Aimee
[closed] What is a working manager?
Hello,
I am a business senior who has some academic knowledge with administration and management. Students who have similiar interests are seeking information and have concerns about what managers do during their typical job. Upon spending some of my time looking at careers in management, I came across the term "working manager". To my understanding, I believe that this means they delegate tasks to other people and run things in their area of the business. Does this also mean that they cross trainwith different areas of a business such as marketing, sales, and distribution?
Thank you for your ideas,
Aimee #business #management #administration #business-intelligence
3 answers
Adam Brittain
Adam’s Answer
Hello Aimee S.
I have been a working manager in prior roles, and I currently report to a working manager. An analogy might be a "player/coach", or a member of a team who instructs and supports their teammates while also playing the game.
Working managers might occur due to a various factors. One factor may be that the organization is "flat", meaning roles are not formal and collaboration is high. In these types of organizations it is common for people of many different roles (e.g. manager, director, VP) to do "actual work" outside of simply delegating. Another factor could be that the organization is understaffed so they rely on one person to do the work of two.
Per the prior response, being a working manager does not guarantee that one will participate in cross-training. Whether a manager or employee gets to cross-train has a lot to do with the philosophy of the organization they work for and/or the role they work in.
Being a working manager can mean many different things, depending on the execution and the role. It is very rare now to see any managers who only review and delegate work to others.
Gerard James
Gerard’s Answer
1.Sets objectives. The manager sets goals for the group, and decides what work needs to be done to meet those goals. 2) Organizes. The manager divides the work into manageable activities, and selects people to accomplish the tasks that need to be done.
Lisa Mark, MA
Lisa’s Answer
A working manager is someone who performs their primary job function, (Marketing Strategist, Accountant, Software Programmer, etc.) WHILE managing employees beneath him/her. It has NOTHING to do with cross training to learn other job functions. If for example, if you wanted a career in Human Resources, and you wanted some day to Manage an HR Department, you WOULD need to build your resume (in the same company or not), by taking jobs of different job functions within an HR Department. EX. 1. Payroll 2. Benefits 3. Compensation 4. Recruiting. By working in these areas, you would learn about all the major functions of an HR Dept. You could also build a career within one of these areas, but you probably would not qualify for the Head of an HR Dept.
An IT professional MUST keep up with changes in technology. They use an expression, "use it or lose it". If an IT manager ONLY supervises and does not "get his hands dirty" then he will lose his technical skills. This can be very risky in IT because things change so quickly, A working manager in IT would perform technical tasks and manage a small group. He/she would likely NOT want to be promoted to a Senior Management position, preferring to stay in the technical track. P.S. Management does NOT always equate to highest pay, especially in technical jobs. Science, engineering, IT.