BBPP 1103 Administrator and Manager

I started teaching again this morning at Shah Alam OUM. Students were very enthusiastic to earn a degree, and are thirsty for knowledge. I fell in love on the first sight with these people. They really want to change their life. I pray they'll be successful.

Along the way I talked about differences between an Administrator and a Manager. The differences are not like the sun and the moon or fire and water. But they must know this in order to become a good administrator and a good manager.

Basically decision are made based on certain criteria and conditions very clearly laid out in a 'book', in policy, intruction, guidelines, SOP, rules and regulations, minutes of meeting etc. If we make decision based on this, the person is called an administrator. Good example is an Admin Clerk. Everything is by the book.

A Manager made decision based on his head, wisdom, skills, experience, knowledge, situation. And many more. It is not by the book.

But we must understand that an Administrator is also a Manager and vice versa. An example is making decision to approve 'leave application'. Its a very simple job that can be done by a clerk. But what if 10 persons in your dept requesting to go for leave at the same time. Based by the book everybody can go, but surely you cant do that. That is why, the boss have to consider other factors not written in the book. This is a very clear example of what manager do. Even if we dont call him a manager. He may just be a supervisor, line leader, or an administrator. Its all the same. So, dont make a big hoo haa out of this issue. Learned people like OUM students know.

Administration is making decision based on written documents incl minutes of meeting.

Manager [management] makes decision based on experience, knowledge, wisdom etc.

BE CAREFUL when somebody comment that guy is a good administrator but not a good manager. it is an insult.