Home

Become an Operations Manager

Find the information you need to become an operations manager.

Resource Center Home | Business Administration Resource Guide Home | Find Business Administration Schools

Business Administration Home

Business Administration Degrees

Business Administration Careers

Related Reading

Business Administration Schools

operations manager

An operations manager and her staff oversee their
company's facilities.

Operations managers plan, direct or coordinate the operations of a company or organization. They decide how facilities should be laid out, formulate products and policies, control inventory and distribution, drive logistics, and create employee schedules, among other duties. In some organizations, the duties of an operations manager may overlap with those of the CEO.

Undergraduates can earn a bachelor's degree in operations management or take courses in operations management as part of a business degree. MBA students can choose a concentration in operations management, and some schools offer master's degrees and PhDs in operations management.

While both an MBA with a focus on management and a Master of Operations Management degree will prepare you to assume managerial positions within the business world, the MBA will provide you with more skills transferable to other areas. The master's in operations management will provide you with greater specialized management expertise rather than broad and general experience in multiple areas. The MBA degree's broad curriculum also helps operations managers integrate the different functions within a company.

Students in MBA programs with an emphasis on operations management will most likely study everything from information systems, administrative theory, supply chain management, microeconomics and human resources management to finance, managerial accounting, policy, calculus, statistics, project management and management science.

find operations management schools

Necessary Skills

Operations managers need a broad range of skills, including a keen understanding of people and processes. They must be deft problem solvers, detailed planners, and adept managers and decision makers. Most importantly, operations managers should enjoy working with people, talking about projects and solving problems in teams. They should also possess the following characteristics:

  • Strong leadership ability
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Strong interpersonal communication skills

Operations management is also a field that is constantly being shaped by international competition. Operations management personnel, therefore, must be familiar with computer technology, quantitative methods, and planning and problem-solving techniques useful in analyzing business systems, in order to keep up with the rapidly-growing, evolving market.

Find operations management schools

Career Options for Operations Managers

Entry-level titles include operations manager, operations consultant, manager of business process improvement and project manager. Operations management specialists typically begin their careers in areas such as quality management, production control, service delivery management and logistics. Specialists have opportunities to work in cross-functional teams involved in process re-engineering, strategy development, product design and technology planning.

Those who have proven themselves in the field become senior operations managers and product managers, and some cross over into more general corporate positions such as CFO, industrial relations manager or even CEO. According to Payscale.com's 2008 data, operations management salaries range from $44,542 to $62,743 in entry- and mid-level jobs, while senior-level operations managers can make up to $76,737.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), while employment of managers is growing at a steady rate, competition is also growing, limiting job openings and making it more difficult to secure available jobs. As operations management, however, is generally accepted as crucial to the success of an organization, the BLS website explains that, “their jobs are unlikely to be automated or to be eliminated through corporate restructuring." Essentially, competition is stiff, but job security and status are both quite secure.

Bookmark and Share

Find operations management schools