Larger organizations generally have threehierarchical levels of managers,[1] organized in a pyramid structure:
Senior management roles include theboard of directors and achief executive officer (CEO) or apresident of an organization. They set the strategic goals and policy of the organization and make decisions on how the overall organization will operate. Senior managers are generally executive-level professionals who provide direction to middle management. Comparegovernance.
Middle management roles include branch managers, regional managers, department managers, and section managers. They provide direction to front-line managers and communicate the strategic goals and policies of senior management to them.
Line management roles includesupervisors and the frontline managers orteam leaders who oversee the work of regular employees, or volunteers in some voluntary organizations, and provide direction on their work. Line managers often perform the managerial functions that are traditionally considered the core of management. Despite the name, they are usually considered part of the workforce and not part of the organization's management class.
The English verbmanage has its roots in the fifteenth-centuryFrench verbmesnager, which often referred inequestrian language "to hold in hand the reins of a horse".[4] Also theItalian termmaneggiare (to handle, especially tools or a horse) is possible. InSpanish,manejar can also mean to rule the horses.[5] These three terms derive from the twoLatin wordsmanus (hand) andagere (to act).
The wordmanagement dates back to the 1590s, when it was first used to mean "the act of managing by direction or manipulation," formed from manage plus the suffix -ment. By the 1670s, it had also come to describe "the act of managing by physical manipulation." Later, in 1739, the word became increasingly used to refer to "a governing body" or "the directors of an undertaking collectively," a sense that originally applied to theaters.[6]
Views on the definition and scope of management include:
Henri Fayol (1841–1925) stated: "To manage is to forecast and to plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control".[7]
Fredmund Malik (born 1944) defines management as "the transformation of resources into utility".
Ghislain Deslandes defines management as "a vulnerable force, under pressure to achieve results and endowed with the triple power of constraint, imitation, and imagination, operating on subjective,interpersonal, institutional and environmental levels".[8]
Management involves identifying themission, objective,procedures, rules and manipulation[9] of thehuman capital of anenterprise to contribute to the success of the enterprise.[10] Scholars have focused on the management of individual,[11] organizational,[12] and inter-organizational relationships. This implies effectivecommunication: an enterprise environment (as opposed to a physical or mechanical mechanism) implies humanmotivation and implies some sort of successful progress orsystem outcome.[13] As such, management is not the manipulation of a mechanism (machine or automated program), not the herding of animals, and can occur either in a legal or in an illegal enterprise or environment. From an individual's perspective, management does not need to be seen solely from an enterprise point of view, because management is a function in improving one'slife andrelationships.[14] Management is seen in various parts of society.[15]Plans,measurements, motivationalpsychological tools, goals, and economic measures (profit, etc.) may or may not be necessary components for there to be management. At first, one views management functionally, such as measuring quantity, adjustingplans, and meetinggoals,[citation needed] but this applies even in situations where planning does not take place. From this perspective,Henri Fayol (1841–1925)[16] considers management to consist of fivefunctions:
planning (forecasting)
organizing
commanding
coordinating
controlling
In another way of thinking,Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933), allegedly defined management as "the art of getting things done through people".[17] She described management as a philosophy.[18]
Some scholars however find this definition useful but far too narrow. The phrase "management is what managers do" occurs widely,[19] suggesting the difficulty of defining management withoutcircularity, the shifting nature of definitions[citation needed] and the connection ofmanagerial practices with the existence of amanagerial cadre or of aclass.
One habit of thought regards management as equivalent to "business administration" and thus excludes management in places outsidecommerce, for example incharities and in thepublic sector. More broadly, every organization must "manage" its work, people, processes, technology, etc. to maximize effectiveness.[citation needed] Nonetheless, many people refer to university departments that teach management as "business schools". Some such institutions (such as theHarvard Business School) use that name, while others (such as theYale School of Management) employ the broader term "management".
English speakers may also use the term "management" or "the management" as a collective word describing the managers of an organization, for example of acorporation.[20]Historically this use of the term often contrasted with the termlabor – referring to those being managed.[21]
The board of directors is typically primarily composed of non-executives who owe afiduciary duty to shareholders and are not closely involved in the day-to-day activities of the organization. However, this varies depending on the type (e.g., public versus private), size, and culture of the organization. These directors are theoretically liable for breaches of that duty and are typically insured underdirectors and officers liability insurance.Fortune 500 directors are estimated to spend 4.4 hours per week on board duties, and median compensation was $212,512 in 2010. The board sets corporate strategy, makes major decisions such as major acquisitions,[22] and hires, evaluates, and fires the top-level manager (chief executive officer or CEO). The CEO typically hires other positions. However, board involvement in the hiring of other positions such as thechief financial officer (CFO) has increased.[23] In 2013, a survey of over 160 CEOs and directors of public and private companies found that the top weaknesses of CEOs were "mentoring skills" and "board engagement", and 10% of companies never evaluated the CEO.[24] The board may also have certain employees (e.g.,internal auditors) report to them or directly hire independentcontractors; for example, the board (through theaudit committee) typically selects theauditor.
Helpful skills for top management vary by the type of organization but typically include a broad understanding of competition, world economies, effective planning, and politics.[25] In addition, the CEO is responsible for implementing and determining (within the board's framework) the broad policies of the organization. Executive management accomplishes the day-to-day details, including instructions for the preparation of department budgets, procedures, and schedules; appointment of middle-level executives such as department managers; coordination of departments; media and governmental relations; andshareholder communication.
Line managers includesupervisors, section leaders, forepersons, and team leaders. They focus on controlling and directing regular employees, either in direct service delivery or inback-office areas of work. They are usually responsible for assigning employees tasks, guiding and supervising employees on day-to-day activities, ensuring the quality and quantity of production and/or service, making recommendations and suggestions to employees on their work, and channeling employee concerns that they cannot resolve to mid-level managers or other administrators. Low-level, frontline or "front-line" managers also act asrole models for their team members. Deficits in frontline management can impact critically on service delivery and customer satisfaction.[26]
Colleges and universities worldwide offer bachelor's degrees, graduate programs, diplomas, and professional certificates in management. These are most commonly housed within colleges of business, business schools, or faculties of management, but may also be offered in related departments such as economics, public policy, or the social sciences.
Scholars have argued that higher education played a central role in the so-called "managerial revolution" of the 20th century, by formalizing managerial skills and expanding the professionalization of management as a discipline.[27]
At the undergraduate level, the most common business programs are theBachelor of Business Administration (BBA) andBachelor of Commerce (B.Com.).These typically comprise a four-year program designed to give students an overview of the role of managers in planning and directing within an organization. Course topics include accounting, financial management, statistics, marketing, strategy, and other related areas.
While management trends can change fast, the long-term trend in management has been defined by a market embracing diversity and a rising service industry. Managers are currently being trained to encourage greaterequality of opportunities for minorities and women in the workplace, offering increased flexibility in working hours, better retraining, and innovative (and usually industry-specific) performance markers. Managers destined for the service sector are being trained to use unique measurement techniques, better worker support, and more charismatic leadership styles.[citation needed]Promotion prospects canincentivise performance improvements.[29]Human resources finds itself increasingly working with management in a training capacity to help collect management data on the success (or failure) of management actions with employees.[30]
Good practices identified for managers include "walking the shop floor",[31] and, especially for managers who are new in post, identifying and achieving some "quick wins" which demonstrate visible success in establishing appropriate objectives. Leadership writerJohn Kotter uses the phrase "Short-Term Wins" to express the same idea.[32] As in all work, achieving an appropriatework-life balance for self and others is an important management practice.[33]
Evidence-based management is an emerging movement to use the current, best evidence in management anddecision-making. It is part of the larger movement towardsevidence-based practices. Evidence-based management entails managerial decisions and organizational practices informed by the best available evidence.[34] As with other evidence-based practice, this is based on the three principles of published peer-reviewed (often in management or social science journals) research evidence that bears on whether and why a particular management practice works; judgment and experience from contextual management practice, to understand the organization and interpersonal dynamics in a situation and determine the risks and benefits of available actions; and the preferences and values of those affected.[35][36]
Some see management as a late-modern (in the sense of latemodernity) conceptualization.[37] With the changing workplaces of theIndustrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries,military theory and practice contributed approaches to managing the newly popularfactories.[38]
Written in 1776 byAdam Smith, aScottishmoral philosopher,The Wealth of Nations discussed efficient organization of work throughdivision of labour.[39]Smith described how changes in processes could boost productivity in the manufacture ofpins. While individuals could produce 200 pins per day, Smith analyzed the steps involved in the manufacture and, with 10 specialists, enabled the production of 48,000 pins per day.[39]
Salaried managers as an identifiable group first became prominent in the late 19th century.[41] As large corporations began to overshadow small family businesses the need for personnel management positions became more necessary.[42] Businesses grew into large corporations and the need for clerks, bookkeepers, secretaries and managers expanded. The demand for trained managers led college and university administrators to consider and move forward with plans to create the first schools of business on their campuses.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the need for skilled and trained managers had become increasingly apparent.[citation needed][43] The demand occurred as personnel departments began to expand rapidly. In 1915, less than one in twenty manufacturing firms had a dedicated personnel department. By 1929 that number had grown to over one-third.[44] Formal management education became standardized at colleges and universities.[45] Colleges and universities capitalized on the needs of corporations by forming business schools and corporate-placement departments.[46] This shift toward formal business education marked the creation of a corporate élite in the US.
H. Dodge,Ronald Fisher (1890–1962), and Thornton C. Fry introduced statistical techniques into management studies. In the 1940s,Patrick Blackett worked in the development of theapplied-mathematicsscience ofoperations research, initially for military operations. Operations research, sometimes known as "management science" (but distinct from Taylor'sscientific management), attempts to take ascientific approach to solving decision-problems and can apply directly to multiple management problems, particularly in the areas oflogistics and operations.
As the general recognition of managers as a class solidified during the 20th century and gave perceived practitioners of the art/science of management a certain amount of prestige, so the way opened forpopularised systems of management ideas to peddle their wares. In this context, manymanagement fads may have had more to do withpop psychology than with scientific theories of management.
Business management includes the following branches:[citation needed]
As one consequence,workplace democracy (sometimes referred to asWorkers' self-management) has become both more common and more advocated, in some places distributing all management functions among workers, each of whom takes on a portion of the work. However, these models predate any current political issue and may occur more naturally than does acommand hierarchy.
In profitable organizations, management's primary function is the satisfaction of a range ofstakeholders. This typically involves making a profit (for the shareholders), creating valued products at a reasonable cost (for customers), and providing great employment opportunities for employees. In case of nonprofit management, one of the main functions is, keeping the faith of donors. In most models of management andgovernance, shareholders vote for theboard of directors, and the board then hires senior management. Some organizations have experimented with other methods (such as employee-voting models) of selecting or reviewing managers, but this is rare.
^Mintzberg, Henry (2014).Manager l'essentiel : ce que font vraiment les managers ... et ce qu'ils pourraient faire mieux. Paris: Vuibert.ISBN978-2-311-40094-6.
^Deslandes G., (2014), “Management in Xenophon's Philosophy: a Retrospective Analysis”, 38th Annual Research Conference, Philosophy of Management, 2014, July 14–16, Chicago
^Prabbal Frank attempts to make a subtle distinction between management and manipulation:Frank, Prabbal (2007).People Manipulation: A Positive Approach (2 ed.). New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd (published 2009). pp. 3–7.ISBN978-81-207-4352-6. Retrieved2015-09-05.There is a difference between management and manipulation. The difference is thin [...] If management is handling, then manipulation is skillful handling. In short, manipulation is skillful management. [...] Manipulation is in essence leveraged management. [...] It is an alive thing while management is a dead concept. It requires a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach. [...] People cannot be managed.
^Wood, Robert; Bandura, Albert (1989). "Social Cognitive Theory of Organizational Management".The Academy of Management Review.14 (3):361–384.doi:10.2307/258173.ISSN0363-7425.JSTOR258173.
^Jones, Norman L. (2013-10-02)."Chapter Two: Of Poetry and Politics: The Managerial Culture of Sixteenth-Century England". In Kaufman, Peter Iver (ed.).Leadership and Elizabethan Culture. Jepson Studies in Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan (published 2013). p. 17.ISBN978-1-137-34029-0. Retrieved2015-08-29.Mary Parker Follett, the 'prophet of management' reputedly defined management as the 'art of getting things done through people.' [...] Whether or not she said it, Follett describes the attributes of dynamic management as being coactive rather than coercive.
^Vocational Business: Training, Developing and Motivating People by Richard Barrett – Business & Economics – 2003. p. 51.
^Compare:Holmes, Leonard (2012-11-28).The Dominance of Management: A Participatory Critique. Voices in Development Management. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. (published 2012). p. 20.ISBN978-1-4094-8866-8. Retrieved2015-08-29.Lupton's (1983: 17) notion that management is 'what managers do during their working hours', if valid, could only apply to descriptive conceptualizations of management, where 'management' is effectively synonymous with 'managing', and where 'managing' refers to an activity, or set of activities carried out by managers.
^Shaw, D.,Birmingham Prison: Government takes over from G4S,BBC News, published on 20 August 2018, accessed on 22 July 2025, quote: "ineffective frontline management and leadership were at the heart of the prison's problems".
^Lilienfeld SO, Ritschel LA, Lynn SJ, Cautin RL, Latzman RD (November 2013). "Why many clinical psychologists are resistant to evidence-based practice: root causes and constructive remedies".Clinical Psychology Review.33 (7):883–900.doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2012.09.008.PMID23647856.
^Waring, S.P., 2016, Taylorism transformed: Scientific management theory since 1945. UNC Press Books.
^Giddens, Anthony (1981).A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. Social and Politic Theory from Polity Press. Vol. 1. University of California Press. p. 125.ISBN978-0-520-04490-6. Retrieved2013-12-29.In the army barracks, and in the mass co-ordination of men on the battlefield (epitomized by the military innovations of Prince Maurice of Orange and Nassau in the sixteenth century) are to be found the prototype of the regimentation of the factory – as both Marx and Weber noted.
^abGomez-Mejia, Luis R.; David B. Balkin; Robert L. Cardy (2008).Management: People, Performance, Change (3 ed.). New York:McGraw-Hill. p. 20.ISBN978-0-07-302743-2.
^Jacoby, S.M. (1985). "Employing Bureaucracy: Managers, Unions, and the Transformation of Work in American Industry, 1900-1945".Columbia University Press.
^Cruikshank, L (1987). "A Delicate Experiment: The Harvard Business School, 1908-1945".Harvard Business School Press.
^Legge, David; Stanton, Pauline; Smyth, Anne (October 2005)."Learning management (and managing your own learning)". In Harris, Mary G. (ed.).Managing Health Services: Concepts and Practice. Marrickville, NSW: Elsevier Australia (published 2006). p. 13.ISBN978-0-7295-3759-9. Retrieved2014-07-11.Themanager as bureaucrat is the guardian of roles, rules, and relationships; his or her style of management relies heavily on working according to the book. In the Weberian tradition, managers are necessary to coordinate the different roles that contribute to the production process and to mediate communication from the head office to the shop floor and back. This style of management assumes a world view in which the bureaucratic role is seen as separate from, and taking precedence over, other constructions of self (including the obligations of citizenship), at least for the working day.
^Avram, Elena; Avasilcai, Silvia; Bujor, Adriana (23 April 2025). "Elements of the Harzburg Management Model as a vector for Increasing Employee Motivation". In Prostean, Gabriela I.; Lavios, Juan J.; Brancu, Laura; Şahin, Faruk (eds.).Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Challenging Global Times: Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium in Management (SIM 2021). Lecture Notes in Management and Industrial Engineering. Cham (Zug): Springer Nature. p. 268.ISBN9783031471643. Retrieved26 April 2025.[...] six central elements of the Harzburg Model: leadership principles, decentralization of the decision-making process, communication pattern, job description, delegation of responsibility and employee's development and organizational support.
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