What is a manager?

Effective managers are essential to any organization’s overall(a.全部的) success, regardless of whether it is a global giant or a small start-up（新创建的） enterprise. Indeed, having talented（a.有才能的，能干的） people is so important to the success of a business that Fortune magazine includes “the ability to attract（吸引）, develop, and keep talented people” as one of the key factors used to establish its list of Most Admired Companies.

Effective managers must pay attention to what goes on both inside and outside their organizations. Regardless of where their attention might be focused at any particular time, managers are part and parcel of（…的主要部分） organizational settings(设置). Profited-oriented(以盈利为目的) businesses are one type of organizational setting in which managers are found, but they aren’t the only one. Undoubtedly, you could write your autobiography（n.自传） as a series of experiences with organizations such as hospitals, schools, museums, sports teams, stores, amusement parks, restaurants, orchestras(n. 交响乐团), community groups and clubs, government agencies, and others. Some of these organizations were small, and others were large. Some were for-profit companies, and others were nonprofit organizations. Some others offered only services, some were well managed, and others struggled merely to survive.

We refer to such a group of people as an organization because each has a structure and strives(n.努力) to achieve goals that individuals acting alone(单独行动的个人) could not reach. All organizations strive to achieve specific goals, but they don’t all have the same goals. For example, a goal at Southwest Airlines is to offer on-time service at the lowest prevailing(a. 流行的) price to increase its market share(市场份额)。 A goal at Polaroid(宝丽来) is to create innovative(a. 革新的，创新的) cameras, whereas at Minolta(美能达) a goal is to produce high-quality lenses for cameras and other optical（光学的） devices.

Regardless of an organization’s specific goals, the job of managers is to help the organization achieve those goals. In this book, we look at managers in organizations of all types and sizes that have many different goals and many different ways of achieving their goals. Our primary purposes are to help you understand how managers accomplish their goals and to help you develop some of the managerial(a.管理的) competencies(n.能力) that you will need to be effective in whatever types of organizations you find yourself. Many-indeed, most-of these competencies will be useful to you even if you never have a job with the word manager in the title(n. 称号，头衔).

What is the manager?

Up to now we’ve been talking about managers for so long, and next it’s time to clarify (v. 解释；澄清；阐明) exactly what the term means. A manager is a person who plans, organizes, directs, and controls the allocation(n. 分配) of human, material, financial, and information resources in pursuit(n.寻求) of the organization’s goals. The many different types of managers include departmentmanagers, productmanagers, accountmanagers, plant managers, division(n.分部) managers, district managers and task force managers. What they all have in common is responsibility for the efforts of a group of people who share a goal and access to resources that the group can use in pursuing its goal.

You don’t have to be called a manager to be a manager. Some managers have unique and creative titles, such as chief knowledge officer (a person in charge of training and development) and chief information officer (a person in charge of information systems). People with the job titles of chief executive officer (CEO), president, managing director, supervisor(n.管理者), and coach also have the responsibility for helping a group of people achieve a common goal, so they too are managers.

Most employees contribute to organizations through their own individual work, not by directing other employees. Journalists, computer programmers, insurance agents, machine operators, newscasters(新闻播报员), graphic（n平面的） designers, sales associates(n.合伙人), stockbrokers, accountants, and lawyers are essential to achieving their organizations’ goal, but many people with their job titles aren’t managers.

What sets managers apart, if not their job titles? Simply put(简单说来), the difference between managers and individual contributors is that managers are evaluated(v.评价，估价) on how well the people they direct do their jobs. Consider Jennifer Laing, for example. In 1997, she left her position as chairman of the London office of Saatchi ﹠Saatchi Advertising Worldwide to become chief executive of its North American operations. Her new responsibilities included supervising the accounts(客户) for some famous brands and landing new accounts. Clearly, all the work that goes into promoting these brands, which generate revenues(n.税收，收入) of more than ＄2 billion, can’t be done by one person—it takes several thousand. Laing’s job is to oversee(n.监督) the efforts of everyone working on all the North American accounts.

An important responsibility of managers such as Laing is to ensure that their groups understand their goals and how achieving their goals is related to the success of their organization, Saatchi ﹠Saatchi’s primary goal is to “make clients’ brands famous.” While achieving the goal, the company also has the goal of making its own name famous. It achieves these goals by producing excellent advertising for its current clients and by attracting new accounts.

Because managers achieve organizational goals by enabling people to do their jobs effectively and efficiently—not by performing all the tasks themselves—they must find ways to keep employees motivated (v. 激发). Laing described Saatchi ﹠Saatchi’s employees as highly motivated. She gives them credit for the firm’s ability to recover from the turmoil(n.混乱，骚动) it experiences in 1995 when founders Maurice and Charles Saatchi left the firm to open their own shop. The firm’s 6200 employees then showed the “desire to prove that the next generation could not only do a good job but a better job.” Laing knows that it is her job to keep their motivation high, which she plans to do by providing consistent leadership.