What is the nature of management?

Management is a very vast field encompassing wide range of activity.It is concerned with improving the effectiveness of any kind of work performed. There is no work or human activity to which cannot benefit from effective management. The utility of management increases with the complexity of work managed, and number of people engaged in performing the work. Some expert, state that management is applicable only in activities performed jointly by more than one person. But the fact is that methods of management are useful to improving effectiveness of work performed by just one person including yourself.

Koontz and Weihrich have defined management as:

The process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims.

The various activities of management can be broadly divided in four broad functions of management.

1. Planning (Decision making)


2. Organizing (and staffing)


3. Leading (Motivating)


4. Controlling

Planning refers to management function of setting objectives and deciding on actions to be taken to achieve these objectives. It covers decision of various types. Some of the types of plans are policies, objectives, strategy, budgets, schedules, and procedures.

Organization refers to designing, developing, and maintaining structure of relationships between members of team or group assigned to carry out the planned tasks. Organization implies a formalized, intentional structure of roles and position. The organization structure defines task to be performed by individuals, their responsibilities, and authority for decision making. Organization also includes the staffing function, which is concerned with filling and keeping filled position in the organization structure.

Leading involves motivating and otherwise making people undertake the task assigned to them and carry them out efficiently and effectively. Thus Leading implements the decisions taken as per planning function. This implementation is done by people as per the organization structure. Each manager has the responsibility to ensure that the their subordinates carry out the work as assigned to them.

Usually the work does not always proceeds as planned. There are deviation from plans because human failures in implementation, changes in environmental condition making it difficult or, some times, even undesirable to continue to implement part of the plan. Implementation problems can also arise out of flaws in the original plans. To ensure that the plan is implemented most effectively, and when necessary, mid course correction is made in plans, it becomes necessary to monitor actual work being done, compare the same with planned and expected results, and when required take corrective action. This is controlling function of management.

Source:

Koontz H. and Weihrich H (2005), Essentials of Management, Sixth Edition, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi.