Managers

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What Managers Do

Managers are responsible for ensuring tasks are completed in the day-to-day.

Small businesses

In small businesses, leaders and managers are often the same people.

Larger businesses

As businesses grow, however, the role of leaders and managers can become distinct from one another.
- In a growing business, a focus on long-term vision and direction is often needed, and it is the role of a leader to provide this.
- Managers focus on ensuring tasks are completed, and deadlines are met, in such a way to support the long-term vision and direction of the leader.

The manager's role

The manager’s role, as a decision maker, includes many different roles:
- A manager must set objectives so that success criteria are available to later establish whether or not a task has been completed successfully.
- A manager must review and analyse data so that adaptations to current processes can be made if required.
- A manager must select strategies and implement these to ensure processes are working efficiently and are supporting overall objectives.
- A manager must review the impact of their decisions and use this review to inform the setting of future objectives.

Types of Leadership

Businesses are diverse in their size, structure, and approach. One management or leadership approach might be successful in one type of business and unsuccessful in another type of business.

Factors which influence styles of management and leadership

The external environment can affect the type of management or leadership style which is appropriate for a business.
The culture of a business can affect the type of management or leadership style which is best suited to the business’ needs.
- For example, in businesses with a very clear and well-defined culture, a change of leadership style may be difficult to introduce without resistance from the majority of employees.

Factors which influence styles of management and leadership

The skill level of the workforce can influence the type of management or leadership style used as managers may, or may not, want to involve employees in the decision making process.
- For example, managers and leaders often value the knowledge of skilled and qualified staff but less so when staff are unskilled or inexperienced.

Autocratic leadership

Autocratic leadership refers to an approach by leaders or managers to keep control of decision making and ensure that employees are closely supervised.
If a business has a largely unskilled workforce, a manager or leader may wish to maintain decision making powers and therefore adopt an autocratic approach.

Democratic leadership

Democratic leadership refers to an approach by leaders or managers to discuss and consult with employees, delegate decision making authority and empower employees through their involvement.
- For example, in businesses which employ highly skilled and highly qualified employees, such as universities, Google and Microsoft, a manager or leader may decide that the contributions of such staff could be highly valuable to the business; here, a democratic approach may be suitable so that employees can contribute their expertise to the decision making process.

1Business Organisation & Environment

1.1Introduction to Business Management

1.1.1Why Businesses Exist & Sectors

1.2Types of Organisation

1.2.1Sole Traders

1.2.2Limited Liability

1.2.3Non-Profit

1.2.4Franchising

1.2.5End of Topic Test - Franchising

1.3Organisational Objectives

1.3.1External Environments

1.3.2Business Mission & Corporate Objective

1.3.3Mission, Corporate Objectives & Strategy

1.3.4SWOT Analysis

1.3.5End of Topic Test - SWOT Analysis

1.4Stakeholders

1.4.1Stakeholders

1.5External Environment

1.5.1Social & Technological Environment

1.5.2Lifestyle & Technological Environment

1.5.3Corporate Social Responsibility

1.5.4Economic Environment

1.5.5Political & Legal Change

1.6Growth & Evolution

1.6.1Growth & Retrenchment

1.6.2Challenges of Growth

1.6.3Growth Models

1.6.4End of Topic Test - Diseconomies of Scale

1.6.5Internationalisation

1.6.6Sourcing Resources & Entering Markets

1.6.7End of Topic Test - Internationalisation

1.6.8Managing Internationalisation

1.6.9Impact of Internationalisation

1.7HL Only: Organisational Planning Tools

1.7.1Organisational Planning Tools

2Human Resource Management

2.1Functions & Evolution of Human Resource Management

2.1.1Setting Human Resource Objectives

2.1.2Human Resource Management

2.1.3Labour Turnover & Retention

2.1.4Labour Productivity

2.2Organisational Structure

2.2.1Organisational Structures

2.3Leadership & Management

2.3.1Managers

2.3.2Management Theories

2.3.3End of Topic Test - Management

2.4Motivation

2.4.1Motivating & Engaging Employees

2.4.2Taylor's Theory

2.4.3Maslow's Theory

2.4.4Herzberg's Theory

2.4.5Different Incentives

2.4.6Evaluating Incentives

2.5Organisational (Corporate) Culture

2.5.1Managing Organisational Culture

2.5.2Organisational Structures

2.6HL Only: Industrial/Employee Relations

2.6.1Improving Employer-Employee Relations

2.6.2Case Study - The Winter of Discontent

3Finance & Accounts

3.1Sources of Finance

3.1.1Internal Sources of Finance

3.1.2External Sources of Finance

3.1.3Factors for Financing

3.1.4End of Topic Test - Debt

3.2Costs & Revenues

3.2.1Costs & Revenues

3.3Break-Even Analysis

3.3.1Profit

3.3.2Break-Even Analysis

3.4Profitability & Liquidity Ratio Analysis

3.4.1Profitability Analysis

3.5Cash Flow

3.5.1Cash Flow

3.5.2Solutions to Cash Flow Problems

3.5.3Improving Cash Flow & Profits

3.6HL Only: Investment Appraisal

3.6.1Investment Appraisal

3.7HL Only: Budgets

3.7.1Cash-Flow & Budgets

4Marketing

4.1The Role of Marketing

4.1.1Setting Marketing Objectives

4.1.2Market Calculations

4.2Marketing Planning

4.2.1Marketing Mix

4.2.2Segmentation

4.2.3Niche & Mass Markets

4.3Market Research

4.3.1Market Research

4.3.2Market Mapping

4.3.3Methods of Market Research

4.4The 4 Ps

4.4.1Product Decisions

4.4.2Pricing Decisions & Price Skimming

4.4.3Pricing Decisions & Price Penetration

4.4.4End of Topic Test - Pricing & Competition

4.4.5Promotional Decisions

4.4.6Promotional Decisions 2

4.4.7Promotional Decisions 3

4.4.8Digital Marketing

4.4.9Evaluating Digital Marketing

4.4.10Case Study - The Marketing Mix & Promotion

4.4.11Place & Distribution

4.5HL Only: The Extended Marketing Mix

4.5.1The Extended Marketing Mix

4.6HL Only: International Marketing

4.6.1International Marketing

4.7E-Commerce

4.7.1E-Commerce

5Operations Management

5.1The Role of Operations Management

5.1.1Setting Operational Objectives

5.2Production Methods

5.2.1Production Processes Overview

5.2.2Production Processes

5.2.3Production Efficiency

5.2.4Technology & Production

5.3HL Only: Lean Prodution & Quality Management

5.3.1Importance of Quality

5.3.2Measuring & Identifying Quality

5.3.3Total Quality Management

5.3.4Evaluating Total Quality Management

5.3.5Case Study - Toyota Production System

5.4HL Only: Production Planning

5.4.1Capacity

5.4.2Productivity & Efficiency

5.4.3Technology & Efficiency

5.4.4Improving the Supply Chain

5.4.5Inventory

5.4.6Outsourcing

5.5HL Only: Research & Development

5.5.1Organisational Planning Tools

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