Different Levels of Management in

the Form of a Pyramid

As the organizations grow larger and more complex, they usually develop several levels
of managerial positions, forming a hierarchy of superior and subordinate reporting
relationships. Traditionally, there are three managerial levels which are usually depicted
in the form of a hierarchical pyramid.

The total number of personnel found at each level decreases as the management level
increases up the pyramid. The largest number of people in the organization is at the
lower organizational level, at the bottom of the pyramid and these people are operating
in a non-managerial capacity.

This group consists of individual contributors who are simply the employees who work
under the guidance of their supervisors. These levels, in the form of a pyramid are
shown as follows:

Top-Level Mangers:
The top level managers are ultimately responsible for the entire organization. The top
level management, also known as “central management” includes top executives such
as chief executive officer (CEO), chairman of the board of directors, president,
executive vice-presidents and various vice-presidents.

These managers are primarily involved in broad organizational matters such as policy
formulation, long range strategic planning, goal setting and development of
organizational strategies. In general, top management effectively deals with all elements
and forces that affect the survival, stability and growth of the organization.It is the
function of top management to watch, interprets, exploit, or where necessary, counter
external influences with appropriate decisions and plans and to initiate the appropriate
adjustments in the functional authority and status structures of the organization.

It is the top management’s duty to protect the integrity of the organization so that it can
survive for its own employees, shareholders, suppliers and the customer’s interests and
for the general good of the social and economic system within which it operates.

Middle Level Managers:

The middle management level generally consists of divisional and departmental heads
such as a plant manager, production manager, marketing manager, personnel director
and so on. Their responsibility is to interpret policies and directions set by the top level
management into specific plans and guidelines for action.

Their responsibility further is to coordinate the working of their departments so that the
set objectives can be achieved. They are concerned with short-term goals and specific
results. They spend more time on operational planning, information processing and day-
to-day monitoring of their divisional activities.

They serve as a link between the strategic activities of the top managers and
operational activities of first level managers who are the subordinates in terms of
information dissemination in both directions.

Organizations, specially the very large ones often have several layers of middle
managers. During expansion years, at one time, General Motors (GM) had 14 or 15
management levels. However the tendency now is to have fewer layers and give the
managers greater autonomy and responsibility, part of which is delegated to lower level
managers.

First Level Supervisory Managers:

This level of management consists of supervisors, superintendents, unit heads,
foremen, chief clerks and so on. The primary concern of the first level managers is with
the mechanics of the job and they are responsible for coordinating the work of their
employees.
They must possess technical skills so that they can assist their subordinate workers
where necessary. They plan day-to-day operations, assign personnel to specific jobs,
oversee their activities, evaluate their performances and become a link between the
workers and the middle level management.

Because they represent both the middle level management as well as the workers on
the other side, the first-line supervisors can easily find themselves in the middle of
conflicting demands. According to Kerr Hill and Broedling, their greatest emphasis is
evolving around dealing with internal human relations rather than operational activities
because of the trend towards more educated work force, team works and group
cohesions as well as growing use of computers in tracking and monitoring many
activities that were previously regulated by first-line managers.

General Versus Functional Managers:

Apart from the vertical levels of managerial hierarchy, there are two types of managers
with different responsibilities. These are “Functional Managers” and “General
Managers”, Functional managers take responsibility for one type of function or
specialized activity and supervise the work of employees who are engaged in such
specialized activities as marketing, finance, accounting, quality control, production and
so on.

General Managers, on the other hand, are responsible for the activities of several
different groups that perform a variety of functions and have authority over both the
specialized as well as generalized activities.

For example, the general manager of a plant in a manufacturing company is responsible

for monitoring all aspects of the plant such as production, engineering, quality control,
labour relations, purchasing, inventories and so on. Branch managers are considered
as general managers if employees from different disciplines within the branch report to
them.

General Managers in non-profit organizations such as hospitals, universities or

government agencies are designated as “administrators”, rather than managers. For
example, the head of a hospital might be known as a chief administrator. Similarly, the
president of a college or the dean of a school would be designated as an administrator.