总经理（英语：General Manager，缩写：GM）在单一中小企业，总经理通常就是整个组织里职务最高的管理者与负责人、统筹各业务部门的事务，位阶仅次于董事长。而在规模较大的组织里，例如跨国企业，总经理的角色是其某个关系企业、事业体或分支机构的最高行政负责人。

董事总经理（英语：Managing Director，缩写：MD）表示他既是董事会成员之一的董事，又是负责经营大权的总经理；若仅仅只是总经理职位，至多只能列席董事会，无法参予表决。有时候会由董事长或副董事长兼任，公司地位仅次于董事长，可代任其职务。

A general manager is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of the firm's marketing and sales functions as well as the day-to-day operations of the business. Frequently, the general manager is responsible for effective planning, delegating, coordinating, staffing, organizing, and decision making to attain desirable profit making results for an organization (Sayles 1979).