Organization of management personnel and decision-making for agricultural enterprises

Structure of the enterprise management personnel

Management personnel — is the collective of enterprise employees engaged in management work. The management personnel of an enterprise is divided into:

• managers, whose functional role consists of decision-making and ensuring their implementation; the decision-making function is assigned only to the manager, who is also responsible for the preparation of the decision, its execution, and control;
• specialists, who participate in the preparation of decisions and their subsequent implementation; these administrative staff members must develop management decisions for individual (sectoral) directions of production development. Specialists of an agricultural enterprise include economists, agronomists, engineers, livestock specialists, etc. Specialists play a leading role in improving production technologies in crop production and livestock, planning and analysis of production and financial activities, improving the organization of production and marketing of products, and substantiating relevant proposals;
• auxiliary (technical) personnel, who provide information services to the management apparatus — clerks, technicians, secretaries, etc.

This classification based on the functional role in the management process is the primary one at the enterprise.

Given the general requirements, patterns, and principles of management, agriculture possesses features determined by the specifics of the management object, its functions, scale, and role in the economy. Among the sectoral features of agriculture that complicate the management system in the industry, we note the following:

• the presence of land as the main means of production and an object of real estate;
• territorial dispersion of production;
• multi-sectoral character;
• seasonality of work due to the mismatch between the working period and the production period;
• diversity of organizational forms of enterprises and farms;
• specifics of the manifestation of market relations;
• objective necessity for various forms of state regulation.

Making effective management decisions

Management decisions are considered the result of purposeful concrete activity, analysis, and assessment of the situation. These can be general decisions as well as specific, tactical ones. Decisions are made either solely by the manager or collectively. By areas of activity and content, they are subdivided into economic, administrative, technological, social, etc. The efficiency of the enterprise's functioning, its market position, and social relevance depend on the degree of validity and timeliness of management decisions.

In this regard, management decisions are subject to such general requirements as validity, meaningfulness, timeliness, legality, and consistency.

The management decisions made are influenced by factors:

• external (objective in relation to the enterprise) — political, economic, social. The greatest influence is exerted by economic factors, including state credit and financial, pricing, and investment policies;
• internal (subjective in relation to the enterprise) — resource availability, presence of specialists, management system, etc.

There are three stages in the management decision-making process — preparation, adoption, implementation.

What goals does management pursue? 2. What does the management system include? 3. What requirements are imposed on the managed (object) and managing (subject) management systems? 4. What functions does the management system implement? 5. What requirements are imposed on management functions? 6. What is the management structure? 7. Characterize the linear management structure. 8. What is characteristic of the functional management structure? 9. Which factors influence the construction of the management structure based on the hierarchy principle? 10. How are methods classified in management theory? 11. What is the essence of economic management methods? 12. What is characteristic of organizational-administrative management methods? 13. Who is included in the enterprise management personnel? 14. How is the industry-specific nature taken into account in the management of an agricultural enterprise? 15. What factors influence the management decisions being made