Within an organization, there are several people working using different designations. These people work at different levels of management and perform different tasks and roles, but all of them have the same aim of meeting organizational goals.
What are Levels of Management?
Every organization is considered to adopt “Levels of Management” in its everyday operations. Levels of Management refer to arranged managerial positions in an organization. Usually, the levels of management increase as the size of an organization increases, but in most organizations, three levels of management can be seen-top level, middle level, and low level.
Top Level Management
The top level of management is also known as the administrative level of management which consists of a board of directors and chief executives who have the ultimate power and authority on any decision taken in an organization. Positions like CEO, COO, Chairman, and Managing Director are analogous to this level of management. This level of management oversees the policies and procedures of an organization with the aim of developing strategic plans for the overall success of the business.
The roles and responsibilities of top level of management include:
- Laying down the objectives and broad policies of an organization.
- Developing the budget of the organization.
- Preparing strategic plans.
- Appointing the middle-level managers.
- Establishing organizational controls.
- Communicating with the shareholders.
- Providing guidance and direction to the organization.
Middle-Level Management
The middle level of management consists of the various departmental heads. An organization is divided into different departments for efficient functioning and each of these departments is in turn managed by an executive, maybe a sales manager, production manager, or human resources manager, who is accountable to the top level of management for the operations of the department.
Middle-level executives perform the following duties:
- Execute the plans for the departments laid down by top-level executives.
- Formulate plans for their own departments.
- Hire and train employees in the lower level of management.
- Interpret organizational policies and communicate with their subordinates.
- Prepare and send reports to the top level of management.
- Evaluate the overall performance of departments.
Thus, the top level and middle level of management have different roles to perform and need to possess different skills to carry out their tasks.
The differences between the executives of these levels are summarised below:
| Senior Level Executives | Middle-Level Executives | |
| Nature of work | Concerned with framing plans and policies for an organization as a whole. | Concerned with the implementation of policies and plans at the department level. |
| Responsibility & accountability | Need to answer to shareholders. | Accountable to the top level of management. |
| Flow of order | Orders and instructions are passed to the middle level. | Orders and instructions are passed to the lower level and reported to the top level. |
| Involvement | Low level of involvement in day-to-day operations of an organization. | The high degree of involvement in the day-to-day operations of the organization. |
