What Managers Actually Do
Management is getting work done through others: coordinating people and resources toward goals. Fayol's four functions describes the job as an orderly repeating cycle:
| Function | What it does | Time Orientation |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Sets goals and chooses the path | Looks forward |
| Organizing | Arranges people, tasks, authority | Sets up the plan |
| Leading | Motivates, communicates, resolves | Done through people |
| Controlling | Measures results against plan | Looks back |
The cycle: plan → organize → lead → control → plan again.
Mintzberg's ten roles challenges this with stopwatch studies showing days are fragmented bursts, not stately cycles. They cluster in three families: interpersonal (figurehead, leader, liaison), informational (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson), and decisional (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator).
Skills, Levels & The Two Maps
Katz's skills explain why management changes with altitude. Technical skill (doing the work) dominates at the bottom, conceptual skill (seeing the whole system) dominates at the top, and human skill matters everywhere, always.
Pitfall: Promoting the best technician fails when you ignore that management needs skills the old job never exercised.
Levels stack the functions: first-line manages daily operations, middle translates strategy, top sets direction. Effectiveness means doing the right things; efficiency means doing things right. Drucker warned: nothing is as useless as doing efficiently what should not be done at all.
| Map | Built From | Job Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| Fayol | Logical analysis | Orderly cycle |
| Mintzberg | Stopwatch studies | Fragmented episodes |
Tip: Hold both maps. Fayol gives purpose; Mintzberg gives reality.