The business management and administration cluster represents careers in leadership, management, and support roles needed by organizations to operate successfully.
Work in this cluster is involved in planning, organizing, processing, and decision making for the teams and departments that make up all kinds of organizations—from human resources to project management, and from operations to customer service.
Business management and administration covers work in both for-profit corporations and not-for-profit organizations that typically serve social causes.
In most organizations, there are three tiers of workers: executive, management, and operations, and careers in this cluster include many in the first two tiers, and some in the last.
Executives are responsible for business strategy and directing operations for a company or division, such as compliance, sustainability, or loss prevention; managers report to executives, and may manage segments of these divisions as well as managing the front-line employees who perform day-to-day operations tasks.
Administrative support workers are at the front line for tasks like bookkeeping, clerking, customer service, and data entry that many departments require to function.
Self-employment, or entrepreneurship, is another aspect of this cluster. Entrepreneurs sell a product or service to earn a profit. This may take place online, at a building location, or by performing freelance work for others.
Entrepreneurial efforts run from the very small—for example selling a handmade product online to earn a supplemental income—to large scale, such as operating a business that employs dozens of workers.
Quick facts to know:
- In the United States, nearly 16 million people are employed in management and business operations positions, while more than 19 million work in office and administrative support occupations.
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be large growth in business management occupations over the next ten years.
- Management occupations are in the highest paid occupation group, while office and administrative support occupations are in the ten lowest-paying occupational groups.
- Corporate social responsibility is an important trend in business, for example, practicing energy efficiency, sourcing materials sustainably, ethical labor practices, and promoting more diverse candidates into leadership roles.
