Management: the Essentials

Who are managers? Managers work in an organization.

An organization is a deliberate arrangement of people brought together to accomplish some specific purpose. Your college or university is an organization. Every organization has a purpose and is made up of people who are grouped in some fashion.

This distinct purpose is typically expressed in terms of a goal or set of goals. Second, purposes or goals can only be achieved through people. Third, all organizations develop a systematic structure that defines and limits the behavior of its members. Developing structure may include creating rules and regulations, giving some members supervisory control, forming teams, etc.

The term organization refers to an entity that has a distinct purpose, has people or members, and has a systematic structure.  Organizational members fit into two categories: operatives and managers. Non-managerial employees work directly on a job or task and have no oversight responsibility of others. Managers direct the activities of other people in the organization. Customarily classified as top, middle, or first line, they supervise both nonmanagerial employees and lower-level managers. Some managers also have operative responsibilities themselves.

The distinction between non-managers and managers is that managers have employees who report directly to them.One survey indicated that some 44 percent of people lie about their work history. Another survey found that 93 percent of hiring managers who found a lie on a job candidate‘s resume did not hire that person.

Top managers are responsible for making decisions about the direction of the organization and establishing policies that affect all organizational members.

Examples: Herman and Connie Mashaba, Google‘s Larry Page, Kenneth Chenault of American Express. Top managers have titles including vice president, managing director, chief operating officer, chancellor, etc. Middle managers represent levels of management between the first-line supervisor and top management. They manage other managers and possibly some non-managerial employees. They are responsible for translating the goals set by top management into specific details. First-line managers are usually called supervisors, team leaders, coaches, etc.

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?

How Do We Define Management? Managers, regardless of title, share several common elements. Management is the process of getting things done effectively and efficiently, through and with other people. The term process in the definition represents the primary activities managers perform.

Effectiveness and efficiency deal with what we are doing and how we are doing it. Efficiency means doing the task right and refers to the relationship between inputs and outputs. Management is concerned about minimizing resource costs. Effectiveness means doing the right task, and in an organization that translates into goal attainment. Efficiency and effectiveness are interrelated.

It‘s easier to be effective if one ignores efficiency. Good management is concerned with both attaining goals (effectiveness) and doing so as efficiently as possible. Organizations can be efficient and yet not be effective. High efficiency is associated more typically with high effectiveness.

Poor management is most often due to both inefficiency and ineffectiveness or to effectiveness achieved through inefficiency.

The terms management or manager come from a number of sources. One source says that the word manager originated in 1588 to describe one who manages. The specific use of the word as ? one who conducts a house of business or public institution? s said to have originated in 1705. Another source says that the origin (1555–1565) is from the word maneggiare, which meant ? to handle or train horses,? and was a derivative of the word mano, which is from the Latin word for hand, manus.

That origin arose from the way that horses were guided, controlled, or directed where to go—that is, through using one‘s hand. The words management and manager are more appropriate to the early twentieth century. Peter Drucker, the late management writer, studied and wrote about management for more than 50 years.

In 1911, Taylor‘s book Principles of Scientific Management was published. Its contents were widely embraced by managers around the world. The book described the theory of scientific management: the use of scientific methods to define the one best way for a job to be done. He spent more than two decades passionately pursuing the one best wayfor such jobs to be done. Based on his groundbreaking studies of manual workers using scientific principles, Taylor became known as the father of scientific management.

Some of these techniques like the analysis of basic work that must be performed, and time-and-motion studies are still used today.

WHAT DO MANAGERS DO?

Henri Fayol defined the management process in terms of five management functions.

a) They plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control.

b) In the mid-1950s, two professors used the terms planning,organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling as the framework for the most widely sold management textbook.

The Four Management Functions:  planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. These processes are interrelated and interdependent.

Planning encompasses defining an organization‘s goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals, and developing a comprehensive hierarchy of plans to integrate and coordinate activities. Setting goals creates a proper focus.

Organizing—determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made. Directing and coordinating people is the leading component of management. Leading involves motivating employees, directing the activities of others, selecting the most effective communication channel, or resolving conflicts among members.

Controlling. To ensure that things are going as they should, a manager must monitor the organization‘s performance. Actual performance must be compared with the previously set goals. Any significant deviations must be addressed. The monitoring, comparing, and correcting are the controlling process.

The process approach is clear and simple but may not accurately describe what managers do. Fayol‘s original applications represented mere observations from his experiences in the French mining industry.

In the late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg provided empirical insights into the manager‘s job. B. What Are Management Roles? 1. Henry Mintzberg undertook a careful study of five chief executives at work. Mintzberg found that the managers he studied engaged in a large number of varied, unpatterned, and short-duration activities. There was little time for reflective thinking (due to interruptions). Half of these managers‘ activities lasted less than nine minutes.

Mintzberg provided a categorization scheme for defining what managers do on the basis of actual managers on the job—Mintzberg‘s managerial roles. Mintzberg concluded that managers perform ten different but highly interrelated roles.

They are grouped under three primary headings:

1. Interpersonal relationships.
2. Informational
3. Decisional

What Skills do Managers Need?

• Conceptual skills - used to analyze and diagnose complex situations.
• Interpersonal skills - involved with working well with other people both individually and in groups.
• Technical skills - job-specific knowledge and techniques needed to perform work tasks.
• Political skills - to build a power base and establish the right connections.

Developing Your Political Skill About the Skill Research has shown that people differ in their political skills. Those who are politically skilled are more effective in their use of influence tactics. Political skill also appears to be more effective when the stakes are high. Finally, politically skilled individuals are able to exert their influence without others detecting it, which is important in being effective so that you‘re not labeled political.

Develop your networking ability. Work on gaining interpersonal influence. Develop your social astuteness. Be sincere. Practicing the Skill Select each of the components of political skill and spend one week working on it. Write a brief set of notes describing your experiences—good and bad. Were you able to begin developing a network of people throughout the organization or did you work at developing your social astuteness maybe by starting to recognize and interpret people‘s facial expressions and the meaning behind those expressions?

What could you have done differently to be more politically skilled? Once you begin to recognize what‘s involved with political skills, you should find yourself becoming more connected and politically adept.

The importance of the managerial roles varies depending on the manager‘s level in the organization.The differences are of degree and emphasis but not of activity. As managers move up, they do more planning and less direct overseeing of others.

The amount of time managers give to each activity is not necessarily constant. The content of the managerial activities changes with the manager‘s level. Top managers are concerned with designing the overall organization‘s structure. Lower-level managers focus on designing the jobs of individuals and work groups.

The manager‘s job is mostly the same in both profit and not-for-profit organizations. All managers make decisions, set objectives, create workable organization structures, hire and motivate employees, secure legitimacy for their organization‘s existence, and develop internal political support in order to implement programs. The most important difference is measuring performance, profit, or the bottom line.

There is no such universal measure in not-for-profit organizations. Making a profit for the owners of not-for-profit organizations is not the primary focus. There are distinctions, but the two are far more alike than they are different.

Definition of small business and the part it plays in our society. There is no commonly agreed-upon definition.

Small business - any independently owned and operated profit-seeking enterprise that has fewer than 500 employees. 98 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the United States. Employ over 60 percent of the private work force. Dominate such industries as retailing and construction. Will generate nearly three-fourths of all new jobs in the economy. Where the job growth has been in recent years.

Companies with fewer than 500 employees have created more than 2 million jobs. Small business start-ups witnessed in countries such as China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Great Britain. Managing a small business is different from that of managing a large one. The small business manager‘s most important role is that of spokesperson (outwardly focused). In a large organization, the manager‘s most important job is deciding which organizational units get what available resources and how much of them (inwardly focused).

The entrepreneurial role is least important to managers in large firms. A small business manager is more likely to be a generalist. The large firm‘s manager‘s job is more structured and formal than the manager in a small firm.Planning is less carefully orchestrated in the small business. The small business organizational design will be less complex and structured.  Control in the small business will rely more on direct observation. e) We see differences in degree and emphasis, but not in activities.

WHY STUDY MANAGEMENT?

We all have a vested interest in improving the way organizations are managed. We interact with them every day of our lives. Examples of problems that can largely be attributed to poor management.Those that are poorly managed often find themselves with a declining customer base and reduced revenues. The reality that once you graduate from college and begin your career, you will either manage or be managed. An understanding of the management process is foundational for building management skills. You will almost certainly work in an organization, be a manager, or work for a manager. You needn‘t aspire to be a manager in order to gain something valuable from a course in management.

Management embodies the work and practices from individuals from a wide variety of disciplines. Organizations that are well managed develop a loyal following and are prosperous.

What Can Students of Management Learn from Other Courses? College courses frequently appear to be independent bodies of knowledge. There is typically a lack of connectedness between core business courses and between courses in business and the liberal arts. A number of management educators have begun to recognize the need to build bridges by integrating courses across the college curriculum.

We‘ve integrated topics around the humanities and social science courses you may have taken to help you see how courses in disciplines such as economics, psychology, sociology, political science, philosophy, and speech communications relate to topics in management. The big picture is often lost when management concepts are studied in isolation.

Anthropologists‘ work on cultures and environments has helped managers better understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior between people. Concerned with the allocation and distribution of scarce resources. Provides an understanding of the changing economy and the role of competition and free markets in a global context.

Philosophy courses inquire into the nature of things, particularly values and ethics.Ethical concerns go directly to the existence of organizations and what constitutes proper behavior within them. It studies the behavior of individuals and groups within a political environment. Specific topics of concern include structuring of conflict, allocating power, and manipulating power for individual self-interest.

Capitalism is just one form of an economic system. The economies based on socialistic concepts are not free markets but government owned. Organizational decision makers essentially carry out dictates of government policies. Efficiency had little meaning in such economies.

Management is affected by a nation‘s form of government, whether it allows its citizens to hold property, by the ability to engage in and enforce contracts, and by the appeal mechanisms available to redress grievances.

Concluding remark we‘ve attempted to provide some insight into need-to-integrate courses you have taken in your college pursuits because what you learn in humanities and social science courses can assist you in becoming better prepared to manage in today‘s dynamic marketplace.

Tell who managers are and where they work. Managers are individuals who work in an organization directing and overseeing the activities of other people. Managers are usually classified as top, middle, or first-line. Organizations, which are where managers work, have three characteristics: goals, people, and a deliberate structure.

Management is the process of getting things done, effectively and efficiently, with and through other people.

What managers do can be described using three approaches: functions, roles, and skills. The functions approach says that managers perform four functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Mintzberg‘s roles approach says that what managers do is based on the 10 roles they use at work, which are grouped around interpersonal relationships, the transfer of information, and decision making. The skills approach looks at what managers do in terms of the skills they need and use. These four critical skills are conceptual, interpersonal, technical, and political.

All managers plan, organize, lead, and control although how they do these and how much they do these may vary according to level in the organization, whether the organization is profit or not-for-profit, the size of the organization, and the geographic location of the organization.

One reason it‘s important to study management is that all of us interact with organizations daily so we have a vested interest in seeing that organizations are well managed.

Another reason is the reality that in your career you will either manage or be managed. By studying management you can gain insights into the way your boss and fellow employees behave and how organizations function. In today‘s world, managers are dealing with changing workplaces, ethical and trust issues, global economic uncertainties, and changing technology. Two areas of critical importance to managers are delivering high-quality customer service and encouraging innovative efforts.

Not everyone is motivated to perform managerial functions.

This self-assessment instrument taps six components that have been found to be related to managerial success, especially in larger organizations. These components include a favorable attitude toward authority, a desire to compete, a desire to exercise power, assertiveness, desire for a distinctive position, and a willingness to engage in repetitive tasks.

Managers are to orchestrate, but the individuals or teams are more self-managing than in any time in human history that we know of. The concept of manager means that one needs knowledge that is special to being a manager. For years, whether you knew about managing or not, the road to promotion and more money was, and for many organizations still is, being a manager. Many people love their specialty and truly hate managing. They may miss their hands-on work that they went to school to acquire, they may just not be suited to manage, or they may be afraid because they know nothing about managing and do not know how to do it.

These and a host of other issues have made managing a complex and difficult issue for many managers. Some companies have solved the problem by creating two tracks: one for managers and one for those who wish to remain in their technical field. Each can be promoted and receive more pay, thus enabling a choice. This system is seemingly better for both the individual and the organization. The individual is more likely to like her or his work and have a stronger commitment to the company, and the organization taps into those

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Management: the Essentials. (2018, May 08). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/management-the-essentials/

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