To What Extent, if at All, Can Management Be Considered to Be a Science - Research Paper Example

To what extent, if at all, can management be considered to be a science? One needs to realize the fact that business is a consistently changing worldand in this world only the people who are ready to change are successful. In this ever-changing business scenario, management is nothing short of a science in essence. Thus to put it in the related context, change is the only constant in the world and in the business scheme of things, changing to suit the will and desire of the customers and/or the stakeholders as well as doing one last bit to bring in more revenues and profits for the company just plays the right trick for the business to succeed both in the short term as well as in the long run. Organizations which stagnate over a period of time and do not change because of one pressure or the other usually die out quickly. The ones that have existed thus far have relied a great deal on the phenomenon attached with change and consistent upgrading of the needs as put forward by the business and its norms. Thus it would be correct to state here that the aspects of management are indeed very scientific in nature and these must be given the relevant respect that it deserves within the business frameworks. On the same token of management being a scientific proposition, we see that the role of a manager within complex organizations is a difficult one. This person has to take with him the whole company and mesh the different processes so that he could get instant results. He is a team leader right from the onset of his job. He needs to get work done from the different people who are working under him. The end result has to be a single goal, one that drives their efforts towards the financial success of the said organization. In doing so, the manager encounters a lot of hindrances, difficulties and hurdles. He has to face a lot of pressure from the top most management, the people who are senior to him even. He has to be accountable to the publics of the organization, which could include the customers and the stakeholders as well since the latter are the people who have invested within the company’s shares and they want a quick buck out of the whole investment drive. We need to define further how a job of a manager is made even more troublesome and how he copes up with the very same. With that, we will also touch subjects that bring attraction to the post of a manager in the first place. These could include his leadership traits, his team building tactics, getting the work done out of individuals who might have pretty different backgrounds and diverse educational capabilities, smoothening of the whole process of business management within several units spread across the company’s horizon, motivating the employees and being accountable for their tasks and activities, living up to the values of the organization and doing all that could be done in the honor of the very same and lastly, the manner in which he copes with the external factors which could come out of the blue and haunt the manager like anything. If this is not science in the wake of the ever-changing management angles, then what else is? Also within the domains of management, lies the angle of change – a significant attribute by all counts. Managing change within a complex organization is one of the most significant aspects that come under its sound functioning regime. Only the companies which are able to come to terms with the new norms and practices are the ones that succeed not only in the short term but also in the longer scheme of things. This means that the company has to devise certain ways and means through which it can manage change, measure it and effectively counter the problems that come in its way all this while. The learning process, meanwhile on the part of the organization is immense since it finds out the exact mechanisms and procedures through which change is going to affect the employees’ and stakeholders’ relationship with the company’s central essence, which is the top management, making all the decisions that would eventually benefit the company in the long run. This aspect makes management a complete scientific activity undoubtedly. Furthermore, the fact that complex organizations need to evolve over a period of time is testimony enough for them to grow within themselves and thus adopt and hold on to a new path altogether, one that will be their torchbearer as well as reap rich dividends for them not only in the present times but also in the future. These strategies are so much in alignment with the future goals and tactical perspectives that they fulfill what is really expected of them, both in terms of short term expectations as well as the long run. Planning is thus the key word here and for any complex organization or multinational to succeed in the long run, it is of paramount significance to have a safe and sound plan ready and not only that but also be proactive in its approach towards the accomplishment of the plan nonetheless. The cultural aspects of change need to be grown so that there is no disharmony within the related ranks whenever the talk goes out loud with respect to a certain change, no matter the same is related with norms and procedures or even cutting down on jobs, etc. What this essentially does is to categorize management and indeed business as an entire sub-field of science that we are talking about here. On the same token, science of management states that sound organizational control and structural foundation paves the way for an organization to be run in a professional manner. Competitiveness has to remain the key for the organization and the top management at the helm of affairs cannot deny the very same fact. A complex organization to function in vacuum merely dependent on its revenues over a period of time is just not the order of the day anymore. Organizational structure should mingle itself with the policies that are coming in every now and then in the business world and try to play its part in accordance with the very same. The usefulness of its resources can only be harnessed when there is a decent enough endeavor to understand the dynamics of the market, the overall industry and more than anything else, the stakeholders who have invested huge sums of money within the realms of the organization and last but not the least the customers themselves for which the company strives to run a business in the first place and without whom the organization will not even be what it is in current state. Being proactive remains the key in a changing global scenario within the organizational realms. Specific complex organizations must ensure that their workings are based on ethical and moral principles rather than minting money from left, right and center. It is the social responsibility aspect that makes a complex organization winner or otherwise at the end of the day. The problems at the customer end can be easily done away with if there are adequate steps taken at the organization’s level and when the organization understands its commitment which it has promised with the customers, the business that it is running and to its own organizational self. This has to be comprehended at the very basic levels and if this is not done in a scientific way, there could be no other solution to the same enigma of business fields. As management is truly science in its utmost definition, we see that the most important facet of the interpersonal skills is the communication aspect where one needs to consider that within an organization, the communication can flow in one of three ways or in all the three directions. This means that these three directions pave the way for the ease of communication and there are as such no barriers to arise from the whole equation. The first communication flow is from top to bottom, which means that the communication starts from the top management and goes down towards the middle and lower management. It ensures that the instructions are easily made comprehensible for all and sundry who are within the middle and lower cadres and there are as such no discrepancies arising from this form of communication flow. The second form could be the one that starts from the lower or middle management and goes up towards the top management. The third communication flow could be in the kind of peer to peer communication and interaction. This means that the employees and the workers at the same level communicate within their own capacities and as such there are no hindrances arising from the whole communication matrix. Apart from this, within an organization the communication also flows in a formal as well as an informal manner. Where the communication is more formal and sophisticated, the interaction is usually done through paper and written requests whereas the informal talk is also called ‘grapevine’ and is mostly done in a casual manner without any such paper work to document the very same. Within an organization, the communication should always be of a formal nature as in the interpersonal skills so that there are no problems and grievances for all concerned. As per the administrative skills of the organization, diversity plays a huge role as it manifests what kind of organizational working regimes there are within its folds. This could be in the form of a centralized fashion or a company which has a decentralized approach as far as its working methodologies are concerned. The centralized diversity of an organization understands the fact that the supreme basis of instructions and commands rests with only one single party and all the other staff members encircle this post of authority. The organizational diversity thus stems from the ideology that the more complex the working systems of the organization, the more likely there would be problems within the whole organization and thus check and control would be less minimized. All this makes the role of management such a scientific one that is not easily understood by one and all. There needs to be proper knowledge regarding management studies when one talks of the innate skills which are related with the creativity levels that are manifested in the employees and workers within the management regimes. Now it is up to the top management as to how it best extracts the creative abilities of its workers and employees on a continuous basis and what support factors are there which make sure that the employees deliver to their optimum levels at all possible times. A conflict within an organization can take place due to differing personalities of the employees or in their attitudes that lead in their linkage with each other. This could also happen due to their norms and behaviors which might not be liked by any one party (person) and thus lead to a conflict of thoughts, ideas, actions and eventual behaviors towards each other. There is a degree of power when we speak of the manager in terms of the same over his subordinate or the employee who is working under him in a direct or an indirect capacity. Now all this just cannot suffice to exist if management is not deemed as science in essence and hence the need of the hour is to understand the same phenomenon in the light discussed above. Bibliography Fonseca, Jose. (2002). Complexity and Innovation in Organizations. Routledge Neely, Andy. (2002). Business Performance Measurement: Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press Word Count: 1,936 Read More