The term Levels of Management refers to a line of demarcation between various managerial positions in an organization.

The number of levels in management increases when the size of the business and work force increases and vice versa. The level of management determines a chain of command, the amount of authority & status enjoyed by any managerial position. The levels of management can be classified in three broad categories: 1. Top level / Administrative level 2. Middle level / Executory 3. Low level / Supervisory / Operative / First-line managers Managers at all these levels perform different functions. The role of managers at all the three levels is discussed below:

LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT 1. Top Level of Management It consists of board of directors, chief executive or managing director. The top management is the ultimate source of authority and it manages goals and policies for an enterprise. It devotes more time on planning and coordinating functions. The role of the top management can be summarized as follows a. Top management lays down the objectives and broad policies of the enterprise. b. It issues necessary instructions for preparation of department budgets, procedures, schedules etc. c. It prepares strategic plans & policies for the enterprise. d. It appoints the executive for middle level i.e. departmental managers. e. It controls & coordinates the activities of all the departments. f. It is also responsible for maintaining a contact with the outside world. g. It provides guidance and direction. h. The top management is also responsible towards the shareholders for the performance of the enterprise. 2. Middle Level of Management The branch managers and departmental managers constitute middle level. They are responsible to the top management for the functioning of their department. They devote

more time to organizational and directional functions. In small organization, there is only one layer of middle level of management but in big enterprises, there may be senior and junior middle level management. Their role can be emphasized as a. They execute the plans of the organization in accordance with the policies and directives of the top management. b. They make plans for the sub-units of the organization. c. They participate in employment & training of lower level management. d. They interpret and explain policies from top level management to lower level. e. They are responsible for coordinating the activities within the division or department. f. It also sends important reports and other important data to top level management. g. They evaluate performance of junior managers. h. They are also responsible for inspiring lower level managers towards better performance. 3. Lower Level of Management Lower level is also known as supervisory / operative level of management. It consists of supervisors, foreman, section officers, superintendent etc. According to R.C. Davis, Supervisory management refers to those executives whose work has to be largely with personal oversight and direction of operative employees. In other words, they are concerned with direction and controlling function of management. Their activities include a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k. l. m. Assigning of jobs and tasks to various workers. They guide and instruct workers for day to day activities. They are responsible for the quality as well as quantity of production. They are also entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining good relation in the organization. They communicate workers problems, suggestions, and recommendatory appeals etc to the higher level and higher level goals and objectives to the workers. They help to solve the grievances of the workers. They supervise & guide the sub-ordinates. They are responsible for providing training to the workers. They arrange necessary materials, machines, tools etc for getting the things done. They prepare periodical reports about the performance of the workers. They ensure discipline in the enterprise. They motivate workers. They are the image builders of the enterprise because they are in direct contact with the workers.

MANAGERS AND THEIR INFORMATION NEEDS Information is needed for decision making at all levels of management. Managers at different organizational levels make differenct types of decisions, control different types of processes, and have different information needs. Three classical levels of management include: 1. strategic 2. tactical (middle) 3. operational. Titles have different values in different organizations. For example, a vice president at a financial organization may not even be a middle manager. Strategic managers operate in a highly unstructured environment and use EISs, and DSSs. Historically, the most common (organizational structure) was a generic pyramid shaped hierarchy with a few leaders at the top and an increasing number of workers at each subsequent lower managerial and operational level. The pyramid is getting flatter. In 1993 in the U.S. alone, some 450,000 middle managers lost their jobs. Some small, knowledge-intensive companies have adopted a matrix pattern as their organizational structure, with no one leader and leadership distributed among many more people, varying by project, product, or discipline. Matrix management includes having multiple bosses. Technology aside, the politics of information within an organization can undermine optimal business decision making if it is not taken into account when developing systems, and deciding how people will support these systems. Sub-optimization -- the optimization of an individual or a department at the expense of the larger organization. In many organizations, clerical and shop floor workers make up the largest group of workers. Operational managers are responsible for daily operations. They make decisions concerning a narrow time span about the deployment of small groups of clerical and/or shop floor workers. Middle, or tatical, managers receive strategic decisions from above as general directives. Using those directives as guidelines, they develop tatics to meet those strategic directives. That is, they

make decisions concerning how and when specific resources will be utilized. Usually, a middle manager will be responsible for several operational managers. Responsible for finding the best operational measures to accomplish their superiors' strategic decisions. While a tactical decision concentrates on how to do something, a strategic decision focuses on what to do. Strategic managers, and directors, that make decisions that affect the entire organization, or large parts of it, and leave an impact in the long run. People in different management levels have different information needs. Most of the information that managers require is used to make decisions. The decision making process of middle managers and above is less structured than that of operational managers; In general, strategic decisions have no proven methods for selecting a course of action that guarantees a predicted outcome. Data Characteristics determine where and how the data will be used. Data range refers to the amount of data from which information is extracted& Time span refers to how long a period of time the data covers. Level of detail is the degree to which the information generated is specific. Internally or externally sourced. Structured data are numbers and facts that can be conveniently stored and retrieved in an orderly manner. Unstructured data are drawn from meeting discussions, private conversations, textual documents, graphics, graphical representations, and other non uniform sources. The higher the manager, the less structured the decisions that a manager faces

Objectives in Strategic Management

OBJECTIVES ARE TARGETS IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT. In strategic management, there are strategic objectives and financial objectives. Additionally, all objectives are either short-run or long-run types. When planning a firm's strategy it is important to have objectives in mind and to understand the differences between the types of objectives. 1. Strategic Objectives o Strategic objectives deal with the firm's position in the model. You might do this, for example, by positioning the firm relative to the external forces -- bargaining power of customers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and competition within the industry -- that can impact a business. Strategic objectives might include expanding market share, changing market position or under-cutting a competitor's costs. Financial Objectives
o

Managers use financial objectives to measure strategic performance. For example, if the firm's strategic objective is to increase efficiency, the financial objective could be to increase return on assets or return on capital. Financial objectives, derived from management accounting, are more concrete.

Short-run Objectives

Financial and strategic objectives can either be short-run or long-run objectives. Shortrun objectives deal with the immediate future. They typically focus on tangible goals that management can realize in a short time. An example of a short-run objective might be to increase monthly sales.

Long-run Objectives

Long-run objectives target the firm's long-term position. While short-run objectives focus on a firm's annual or monthly performance, long-run objectives concern themselves with

the firm's development over several years. Examples of long-term objectives might be to become the market leader or to attain sustainable growth. decisions are divided into 3 categories: Strategic Planning Decisions: Strategic planning decisions are those decisions in which the decision-maker develops objectives and allocates resources to achieve these objectives. Such decisions are taken by strategic planning level (top level) managers. Management Control Decisions: Management control decisions are taken by management control level (middle level) managers and deal with the use of resources in the organization.

Operational Control Decisions: Operational control decisions deal with the day-to-day problems that affect the operation of the organization. These decisions are taken by the managers at operational level (bottom level) of the organization.

Levels of Programmability

Simon on the basis of level of the programmability of a decision, proposed two types of decisions: Programmed, also known as structured decisions Non-programmed, also known as unstructured decisions. Programmed/Structured Decisions Programmed or structured are those decisions, which are well defined and some specified procedure or some decision rule might be applied to reach a decision. Such decisions are routine and repetitive and require little time for developing alternatives in the design phase. Programmed or structured decisions have traditionally been made through habit, by operating procedures or with other accepted tools. Non-programmed /Unstructured Decision

Decisions, which are not well defined and have not pre-specified procedures decision rule are known as unstructured or non-programmed decisions. Knowledge of Outcomes

Another approach of classifying decisions is the level of knowledge of outcomes. An outcome defines what will happen, if a decision is made or course of action taken. When there is more than one alternative, the knowledge of outcome becomes important. On the basis of the level of knowledge of outcomes, decision-making can be classified into three categories. Decision under certainty: Decision-making under certainty takes place when the outcome of each alternative is fully known. There is only one outcome for each alternative. Decision under risk: Decision-making under risk occurs when there is a possibility of multiple outcomes of each alternative and a probability of occurrence can be attached to each outcome. Decision under uncertainty: Decision-making under uncertainty takes place when there are a number of outcomes for each alternative & the probabilities of their occurrences are not known.

INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS OF MANAGERS Your Objectives Create a management information plan to:

Effectively manage the specific information requirements of your organization Ensure that information is readily accessible to all users and employees Ensure the most reliable and best suited system of information management for your organization

How We Can Help

Help you improve upon existing systems of Information Management o Examine and review the existing informational needs of your organization o Review how management makes use of information o Project and account for any possible future changes to information needs o Assess the suitability, strengths and weaknesses in the existing information management structure o Identify key strengths and areas that work well to be learned from and expanded upon o Identify key weaknesses and determine how to avoid them o Help to determine, based on the needs and capabilities of your organization, what changes need to be made to existing information management systems and processes Help you acquire and integrate a new system of Information Management o Assist in the definition of the role and goals of your department or organization, and its informational requirements o Determine the resources available to fulfill information management requirements o Determine the core processes necessary to fulfill the overriding goal or objective of your organization o Assist in the articulation of what needs to be managed such as the nature of the information, and what it is needed for o Determine what tools would work best to manage the specific information needs of your group o Assess with an objective outside viewpoint the strengths and weaknesses in each option o Provide recommendations on what sort of systems and tools to put in place in order to make best use of information

Benefit You benefit by:

Having the "right" information system in place for your needs Enabling management and staff to function optimally with the best information Making a sound and informed decision on an issue that is capable of directly affecting the success of your organization Avoiding information management practises that are no longer useful, cost-effective, or applicable Being able to project and plan for future informational needs Avoiding the costs associated with ineffective information management systems

Our Experience Our experience includes:

Identification of management information requirements, for example as part of a systems review for a large service oriented organization.

MIS STRUCTURE
Structure of MIS may be understood by looking at the physical components of the information system in an organization. The physical components of an organizational information system may be hardware, software, database, manual procedures and operating persons. Hardware refers to the physical data processing equipment and peripheral devices, For example, CPU, monitor, keyboard, printer, drives, tapes, communication devices, etc. Software Software is a broad term given to the instructions or programs that direct the operating of the hardware. Software could be of two types, i.e. system software and application software. Database The database consists of all data utilized by application software. Data is stored in files. Procedures Formal operating procedures, which are required to operate a system, such as manuals, are also regarded as physical elements. Operating Personnel Personnel like Computer Operators, Computer Programmers, System Analysts, System Managers, etc., are the operating people of the information systems. Input and OutputVarious physical inputs and outputs from the information system, existing in forms like printout, reports etc. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM Information is the basis for every decision taken in an organization. The efficiency of management depends upon the availability of regular and relevant information. Thus it is essential that an effective and efficient reporting system be developed as part of accounting system. The main object of management information is to obtain the required about the operating results of an organization regularly in order to use them for future planning and control. The old techniques like intuition, rule of thumb, personal whim and prestige, etc. are now considered useless in the process of decision taking. Modern management is constantly on look

out for such quantitative and such information, which can help in analyzing the proposed alternative actions and choosing one as its decision. Thus, modern management functions are information-oriented more popularly known as management by information. And the system through which information is communicated to the management is known as management information system (MIS). The management needs full information before taking any decision. good decisions can minimize costs and optimize results. Management information system can be helpful to the management in undertaking management decisions smoothly and effectively. Management information system can be analyzed thus: 1. Management: management covers the planning, control, and administration of the operations of a concern. The top management handles planning; the middle management concentrates on controlling; and the lower management is concerned with actual administration. 2. Information: information, in MIS, means the processed data that helps the management in planning, controlling and operations. Data means all the facts arising out of the operations of the concern. Data is processed i.e. recorded, summarized, compared and finally presented to the management in the form of MIS report. 3. System: data is processed into information with the help of a system. a system is made up of inputs, processing, output and feedback or control. Thus MIS means a system for processing data in order to give proper information to the management for performing its functions.

APPROACHES FOR SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT System development includes those activities that go into producing an information system solution to organizational problems or to take advantages of environmental opportunities. System development consists of two broad phasesanalysis and design. System analysis includes analysis of a problem which the organization will try to solve with an information system. It is a phase of system development process in which the system analyst or system development team determines what the new system should accomplish. System design provides details of how a system will meet the information requirements as determined by the system analyst/system development team. It is a phase of system development process in which the general requirements defined in the analysis phase are converted into detailed specifications for the new system. Different approaches can be used for system development which can be classified as follows : 1. System development life cycle. 2. Prototyping. 3. Rapid application development. 4. End-user development. In some of these approaches, top-down method is followed while in some others, bottom-up method is followed. Further an integrative method can be followed by integrating the top-down and the bottom-up methods. Therefore,, before going through the details of system development approaches, it is desirable to go through top-down, bottom-up, and integrative methods. Topdown Method. Under top-down method, the development of an information system starts from the identification of organisational objectives, its environment, and constraints under which it operates. On the basis of these, following steps are followed : 1. The strategic and tactical decisions are made for achieving organizational objectives. 2. Major functions and activities are identified which are relevant for carrying out these decisions. 3. From the functions and activities. the major information requirements are determined. 4. Based on information requirements, model of information flow in the organization is developed which acts as a guide for designing the information systems. 5. By using the model of information flow. various information subsystems are defined. Each subsystem comprises various modules. A module is a basic unit for information system development. The selection of a module for developing the system is made on the basis of priority assigned to various modules. 6. Various subsystems and their modules are coordinated and integrated. The information system so developed is viewed as a total system fully integrated rather than being a collection of loosely coordinated subsystems. In top-down method. top management of the organization takes initiative in formulating organizational objectives and strategies and communicates these down the line to middle and lower management levels for translating these into performance results. Managers at the middle and lower levels seldom play any role in objective and strategy formulation: they focus their attention on strategy implementation and operational control. Bottom-up Method. In bottom-up method. the development of information system starts from the identification of life stream systems which are essential for the day-to-day business operations. For example, payroll, sales order, inventory control etc. Initially, information systems

for these life streams are developed which are in the form of transaction processing systems. Other systems are developed subsequently based on the user needs. Following steps are followed in bottom-up method of system development: 1. For each life stream, basic transactions, information file requirements, and information processing programs are identified. 2. Based on basic transactions, information file requirements, and information processing programs, information system for each life stream is developed. 3. After thoroughly examining various applications, files, and records, data kept in different files of each information system are integrated. Integration of data enhances share ability of database. It also ensures that uniform data are being used by all programs and also provides added capability for enquiry processing as well as ad hoc requests for reports. 4. After database is created, various planning and decision support systems are developed for management planning and control. 5. After the planning and decision support systems start functioning, these are integrated into a model base having a variety of models including regression analysis, operations research models etc. 6. At the last stage, strategic planning models are added to the information system by collecting and storing the external information relevant for strategic planning. Thus, in bottom-up method, a system grows in real response to user needs. However. this method suffers from one basic limitation that is integration of various subsystems may need redesigned system due to the changing requirements and new interfaces with other subsystems. Integrative Method: Integrative method tries to overcome the limitations of topdown and bottom-up methods by balancing both the methods. In integrative method, managers at all-levels are permitted to play role in system development. In this method, top management initiates the structure and design of the information system suitable to the organization which is presented to managers at middle and lower levels for soliciting their views and necessary modifications. The managers at these levels are advised to suggest changes, additions, deletions and return the design along with their suggestions to the top management. Based on these suggestions, a revised design is drawn which is again sent down the line for comments and necessary modifications. This process continues till a system design is finalized which is satisfactory to personnel at all the levels. System Development Life Cycle System development life cycle (SOLC), or simply called system life cycle (SLC), is based on the life cycle stages of natural systems. Natural systems go through the four stages of life cyclebirth, growth, maturity, and decay. In the same way an information system, which is a man-made system, passes through different stages though it is not necessary that these stages exactly resemble the stages of natural systems. An information system development life cycle has different stages. The system developer may progress from one stage to another methodologically solving the problems involved and achieving the desired results. However, there is a need for caution in isolating various stages of SOLC. These stages have been isolated in a sequence for learning purpose and in actual practice they may overlap. Each stage may act as a basis for modifying earlier actions. For example, based on performance criteria a particular proposed system has very high ranking but if it requires a hardware system which is not feasible, the system may not be considered useful for further action and fresh system development process may begin. Therefore, various stages of SOLC should be taken in this perspective.

They are: Project Definition: Project definition stage determines whether or not the organization has a problem and whether or not the problem can be solved by launching a new system. Thus, at this stage, the need for a new system is recognized. The basis for a new system is the recognition of a need for improving an information system or a procedure. This need leads to a preliminary surveyor an initial investigation to determine whether an alternative system can solve the problem. It entails looking into the duplication of effort, bottlenecks, inefficient existing procedures, or whether parts of the existing system need computerization. If the problem is serious enough, the management may want to have an analyst to look at it. Such an assignment implies a commitment specially if the analyst is hired from outside the organization. In larger organizations, where, formal procedures are the norm, the analyst's first job is to prepare a statement specifying the scope and causes of the problem. He may then review it with the users for accuracy. System Analysis : At this stage, an analysis of the problems of the existing system is undertaken and how the new system is likely to overcome these problems is specified. For this purpose, a system analysis is undertaken which is a detailed study of various operations performed by a system and their relationship within and outside the system. During analysis, data are collected about the available files, decision points, and transactions handled by the existing system. There are various tools which are used for analysis, such as data flow diagrams, questionnaires, interviews, on-site observations, etc. Once this analysis is completed, the analyst has a firm understanding of what can be done to overcome various problems. Various alternative systems are evolved and feasibility study is undertaken to determine their suitability. System Design : System design is the most creative and challenging phase of system life cycle. System design describes how a chosen system will be developed. It prescribes the technical specifications (analogous to the -- engineer's blueprints) that will be applied in the chosen system. It also includes the construction of program and program testing. System design involves certain steps. The first step is to determine how the input is to be produced. The second step involves designing input data and database that meet the output requirements. Data processing phases are handled through program construction and testing. including the list of the programs needed to meet the system's objectives and complete documentation. Implementation. System implementation phase is less creative than the design phase. It is basically related to user training, site preparation, and file conversion. Depending on the nature of the new system, user training is planned and conducted. Site preparation is required when the new system is quite different as compared to earlier one like the use of communication network by the new system. Conversion from old to new system takes place either at the time of user training or little later.