What Is Management - Essay Example

Management What is management? Definitions of management are extremely broad, but in simple terms, management can be defined as a process of controlling things or people. Management is everywhere in this broad wide world. Every industrial organization or institution requires the coordination of activities, evaluation of performance and handling of people. As factual as it is, no organization can exist and progress without a steady stream of managers. Management ranges from small enterprises to multinational companies. Therefore, for any organization or institution to achieve its goal, hiring experienced and quality managers are a factor to consider. The Australian standard claims that management is an organizational discipline of controlling records to meet the company’s needs. Management involves regulating, directing and inspecting work in general. Management is usually the manager's job because he is the one who organizes all the activities that run in the company. The manager also controls all levels of staff in order to make sure that the right job is done at the right time. Therefore, for an organization to have an organized work force it should hire a good manager. This is very essential because, a good manager brings out good management and vice versa. Why it is hard to do management well? The style in which managers handle their responsibilities and duties will influence the effort spent and the level of performance achieved by staff. The manager should have a good relationship with the staff for smooth running of an organization(Griffin & Moorehead 2012:22). By relating and interacting with the staff, the manager will understand the psychological problems of the employees, hence reducing absenteeism and lateness. Consequently, this will lead to easy management, smooth running in the organization, higher production and huge profits as the outcome. Lack of good leadership also hinders the well being of management. This is because a leader should be a reflection of positivity. He should have the ability to lead and impact the organization at the same time. Therefore, a leader should acquire a unique set of personal values and ideas. Concerning the leader’s responsibilities to the organization, an effective leader must realize that he has a responsibility of molding some employees to become the future leaders. Good leadership must ensure continuity by up building the young and less experienced employees. More so, leaders should portray passion in what they do and seek to instill passion and enthusiasm in their staff. Motivated employees deliver the best services which lead to customer satisfaction and better sales (Griffin & Moorhead, 2012:65). Therefore, an effective manager should find out the least performing department and its staff, and outline the reason of low productivity. The manager should then strategize on the best way to motivate the staff member to improve productivity. Another way of motivating employees is by letting them give their opinions. By doing so, the manager will understand how to manage them better. There are many types of motivating staff. The first way is to allow them to present their ideas by installing a suggestion box. Another way of motivating employees is by rewarding the best performing employees (Griffin & Moorehead, 2012:159). By doing so, employees will feel appreciated and will work harder. In another aspect, a manager may motivate his staff by enrolling them in seminars and workshops. All these types of motivation will make the employees feel more appreciated and cared for by the organization. Therefore, the company’s management should ensure on continuous motivation targeting the overall organizational goals, and supportive approaches to the employer's needs. However, motivation of staff just like any other aspect has the other side of negativity. This negativity arises when individuals among the staff try all means to find favor in the eyes of the manager, leading to unnecessary completion and even witch-hunting. In cases of rewarding the best performers, other staffs often feel unappreciated for their abilities. In extreme cases, malice develops in the workplace and when the competition reaches its worst levels, the organization experiences negative effects. More so, Grouping or team work eases management and brings out the best job output. First we should differentiate between the two. An organization itself is a group of people joined towards attaining a common goal. A group is a set of two and more individuals interacting to attain a certain achievement using the resources of the organization. Additionally, a team is a group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose (Griffin, 2012:542). The difference between a team and a group is very thin though the distinction exists because all teams are groups and not all groups are teams. Therefore, a group works independently while a team works separately but with one aim. Group and teamwork are very advantageous because each individual in a group brings out his own ideas and expertise, which simplify the procedure of performing the task hence increasing the output. Each group has a leader or a manager who gives guidelines and directions. The manager will consequently have a simpler job, because it is easier handling a group rather than an individual. A good team is that which performs obligations in accordance with the desired goals of the organization (Griffin 2012:542). An example of a group in an organization can be the Information Technology department or even the marketing department, whereas a team can be individuals selected from various departments to attend to a certain task. The teams and groups have one major factor that affects their productivity, and this hindrance is the language barrier. It can prevail amongst them as misconceptions may occur and create poor delivery through poor performances. A good manager should know how to team up his employees because a teamed up organization has a higher production. Individual differences and diversity is another hindrance in management and managers need to realize the positive impact of understanding the individual needs of each employee and appreciate diversity among the staff. They should realize that diversity of thought, from different centers of advancement, which is an advantage to the organization. Different diversity contributes to managing complexity. A manager should hence understand how to handle individual differences. These differences vary from age, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. In the first place, gender discrimination has existed since time immemorial. In an organization, gender discrimination is not exceptional and it is experienced in the workplace every day. Such a situation arises when male staffs undermine the female staffs holding senior positions (Alca & Vazques, 2007:55). These situations arise because the men believe that it is their world and not a woman’s world. The other difference affecting an organization is the age of the employees. Age has both the advantages and disadvantages. For instance, young employees will have the needed strength to do more work which will lead to higher productivity (Neville & Dalmau, 2010:41). However, the same young employees have different lifestyles and attitudes, which may result to absenteeism hence lowering productions. On the other hand, older employees have the needed expertise experience. However, older staff members are slower hence reducing the productivity of an organization.Ethnicity is another challenge to the manager. Ethnicity has no big difference in culture and different staffs have different ethnic differences. For example, a manager will find it hard changing the dressing cord of a foreign Arabian female employee, or even any other female employee who comes from a strict religious background. A good example of such a case is in the airline industries where female employees’ uniforms comprise of short skirts. However, ethnicity has a positive effect to the organization because different ethnicities have different skills that may be useful to the organization as well. Though managers face a variety of challenges but the most difficult is running a smooth and effective organization. Control is simply defined as a practical management style because of its relation with harmony, agreement, and cooperation. While resistance is refusing to comply with the uncomfortable situations, and hitting back by boycotting. People should not assume that if a control fails to take place it automatically leads to resistance. There are two main factors that cause resistance among employees. The firstly is workplace injustice. This is a situation where the seniors abuse the employees’ rights. There are many ways of abusive supervision in an organization. For instance, a manager in a packaging company may imply that five thousand cartons must be packed for delivery every day and that in case of any failure; the employees will extend their evening hours hence closing late. The employees will feel oppressed and might end up boycotting. The manager should ensure delegation of responsibilities to avoid such conflicts and implement on measures necessary to facilitate the flow of information (Malunga, 2009:10). Another reason of resistance is when changes are implemented in the organization. Change has the positive side of progress and the negative side. Negativity emerges when the management brings changes that the staffs feel uncomfortable embracing. Changes in an organization are of different forms like salary deduction, changes in reporting and departing time, and even changes in management protocol. These changes will not only be negative but also positive in another perspective. The management ought to strategize on proper dialogue approaches to avoid conflicts emanating from lack of satisfaction of the managerial expectations. Organizational cultures are also challenging everyday management of an organization. The importance of this culture is that it decides the ways employees interact with their work place. With the existing differences and diverse organizational cultures, the practice in every organization is different (Neville, Dalmau 2010:43). However, these cultures depend on the organizational structures outlined by the management. Most people do not differentiate formal culture from informal culture. Formal culture includes rules and regulations, policies, mission, vision and finally the state of organizational development. Whereas informal culture is organization policies that have no exact set of rules. Organizational culture has both the positive and the negative effects. For instance, the employees will not take an organizational culture that they should attend duties on Saturdays positively. This is because they will feel that their social life is tied up. Whereas on the positive side, an organization may have a culture of sponsoring its employee holiday vacation annually. This will be a motivation for employees who will work harder and bring profit to the organization. Conclusion In conclusion, the overall aim of an organization is a smooth operation and profitability as the main goal. A progressive organization should have a competent manager who can handle all the above aspects that affect an organization’s output. Poor management leads to conflicts and may lead to collapsing the organization. A manager should know how to approach communication, teamwork, and finding solutions to prevailing problems. He should also be an expert in handling employees by being attentive and understanding them psychologically because no organization exists without employees and satisfied employees do a satisfying job.Therefore, management is the pillar of any organization. Bibliography Anca, C. D., and Va?zquez Vega, A. 2007. Managing diversity in the global organization creating new business values. Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=358620 Griffin, R. W. 2012. Management. Mason, OH, CENGAGE Learning Custom Publishing. Griffin, R. W., & Moorehead, G. 2012. Organizational behavior: managing people and organizations. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning. Malunga, C. W. 2009. Understanding organizational leadership through Ubuntu / by Chiku Malunga. London: Adonis & Abbey Publishers. Neville, B., & Dalmau, T. 2010. Olympus Inc.: intervening for cultural change in organizations. London: Carnac Books. Yammarino, F. J., & Dansereau, F. 2009. Multi-level issues in organizational behavior and leadership. Bingley: JAI. Read More