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45 Characteristics Of Management

John Spacey, updated on April 24, 2024

Characteristics of management are the functions that managers play in an organization and the things that they do to achieve these functions. At a high level, managers are given authority and use this authority to direct teams and allocate resources to achieve objectives. The following are the basic characteristics of management.

Authority

Managers have formal authority to direct and control some aspect of an organization such as a team or product.

Responsibility

Managers have a set of responsibilities appropriate to their level of authority.

Accountability

Managers have accountability based on their level of authority.

Delegation

Managers can delegate responsibility but remain accountable.

Division of Work

Managers divide work to teams and individuals. This allows for the efficient specialization of labor.

Esprit de Corps

Managers establish a productive working culture and sense of shared purpose.

Order

Managers ensure that work is done in an orderly fashion with improvisation as appropriate.

Stability

Managers provide a somewhat stable environment tempered by the need for change.

Change

Managers drive change to an organization.

Environment

Managers respond to internal and external challenges and shape change with these factors in mind.

Adaptation

Adapting strategies, plans and processes to change.

Discipline

Making sure that employees fulfill their role according to the processes and policies of their organization.

Command & Control

Managers are given instructions by someone with authority over them and can give instructions where they have authority.

Initiative

In most cases, managers are expected to take initiative and not wait around for instructions when something needs to be done.

Vision

Managers plan and communicate a vision of the future of an organization.

Mission

Establishing a mission that gives an organization purpose and direction.

Goals

Managers plan and communicate goals.

Strategy

Developing long term strategies to achieve goals.

Tactics

Tactics are quick strategies that deal with current situations.

Planning

Managers create detailed plans to implement strategies.

Organization

Managers organize teams and processes.

Structure

Managers structure organizations with elements such as roles and reporting lines.

Processes

Establishing repeated steps for completing work efficiently.

Standards

Adopting specifications for how things are done.

Analysis

Investigating things in a systematic way.

Measurement

Measuring processes and results.

Reporting

Communicating status, issues and measurements.

Relationships

Managers cultivate relationships with teams and stakeholders.

Transparency

Ideally, managers are not unnecessarily secretive and work to share important information that can be shared.

Issue Clearing

Removing obstacles to processes, projects and other work.

Problem Solving

Managers investigate and address the root cause of problems.

Lessons Learned

Managers work to learn from failure and to identify and scale successes.

Decision Making

Managers make timely decisions.

Consensus-building

Building support with an organization for a course of action.

Direction

Providing teams with direction so that they can be productive.

Support

Supporting teams to help them to learn, develop and achieve high performance.

Feedback

Providing timely performance feedback to teams and individual contributors.

Goal Setting

Setting performance goals with teams and individual contributors.

Performance

Evaluating performance against performance goals, rewarding high performance and managing low performance.

Talent

Providing employees with training and development opportunities.

Recruiting

Recruiting new talent.

Managing Uncertainty

Managing uncertainty with estimates, forecasts and contingencies.

Managing Risk

Identifying and managing risks.

Quality

Ensuring the quality of work outputs both tangible and intangible.

Cost

Controlling cost and exercising spending discipline.

Overview

Managers are accountable for real world outcomes such as revenue, cost, reputation and risk. In order to achieve these things they set strategy, provide direction and manage resources to achieve performance, productivity and work quality across their department or team.