Nature of Business Activity

Business as an activity can be divided into :

·        People demanding goods and services. These are the consumers (involved in consumption);

·    People involved in obtaining, arranging and transforming basic materials into finished products. These are the producers (involved in production);

·      People who are not in the above categories are those involved in distributing (distribution) the products to consumers and others. They also can include those involved in providing financial services (e.g. financial institutions).

Business organizations can be classified by the level of activity, by sector, or by legal structure.

Classification by Level of Activity

·   Primary : firms involved in the first stages of productions. These are the extractive industries (e.g. quarrying, mining, agriculture).

·      Secondary : this second stage of production in manufacturing. All manufactured goods are included, e.g. capital or investments goods (plant, buildings, machine tools), durable, consumer goods (e.g. cars, washing machines) or non-durable goods (e.g. food, clothing).

·    Tertiary : firms providing service, e.g. education and others services such as banking, insurance and catering).

Classification by Sector

This is quite simply business into private or public areas.

·        The private sector includes all firms whose ownership is by private enterprise

·        The public sector includes business which is controlled by government. It is worth noting that the public sector may change with different political parties in power.

The government has a part shareholding in some firms and there has been constant changes in those that re under public ownership.

It is obvious that primary, secondary and tertiary activities are all needed efficient production and exchange is needed at both national and international levels in order to raise the standard of living of all in society. There are various types or organization, ownership and control and these may change from time to time as society tries to find the “best” or “optimum” way of fulfilling its needs.

Classification by Legal Structure

The term legal person can refer to any person who can certain legal rights and who has certain legal duties.

·    A sole trader is the most prevalent and simplest form or organization. The owner has complete control and alone in responsible for any debt incurred and has unlimited liability for the business.

·    Partnerships are formed by individual combining and each person becomes partner. This may be to bring in new capital or expertise. These are usually a business unit.

Excellence in Management

Characteristics of Excellent Management were identified and it’s come from organizations which remained increasingly productive and internationally competitive. These organization :

·  Had a bias for action : organizations which were keen on experimenting and implementing decisions quickly;

·   Learned about the needs of their customers : many of organizations which were deemed innovative obtained ideas for good products from their customers by listening carefully and regularly;

·  Promoted entrepreneurship and management autonomy : these organizations encouraged practical risk-talking and supported good attempts at creativity;

·  Obtained productivity by paying close attention to the needs of their staff : every individual on the staff is regarded as important and a sources of quality and productivity gain;

·   Were encourage by the philosophy of their organization’s leaders;

·   Concentrated on the business they knew best : excellent performance seemed to favour organizations which stayed reasonably close to the business they knew how to run best;

·    Had an organization structure that was simple with a “lean” staff : the  structural forms and systems of successful companies were simple with a small number of top-level staff and an absence of matrix structures;

·  Were organized in a centralized or decentralized manner, whichever was appropriate: this involved combining firm central direction with maximum individual autonomy.

It can be seen that the above attribute are characteristic of management activities, skills and functions which are helped in managing companies in a competitive environment.

Management may be defined as a process whereby scarce resources (human, material and financial) are combined to achieve organizational goals. Without Management, people would pursue their own objectives independently and this would lead to waste and inefficiency. Management s therefore needed to reach objectives, maintain a balance between conflicting a goals and achieve efficiency and effectiveness.

The basic element of management may be defined as planning, organizing, directing, controlling, and coordinating. There are many either ways of organizing managerial knowledge, for example by examining what managers do, or what skills they need.

Management is both an art and a science. Applying knowledge of the management process effectively requires good judgement. Managers must serve many groups, including owners, employees, customers, governments, the community and society in general. These groups make the managerial task more complex.

Office Mac Home and Student 2011 - 1PC/1User [Download]

Time Management

Management: A Practical Introduction

Organization efficiency is impaired if managers are poorly organized. A major aspect of efficiency is the effective management of time. A well organized manager who makes good use of the time available can ensure objectives are successfully achieved.

Important issues in Time Management

Nature of Job

·     A person whose job involved regular contacts with others is more likely to be interrupted than persons working in a more solitary area.

·    Those people working in an established area will have relatively fewer unpredictable events to deal with than a person employed in a new and developing area of work.

·      Identifying the key tasks and responsibilities in a job will show which should be given the greatest amount of a manager’s time.

·        A detailed diary of time on activities in a given period of time is an easy way of finding out how time is spent and the nature of interruptions allowed. Time is often lost in unnecessary meetings and in traveling to meetings. It is worth exploring newer methods of communication to overcome the waste of time at meetings.

Personal attributes of job holder

·     The personality and amount of self-confidence someone has can have a marked effect on their efficiency. The more self-assured and assertive individual can deal more effectively with people who encroach on their time. Some people can only deal with one item at a time; others can deal with several simultaneously. Some like to delegate work extensively, others prefer to keep jobs to themselves.

The context of person’s job

·      The natures of the people working with a manager greatly influence the use of his time. A person’s boss, for example, could constantly interrupt his work. Some managers adopt an “open door” policy, which, while generally recommended, can affect personal work efficiency. Others adopt an approach discouraging informal contacts. The extent to which accuracy and quality of work is deemed vital can also have  an effect on time taken over the work involved.

·       The demands and constrains of any job can be examined by considering the following :

o       Demands

The essential items which cannot be passed on. They come from subordinates, peers, senior staff and people outside the organization.

o       Constrains

Items stopping a person from carrying out a job in the way they would prefer. These are usually the resources available, the limitations of equipment, physical location, the policies and procedures of the organization, legal rules and attitudes of other people.

·   When all demands and constrains have been identified, a manager is faced with choices which refer to what and how the work is to be done. A detailed analysis of a person’s job can identify what choices a manager is making and how the range can be extended to give more positive control over choices.

The Manager Today

The nature of the manager’s task has produced many ideas. The manager in fact takes on a wider range of roles in pursuing the objectives of the organization.

Many persons have responsibility in an organization. But managers also are held accountable for the work of others as well as their own. This additional feature can cause concern, in that control of this may not be so easy. A manager may not have time to check everything others do, so there is an element of risk here :

1.      A manager assumes responsibility to see that work is done effectively.

2.      He must balance competing goals and needs, which require resources which are limited. A balance between the goals and needs of departments and individuals is needed and priorities have to be established.

3.      A manager works with and through other people at every level in an organization in striving towards goals.

4.      He is also :

-. a mediator of disputes which may affect morale and productivity

-. a politician, using persuasion and compromise to promote organizational goals

-. a diplomat, representing the company at meetings within and outside the firm.

There are many other roles of a manager. A manager must be flexible to change roles approximately to be truly effective.

A manager’s responsibilities require performance to be both efficient and effective.

The important points that although efficiency is important, effectiveness is vital (i.e. the ability to choose appropriate objectives or means to achieve an objective). Efficient production of large cars may not be effective when the market needs are all for small cars. The pertinent question is not how to do things right, but how to find the right things to do and to concentrate, resources and efforts on them.

There are limitations inevitably placed on a manager’s ability to perform efficiently or effectively, e.g. a firm may limit a manager in his handling of subordinates or what he can do in hiring or motivating them, or his leadership style maybe in conflict with the current style in the organization.

·        Technical skill of manager

Ability to use tools, procedures and techniques in a specialized area.

·        Human skill of manager

Ability to work with and understand and motivate people as individuals or groups.

·        Conceptual skill of manager

Mental ability to coordinate and integrated all of an organization’s activities, especially in the long-term decisions affecting the organization. In additional, conceptual skills are needed to see the organization as a whole and recognized how the various factors in a situation are interrelated so actions taken are in the best interest of the organization.

Human skills and technical skills are more important at a lower level, where more manager-subordinate interactions occur. Conceptual skills are needed at all level of management, but the nearer to top management positions, the more time is needed to devote to conceptual skills.

Manager interpersonal roles and Manager informative roles

A manager’s interpersonal roles include that of a figurehead, performing ceremonial duties, e.g. receiving visitors. He/she also has a leader role, e.g. hiring, training, motivating staff, and a liaison role dealing with others outside the organization, e.g. clients and suppliers.

A manager’s informational roles include monitoring and disseminating information obtained in numerous ways. As a company representative, he/she transmits some information to others outside his/her area or organization. An important part of this work is to keep superiors well informed.

A manager’s decisional roles can be of four types :

-. As an entrepreneur – to launch a new idea;

-. As a disturbance handler, e.g. of strikes;

-. As resource allocator – choosing from among competing demands for money, equipment, personnel and management time;

-. As a negotiator, e.g. g=drawing up contract with suppliers. Managers have information and authority, therefore they maybe heavily engage in negotiation.

The real effect that should be highlights is the changing, uncertain environment in which the manager operates. Many things occur which cannot be predicted or controlled. The manager has little time to reflect and must cope with numerous challenges each day.

So although the function of planning, organizing, decision making, etc., are useful in analyzing the work of the manager, the work is more involved than this.

Manager’s jobs are complicated and difficult. They cannot easily delegate, as they keep most of the important information in their heads because it comes to them mainly in verbal form.

Today pressures are becoming greater and they now need to respond not just to owners and directors, but to subordinates, to consumer groups and outside agencies.

Elements of Management

Whichever way one defines management, a biased approach is of no service to anyone. Too much emphasis on one element does not helps to make the subject any easier to understand.

We have seen that the economy system is a complex of activities and these must form the background of management. The goods and services consumers need must be supplied and means by which they can purchase these must be provided. Management’s role must therefore be to promote this in the most efficient manner, by combining factors of production and distribution and directing the efforts of the people concerned to the given purpose.

No matter what type of enterprise (e.g. highly centralized government departments or nationalized industries or commercial concerns) the progress of management is fundamentally the same. Enterprises need plans, direction and control and these will not function without effective organization.

These elements, planning, directing, controlling and organizing, are often called “function”. The use of this word will be confined to the specialist departmental groupings, e.g. production, marketing, finance, etc.

Emphasis on these elements will vary according to the size of the enterprises. Although external environmental conditions affect management policy, these cannot be changed. Internal environmental condition can be moulded to enable the objectives to be attained and this, the provision of a suitable environment, is part of the job of management. A manager must first of all plan the work for his subordinates, organize them effectively, seeing that they are selected and trained wisely, direct their work and measure results.

Below are the various classifications of the element of management :

-. Planning

Referred to forecasting future circumstances and requirements, deciding objectives, making long-term and short-term plan, determining policies to be followed and the standard to be set.

-. Organizing

Involved determining and noting activities needed to achieve the objectives of the undertaking, grouping there and assigning such groups of activities to managers, ensuring effective delegation of authority to enable activities to be carried out and providing co-ordination of authority relationships.

Staffing involved having people in position needed in the organization structure, this needs the defining of the personnel requirements for each job, appraising and selecting candidates, training and developing them.

-. Direction

Involved guiding and supervising subordinates. These subordinates must be orientated into the undertaking’s ways, guided towards improved performance and motivated to work effectively towards enterprises goals.

- Controlling

The activity involved checking to see that plans have been carried out and attending to any deviations. Performance should be measured and deviations from plans corrected or accounted for. It is preferable that someone should be responsible for variation as control of people ensures the control of materials.

-. Coordinating

Coordinating involved seeing that all groups and persons work effectively and economically, in harmony, towards the common objective.

Management – A universal Process ?

It was previously noted that a suitable environment is desirable in order to apply the principles of management effectively. Environment differs, and it has to be considered whether management problems vary with the environment and whether management skills can be effectively transferred.

A point worth further though is that privately owned can capitalistic enterprises, which have reasonable freedom from government control and influence, managers are free to make the basic decisions necessary for profitable operations and where the risk of wrong decisions is accepted by owners and management.

The profit motive and free competition make up the system now largely in operation. It can be realized that, where government influence increases, managers are less free to make decisions and many principles may be affected.

If one agrees that management is a universal process, i.e. a fundamental process with universal characteristics and principles, if appears that management skills are transferable, and a manager can successfully apply his knowledge and skill in a wide-variety of industries. It implies that general principles are at work and that detailed specialist work in the various businesses can later be absorbed. It then appears to follow that all types or organization can benefit from such universality, even non-profit-making concerns.

From the opposite view, management skill and experience, as such, cannot be applied to the running of different institutions, as the main objective of business is profit, consistent with its security and stability. This differs from a non-business organization, whose officers do not have the responsibility for producing goods and services or maintaining wealth-producing resources.

Management – A Profession ?

Management – A Profession ?

In recent years there has been further consideration as to whether management can be regarded as a profession. The conflicting arguments can be considered only if a profession is defined. The following main points seem relevant in the discussion:

-. There must exist a body of principles, skills and techniques and specialized knowledge;

-. There must be formal methods of acquiring training and experience;

-. An organization should be established which forms ethical codes for the guidance and conduct of member.

If the above standards are considered, then management cannot really be called a profession. There are no licences for managers, nor is there an accepted code of ethics, but there are tendencies toward professionalization and these will undoubtedly increase.

At present, there are trends towards professionalism, seem in the development of skills and techniques, more formal training, facilities and greater use of management consultants and specialized associations.

There have been attempts in a number of countries to specify codes of conduct for managers.

Managers have to balance their obligations to the undertaking which employs them with the community at large, with other employees, suppliers, consumers, and their own conscience.

Because of the growing professionalism of managers, there is a need for such a code of conduct.

Briefly details are noted below :

-. To act loyally and honestly in carrying out the policy of the organization and not undermine its image or reputation;

-. To accept responsibility for their own work and that of their subordinates;

-. Not to abuse their authority for personal gain;

-. Not to injure or attempt to injure the professional reputation, prospects or business of others;

-. To order their conduct so as to uphold the dignity, standing and reputation of the Company.

Other points refer to dealing honestly with the public, promoting the increase in competence and the standing of the profession of management, and recognizing that the organizing has obligations to owners, employees, suppliers, customers, users and the general public.

Guides to good practice include :

-. Establishing objectives for themselves and their subordinates which do not conflict with the organization’s overall objectives;

-. Respecting confidentially of information and not using it for personal gain.

Other points refer to helping and training subordinates, ensuring their safety and well-being, honouring contracts to customers and suppliers, ensuring correct information is produced, not tolerating any corrupt practices, and finally to setting up a disciplinary to implement the code of conduct.

Management : Science or Art ?

The development of any science needs a conceptual framework of theory and principle. Principles of management have existed for along time, but an acceptable framework to encompass them was needed. A large debt is due to the many writers and researchers who have contributed a great deal to existing principles and accepted practices. It is in the formulation of principles that the science of management can be developed. A management principle distils and organizes knowledge that has been built up through experience and analysis. Management is far from being an exact science at present but, by understanding and applying accepted principles, the quality of management practice can be greatly improved. It is most probable that management will never become wholly and exact science as personal judgement will always be needed to supplement available knowledge; therefore, as a practice, management will always be an art.

In the natural science, a theoretical principle is deduced from particular facts which are applicable to a defined group or class and is expressed by a statement that a certain happening always occurs if certain conditions are present. Management principles are not fundamental truths, they are conditional statements qualified by adverbs, e.g. usually, normally, etc.

It is worthwhile looking briefly at the nature of the two methods of reasoning, deductive and inductive.

Deductive method

The deductive method reasons from the general to the particular, i.e. from the attributes of a class it will deduce the attribute of an individual member of that class. The following example of deductive reasoning illustrated that if certain facts are admitted as true, then such a thing must be true about the particular case in question, for if it were not so, it would be inconsistent with the fact already admitted as true.

It does mean that premises should be carefully tested before any inference is made from them.

            1^st premise – All men are mortal

            2^nd premise – Wilson is a man

            Deduction from these premises – Wilson is mortal

If the deduction is made from false premises, the conclusion are worthless – for example :

            All good sailors have beards

            Robinson is a good sailor

            Therefore he has a beard

Inductive method

The inductive method is the opposite of the deductive.

It starts by collecting facts relating to a given point, these facts emerging from observations. Then a statement or premise is proposed which is true of all cases observed. For example if, by observation, a number of men – Wilson, Robinson, Smith, Brown – a discovered to be mortal, we can have confidence in this premise, if  a sufficient number of cases have been examined under a variety of circumstances, to see if any conflicting case was noted. A generalization is then built up, or reasoned, regarding the cases in the light of the observed characteristic, e.g. each of the cases examined was a man and therefore all men are mortal. This generalization is no more that hypothesis, the product of inductive thinking, which must now be proved. When the hypothesis is tested and no conflicting case found, then a law is formulated and this is used to control the present or to predict the future.

Scientific method can be applied to management, for example: the method of inductive thinking can be applied to policy making when work is measurable.

Observations leads to objective examination of present practices; analysis breaks them down and studies them; classification means comparing them with basic principles and the resultant hypothesis will be an improved new method or practice. A trial run or test will be critically examined and only then accepted and a law formulated.

It can be applied in the management of people, by studying the human factor and observing principles of human relations. This is an important area especially in relation to motivation and co-ordination.

It can also apply to the manager himself, in developing a scientific attitude of mind toward his problems and the making of his decisions.

Administration and Management

Administration is sometimes use to refer to the activities of the higher level of the management group who determine major aims and policies. This can be called the broader use of the term which is often used in government department (e.g. the Civil Service). It is also used in the narrower sense, of controlling the day-to-day running of the enterprise.

An administrator can also be a manager, this occurs when the administrator in concerned with implementing policy in dealing with employees to whom responsibilities have been delegated.

Administrative can be defines as : that part of the management process concerned with the institution and carrying out of procedures by which the programmed is laid down and communicated, and the progress of activities is regulated and checked against targets and plans.

Management has even more meanings that administration.

Management can mean :

-. A process by which scarce resources are combined to achieve given ends. This describes an activity which can be better described by the word managing.

-. The management referring to those people carrying out the activity. This should really be the managers.

-. The body of knowledge about the activity of managing, regarded have as special field of study, i.e. a profession.

Of these three above, the first is preferable, management referring to the process of management/

A useful approach is o consider management to be a process whereby a suitable environment is created for effort to be organized to accomplish desired goals.

Management can be defines as : a social process entailing responsibility  for the effective and economical planning and regulation of the operations of an enterprise, in fulfillment of a given purpose or task, such responsibility involving :

-. Judgment and decision in determining plans, and the development of data procedures to assist control of performance and progress against plans, and

-. The guidance, integration, motivation and supervision of the personnel composing the enterprise and carrying out its operations.

It can be seen from the above that the process as a whole is called management – administration being part of it.

The term top management usually refers to management above departmental level and is loosely applied to directors.

The word executive is correctly used when referring to a person who carries out policy.

Organization

There is really no doubt the present meaning of organization. Its purpose is to create an arrangement of position and responsibilities through and by means of which an enterprise can carry out its work.

Organization can be defines as: the frame work of the management process as formed by:

-. The responsibilities by means of which the activities of the enterprise are dispersed among the (managerial, supervisory and specialist) personnel employed in its service.

-. The formal interrelations established among the personnel by virtue of such responsibilities.

It should be noted that organization should not be regarded as rigid as the term “framework” implies. Organization structure must be constantly reviewed and note takes of informal relationships which develop.

Microsoft Office Home and Business 2013  (1PC/1User) [Download]

Management

Management

There have been many attempts to describe the contents of the “job” of management. It has been considered to be a separate activity from the technical functions of production, marketing and finance. Various economists separated it from factors of production (land, labour and capital).

In recent years, management deals with a number of variable that are dependent upon each other. These variables will surely increase as companies grow more complex and it will then become more difficult to trace the side-effects of a change in dealing with a specific area of management responsibility.

There are many problems to be solved. Some people try to solve them by considering changes in the structure of organization and the locations of authority and responsibility. Others hope to do it by improving the quality of decisions by new technological ideas and the use of modern methods of data processing. Yet another group expects to solve the same problems by concentrating on human relations. The vital point to be considered is that the structural, technological and human aspects cannot be separated as they all interact. For example, if a firm changes from a functional to a product grouping, problems of interpersonal relations occur. This may in turn affect the techniques of control (i.e. new financial systems may be needed). A knowledge of the above fact should enable a manager to understand that it may not be easy to find a simple answer to a problem but, by acknowledging this fact and using available knowledge wisely, answers can be much more accurate and effective.