Management and supervision

There are 4.3 million managers and supervisors in the UK, of whom 1.5 million are women; however, fewer than 1 million of them are qualified. Certain personal qualities are helpful in management:

• tough-mindedness
• decisiveness
• being an extrovert
• ability to tolerate uncertainty
• ability to thinks on one’s feet
• intuitive understanding of others
• high tolerance of stress.

SkillsActive, the Sector Skills council for Active Leisure and Learning is leading on management and leadership skills development. The Management Standards Centre (MSC) is the government-recognised standards-setting body for the management and leadership areas. It has developed National Occupational Standards that describe the performance for a range of management and leadership functions/activities, as follows.

• Managing self and personal skills

– Manage your own resources

– Manage your own resources and professional development

– Develop your personal networks

• Providing direction

– Develop and implement operational plans for your area of responsibility

– Map the environment in which your organisation operates

– Develop a strategic business plan for your organisation

– Put the strategic business plan into action

– Provide leadership for your team

– Provide leadership in your area of responsibility

– Provide leadership for your organisation

– Ensure compliance with legal, regulatory, ethical and social requirements

– Develop the culture of your organisation

– Manage risk

– Promote equality of opportunity and diversity in your area of responsibility

– Promote equality of opportunity and diversity in your organisation

• Facilitating change

– Encourage innovation in your team

– Encourage innovation in your area of responsibility

– Encourage innovation in your organisation

– Lead change

– Plan change

– Implement change

• Working with people

– Develop productive working relationships with colleagues

– Develop productive working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders

– Recruit, select and keep colleagues

– Plan the workforce

– Allocate and check work in your team

– Allocate and monitor the progress and quality of work in your area of responsibility

– Provide learning opportunities for colleagues

• Using resources

– Manage a budget

– Manage finance for your area of responsibility

– Obtain additional finance for the organisation

– Promote the use of technology within your organisation

– Ensure your own actions reduce risks to health and safety

– Ensure health and safety requirements are met in your area of responsibility

– Ensure an effective organisational approach to health and safety

• Achieving results

– Manage a project

– Manage programme of complementary projects

– Manage business processes

– Develop and review a framework for marketing

– Resolve customer service problems

– Monitor and solve customer service problems

– Support customer service improvements

– Work with others to improve customer service

– Build your organisation’s understanding of its market and customers

– Develop a customer-focused organisation

– Manage the achievement of customer satisfaction

– Improve organisational performance.

Supervision has been defined as ‘directing or managing work, workers, etc.’ Supervision and management exist in every organisation and they go hand in hand; but above all they are about the control and use of people and material resources within an organisation. Use of teams and projects, identification of individual roles within the organisation and increased emphasis on the best possible use of all resources, all under a legal spotlight, make management and supervision more of a challenge than ever before.

Management in the Forces

Service careers involve a wide and varied experience of management – often in extremely difficult circumstances.

Many Service people will have management skills and experience, and institute membership that reflects this. General management is practised by most people with authority and responsibility in the Forces, and is increasingly recognised with formal qualifications.

The award of certificates and the opportunity to earn other qualifications by some additional work on top of Service courses means that all levels of Service management can now be recognised, so that all levels of military training may be translated into terms that other employers will understand.

Qualifications and training

There are management qualifications available at most of the five (old) or nine (new) levels that make up the UK’s hierarchy of awards. Some of the qualification levels below will therefore need to be adjusted (usually upwards) because of changes to the National Qualifications Framework.

At Level 1 in the vocational areaare the Key Skills that are the basic elements of knowledge that everyone needs to get on in the world. Everyone in the Forces should either be at this level on enlistment or reach it during the early years of their service.

Relevant vocational subjects include Business and Office Management, although there is no Management qualification at this level. Academically, there are GCSEs in Business Studies that are relevant for future management students.

At Level 2 the emphasis is still generally on an individual’s own performance, but qualifications will start to include responsibilities for others’ performance. There is a vocational qualification in junior supervisory management offered by some colleges, and its units examine several areas of competence.

The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) has Level 2 programmes as part of its qualification schedule in Team Leading, Introduction to Business Improvement, Exploring Enterprise and Preparing for Enterprise. They are delivered by ILM centres and approved training providers. The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) similarly offers Team Leading at this level.

At Level 3 the situation changes. Academically, A-levels and AS-levels in Business Studies are appropriate, but there are CMI and ILM certificates available for people on the vocational route. The ILM offers them in Leadership, Management, First Line Management, Coaching, Business Start-up, Management of Volunteers, and Personnel Support, while the CMI has them in Management and Business Start-up.

People can often switch from a specific area to Management. Their Level 2 qualification provides the background for entry to the more general management field.

Level 4 Management may be studied academically at any number of universities and colleges. Courses are full- or part-time, or taken through distance learning.

Vocationally, there are a number of Level 4 programmes accredited to the CMI. They include Management, Registered Manager, Programme and Project Management, Energy Management, Quality Management, Automotive Retail Management, Public Service Leadership and Management Consultancy. The ILM offers Management, Environmental Management, Management of Volunteers and Personnel Management at this level.

Senior managers may wish to achieve a Level 5 qualification. Academically, this is a postgraduate award – a Masters degree, commonly a Masters of Business Administration (MBA). There are other appropriate postgraduate qualifications and variations of the MBA, which will usually include elective modules.

Vocationally, there are CMI awards – Management, Strategic Management and Management Consulting – while the ILM offers Management, Personnel Strategy, Leadership, Management Coaching and Mentoring, Understanding Social Enterprise, and Management of Volunteers. The ILM also offers Level 7 qualifications in Management, and Leadership Mentoring and Executive Coaching. All are aimed at individuals in positions of both authority and responsibility, who have the experience and intellect to benefit from the programmes.

Chartered Manager status is now offered by the CMI for senior managers who wish to:

• demonstrate the positive impact of their contribution at work
• improve their performance, knowledge and skills
• integrate learning and professionalism into organisational practice
• bring change skills to bear on business improvement
• raise performance through leadership skills
• influence the bottom line by delivering results that make the difference.

There are many other courses on offer, with most business schools and both institutes offering a number of certificates and diplomas in management, and assessment and quality assurance (verification) qualifications.

Employment

The spectrum of managers in the UK and what they actually do is vast. With the rapid rate of technological change, better education standards and the need for fast response to meet competition at home and abroad, management organisation has become leaner and the structure flatter. Today, there is much more emphasis on team building and leadership.

Institute of Leadership and Management

The ILM has around 18,000 members throughout the UK. Its 2,000 accredited centres deliver training on a huge range of courses each year in management and leadership, delivering 80,000 certificates annually, and all members enjoy access to its Information Service and publications.

Contact details

Management Standards Centre, 3rd Floor, 17–18 Hayward’s Place, London EC1R 0EQ Tel: 020 7240 2826 Website: msc.managers.org.uk

Chartered Management Institute, Management House, Cottingham Road, Corby, Northants NN17 1TT Tel: 01536 204222 Website: www.managers.org.uk

Institute of Leadership & Management, Stowe House, Netherstowe, Lichfield, Staffs WS13 6TJ Tel: 01543 266867 Website: www.i-l-m.com