Managerial effectiveness is measured by the degree at which the manger achieves his business objectives. The difficulty in this type of measure is that of finding an objective measurement instrument.
It is also difficult to measure because the hours spent on decision and control is not an indication of the quality of management. Before we can measure efficiency, we must set standards and time lag for achieving the objectives. The environment mu^t also be homogenous.
Factors Affecting Managerial Effectiveness
The identified factors that could affect managerial effectiveness are: Experience, education and training; personal characteristics, development of managerial skills and age.
- Experience: A person’s background is important because it affects his ambition. In small-holder farming, most successful farmers have been ex-civil servants or ex-soldiers who have accuired wide experience. Your experience in one type of fanning e.g. poultry will enhance your effectiveness in poultry farming.
- Education and Training: Managers are made not born. The ideally
qualified manager combines adequate general education with both technical training and Flexibility of mind is enhanced re
education.
The more educated a farmer, the more he tends to make the most use of advisory services and management consultants.
3. Personal characteristics: Certain common qualities of successful managers include:
- Willingness to work hard
- Having courage to innovate, to expand, and to invest. The manage’ needs to be tough and self-confident and with good will power. He has t: believe in himself. Honesty is also important. The manager has to know h capabilities and true worth. He must have the ability to inspire, to get c with and control people. He must also have good health, and must have the perseverance to try again when knocked down by failure. This has to c with resilience.
4. Development of Managerial Skills: Certain important managerial skills can
be developed by experience and training e.g. observation, analytical ability
decision making and implementation accuracy, and communication skill.
- Age: The manager’s age affects his effectiveness. People go through a
three-phase cycle viz;
(i) Learning period
(ii) Full maturity and top performance
(Hi) Post rnaturity/pre-retirement.
Young managers tend to have growing families and tend to have the greatest desire to maximize their income; hence they tend to be more productive and innovative. On the other hand, the older men lack the desire to innovate.
