Discussion of Functions of Manager in detail

The job of the manager would vary depending upon the area of posting. If an employee is posted at stock - yard in a steel industry, his main job would be the speedy disposal of the material to the customer - end. He would be required to explain in depth the benifits of this end product and how best this can be utilised for its end use by the customers. He would be required to issue a certificate issued by R&C Laboratory indicating tensile strength, it's hardness, elongation, abrasion and corrosion - resistance etc apart from its chemical constituents indicating Cu, Ni, Mn, Pand S content so that the confidence of the end user is restored.
The role of the Manager attached to the Blast furnace for the manufacture of hot metal would be entirely different and he would see the proper mixing of iron ore with the sinter, Hard - coke and other raw materials such as Dolomite, Lime - stone etc to maximise the output of Hot - iron with the lesser quantity of slags. He would apply his expertise to augment production and other parameters such as timely maintenance, proper deployment of man power would be needed.
In the case of Financial - manager of an industry, the manager has to to allocate funds in different area such that there is no dislocation with respect to finance and smooth production and despatch take place.
In nut shell, the function of the Manager is to manage the duty which he has been entrusted for the speedy disposal of the job.

Broadly speaking, the function of a manager is to manage the things in proper manner and in time. He need not to work by his own hands but he has to supervise as well as order the people under him. A manager is a team leader and he has not only to take work from his subordinates but also encourage and motivate them towards the common objective of the organisation or the company. Another important characteristics of a manager is that he should have humane feelings towards the workers and other subordinate staff. They should feel that he is one among them and in adverse situations ready to help them.

Good managers are great leaders. They can motivate the people and increase the productivity of the organisation. They can create a conducive atmosphere and productive environment with their continuous interaction and involvement in the day to day activities.

Manager is the link between he top management and working staff. His functions are many and he is responsible for the output of the group or unit under him. If he requires any material or technical help in the matter he can within proper justification inform it to the top management who will provide him the requisite facilities.

A Manager has to manage the area under his management. He will be responsible for delivering the desired results in decided time and with expected expenses. He will be a team leader and he has to lead from the front. One has to understand the strong points and weak points of his team member. Based on their capabilities he has to deploy his subordinates in suitable function and utilise them and derive maximum out of them.
He should plan and decided on the road map and he should make his assistants to follow that plan. A review of the progress should be periodically reviewed and de bottlenecking is to be done for the problems faced by his subordinates.
In any case of problem he should guide the people and give them suitable guidance. The resources planning and making the requirements available on time and see that there will be any problem and work will never stop due to lack of resources.
The works of the individuals are to be assessed and required motivation and encouragement is to be given to the assistants so that they will work on their maximum abilities.
As a manager he should not have any inclinations towards some of his subordinates and he should not have any bias.

Functions of Manager
Management is the dynamic life giving element in every business. The primary job of manager is to achieve the enterprise objectives. In order to achieve the enterprise objectives manager coordinates various activities of various people. In fact functions of manager are almost same as functions of management. They are listed below.
1) Planning –
a) It is a process by which a manager anticipates the future and discovers alternative courses of action which are open to him
b) Without proper planning, the alternatives of enterprise may become confused, haphazard and ineffective.
c) Prior planning is very essential for utilizing the available facilities.
2) Organizing-
a) It is the process by which the structure and allocation of jobs is determined.
b) It involves determining activities required to achieve the established company objectives, grouping of these activities logically so that these can be handled efficiently by subordinates. Managers etc.
c) Organizing means organizing people, material, jobs, time etc. and establishing a framework in which responsibilities can be defined and authorities are laid down.
3) Directing
a) It is the process by which actual working of subordinates is guided towards common goal of the company.
b) It involves issuing instructions to subordinates.
c) It involves supervising the subordinates to make sure that the work is done by them as per the plans.
d) For directing, the managers are required to have the qualities of leadership, communication, motivation and supervision.

Manager is the key person in a company or organisation and is a bridge between the staff/ worker and the higher management. Manager has be a good planner and administrator but he should as well as be a visionary. He should be able to see the situations ahead of time. If a recessionary trend is coming in the market and the production is to be reduced he has to see that how the surplus employees are deployed in other groups or places. The dynamic market conditions are a challenge for any manager as he has to be on his toes to cope up with them.

Discipline and punctuality are the important areas where Manager has to hammer continuously as these are the basic elements of a smooth workflow. Caring of the employees and nurturing them for bigger responsibilities is also an area where many managers fail miserably. This area requires to be strengthened for earning the goodwill of the employees.

Manager has to be in continuous touch and give feedback to the higher management so that the corrective and remedial actions are taken quickly to accommodate with the changing business patterns outside in the consumer market.

The profile of a manager would be depending upon the areas assigned to him as well as the type of responsibilities that he or she has been allocated with. In a normal practice, the responsibilities in any large size organization would be focused onto with some specific roles while in the small organization this may come out as the scattered one. Being focused means that the Manager would only be responsible for any specific tasks like,
1. The Inventories for both finished & raw materials
2. Dispatches
3. Order processing along with the documentation part.

But where the organization is comparatively smaller than whole of the above tasks can even be looked after by a single person. It is advised to take the matter only for a reference purpose because in any of the organization the activities & the ways in which these are performed would be different on some proportions. These are completely based upon the SOP or the Standard Operating Procedure of the company which may have prepared by some third party but being approved by the management of that organization.

Other than this & when going by the book terms then in any standard practice the functions can broadly be divided under the following divisions;
1. Planning: What activities are to be taken care of.
2. Organizing: How the activities are to be taken care of.
3. Staffing: To decide on the strength of employment required.
4. Directing: Assigning the responsibilities / training the ground level employees
5. Controlling: Managing the above by bringing together for a common objective.

In addition, the author is from the engineering background & therefore the job responsibilities would be shifted accordingly.