19 Management

All organizations, whether small or large, have to be managed. Management means the planning, controlling, directing and coordinating of various ideas, activities and programs in order to achieve a stated objective. This means that there is a need for people with special abilities and skills.

The main responsibility of the senior managers of any business is decision-making. These decisions are connected with planning, organizing, directing and controlling the work to be done.

Planning has to be undertaken at all levels of management. An organization without proper plans is like a ship without a rudder.

Managers have to decide what to produce, how it should be produced, and for whom. This is at the centre of the planning process. The operation also involves:

1) estimating what resources will be needed,

2) considering what problems are likely to arise,

3) deciding how these can best be overcome.

Plans may be long-term or short-term, depending upon the time period they are designed to cover. Long-term plans are mainly concerned with the main broad objectives which a business or a department hopes ultimately to achieve. These plans take the form of either strategic or tactical plans.

Short-term plans are concerned with the specific activities necessary to achieve the long-term aims. They are usually operational plans prepared by departmental managers and senior supervisors. They set out in detail, for each department, the working plans for the immediate future.

The ultimate responsibility of management is to direct. This means making decisions and issuing the necessary commands through the management structure.

A business is usually divided into a number of departments, each being responsible for a specific range of work (such as production, finance, personnel, marketing). The structure of the departments and sub-departments can be shown in an organization chart. This shows the departments how they are related to each other, and the lines of communication between them.

Organization charts differ from personnel charts. These show the posts held by individuals, their job titles and, sometimes, the span of control. The charts, therefore, indicate how responsibilities are divided between different individuals, and who is responsible to whom.

Plans are pointless unless there is a periodic check — a control — on what is being achieved. Whereas planning is concerned with the future, control is concerned with the (immediate) past. Problems can arise at any point during the implementation of a plan. Furthermore, unless a specific check is made on them, they can go unnoticed for so long that they become impossible to remedy.

There are several different types of control. Some can be measured in specific quantity terms. With these, an actual figure proposed in the plan (often known as the budgeted or standard figure) can be compared with the figure actually achieved. For example, the planned quantity of raw material expected to be used, together with its anticipated cost, can be compared with the actual quantity used and the actual cost. Similarly, the standard (i.e. anticipated) wage rates and the time a job is expected to take can be compared with the actual.

Topical Vocabulary

management - управление

objective – цель, стремление

ability – способность, умение

undertake – предпринимать

rudder - руль

overcome - преодолеть

ultimately – в конечном счете

concern – заниматься, касаться

supervisor - контролер

set out - излагать

chart – схема, чертеж, таблица

span – промежуток времени, период времени

pointless - бессмысленный

implementation of a plan – выполнение плана

remedy – исправлять

anticipate – ожидать, предвидеть

wage – заработная плата

rate – норма, ставка. Тариф

Answer the questions:

1 What are the main functions of management?

2 What are the senior managers responsible for?

3 Who decides what to produce, how it should be produced, and for whom?

4 What are the long-term plans are concerned with?

5 What are the short-term plans concerned with?

6 What is a control?