Managers are the figureheads of the organisation. They sign the legal documents, receive the important visitors; have the contacts with the outside world. He or she is the representative of the organisation and disseminate information from both external and internal sources to the people in the organisation (unit). Besides these dealings with external relations, managers also spent time with the subordinates and take the most important and difficult decisions. They have to mediate when conflict arises, handle disturbances, discover problems and initiate improvement projects.

In their dealing with subordinates managers tend to concentrate on four activities:
1. Organising
2. Directing
3. Controlling
4. Staff motivation

Organising is the process of identifying activities, tasks and positions, and regulation of their relationships. The regulation of relationships includes fixing authority, responsibility and obligations of positions.

Directing is concerned with the concept of steering and supervising. It includes day-to-day planning and delegation of activities, responsibilities and authority. The maturity of the staff (motivation, capability and communication skills) should be the prime indicator for decisions to what extent tasks, responsibilities and authorities can be delegated to subordinates.

Control is necessary to react on unforeseen events or deviations and delays of the implementation of the plan. Control means that adjustments are made to the plan to prevent that deviations become too serious. Control requires systematic monitoring.

Managers also have to develop and operate motivation systems of the organisation. The theory of Herzberg states that some factors do not motivate in themselves, but their absence would be a strong demotivator (dissatisfiers). Other factors (satisfiers) have a stronger positive influence and can direct the energy of staff. Dissatisfiers are prerequisites for proper functioning, like: terms of employment, working conditions, working relations, and employment policies. Satisfiers (motivators) are crucial to positive work attitude. They give pleasure, lead to commitment, and give people the feeling that they can develop and reach certain goals.

In many countries and organisations the position of manager is perceived of a higher status than the position of expert. Not only are managers granted more decision power but also in general receive more salary and have a higher social status. Many organisations promote their top experts into management and many experts are eager to become one. The organisations loose often twice. First of all they loose their best experts and secondly they often have to work with managers who are unqualified and do not have the right attitude.

Modern business sectors understand that management is a profession in itself. They seek professionals with both an educational and professional background in management and develop career paths for their experts. Award systems and allocation of decision power is mixed up between managers and experts. Experts may earn more, receive more social status and even have more decision power than their managers.

It is also recognised that the attitude of the manager and the function of the unit has to match. Managers with a more operational responsibility require an attitude that seeks control. For example, site-mangers, who have to produce a certain construction and therefore should be able to control the construction process and all its inputs and workers. Usually these workers are lower-skilled and had less education than their managers. They also appreciate directions and instructions.

On the other end of the scale are the managers of Research & Development (R&D) units. Successful research and development requires creativity. Controlling the R&D experts usually has the opposite result. Freedom and decision power are important elements to motivate the R&D experts to produce successful products. R&D managers have to concentrate on motivating their experts and assist them in finding new sources of information or selling new ideas to the board of directors. In a way they have become a facilitator. However the R&D manager does have to be able to motivate the experts to carry out the orders of the board of directors or incorporate comments from other units in their work.

Management of design teams requires more control than a manager of an R&D unit, but far less so than an operational-manager. It will be impossible for a manager to comprehend all aspects of a complex design process. Furthermore designers need to be creative to develop the most appropriate products. Managers of the design teams have to be able to avoid scope creep and also should be able to take decisions when various experts are in disagreement with each other.

Managers of units selling its expertise to other units or projects have far less operational responsibilities and should concentrate on the other aspects of management, like motivating and capacity building. They only need to control the cost aspects of their operations.