National Occupational Standards for Management

National Occupational Standards for Management are a national benchmark of good management performance which can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including defining roles and determining standards of performance, and for both individual and organisational development. They provide a blueprint against which an organisation can measure its existing structures and level of management skills.

They were developed by the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) and are now managed by the Management Standards Centre. MCI identified the four key roles of ?managing operations?, ?managing finance?, ?managing people? and ?managing information? and specified functions within each role. Performance criteria have been developed to measure how well a manager is performing each function and there are accompanying indicators for range of activities, underpinning knowledge and understanding, and personal competence.

The standards are supported by a personal competence model which covers: planning to optimise the achievement of results; managing others to optimise results; managing oneself to optimise results; using intellect to optimise results.

Senior management standards (M3) are exclusively concerned with strategic management and cover broad areas such as understanding and influencing the environment, setting strategy and gaining commitment, and evaluating and improving performance

Middle management standards (M2) are about operational management and apply to all senior or middle managers who are responsible for departments and/or have other managers reporting to them. These are managers who have a broad span of control, they proactively identify and implement change and quality systems, they negotiate budgets and contracts, and lead high level meetings.

First line management standards (M1) apply to those responsible for allocating work to others and achieving specific results through the effective use of resources. These managers have limited budgetary responsibility and are reactive in carrying out policy within their defined area of authority. They contribute to broader activities, such as change programmes or recruitment, rather than having full responsibility for them.

Supervisory management standards (M1S) apply to first line managers with a tightly defined area of responsibility and limited autonomy or budgetary control. supervisors are responsible for achieving specific results by effectively allocating work and resources within their team.

The focus of the standards is on improving managers? performance in their daily work by providing checklists of good practice which they can use for guidance and against which they can judge their performance. Managers can accredit their current competence, so that training and development is only undertaken to fill in the gaps where competence has not yet been demonstrated.