Nature and significance of management

• Management


  • Goal-oriented process
  • Integrates and coordinates human and material resources
  • Pervasive in all organisations
  • Multidimensional in nature
  • Continuous process
  • Achieves results through others
• Effectiveness


  Doing the right task, completing activities and achieving goals
• Efficiency


  Doing the task correctly and with minimum cost
• Effectiveness and efficiency


  Important for management to achieve a balance between the two
• Jack Welch's success as CEO of GE was due to:
• Effective leaders


  • Have great energy
  • Have competitive spirit
  • Ability to spark excitement
  • Achieve results
• Strategic focus


  • Understand the vital issues within each of your businesses
  • Recognise the talent needed to win in those markets
• Management is all pervasive - the activities involved in managing an enterprise are common to all organisations whether economic, social or political
• Management


  • Management of work
  • Management of people
  • Management of operations
• Management is a continuous process - the process of management is a series of continuous, composite, but separate functions
• Management is a group activity - an organisation is a collection of diverse individuals with different needs who work towards fulfilling the common organisational goal
• Management is a dynamic function - it has to adapt itself to the changing environment
• Management is an intangible force - its presence can be felt in the way the organisation functions
• Organisational objectives


  • Survival
  • Profit
  • Growth
• Social objectives involve the creation of benefit for society
• Personnel objectives involve reconciling personal goals with organisational objectives
• Importance of management


  • Helps in achieving group goals
  • Increases efficiency
  • Creates a dynamic organisation
  • Helps in achieving personal objectives
  • Helps in the development of society
• Management is as old as civilisation - organised activity has existed since the time of the ancient civilisations
• Management as an art

  Skillful and personal application of knowledge to achieve desired results
• Management


  A set of rules and regulations that grew out of the experiences of governmental and commercial activities
• The development of trade and commerce gradually led to the development of management principles and practices
• Management


  The term has several different connotations that highlight the different aspects of its nature
• The study of management has evolved over a period of time along with the modern organisations; based both on the experience and practice of managers and a set of theoretical relationships
• Management has grown into a dynamic subject with its own special characteristics
• Art


  The skillful and personal application of existing knowledge to achieve desired results
• Art


  • It can be acquired through study, observation and experience
  • It is concerned with personal application of knowledge so some kind of ingenuity and creativity is required to practice the basic principles learnt
• Theoretical knowledge (in art)


  Certain basic principles which are applicable to a particular form of art
• Personalised application (in art)

  The use of basic knowledge varies from individual to individual
• Practice and creativity (in art)

  Art involves the creative practice of existing theoretical knowledge
• Management as an art


  • A successful manager practices the art of management in the day-to-day job of managing an enterprise based on study, observation and experience
  • There are various theories of management which prescribe certain universal principles, and a manager applies these scientific methods and body of knowledge to a given situation, an issue or a problem, in his own unique manner
  • A manager applies this acquired knowledge in a personalised and skillful manner in the light of the realities of a given situation
• Science


  A systematised body of knowledge that explains certain general truths or the operation of general laws
• Science


  • Systematised body of knowledge
  • Principles based on experimentation
  • Universal validity
• Management as a science

  • Management has a systematised body of knowledge
  • The principles of management have evolved over a period of time based on repeated experimentation and observation in different types of organisations
  • The principles of management are not as exact as the principles of science, their application and use is not universal
• Management has features of both art and science
• Profession


  A well-defined body of knowledge that can be acquired through instruction, restricted entry, affiliated to a professional association, bound by an ethical code of conduct, and has a service motive
• Management as a profession

  • Management is based on a systematic body of knowledge comprising well-defined principles based on a variety of business situations
  • There is no restriction on anyone being designated or appointed as manager in any business enterprise
  • There are several associations of practising managers in India that have laid down a code of conduct to regulate the activities of their members, but there is no compulsion for managers to be members
  • The basic purpose of management is to help the organisation achieve its stated goal
• Management is a universal term used for certain functions performed by individuals in an enterprise who are bound together in a hierarchy of relationships
• There is no compulsion for managers to be members of such an association nor does it have any statutory backing
• Basic purpose of management

  To help the organisation achieve its stated goal (e.g. profit maximisation for a business enterprise, service for a hospital)
• Profit maximisation as the objective of management does not hold true and is fast changing