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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.
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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
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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
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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.