Module 1

The main difference between leaders and managers is that leaders have people who follow them, while managers have people who work for them.

The practice of Management is generally linked with words such as directing, controlling, organizing and planning. The objective of management is to ensure that a specific group of people move in harmony towards the established goals. Goals are set out and the processes to achieve them is identified by management. The goal is to achieve these objectives as efficiently as possible.

A successful manager or business owner needs to be both a strong leader and manager to get their team on board to follow them towards their vision of success. Leadership is about getting people to understand and believe in your vision and to work with you to achieve your goals while managing is more about administering and making sure the day-to-day things are happening as they should.

Course Content

Top managers: these refer to positions such as chairman of the board and CEO. Depending on how large the organisation is, top managers could manage the whole organisation or only parts of it. This level is also known as ‘strategic’, as it is involved in setting the mission and the objectives of the organisation as well as strategic and long-term goals.

Middle managers: these would include positions such as sales managers and branch managers. Robbins & Coulter (2007:6) state that “it includes all levels of management between the first level and the top level of the organisation”. Depending on the organogram of the organisation, it could also include regional managers, divisional heads or project leaders. The role of middle management is to implement the strategy introduced by top management and also to supervise its implementation by the first-line managers. Middle managers develop short-term objectives in order to implement the long-term strategy of top management. They normally report to top management.

First-line managers: these include team leaders and/or supervisors. Their role is to implement the operational plans of middle management. They report to middle management and, unlike the other two levels, they do not supervise other managers, but rather operational employees.

Operational employees: they refer to the employees who do not hold management positions and report to first-line management.

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