Organizational Management vs. Other Management Types: The Key Differences

What is the difference between organizational management, strategic management, operational management, and other types of management? 

There are countless varieties of management, including:

• Organizational Management
• Strategic Management
• Operational Management
• Organizational Change Management
• Organizational Behavior Management

Not to mention the many managerial positions specific to different business departments.

Within any organization, you will have managers that oversee different business functions, including:

• Human Resources
• Finance
• Accounting
• Sales
• Marketing
• Collections

And, as an organization grows in size, the department titles and managerial titles can become even more specific.

Below, we will look at organizational management in detail.

After that, we will see how organizational management compares to other types of management.

What Is the Difference Between Organizational Management and Other Management Types?

Let’s look at a just a few of the many different categories of management, starting with organizational management:

Organizational Management

Organizational managers manage the entire organization.

Duties of this role can include:

• Managing other managers within the organization
• Allocating and organizing resources
• Ensuring that business activities align with organizational strategy
• Managing employees and ensuring they are productive and aligned with the organization’s aims

As with other managerial roles, organizational management aims to maximize efficiency, process effectiveness, and profitability.

Strategic Management

Strategic managers oversee and manage organizational strategy.

That is, they:

• Set strategic aims and prerogatives
• Manage the organization’s resources
• Analyze the marketplace, the organization itself, and the competition
• Design and develop strategies and action plans

Strategic managers, in short, focus their efforts on the organization in the context of its environment.

Operations Management

Operations management focuses its efforts on the business itself.

This role:

• Maximizes the efficient use of resources
• Focuses on supply chain issues, such as procurement and production
• Streamlines business operations in order to maximize organizational profits

They stay focused on customers, the marketplace, materials, labor, production, and similar areas.

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management focuses, as the name implies, on managing the supply chain.

This type of management embraces operations management, as well as other processes.

It includes:

• Procurement
• Operations management
• Production
• Logistics

And more.

Supply chain management becomes more important as organizations grow and begin to have a greater influence over their own supply chains.

Human Resources Management

Human resources is present in virtually every organization, large or small.

Human resources managers and directors are responsible for:

• Recruitment
• Orienting, onboarding, and employee training
• Payroll and attendance
• Performance management and improvement

And so on, depending on the organization’s design.

IT Management

IT managers manage the IT side of a business, including teams, processes, IT services, and IT operations.

Duties can include:

• Recruitment of IT professionals
• Training and skills development
• Management of IT resources
• Management and delivery of IT services

Among other things.

Project Management

Project management focuses on the management of specific projects.

Those projects can vary greatly in their nature – from the development of websites to short-term organizational changes.

Duties in project management include:

• Allocating resources, such as team members and time
• Setting project goals and milestones
• Coordinating with stakeholders
• Tracking project progress and optimizing or adjusting as necessary

Ultimately, the project managers goal is to ensure that a project meets its specified goals, while staying within specified budgets and timelines.

Change Management

Change managers design, oversee, manage, and execute organizational change projects.

This discipline focuses on:

• Assessing and mitigating risks
• Minimizing the negative impacts of a change, while maximizing positive effects
• Meeting the objectives of a change project
• Designs strategies for overcoming barriers to change
• Earning employee trust and support, while minimizing employee resistance

Ultimately, change managers help ensure that a change project – whether it is short-term or long-term – meets or exceeds its stated objectives.

Key Traits and Skills of Top Managers

Here are some of the most desirable traits for any management position, regardless of its specific function:

• Organization – Managers are very busy. They must often maintain organization and order, even in chaotic or noisy conditions. 
• Leadership – Leadership is also a must. Unless managers know how to lead their workers, they will make their jobs more difficult than necessary. 
• Time Management – Because most managers juggle countless contacts, relationships, and commitments, superb time management skills are important.
• Planning – Managers must also be able to plan effectively, both in terms of time as well as resources, money, and effort.
• Communication – The ability to communicate effectively also impacts a manager’s performance. Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal skills are crucial.
• People Skills – Managers must be able to form relationships, mediate, negotiate, and empathize. The better they are with people, the more effective they will be.

Management skills such as these directly impact a manager’s performance.

If managers and leaders lack some of these key traits, then their performance – and the performance of their teams – will suffer.

Whether you are an organizational manager, a change manager, or another type of manager, cultivating these skills should be a lifelong pursuit.

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