The management functions are universal, which suggests that the management at all levels, have to

perform all the functions- planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. This is, in a broad
sense, true, but the emphasis varies on a particular function with the change of management level. For
example, a top-level manager is involved more in policy formulation rather than the control function and
supervisor may put more emphasis on control. These differences in the emphasis of various functions at
different levels require different characteristics and qualities in managers.

Top Management.
Top management in an organization consists of shareholders, board of directors, and the chief
executive. The chief executive may be called by various names- Managing Director, Director- General,
President, Chief Executive Officer, etc. Top management is responsible for overall management of the
organization and performs all such functions necessary for this. These functions may be classified into
three parts:
(i) Overall Management. This includes determination of organizational goals and objectives, overall
planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. It integrates the entire organization, maintains
balance between specialized interests within the organization, and accommodates it to the external
environment.
(ii) Overall Operations. This includes the overall execution of plans and designing organization
structure for the same. Coordination among various functionaries at this level becomes very
important.
(iii) Overall Relationship. This requires maintaining relationship among different individuals in the
organization and maintaining organizational relationship with external environment-Government, trade
associations, suppliers, financial institutions, etc.

Functions of Shareholders
Shareholders are the owners of an organization constituted in corporate form. They invest their
financial resources in the organization and hence have the authority for overall management. because of
their large number and geographical distance, it is not practicable to take part in day-to-day functioning of
the organization. As such, they elect from among themselves some members as directors who are
collectively called board of directors. The shareholders maintain their control on the organization through
board of directors. They analyze the functions of the organization in their meetings and give suggestions
as how the work should be carried on.

Functions of Board of Directors

Board of Directors is the trustee of the organization. Its responsibility is to provide guidelines and to
represent the interests of its clients and the public. It is not generally executive in nature. Board generally
performs two types of functions: (i) Analyzing and deciding the important matters concerning the
organization, these may include (a) deciding long-range policies, objectives, programmes, budgets, etc.,
(b) designing broad Organization structure and (c) controlling financial and operating results of the
organization. (ii)
Appointing higher managerial personnel and ratifying the appointment of other managers. Sometimes
directors are full-time executives of the organization and in that case, they perform dual role of directors
and executives.

Functions of Chief Executive

Chief executive, in an organization, is responsible for the day-to-day management. He is responsible for
overall functions of the organization as decided by the board or directors. Thus, on the one hand, he is
chief liaison officer between board and other personnel of the organization and provides information
about what board has decided in terms of organizational goals, policies, etc.

Middle Management

This group comes between top management and supervisory management. There functions are
following:
(i) To execute various functions of the organization so that top management gets enough time for
integrating overall functioning of the organization;
(ii) To co- operate among themselves, with top management and with supervisors so that
organization functions without any impediment.
(iii) To integrate various parts of the organization.
(iv) To develop and train employees in the organization for better functioning and for filling future
vacancies;
(v) To develop and inculcate feeling among employees for subordination of individual goals to
organizational goals.

Supervisory Managements

The term supervisor includes all types of foremen and junior executives below middle management level.
Generally, there are three levels of supervisors. The first level supervisor represents the level where a
person no longer performs an operator’s job. He is full-time on supervision and devotes most of his time
in planning, decision-making, and communication. The second and third level-supervisors are almost
similar, but may cover a wide range.
Sometimes the job of a supervisor becomes more complex and difficult than that of higher level
managers because a supervisor has to maintain relationship between two groups management and labor
who are not only different from function point of view but they also differ in many other respects,
namely, education, skills, socio-cultural backgrounds, levels of expectations in the organization, and the
identity of group and group goals. Supervisors are directly related with workers. They take directions
from middle managers. It is assumed that a supervisor is like any other member of management, but
actually both his function and status are quite different. A supervisor’s job differs from that of other
managers because the group he supervises is
different. This requires him to interact with two groups—managers, who are his superiors, and workers
who are his subordinates.