Senior management or Executive management is constituted of a set of employees who are at the highest level of organizational management. They are in charge of overseeing the management of a company or corporation. These types of managers attain a certain level of executive powers which is bestowed upon them by the board of directors. Executive managers report directly to the board of directors and in effect run these corporations on their behalf.

Executive managers, normally, will have specific functions that they themselves may perform or more often than not delegate these responsibilities to capable subordinates. Some of these functions are inclusive of some of the following.

1. An executive manager should be able to plan effectively. He or she will decide before hand what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who should do it. This will carefully institute a path from where the organization currently is to where it desires to be. The planning function necessitates the creation of goals and arranging them in logical order. Executive managers will be essentail to both short-term and long-term planning.

2. An executive manager should be able to organize efficiently. Organizing is composed of identifying responsibilities to be performed, grouping responsibilities into departments or divisions, and defining organizational relationships. The objective is to achieve a coordinated effort among all the elements in any organization i.e. coordinating. In organizing these elements the executive considers the delegation of authority and responsibility and the level of control given to supervisors.

3. An executive manager should be able to determine the required staff for the organization. This means he or she should be have the ability to fill job positions with the right people at the appropriate time. This includes deducing staffing needs, writing job descriptions, recruiting and screening people to fill the specific positions.

4. An executive manager should be have the ability to direct the human resources of a company. Directing, or perhaps more accurately, commanding, is leading the employees in a way that accomplishes the goals of the organization. This necessitates proper handling and distribution of resources and providing a substantial support system. An executive manager must subsequently have extraordinary interpersonal skills and the ability to motivate his or her employees. One of the pertinent issues in directing is to discover the correct balance between the needs of the staff needs and the requirements needed to make profits.

5. An executive manager must be able to control all elements within the corporation. Controlling is essentially the function that analyses quality in all areas with the chief aim of identifying possible or realistic deviations from the organization’s plan. In performing this function the executive manager ensures that the company produces high-quality performance and no less than satisfactory results while maintaining an environment that is conducive to productive. Controlling involves the management of information, measurement of performance, and implementation of corrective actions.

An executive manager should attain a certain level of education and experience. In most instances a person will have to pass through several ranks within an organization before being thought of for executive power. In most cases a prospective executive manager will need a number of years of experience in an administrative role and a proven track record of success that can be confirmed by his or her performance in a related role. Additionally, it is now expected that an executive manager should achieve at least a mastery level of education by obtaining an executive MBA.