Executive Manager
The following profile is provided to assist Centers in advising and recruiting participants on to programmes of an appropriate level.
Senior managers can be divided into those with operational responsibility and those with strategic responsibility. The differences between them are not always significant, but some do reflect a real difference in role and perspective.
Senior operational managers are responsible for whole operating divisions or whole organisations. They have wide spans of control, measured in hundreds or even thousands in some cases. They have full budgetary accountability for their area of responsibility and have the freedom to vire funds between budget heads within defined parameters. They can authorise large items of recurrent expenditure, and capital expenditure within agreed limits, and are expected to report, in summary, on their overall financial and operational performance at regular intervals.
Senior operational managers have the freedom to change systems and structures within their area of responsibility, within budgetary limits to achieve agreed financial and performance objectives. They will be accountable for the performance of their area of responsibility and their performance will be measured against objectives based on aggregates of activity (eg total revenue, total costs, output per employee, etc).
They will be concerned partly with the day to day operation of systems and partly with future requirements and changes in systems, operations and performance. They will be expected to negotiate with larger or more important customers and suppliers and will have the freedom to make significant decisions about the terms of agreements and the prices charged. They will have middle managers reporting to them and will be accountable for the performance of those managers and their people. There may well be several more tiers of management between them and front line people.
Senior operational managers will be heavily involved in the recruitment, promotion and discipline of middle managers and senior technical or professional staff, and with their performance management. They will also have responsibility for monitoring the recruitment, promotion and discipline of more junior staff, which may extend to approving decisions made by middle managers.
Senior strategic managers will have less responsibility for current operations and will be primarily concerned with identifying and planning future operations and the long term direction and performance of the organisation or a significant component of it. They will report directly to board members or elected members of a public authority, and may be members of such a board.
They will be responsible for attracting and negotiating for new investment or other external funding streams and accountable for the return on capital investment and with meeting broad and longer term goals. They will have only a limited, effective, span of control as most operational control occurs at a level reporting to them, but will have extensive influence over all employees.
They may negotiate directly with major customers and suppliers, on the broad terms and conditions of contracts, and on details and prices in some instances (especially with capital good markets). They are responsible for negotiating with other organisations on the development of jointly owned ventures and mergers or transfers of undertakings and in decision making on policy and strategy.
They will have very little involvement in the recruitment and disciplining of people other than those at senior management level. However they will have extensive freedom to negotiate terms and conditions of employment in these cases.
