1. Henri Fayol’ definition of the manager’s role. Modern views on the problem.

2. Peter Drucker’s theory of the manager’s role.

3. Managers’ functions at different levels of organizations.

4. Modern views on managers’ skills and qualities.

5. Frederick W. Taylor’s approach to management.

6. Advantages and disadvantages of the theory of Scientific Management.

7. Flexitime scheme and its advantages and disadvantages.

8. The Quality of Working Life movement, its creator and his experiments.

9. The Quality of Working Life movement, its principles.

10. The Open Door policy, its advantages and disadvantages.

11. The types of decisions.

12. Decision-making process.

13. The main stages of strategic planning.

14. Making SWOT-analysis.

15. MBO program.

16. The benefits of MBO for subordinates, managers and companies.

17. The system used to manage the time effectively.

18. Management of time, actual problems.

19. X & Y theories of motivation.

20. Expectancy theory of motivation.

21. Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation.

22. Frederick Herzberg’s ‘two-factor’ theory of motivation.

23. The aim of performance appraisal.

24. Methods of evaluating a person’s performance.

25. Employees’ and managers’ views on appraisal system.

26. Definitions of leadership.

27. A trait-approach to leadership.

28. Fred Fiedler’s two-style approach to leadership.

29. Effective leadership and organisations’ success.

30. Problems of communications and how to deal with them.

1. Henry Fayol: definition of the managing role. Plus Modern views.

Henry Fayol was a French mining engineer and director of mines. Nowadays, managers all around the world name him a key figure in the classical school of management. As the founder of the classical management school he attempted to identify principles and skills that underlie effective management.

Fayol’s approach recognized the advantages of division of labour and sought ways to make it most effective. It stressed the importance of a hierarchical organizational structure. The emphasis was on the exact definition of tasks and the relationships between them. According to Fayol control would be achieved through an authoritarian style and the use of authority. The greatest contribution made by this school of thought was a suggest that management is a set of skills which may be taught.

Furthermore, Fayol made 4 major contributions to management theory:

1. He distinguished managers and supervisors at the operating level of organizations.

2. He developed 14 principles of management which are used by many companies even today. This principles are: 1) division of working; 2) authority; 3) discipline; 4) unity of command; 5) unity of direction; 6) subordination of individual interest; 7) remuneration; 8) centralization/decentralization; 9) scalar chain; 10) order; 11) equity; 12) stability of tenure of personnel; 13) initiative; 14) esprit de cords.

3. Fayol maintained that flexibility was needed in applying his principles, and that manager could learn to manage.

4. Also he created the theory which then come named Fayolism. Fayolism is one of the first comprehensive statements of a general theory of management, developed by Favol. He has proposed that there are 5 primary functions of management: 1) planning; 2) organizing; 3) commanding; 4) coordinating; 5) controlling. This functions which define the manager’s role are still accepted by many people today, though some writers on management have modified Fayol’s description. Instead of talking about commanding, they say a manager must motivate or direct and lead other workers.

2. P. Drucker’s theory of the manager’s role.

Peter Drucker is called “the greatest management thinker of the century” as well as “the creator and inventor of the modern management”. He was the first to assert that workers should be treated as assets not as liabilities to be eliminated, he originated the view of a corporation as a human community and it was he who first made clear that there is no business without a customer, which seems pretty obvious nowadays but was a huge step forward those days. He has spelled out what managers do. In his opinion, managers perform five basic operations.

Firstly, managers set objectives. They decide what these should be and how the organization can achieve them. For this task, they need analytical ability.

Secondly, managers organize. They must decide how the resources of the company are to be used, how the work is to be classified and divided. Furthermore, they must select people for the jobs to be done. For this they not only need analytical ability but also understanding of human beings.

Their third task is to motivate and communicate effectively. They must be able to get people to work as a team, and to be as productive as possible. To do this, they will be communicating effectively with all levels of the organization – their superiors, colleagues, and subordinates. To succeed in this task, managers need social skills.

The fourth activity is measurement. Having set targets and standards, managers have to measure the performance of the organization, and of its staff, in relation to those targets. Measuring requires analytical ability.

Finally, Peter Drucker says that managers develop people, including themselves. They help to make people more productive, and to grow as human beings. They make them bigger and richer persons.

In conclusion I want to say that in Peter Drucer’s view, successful managers are not necessarily people who are liked or who get on well with others. They are people who set high standards. Good managers need not be geniuses but must bring character to the job. They are people of integrity, who will look for that quality in others.