Definition of Management - Term Paper Example

Introduction Managing is amongst the most significant human activities. Since the time people started forming societal organizations to achieve goals and objectives they couldn't achieve as single individuals, managing thus has been necessary for ensuring the organization of individual efforts. Various organized groups over time have become big and the duty of managers has also been increasing in significance and also complexity. Hereafter, managerial theory has presently become critical in the manner managers manage intricate organizations. The primary thesis statement of this study paper is that Management theory has provided practicing managers with solutions to the problems they face. It should be unequivocally stressed that managers who have applied management theory in there daily operations have high chances of accomplishing both personal and organizational objective. To address this subject, the study paper will carry on along the following field: management will have to be defined for reasons of theoretical clarity; management functions, objectives, goals, and essentials will be underscored; reasons to study management theory will be named; and the various management theories, the centre of the paper, will be discussed at length; and lastly "the way forward" in terms of a conclusion will be provided Definition of Management Management is defined as the art or science, of attaining objectives through individuals. Because managers also oversee, management can be understood to mean literally as "looking over" - i.e. ensuring individuals do what they ought to do. Therefore Managers are, supposed to ensure better productivity or, "continuous improvement". More generally, management is a process of formulating and maintaining an atmosphere in which people, working collectively in groups, ably accomplish selected objectives (Koontz and Weihrich 1990,). In its expanded outline, this fundamental definition means quite a few things. One, as managers, they perform the managerial roles of planning, organizing, leading, controlling and staffing. Two, management pertains to any type of organization. Lastly, the objective of every manager is similar - creating surplus. Basically, then, management involves the acquirement of managerial competency, and efficiency in the following essential areas: problem solving, human resource management, administration, and organizational leadership. Most important of all management is entails solving problem or issues which go on emerging every time in the as an organization struggles to realize its goals, aims and objectives. Problem solving ought to be accompanied with problem identification, assessment and implementation of solutions to managerial problems. (Stoner J. A. et al, 2003) Management Objectives; Functions; Goals; and Essentiality Management Objectives There are principally three management objectives. Ensuring organizational targets and goals are met; secondly looking after health, safety and welfare of staff. Thirdly protecting the apparatus and the resources of the organization, with includes the human resources. (Stoner J. A. et al, 2003) Management Functions To appreciate management, it is very important that we divide it into five managerial functions that are; planning, leading, organizing, controlling and staffing. Planning entails selecting objectives and missions and the actions to realize them. Leading is to influence people so that they contribute to organization and also group goals; it has deals mainly with the interpersonal side of managing. Organizing is that part of management which involves creating an intended structure of roles for individuals to fill up in an organization. Controlling, for instance, budget for expenditure, is the measuring and also correcting of subordinates activities to make sure that events conform to plans. It assesses performance against objectives and plans, illustrates where negative differences exist, and, by putting in motion actions to correct deviations, helps ensure accomplishment of plans. Staffing entails filling and keeping filled the vacancies in the organization arrangement. This is accomplished through identification of work-force requirements; recruitment selection, placement, promoting, appraising and planning the employees careers, compensating. Training and development is also part of staffing. (Stoner J. A. et al, 2003) Goals of All Managers First and most important, the logical and widely desirable objective of every manager in any kind of organization, whether commercial or non- commercial, ought to be a surplus. Therefore, managers should establish an atmosphere in which employees can accomplish organization goals with the smallest amount of time, capital, materials, and individual dissatisfaction. A manager who accomplishes such an objective is termed as a strategic manager. The second aim or objective of every manager is that he/she has to be productive. Productivity improvement concerns effective performance as essential managerial and non-managerial activity. Managers cannot realize if they are productive except they initial realize their goals and objective and those of the organization. (Stoner J. A. et al, 2003) The: Essentiality of Management in an organization Managers have the task of taking actions which will enable individuals to give their finest contributions to organization objectives. Therefore, management applies all kind of organizations whether big or small, profit or not for-profit enterprises, manufacturing or service industries. A manager is, thus, a dynamic, life-giving aspect in each business. Without leadership of a manager, resources of production will remain sheer resources and will never turn into production. In today's competitive economy, quality and performance of a manager determines the success of any business; in fact, managers determine business survival. Moreover, nowadays, we no longer speak of 'capital' and 'labour', but we speak of 'management' and "labour". As a result, the materialization of management as a crucial, a distinctive and a leading establishment is a crucial experience in social history. Management is possible to remain a vital and dominant establishment so long as human society itself survives Why Study Management Theory Theories are viewpoints with which individuals make logic of their world experiences (Stoner et. al. 1995) A Theory is an organized grouping of inter-reliant concepts and principles which give a structure to, or bind together, a major area of knowledge. In the area of management, in that case, the function of theory is to offer ways of classifying important and relevant management knowledge. For instance, in the aspect of designing an efficient organizational structure, there are a number of principles which are interconnected and that have an analytical value for managers. In general there are essentially three key reasons why we learn management theory. One, theories present a firm focus for comprehending what we experience. Two, theories allow us to communicate more efficiently and hence shift into more complex relations with other individuals. Three, theories make it probable -in fact, challenge us - to continue learning. (Stoner et. al. 1995) Classical Organizational Theory In class of management theory encompasses Max Weber's bureaucratic theory and Henri Fayol's administrative theory. According to Weber he argues that the western civilization was changing from 'wertrational' (value oriented) thinking, emotional action (action drawn from emotions), and usual action (action drawn from previous precedent) to 'zweckational' (technocratic) thinking. Weber held that civilization was shifting to look for technically best results at the cost of humanistic or emotional content. He then formulated a set of main beliefs for a "perfect" bureaucracy which are: 1. Fixed and bureaucrat jurisdictional areas 2. A firmly well-ordered hierarchy of great and subordination, 3. Management founded on written records, systematic and professional training, 4. Official activity taking precedence over any other activities and management of a given organization should follows steady, knowable rules. (Koontz, 1961) The bureaucracy was imagined as a big machine for achieving its aims in the most competent manner possible. Nonetheless, Weber was careful of bureaucracy as observed that the more completely realized, the more bureaucracy become "depersonalizes" i.e., the more fully it succeeds in attaining the exclusion of love, hate, and every entirely personal, especially illogical and inestimable, feeling from carrying out of bureaucrat tasks. Consequently, Weber forecasted an entirely impersonal organization which has little individual level relations among its members. (Koontz, 1961) On the other hand administrative theory of Henri Fayol largely focuses upon the personal responsibilities of management at a more granular standard or level. That is to say that Fayol's work is much more directed upon the management level. He believed that the management had five main principle tasks: forecasting and planning; organizing; commanding; co-ordinating, and controlling. Forecasting and planning according to Fayol was the act of predicting the future and then acting accordingly, While, organizing was the enlargement of the organization's resources, both material resources and human resources. Commanding was maintaining the organization's actions and practices running. Co-ordination was viewed to be the positioning and harmonization of the organisation's efforts. Lastly, control meant the above named activities were performed according to proper regulations and procedures. (Koontz, 1961) Fayol formulated fourteen principles of which are: specialization of labour, discipline, power with responsibility, unity of direction, unity of command, subordination of individuals' interest to the common interest, remuneration of employees, scalar chain of authority, centralization, order, equity, initiative, steadiness of tenure, and esprit de corps. He evidently believed that personal efforts and team dynamics were an element of an 'ideal' organization. Fayol's five principle functions (Plan, Organize, Co-ordinate, Command and Control) of management are up to today are actively practiced. The idea of giving proper authority with accountability or responsibility is also broadly remarked on and is highly practiced. Unfortunately, Fayol's principles of 'unity of command' and 'unity of direction' are constantly violated in the 'matrix management', the arrangement of choice for lots of companies today. (Koontz, 1961) Human relations The key scholar in this group is Elton Mayo. The starting point of behavioralism was the human relations movement which was an outcome of the Hawthorne Works Experiment. Elton Mayo and his associates' experiments challenged Taylor's main beliefs that science dictated that the maximum productivity was established in 'one best method' and that method could be gotten by a controlled experiment. The experiments carried out by mayo and company confirmed five things. (Homans, 1958) First, job satisfaction and thus performance is principally not economic - depends a lot on the working conditions and also attitudes - positive management, communications, working environment. Second, it refuted Taylorism and it stressed on employee self-wellbeing and the declared over-riding motivation of monetary incentives. Third, large-size experiments showed exceedingly positive responses to, for instance, enhancements in working environments and expressions of encouragement against to coercion from supervisors and managers. Fourth, peer group influence is very high - thus, the significance of informal teams in the workplace. Lastly, it denounced "rabble hypotheses" that a society is a mass of unorganized individuals who act in a way gauged to secure their self-protection or self-interest. The results demonstrated that the team dynamics and the social constitute of an organization are an extremely significant force either against or for higher productivity. This conclusion led for a call for bigger involvement for the employees, higher trust and also openness in the organisation working environment, and better attention to groups and teams in a work place. (Koontz, and Weihrich, 1990) Contingency identifies that companies are different in their needs Modern Developments in Management Theory in this class of theory are the Systems Approach theory, Contingency or Situational theory, Team Building theory and Chaos theory. However, systems theory has had a considerable impact on management science and also on understanding organizations. According to this theory a system is a set of parts unified to achieve an overall objective. If a single part of the system is taken away, then system nature changes as well. The system can be viewed as constituting of inputs (e.g., resources like capital, raw material, technologies, and people), processes (planning, organizing, controlling and motivating), outputs (services or products) and outcomes (improved quality of living or productivity for clients/ customers, productivity). A System shares feedback amongst each of these four parts of the system. Systems Theory might seem rather basic. However, decades of management practices and training in the place of work have not pursued this theory. (Fleet and Peterson, 1994) Only lately, with organizations facing great changes and how they function, have managers and educators come to view this new approach of viewing things. Systems theory has an effect on management in a manner that it assists managers to look at an organization more clearly and broadly. The theory has also made it possible for managers to understand patterns and occurrences in a workplace -i.e., through enabling managers to identify the different parts of an organization, and, particularly, how the parts are interrelated. (Fleet and Peterson, 1994) The contingency or situational theory affirms that when a manager makes a decision, he/she ought to take into consideration every aspect of the present circumstances and act on the aspects that are vital to the circumstances at hand. Essentially, it is an approach of "it depends". For instance, an autocratic style can be best in one circumstance while participative or facilitative leadership style can be best in another circumstance. (Fleet and Peterson, 1994) Conclusion In ending, it has to be reaffirmed that management is a process of structuring and upholding an environment with an aim of efficiently attaining selected objectives and goals. Managers perform the five main functions of planning, organizing, controlling, Leading and staffing. Managing is essential activity at every organizational level. Nevertheless, the managerial skills which are required differ with organizational levels. The goal of each manager is to generate a surplus and be productive through achieving a favourable output-input ratio in a specific time frame with due reflection for quality. Productivity means effectiveness (attaining of objectives) and efficiency (using the smallest amount of resources). Fleet and Peterson (1994) clearly observe that, Management as practice is an art; organized skills' concerning management is science. The advancement of management theory entails the development of conceptions, principles, and techniques. We have several theories about management; each of them contributes something to how management should be run and offers knowledge to manager for them to understand management. (Fleet and Peterson, 1994) Each theory or approach has got its own attributes and advantages and also limitations. Operational, or management practice, approach borrows on each 'school' and methodically integrates them. (Koontz, 1980) Finally, an organization is clearly an open system which runs within and interrelates with the environment. The systems concept to management includes inputs from the outside environment and outputs, and a manner to reenergize the system. It is definite that these management theories provide managers which enough knowledge, skills and ways of solving many if not all of the management issues that arise. Stoner et al (2003) clearly observes that certainly, any manager who serious makes attempts of translating theory into realism is bound to highly increase organisation's productivity more than that manager who opts to apply the "fire brigade" or trial and error method. Reference: Homans G. C. (1958): The Human Group; New York: Harcout, Brace and World Fleet, D. D. and Peterson T. O. (1994): Contemporary Management (Houghton Mifflin Company), Third Edition. Koontz, H (1961): The Management Theory Jungle; in Journal of the Academy of Management; December Koontz H (1980): "The Management Theory Revisited", in Academy of Management Review, April. Koontz, H and Weihrich, H (1990) Essentials of Management, Fifth Edition, McGraw-Hill Stoner J. A. et al (2003): Management (New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India), Sixth Edition. Read More