Roles, Responsibilities, And Skills Of A Manager In An Organization: A Study With Reference To United Petroleum

Organizational background

The productivity of an organization is completely dependent on the proper functioning of the various departments or domains. The effective handing and functioning is relied on one of the key force of the organization. Managers are one of the crucial and pivotal employees of an organization who tend to efficiently join the organization with its publics and look after its operations. The managers have certain determined roles and responsibilities that directly affect the production of the organization in terms of business and revenue (Quinn et al.  2014).

This report deals with the complete detailing about the roles and responsibilities of a manager. On further added note, this report includes the various skills and abilities that a manager should possess to manage the operations of an organization as well a detailed analysis of the position of a manager with respect to the job responsibilities.

The purpose of this report is to study and analyze the key skills as well as the roles and responsibilities of a manager. As well, as understand the role of the manager in tackling the inventory management. An organization has been cited for reference purpose, related to the topic.

United petroleum is an independent organization that is predominantly Australian owned petrol and convenience company that offers its customers the best and the premium quality fuels and at the best competitive price in the whole of Australia.

It is one of the fastest and the booming independent companies in Australia. United petroleum specializes in the retailing and wholesale of fuel markets, convenience stores and ethanol manufacturing. This large organization generates huge employment for over 2500 Australians. This organization not only focus in the supply of the best quality products to the consumers but it also supplies the best quality consumable products through its retail and convenience stores, in the most cheap and affordable prices. United petroleum is one of the largest chain of petroleum, retail and convenience organization that complete relies on the successful management of and by its employees. With reference to the United Petroleum organization the roles and responsibilities have been discussed.

The managerial job has been divided into its respective sub parts depending on the significance and the conditions under which the managerial job needs to meet its purpose.

The importance and the precedence of the task has been divided into the roles of conservation as well as the creative roles.

The precedence involves and revolves around the daily challenges and obstacles that are met by the employees of the organization. This also includes the main challenges that need to be faced by the managers and prevent conflicts at the workplace, motivation of the employees to perform better, mitigation of underperformance as well as check on the organizational productivity to effectively meet the competition in the market of the same category (Bolman and Deal 2017).

Categorization of the managerial job

The creative roles of the managers involves around the self-actualization, the expansion of the organizational dynamics, find newer and innovative ways to deal and recover the losses or the under performance of the organization, promoting a better workplace environment by managing the diversity in the workplace.

This element of managerial job has been divided into three sub parts namely, the Strategic roles, Company roles and Personal roles.

The strategic roles of the manager are to ensure the organization meets its daily targets and mitigation of all the probable pitfalls and liabilities that might hamper the financial stability of the organization as well the work environment.

The company roles of the manager involves the directing the organization towards efficient and effective functions of the various departments as per planning and expectations.

The manager is an equalizing symbolization of the organization who is not only dutiful and responsible towards the organization but he represents the organization as well. The personal roles of the manager are to correspond to both the internal and the external regulation that concerns with the organization.

The supervising roles of the manager has been classified under two sub divisions namely the Informative roles and the conclusion roles.

 Under the informative roles, the managers are require to perform certain necessary actions related to the congregation of information that are highly rational and are mostly concerned with the activity as well as the performance of the organization which are in turn crucial in the decision making process, regarding any concern. The informative roles also include the responsibility of monitoring the activities as well as the dissemination roles.

The conclusion roles of a manager are to ensure the passing of any decision that has been taken by the ruling authority of the organization to the different performing departments of the organization. In other words, conclusion role of a manager is to conclude about the decisions that have been taken by the higher authority of the organization concerning the changes, roles, responsibilities and the policies, to the other members of the organization.

Every manager should possess some key skills and qualities that would ensure the better performance and the functioning of the organization in terms of productivity and competitive advantage, thus building a better brand (Aaker 2012). The qualities of a manager can be classified under different categories namely, Personal characteristics, Business characteristics, Communication qualities and Relationship qualities. These characteristics and qualities have been discussed below.

• Self-motivation– As said, a person cannot motivate others if he/her cannot motive himself/herself. Only a self-motivated person can direct others to channel their abilities towards a definite direction.
• Dependability– This is one of the qualities that the superiors the organization, tend to look for in a manager, in terms business handling. This helps in concluding that the manager can be relied upon for the successful organizational operations.
• Optimism– Only an optimistic person can look forward for a better prospect in every spheres of life. In terms of work, that quality can help a person visualize the bigger picture.
• Flexibility– This is the quality of a person to adapt to changes, as being volatile can be helpful in working under stressful situations.
• Confidence– Belief in oneself is the biggest strength to achieve a difficult task, that can be perceived as a difficult one by others. A confident manager has the capability to change the scenario by any means.
• Patience– The pacified manager can tackle any situation under pressure since losing the calm can only result in blunders while making crucial decisions in terms of work.

• Proper knowledge– A manager should have proper knowledge about the industry and its implications. This would be helpful to understand and find relevant solutions to any crisis that might arise in terms of work and achieve better competitive advantage (Wagner III and Hollenbeck 2014).
• Knowledge about delegation– An efficient manager should have the knowledge of assigning the right person for the job. Assigning the appropriate person determines the success and failure of the task and a good manager would exactly what should be done.
• Organization– A good manager would be organized in his job. Maintaining of proper records, task, monitoring of employee performance and other regular organizational activities would be performed by a good manager.
• Financial management– A good manager knows and understands the flow of cash in a clear manner. A versatile manager would keep track of the financial management and activities of the organization (Gitman, Juchau and Flanagan 2015).
• Business hierarchy- A manager should have the information of the organizational hierarchy and know the commands that need to be followed immediately. He should have the idea of when and whom to report.
• Legal implication– Proper knowledge about the legal implications should be known. It is not always necessary to be an expertise in legal concerns but good knowledge about the implications can be helpful in the mitigation of any crisis at work.

• Active listener– One of the important part of communication is listening. A good manager would focus in attentive listening before referring a solution or while communicating with others.
• Writing skills– Good skills in writing is helpful in better representation of ideas in a professional manner, using the proficiency in language and grammar. A good manager should have the ability to do such.
• Public speaker– A good public speaker has better influence on the listeners. A proficient manager should be a good public speaker to help express his ideas and influence others.
• Precision– An effective manager should know how to meet the target without beating around the bush. Meeting the job efficiently with precision is the quality of a better manager (Goetsch and Davis 2014).
• Constructive feedback– An efficient manager should have the ability to impart feedbacks to his co-employees in a manner that can indirectly influence them.

• Customer eccentric– A good manager would always know the value to customers in terms of business. He should have the quality to generate and retain customers to ensure an expanding business (Sousa, Ruzo and Losada 2013).
• Good mediator- Being a good mediator is one of the positive skills of a manager. This is helpful to promote a peaceful working environment in the workplace and prevent clashes between individuals that can hamper productivity (Bell and Goldsmith 2013).
• Team player– An organization yields its benefits under the joint effort of teams. Being a good team player of a manager helps the team and the organization perform better producing positive results in terms of business.
• Respectful– A good manager would always have healthy respect towards his colleagues and associates. Mutual respect always produces a positive outlook towards a healthy work environment, integrating and cultivating better ideas.

Qualities of a manager

Inventory management refers to the supervision of the capitalized assets of an organization that includes the supplies, stocks and the warehouse maintenance (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). Inventory management in one of the components of supply chain management of an organization that ensure the flow of the products from the manufacturers to the consumers (Tayur, Ganeshan and Magazine 2012).

The responsibilities of a manager in regards to the inventory management of an organization involve certain activities that need to be maintained to retain a healthy productivity and revenue generation of an organization.

The primary responsibility of a manager is to recruit employees for the organization. Only the manager has the authority to hire the appropriate employees for the stock keeping or the inventory department of an organization (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). The manager not only has the authority to hire but the responsibility to train them is a part of their job. Ensuring that all the employees, from the floor manager to the cashier contribute their best efforts in the functioning of the organization is an important part of the managerial job (Aswathappa 2013). A manager should be responsible enough to stand by the employees at hour of crisis and perform as a team to outlast the crisis (Hu et al. 2012).

The manager should ensure that the organization meets the targets on time and outperform in its best manner. He is liable for the performance of the employees in terms of achieving the profit margins or the allotted financial achievement.

The manager is responsible to maintain the work environment, both on cleanliness and diversity. A healthy and safe work environment would ensure better performing employees in a workplace (Patrick and Kumar 2012).

The managerial job includes working in collaboration with the associates to ensure that the organization meets the customer needs and lives up to the brand image as well as planning and managing of allotted profit margins of the organizations (Tuškej, Golob and Podnar 2013).

The manager is responsible for the proper and accurate stock keeping of the inventory department. He is liable to ensure the availability of the supplies to prevent out of stock crisis and maintain a continuous flow of supplies. The manager is responsible to maintain a pilferage free environment in the inventory department of the organization (Hollensen 2015).

The other responsibilities of a manager is to evaluate suppliers to ensure continuous and quality flow of products for an uninterrupted revenue generation, preparation of valid documentation to prevent shrinkage of profits due to loss or theft of inventories. Keeping a track of new inventories and suppliers to prevent chaos and keep an integral knowledge about the inventory flow of the organization.

Conclusion:

With the help of this report, it can be concluded that a manager hold one of the most integral and responsible post in an organization. A manager is the has several important responsibilities in an organization from recruiting the employees to the managing of the productivity of the organization. The manager is also responsible for the maintenance of the inventory department of the organization. In order to manage all these responsibilities the manager should possess positive qualities of confidence, self-respect, better knowledge, responsibility, reliability, being a good motivator and much more. All these qualities would ensure the dependency of the organization on a worthy person, who would in turn benefit the organization with flourishing business.

References:

Aaker, D.A., 2012. Building strong brands. Simon and Schuster.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Aswathappa, K., 2013. Human resource management: Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

Bell, C.R. and Goldsmith, M., 2013. Managers as mentors: Building partnerships for learning. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Gitman, L.J., Juchau, R. and Flanagan, J., 2015. Principles of managerial finance. Pearson Higher Education AU.

Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Hollensen, S., 2015. Marketing management: A relationship approach.

Hu, Q., Dinev, T., Hart, P. and Cooke, D., 2012. Managing employee compliance with information security policies: The critical role of top management and organizational culture. Decision Sciences, 43(4), pp.615-660.

Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K., 2013. Operations management: processes and supply chains (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Pearson.

Patrick, H.A. and Kumar, V.R., 2012. Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges. Sage Open, 2(2), p.2158244012444615.

Quinn, R.E., Bright, D., Faerman, S.R., Thompson, M.P. and McGrath, M.R., 2014. Becoming a master manager: A competing values approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Sousa, C.M., Ruzo, E. and Losada, F., 2013, May. The key role of managers’ values in exporting: Influence on customer responsiveness and export performance. American Marketing Association.

Tayur, S., Ganeshan, R. and Magazine, M. eds., 2012. Quantitative models for supply chain management (Vol. 17). Springer Science & Business Media.

Tuškej, U., Golob, U. and Podnar, K., 2013. The role of consumer–brand identification in building brand relationships. Journal of business research, 66(1), pp.53-59.

Wagner III, J.A. and Hollenbeck, J.R., 2014. Organizational behavior: Securing competitive advantage.