IT 107 Organization and Management

HandOut #002

Contemporary Concepts of Management 1. Management is the process by which human efforts are coordinated and combined with other resources to accomplish organizational goals and objectives. Mary Parker Follett defines management as "the art of getting things done through people." Management requires an understanding of the economic principle of the division of labor, which breaks down into subtasks, and the coordination of effort, which reorganizes the subtasks into an efficient and effective whole. 2. Management is making the most effective use of available resources, whether in form of machines, money or people (men/ women). The process of organizing, using, and controlling human activities and other resources toward specific ends. Management as concept and process should not be confused with the term "management" commonly used in labor management relations. Management in this case refers to the people responsible for the management of an organization, i.e., for the directing, planning and running of its operations, for the implementation of its policies and the attainment of its objectives. Management refers to the group of persons responsible for running an organization or directing human activity towards specific ends. 3. Management is the process of coordinating human, informational, physical and financial resources to accomplish organizational goals. 4. Management is the process of coordinating the resources of an organization so as to achieve the primary goals of the organization. 5. Management is the process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling a business's financial, physical, human, and information resources in order to achieve its goals. 6. Management involves: Coordinating the human, material and financial resources toward accomplishing organizational goals effectively and efficiently. Relating the organization to the external environment and responding to societal needs. Developing an organizational climate where people can accomplish their individual and collective goals. Performing certain definable functions such as goal setting, planning, assembling resources, organizing, implementing, and controlling. Carrying out various interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles. 7. Management is the process of reaching organizational goals by working with and through people and other organizational resources. 8. Management is the process by which a cooperative group directs actions of others toward common goals. (Massie and Douglas.) 9. Management is the process of working with and through others to effectively achieve organizational objectives by efficiently using limited resources in a changing environment. (Kreitner.) 10. Management is the coordination of all resources through the processes of planning organizing, directing and controlling in order to attain stated objectives. (Sisk.) 11. Management is establishing an effective environment for people operating in formal organizational groups. (Koontz and O'Donnell.) 12. Management entails activities undertaken by one or more persons in order to coordinate the activities of others in the pursuit of ends that cannot be achieved by any one person. (Donnelley, Gibson & Evancevich.)' 13. Management is a process embedded in a system of patterned relationships. Management Throughout Recorded History

Managers should be concerned with historical perspectives. They need to know the facts about what has happened in a similar situation and to relate them to other experiences and other knowledge . Only when they understand the problem environment and how it developed can they fully understand the problem they are trying to solve. Managers search for patterns in the problems they face, and they tend to use learned solutions when those patterns occur. Experienced managers have more experiences to draw on than less experienced managers, but all managers can benefit from the history discussed in management books or cases. No manager has enough personal experience to deal with every problem he or she faces. As the rate of change in our society continues to accelerate, more and more new situations will occur that are likely to resemble others that occurred in the past. This allows effective solutions to be repeated and ineffective solutions

to be avoided across all of an organizations economic functions: marketing, finance, operations, human resources management, and information management. A successful manager needs to know what worked before, what didnt, and why. You will benefit from knowing the history of management because, as a practicing manager, you dont have to make same mistakes that your predecessors made. You will be able to consult the appropriate sources to discover what worked and what didnt. You can then decide the best ways of managing for yourself. Understanding history gives you a basis for acting with your future coworkers and with others who are practicing and studying management now, or who will be in the future. History helps you recognize when to act and when not to. Knowing history helps you identify the common themes that seem to recur . By knowing how issues have been handled in the past, you should know better how to act now. Precursors of Modern Management Theory Historian Daniel A. Wren observed that management is as old as man . But, as he also points out, only recently has there been scientific interest in the process. This is probably because we have only recently realized that how we manage our resources affects what we get from them and because large business organizations have only existed since the early nineteenth century. However, early civilizations did practice managementand in a way not very different from how it was done until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Until the 1800s, there really was no systematic development of management theory, and perhaps only in the mid-1900s dit it become useful to the average manager. Management Reflects Society Management philosophy and its related practices reflect the society within which they existits culture, its values, its needs. The technological, social, political, and economic forces at work in society change, and therefore management has changed and most continue to change. Before the twentieth century, for example, the practice of management was largely authoritarian and was based on hierarchical organizational structures similar to those developed by the early military forces of the Egyptians, Romans, and other ancient societies. The decentralized organizational structure of the Roman Catholic Church slightly modified these structures. As Western society became less agriculturally and more industrially based, its leaders and scholars began to realize that traditional management approaches were unsatisfactory. Entering the twentieth century, some 150 years after the beginning of the industrial revolution, and some 35 years after the US economy became industrially based (1865), managers began to ponder all the factors that should be considered in managing and in alternative ways of managing. A Select View of Management in History Approximate Contributing Group or Management Contribution Time Individual 5000 BC 4000 2600 1491 1100 350 325 280 AD 1776 1881 Sumerians Egyptians Egyptians Hebrews Chinese Greeks Alexander the Great Diocletian Adam Smith Joseph Wharton Kept records of work achievements Practiced planning, organizing, and controlling Decentralized organizations During Exodus from Egypt, Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, urges Moses to delegate authority over the tribes of Israel along hierarchical lines. Concepts of organization, scalar principle, exception principle. Recognized and practiced organization design (planning, directing and controlling) Developed the work ethics, applied scientific methods Used staff to advise and counsel Delegation of authority Applied principle of work specialization Established first college course of study in business management
By JinAd