MANAGEMENT

Every social human being has a variety of needs which they cannot fulfill individually. Man is a social being as he loves to live together with people. It is by living and work together in organized groups and institutions that people satisfy their economic and social needs. Consequently, there are several types of groups. Such formal groups can achieve their goals effectively only when their efforts are properly coordinated and controlled. Management is the task of getting results through others by coordinating their efforts.  The most significance factor in determining the performance and process of any organization is the quality of its management. The task of management is likely to be more and more challenging in the time to come.

DEFINITION 

It is not easy to give a precise definition of the term ‘management’. Various scholars have defined management from different perspectives. The economists treated management as a resource similar to land, labor, capital and organization. The administrators look upon it as a system of authority to achieve business objectives. The sociologists regarded managers as a part of the class elite in the society.

Different leading management thinkers and practitioners have given various definitions of management.

F.W. Taylor defined’ Management as the art of knowing what you want to do and then seeing that it is done in the best and cheapest way’.
Lawrence A. Appley,’ Management consists in guiding human and physical resources into dynamic, hard-hitting organization unit that attains its objectives to the satisfaction of those served and with a high degree of morale and sense of attainment on the part of those rendering the service’.
James L. Lundy defined,’ Management is principally the task of planning, coordinating, motivating and controlling the efforts of others towards a specific objective.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers described ‘,Management as the art and science of organizing and directing human efforts applied to control the forces and utilize the materials of nature for the benefit of man.
Henry L. Sisk,’ Management is the coordination of all resources through the process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling in order to attain stated objectives.
Harold Koontz and Cyrill O’Donnell,’ Management is the creation and maintenance of an internal environment in an enterprise where individuals, working in groups, can perform efficiently and effectively towards the attainment of group goals’
E.F.L. Breach related in the words,’ Management is concerned with seeing that the job gets done; its tasks all center on planning and guiding the operations that are going on in the enterprise’.  
Henry Fayol,’ To manage is to forecast and to plan, to organize to command, to coordinate and to control’.
W.Haynes,’ Management is essentially the process of planning and decision-making, organizing, leading and controlling  an organization’s human, financial, physical and information resources with a view to attaining organizational goals in the best possible way, i.e. in an efficient and effective manner’.
George R. Terry,’ Management is a distinct process consisting of planning, organizing, actuating and controlling performed to determine and accomplish the objectives by the use of resources and people’.
American Management Association defined ’Management is guiding human and physical resources into dynamic organizational units which attain their objectives to the satisfaction of those served and with a high degree of morale and sense of attainment on the part of those rendering service’.

CONCEPTS

The analysis and interpretation of the above definitions point out different perspectives in which the definitions of management may be expressed.:

Management as a process

Management is considered a process involving a series of interrelated functions aimed at getting the objectives of an organization and taking steps to achieve them. The management process follows planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling functions. The process of management is social as it involves interactions among people. It is also an integrated process as management brings human, physical and financial resources integrated to put into effort to maintain harmony among them. The process is continuous involving identifying and solving problems

Management as an Activity

Management is an activity similar to playing, studying, teaching etc. Thus as an activity management has been defined as the ‘art of getting things done through the efforts of other people. Management as a group activity attempts to achieve the objectives of the group and its activities are interpersonal, decisional and informative in nature.

Management as an Economic Resource

Like land, labor and capital, management is an important factor of production. Management occupies the pivotal place among productive factors as it directs and coordinates all other resources.

Management as a Team

As a group of persons, management consists of all those who have the authority and responsibility of guiding and coordinating the efforts of other persons. These persons known as managers operate at various levels of authority (top, middle, operating). Some of these managers even have ownership stake in their businesses while others have turned managers by virtue of their training and experience. Civil servants and defense personnel manage public sector undertakings as part of the management team. The group managers have grown an elite class in society occupying positions with enormous powers and prestige.

As an Academic Discipline

Management has emerged as a specialized branch of knowledge comprising principles and practices for effective management of organizations. Whenever two or more than two persons are engaged in working for achieving a common goal, management is essential. All types of organizations whether business, non-business, profitable or not-for profit or charitable or government organizations need management. The principles of management are applicable to all areas of organized activity. Managers at different levels perform the same basic functions. The essence of management lies in the coordination of individual efforts in to a team. Management harmonizes the individual goals with organizational objectives. As unifying force, management creates a whole that is more than the sum of individual parts and integrates human and other resources. Management is social process as it is concerned with interpersonal relations.

Human factor is the most critical element in management. Appley observed “Management is the development of people not of things. A good manager leads not dominates. It is the human element which gives management its special character as a social process”.  Dynamism, multidisciplinary and an on-going process characterize the subject of management dealing with human behavior and depends upon wide knowledge gained from several disciplines like economics, engineering, psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. The vast body of knowledge in management draws heavily upon other fields of study. The cycle of management persists to operate so long as there is organized action for the achievement of group goals. Management is an unseen or invisible force. However, the managers who perform the functions of management are very much tangible and visible.

Management is an art as well as science which contains a systematic body of theoretical knowledge and involves the practical application of such knowledge involving specialized training as well as an ethical code arising out of its social obligations. Based on these characteristics, management may be described as a continuous social process involving the coordination of human and material resources in order to accomplish desired objectives involving both the determination and the accomplishment of organizational goals.

As a Social Practice

Tom Bums, and G.M.Stalker tried to analyze the problems that occur because values and life styles continue to change and suggested two categories of decision-making factors in management that reflect those that virtually everyone uses in his or her daily decision making. In making decisions, we acknowledge the diverse, unpredictable factors that affect our lives every day and accept that diversity as leading to moments of "social ambiguity in which decisions concerning others are not necessarily clear-cut. When we acknowledge and accept these factors, we enter structured, organizational, or even institutional social units and become part of a ‘work organization practicing collective social interaction. 

Bums suggested that management decision making reflects the same problems of "social practice ", For example, if a manager wonders how the problems and needs of Division A can be made compatible with those of Divisions B and C rather than trying to figure out how the goals of all three divisions can be subordinated to some grand overall organizational design or formal statement of purpose. More importantly he or she is integrating the procedures of social practice and acknowledging managerial problems which institutionally reflect much more pervasive social processes, often 'messier" than policy analysts would like to believe, and which tend to be obscured by the belief that the organization's formal structure can handle, if not eliminate, them.

According to Burns and Stalker, management is an "organic" or systematically interrelated process of fighting off fragmentation, coordinating diverse mechanism of productive progress, and integrating means of finding solutions that satisfy broad social needs and values. Such an approach is superior to the view of the organization as a structured hierarchy committed to nothing more than a particularized socioeconomic system. Burns and Stalker wrote: "The growth and accretion of institutional values, beliefs, and conduct, in terms of commitments, ideology and manners, around an image of the organization in its industrial and commercial setting compensate the loss of formal structure."

As an Anticipation

J. Sterling Livingstone views management as anticipation. According to him, most management training programs neglect to teach people what is needed in order to become fully effective managers. These programs emphasize only problem solving and decision making and help to develop analytical ability but little to improve capacities a manager will need.

Managers should really be taught problem finding that inhibit growth and expansion and anticipate opportunities that enhance growth and expansion. Analytical skills are important, but a manager's success will ultimately depend on the ability to anticipate problems long before they emerge and the ability to find and take advantage of opportunities. In fact, it is not problem solving but making the most of opportunities that helps organizations succeed.

Livingstone suggests that these abilities can and should be taught, but certain characteristics of effective managers are almost impossible to teach-personal qualities that people develop long before they enter management training programs. According to Livingstone, three such qualities are associated with successful managers:

The need to manage: Only those people who want to affect the performance of others and who derive satisfaction when they do so are likely to become effective managers.

The need for power: Effective managers have a need to influence others. To do this, they do not depend on the authority of their positions but on their superior knowledge and skill.

The capacity for empathy: The effective manager also needs the ability to understand and cope with the often unexpressed emotional reactions of others in the organization in order to win their cooperation.

Thus, Livingstone, Katz and Mintzberz called attention to the wide variety of skills and abilities successful managers possess. Several of these skills can be and are being taught. But many are qualities of character and style difficult to develop in a class- room. Prospective managers will have to look inside themselves to discover their personal qualities and abilities effective managers require. If they are truly motivated toward management, they will take the initiative in pursuing the self-development they will eventually need.

Objectives

Different objectives of management are explained as under.

(i ) Organizational objectives: Management works for the achievement of the objectives of the particular organization where it exists. Organizational objectives include:

(a)  Cause growth and expansion of the enterprise

(b)  Earn reasonable profits so as to give a fair return on the capital invested in business

(c)  Ensure survival and solvency of the business.

(d)  Improve the public image or reputation of the enterprise.

(iii) Social objectives:  Management represents owners and workers and is also responsible to the various groups outside the organization expected to fulfill a number of social goals:

(a) Provide quality goods and services to the members of the society at fair price.

(b) Honestly and promptly make payment of taxes to the Government.

(c) Conservation of environment and protection of natural resources.

(d) Conduct fair dealings with suppliers, dealers and competitors.

(e) Preserve ethical values of the society.

(ii)Personal objectives:  Every organization consists of several persons having their own objectives.

(a) Pay fair remuneration for work performed

(b) Create congenial working conditions

(c) Provide opportunities for training and development

(d) Participate in management and bring prosperity to the enterprise

(e) Reasonable security of service.