Management Defined

7/31/2019 Management Defined

1/4

MANAGEMENT DEFINED

Define management (ask students for a definition) Lots of answers will work, but a

good one is the process of reaching organizational goals by working with people and

other resources. Another definition could be knowing what you want people to do,

and then getting them to do it the best way. Managers must concentrate on reaching

organizational goals, and they should use their resources to accomplish those goals.

For many years the management process has been divided into principles, sometimes

called functions. Some sources will state that there are five principles and others will

say there are four. For this lesson, we will use four: planning, organizing, influencing,

and controlling. Some people use decision making as a fifth principle, but we will use

decision making as part of the planning process. Also, some use leading instead of

influencing, but we like the term influencing better. Certainly, leading is a part of

influencing, but we will discuss the differences between leadership and management

later in this lesson.

Management is a continuing process, and managers are always involved in some way

with these principles. These principles are designed to help managers accomplish

organizational objectives, and good managers will use them. These principles are not

isolated but are interwoven throughout the managers thoughts and actions.

Managers must combine and coordinate these principles and must maximize their

value to achieve their goals. Managers strive to be effective and efficient and these

principles help them. These management principles are universal and applicable to

all types of businesses and organizations.


2/4

Responsibility

Responsibility is the obligation to accomplish the goals related to the position and the organization.

Managers, at no matter what level of the organization, typically have the same basic responsibilities

when it comes to managing the work force: Direct employees toward objectives, oversee the work

effort of employees, deal with immediate problems, and report on the progress of work to their

superiors. Managers' primary responsibilities are to examine tasks, problems, or opportunities in

relationship to the company's short-and long-range goals. They must be quick to identify areas of

potential problems, continually search for solutions, and be alert to new opportunities and ways to take

advantage of the best ones.

MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY & RESPONSIBILITY

Section 201. Responsibility for Administration

The City Manager or designee shall have the responsibility for implementing the provisions of this

Manual and the authority to issue regulations to administer provisions of this Manual. The CityManager

shall also have the responsibility for establishing and modifying the classification and compensation

plans

and for the general supervision of the personnel system.

Section 202. City Manager's Open Door Policy

The City Manager is available to any employee seeking to discuss work-related problems or

concerns in an open and informal manner. When an employee has made a good faith effort to resolve

challenges with their supervisor and/or Department Head and believes that their concerns have not

been

adequately addressed, they have the right to meet with the City Manager without fear of reprisal or

retaliation.

Section 203. Human Resources Department

The Human Resources Department shall:

a. Have overall responsibility for establishing, maintaining, and coordinating personnel

transactions and records management systems and procedures for all City employees consistent with

state and federal laws.

b. Advise and assist supervision/management on all City personnel transactions and records


3/4

management systems and procedures related to personnel.

Section 204. Management and Supervision

Management and supervision shall:

a. Establish goals and provide leadership to employees for carrying out assigned tasks.

b. Initiate personnel transactions for their employees, using forms prescribed by the Human

Resources Department.

c. Direct and supervise all operations, functions, and the work of the employees.

d. Determine the place to report to work, to determine methods, processes, and manners of

performing work.

e. Establish and revise schedules of work.

f. Assign shifts, work days, hours of work, and work locations.

g. Designate, assign, or reassign all work duties.

h. Evaluate the skill, ability, efficiency, and general work performance of employees.

i. Take actions, as necessary, to carry out the mission of the City.

Section 205. Employees

Employees shall be provided all pertinent personnel transactions that may affect their

employment.

SPAN OF CONTROL AND UNITY OF COMMAND

These two principles are singled out because of their relevance to Civil Air Patrol.

These are important concepts in any organization, but especially in an organization

like ours. Span of Control has been a concern of organizations for many years. It

refers to the number of individuals a manager supervises. It also implies how many a

manager can supervise effectively. If manager have too many people working for

them they can lose their effectiveness and this definitely hurts the organization.

Productivity would be decreased as well as interpersonal relationships. There is no


4/4

magic number for the exact amount of people one manager can supervise, but years

ago six was a number mentioned by many textbooks. Now, Ive seen 3-9 used, but

again that depends on both the workers and the manager. The importance of this

concept is that it is a crucial factor in structuring an organization and has hug impact

on the organization. By the way, span of control is the term used in military texts, but

span of management is more often used in industry texts. They both mean the same.

A FORMAL DEFINITION OF RESPONSIBILITY ACCOUNTING

Responsibility accounting involves the creation of responsibility centres. A responsibility centre may be

defined as an organization unit for whose performance a manager is held accountable. Responsibility

accounting enables accountability for financial results and outcomes to be allocated to individuals

throughout the organization. The objective is to measure the result of each responsibility center. It

involves accumulating costs and revenues for each responsibility centre so that deviation from

performance target (typically the budget) can be attributed to the individual who is accountable for the

responsibility centre

Planning & control are essential for achieving good results in any business. Firstly, a budget is prepared

and, secondly, actual results are compared with budgeted ones. Any difference is made responsibility of

the key individuals who were involved in (i) setting standards, (ii) given necessary resources and (iii)

powers to use them.

In order to streamline the process, the entire organization is broken into various types of centers mainly

cost centre, revenue centre, profit center and investment centre. The organizational budget is divided

on these lines and passed on to the concerned managers. Actual results are collected and displayed in

the same form for comparison. Difference, if any, are highlighted and brought to the notice of the

management. This process is called Responsibility Accounting.

Documents

Management Defined