Development of Management - Assignment Example

Management Theories I. Introduction It is a renowned quote that need is the mother for all inventions. Man in the past has been very short-sighted, and still is; not everyone thinks about the future. The recent global economic crisis, though being beyond the scope of this assignment, is a prime example of the fact that people don’t tend to see what issues may arise in the future and think-and-plan in advance for its resolution. People generally think about resolving the problems at hand. Thus the approach can be called the as-it-happens approach whereby the issue resolution is only thought about once the issue arises. Inventions such as wheel, bulbs, trains, automobiles, electricity, clocks, etc. are all examples of inventions as and when their demand was made, an issue arose and the invention was a response. History hardly witnesses any scenario in which a proactive approach was taken up by inventors. Following the same proposition, it can also be argued that the management theories have been developed in response to the problems faced by managers at a particular stage in the history. The following section presents an over view of how the ‘management’ was developed. II. Development of Management History was the time when much stress was laid on sole proprietorships, and very less partnerships, with the scale of business being fairly limited, and the scope generally limited to a particular area or region. Imports and exports were seldom, but they did take place. Assumptions and arguments aside, it is quite evident from readings that what management is today has developed over a really short period of time, thus, not having a long history particularly in the context of great social and economic disruption. In-depth study reveals (Pollard, 1965) that the birth place of management lays in the industrial revolution and during the rise of the modern bureaucratic state. There is no doubt that the changes that took place in our society during this era were the prime sources of a number of key subject-matters such as ‘founding fathers’ of social science like Marx, Weber, Comte, and Durkheim. The times during the 19th Century were when the organized society came into existence in the UK and the US i.e. when civil society took on an appearance based on organizations. Another accepted view of the formation is that the rise of capitalism (free-enterprise) allowed the concentration of possession of working places, means of work, power-sources and raw material in the hands of the sole-proprietor or the entrepreneur (Pollard, 1965). The focus of all power in the hands of the entrepreneur allowed the firms to grow larger in terms of size, and the risks were reduced mainly due to the clause of limited liability that distinguished between the firm and its owner. This growth was the foundation of many problems in itself, mainly the creation of hierarchies, as due to the increasing size of the business, the entrepreneur couldn’t be in touch with the employees, and had to appoint ‘management staff’, and at a later stage, there had to be supervisory staff above the management staff. It was only with the afterwards development of ‘scientific management’ in the US and related developments in the UK that ‘modern management’ started taking the form in which it is seen today. The present form of ‘modern management’ is characterized by designations such as managers that exercise authority over the various aspects of the work process, and at times on the workers as well. Several managerial positions combine to form the authority structure, commonly known as organizational hierarchy. Thus the firm moves from being a singly operated enterprise through managerial authority based on delegated agency to managerial authority based on expertise. This development, as visible, is social in nature. This transformation can also be phased as from direct employment to ‘Talorised’ organization i.e. large scale bureaucratic. This bureaucratization was not just a technical transformation with increasing the complexity and size, but rather considered by authors as sociological transformation (Littler, 1982). This transition was much based on the management techniques that were developed during the 19th century era, much to do with those with work place design, cost and accounting. However, these were consolidated by the ‘scientific management’ theory put forth and supported by various authors including Taylor. In accordance with other authors (Clawson, 1980), the rise of management was merely about class control rather than gaining any technical efficiency. The managing-people skill is present amongst all up to certain extent. However, management is the art that enhances the in-born and takes it to much higher levels. Managers need to address some major issues such as workers feeling that they are not been taken care of, satisfying their hierarchy of needs, keeping them motivated, getting the most work from them, etc. Satisfaction and/or motivation creation and its constant balancing remains the major challenge for a manager. The following section presents a brief over view of the nature of management. III. Nature of Management The image of management is more like in the interest of economic growth and efficiency, to the mutual benefit of all. Comparatively, the development of management should be seen as an ideological project that should be linked to the development of work organizations. It is often quoted that good management yields organizational success, and organizational success implies the success of an organization that is managerially structured. The term nature of management can take several forms, but for the main point of concern, the nature of management should be targeted for the issue resolution of workers and employees, though there can be several modes of issue resolution, the discussion of which is beyond the scope of discussion. Posterior to the discussion of the nature of management, the following section discusses the responsibilities of managers. IV. Responsibilities of Managers Before resuming towards the responsibilities of a manager, it is important to define who the manager is. Dictionary defines manager as any person holding the said title or the authority to manage a given task. Despite the vagueness of the definition, it makes clear that a manager is someone who is assigned to accomplish a given task with certain resources, and managing these resources to accomplish the given task is called management. After the clarification of who the manager is, it is important to understand what their responsibilities are. Decision Making A manager needs to make organizational decisions on a routine basis. Managers come across various problems in day to day business activities; they need to understand the issues, come up with alternatives, and then act accordingly to resolve the issues in the most optimal manner. Thinking, planning out teams, changing roles, strategy formulation, and progress evaluation are prime examples of the issues that occur on a day to day basis and require a manager to take decisions in a timely manner. Goal Setting, Planning, and Organizing Whenever strategies (long term goals) are formulated, they are converted into short term tasks, and then planned and organized in such a manner that accomplishing them determines the milestones achieved in the ultimate strategy zone, and the final goal is also kept under consideration. This yields another responsibility of a manager pertinent to the organizational goals, the manager is made responsible for setting up goals for the respective department, planning its accomplishment and then organization the resources to have the best execution possible. This is also important for appropriate time management, and saving of costs and resources. Guiding and Giving Directions As the books of management state that managers are the formal leaders in an organization within a particular department. Thus, it is their responsibility to guide and give directions to the workers working under them. Guidance and directions are essential to ensure that synergy is produced amongst the individuals working together towards achieving a common goal. The major forms of such activity adopted by the managers include coaching, mentoring, training, and providing support as and when the need be to the employees/workers. It is also an essential responsibility because to achieve their respective individual goals, the employees need guidance and extra input, which should come from the manager. Empowering Others It is rightly stated that empowerment gives strength to the team to perform with respective responsibility. Empowerment triggers motivation amongst workers and employees. Through empowerment, effective managers instill the desire to grow, excel, acceptance of responsibility, and self management amongst the employees and workers. Communication and People Skills As a leader of the respective team, a manager needs to develop trust, resolve problems, produce a goal-oriented environment, understand individuals, resolve the environmental issues, coach and mentor the employees, etc. For all this and other managerial responsibilities to be undertaken and done effectively, a manager must have good communications and people skills in them. Respect of values, ideas, ideology, opinions and providing an un-bias atmosphere is only possible when a manager has strong inter-personal skills. On a general note, managers are the intermediary between the top management and the employees/workers, working under them as a team. This increases the intensity of the requirement of their communication skills as they need to translate the message from one side to the other in a manner that is acceptable for the later. Evaluating and Analyzing Analysis and evaluation techniques, know-how and skills are much more than just a requirement because these are the responsibilities of a manager i.e. to examine and evaluate the processes and procedures to determine the best choice for a particular scenario or case. Apart from this, managers are also expected to keep a track of the progress of the activities that each of its resource is performing, the effectiveness associated, possible improvements, feedbacks, counseling, etc. are all related responsibilities of a manager. Provide Satisfaction amongst the Staff and the Customers Creating motivation, satisfaction, and the feel of content amongst the customers, internal and external, and retaining the same within them is another prime responsibility of a manager. Particularly, the satisfaction of the subordinates has been stressed as an essentially important tool for organizational success and value creation, whereby, the must know and realize that their supervisors are providing them with the needed resources to conduct their respective operations and performing their respective tasks. Their feel of security and care by means of safety, health and cleanliness is truly what drives them to the excellence and beyond, thus maintaining it becomes the responsibility of the manager. For the external customers of the organization, the managers are responsible to satisfy them by providing the best quality of products and/or services and make sure that their needs are taken care of. Being an Exemplary Role Model The modern management practices define this as a major responsibility of a manager i.e. to be a role model for the employees and sub ordinates to follow. It states that the attitude of a manager sets the example for the sub ordinates, for example a manager coming in late should never expect his sub ordinates to be punctual. Practice reveals that managers, who are able to set higher standards and/or goals and then work hard and achieve those goals, are able to set the best standards amongst their sub ordinates. Tolerance, being calm in pressure situation, and high energy levels, may become an issue as these are difficult to maintain at all times, but these are the major learning that people take from a manager. Despite defining the roles and responsibilities of a manager, it becomes important to define the major factors that, at large, influence the management policies deployed in an organization. The following section is a brief discussion of the same. V. Influence of Environmental Factors on Management Policies Management, despite being defined as a science, is always considered a spontaneous art, because every day brings new issues and more challenging decision making for managers. The nightmare or managers is the fact that the previous day’s burden is increased with the next day’s scenario and each new day brings up new challenges and new tasks to be accomplished. From this argument, it becomes a validated fact that environmental factors have a definite impact on organizational policies and management techniques. Just as simple as explaining the fact that not all five fingers are alike, each situation that may arise, may or may not require an absolutely newer mechanism for its solution. As Porter defines, the external environmental forces as: 1) Political 2) Legal 3) Economic 4) Social 5) Technological These five environmental forces tend to have a major impact on how an organization deploys its management techniques. Each of these has a significant impact discussed as below: In politically independent nations, where there is ‘democracy’, management technique needs to be such that employees feel at home, and the management needs to listen to the people, and act in a manner that satisfies them, yet not hurting the organizational objectives or goals. This is because in such nations, the general public is very much empowered. Comparing the same to an autocratic nation, there is an existing feel of threat prevailing in the nation, thus, it is easy for a management to suppress the workers and employees and keep them silent. In countries with strong legal systems, it is again a similar situation to a democratic state, and the organization should be careful in terms of human rights and employee rights in particular. This is because a bit of carelessness can lead to strong losses to the organization on the whole in terms of law suits, etc. An opposite scenario would prevail in organizations where the legal system is weak. However, the international human and employee rights’ associations are doing a remarkable job about this issue. When socio-economic factors are growing and prospering and there is growth in the arena, firms need to deploy retention policies of have their employees stay and stay loyal to the organization. However, in recession times, as the global economy is suffering right now, employees need to be more obedient to their firms. Many organizations believe that no matter what the economic scenario may be, it is always better to have the employees of a firm empowered and involved in the development of the organization, which is how they feel the organization can prosper as a whole. When technologies are advancing, as they are today, with nothing being a full stop and advancements taking place despite the recessionary periods, it becomes essential for organizations to ensure that employees stay motivated because the advancements in technology always has this negative impact on existing employees to the fear of change coming up, which may end up being the reason for their loss of jobs even. Thus, job security becomes a major issue. Apart from the external environmental impacts, there can be internal environmental issues as well, such as: 1) Nature of the business 2) Worker Unions 3) Region of Operation 4) Demographics of Workers VI. Conclusion To conclude, it can be stated that management theories are defined by human beings for managing various scenarios, however, there are scenarios that turn up everyday that haven’t been encountered in the past. For this matter, the science of management is always open for any changes to take place and any amendments to be ever made, with open arms. References BIM (1963) The Making of Managers: Final Report of the BIM Management Development Schemes Committee, London: British Institute of Management BOYATZIS, R. (1982) The Competent Manager, New York: Wiley BRODIE, M and BENNETT, R. (1979) Perspectives on Managerial Effectiveness, Slough: Thames Valley Regional Management Centre BURGOYNE, J. (1976) "Managerial Effectiveness Revisited", Lancaster University: unpublished paper CLAWSON, D. (1980) Bureaucracy and the Labor Process, New York: Monthly Review Press EHRENREICH, B. and EHRENREICH, J. (1979) "The Professional-Managerial Class", in Walker, P, Between Capital and Labour, Brighton: Harvester ESRC, (1993) Commission on Management Research: Discussion Document, Swindon: Economic and Social Research Council, August FAYOL, H. (1949) General and Industrial Management, (trans. by C. Storrs), London: Pitman FOX, S. (1994) "Debating Management Learning, II", Management Learning, vol 25, no 4, pp 579-597 HALES, C. (1986) "What Do Managers Do? A Critical Review of the Evidence", Journal of Management Studies, vol 23, no 1 HANDY, C., GORDON, C., GOW, I., and RANDLESOME, C. (1988) Making Managers, London: National Economic Development Office HILL, L. 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