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Hello, and welcome to this tutorial on managers. Now as always with these tutorials, please feel free to fast forward, pause, or rewind as many times as you need in order to get the most out of the time that you're going to spend here.
So let me ask you a question. What is a manager? If I asked you to describe a manager, what would you say?
Would it be the manager of a baseball team? Would be a CEO? Would it be the shift manager down at your local McDonald's or Burger King? Well, during this tutorial, we're going to be looking at managers as a whole, what that encompasses. We're also going to be looking at different management areas that they work in.
Now there's no key terms for this lesson. So we're going to be talking about managers as a whole right off the bat.
Now different organization types, no matter what organization type you have, they're all going to have managers. It can be the flattest organization or the largest organization, but once you get big enough, and once you have enough employees, you're going to have a manager of some type.
You need that manager to make sure that those goals for the corporation or organization get done. And they also need to make sure that those things such as scheduling and making sure the pay happens and those things that are beyond the scope of the individual worker out there are going to be taken care of.
Now managers exist at the top level. They also exist in the middle level and those front line managers at the very lowest level. Let's take a look at these three a little more closely.
Now the manager types we're going to have, as we mentioned, are top managers first. Now top managers are going to have titles such as president or vice president, treasurer, or CEO. And these are the folks that are responsible for that larger picture, that bigger corporate strategy, if you will, for an organization.
Those middle managers, these are going to be things like plant managers or operations managers and maybe division managers. And these are the folks that are taking care of that middle section of the organization. They're coming up with that business strategy, that competitive strategy.
And they're the ones who are responsible to make sure that the larger strategy or the larger plan from the VP and the president gets taken care of down at the lower levels by the front line managers-- folks like office managers or supervisors or group leaders. These are the folks who take their cues from the middle managers, and they also make sure that they are supervising and controlling and organizing the work of those people who don't have managerial duties.
They're the ones who take care of the stuff behind the scenes. They're not the ones who are actually doing the work or selling the item. They're the ones who are making sure that it's possible for the people who do do the work or fix the engine or sell the items. They're going to make sure that they can get those things done by taking care of all those things behind the scenes, such as scheduling and pay.
There are different management areas that managers exist in. And larger organizations are going to have much larger scopes for different types or different management areas.
And as an example, we have human resources managers. Now human resources managers are going to be those folks who are responsible for hiring, firing, promoting. Also they're going to make sure that the employees have the correct training and that their pay is taken care of. And they also help define what those benefits packages are and administering the benefit packages for the different levels of employees.
We also have operations managers. And put simply, operations managers are the ones who manage the operations for the business. They're the ones who manage the things that the business does. If I am a stock selling business, I'm the ones who manage that area of sales or stock sales, acquiring different stocks, and all those things that roll into that particular function of the business.
Now marketing managers are the ones who make sure the product gets from point A to point B. They promote the product. They do everything about those things that we talked about in the marketing section of our course here, Introduction to Business-- the marketing mix and promotion mix and those things that are all about marketing. They're the ones who manage that aspect of the business.
Next we have information managers. Now if a company has an information manager, these are folks who are putting out information to the public, and are also the ones who are managing information within the organization. Making sure everybody has the plan of the day, for instance.
Now financial managers are the money folks. These are the CPAs, the certified public accountants. They're the finance folks. They physically pay the bills and make sure the books are balanced and make sure we have enough money to buy the supplies that we need and to pay the people who work for us. And they're also responsible for collecting on the bills that our customers run up.
For instance, if a customer charges something on credit, these financial managers are going to be the ones who make sure that that customer gets that bill paid in full. Also if we buy something, they're responsible for paying the people that we bought that product from.
Public relations managers deal strictly with the public. And these are folks that are responsible for making sure that the business is portrayed in a positive light. They're the ones who handle crises and different bad publicity aspects of a company. But they're also the ones who are making sure that the good things that we do get out and get consumed by the public.
And last, we have folks who work in R&D, or research and development. Now R&D managers are responsible for everything that goes into new product development, or new idea development. These are the folks, for instance at Apple, who come up with the iPad, or the iPod, or the new way a particular phone or particular item works.
Those are the R&D people. They're the cutting edge. And these are the innovators within a company to make sure that we're staying on the cutting edge of whatever business sector that we're in.
Now the thing about management is management deals with a lot of different resources. For instance, it doesn't really matter what area you specialize in. The resources that you're going to deal with are going to range from material to human to financial and possibly even international factors that are all going to affect your particular area of expertise.
If you are a human resources manager, you have to deal with the material-- the paperwork and things that go along with doing that function-- the human function or the people who work for you, the finances for making sure that we have enough to set this certain benefit in place, or give our employees a certain benefit that we really want to give them. And also we could be looking at employees in different international areas. All of these different factors or areas are going to impact managers, no matter what area they may specialize in.
And the thing about it is managers, they have to balance all these things. There's a lot of different demands, and sometimes conflicting demands from different areas within their area of expertise that they manage. Those material, human, and financial, and international concerns. And a manager's going to have to make sure that they're managing effectively all those different areas and balancing them in a way that benefits the business.
Oh, and one other thing. I know we talked about a lot of different areas where management happens. But this is by no means an exclusive list. There could be managers in a lot of different areas and a lot of different management areas within an organization that well, we just can't cover.
Organizations that are unique may have unique concerns they need managed that wouldn't exist other places. And this is going to depend on the organization type. Agriculture industry or agriculture companies will have management areas that may not necessarily equate to a company like Apple. So they'll have to manage different areas within that company that other folks simply wouldn't have to worry about.
So what did we talk about during this lesson? Well, we talked about managers as a whole-- where they exist. Those top, middle, and front line managers, and the concerns that they deal with on a daily basis.
And we also looked at management areas, those different areas like human resources or marketing or public relations where management happens. And the fact that no matter where you work in management, there are certain things or certain resources that you're going to have to balance, like material, human, financial, and international areas that I'm going to have to make sure I'm balancing on a daily basis to make sure I do my job effectively.
Now as always, I really want to thank you for spending some time with me today. You folks have a great day.