Introduction to Management

• An understanding of the importance of management to society and individuals.
• An understanding of the role of management.
• An ability to define management in several different ways.
• An ability to list and define the basic functions of management.
• Working definitions of managerial effectiveness and managerial efficiency.
• An understanding of basic management skills and their relative importance to managers.
• An understanding of the universality of management.
• Insights concerning what management careers are and how they evolve.

Definition of Management

Management is the process of reaching organizational goals by working with and through people and other organizational resources.

Three Main Characteristics of Management

1. It is a process or series of continuing and related activities.
2. It involves and concentrates on reaching organizational goals.
3. It reaches these goals by working with and through people and other organizational resources.

Four Basic Management Functions

Planning:

Planning involves choosing tasks that must be performed to attain organizational goals, outlining how the tasks must be performed, and indicating when the tasks should be performed.

Organizing:

Organizing can be thought of as assigning the tasks developed during planning to various individuals or groups within the organization.

Influencing:

Influencing can be defined as the process of guiding the activities of organizational members to appropriate direction.

Controlling:

Controlling is the management function for which managers:

• Gather information that measures recent performance within the organization.
• Compare present performance to pre-established performance standards.
• From this comparison, determine if the organization should be modified to meet pre-established standards.

Managerial Effectiveness

Managerial Effectiveness is the degree to which management attains organizational objectives. It is measured by how close organizations come to achieving their goals.

Managerial Efficiency

Managerial Efficiency is the degree to which organizational resources contribute to productivity. It is measured by the proportion of organizational resources used during the production process.

Management Skills

A Classic View: Robert L Katz indicates that three types of skills are important.

1. Technical skills
2. Human skills
3. Conceptual skills

Technical Skills

Ability to apply specialized knowledge and expertise to work-related techniques and procedures. It mostly relates to working with something – process or physical objects. For example, accounting, computer programming, etc.

Human Skills

Ability to work with people. For example, ability to communicate, cooperate, understand and motivate individuals and groups.

Conceptual Skills

Ability to view the organization in a holistic manner. It is the ability to understand how various functions of the organization complement each other and the cause and effect relationships among various groups and parts of the organization.