MANAGEMENT

ISSUES AND
CONCEPTS

MANAGEMENT is the
process of designing and
maintaining an
environment in which
individuals, working
together in groups,
accomplish efficiently
selected aims.

This basic definition needs

to
be
expanded:
As managers, people carry
out
the
managerial
functions
of
planning,
organizing. Staffing, leading
and controlling.

Management applies
to any kind of
organization.

It applies to managers
at all organizational
levels.

The aim of all

managers is the same
: to create a surplus.

The aim of all

managers is the same
: to create a surplus.

Managing
concerned
productivity;
implies
effectiveness
efficiency.

is
with
that
and

Levels of
Management:
Levels of management
means the managerial

1. Top Level

Basic Managerial Roles

Managers often play a number of
different roles. Much of our
knowledge about managerial roles
comes from the work of Henry
Mintzberg.
Mintzberg identified ten basic
managerial roles clustered into
three general categories. Both the
categories and the specific roles are
listed in the table.

1. Interpersonal Roles
a) Figurehead
b) Leader
c) Liaison

2. Informational Roles

Monitor
Disseminator
Spokesperson

3. Decision Making Roles

Entrepreneur
Disturbance handler
Resource allocator
Negotiator

Important Managerial Roles

Category

Role

Interpersonal Figurehead
Leader
Liaison
Informational
Monitor

Decisionmaking

Example

Attend employee retirement ceremony

Encourage workers to increase productivity
Coordinate activities of two committees
Scan Business Week for information about
competition
Disseminator Send out memos outlining new policies
Spokesperson Hold press conference to announce new plant
Entrepreneur Develop idea for new product and convince
others of its merits
Disturbance Resolve dispute
handler
Resource Allocate budget requests
allocator
Negotiator Settle new labor contract

Managerial Skills
Still another important element
of managerial work is the skills
necessary to carry out basic
functions and fill fundamental
roles. In general, most
successful managers have a
strong combination of technical,
interpersonal, conceptual and
diagnostic skills.

Technical Skills:

Technical skills are those

skills necessary to
accomplish specific tasks
within the organization.

Interpersonal skills
comprise the managers
ability to communicate with,
understand, and motivate
individuals and groups.

Conceptual skills are the

managers ability to think in
the abstract.

Diagnostic skills are the

managers ability to
understand cause-and-effect
relationships and to
recognize the optimal
solutions to problems.

Diagnostic skills are the

managers ability to
understand cause-and-effect
relationships and to
recognize the optional
solutions to problems.

Functions of
Management

Planning
Planning involves selecting missions
and objectives and the actions to
achieve them; it requires decision
making, that is choosing future
courses of action from among
alternatives.

No real plan exists until a decision-a

commitment of human or material
resources or reputation-has been
made. Before a decision is made, all
we have is a planning study, an
analysis, or a proposal, but not a real
plan.

Planning bridges the gap from where

we are to where we want to be in a
desired future. It strongly implies not
only the introduction of new things
but also sensible and workable
implementation.

It makes it possible for things to occur

that would not otherwise happen.
Although the future can seldom be
predicted with accuracy and
unforeseen events may interfere with
the best-laid plans, unless there is
planning, actions tend to be aimless
and left to chance.

Organizing

Organizing is that part of managing

that involves establishing an
intentional structure of roles for
people to fill in an organization.

It is intentional in the sense of making

sure that all the tasks necessary to
accomplish goals are assigned and, it
is hoped, assigned to people who can
do them best.

The purpose of an organization

structure is to help in creating an
environment for human performance.

It is, then, a management tool and not

an end in and of itself. Although the
structure must define the tasks to be
done, the roles so established must
also be designed in the light of the
abilities and motivations of people
available.

To design an effective organization

structure is not an easy managerial
task. Many problems are encountered
in making structures fit situations,
including both defining the kind of
jobs that must be done and finding
the people to do them.

Staffing

Staffing involves filling, and keeping

filled, the positions in the organization
structure.

Staffing is done by identifying workforce requirements, inventorying the

people available, recruiting, selecting,
placing, promoting, planning the
career, compensating, and training or
otherwise developing both candidates
and current job holders to accomplish
their tasks effectively and efficiently.

Leading

Leading is influencing people so that

they will contribute to organization
and group goals; it has to do
predominantly with the interpersonal
aspect of managing.

All managers would agree that their

most important problems arise from
people-their desires and attitudes,
their behavior as individuals and in
groups-and that effective managers
also need to be effective leaders.

Since leadership implies followership

and people tend to follow those who
offer a means of satisfying their own
needs, wishes, and desires, it is
understandable that leading involves
motivation, leadership styles and
approaches, and communication.

Controlling

Controlling is the measuring and

correcting of activities of
subordinates, to ensure that events
conform to plans. It measures
performance against goals and plans,
shows where negative deviations
exist, and, by putting in motion
actions to correct deviations,

helps ensure accomplishment of

plans. Although planning must
precede controlling, plans are not selfachieving. The plan guides managers
in the use of resources to accomplish
specific goals. Then activities are
checked to determine whether they
conform to plans.

Control activities generally relate to

the measurement of achievement.
Some means of controlling, like the
budget for expense, inspection
records, and the record of labor-hours
lost, are generally familiar. Each
measures and each shows whether
plans are working out. If deviations
persist, correction is indicated. But
what is corrected?

Coordination, the Essence of

Managership

Some authorities consider

coordination to be a separate function
of the manager. It seems more
accurate, however, to regard it as the
essence of managership, for the
achievement of harmony of individual
efforts toward the accomplishment of
group goals is the purpose of
managing. |Each of the managerial
functions is an exercise contributing
to coordination.

Even in the case of a church or a fraternal

organization, individuals often interpret
similar interests in different ways, and their
efforts toward mutual goals do not
automatically mesh with the efforts of
others. It thus becomes the central task of
the manager to reconcile differences in
approach, timing, effort, or interest, and to
harmonize individual goals to contribute to
organization goals.

Principles of
Management

Division of work: This is the

specialization which economists
consider necessary to efficiency in
the use of labor. Fayol applies the
principle to all kinds of work,
managerial as well as technical.

Authority and responsibility:

Here Fayol finds authority and
responsibility to be related, with the
latter the corollary of the former and
arising from it. He sees authority as
a combination of official, from the
managers position, and personal,
compounded
of
intelligence,
experience, moral worth, past
service, etc., factors.

Discipline: Seeing discipline as

respect for agreements which are
directed at achieving obedience,
application, energy, and the outward
marks of respect, Fayol declares that
discipline requires good superiors at
all levels.

Unity of command: This means

that employees should receive
orders from one superior only.

Unity of direction: According to

this
principle,
each
group
of
activities with the same objective
must have one head and one plan.
As distinguished from the fourth
principle,
it
relates
to
the
organization of the body corporate,
rather than to personnel. (Fayol did
not in any sense mean that all
decisions should be made at the
top.)

Subordination of individual to
general interest:
This is self-explanatory; when the
two are found to differ,
management must reconcile them.

Remuneration:
Remuneration and methods of
payment should be fair and afford
the maximum possible satisfaction
to employees and employer.

Centralization:
Without using the term
centralization of authority Fayol
refers to the extent to which
authority is concentrated or
dispersed. Individual circumstances
will determine the degree that will
give the best over-all yield.

Scalar chain: Fayol thinks of this

as a chain of superiors from the
highest to the lowest ranks, which,
while not to be departed from
needlessly,
should
be
shortcircuited
when
to
follow
it
scrupulously would be detrimental.

Order:
Breaking
this
into
material and social order, Fayol
follows the simple adage of a
place for everything [everyone],
and everything [everyone] in its
[this or her] place. This is
essentially
a
principle
of
organization in the arrangement of
things and people.

Equity: Loyalty and devotion

should be elicited from personnel
by a combination of kindliness and
justice on the part of managers
when dealing with subordinates.

Stability of tenure:
Finding unnecessary turnover to be
both the cause and the effect of
bad management, Fayol points out
its dangers and costs.

Initiative: Initiative is conceived of

as the thinking out and execution of
a plan. Since it is one of the
keenest
satisfactions
for
an
intelligent man to experience. Fayol
exhorts managers to sacrifice
personal vanity in order to permit
subordinates to exercise it.

Esprit de corps: This is the

principle that in union there is
strength as well as an extension of
the principle of unity of command,
emphasizing
the
need
for
teamwork and the importance of
communication in obtaining it.