Management in all business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources.

Management can also refer to the person or people who perform the act(s) of management.

Contents

Overview

The verb manage comes from the Italian maneggiare (to handle — especially a horse), which in turn derives from the Latin manus (hand). The French word mesnagement (later ménagement) influenced the development in meaning of the English word management in the 17th and 18th centuries.[1]

Some definitions of management are:

Theoretical scope

Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933), who wrote on the topic in the early twentieth century, defined management as "the art of getting things done through people". She also described management as philosophy.[2] One can also think of management functionally, as the action of measuring a quantity on a regular basis and of adjusting some initial plan; or as the actions taken to reach one's intended goal. This applies even in situations where planning does not take place. From this perspective, Frenchman Henri Fayol[3] considers management to consist of seven functions:

  1. planning
  2. organizing
  3. leading
  4. co-ordinating
  5. controlling
  6. staffing
  7. motivating

Some people, however, find this definition, while useful, far too narrow. The phrase "management is what managers do" occurs widely, suggesting the difficulty of defining management, the shifting nature of definitions, and the connection of managerial practices with the existence of a managerial cadre or class.

One habit of thought regards management as equivalent to "business administration" and thus excludes management in places outside commerce, as for example in charities and in the public sector. More realistically, however, every organization must manage its work, people, processes, technology, etc. in order to maximize its effectiveness. Nonetheless, many people refer to university departments which teach management as "business schools." Some institutions (such as the Harvard Business School) use that name while others (such as the Yale School of Management) employ the more inclusive term "management."

English speakers may also use the term "management" or "the management" as a collective word describing the managers of an organization, for example of a corporation. Historically this use of the term was often contrasted with the term "Labor" referring to those being managed.

Nature of managerial work

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (December 2007)

In for-profit work, management has as its primary function the satisfaction of a range of stakeholders. This typically involves making a profit (for the shareholders), creating valued products at a reasonable cost (for customers), and providing rewarding employment opportunities (for employees). In nonprofit management, add the importance of keeping the faith of donors. In most models of management/governance, shareholders vote for the board of directors, and the board then hires senior management. Some organizations have experimented with other methods (such as employee-voting models) of selecting or reviewing managers; but this occurs only very rarely.

In the public sector of countries constituted as representative democracies, voters elect politicians to public office. Such politicians hire many managers and administrators, and in some countries like the United States political appointees lose their jobs on the election of a new president/governor/mayor.

Public, private, and voluntary sectors place different demands on managers, but all must retain the faith of those who select them (if they wish to retain their jobs), retain the faith of those people that fund the organization, and retain the faith of those who work for the organization. If they fail to convince employees of the advantages of staying rather than leaving, they may tip the organization into a downward spiral of hiring, training, firing, and recruiting. Management also has the task of innovating and of improving the functioning of organizations.

Historical development

Difficulties arise in tracing the history of management. Some see it (by definition) as a late modern (in the sense of late modernity) conceptualization. On those terms it cannot have a pre-modern history, only harbingers (such as stewards). Others, however, detect management-like-thought back to Sumerian traders and to the builders of the pyramids of ancient Egypt. Slave-owners through the centuries faced the problems of exploiting/motivating a dependent but sometimes unenthusiastic or recalcitrant workforce, but many pre-industrial enterprises, given their small scale, did not feel compelled to face the issues of management systematically. However, innovations such as the spread of Arabic numerals (5th to 15th centuries) and the codification of double-entry book-keeping (1494) provided tools for management assessment, planning and control.

Given the scale of most commercial operations and the lack of mechanized record-keeping and recording before the industrial revolution, it made sense for most owners of enterprises in those times to carry out management functions by and for themselves. But with growing size and complexity of organizations, the split between owners (individuals, industrial dynasties or groups of shareholders) and day-to-day managers (independent specialists in planning and control) gradually became more common.

Early writing

While management has been present for millennia, several writers have created a background of works that assisted in modern management theories.[4]

Sun Tzu's The Art of War

Written by Chinese general Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC, The Art of War is a military strategy book that, for managerial purposes, recommends being aware of and acting on strengths and weaknesses of both a manager's organization and a foe's.[4]

Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince

Believing that people were motivated by self-interest, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513 as advice for the leadership of Florence, Italy.[5] Machiavelli recommended that leaders use fear—but not hatred—to maintain control.

Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations

Written in 1776 by Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher, The Wealth of Nations aims for efficient organization of work through Specialization of labor.[5] Smith described how changes in processes could boost productivity in the manufacture of pins. While individuals could produce 200 pins per day, Smith analyzed the steps involved in manufacture and, with 10 specialists, enabled production of 48,000 pins per day.[5]

19th century

Classical economists such as Adam Smith (1723 - 1790) and John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873) provided a theoretical background to resource-allocation, production, and pricing issues. About the same time, innovators like Eli Whitney (1765 - 1825), James Watt (1736 - 1819), and Matthew Boulton (1728 - 1809) developed elements of technical production such as standardization, quality-control procedures, cost-accounting, interchangeability of parts, and work-planning. Many of these aspects of management existed in the pre-1861 slave-based sector of the US economy. That environment saw 4 million people, as the contemporary usages had it, "managed" in profitable quasi-mass production.

By the late 19th century, marginal economists Alfred Marshall (1842 - 1924), Léon Walras (1834 - 1910), and others introduced a new layer of complexity to the theoretical underpinnings of management. Joseph Wharton offered the first tertiary-level course in management in 1881.

20th century

By about 1900 one finds managers trying to place their theories on what they regarded as a thoroughly scientific basis (see scientism for perceived limitations of this belief). Examples include Henry R. Towne's Science of management in the 1890s, Frederick Winslow Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), Frank and Lillian Gilbreth's Applied motion study (1917), and Henry L. Gantt's charts (1910s). J. Duncan wrote the first college management textbook in 1911. In 1912 Yoichi Ueno introduced Taylorism to Japan and became first management consultant of the "Japanese-management style". His son Ichiro Ueno pioneered Japanese quality assurance.

The first comprehensive theories of management appeared around 1920. The Harvard Business School invented the Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) in 1921. People like Henri Fayol (1841 - 1925) and Alexander Church described the various branches of management and their inter-relationships. In the early 20th century, people like Ordway Tead (1891 - 1973), Walter Scott and J. Mooney applied the principles of psychology to management, while other writers, such as Elton Mayo (1880 - 1949), Mary Parker Follett (1868 - 1933), Chester Barnard (1886 - 1961), Max Weber (1864 - 1920), Rensis Likert (1903 - 1981), and Chris Argyris (1923 - ) approached the phenomenon of management from a sociological perspective.

Peter Drucker (1909 – 2005) wrote one of the earliest books on applied management: Concept of the Corporation (published in 1946). It resulted from Alfred Sloan (chairman of General Motors until 1956) commissioning a study of the organisation. Drucker went on to write 39 books, many in the same vein.

H. Dodge, Ronald Fisher (1890 - 1962), and Thornton C. Fry introduced statistical techniques into management-studies. In the 1940s, Patrick Blackett combined these statistical theories with microeconomic theory and gave birth to the science of operations research. Operations research, sometimes known as "management science" (but distinct from Taylor's scientific management), attempts to take a scientific approach to solving management problems, particularly in the areas of logistics and operations.

Some of the more recent[update] developments include the Theory of Constraints, management by objectives, reengineering, Six Sigma and various information-technology-driven theories such as agile software development, as well as group management theories such as Cog's Ladder.

As the general recognition of managers as a class solidified during the 20th century and gave perceived practitioners of the art/science of management a certain amount of prestige, so the way opened for popularised systems of management ideas to peddle their wares. In this context many management fads may have had more to do with pop psychology than with scientific theories of management.

Towards the end of the 20th century, business management came to consist of six separate branches, namely:

21st century

In the 21st century observers find it increasingly difficult to subdivide management into functional categories in this way. More and more processes simultaneously involve several categories. Instead, one tends to think in terms of the various processes, tasks, and objects subject to management.

Branches of management theory also exist relating to nonprofits and to government: such as public administration, public management, and educational management. Further, management programs related to civil-society organizations have also spawned programs in nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship.

Note that many of the assumptions made by management have come under attack from business ethics viewpoints, critical management studies, and anti-corporate activism.

As one consequence, workplace democracy has become both more common, and more advocated, in some places distributing all management functions among the workers, each of whom takes on a portion of the work. However, these models predate any current political issue, and may occur more naturally than does a command hierarchy. All management to some degree embraces democratic principles in that in the long term workers must give majority support to management; otherwise they leave to find other work, or go on strike. Despite the move toward workplace democracy, command-and-control organization structures remain commonplace and the de facto organization structure. Indeed, the entrenched nature of command-and-control can be seen in the way that recent layoffs have been conducted with management ranks affected far less than employees at the lower levels of organizations. In some cases, management has even rewarded itself with bonuses when lower level employees have been laid off.[6]

Management topics

Basic functions of management

Management operates through various functions, often classified as planning, organizing, leading/motivating, and controlling.

Formation of the business policy

How to implement policies and strategies

All policies must be discussed with all managerial personnel and staff that is required in the execution of any departmental policy.

[7]

Where policies and strategies fit into the planning process

multi-divisional management hierarchy

The management of a large organization may have three levels:

  1. Senior management (or "top management" or "upper management")
  2. Middle management
  3. Low-level management, such as supervisors or team-leaders
  4. Foreman
  5. Rank and File
Top-level management
Middle management
Lower management
Foreman / lead hand
Rank and File

Areas and categories and implementations of management

See also

Main article: Outline of management
Articles
Lists

References

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary
  2. ^ Vocational Business: Training, Developing and Motivating People by Richard Barrett - Business & Economics - 2003. - Page 51.
  3. ^ Administration industrielle et générale - prévoyance organisation - commandement, coordination – contrôle, Paris : Dunod, 1966
  4. ^ a b Gomez-Mejia, Luis R.; David B. Balkin and Robert L. Cardy (2008). Management: People, Performance, Change, 3rd edition. New York, New York USA: McGraw-Hill. pp. 19. ISBN 978-0-07-302743-2.
  5. ^ a b c Gomez-Mejia, Luis R.; David B. Balkin and Robert L. Cardy (2008). Management: People, Performance, Change, 3rd edition. New York, New York USA: McGraw-Hill. pp. 20. ISBN 978-0-07-302743-2.
  6. ^ Craig, S. (2009, January 29). Merrill Bonus Case Widens as Deal Struggles. Wall Street Journal. [1]
  7. ^ Kotter, John P. and Dan S. Cohen. The Heart of Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing,
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be and removed. (November 2008)

External links

Fields within the social sciences
Anthropology · Communications · Economics · Education · Gerontology · History · Human geography · Information science · Law · Linguistics · Management · Political science · Psychology · Sociology

Categories: Management occupations | Management

 

The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Mon Jul 6 06:06:47 2009. [ refresh local cache ]
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.


Fight against Growth Management Act building - MiamiHerald.com
news.google.com
Fight against Growth Management Act building

MiamiHerald.com

More Miami-Dade cities are joining Weston's lead in opposing the state's recently signed Growth Management Act. On Monday, the Village of ...
Google News Search: management,
Sat Jul 18 15:51:47 2009
management 2 jpg
huizen.daxis.nl
management 2 jpg
109px x 141px | 6.10kB

[source page]

science After WWII the sub culture Management Science brilliantly changed the label slavery in employment Management Schools as elite education sprouted from the earth in no time Airplanes got a Business Class or Management part Restaurants in industry got divided in First Class

Yahoo Images Search: management,
Mon Jul 13 16:59:14 2009
Solanex Management Inc. (SLNX.OB) is One to Watch Blogs weblogs ...
blogs.finditt.com
Solanex Management Inc. (SLNX.OB) is One to Watch Blogs weblogs ...

Finditt

hu, 16 Jul 2009 10:17:51 GM

Solanex . Management. , Inc. is focused on developing, manufacturing and selling the Thermal Destructor; developing, manufacturing and selling the portable Steam Injection System; and investing in other viable business opportunities, ...

Google Blogs Search: management,
Thu Jul 16 23:06:15 2009
Does the Flight Management Computer provide autopilot inputs?
Q. In commercial aircraft that are equipped with a Flight Management Computer (FMC) are flight guidance inputs transferred to the auto-pilot? I have also seen a similar instrument reffered to as a MCDU (Management Control Disply Unit) and it occupies the same space on the control pedestal as the FMC. I know that these instruments provide and calculate information on ETA's fuel management, flight planning etc. But does it actually provide command to the autopilot? And if so, can an entire course be planned and be used to command the AP? How does the Pilot know when various waypoints have been reached or other criteria have been met? I may have confused the FMC and MCDU.
Asked by checkmate444 - Tue Dec 26 17:55:02 2006 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments

A. The FMC (also called FMS - Flight Management System in some installations) is generally a remotely mounted computer, located in the avionics bay along with the radio receiver/transmitter units, TCAS, EGPWS, etc. The MCDU is the actual display screen and keyboard that you see in the flight deck. It's just a "dumb" control panel for the FMC. The radios work the same way; controllers/displays in the flight deck, actual radios in the avionics bay. The FMC sends guidance commands to the flight director, which drives the autopilot. Pilots monitor progress by viewing information displayed on the multi-function display (MFD). It's usually set to display a moving map that can be configured to show flight plan waypoints, high or low navigation… [cont.]
Answered by John - Wed Dec 27 20:44:41 2006

Yahoo Answers Search: management,
Tue Jul 14 15:49:54 2009