Managerial Skills - Conceptual, Human Relations and Technical

Post : Gaurav Akrani Date : 6/04/2011 08:18:00 PM IST Comments (7) Labels : Management

http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2011/06/managerial-skills-conceptual-human.html

Managerial Skills
Management is a challenging job. It requires certain skills to accomplish such a challenge. Thus, essential skills which every manager needs for doing a better management are called as Managerial Skills. According to Professor Daniel Katz, there are three managerial skills, viz., 1. Conceptual Skills, 2. Human Relations Skills, and 3. Technical Skills. According to Prof. Daniel Katz, all managers require above three managerial skills. However, the degree (amount) of these skills required varies (changes) from levels of management and from an organization to organization. The top-level managers require more conceptual skills and less technical skills. The lower-level managers require more technical skills and fewer conceptual skills. Human relations skills are required equally by all three levels of management.

1. Conceptual Skills
Conceptual skill is the ability to visualize (see) the organization as a whole. It includes Analytical, Creative and Initiative skills. It helps the manager to identify the causes of the problems and not the symptoms. It helps him to solve the problems for the benefit of the entire organization. It helps the manager to fix goals for the whole organization and to plan for every situation. According to Prof. Daniel Katz, conceptual skills are mostly required by the top-level management because they spend more time in planning, organizing and problem solving.

2. Human Relations Skills

Human relations skills are also called Interpersonal skills. It is an ability to work with people. It helps the managers to understand, communicate and work with others. It also helps the managers to lead, motivate and develop team spirit. Human relations skills are required by all managers at all levels of management. This is so, since all managers have to interact and work with people.

3. Technical Skills
A technical skill is the ability to perform the given job. Technical skills help the managers to use different machines and tools. It also helps them to use various procedures and techniques. The low-level managers require more technical skills. This is because they are in charge of the actual operations. Apart from Prof. Daniel Katz's three managerial skills, a manager also needs (requires) following additional managerial skills.

4. Communication Skills
Communication skills are required equally at all three levels of management. A manager must be able to communicate the plans and policies to the workers. Similarly, he must listen and solve the problems of the workers. He must encourage a free-flow of communication in the organization.

5. Administrative Skills
Administrative skills are required at the top-level management. The top-level managers should know how to make plans and policies. They should also know how to get the work done. They should be able to co-ordinate different activities of the organization. They should also be able to control the full organization.

6. Leadership Skills
Leadership skill is the ability to influence human behavior. A manager requires leadership skills to motivate the workers. These skills help the Manager to get the work done through the workers.

7. Problem Solving Skills

Problem solving skills are also called as Design skills. A manager should know how to identify a problem. He should also possess an ability to find a best solution for solving any specific problem. This requires intelligence, experience and up-to-date knowledge of the latest developments.

8. Decision Making Skills

Decision-making skills are required at all levels of management. However, it is required more at the top-level of management. A manager must be able to take quick and correct decisions. He must also be able to implement his decision wisely. The success or failure of a manager depends upon the correctness of his decisions.

The most important skill of a manager

http://www.sunrisepage.com/manage/skilmana.htm
For more specific skills, here is a list compiled by management experts in decreasing order of importance: 1. People skills 2. Strategic thinking (planning ahead and predicting what was going to happen) 3. Visionary 4. Flexible/adaptable to change 5. Self-management 6. Team player 7. Solve-complex problems and make decisions 8. Ethical/high personal standards

Hence the most important skill of a manager is to understand people and what makes them motivated to do the work in the achievement of certain goal(s).

Value of Values for Practicing Managers and Leaders

http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1266&context=gsbpapers What are values?
Modern business practices such as due diligence, zero defect, and money-back guarantee would cease to exist without values. We use terms like integrity, freedom, security, privacy, etc., in our day to day life. In our social and cultural settings, we use terms like relationships, trust, faith, compassion, sharing etc. And in our work life, we use terms like efficiency, productivity, fairness, flexibility, achievement, loyalty, order, etc. What all these simply represent is our values. People hold many of such values with respect to almost every aspect of their life: personal, work, social, cultural, political, economic, aesthetic, etc. When we put all these together we called it a value system. Every person has such a system of values. An organization too has a set of values by which it operates.

What values are not?

Values are not just abstracts or written words. They must be experienced and lived to have any real meaning. Values are not physical objects for example, money is not a value, but things it represents are, such as security, wealth, power and freedom (Henderson and Thomson, 2003). Ethics are not necessarily values. Ethics are agreed code of behavior adopted by a group or associations. Values may influence the establishment of particular ethics. On the other hand, there can be ethical or unethical values in a persons value system. Depending on their relevance in particular situations, values, morals and judgments are interrelated. Morals are our adopted viewpoints. For example,

judging someones values usually involves having a moral perspective on their values, i.e., to see them as right or wrong. What we value and what we need are also two different things. Needs represents perceived necessities. For example, a cigarette smoker has a perceived necessity which he or she has put into action (demand). However, if the person values health may stop smoking. Beliefs, however, are very closely related to values and they are in many ways inseparable. As such, Rokeach (1973) simply notes a value as an enduring belief. Thus, values are an established belief about the desirability, preference, and priority of something. Attitudes are reactive responses to environmental stimuli. An attitude represents a culminating effect of a collection of beliefs about something, someone, or a situation. Nevertheless, values are more central than attitudes as determinant of human behavior.

Why values matter in organizations?

Values simply express what is important to us in our life and business. Values create focus, as they represent our preferences and priorities. Values enable us to understand our underlying motivations, beliefs, and assumptions behind our decision and behaviors (Gerhart, 2008). Therefore, values determine quality of management practices in organizations

1. Impact of values on managerial practices and employees behavior and performance

The role of values in organizations can be looked at from three different perspectives: effect of values as an independent variable; effect of values as a moderator variable; effect of values as a dependent variable.

2. Changing values of employees, organizations, and customers 3. Managerial implications 4. Some of those who witness the value of values

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/8509343/RELEVANCE-OF-VALUES-IN-MANAGERS