to achieve the intended results.

What do mid-level managers usually do for most of their working day? First, they plan and allocate work for the next day or week. Secondly, they provide a link between production personnel and higher management. Third, they make day-to-day decisions that ensure profitability production and other operations. Fourth, and very importantly, they lead other people, either lower-level managers or (in small organizations) ordinary workers.

Middle or lower level managers may also be involved in acquiring ordered materials and components and checking their quality, in work with personnel, in holding meetings on safety, product quality, deficiencies in work, distribution of profits, in preparing reports on financial and production activities. , in solving large and small, but always numerous problems. Some problems, such as poor planning, are due to the personal shortcomings of the manager, others are due to the shortcomings of his subordinates, for example, neglect of work. A number of problems arise through the fault of management or other departments. Many problems are caused by government legislation or customer requirements, and management requires lower-level management to resolve them. Under these conditions, they should consider any problem as an opportunity to show their ability to cope with difficulties.

N.I. Kabushkin offers a serious study of the issues of management levels.

Despite the fact that all the leaders of the organization perform managerial activities, it cannot be said that they are all engaged in the same type of work activity. Individual managers have to spend time coordinating the work of other managers, who, in turn, coordinate the work of lower-level managers, and so on. to the level of a manager who coordinates the work of non-management personnel - people who physically produce products or provide services. Such a vertical deployment of the division of labor forms the levels of management (Fig. 3).

The shape of the pyramid shows that there are fewer people at each successive level of government than at the previous one.

Highest level management of the organization can be represented by the Chairman of the Board of Directors (Supervisory Board), President, Vice President, Board. This group of management employees ensures the interests and needs of shareholders, develops the policy of the organization and contributes to its practical implementation. In this regard, top management can be divided into two sub-levels: authorized management and general leadership.

Rice. 3. Management levels

middle managers management ensure the implementation of the organization's functioning policy developed by top management, and are responsible for bringing more detailed tasks to divisions and departments, as well as for their implementation. The specialists in this group usually have a wide range of responsibilities and have a lot of decision-making freedom. These are heads of departments, directors of enterprises that are part of the organization, heads of functional departments.

The lowest level of management represented by junior leaders. These are managers who are directly above the workers and other workers (not managers). These can be foremen, foremen, controllers and other administrators responsible for bringing specific tasks to the direct executors. The ratio of time spent on the performance of the main management functions differs by management levels (Fig. 4).

It should be noted that at all levels of management, managers perform not only purely managerial, but also executive functions. However, with an increase in the level of leadership, the share of executive functions decreases. Calculations show that at the highest level, execution takes about 10% of the total budget. time of managers, on the average - 50%, on the lowest - about 70% (Fig. 5).



Rice. 4. The ratio of time spent by levels and management functions



Rice. 5. Classification of time spent by managers by types of activities and levels of management

This distribution of the total time budget is due to the fact that managers of all three levels have two task areas: management tasks and specialty assignments(Fig. 6). This means that the head of any level of management spends a certain percentage of time on making managerial decisions and a certain percentage - on making decisions in the specialty.

As seen in fig. . 6, with an increase in the level of management, the share of tasks in the specialty falls, and in management, respectively, increases.


Rice. 6. Distribution of working time by management and specialty

The above classification of control levels has the most general form. Depending on the size and type of organization, its sectoral and territorial characteristics, and other factors, the characteristics of the composition and functions of managers at each of the three levels of management can vary significantly.

A. Hosking offers a different differentiation: general management is all managers (regardless of whether they are directors or not) who are responsible for setting goals and formulating policies, for issues related to planning and organizing, controlling and managing the company as a whole; management at the unit level - these are managers who perform the same functions, but at the unit level, in accordance with common tasks and goals of the corporation.

The division of labor is both horizontal and vertical. Under the horizontal division of labor, the creation of structural divisions in the company focused on different areas of activity is assumed.

With vertical separation, the implementation of work is separated from the coordination of the activities of individual performers. In this case, it provides different levels of enterprise management.

Levels of enterprise management in the structure of the organization

What can be considered an enterprise management organization? This is the general ordering of the company, which sets the sequence various activities and the framework within which to operate. Under the socio-economic environment of the enterprise understand the object of management organization. This includes workers, various objects of labor, financial and information resources.

To organize the management of the company, a number of tasks should be solved:

  • choose goals;
  • form a community of citizens;
  • determine what kind of organizational structure the levels of enterprise management are needed;
  • create the right conditions.

The main functions characteristic of the organization of company management:

  • achievement by the company of the chosen goals;
  • reduction of company costs;
  • division of labor, due to which employees better exercise their own powers.

Expression of the division of labor in companies. The trend towards specialization in the field of professional work, during which any employee (or any structural unit) is called upon to perform the actions provided for him and is not involved in performing other functions.

The following types of division of labor can be noted: horizontal and vertical.

With a vertical division of labor, any manager has an area of ​​activity for which he has to be responsible (a sphere of control), or has a certain number of employees reporting to him. In this situation, the distribution of all tasks is carried out not within the same level, but “from top to bottom” - from employees occupying the highest positions to employees at the bottom of such a hierarchy. At the same time, the higher the position occupied by the employee, the more general tasks he is engaged in; the lower the position of a specialist in the hierarchy, the more specific goals he receives. This is a natural process, because the most significant decisions from the point of view of functioning are usually made at the very “top”, that is, the top managers of the company.

With a horizontal division of labor, workers are divided between different functional areas and they are entrusted with the performance of tasks that are important from the position of this functional area. Typical example- conveyor release of goods, the case when for individual worker a certain operation is provided, and he finds himself on the same hierarchical level with other specialists participating in the production of products.

The internal levels of the enterprise management system should not be considered something stable, unchanged in the future. Managers, especially senior managers, should be aware that the organizational structure is formed in order to solve the problems assigned to the company.

In the future, the position of the company in the market will change, the conditions for its functioning will also change (competitors will be added, legislation, economic and political situations will change). In addition, there is a possibility of changes in the number of employees of the enterprise.

Of course, all this can lead to the fact that the tasks of the company will change. At the same time, the internal levels of production management in the enterprise should also be changed, because the previous structure is sometimes (and most often is) unsuitable for the new goals.

Management in a company is usually carried out in a pyramidal structure: the lower level includes a larger number of managers, and as you move up to a higher level, their number decreases.

5 principles of management from the founder of McDonald's

Ray Kroc's commercial moves made McDonald's a world-class catering chain. The founder of the world-famous brand preferred to deal only with strategy, but if there was a need to stand at the cash register or wash toilets, he did not refuse such work.

The editors of the magazine "General Director" spoke about the principles of management that helped Ray create one of the most popular companies in the world.

Enterprise management levels

As a rule, there are three levels of control.

  1. Technical level (is the lower level of management) - managers interact directly with specialists - performers, deal with specific issues;
  2. Managerial level (middle) - in this case, managers are responsible for the progress of each production process in structural divisions, which include a number of structural units; managers of staff and functional services of the management structure, heads of auxiliary and service industries, target programs and projects;
  3. Institutional level (highest) - the administration of the company, engaged in general strategic management; issues of strategic management - management financial resources, the choice of sales markets, the development of the company, only 3-7% of the total number of managers are involved at this level.

The highest level of management is engaged in the development of long-term plans, the formulation of tasks for the middle level. A significant place here is given to the company's adaptation to market dynamics, to managing the company's relations with the external environment. This link may include the president, CEO, and other members of the board.

Middle managers are called upon to coordinate and control the activities of lower-level managers. They identify problems in the production, organizational and financial areas. They form creative ideas and collect the necessary data for decision-making by senior managers. The middle levels of enterprise management include managers of structural divisions, departments and services of the company.

The lower level of management is subordinate to the middle link. Managers of the managerial level include production foremen, foremen, and group leaders. These are professional managers of a narrow specialization, performing well-defined duties in the field of product release, marketing activities, material supply management, etc. They are responsible for competent use received resources and rational use of equipment and workers. Such structural levels of enterprise management allow for clear management, take advantage of the narrow, in-depth specialization of managers. At the same time, it complicates the determination of the share of the contribution of an individual lower-level manager to the overall result. commercial activities, his area of ​​responsibility for the selected management decisions.

Management specialists have developed a different theory of company management. In their opinion, there are the following levels of strategic enterprise management:

  1. Corporate strategy. It affects the general goals of the company and its entire space. These management links are designed to perform the functions of making key decisions in the technical, economic and production lines. Most often, decision making is a function of the board of directors. This category includes senior managers.
  2. Business strategy. It is expressed in achieving success in the field of competition in the market of a particular business area. At this level, they are engaged in solving such problems: increasing competitiveness, responding to external factors, choosing a strategy for the behavior of the main separate divisions. The decision-making body at this level is the board of directors, management of divisions, general directors.
  3. functional strategy. Forms a chain of actions aimed at achieving the chosen goal in each area in which the organization operates, the levels of enterprise management are designed to provide analysis, revision, synthesis of various ideas expressed by field managers, and actions to implement the tasks of this unit and maintain the adopted company strategy. These levels include middle management. Decision-making is in the competence of heads of departments.
  4. Operational strategy. It includes special strategies for separate structural units of the company, levels of enterprise management, containing chiefs in the field. Here they solve the problems peculiar to this separate unit. The choice of a solution is in the competence of the heads of departments and functional services.

What are the levels of management of a modern enterprise today?

In international practice, specialists in the integrated automation of production activities distinguish five levels of management of a modern company:

At the level of ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning (company resource forecasting), various financial and economic indicators are calculated and analyzed, solutions to strategic administrative and logistical problems are searched.

At the level of MES - Manufacturing Execution Systems (manufacturing process control systems), tasks are solved in the field of product quality management, forecasting and checking the sequence of operations technological process, production and labor resources within the limits of the ongoing technological process, maintenance of production equipment.

The indicated levels of management of a modern enterprise are attributed to the tasks of the automated control system (automated enterprise management system) and the technical means by which such tasks are performed - office personal computers(PC) and workstations in the services of the leading employees of the company.

The following levels of enterprise management solve tasks related to the category of APCS ( automated systems process control).

SCADA - Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (a system for collecting information and supervisory control) is the level of tactical current management, within which tasks are solved to select the optimal solution, carry out diagnostics, implement adaptation, etc.

Control-level - local control level implemented on the following TSA: software - operator panels, PLC - programmable logic controllers, USO - communication devices with the object.

HMI-Human-Machine Interface (human-machine communication) - performs visualization (graphical representation of information) of the process.

Input/Output - Inputs/Outputs of the control object, which are various sensors and executive mechanisms (D / IM) of individual technological installations and working machines.

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How is the formation of enterprise management levels

The formation of enterprise management levels is carried out within the framework of the production-territorial principle, the essence of which is expressed in the fact that the entire management apparatus is divided vertically into separate levels, and its own management links are formed horizontally at all levels.

The levels of enterprise management determine the direct sequence of subordination of management bodies from the lower levels to the upper ones.

All levels of enterprise management are headed by employees involved in general management in this area. On the basis of the principle of unity of command, he is subordinate to the head of a higher level, receives orders and tasks from him for execution.

Top managers form the institutional level, which is considered the highest level of management, where forecasting for a long period of time takes place, decisions are chosen that have important consequences for the enterprise, responses are made to changes that have begun and are expected in the near future, etc.

The highest levels of enterprise management have one more feature- it is here that issues are resolved in the field of interaction between the enterprise and its external environment, which includes competitors, the state, public associations, etc. At this level, decisions are chosen by top-level managers (top managers: rectors of universities, presidents and vice-presidents of companies, directors).

Top-level management solves the problem of making decisions that are vital for the organization, or its large structural unit. Typically, such decisions are of a strategic nature: in comparison with the solution of tactical problems, they are aimed not at choosing ways to achieve the set goals, but at determining the goals of the company itself.

The highest levels of enterprise management are distinguished by the fact that the managers on them have little contact with various people: they communicate within the company with other top-level managers, as well as with some of their subordinates. At the same time, this situation does not indicate that their activities are simpler and easier than the work of managers at other levels.

They have a huge responsibility. The middle and lower levels of enterprise management differ in that the erroneous decisions of their leaders affect certain aspects of the company's work, i.e. lead to local problems, then the mistakes of top-level management can cause the company to go bankrupt. In this regard, one of the most important skills needed for top-level leadership is the ability to take risks. Not all people are willing to take risks.

Middle managers form the managerial level, which is considered the next level, at which the work of various employees and structural units is coordinated to achieve the goals set for the company. At this level, decisions are made by middle managers (these include directors of separate divisions, heads of departments, deans at universities).

The middle levels of enterprise management include managers who coordinate and control the work of lower-level bosses and help top-level managers make key decisions. Therefore, they are intermediaries between top and bottom management. Let's study their functions in more detail:

  1. Middle management is often involved in decision making by top managers. They express their ideas related to certain innovations, collect information needed to solve the problem, evaluate decision. Top management has only the most general information about the work of the company, often they do not understand the problems that exist in the company or appear in the course of making the wrong decision.
  2. Of course, middle-level managers have more information about the company's activities. They are well aware of how the structural unit works, the work of which they manage. The difference between top and middle managers is that the former are in charge of the affairs of the company as a whole, while the latter have more full information about a particular area of ​​the company. And lower-level managers have very private information about the enterprise.
  3. Another task assigned to middle-level managers is mediation - with their help, the higher and lower levels of enterprise management are connected. Most often, a competent interpretation of the decision made by top managers is entrusted to middle management. It is they who manage to endow instructions from above with a form that is optimal for the lower level of management. In this situation, middle-level managers are engaged in the distribution of certain tasks and choose the timing of their implementation.

The goals set before them represent the details of the decisions of top managers. Middle-level managers are forced to communicate very often, which is primarily due to the fact that they perform the functions of mediation between other parts of the management system.

For this reason, they need to be able to isolate the essential information and separate it from what is not important.

In the event that companies employ a large number of employees, the middle levels of enterprise management often include additional links.

For example, there are often situations when some middle-level managers coordinate the work of lower-level managers, and the second - the activities of middle-level management. The latter are often considered top-level managers: their position is higher than that of standard middle-level managers, but they do not belong to the highest level of management, because are under his control.

It should be noted that the improvement of technology and other reasons have led to a gradual reduction in the number of middle-level managers. However, they are still needed. The situation is only that their powers are subject to the most significant changes.

At the same time, lower-level managers form the technical level of enterprise management:

  • at this level, ordinary labor activities are carried out;
  • this level can be correlated with the daily activities available in each company.
  • decisions at this level are made by lower level managers (foremen in workshops, heads of subdivisions, in higher education institutions - by department heads, etc.), and their work is considered at the level of current management.

The main feature of the work of lower-level managers is expressed in the fact that they are called upon to:

  • deal with problems relating to the use of resources in specific situations;
  • check the quality level and timing of various production operations.

The main difficulty that arises for a lower-level manager is expressed in the fact that he is forced to very quickly move from one activity to another. In this regard, he needs to quickly resolve issues, because. Most often there is no time to think and find the optimal solution. The lower levels of enterprise management involve the formation of special relationships between managers and their subordinates. The leaders of this link are forced to solve the tasks and check the work of employees, as well as to be mentors and leaders. And just such managers, consciously or unconsciously, are assigned the task of training young specialists and new employees. Managers of the middle and upper levels do this much less frequently.

All levels of enterprise management include functional structures, performing specific functions in the field of management. the main task such divisions is expressed in preparatory work on the formation of managerial decisions for a manager of this level.

In the case of using a single-level structure, managers directly control the activities of performers. During the use of a two-level structure, higher levels enterprise management - the performance of the work of performers is added.

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Analysis of enterprise management levels

Analysis of the management level determines the operation of the management system, its compliance with the management object, the possibility of choosing sufficiently balanced decisions. These characteristics of the management system are considered a key condition for the intensification of production activities, the success of its current and future development.

During the analysis of the management link, the work of the management system in general and the activities of its components are considered, such as the organizational structure of management, the levels of enterprise management, the composition of managerial personnel, their level of qualification and organization of work, technical equipment for the activities of managers, etc.

The task of the analysis is considered to be the substantiation of the rational structure of the governing bodies, the compliance of the managerial staff with the features and content of the management functions, rational measures for the centralization of management functions, reducing the time for processing data and the time to make a choice of management decisions.

An important assessment of the level of enterprise management includes conducting an analysis of the organizational structure, starting with a description of the company. The parameters of the firm and its production structure are designed to determine the structure of management bodies and the number of managers.

Analytical indicators that determine the current state of the controls are:

  • the ratio of provision with managerial personnel in general for the company and for each functional group;
  • the share of managerial employees in the total headcount of the company;
  • their average number and proportion in shops and in individual sections;
  • control factor. Control ratio in separate subdivisions determines, for example, the number of employees per foreman, shift manager, workshop, etc.

At the same time, the analysis of the levels of enterprise management includes such a special section as an assessment of the level of centralization of management functions. This indicator is calculated in general for the company and separately for the existing functional groups.

Analysis of technical equipment and management methods

It determines the breadth of the use of advanced achievements of scientific and technical thought in managerial work ( the best equipment), new management techniques, etc.

The analysis begins with an assessment of the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the technique used in management, the possibilities for its improvement.

With the help of the level of technical equipment, an indicator of the degree of mechanization and automation of managerial work is determined.

Its characteristic is the level of complex (or partial) mechanization of the data processing process, the level of automation of data processing and the preparation of solutions. It is precisely with the help of automation of the work of managers that the basis for studying alternative options development and choice of rational solutions.

Analysis of the composition and organization of labor of management employees

It is produced from an assessment of the level of qualification of the employees of the management apparatus, its compliance with the current requirements of production activities and science.

The need to increase the skill level of managerial employees for individual functional groups (planners, etc.) is determined, a set of measures is being developed to increase the skill level.

An analysis of the organization of labor activity of managerial personnel is carried out, based on a description of the management process, managerial functions performed by each employee, documentation and workflow schemes.

In the course of the analysis, reserves are found to improve the technology of the management process by streamlining the list and flows of documents, their unification, and timeliness of processing. They also find reserves for improving the organization of the work of managers.

Management efficiency analysis

Based on a comparison of management costs with the final results of the company. The indicator of the effectiveness of the management methods used in the company is calculated as the ratio of the volume of sales of goods to the amount of management costs. The higher the value of this indicator, the more successful the management methods used in the company. Those levels of enterprise management are considered successful, at which it is ensured:

  • growth in labor productivity;
  • growth of capital productivity of fixed production assets;
  • acceleration of the turnover of working capital;
  • profit growth.

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