Module 1 Management

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT

Reading

1. Read the text and answer the question:

What does term ‘management’ mean?

What’s Management?

Management is the process of working with and through others to achieve organizational objectives in a changing environment. Ventral to this process is the effective and efficient use of limited resources.

Five components of this definition require closer examination: 1) working with and through others, 2) achieving organizational objectives, 3) balancing effectiveness and efficiency, 4) making the most of limited resources, and 5) coping with a changing environment.

Working With and Through Others. Management is, above all else, a social process. Many collective purposes bring individuals together – building cars, providing emergency health care, publishing books and so on. But in all cases, managers are responsible for getting things done by working with and through others.

Achieving Organizational Objectives. An objective is a target to be strived for and, one hopes, attained. Like individuals, organizations are usually more successful when their activities are guided by challenging, yet achievable, objectives. From an individual perspective, scheduling a course load becomes more systematic and efficient when a student sets an objective, such as graduating with a specific degree by a given date. Although personal objectives are typically within the reach of individual effort, organizational objectives or goals always require collective action. Organizational objectives serve as measuring sticks for performance. Without organizational objectives, the management process, like a trip without a specific destination, would be aimless and wasteful.

Balancing Effectiveness and Efficiency. Distinguishing between effectiveness and efficiency is much more than an exercise in semantics. The relation between these two terms is important, and it presents managers with a never-ending dilemma. Effectiveness entails promptly achieving a stated objective. Swinging a sledgehammer against the wall, for example, would be an effective way to kill a bothersome fly. But given the reality of limited resources, effectiveness alone is not enough. Efficiency enters the picture when the resources required to achieve an objective are weighed against what was actually accomplished. The more favorable the ratio of benefits to costs, the greater the efficiency. Although a sledgehammer is an effective tool for killing flies, it is highly inefficient when the wasted effort and smashed walls are taken into consideration. A fly swatter is both an effective and an efficient tool for killing a single housefly.

Managers are responsible for balancing effectiveness and efficiency. Too much emphasis in either direction leads to mismanagement. On the one hand, managers must be effective, although those who waste resources in the process flirt with bankruptcy. On the other hand, managers need to be efficient by containing costs as much as possible and conserving limited resources. But managers who are too stingy with resources may not get the job done.

Making the Most of Limited Resources. We live in a word of scarcity. Those who are concerned with such matters worry not only about running out of nonrenewable energy and material resources but also about the lopsided use of those resources.

Because of their common focus on resources, economics and management are closely related. Economics is the study of how limited resources are distributed among alternative uses. In productive organizations, managers are the trustees of limited resources, and it is their job to see that the basic factors of production – land, labor, and capital – are used efficiently as well as effectively. Managers could be called “applied economics”.

Coping With a Changing Environment. Successful managers are the ones who anticipate and adjust to changing circumstances rather than being passively swept along or caught unprepared. Employers today are hiring managers who can take unfamiliar situations in stride. Business Week recently served up this amusing but challenging profile of tomorrow’s managers: “the next generation of corporate leaders will need the charm of a debutante, the flexibility of a gymnast, and the quickness of a panther. A few foreign languages and a keen understanding of technology won’t be hurt either”. Also in the mix are a sense of humor, passion, and the ability to make fast decisions.