FUNCTIONAL MANAGERS
Large organizations are usually divided into major functions such as production, personnel, finance, sales and marketing, and research and development.
Production managers see that the company's products are turned out efficiently. They establish production standards, design workstations, select and maintain equipment, and coordinate all the resources involved. They often have engineering backgrounds.
Personnel, or human resource, managers help to hire, train, and motivate employees for all departments of a company. (Some companies call this function "industrial relations.") This position involves maintaining personnel records, interviewing, testing, orienting, counseling, and evaluating employees. If unions are involved, it may also include labor negotiations.
Finance managers plan and coordinate the receiving, safeguarding, spending, investing, and allocating of funds. They also create records to account for the use of those funds.
Sales and marketing managers are concerned with plans, campaigns, and programs for selling their company's products. Persons without much formal education are likely to find better initial opportunities in sales than in other areas of management, especially if they get along well with people. Some companies rotate salespeople into different jobs to learn various developmental phases of their products. For those with managerial potential, job rotation provides an opportunity to understand the company as a whole and to learn through hands-on experience.
Research and development managers need to have a technical grasp of a company's product development as well as administrative and research abilities. Management positions in this area are usually filled by scientific personnel or by people with strong academic backgrounds who also possess a variety of online research skills. Often those who progress in research departments have doctoral degrees in science or engineering. Top jobs include director of research, director of new product development, and chief engineer.
Variety of Environments
American business is classified in U.S. Department of Labor publications by the type of industry. Due to limited space, this chapter covers only those classifications with good growth potential. Management opportunities in such areas as farming, forestry, mining, and fishing, are, therefore, not discussed. Areas with high potential at this writing include services such as finance, law, health services, insurance, retail, and self-employment.
THE GROWTH OF THE SERVICE ECONOMY
The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that much of the country's economic growth into the next century will be in the service sector. The service sector encompasses many levels of jobs, from accountant and lawyer to hospital worker and waitress. Any job that produces a service instead of a concrete product falls under this heading.
Service sector has seen growth through the year 2000. Transportation firms, including airlines; bus, taxi, and rent-a-car companies; railroads; and shipping and trucking companies, are expected to grow nearly twice as fast as the division as a whole. Public utilities, such as gas, electric, and water providers, are predicted to have slow, but steady growth, although the high number of unexpected mergers in the mid 1990s and impending deregulation may negatively impact the growth of management positions. Communication, including telephone and telegraph companies and radio and television stations, are expected to decline.
Because the services these companies provide are vitally important to the public, their operations are subject to government regulation. The Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Power Commission, and the Civil Aeronautics Administration review their rates and issue various permits and licenses. As a result, companies in this classification have special management problems. But their overall management activities are basically the same as in other industries.
EDUCATION
There are about 1,300 four-year colleges and universities and nearly 1,000 two-year colleges in this country. There are thousands of public grade and high schools, as well as private schools. All these institutions need administrators. Education is big business.
School administrative positions include principal, department head, dean, president, and provost. The many types of vice presidents include finance, student affairs, and administration. Also, every state has a board of education, and local communities have school superintendents. In 1988, 320,000 people were employed as educational administrators. In 1994, the number grew to 393,000. Seventeen percent of those working as managers in 1988 had only a high school education, while 61 percent had completed at least four years of college. By the mid-1990s, a master's degree was the minimum standard for nearly 100 percent of administrative positions, with a Ph.D. or Ed.D. preferred.
Growth in educational management positions depends somewhat on population shifts. The employment of both elementary and secondary school administrators is projected to increase at the average rate of all occupations through the year 2000, although the present decline in the school-age population is reversing.
SELF-EMPLOYMENT
Self-employment offers another opportunity for those interested in moving into management. Although larger enterprises offer more opportunities for management advancement, self-employment may be the best answer for those with strong entrepreneurial skills or those without the conventional educational requirements for management.
The growth of the service sector has prompted an increase in the number of small businesses. As a result self-employment is growing. In 1988, 15.3 percent of managers were self-employed; the number increased slowly but steadily in the early 1990s and is expected to reach 17.8 percent by the year 2000.
As business operations become more complex, the need for salaried managers is expected to continue because of the growing dependency of business organizations and government agencies on professional managers. Management jobs in nonagricultural industries are projected to increase about as fast as average for all jobs through the year 2005.
However, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the speed of growth in management jobs may vary significantly with the health of the particular industry. At the same time, economic indicators suggest that the massive restructuring trend of the early 1990s is slowing down; unemployment among managers is expected to reach only 1.9 percent, compared with an overall rate of 5.5 percent.
MULTINATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
The economic trend is away from national self-sufficiency toward global interdependency. U.S. corporations invest in foreign countries, and foreign companies invest in the United States.
American business invests billions and billions of dollars in affiliations with foreign countries every year. Companies with overseas operations represent the entire range of manufacturing and service business. Car manufacturers, textile companies, and banking and investment firms are just a few examples of companies that offer management opportunities in foreign countries.
In many cases, a foreign branch of a U.S. firm will be headed by a national of the country in which the branch is located, someone who knows the language and the customs of the area. This is particularly true in joint venture efforts. However, a portion of every foreign office staff is usually composed of U.S. managers. In addition there are often management-level opportunities for those who coordinate communications between foreign subsidiaries and the main office.
At the same time, foreign investment in the United States is at an all-time high, increasing twenty-five times in the last two decades. According to the Department of Commerce, foreign companies invested $58 billion in the United States in 1988 alone. However, that number fell to $54.4 billion in 1995, owing to many factors including foreign exchange rates and the cheap labor source in the Pacific Rim and Latin America. While a portion of this money is invested in the stock and money markets, foreign companies also are opening manufacturing plants and buying real estate throughout the United States.
Just as U.S. firms often employ foreign managers abroad, non-U.S. firms hire American managers for their operations. Working for a foreign firm may offer exciting opportunities to travel. At the same time, it requires special sensitivity to adapt to the management and business styles of those from different cultures.
International commerce generates many exciting management opportunities. As an inducement for managers to work in foreign countries, most companies offer a variety of incentives. Some provide housing plus utilities, travel opportunities, and "hardship" bonuses.
PREPARATION
Managers working in foreign countries should possess a few special qualifications because they represent American culture wherever they work. Some of these qualifications are:
- A tolerance for different customs and a willingness to learn about them
- Fluency in at least one language other than English
- Knowledge about different political systems, national groups, and international law
- Knowledge about world geography and demographic movements
- Knowledge of the metric system and currency exchange
- A proven ability to adapt to new situations
- Independence and self-reliance
- Physical and emotional health
- Lack of prejudice with regard to race, religion, culture, or business practices
- A good basic education
