Wednesday, June 19, 2013

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.



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