Manager

The term manager in an organization is the position responsible for designated organizational unit or other defined area (such as project or risk area). The manager‘s task is to manage, i.e. to plan, to lead, to organize, to make decisions and to control people, processes and other resources in assigned responsibility within the organization.

Based on the scope of assigned responsibility and a position in organizational structure can roughly managers in line organizational structure divide into:

• Senior managers (also known as top management, C-level) - the scope of their responsibility is at the level of the entire organization or business. The top manager can also be called a director. These include:

  • Director of the company, especially for large companies it is used a term Director General (also uses the acronym CEO – Chief Executive Officer), usually other managers at the level of directors are subordinate to him
  • Director of Finance, also uses the acronym CFO (Chief Financial Officer)
  • Director of Operations, also uses the acronym COO (Chief Operations Officer)
  • Director of ICT, also uses the acronym CIO (Chief Information Officer)
  • Director of Personnel, also uses the acronym CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer)
  • Director of Business, also uses the acronym CSO (Chief Sales Officer)
  • Depending on the complexity and structure of the organization there may be other top managers on the director level, for example CTO (or technical director, production director), plant manager or branch manager, regional director, etc.

• Midline managers (also known as middle management) - the scope of their responsibility is at the level of larger organizational units or an area that goes across the organization. For smaller organizations, the rule is that top management is only composed of the director and all other positions listed above are at middle management level. Typically, middle management in larger organizations is made up of:

  • Head of Section, Head of department – for line organization structure
  • Quality Manager
  • Risk Manager
  • Safety Manager
  • Manager of Development
  • and others

• First-line managers - a scope of their responsibility is at the smallest organization unit or assigned area. Examples of first-line management are:

  • Product Manager
  • Logistics Manager
  • Marketing Manager
  • Service Manager
  • Facility Manager
  • Building Manager
  • Accounting Department Manager
  • Warehouse Manager
  • and others

In addition to these line managers there are still other types of managers, whose responsibility is made otherwise. For example, staff managers are responsible for staff departments or project managers are responsible for the project and they are typical for matrix organizational structure.

Each manager must meet the appropriate level of managerial skills and can act in moremanagerial roles.