Management

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 1502.

One of the exciting things about studying management is that it prepares you for a career in any organization. Managers are needed in schools, government organizations, unions, associations, and all other organizations. Naturally, an important need for managers is in business.

Management is attractive to students because it represents authority, money, prestige and so on. But few students are able to describe what managers are able to describe what managers are, what they do, and how they do it.

Management could be called the art of getting things done through people and other resources. Managers are one of the key figures in every organization. A well-know management consultant, Peter Drucker, says manager give direction to their organization, provide leadership, and decide how to use organizational resources to accomplish goals.

The definition of management is as follows:

Management is the process used to accomplish organizational goals through planning, organizing, directing, and controlling people and other organization resources.

This definition spells out four key function of management:

1) Planning (that is, setting organizational goals and developing strategies to reach those goals);

2) Organizing (allocating resources, assigning tasks, preparing a structure (organization chart) showing the lines of authority and responsibility; recruiting, selecting and training employees);

3) Directing (leading, guiding and motivating employees to work effectively to accomplish organizational goals, giving assignments, explaining routines);

4) Controlling (monitoring performance relative to standards, taking corrective actions).

There are several levels of management in an organization.

Top management is the highest level of management and consists of the president and other key company executives who develop strategic plans. Two terms you are likely to see often are chief executive officer (CEO) and chief operating officer (COO). The CEO is often the president if the firm and is responsible for all the top-level decision in the firm. CEOs are responsible for introducing changes into an organization. The COO, chief operating officer, is responsible for putting those changes into effect. His or her tasks include structuring, controlling, and rewarding to ensure that people carry out the leader's vision.

Middle management includes branch and plant managers, deans, and department heads who are responsible for tactical plans.

Supervisory (first-line) management includes people directly responsible for assigning specific jobs to workers and evaluating their daily performance; they are often known as first-line managers because they are the first level above workers.

Management is also differentiated according to the types of management as a form of activity in directing people. There are four main types of management: production, marketing, financial and innovation ones. Some people add information management and personnel direction into the group.

Management as a science. The term “management” may be also treated as a field of human knowledge. As a science it has its own subject, object, internal, and external laws and a short, but very rich history.

Management as a science and organization phenomenon came into being in 1911 after the issuing of Frederick Taylor's book “Principles of Scientific Management”. In it Taylor expressed the idea that the most important thing one should do in any organization is to set up a system by special people called organizers or managers. This idea was well received by some other scientists and businessmen.

In 1926 the Rockefeller Fund (at Harvard University) started researching the problems of organization or management. The world famous company of that time, “Western Electric Co” spent lots of money on the research in that field.

Various famous specialists and scientist continued working on exploring managerial problems and their application in practice. Those were Henry Ford, Peter Drake, James Mooney, Alan Keiley and other.

The period of the fastest development in the managerial science covered the 50s and 60s.

Managerial Educations may be of two basic types:

- Business Administration – the management in private (commercial) organization.

- Public Administration – the management in non – profit organizations (such as public companies and organizations, political parties, public hospitals, schools, churches, and others).

The term “management” can be used for both of the above, whether you are talking about business or public organizations.