In this era of modernization, manager is someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other

people so that organization goals can be accomplished. (Robbins et al., 2012). Due to the consequence of

globalization that caused to rapid changes in the association, manager is vitally to perform duty to bring

the employees together in the organization to achieve the same objective and goal. In this case, manager

is very important as they play a crucial role to help their subordinates in achieving organization

objectives. Hence, in order to know more about the work of manager in practice, an interview has been

done. The manager who has been interviewed for this assignment is Mr J who works as a restaurant area

manager in a company Z which has four outlets in Malaysia and 10 outlets in Singapore. Before joining

this company, Mr J has been working in education industry for more than 10 years. Company Z is a F&B

corporation which is a private sector and is a large organization consisting of more than 100 employees.

Based on the interview, Mr J operates at the middle line level of association hierarchy in company Z. Mr

J’s job scopes consists of spending time supervise structured and customize restaurant visits in which

under his control and control budget expenses, ensure good customer service, development of crew,

quality and safety of food and cleanliness of store. In connection with the definition of manager and his

job scopes described, Mr J clearly meets the criteria of being a manager.

The purpose of this essay are to have a better understanding on what managers do and analyze to

what extent Henri Fayol’s four functions ( planning, organizing, leading and controlling) with Robert. L.

Katz’s management skills to Mr J’s managerial work as a middle manager. In addition, it is also to

explain how economic and technology condition can affect the organization.

Henri Fayol (1916/1999, as cited in Brunsson, 2008) included planning, organizing, leading and

controlling in his management concept. For this reason, manager should be responsible for what goals or

objective the need to accomplish for the company, creating a list of responsibilities, arrangement of

sequence of the work and correcting activities as planned. (Gray Irwin, 1984 as cited in Brunsson, 2008).

A previous finding of Hughes and Singles ( 1985, as cited in Carroll &Gillen, 1987) showed that although

the importance level of directing, controlling and organizing were about the same from one level to

another, but as the importance of planning increase, it will eventually decrease the importance of staffing.

As manager move on from first line management to top level management. Furthermore, these results

were much the same as Carroll’s & Taylor’s (1968) study.

Based on the interview with Mr J , he rated 5 in planning. “The best plans cannot anticipate all

unexpected occurrences which may arise, but does include a place for these events and prepare the

weapons which may be needed at the moment of being surprised.” ( Fayol, 1954). Jaques’s (1978, as cited

in Gentry & Cullen et al., 2013)Stratified Systems Theory (SST) stated that middle level managers need

to plan daily tasks which maintaining a perception of possible changes in the future. Mr J always set a

target not only for himself but also for the organization. He makes sure that he has allocate sufficient

activities to achieve his objectives (hit the monthly sales target). Every month Mr J will plan a list of new

activities to attract more customers, for example having promotion of buy one free one, free food testing

on new items, lucky draw of the month and so forth.

Definition of organizing is managers are responsible for structuring and arranging work to

achieve the organization goals. (Robbins et al., 2012) In this category, Mr J has rated it for 5. According

to Mr J, in order to accomplish an organization’s goal, a company needs to have sufficient subordinate’s

workforce and make sure everyone has the best training so that they can perform well in from of

customer. There is no point to run a business if a company foes not has any marketing strategies. Thus, a

responsible manager should always determine what idea to be implemented to help the boost up company

interest. For instance, Mr J has to make sure the kitchen have enough ingredients, staff on duty are

arrange to their respective sections and organize how many days for each outlets as Mr J is currently

taking control of three restaurants.

In the leading category, Mr J has rated 5. “the challenge of leading people falls to middle

managers”. ( Arneson, 2008). As a middle level manager, Mr J always motivates and lead his employees.

“Motivation towards rganization’s employees will cause productivity to be higher.” (Van Marrewijk &

Timmers, 2003). Rather than just telling what employees need to do, manager should value the skills and

knowledge of their subordinates. Mr J said that every month he will give his staffs extra incentives as

there is what they deserve. Besides giving incentives, Mr J also takes good care of his employee’s

welfare. As Mr J believe that if manager does not pay what the employee deserved, they would not

willing to put full commitment into their job. Hence, he realized that what a company pays to their

employees is how much effort their workers will put into their job. According to Mr J, in order to make

the workers to respect the manager, first the manager needs to make himself as a role model and example.

Mr J does not bother how people look at him, in fact he does the same task as his subordinates (wipes

table and take orders). Wright & Snell (1999) stated that, “ in an organization, people do not work alone,

in fact they combine their talents and energies to meet their goals.”

Controlling is monitoring activities to ensure that they are accomplished as planned. (Robbins et

al,. 2012) Mr J has rated 4 in this category. “In order to implement empowered work teams for

organization, manager should give their teams a responsibility for managing their own performance,

including appraising performance and taking corrective actions when someone is not performing up to

standard.” ( Liden & Arad, 1996) Based on the information from Mr J, he found that having roll call

every day tend to solve some internal problems as everyone will have to discuss about their performance

at the end of the day. In order to correct ongoing activities that went wrong, besides having a roll call

every day, Mr J will change the current plan to alternative idea to get a better results for the organization.

Nevertheless, Henri Fayol’s four functions have a connection with Robert L. Katz’s human and

conceptual skills. Katz defined human skills as the potential in creating a collaborative work condition

towards workers. Human skills is the most significant skills and is crucial in every level of manager (first

line to top managers) by motivating, communicating and leading. (Robbins et al, 2012).

A manager should have a good communication with their subordinates, either through meetings,

face-to-face interaction or by email. Mr J knows that in order to achieve organization objectives, one of

the main key points is communication. In this case, it can be shown how Mr J influence and coordinate

his subordinates to work in the best interests for organization through proposing organization goals

understandably. Furthermore, Bandura and Schunk (1981, as cited in Peterson & Fleet, 2004) stated that

people will not be able to complete the tasks if they believe they do not have the abilities and skills

essential to perform effectively. Based on the theories above, motivation by manager is mandatory in an

organization.

In addition, Mann’s findings (1965, as cited in Peterson& Fleet, 2004) figured that technical

skills, human skills, and conceptual skills are corresponded. As a middle level manager, Mr J applies

more of conceptual and human skills than technical skills. Overall, since majority of Mr J’s job involve

human skills, so the basic principles of Katz’s human skills are connected and relevant to a manager’s

jobs to full extent. To sum it up, Katz’s human skills and Fayol’s four functions are relevant with Mr J’s

job as a manager.

Furthermore, technology, economic and environmental appears to be some of the factors may

affect the organization’s future and how it works. (Robbins et al., 2012). Clearly a bigger organization

will have more development in technology compare to a small organization. Mr J belongs to a large sized

organization. Technology might help a manager to attempt organization objective in a more effective and

efficient way. Mr J often uses computer (internet, Microsoft excel) to accomplish his organization goals.

Since time efficiency is a must, technology development will improve organization performance.

As we all know, changes of economic condition will affect many things in this world. As

economic decrease, there will be a huge impact toward an organization. For instant, company will starts

to reduce cost by firing people. In this case, unemployment rate will certainly increase.

In a nutshell, the four functions of Henri Fayol and general principle that existed in Katz’s human

skills applied to Mr J’s job to great extent as proved by the examples given above. Needless to say, both

theories are suitable and relevant in manager’s daily job.

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