Management in business
and organizations is the function that coordinates the efforts of people to
accomplish goals and objectives
using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning,
organizing, staffing,
leading
or directing, and controlling an organization
or initiative to accomplish a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and
manipulation of human resources, financial
resources, technological resources, and natural
resources.
Since organizations can be viewed as systems,
management can also be defined as human action, including design, to facilitate
the production of useful outcomes from a system. This view opens the
opportunity to 'manage' oneself, a prerequisite to attempting to manage others.
Universities offer bachelor's and advanced degrees in
management, generally within their colleges of business. At the doctoral level
students specialize in areas of management, such as human
resources, international management, organizational behavior, or strategic management.
Etymology
The verb 'manage' comes from the Italian
maneggiare (to handle, especially tools), which derives from the Latin word manus
(hand). The French word mesnagement (later ménagement) influenced
the development in meaning of the English word management in the 17th
and 18th centuries.
Definitions
Views on the definition and scope of management include:
- Management defined as the organization and coordination of the activities of an enterprise in accordance with certain policies and in achievement of clearly defined objectives
- Fredmund Malik defines as Management is the transformation of resources into utility.
- Management included as one of the factors of production - along with machines, materials and money
- Peter Drucker (1909–2005) sees the basic task of a management as twofold: marketing and innovation. Nevertheless, innovation is also linked to marketing (product innovation is a central strategic marketing issue). Peter Drucker identifies marketing as a key essence for business success, but management and marketing are generally understood as two different branches of business administration knowledge.
- Directors and managers should have the authority and responsibility to make decisions to direct an enterprise when given the authority
- As a discipline, management comprises the interlocking functions of formulating corporate policy and organizing, planning, controlling, and directing a firm's resources to achieve a policy's objectives
- The size of management can range from one person in a small firm to hundreds or thousands of managers in multinational companies.
- In large firms, the board of directors formulates the policy that the chief executive officer implements.
Theoretical scope
Management involves the manipulation of the human capital of
an enterprise to contribute to the success of the enterprise. This implies
effective communication: an enterprise environment (as opposed to a physical or
mechanical mechanism), implies human motivation and implies some sort of
successful progress or system outcome. As such, management is not the manipulation
of a mechanism (machine or automated program), not the herding of animals, and
can occur in both a legal as well as illegal enterprise or environment. Based
on this, management must have humans, communication, and a positive enterprise
endeavor. Plans, measurements, motivational psychological tools, goals, and
economic measures (profit, etc.) may or may not be necessary components for
there to be management. At first, one views management functionally, such as
measuring quantity, adjusting plans, meeting goals. This applies even in situations where planning does not
take place. From this perspective, Henri Fayol
(1841–1925) considers management to consist of six functions:
- Forecasting
- Planning
- Organizing
- Commanding
- Coordinating
- Controlling
Henri Fayol was one of the most influential contributors to
modern concepts of management. In another way of thinking, Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933), defined
management as "the art of getting things done through people". She
described management as philosophy.
Critics, however,
find this definition useful but 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 broadly,every organization must manage its work, people, processes,
technology, etc. to maximize effectiveness. Nonetheless, many people refer to
university departments that 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 often contrasted with the term "Labor" - referring to those
being managed.
Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management
