ATD Level II
Principles of Management cheat sheet
Every chapter's key points, formulas and definitions on one page, for the last week before the exam. Each heading links to the chapter that explains it.
Management concepts
- Management is the process of planning, organising, leading and controlling an organisation's human, financial, physical and informational resources to reach its goals efficiently and effectively.
- Managers sit at three levels: top management sets the mission and long-term strategy, middle management turns that strategy into departmental plans and targets, and lower management supervises the day-to-day work.
- Mintzberg grouped what managers actually do into ten roles in three categories: interpersonal, informational and decisional.
- Katz's three skills shift with level: technical skill matters most at lower management, conceptual skill at top management, and human skill equally at every level.
- A manager's authority comes from their position; a leader's influence comes from inspiring others, with or without a formal title.
Key terms
- Top level management
- The smallest group, the board, chief executive and other senior executives, setting the organisation's overall mission, long-term strategy and major policy, and answerable to owners or a governing body.
- Middle level management
- Departmental heads and regional or branch managers, translating top management's strategy into departmental plans and targets, and coordinating the work of first-line managers under them.
- Lower level management
- First-line supervisors and foremen, directly overseeing the operating employees who do the organisation's day-to-day work, and the level closest to daily execution.
- Interpersonal roles
- Three roles:
- Informational roles
- Three roles:
- Decisional roles
- Four roles:
- Technical skill
- Proficiency in the specific methods, processes and tools of a particular field, an accountant's command of financial reporting standards, for example. Most critical at lower management, where managers are close to the actual work.
- Human (interpersonal) skill
- The ability to work with, motivate and communicate with people, individually and in groups. Equally important at every level, since every manager works through other people.
- Conceptual skill
- The ability to see the organisation as a whole and understand how its parts relate to each other and to the wider environment. Most critical at top management, where decisions affect the entire organisation.
The rest of the sheet covers
- Theories of management
- Analysing the business environment
- The functions of management
- Managing change
- Exam technique and revision
- Glossary