Take a close look at the society around you. You would find the existence of several organizations.
Introduction and Meaning of Management
Introduction:
Take a close look at the society
around you. You would find the existence of several organizations. To mention a
few, the business organizations that produce goods or services, hospitals,
religious and social institutions like charities, schools, colleges and
universities. All these organizations exist to achieve pre-determined
objectives. They affect our lives in many ways. Though there are vast
differences in their functioning and approaches, they all strive to achieve
certain objectives. It must also be noted that organizations cannot achieve the
objectives effortlessly. They are achieved through systematic effort. Several
activities have to be performed in a cohesive way. In the absence of systematic
and cohesive performance of the activities to achieve the objectives, it is no
wonder that the resources of organizations would be underutilized. As such it
is the function of the management to facilitate the performance of activities
such that the accomplishment of the objectives becomes possible.
Meaning
of Management
Management is understood in
different ways by different people. Economists regard it as a factor of
production. Sociologists see it as a class or group of persons while
practitioners of management treat it as a process. For our understanding,
management may be viewed as what a manager does in a formal organization to
achieve the objectives. In the words of Mary Parker Follet management is “the art of getting things done through people”. This definition throws
light on the fact that managers achieve
organizational goals by enabling others to perform rather than performing the
tasks themselves.
Management encompasses a wide variety of activities that no one single
definition can capture all the facets of management. That is why, it is often
said that there are as many definitions of management as there are authors in
the field. However, the definition given by James A.F. Stoner covers all the
important facets of management. According to him:
“Management is the process of planning, organizing, leading and
controlling the efforts of organization members and of using all other
organizational resources to achieve stated organizational goals”.
The definition suggests:
1. Management is a continuous process;
2. Several interrelated activities
have to be performed by managers irrespective of their levels to achieve the
desired goals;
3. Managers use the resources of the
organization, both physical as well as human, to achieve the goals;
4. Management aims at achieving the
organisation’s goals by ensuring effective use of resources in the best
interests of the society. It is evident that the emphasis
is on achieving the objectives by using material, machinery, money and the
services of men. These inputs are drawn from the environment in which the
organization exists. Whether an organization is engaged in business or
non-business, the various inputs are judiciously used to produce the outputs.
The process involving the conversion of inputs into outputs is common to all
organizations and is shown in figure 1.1Depending on the nature of
business or activity that a firm is engaged in, the output of the firm may be a
physical product or service. Since a business organization is an economic
entity, the justification for its existence lies in producing goods and
services that satisfy the needs of the people. As could be seen in the figure,
the organization draws several inputs from the environment, converts them into
products or services and sends them back to the environment. Environment here
means the larger system, i.e., the society in which the firm exists. Therefore,
it goes without saying that how effectively the goods and services are produced
is a matter of concern for any society, given the scarcity of resources.
Effective management therefore plays a crucial role in this context.
Tags : Management Concepts & Organisational Behaviour - Nature Of Management
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