Director, manager, chief, head, boss

Director has two main senses, one in the sphere of business and the other in the arts, especially the theatre and cinema.

In industry and commerce, a director is a member of the board (called the board of directors) which directs, or manages the affairs of the company on behalf of the shareholders. A company usually has between ten and twenty directors, some of whom may work part time. (Some are directors of more than one company). The occupation of such a person is called company director. The head of the board of directors, who is always full-time, is the Managing Director (MD).

There is now an increasing tendency to call a person who is in charge of a particular department or aspect of the company’s work a director, for example: Sales Director (in charge of organising the sale of the good produced), Export Director, and so on. Such people were traditionally called managers, but the title director is considered to be more prestigious.

In the theatre and cinema, director denotes the person who stages the play or makes the film, deciding how to interpret the text, instructing the actors, and so on.

Director is also increasingly used to denote the head of various institutions, such as museums (instead of the traditional curator), art galleries, research institutes, and so on. It is rarely used as the head of an educational institution, although at least one polytechnic has a director and the tendency is increasing. The head of some local educational authorities is now called the director of education, instead of the traditional chief educational officer.

A manager is a person who runs a hotel, shop, restaurant, etc. on behalf of the owner, or who is responsible for a certain department of a big organisation, for example, a commercial company. Companies may have a Production Manager, a Sales Manager, an Export Manager, and so on. (See also director above).

A theatre manager, in the commercial theatre, is the person who manages the building on behalf of the owners, makes arrangements for it to be used for one production after another.

Management is used to denote collectively those who manage a business organisation or an institution. For example:

The hotel (restaurant / shop) is under new management.

Pay negotiations between the unions and the management will start tomorrow.

Head is used alone mainly in a general, descriptive sense. For example:

The head of a museum is called the curator or the director.

It also occurs in colloquial style as an abbreviation of headmaster / headmistress. For example:

I’ve got to go and see the head now.

Otherwise it is used attributively, as in head waiter, head porter or with of, as in head of department, for example: Head of the English Department.

Chief is not generally used alone in Britain to denote the person to whom one is responsible, but in specific titles such as:

Chief Accountant / Engineer / Librarian

Chief Education Officer – head of a local education authority

Chief Constable – head of a local police force

Chief Inspector – a senior rank of police officer

Commander –in –Chief – of the armed forces

However, there is now a tendency, probably American, to use chief as a general term to denote the person at the head of any organisation. This is particularly noticeable in newspaper headlines, for example: AIRLINE CHIEF SACKED.

The American use of chief to denote the person to whom one is responsible at work (e.g. I must ask my chief) is rare in Britain and when it does occur it is in the sphere of commerce and industry. It is not used at all in educational institutions, in the sense of head of department or supervisor, even in colloquial style.

Boss is a colloquial word widely used in Britain to denote the person to whom one is responsible, in business organisations, government offices, and so on, instead of using his / her official title (e.g. … manager / director, chief …).

For example: You’d better ask the boss first.

However, it is not customary in educational institutions. Boss is also used in a wider sense to mean “the person in charge, the one who decides”. For example: I’m the boss here.

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