Managers practice four fundamental functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. As a manager moves higher in the organization, they are faced with broader responsibilities and use all four functions. While leadership is one fundamental management skill, the termleaderis sometimes used instead ofmanager. Based on the size and structure of the organization, multiple levels of management exist.

Larger organizations have executive and senior leaders, often in functional roles. These managers oversee middle managers and usually have the vice president or higher role.General managersanddirectorsare middle managers who oversee lower-level managers. These managers often have specific groups of employees representing functional areas, such as sales, operations, finance, and human resources, reporting to them.

For example, in the image below, the vice president of sales & marketing oversees the sales director and marketing director. The sales director oversees the sales managers for regions 1, 2, and 3. The Region 2 and 3 sales managers also have sales reps that report to them. Similarly, the marketing director oversees the Regions 1 & 2 and Region 3 marketing managers who oversee internal sales.

Using information about management levels, consider the business administration tasks management needs to fulfill and answer the following questions:

• How do these skills work within the different levels of an organization?
• How does using these skills help organizations outperform others in their industry?
• How are the four functions of management (i.e., planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) effective in helping organizations meet their strategic objectives and business goals?

Answer the prompt above in a minimum of 175 words.