CH-1 (NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MANAGEMENT)

MANAGEMENT

                It is defined as a process of getting things done through and with others to achieve the organisational goals effectively and efficiently.

Here,

PROCESS means the primary functions of management i.e. planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling.

EFFECTIVENESS is concerned with doing the right task i.e. complete the given job on time, no matter whatever is the cost.

EFFICIENCY is concerned with doing the task correctly in a cost effective manner i.e. minimisation of cost and maximisation of benefits.

Therefore, it is important for management to achieve goals (effectiveness) with minimum resources (efficiently).

Eg. A business produces targeted 1000 units but at a higher cost is effective but not efficient. Therefore if the business has to be effective and efficient then it has to produce 1000 units within cost.

NATURE/CHARACTERISTICS OF MANAGEMENT

• Goal Oriented process: No goal in hand = No need of Management. An organisation has a set of basic goals which is the basic reason for its existence. Management is undertaken to achieve already specified and desired objectives.
• Management is pervasive: Management is used for all types of organisations whether it is economical, social or political and at every level. It is an essential element which is required irrespective of size of business or nature of business. Hence it is pervasive or universal.
• Management is multi dimensional: It is multi-dimensional as it involves management of Work, People and Activities.
• Management of work:- Every organisation is established for doing some work, like a school provides education, a hospital treats patients, a factory produces goods etc. Of these no work can be completed satisfactorily without management.
•  Management of people:- Human resources are the greatest assets of any organisation. Managing people involves dealings with employees as individuals with diverse needs and as a group of people working towards a common goal.
•  Management of operations:- To achieve the goals of an organisation many operations or activities are need to be conducted like production, sales, purchases, finance, accounting etc. Again management is needed to make sure that operations are accomplished effectively and efficiently.
• Management is a continuous process: As long as an organisation exists, need for management continues. It is a series of composite, continuous but separate functions which are simultaneously performed by all the managers all the time.
• Management is a group activity: An organisation is a collection of diverse individuals with different needs, but as members of the organisation they work towards fulfilling the common goal which requires team work and coordination of individual effort.
• Management is dynamic:- Management is based on some principles which keeps changing with the changing business environment. Therefore, in order to be successful, management has to adapt itself to the changing environment.
• Management is an intangible force: It is an intangible force which cannot be seen but its presence can be felt. An organisation heading towards higher levels of achievements shows the existence of good management and vice-versa.

OBJECTIVES OF MANAGEMENT

• Organisational Objectives: It refers to ascertain objectives for the whole organisation which are survival, profit and growth.
• Survival:- The basic objective of every organisation is to ensure survival for a longer period. In order to survive, an organisation must earn enough revenues to cover its cost.
• Profit:- Earning profit becomes essential to cover costs and risks of the business, which plays an important role in facing business hazards and successful running of the business.
• Growth:- Growth refers to improve the future prospects of the organisation. Growth can be measured in terms of sales, number of employees, products, capital investments etc. If all these show increasing trend, then it can be said that business is heading towards growth.
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• Social Objectives: It refers to assure health, safety and price control to the society.
• Customer satisfaction by providing quality products and services at reasonable price.
• To save environment from getting polluted.
• To contribute in improving living standard.
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• Personal Objectives: It refers to the ascertainment of the objectives in reference of employees.
• Maximum prosperity of employees through attractive salary, personal growth etc.
• Providing good working conditions.
• Better standard of living and good relations among the workers.
• Integration of personal objectives with organisational objectives.

IMPORTANCE OF MANAGEMENT

• Management helps in achieving group goals:- It adds effectiveness to the efforts of the individuals by giving the proper direction. It organises and assembles the available resources for achieving the organisational goals.
• Management increases efficiency:- A manager increases efficiency through optimum utilisation of physical and human resources which leads to the reduced cost, less wastage and increased productivity.
• Management creates a dynamic organisation:- Every organisation works in a changing environment, but individuals resist change. Therefore managers create a favourable environment to adapt these changes.
• Management helps in achieving personal objectives:- A manager motivates and leads his team in such a manner that individual members are able to achieve personal goals with organisational goals through developing team spirit, cooperation and commitment.
• Management helps in the development of society:- It helps to provide qualitative goods and services, creates employment opportunities, adopts new technology etc. for the development of the society.

MANAGEMENT AS AN ART

Art is the skilful and personal application of existing knowledge to achieve the desired results. It can be acquired through study, observation and experience. The basic features of an art are follows:-

• Existence of theoretical knowledge:- Art is based on certain theoretical knowledge which helps in completing a particular task. Whereas management is also based on certain principles and theoretical concepts and lot of literatures are available in various areas of management.
• Personalised application:- The use of available theoretical knowledge varies from person to person like two teachers differ in teaching the same concept. Management has this feature of art too. Every different manager applies different principles of management in a different manner depending on their knowledge level of management.
• Based on practice and creativity:- To be an expert one requires a regular practice of a particular art, in the same way managerial skills also improves with the continuous practice and innovative thinking. Manager studies critical situations and formulates his own theories which give rise to different styles of management.

The above analysis clearly establishes that management possess all the characteristics of art.

MANAGEMENT AS A SCIENCE

Science is a systematic body of knowledge that explain certain general truths. The basic features of science are:-

• Systematic body of knowledge:- Science is a systematic body of knowledge whose principles are based on cause and effect relationship. Management is also a systematic body of knowledge as it has its own theory and principles which have been developed over a period of time by the management experts.
• Principles based on experimentation:- Scientific principles are developed through repeated experimentation and testing. Like science Management principles also came into existence on the basis of facts, their analysis and experiments.
• Universal validity:- Scientific principles have universal validity like law of gravity. Since the principles of management are not as exact as the principles of science, their application and use is not universal. They are modified according to a given situation.

However, Since management deals with human beings and human behaviour, the outcomes of these experiments are not capable of being accurately predicted. Therefore management cannot be called a natural or pure science but it should be described as Inexact science.

MANAGEMENT AS A PROFESSION

• Well defined body of knowledge:- All the professions and management based on a well defined body of knowledge comprising well defined principles. This knowledge can be acquired at different colleges and professional institutions through various books and literatures.
• Restricted Entry:- A profession degree can only be acquired through a specified exam conducted by professional bodies, whereas there is no restriction on anyone being appointed as a manager irrespective of educational qualifications possessed.
• Professional association:-  All professions are affiliated to a professional association which regulates entry, grants certificate of practice, formulates code of conduct etc. like CA is regulated by ICAI, however there is no such body to regulate the managers.
• Ethical code of conduct:- All the professions are bound by a code of conduct which guides the behaviour of its members. For management AIMA (All India Management Association) has laid down a code of conduct, however there is no compulsion for managers to be members of any such association.
• Service motive:- Both the managers and professional serve the society by rendering their services. Like lawyer serve to ensure justice to his client, whereas managers always tries to use his managerial skills in the best way to achieve the desired results.

On the basis of above conclusions, it becomes clear that management fulfills some of the conditions of profession and some not. Therefore management cannot be regarded as a full fledged profession. 

LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT

LEVELS	FUNCTIONS	EXAMPLES
Top-level management	·         Determining objectives ·         Framing policies ·         Organising activities to be performed ·         Assembling the required resources ·         Controlling the work performance ·         Approving budgets	·         Board of directors ·         Chief executives ·         Chairman ·         Managing Director ·         General Manager
Middle-Level management	·         Interpretation of policies ·         Preparing organisational set up ·         Appointing employees and assigning duties ·         Issuing instructions to the subordinates ·         Motivating employees for higher productivity ·         Creating cooperation	·         Functional managers ·         Departmental Heads ·         Subordinates to top management ·         Superior to first line managers ·         And other executive officers
Low-level management        OR Operational Management	·         Submitting Worker’s grievances ·         Ensure proper working environment ·         Ensure safety of workers ·         Helping middle level management ·         Inviting suggestions from the subordinates ·         Creating better human relations	·         Supervisors ·         Foreman ·         Inspectors etc.

FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT

• PLANNING:- It involves taking decisions in advance and specifying what is to be done, how and when is to be done, i.e. setting goals and developing a way of achieving them.
• ORGANISING:- It refers to identifications of activities to be performed, grouping activities, assigning duties and responsibilities, allocating resources required to carry out a specific plan.
• STAFFING:- Staffing is finding the right people for the right job. It relates to the recruitment and selection of appropriate personnel to accomplish the goals of organisation.
• DIRECTING:- Directing involves leading, influencing and motivating employees to perform the tasks assigned to them. It involves four activities, supervision, communication, leadership and motivation.
• CONTROLLING:- It refers to the monitoring of organisational performance towards achievement of organisational goals. It involves establishing standards, measuring performance and comparing it with standards to minimise the mistakes.

COORDINATION

It is the synchronisation of different activities of different departments. In other words, it is the orderly arrangement of group efforts to provide unity of action for the achievement of common objective. This provides proper amount, quality, timing and sequence of efforts with minimum conflicts.

COORDINATION- THE ESSENCE OF MANAGEMENT (Imp.)

Coordination is not the separate function of management rather it is the essence of management i.e. major part of all management functions. It harmonises and integrates the different activities so as to avoid confusion, duplication and overlapping in an organisation.

It starts right from the planning stage, where master plan of organisation and plans of departments requires coordination.  At the organising stage, coordination is required between human resources and activities to be performed. At the staffing stage, it is required to maintain human resources, recruiting and selection of employees as per qualifications. At the directing stage, it ensures harmonious and smooth performance, while at the controlling stage, it is required between standard performance and actual performance.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COORDINATION

• Integrates group efforts:- Coordination is a concept which applies to group effort not the individual effort. It gives a common focus to group efforts to ensure the performance is as per plan and schedule.
• Ensures unity of action:- It acts as the binding force between departments and ensures that all actions aimed at achieving goals. For example, purchase and sales department have to coordinate their effort so that supply takes place as per purchase orders.
• Continuous process:- It begins at the planning stage and continues till the controlling stage. Its not one time function but it is required at every stage.
• All-pervasive function:- It is required at all levels of management due to independent nature of activities of various departments.
• Responsibility of all managers:- it is the duty of every manager to maintain coordination in organisation. Like, top level need to coordinate with subordinates, middle level need to coordinate with both top level and low level, whereas low level coordinates with the workers.
• Deliberate function:- coordination is never established itself but it is a deliberate effort. Only cooperation is not sufficient but coordination is also required at the same time. For example, the teacher wants to teach effectively (this is cooperation) but time table is not prepared in the school (lack of coordination). Therefore both are required at the same time.

IMPORTANCE OF COORDINATION

• Size of the organisation:- As the scale of doing business increases day by day, it also leads to the increased number of employees in the organisation having different interests, way of working, mutual understanding, needs etc. All these have to work together which gets possible though a proper coordination, so that everybody works for the common goal.
• Functional Differentiation:- There are many different departments, divisions, sections, activities etc. in an organisation. All have different interests, So as to avoid clashes of interests proper coordination is required between the departments.
• Specialisation:- Organisation employ a number of different specialists and if they are allowed to work without coordination, it may lead to conflicts. So as to coordinate the efforts of various experts in the organisation proper coordination is required.

  IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

1. Success of an organisation depends upon its management. Explain any 5 reasons to justify the above statement.
2. Management is a profession like Accounting, medicine and Law as it also has a well defined body of knowledge. Yet management does not qualify to be a full fledged profession. Why?
3. Why is management considered a multi-faceted concept?
4.  Ritu is the manager of the northern division of a large corporate house. At what level does she works in the organisation. State any four functions she will perform.
5. Management is a series of continuous interrelated functions with no pre determined sequence. Explain.
6. Coordination is regarded as essence of management rather than a separate function of manager. Do you agree? Give reasons.
7. Name the process by which a manager synchronises the activities of different departments and explain its four features.
8. Anything minus management is nothing. Explain the importance in the light of the statement.

PREVIOUS YEAR’S QUESTIONS

1. What is meant by Management of work? (2014)
2. Define Organising as a function of management. (2014)
3. Explain the objectives of management. (2014- Value based question)
4. At which level of management directing takes place? (2013)
5. Describe any five reasons which clarify that management is gaining importance day by day. (2013)
6. At which level of management the managers are responsible for the welfare and survival of the organisation. (2012)
7. Identify the nature of management when it is said to be systemised body of knowledge that explains certain general truths. (2012)
8. Give the meaning of management and explain how it creates a dynamic organisation and helps in the development of the society. (2012)  

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