INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 6: INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL MANAGEMENT
The role of management
• Management directs a business towards its goals.
• Without the input of managers, the resources of the business would not be channelled towards reaching its
goals.
Main causes of business failure
• Bad management/managerial incompetence
• Lack of managerial experience
• Lack of industry experience
• Lack of clear objectives
• Poor business planning
• Poor cash flow management
• Over expansion
• Poor marketing
• Poor business location
• Economic conditions
• Failure to adapt to a changing environment
• Inadequate pricing
• Poor human resource relations
• Failure to understand your market and customers
• Inadequate financing
• No feedback from customers
Management sets and keeps the operations of the business on a balanced course: a balance must be
maintained between the goals of the business, the resources it needs to realise those objectives, the
personal goals of the employees, and the interests of the owners.
Management is necessary to combine and direct the resources of different organisations so that each can
achieve its goals as efficiently or productively as possible.
Management keeps the organisation in equilibrium with its environment.
Management is necessary to reach the goals of the organisation at the highest possible level of productivity.
Management is defined, quite simply, as the process followed by managers to accomplish a business’s goals
and objectives. More precisely, management is a process of activities that are carried out to enable a
business to accomplish its goals by employing human, financial and physical resources for that purpose.
Management does four things: it decides what must be done; it decides how this should be done; it orders
that it be done; and, finally, it checks that its orders have been carried out.
, The following brief description of the fundamental management functions elucidates the concept of management
and the management process:
Planning
Determines the mission and goals of the business, including the ways in which the goals are to be reached in the
long term, and the resources needed for this task. It includes determining the future position of the business, and
guidelines or plans on how that position is to be reached.
Organising
The second step in the management process. After goals and plans have been determined, the human, financial and
physical resources of the business have to be allocated by management to the relevant departments or persons,
duties must be defined, and procedures fixed, to enable the business to reach its goals. Organising therefore
includes developing a framework or organisational structure to indicate how people, equipment and materials
should be employed to reach the predetermined goals. Because the goals and resources of different businesses
differ greatly, it makes sense that each must have an organisational structure suited to its own peculiar needs.
Leading
Entails directing the human resources of the business and motivating them. Leaders align the actions of
subordinates with the predetermined goals and plans. The part played by leadership in getting and keeping things
going in motivating and influencing staff through good communication and relations between management and
staff, and among staff, has a decisive effect on the culture prevailing in a business. Managers do not only give
orders. As leaders they collaborate with their superiors equals and subordinates as well as with individuals and
groups to reach the goals of the business
Controlling
Means that managers should constantly establish whether the business is on a proper course towards the
accomplishment of its goals. At the same time, control forces management to ensure that activities and
performance conform to the plans for reaching predetermined goals. Controlling also enables management to
detect any deviations from the plans and to correct them. It also obliges management constantly to reconsider its
goals and plans.
The different levels and functional areas of management in businesses
The different levels of management
Several levels of management may be identified. For the sake of convenience and ease of explanation, however,
only three levels – namely, top, middle and lower management – are represented.
Top management:
• comprises the relatively small group of executives who control the business and in whom the final authority
and responsibility for the execution of the management process rests – for example, the board of directors,
the partners,
• Top management is normally responsible for the business as a whole and for determining its mission and
goals. It is concerned mainly with long-term planning, with organising insofar as the broad business structure
is concerned, and with providing leadership and controlling the business by means of reports and audits.
• Top management also monitors the environment within which the organisation operates.
CHAPTER 6: INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL MANAGEMENT
The role of management
• Management directs a business towards its goals.
• Without the input of managers, the resources of the business would not be channelled towards reaching its
goals.
Main causes of business failure
• Bad management/managerial incompetence
• Lack of managerial experience
• Lack of industry experience
• Lack of clear objectives
• Poor business planning
• Poor cash flow management
• Over expansion
• Poor marketing
• Poor business location
• Economic conditions
• Failure to adapt to a changing environment
• Inadequate pricing
• Poor human resource relations
• Failure to understand your market and customers
• Inadequate financing
• No feedback from customers
Management sets and keeps the operations of the business on a balanced course: a balance must be
maintained between the goals of the business, the resources it needs to realise those objectives, the
personal goals of the employees, and the interests of the owners.
Management is necessary to combine and direct the resources of different organisations so that each can
achieve its goals as efficiently or productively as possible.
Management keeps the organisation in equilibrium with its environment.
Management is necessary to reach the goals of the organisation at the highest possible level of productivity.
Management is defined, quite simply, as the process followed by managers to accomplish a business’s goals
and objectives. More precisely, management is a process of activities that are carried out to enable a
business to accomplish its goals by employing human, financial and physical resources for that purpose.
Management does four things: it decides what must be done; it decides how this should be done; it orders
that it be done; and, finally, it checks that its orders have been carried out.
, The following brief description of the fundamental management functions elucidates the concept of management
and the management process:
Planning
Determines the mission and goals of the business, including the ways in which the goals are to be reached in the
long term, and the resources needed for this task. It includes determining the future position of the business, and
guidelines or plans on how that position is to be reached.
Organising
The second step in the management process. After goals and plans have been determined, the human, financial and
physical resources of the business have to be allocated by management to the relevant departments or persons,
duties must be defined, and procedures fixed, to enable the business to reach its goals. Organising therefore
includes developing a framework or organisational structure to indicate how people, equipment and materials
should be employed to reach the predetermined goals. Because the goals and resources of different businesses
differ greatly, it makes sense that each must have an organisational structure suited to its own peculiar needs.
Leading
Entails directing the human resources of the business and motivating them. Leaders align the actions of
subordinates with the predetermined goals and plans. The part played by leadership in getting and keeping things
going in motivating and influencing staff through good communication and relations between management and
staff, and among staff, has a decisive effect on the culture prevailing in a business. Managers do not only give
orders. As leaders they collaborate with their superiors equals and subordinates as well as with individuals and
groups to reach the goals of the business
Controlling
Means that managers should constantly establish whether the business is on a proper course towards the
accomplishment of its goals. At the same time, control forces management to ensure that activities and
performance conform to the plans for reaching predetermined goals. Controlling also enables management to
detect any deviations from the plans and to correct them. It also obliges management constantly to reconsider its
goals and plans.
The different levels and functional areas of management in businesses
The different levels of management
Several levels of management may be identified. For the sake of convenience and ease of explanation, however,
only three levels – namely, top, middle and lower management – are represented.
Top management:
• comprises the relatively small group of executives who control the business and in whom the final authority
and responsibility for the execution of the management process rests – for example, the board of directors,
the partners,
• Top management is normally responsible for the business as a whole and for determining its mission and
goals. It is concerned mainly with long-term planning, with organising insofar as the broad business structure
is concerned, and with providing leadership and controlling the business by means of reports and audits.
• Top management also monitors the environment within which the organisation operates.
