3 management levels and their responsibilities

Management can be defined as the process of planning, organization, staffing, directing and controlling resources so as to reach the organizational goals.

Typically, in most of organization hierarchies, management is categorized into three levels which are top level, middle level and lower level of management. Each having distinct responsibilities, functions and roles in an organization. This article is going to discuss them all.

What is Management levels?

Management levels or levels of management can be defined as the line of division exists between various managerial positions. It defines the chain of command and the amount of authority or power of each level or position in the management system of an organization.

In most cases, the size of an organization determines the number of levels in its hierarchy (management system). As the number of workforces in an organization increases, the number of levels of management increases too.

Levels of management

The three levels of management are; 

• Top level
• Middle level
• Lower level

Top level of management

It is also known as administrative or managerial level of management. This level consists of highest ranking executives such as board of directors, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Managing Director (MD) and Chief Operating Officers (COO).

The responsibilities of top level of management include:

• To formulate mission and vision statement of an organization.
• To prepare and implement strategic plans
• To allocate resources to the departments
• To make major financial decisions
• To oversee the performance of an organization as whole
• To set objectives and policies of an organization
• To appoint executives for middle level management i.e department managers and branch managers
• To establish relationships with stakeholders and communicate with outside world

Middle level of management

Sometimes known as executive level of management. Department managers and branch managers are found at this level. The managers in middle level of management act as a link between top management and lower management. The middle managers are responsible for execution of strategic plans and translating the policies created by top management to the sub-units or department they supervise. Usually smaller organizations has one layer of middle management but larger organizations may have a senior and junior level in the middle management.

The responsibilities of middle level of management include:

• To execute strategies and policies created by top management
• To create plans and goals for the department they supervise
• To assign tasks to lower level employees
• To link top management and lower employees
• To evaluate the performance of lower managers and inspiring them to improve their performance

Lower level of management

It is also known as supervisory or operational level of management. It consists of supervisors, foremen, section officers, team leaders and other executives responsible for supervising lower employees. They are also known as first-line managers. The lower managers coordinate employee's day-to-day activities in an organization and ensure that all tasks are carried out effectively and efficiently to reach goals of the department or section.

The responsibilities of lower level of management include:

• To assign tasks to employees
• To provide guidance and instructions to employees in their routine tasks
• To help in resolving grievances of employees
• To arrange necessary materials needed for carrying out various tasks
• To report challenges and progress to middle management
• To maintain discipline at work place
• To supervise the employees
• To communicate problems, recommendations and suggestions of employees to high level of management
• To prepare worker's performance report

Conclusion

Despite of the fact that the levels of management varies in term of power, authority, roles and responsibilities, still the main aim of all levels of management is to reach the organizational goals and objectives. Further more, in order for managers to perform their roles well, they must possess managerial skills. The primary skills required by managers are conceptual skills, interpersonal skills and technical skills. These skills are vital to all levels, however, certain skills may be required much in a particular level than in other levels. For instance, conceptual skills are highly required by top managers than middle and lower managers as well as technical skills are vital to lower managers than middle and top managers. While interpersonal skills are important to all levels of management.

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