‘Objectives’ are the end points of management action. They provide meaning to the existence of an organisation.
Nature of Objectives
‘Objectives’ are the end points of management
action. They provide meaning to the
existence of an organisation. Objectives are the specific targets to be
achieved by an organisation. They are the end-points towards which all
management activities like organising, staffing, directing and controlling are
directed. In other words, only after defining the basic objectives for which an
organisation exists, can the manager determine the kind of organisation, the
type of personnel and their skills, the kind of motivation and direction and
the nature of control techniques which may be employed to achieve the ends.
Objectives may be in quantitative or qualitative terms. For example, in the areas of
market standing, productivity and physical and financial resources
quantification is possible. On the other hand, worker’s morale, social
responsibility, etc. cannot exactly quantified. However, objectives in the
latter category may be expressed in qualitative terms. Thus, quantitative
objectives are gauged by ‘how much’ while qualitative objectives by ‘how well’.
Objectives have hierarchy in that
objectives which have wider scope and
are relevant for the whole organisation are known as enterprise objectives.
These objectives are split into unit level or departmental objectives. Thus,
objectives at all levels in the organisation are interrelated and form a
network.
Short-term and Long-term Objectives: Short-term
objectives are those which are
sought to be achieved by the organisation in the immediate future, while
long-term objectives are those which are aimed to be achieved over a longer
period, say five to ten years or even more. However, both are not mutually
exclusive and are interrelated.
Objectives sometimes may be in conflict with each other as the goals of the various
departments at times may clash. Each department considers that its goals are
more important. For example, the production goal of low unit cost achievable
through mass production may be in conflict with the sales goal of offering high
quality goods. Such conflicts have to be resolved amicably.
Tags : Management Concepts & Organisational Behaviour - MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES
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