1. Makerere University Business School
Strategic Management Course
MANAGEMENT LEVELS, DECISIONS &
SKILLS
24/09/13 13:22 A.N.S- nsserwanga@yahoo.com 1

2. Management Levels
• Corporate level – organisation peak
–Board of directors
–Parent Company
• Business level (business unit level)
–Strategic business unit is a unit in the
organisation which is sufficiently
autonomous for it to have a strategy which
could be distinct from other units if this were
desirable.
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3. Management levels - ctd
• Functional level e.g
– Production
– Marketing
– Finance
– Research and development
– Human resources and administration
• Operational level
– Subsections e.g a production line
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4. Board of Directors
• Has ultimate legal authority
• Responsible to shareholders for:
• Ensuring management continuity
• Protecting resources
• Prudent actions in relation to corporate
objectives
• Approving major Financial and operational
decisions of managers.
• Maintaining, revising and enforcing corporate
charter and by-laws.
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5. Board membership
• Membership requirements
– Knowledge of some functions e.g operations
– Business acumen
– Industry perspective
• “Inside board” – comprised of top managers
– Traditional
– Risk of ratifying their own decisions
• “Outside board members”
– Stakeholders in shareholders interests
– Represent minority group
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6. Board membership - ctd
• Now increasingly active due to:
• Increasing charges on directors for failure
• Legislation in some countries
• Increase in audit requirements
• Director jobs are increasingly becoming un-
attractive because of accountability.
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7. The General Manager
• GMs are key players in strategic management
• Executives at enterprise pinnacle or SBUs
• Responsible for survival and success
• Common titles:
– Chairman (of the board)
– President (or Senior VP, Exec. VP, VP)
– Managing Director
– Chief Executive Officer
– General manager
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8. GMs Skill requirements
• More conceptual skills
• Organisational skills
• Analytical skills
• Design & planning skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Human relations & interpersonal skills
• General skills rather than specialised skills
• Less need for technical abilities
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9. GM Roles – Mintzberg’s List
Interpersonal roles
• Symbolic figure head of the organisation
• Ceremonial duties – legal or social
• Staffing, training and motivating
Informational roles
• Disseminator to outsiders & insiders
• Spokesperson
• Monotor – reads reports, makes tours, observes meetings
seeking information
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10. Roles Continued
Decision roles:
• Entrepreneur – strategic functions to start projects
• Disturbance handler
– Correct problems
– Solve crises
• Resource “allocator”
– Authorise budgets
– Approve allocation requests for
• Human resources, Monetary resources, Material resources
• Negotiator- signs contracts with
– Trade unions
– Big suppliers
– Big customers24/09/13 13:22 ABAHO ERNEST 10

11. GM roles – non strategic
• Have other work, day to day
• Tend to get trapped in these jobs
– Because of short term results
• Less emphasis on strategic roles leads to lack of
innovation
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12. Business Level
• Strategic business unit managers
• Corporate planners
• Consultants
Roles
• SBU executives may set strategies for their
units / businesses
• Roles are generally similar to top level
managers but for their units
• Create multiple strategies on a contingency
basis
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13. SBU Executive skills
• Entrepreneurial skills
– Develop new ventures
• Detailed planning skills
• Expertise in strategic planning
• They share skill requirements with top level
managers
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14. Middle / Tactical/ Functional level
Roles
• Receive from top – policies, goals
• Interpret for subordinates for action
• Policy implementers
• Take un-structured tactical decisions
• Structure them, guide lower levels for implementation
• Examples of tactical decisions
– Customers (in general) to be given credit
– Products / services for specific markets
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15. Functional level skill requirements
More inter-personal skills such as
• Assertiveness
• Conflict management
• Facilitation and meeting
• Negotiation
• Motivation & influencing skills
• Mentoring / coaching
• Networking
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16. Supervisory / Operational Level
• Doers, managers who actually supervise the work
• Direct, control the work
• Provide main contact between management and
workers
• Take structured / programmed decisions
• Decisions at this level
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17. Operational decisions - examples
• Assigning operational tasks
• Allocating equipment, tools for use
• Deciding which suppliers to be on the approved
list
• Scheduling reporting time
• Approving leave
• Determining inventory re-order levels
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18. Operational level skills requirements
• Technical skills
• Inter-personal skills
• Skills of other (higher levels) but of less
importance
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