Art of Getting Things Done Through Others - Essay Example

MANAGEMENT ………………………….. College ……………………………… ……………….. Word-counts- 1516 Introduction As Hamel and Breen (2007, p. 4) noted, the basic management principles seems to have evolved Snail’s pace when compared with tremendous changes occurred over the past decades in technology, lifestyles and geopolitics. Despite the changes and advances in management and business practices, management theories and principles remain unchanged and are being applied throughout organizations worldwide. This research paper explains what management is and examines basic management theories and definitions to compare and contrast each of them with others. This paper addresses management as an organizational function as well a topic for academic research and study. Management Managing is an extremely important and perhaps one of the most challenging activities in today’s complex society and especially in the contemporary business contexts. Various factors and forces such as globalization, competition, quality-concerns of customers about goods and services, changes in consumer requirements etc make ‘managing’ a more challenging and rather highly rewarding task. Management is generally defined as an ‘art of getting things done through others’ (Dessler and Phillips, 2007, p. 4). This definition by Herold Koontz denotes to various underlying concepts of managing such as delegation of authority, planning for some things to be done and executing them through people and available resources and coordinating and controlling it. Management is an art, science, technique, method, process or strategy by which people work with others and available resources to help the organization reach its destination. Management is therefore a goal oriented process. As Bateman and Snell (2003) described, management is the process or practice by which people (managers) work with other people and resources in order to accomplish the already set goals of the organization both effectively and efficiently. To be efficient means to achieve goals and organizational objectives with minimal waste of resources by making best use of money, time, technology, materials and people, whereas effectiveness refers to achieving the right organizational goals at right time through right ways. Managers do things differently with effective strategies and techniques and by using the organized knowledge that in turn help them make their organizations unique and ultimately successful. The general management thought can be affected largely by demographic, geographic and social influences from business to business. However, management theories and definitions are still applicable to varying situations in firms around the world. In today’s complex business contexts, it is very evident that management is merely the process of managing the total resources of an organization. Herold Koontz’s definition talks about delegation of authority and making people work for getting in to the ultimate goals. It is thus related to how effectively managing both people and other resources. People are used by managers to get their things done through. They moreover effectively and efficiently utilize the available materials as well. When it comes to the management practices in place today, Bateman and Snell (2003) argued that no manager is always right or always wrong, but some managers are getting it in to the right path more often than some other managers are doing (p. 6). Views of Fayol and Mintzberg In management study, the views of Henry Fayol and Henry Minzberg have gained considerable attention as their studies and findings have explored management as a function and role that managers do. Henry Fayol, famously renowned as father of modern management, defined management as “to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate and to control” (Cole, 2004, p. 6). He asserted that management was characterized by five specific functions; that are planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling (Montana and Charnov, 2008, p. 20). Koontz and O’Donnell also identified these five basic elements for management function. They defined management as an “operational process initially best dissected by analyzing the managerial functions. The five essential managerial functions are planning, organizing, staffing, ‘directing and leading’ and controlling” (Cole, 2004, p. 6). Henry Fayol’s definition highlighted that a manager becomes ‘manager’ not because he has been assigned with the duty to manage, but because his work consists of basic managerial functions. Planning function is related to forecasting future events and determining the most important and effective activities for the organization. Organizing refers to a specific way that the organization is structured and that the responsibility as well as authority is delegated to managers. Commanding is related to how managers direct the people within the organization. People carry out various activities, but they are required to then and there be directed and advised. Managers communicate with their people and thus provide reward or punishments according to the responds from their people. Coordinating is related to effectively integrating and executing activities designed to create an effective and efficient relationship among them. Controlling concerns how managers evaluate the performance and how they overcome problems associated with planning and execution (Montana and Charnov, 2008, p. 20). Some recent management literature such as Gomez, Mejia and Balkin (2002) and Smit (2007) considered only four basic elements for management function. They considered ‘leadership’ instead of direction and coordination. As Gomez, Mejia and Balkin (2002, p. 5) found, management as a function comprised of four elements; that are planning and strategizing, organizing, leading and controlling and decision making. Smit (2007, p. 8) stressed that the underlying functions of a manager links up in a specific sequence to form a particular process. It thus includes a number of processes in a logical sequence of actions. Smit (2007, p. 8) identified planning, organizing, leading and controlling as the basic four components of management. According to him, a manager uses these four functions to manage resources such as human capital, information, knowledge and materials to help the firm achieve its organizational goals such as productivity, products, services, profits and other goals. This management principle is outlined by a figure above. Dyck and Neubert (2008) defined management as “the process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling human and other organizational resources in order to effectively achieve organizational goals” (p. 7). Henry Fayol developed his management definition and fourteen principles of management from his own experiences of around 30 years of working in French mining company and therefore these theories and principles until now remain relevant to contemporary understanding of management practices. Henry Mintzberg’s study about ‘management’ helps to understand what managers actually do. He followed five executives at work and conducted a research about what exactly is management. Based on this experiment, he identified three sequential managerial roles for a manager, they are, 1) interpersonal role, 2) informational role, and 3) decisional role (Dyck and Neubert, 2008, p. 7). According to Mintzberg’s observation and findings, diverse management activities can be organized in to main three roles, interpersonal, informational and decisional roles. These roles represent sets of expectations for a manager’s behavior and attire he exhibits in dealing or handling with a situation. Interpersonal roles include Figurehead, Leader and Liaison. Informational roles include the roles of monitor, disseminator and spokesman. The decisional roles include the roles of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator. In a close look in to these roles, it can be understood that each of these roles represents activities that managers are to undertake to ultimately accomplish the functional areas of planning, leading, organizing and controlling (Cole, 2004, p. 7). Management as a subject of academic research Management is a discipline that has emerged to be one of the most significant and high valued academic field for study and research. Out of all the students who enter school and universities, considerably a large numbers of students prefer management as their field for study, research and career. It may be because management field offers large numbers of employment opportunities around the world. Life around the globe is highly influenced by businesses. Businesses tremendously change the way people live now. Human life, culture, social values and almost everything of human being are getting changed because of some well-known business managers and leaders who implemented strategies that worked well. Some highly influential managers and successful leaders played behind this change. Management is thus a highly rewarding career that ensures greater opportunities for any one if he can be uniquely successful in his profession. Management as a field of study and research includes a wide range of specialism such as marketing, financing, human resource management, operation management, organizational behavior, strategic management etc. Management in other aspects such as time management, knowledge management, disaster management, risk management, personality management etc is also considered to be important in regard to study and research. Conclusion This piece of research paper addressed fundamental theories and relevant definitions of management. Many different definitions of management have highlighted that management is a function that comprises of planning, coordinating, leading and controlling. Henry Fayol’s theory of management is not only relevant in today’s business contexts, but also superior to the theories of Mintzberg’s theory about management. This paper found that management as a field of study and research is an important segment of career that provides emerging career opportunities since business is getting highly advanced and successful managers in demand more than ever. References Bateman T.S and Snell S.A, 2003, Management: The New Competitive Landscape, Sixth Edition, McGraw Hill Irwin Cole, G.A, 2004, Management: Theory And Practice, Cengage Learning EMEA Dessler, G and Phillips, J.M, 2007, Managing Now, First edition, Cengage Learning Dyck, D and Neubert, M.J, 2008, Management: Current Practices and New Directions, Cengage Learning Gomez , Mejia and Balkin (2002), Management, McGraw Hill Irwin Montana, P. J and Charnov, B.H, 2008, Management, Fourth edition, Barrons Educational Series Smit P.J (2007), Management Principles: A Contemporary Edition for Africa , Illustrated 4th Edition, Juta and Company Ltd Read More