Objective: The objectives of this lesson are to enable to define management; to
describe the nature and scope of management; to know the
difference between management and administration; to understand
various levels of management; and to describe the various skills that
are necessary for successful managers.
Lesson Structure:
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Definition of Management
1.3 Characteristics of Management
1.4 Management Functions/ the Process of Management
1.5 Nature of Management
1.6 Management Vs. Administration
1.7 Levels of Management
1.8 Managerial Skills
1.9 The Manager and his job
1.10 Principles of Management
1.11 Significance of Management
1.12 Summary
,1.13 Self Assessment Questions
1.14 Suggested Readings
,1.1 INTRODUCTION
A business develops in course of time with complexities. With
increasing complexities managing the business has become a
difficult task. The need of existence of management has increased
tremendously. Management is essential not only for business
concerns but also for banks, schools, colleges, hospitals, hotels,
religious bodies, charitable trusts etc. Every business unit has
some objectives of its own. These objectives can be achieved with
the coordinated efforts of several personnel. The work of a
number of persons are properly co-ordinated to achieve the
objectives through the process of management is not a matter of
pressing a button, pulling a lever, issuing orders, scanning profit
and loss statements, promulgating rules and regulations. Rather it
is the power to determine what shall happen to the personalities
and happiness of entire people, the power to shape the destiny of a
nation and of all the nations which make up the world." Peter F.
Drucker has stated in his famous book "The Practice of
Management" that, "the emergence of management as an essential,
a distinct and leading social institution is a pivotal event in social
history. Rarely in human history has a new institution proved
indispensable so quickly and even less often as a new institution
arrived with so little opposition, so little disturbance and so little
controversy?"
Management is a vital aspect of the economic life of man, which is an
organised group activity. It is considered as the indispensable institution in
the modern social organization marked by scientific thought and
technological innovations. One or the other form of management is
essential wherever human efforts are to be undertaken collectively to satisfy
wants through some productive activity, occupation or profession.
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, It is management that regulates man's productive activities through
coordinated use of material resources. Without the leadership provided by
management, the resources of production remain resources and never
become production.
Management is the integrating force in all organized activity. Whenever
two or more people work together to attain a common objective, they have
to coordinate their activities. They also have to organize and utilize their
resources in such a way as to optimize the results. Not only in business
enterprises where costs and revenues can be ascertained accurately and
objectively but also in service organizations such as government, hospitals,
schools, clubs, etc., scarce resources including men, machines, materials
and money have to be integrated in a productive relationship, and utilized
efficiently towards the achievement of their gals. Thus, management is not
unique to business organizations but common to all kinds of social
organizations.
Management has achieved an enviable importance in recent times. We are
all intimately associated with many kinds of organizations, the most
omnipresent being the government, the school and the hospital. In fact,
more and more of major social tasks are being organized on an institution
basis. Medical care, education, recreation, irrigation, lighting, sanitation,
etc., which typically used to be the concern of the individual or the family,
are now the domain of large organizations. Although, organizations other
than business do not speak of management, they all need management. It is
the specific organ of all kinds of organizations since they all need to utilize
their limited resources most efficiently and effectively for the achievement
of their goals. It is the most vital forces in the successful performance of all
kinds of organized social activities.
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