This chapter emphasizes what management is and what managers do. As a manager, Rodney Adkins contributes to creating the standard of living that we enjoy in our economy, and he earns corresponding rewards. IBM sells a wide variety of technology products and services that help customers work efficiently. Adkins, as the leader of a major division, must focus on how the company can deliver top quality at a competitive price and develop new products that will keep the company abreast of the latest technology. He cannot possibly develop, make, and sell all the products; rather, he leads the efforts within his group, keeping them aligned with the company’s goals.

As a manager, Adkins works through people and uses other organizational resources to achieve IBM’s goals. To do this, Adkins engages in planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling the work of the people in the Systems and Technology Group. He uses human resources, as well as money, raw materials, and machinery (capital equipment). These efforts succeed when his group is both effective (successful in achieving goals) and efficient (minimizes the use of resources).

Adkins has risen in IBM from a hardware engineer to a senior vice president because he has demonstrated that he has management skill—the ability to carry out the process of reaching organizational goals by working with and through people and other organizational resources. According to the classic understanding, management skill is the combination of three different kinds of skills: technical, human, and conceptual skills. In this understanding of management, technical skills were especially important for Adkins when he first took on lower-management jobs. As he rose through IBM’s hierarchy, Adkins depended less on the use of technical skills and more on the use of conceptual skills. However, human skills, such as communicating and building cooperation, are important at all levels of management.

More recently, management skills have been viewed in terms of the activities carried out by managers. Adkins and other managers typically perform task-related, people-related, and change-related activities. Task-related activities require skills in short-term planning, clarifying objectives, and monitoring performance. People-related activities require skills in encouraging employees, providing recognition for accomplishments, developing skills in others, consulting others when making decisions, and empowering employees to solve problems. Change-related activities require skills in monitoring the organization’s environment, proposing new ideas, encouraging innovation, and taking necessary risks.

The Challenge Case described how Rodney Adkins has progressed through his career in management. A career is a sequence of work-related positions over the course of a person’s life. We have not yet seen the end of Adkins’s career, but his path so far illustrates how a hardworking, goal-oriented person can develop skills by successfully taking on challenging positions that offer opportunities to learn more about a company’s products, customers, and functions. Notice that Adkins also made time for additional learning by earning a master’s degree in a field that is relevant to his employer. In addition, Adkins has sought out the advice of mentors so that he can make the most of his work experiences and opportunities.