Meaning and Nature of Management

8/18/2019 Meaning and Nature of Management

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Nature of Management:

Human needs are largely satisfed througheconomic activities o organized groups andassociations. In their own interest, peopleshould join together and accomplish commongoals through cooperation. However, to bemore eective in this pursuit, it is essentialthat group eorts should be properlyorganized, directed, and coordinated. In other

words, there is a need or management. Thereore, management is as old ascivilization or organized lie. The systematicstudy o management, however, has evolvedonly in the last si or seven decades.

!"anagement is the creation and control o

technological and human environment o anorganization in which human s#ill andcapacities o individuals and groups fnd ullscope or their eective use in order toaccomplish the objectives or which anenterprise has been set up. It is involved inthe relationships o the individual, group, theorganization and the environment.$%&ro. '.(asgupta )*++-

The literature on management has grown atan unprecedented rate in recent times,


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particularly ater orld ar II. This in turn hasgreatly helped in improving research,teaching, and practice o management as a

branch o study. /ut such a growth has alsogiven rise to dierences o opinion andapproach.

0o we have the operational school omanagement thought, the mathematicalschool, the human behaviour school, the

systems school, and the decision%theoryschool. These divergent views relating tomanagement have made the tas# o defningmanagement etremely di1cult.

2perationally, management may be defnedas a dynamic process concerned with getting

things done through and with the eorts oothers by harnessing human and otherresources o the institution3business orotherwise3and creating an environmentavourable to perormance by people or theaccomplishment o desired objectives withminimum o unsought conse4uences.

Today, the e1ciency o managementdistinguishes one organization rom the other,as it adds to competitive strength. (ierentauthorities have defned management


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dierently. /ut irrespective o the dierencesin approach and environment, themanagement process is essentially the same

in all organized activities and at all levels inan organization.

Meaning of Management:

/eore going into the details, let us frstreview the defnitions o management givenby the eperts in the feld. Here we havearranged the defnitions chronologically, andsubse4uently we have categorized them intodierent approaches.

*. 5.. Taylor )*+**-, the ather o scientifcmanagement6 7"anagement is the art o#nowing what you want to do ... in the bestand cheapest way.7

8. 9.:. (avis )*+;*-6 7"anagement is theunction o eecutive leadership anywhere.7

. /rech )*+;


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@. &eter (ruc#er )*+;@-, who attempted tonarrow the debate6 7It is a multipurpose organthat manages a business and manages

managers and manages wor#ers and wor#.7

;. illiam 0priegel )*+;;-6 7"anagement isthat unction o an enterprise which concernsitsel with the direction and control o variousactivities to attain the business objectives."anagement is essentially an eecutive

unction? it deals particularly with the activedirection o the human eort...7

. "ary Aushing Biles )*+;-6 7Aoodmanagement, or scientifc management,achieves a social objective with the best useo human and material energy and time and

with satisaction or the participants and thepublic.7

C. >awrence '. 'ppley )*+;-, who reinorcedthe logic urther6 7"anagement is thedevelopment o people and not the directiono things ... "anagement is personnel

administration.7D. 0tanley Eance )*+;+-6 7"anagement issimply the process o decision ma#ing andcontrol over action o human beings or the


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epress purpose o attaining pre%determinedgoals.7

+. Harold Foontz )*+*-6 7"anagement is theart o getting things done through and withpeople in ormally organized groups. It is theart o creating the environment in whichpeople can perorm and individuals couldcooperate towards attaining o group goals. Itis the art o removing bloc#s to such

perormance, a way o optimizing e1ciency inreaching goals.7

*G. ohn 5. "ee )*+


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which human s#ill and capacities oindividuals and groups fnd ull scope or theireective use in order to accomplish the

objectives or which an enterprise has beenset up. It is involved in the relationships o theindividual, group, the organization and theenvironment.7

*


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in the eective and e1cient attainment oobjectives.7

*C. Howard ". :arlisle )*+C-6 7...the processby which the elements o a group areintegrated, coordinated, andJor utilized so asto eectively and e1ciently achieveorganizational objective.7

*D. Aeorge 9. Terry )*+CC-6 7"anagement is adistinct process consisting o planning,organizing, actuating, and controlling,perormed to determine and accomplish theobjectives by the use o people andresources.7

Dierent Dimensions of Management:

2n reviewing the defnitions, we observe thatmanagement basically aims at accomplishinggoals and objectives through the eorts opeople.

Further review of the denitions revealsthat the denition of management has

the following dierent dimensions:Productivity orientation:

5rederic# inslow Taylor and ohn 5. "ee havepioneered this concept. Their defnitions are


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primarily concerned with increasedproductivity.

Human relations orientation:

>awrence '. 'ppley and Harold Foontz pio%neered this concept. Their defnitions omanagement primarily emphasize onrelationships among people.

Decision-making orientation:

(efnitions under this category ocus on deci%sion ma#ing as the primary unction omanagement. 9oss "oore and 0tanley Eancewere the pioneers o this concept.

eadershi! orientation:

The proponents o this concept havehighlighted leadership as the essence omanagement. (onald . :lough and 9alph :.(avis are two pioneers who relatemanagement with leadership.

Process orientation:

"anagement as a process has been defnedby numerous authors li#e ames >. >undy,(alton =. "c5arland, Howard ". :arlisle, =.5.>./rech, 9obert >. Trewatha, ". Aene Bewport,


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and Aeorge 9. Terry. Till now we have onlydiscussed the dierent defnitions omanagement and their orientation. Kuite

obviously, readers might have got conusedas to what should be the appropriatedefnition. It is recommended that thedefnitions may not be mugged up. 9ather,one should try to conceptualize them, so thatone7s basic concept is clear.

"anagement is optimization o constrainingresources to achieve some intended goals.79esources7 is a broad term and itencompasses everything that we re4uire asinputs, including #nowledge and inormationinputs. 9esources are not available inabundance. There always eist resourceconstraints. =very organization tries toachieve its charted goals and objectivesthrough e1cient management and properallocation o scarce resources.

"m!ortant #haracteristics and Featuresof Management:"n the conte$t of various denitions ofmanagement and su%se&uentdiscussions' we can enumerate


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im!ortant characteristics and features of management as under:

*. "anagement is an organized activity.

8. "anagement is aligned with organizationalobjectives.

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Meaning and Nature of Management