Katz Theory of Management Essay Example

involves overseeing day to day operations, ensuring that production goals are carried out efficiently and effectively as they directly affect the company’s profits. Drucker (1955) states that managers must organize the employees and classify the work. They must be able to divide the work in to manageable tasks and then allocate these tasks to the employees via organizing them in the most efficient manner possible to attain their production goals.

As such, these skills are in line with Katz stand on how conceptual skills are one of the basic skills needed by managers. (Katz, 1974, p. 3) defines conceptual skills as “the ability to see the enterprise as a whole; it includes recognizing how the various functions of the organization depend on one another and, how changes in any one part affect all others” Although not much of conceptual skills are needed by first line managers in their daily work, as the top management sets the organizational goals and focuses on deriving at strategies to achieve them, a certain level is still needed. For example, the supervisor of a shoe producing company would apply conceptual skills by organizing the workers available per day to achieve the production goals set for that day.

He needs to use critical thinking to come up with on the spot solutions for problems such as ad-hoc absenteeism via organising and delegating the jobs to the employees to ensure that the production goals set for that day can still be achieved. In case of any unexpected crisis, for example flash floods, first line managers have to think on their feet and execute emergency plans to ensure that everyone is evacuated safely

and the equipments are safe too. This is in line with Mintzberg’s decision making roles, specifically that of a disturbance handler and resource allocator.

First line managers and Human Skills Human skills represent the ability to work well with and understand others, to build cooperative effort within a team, to motivate and to manage conflict. ” (Robbins, et al. , p. 16) As such, Katz (1974) states that human skills play a more essential role at lower levels as the contact between the managers and the employees is the greatest here. First line manager’s job involves explaining company policies, production goals, operating procedures and strategies involved to achieve these organisational goals to the employees.

He must be able to communicate with the employees to make them feel like an integral part of the organisation where their opinions and views matter. Katz (1974) does this by encouraging workers to participate in the planning and carrying out of those things that directly affect them. By involving the employees, they would feel more motivated to work for the company and thus worker productivity increases, resulting in faster attainment of production goals. By being sensitive to the needs and motivations of the employees (Katz 1974), employees will not be afraid to voice their opinions and problems they face to them.

By ensuring that there is a good relationship that is maintained between him and his workers, feedbacks can be gathered from either side, contributing to a better working environment and hence, more efficiency and productivity. For instance, employee’s opinions regarding to work-related issues can be brought up to the supervisor with no hesitation. Like wise, first line managers can

also respond via criticising product quality, progress of the work and yet instill work discipline among the employees.

First line managers also act as the link between employees and the higher management, as (Kraut, Pedigo, McKenna & Dunnettenn, 1989) state that they provide information on the work progress of the area of production to the higher level managers who depend on it. Middle managers need constant feedback on the progress of the work so that managers can comment if the performance meets the standards and expectations of the organisation. With this information, managers can relay this back to the employees to motivate them to meet the standards set.

They can also use this opportunity to feedback to the first line managers on work problems that require the assistance of top management, for example, the lack of machineries and manpower. As such, first line managers need excellent communication skills and these roles played by first line managers are similar to that of Mintzberg’s roles specifically that of disseminator. First line managers and technical skills Technical skill is the understanding and expertise in the execution of specific tasks involving special skills, equipments and methods of production. Katz (1974, p. 1) states that “technical skills involves specialized knowledge, analytical ability within that specialty, and facility in the use of the tools and techniques of the specific discipline. ” Peterson and Van Fleet (2004) stated that two types of technical skills are needed for managers, one would be technical skills that deal directly with the specific task being performed and the other would be the skills that deal with the role of being a manager.

For example, the chief

chef of a restaurant should not only have excellent culinary skills but also be able to organize and delegate duties to his subordinate chefs to cook the amount f food required. With an expertise in the technical aspect, managers can ensure that people are working up to capacity and have a manageable workload. He would also able to train any new employees and tackle any problems regarding technical aspects that are brought to him. For example, the supervisor of a plant must be proficient in handling machineries and the technical aspects pertaining to the job, so that he can help the technicians should they have any difficulty.

Katz (1974, p. 94 ) also states that “technical skills has the greatest importance at the lower levels of administration” Compared to conceptual skills and human skills, Katz argues that technical skills has the highest importance to first line managers as most problems brought to them deal with technical aspects of the job. Such issues cannot be brought to higher management as they will have neither the expertise to solve it nor the time for it.

Managers in the Past

The manager’s functions in the past were similar to that of the present where managers plan and schedule tasks while organizing the work of the employees via coordination and control (Kerr, Hill & Broedling, 1996). However, it was found that first line managers then did not have much power and responsibility over their employees as they were simply following instructions from the top management. This is supported by Wray (1949) who found that first-line supervisors at two plants did not participate in decision making, but merely implemented decisions

made by others.

However, the job scope of a manager now has changed such that first line managers are given more authority to make decisions The Manager Today (Hales, 2007) states that while the main function of managers was supervisory ,their responsibility has now extended to ensuring efficient and effective operational performance and output, with a small extent relating to broader organisational performance metrics relating to heath and safety, expenditure, training needs, absence and equipment. Despite an increase in the responsibility which is similar to that of the middle managers, first line managers still did not have the authority concerning decisions over resource allocation and expenditure. For example, managers now can only implement methods to ensure high output but cannot decide the output amount. With an increase in responsibility of first line managers, other skills such as time management which has not been identified by Katz are needed by first line managers to attain production goals.

Time Management

Time management allows managers to take full control and stay disciplined on the task. (Caulwe and Vermaak, 2003) argue that the Eisenhower principle states that poor time management can have serious repercussions on the organisation if its employees are unable to do it effectively. As such, effective time management which has not been identified by Katz is essential to the job of the first line managers as they need to be able to manage their time effectively such that production goals can be met on time.

For example, first line managers of a chocolate producing factory have to push their employees to produce their production levels to the expected level of the company by the end of

the day. Conclusion In conclusion, while Katz’s three main skills are still relevant to the workforce today, there is still a need for other skills such as time management to ensure that managers are able to carry out their duties.