Functional and Cross-Functional Areas of Management
MGT/521
April 4, 2015

Functional and Cross-Functional Areas of Management
Managerial part of the management process is addressing Henry Mintzberg’s theory, which explains what managers do at work through specific actions or behavioral norms in order to manage their resources. In order to have a better understanding the role of manager within the lower level of an organizational structure; then one should focus on the two management types, such as a functional manager and cross-functional team manager. Functional management types are probably capable of performing all facets of managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling in any organization (Robbins ad Coulter, 2012). The main advantage of this type of organization is that each employee has only one manager, thus simplifying the chain of command. According to Dunn (2001), “functional manager is a direct, technical supervisor”, (p.4). A cross-functional team manager is someone organizing a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal (Krajewski and Ritzman, 2005). One could make the assumption this includes employees from all levels of the organization or a department.
Both of these management styles will be analyzed by looking at the three characteristics of the managerial roles, such as the interpersonal relationships (managing people); the transfer of information (managing information); and decision making process (managing the action), which are described in Mintzberg’s Theory Study. A study that said these are the managerial techniques, which are needed for all managers; if they want to be successful in the different functional areas of their business (Muma, Smith & Somers, 2006).
Interpersonal relationships, according to Daft study (2012); the leader portion of this managerial role is most concerned with the involvement training and motivational and communications tactics that are used by managers to influence their employees’ performance. The managerial roles are associated with the expected performance of the manager in different situational management conditions. In several scholarly journals; it has noted that the functional manager is mostly responsible for making sure that their areas’ employees are accurately trained, motivated and evaluated of competency of performing their prescribed duties and responsibilities. Cross-functional team management is representatives of a department for and therefore can leverage their familiarity with accessing and providing knowledge of that department for the team. This increases the efficiency of a cross-functional team manager by reducing time spent gathering information. Therefore, they may not have the resources needed to train, motivate and evaluate workers, but they may have better communication skills than a functional manager.
The above evidential information has explained the important of having a good interpersonal skill as managerial trait. It is equally necessary for understanding the informational roles, which are defining how to develop and maintain an effective and efficient information network for the functional areas (Daft, 2012). This paper has identified the functional manager has integrator and resource to various cross-functional team managers within an organization, which means this manager is probably the holder of information from one area to another. Cross-functional team manager requires information from all levels of functional management. Then, it must be assumed the functional manager will have more control over the transfer of information that the cross-functional team manager will need to complete their tasks on time.
Decisional roles are pertaining to those activities, in which a manager must make a choice to take the lead on a particular action and some management scholars had stated that most functional managers could have responsibility for ongoing operations,