Time Management Skills of Middle Managers of Russian Companies: Evaluation Experience

Abstract

The speed of change in the external environment forces companies to be more flexible and mobile. Among other things, this result is achieved through changes in organizational structures, delegation of authority, increasing the role of departments and middle managers. A modern manager is increasingly becoming a leader, not only an administrator. Limited time resources and new challenges that middle managers face make the issue of time management relevant.

This paper examines the time management skills of middle managers in Russian companies. The study was carried out according to the author's methodology in various regions of the Russian Federation in the second half of 2020 - early 2021.

The obtained results characterize the time management skills of middle managers in Russian companies ambiguously. On the one hand, the majority of middle managers of Russian companies have basic time management skills, many of them are actively involved in the goal setting and planning of the division's activities and have a horizon of planning their own activities from several weeks to several months. Most managers are relatively good at achieving their goals – 5 out of 6 middle managers meet their goals by 70% or more. Many managers have developed their managerial competencies not only in practice but also in the process of obtaining basic and additional education in the field of management.

Unclear tasks assigned to subordinates, focus of inexperienced managers on performing the functions of specialists, and insufficiently developed competencies in the field of delegation of authority lead to additional time, which could be spent on solving more important tasks. We also note a fairly high share of time spent by managers on the preparation of reports and other documents.

More than half of the time is spent on urgent and important work. This means that managers work in conditions of continuous stress and that the lack of time inevitably affects the quality of the work performed. The results confirm the importance of developing managers' time management skills, especially for those who do not have sufficient work experience and/or education in the field of management.