The role of marketing managers in modern organizations is continuously discussed by professional researchers, business administrators, and journalists. They may be regarded as heroic leaders who shape the strategies of their companies and ensure their successful performance. Yet, they may also be viewed people who attribute the company’s successes only to their own actions while overlooking the efforts of other people. This paper is aimed at assessing the roles of these people in from various perspectives.
First, it should be noted that scholars may distinguish two types of managers, successful and effective (Luthans, 130). According to Luthans, those people, who stress effectiveness, are good at HR management and communicating (130). These managers emphasize employees’ skills, performance, and their professional growth (Luthans, 130). Thus, one can say that marketing manages perform such functions as planning, monitoring, decision-making, and motivating.
These people help other employees develop products or improve services. Moreover, they coordinate the work of other departments which are responsible for the promotion of products and establishing relations with customers. Yet, it should be kept in mind that there are also successful managers who attach more importance on socializing with subordinates and try to overcome formal barriers (Luthans, 130).
Thus, marketing managers should be able to go beyond their formal duties. However, very people are able to balance personal and professional relations in the workplace.
To better understand the activities of marketing managers, one can refer to the study done by Philip Zimbardo. He and his colleagues demonstrated that people were very likely to accept their institutional roles even if such roles contradicted their personal principles (Zimbardo et al, 9).
Similarly, marketing managers attach importance to their formal duties such as planning or coordinating. These managers want to maintain traditional workplace hierarchy. However, not all of them are able to be more personal and engage his or her subordinates. Again, as it has been said by Luthans, this is a skill of very successful managers (130). One cannot assume that every marketing manager can act in such a way.
Finally, the debate about the role of marketing managers stems from a common stereotype about managers created by mass-media. The thing is that corporate executives were often portrayed as heroic figures who could dramatically transform their companies (Mintzberg, Simons and Basu 67). Admittedly, there were managers who did change the marketing strategies of their companies and strengthened their positions in the market.
In this regard, one can certainly mention such people as Steve Jobs or Steven Reinemund who often performed the functions of marketing managers. Such people envisioned better services and products. Nonetheless, marketing managers focus more on their traditional roles, such as analysis of market trends, product development, advertising, and so forth. These people do not usually position themselves as all-powerful figures.
On the whole, this discussion shows two important things. First, marketing managers attach more importance to their direct duties such as strategy development.
They also have to make sure that the company can adapt to the changing needs of the customers. However, at the same time, they should enable other people to fulfill their talents. As it has been argued only few managers can combine personal and professional relations. Finally, these people usually do not act as heroic figures. Still, they can profoundly affect the performance of a company.
Works Cited
Luthans, Fred. “Successful vs. Effective Real Managers”. The Academy of Management Executive, 2. 2 (1988): 127-132. Web.
Mintzberg, Henry, Simons, Robert, and Basu, Kunal. “Beyond Selfishness”. MIT Sloan Management Review, 44:1 (2002), 67-74. Print.
Zimbardo, Philip, Haney, Charles., Banks, Willan. C., and Jaffe, Donald. “The mind is a formidable jailer: A Pirandellian prison.” The New York Times Magazine, 38- 47. Print.