Katz Managerial Skill free essay sample

Introduction As the world enters more modern civilization, organizations also morph into more complex and competitive context. Thus, such situation will become more challenging for today’s managers in maintaining the viability of current organizations. Regarding to those issues, it is important to comprehend in depth on manager’s work. This essay commences a brief description of the manager interviewed. It will then evaluate the relevance of the Katz’s theory to the interviewed manager’s work. However, it will be more focused on the conceptual skill. Then, this essay will analyze on the relationship of several theories amongst Katz’ managerial work, Fayol’s management function and Mintzberg’s management roles. Finally, it will also examine the relation on Taylor’s four principles to the manager’s work. This essay concludes that every theory has its own limitation, thus, it disable to perfectly describe manager’s job. Description of the Interviewed Manager The interviewed manager that will be further discussed in this essay is a first-line manager. She is a supervisor in a branch of a non-local multinational in United States of America. The organization is a medium-sized restaurant which is in service sector. It has been running for about one and a half years. The interviewed manager has been working in the restaurant since it was opened. Her major duty is supervising the work of her members to achieve the optimum performance. Besides, monitoring the members work becomes her daily responsibility. Evaluation of Katz’s Managerial Skills Based on the interview conducted, it is significant that the manager’s work reflects particular managerial skills. In this context, the managerial skills will be evaluated based on Kat’s theory. Kat’s managerial skills are classified into three types: â€Å"conceptual, technical and human (interpersonal)† (Robbins et al. 2006, p. 14). Those skills are interrelated in implication of managerial activities. For further understanding, it is essential to identity the conceptual skill of the interviewed manager whether it is relevant to the Katz model or not. Robbins et al. (2006) define conceptual skill as â€Å"an ability to conceptualize and to think about abstract and complex situations†. According to Kat’s, this skill is mostly practiced by upper-level managers. It is necessary for top managers to possess because oftentimes they encounter obscure situations; thus, conceptual skill is required in order to overcome the problems. Furthermore, they have to be able to foresee all contingencies that might happen in the future. Robbins et al. (2006) point out that top manager should be able to interact with heterogeneous conditions in a broader scope of environment. According to the former, conceptual skill is less likely to be practiced by lower-level managers. Nevertheless, in a modern organization especially since global era, ideas can derive not only from executive managers, but also from low-level managers. Likewise, Chapman (2001) suggests that rigid hierarchy structure is no longer exists in new features organization as divisions or departments are connected horizontally to allow the fluid flow of information. In fact, it is reflected on the interviewed manager. Ms. X admitted that although new plans are generally instructed by her top manager, however, she also participated in contributing ideas in meeting. Moreover, she explained that she should be able to coordinate certain parts of business to achieve effectiveness that actually require conceptual skill. For instance, she needs to control the promptness of the work of internal personnel in process of cooking, monitor the waiters in serving food for customers and also ensure the satisfactory of customers for their services. Thus, it can be seen that basic conceptual skill is necessary for first-line managers to have which means Kat’s theory is not strongly reflected to the works of the interviewed manager. Apparently, the irrelevance is first because of in this particular business, conceptual skill is required for first-line manager in the activities. Second, a more flexible condition in modern era has forced managers’ activities to encompass conceptual skill in order to be more agile in engaging the changing conditions. Apart from conceptual skill, technical skill, according to Katz, is a very essential managerial skill especially for first-line and middle managers (Robbins et al. , 2006). However, proficiency of a specific knowledge is not required in the job of Ms. X. Peterson and Fleet (2004) mentions that a manager must have technical skill in order to â€Å"train, direct and evaluate subordinates performing specialized task†. Conversely, it is noteworthy that Ms. X is reasonable experienced to train and direct her members although she had never attended any educational process for her specific job. Thus, it can be concluded Katz theory may not be well reflected for certain jobs. The third is human skill (interpersonal skill) which is compulsory for all levels managers. Regardless on the levels, it is vital for managers to have interpersonal skill, as they need to have regular contacts to subordinates to achieve goals (Gillen and Carroll, 1987). Ms. X also agrees as her work in service sector, abilities to interact with diverse people is essential because she had to be able to cooperate with her members. Furthermore, she also had to get deal with many customers every day. Hence, interpersonal skill is considered as the most supreme skill for her job. Those reasons have advocated the Katz argument that managers at all levels need to have interpersonal skill as to work with and through other people effectively and efficiently. Analysis on Relationship on Theories of Katz, Fayol and Mintzberg Basically, the managers’ work can be clarified by using theories of Katz’s managerial skill, Fayol’s managerial function and Mintzberg’s manager roles. In fact, those theories are related and enable to explain the work of managers in a lucid picture. Katz’s human skill is reflected in Mintzberg’s interpersonal role that requires a manager to be able to interact with people.