Management is essential for an organized life and necessary to run all types of programmes. Good management is the backbone of successful organizations.
It is the coordination and administration of tasks to achieve a goal. Such administration activities include setting the organization’s strategy and coordinating the efforts of staff to accomplish these objectives through the application of available resources. Management can also refer to the seniority structure of staff members within an organization.
Definition
Management is a process of planning, decision making, organizing, leading, motivation; and controlling the human resources, financial, physical, and information resources of an organization to reach its goals efficiently and effectively.
Characteristics of Management
Universal: All the organizations, whether it is profit-making or not, they require management, for managing their activities. Hence it is universal in nature.
Goal-Oriented: Every organization is set up with a predetermined objective and management helps in reaching those goals timely, and smoothly.
Continuous Process: It is an ongoing process that tends to persist as long as the organization exists. It is required in every sphere of the organization whether it is production, human resource, finance, or marketing.
Multi-dimensional: Management is not confined to the administration of people only, but it also manages work, processes, and operations, which makes it a multi-disciplinary activity.
Group activity: An organization consists of various members who have different needs, expectations, and beliefs. Every person joins the organization with a different motive, but after becoming a part of the organization they work for achieving the same goal. It requires supervision, teamwork, and coordination, and in this way, management comes into the picture.
Dynamic function: An organization exists in a business environment that has various factors like social, political, legal, technological, and economic. A slight change in any of these factors will affect the organization’s growth and performance. So, to overcome these changes management formulates strategies and implements them.
Intangible force: Management can neither be seen nor touched but one can feel its existence, in the way the organization functions.
Precisely, all the functions, activities, and processes of the organization are interconnected to one another. And it is the task of the management to bring them together in such a way that they help in reaching the intended result.
Levels of Management
Top-Level Management: This is the highest level in the organizational hierarchy, which includes the Board of Directors and Chief Executives. They are responsible for defining the objectives, formulating plans, strategies, and policies.
Middle-Level Management: It is the second and most important level on the corporate ladder, as it creates a link between the top and lower-level management. It includes departmental and division heads and managers who are responsible for implementing and controlling plans and strategies which are formulated by the top executives.
Lower Level Management: Otherwise called as functional or operational level management. It includes first-line managers, foreman, supervisors. As lower-level management directly interacts with the workers, it plays a crucial role in the organization because it helps in reducing wastage and idle time of the workers, improving the quality and quantity of output.
The three management levels form the management hierarchy, which represents the position and rank of executives and managers in the chart.
Functions of Management
Planning: It is the first and foremost function of management, i.e. to decide beforehand what is to be done in the future. It encompasses formulating policies, establishing targets, scheduling actions, and so forth.
Organizing: Once the plans are formulated, the next step is to organize the activities and resources, as in identifying the tasks, classifying them, assigning duties to subordinates, and allocating the resources.
Staffing: It involves hiring personnel for carrying out various activities of the organization. It is to ensure that the right person is appointed to the right job.
Directing: It is the task of the manager to guide, supervise, lead and motivate the subordinates, to ensure that they work in the right direction, so far as the objectives of the organization are concerned.
Controlling: The controlling function of management involves a number of steps to be taken to make sure that the performance of the employees is as per the plans. It involves establishing performance standards and comparing them with the actual performance. In case of any variations, necessary steps are to be taken for its correction.
Features of Management
Management is the process of setting and reaching goals effectively and efficiently. The process has some qualities or features;
- Management is Associated with Group Efforts
- It is Purposeful
- It is Accomplished Through the Efforts of Others
- Management is Goal-oriented
- Management is Indispensable
- It is Intangible
- Management can Ensure Better Life
Management is Associated with Group Efforts
It is usual to associate management with a group.
Although people as individuals manage many personal affairs, the group emphasis on management is universal.
Every enterprise entails the existence of a group to achieve goals. It is now established that goals are achieved more readily by a group than by any one person alone.
Management is Purposeful
Wherever there is management, there is a purpose. Management deals with the achievement of something definite expressed as a goal or objective.
The success of management is commonly measured by the extent to which objectives are achieved.
Management is Accomplished Through the Efforts of Others
It is sometimes defined as “getting things done through others’ efforts.”
Besides the manager of a firm, there may be accountants, engineers, system analysts, salesmen, and a host of other employees working but it is the manager’s job to integrate all their activities.
Thus it can well be said that participation in management necessitates relinquishing the normal tendency to perform all things oneself and getting tasks accomplished through group efforts.
Management is Goal-oriented
Managers focus their attention and efforts on bringing about successful action. Successful managers have an urge for accomplishment.
They know when and where to start, what to do with keeping things moving, and how to follow a goal-oriented approach.
Management is Indispensable
It can neither be replaced nor substituted by anything else.
Even the computer which is the wonderful invention of the twentieth century can only aid but not replace management.
We know that the computer is an extremely powerful tool for management.
It can widen a manager’s vision and sharpen his insight by supplying more and faster information for making key decisions.
The computer has enabled the manager to conduct analysis far beyond the normal analytical capacities of man.
But what happens, in reality, is that the computer can neither work by itself nor can it pass any judgment.
The manager plays his/her role by providing judgment and imagination as well as interpreting and evaluating what the information/data mean in each case.
Management is Intangible
It is often called the unseen force; its presence is evidenced by the results of its efforts – motivation among employees, discipline in the group, high productivity, adequate surplus, etc.
Conversely, the identity of management may also be felt by its absence or by the presence of its direct opposite mismanagement. The consequence of mismanagement is anybody’s guess.
Management can Ensure Better Life
A Manager can do much to improve the work environment, stimulate people to perform better, achieve progress, bring hope, and accomplish better things in life.
The study of management has evolved into more than just the use of means to achieve ends; today it includes moral and ethical questions concerning the selection of the right ends towards which managers should strive.
It is the science and art of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives by coordinating and integrating all available resources efficiently and effectively.
Five basic operations of a manager
In general, there are five basic functions of a manager:
- Setting objectives
- Organizing
- Motivating the team
- Devising systems of measurement
- Developing people
1. Setting objectives
Setting and achieving objectives is the primary way a manager accomplishes and maintains success. They must also be able to convey them to their staff or employees in a compelling manner. For instance, a restaurant manager could state they want to improve service times and remind employees that faster service increases revenue and tips.
2. Organizing
Managers evaluate the type of work, divide it into achievable tasks, and effectively delegate it to staff. The organization consists of a series of relationships among individual staff as well as departments or entities inside the organization. It is the manager’s responsibility to ensure that these individuals and entities work together in harmony, which includes motivating staff members and departments to stay on task. A good manager is skilled at building interpersonal relationships among their team members and can troubleshoot when members confuse their encounter challenges.
The organization also requires a manager to establish relationships of authority among their team members. Maximizing organizational arrangements can help businesses enhance the company’s efficiency in the market, reduce the costs of business, and improve productivity.
3. Motivating the team
In addition to the tasks of organization and delegation, motivation includes having the skills to handle different types of personalities in a team. An effective manager must know how to form and lead successful teams and know how to galvanize team members around a cause.
4. Devising systems of measurement
Managers need to set targets or key performance indicators that the team aims for and then generate ways to measure whether their team is on track to meet those goals. Because it can be challenging to come up with measurable ways of understanding performance, managers must often be creative and thoughtful. However, like the other functions of management, measurement is critical to improving business performance.
5. Developing people
In addition to leading their team toward a goal and measuring their progress along the way, good managers invest in their staff’s development. Managers can, for example, work with their team to help them set goals to move up in their careers.
Managers must have leadership skills to use these five operations successfully. They are responsible for coaching their team members by helping them recognize their strengths and weaknesses and improve their performance. Different managers may have different styles of leadership. Regardless of their style, managers should develop their leadership skills to be an effective supervisor.
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