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 may determines the number of levels in its hierarchy (management system). Whereby, as a number of workforces increases in an organization, 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 the whole 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 much essential to particular level than in other levels. For instance, conceptual skills are more essential to 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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