Fundamentals of Management

1. What is Management?
2. Key Management functions: Planning, Organizing,
Staffing, Directing and Controlling.
3. Levels of Management/ Management Hierarchy/ Chain of
Command.
4. Management Roles.
5. Core Management Skills.

1. What is Management?

“Management is the art of getting things done through people.”

– Mary Parker Follett
Management Scholar & Theorist.

Management:
A set of activities (planning, organizing, leading and controlling)
directed at an organization’s resources (human, financial, physical and
information) with the aim of achieving organizational goals in an
efficient and effective manner.

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Objective: Specific results or targets to be reached by a certain time.
Objectives are specific.

Goal: A broadly stated guideline that an organization or an

individual is attempting to achieve.
E.g. A university student’s goal may be to earn a degree in business
administration. An objective would be to earn a bachelor’s degree in
business administration by June 2006 with an overall grade point
average of at least 3.5.

2. Key Management Functions.

Management Theorists have identified five primary functions of

managers. These functions are:
1. Planning: The
management function of
establishing objectives and
developing plans to
accomplish them.

Planning essentially means

deciding in advance what is
to be done. Of course, plans

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 alone do not bring about desired results; but without a plan and a
set of objectives, managerial actions are likely to produce
confusion.

2. Organizing: The management function of grouping people

and assignments to carryout job tasks and the mission.

3. Staffing: The management function of selecting, placing,

training, developing, and compensating subordinates. A
manager’s staffing activities also include the evaluation and
appraisal of performance.
4. Directing: The management function of initiating action –
issuing directives, assignments and instruction. Directing also
means building an effective group of subordinates who are
motivated to perform. It means getting subordinates to work to
accomplish objectives. Directing can be accomplished through
leadership.
Leadership: The process of influencing the activities of an
individual or group toward the accomplishing objectives.
Leadership may be Autocratic, democratic or laissez-faire.
Types of leadership:
a) Autocratic:
 Close suppression.
 Manager delegates as little authority as possible.

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  Manager provides detailed instruction.
b) Democratic:
 General suppression.
 Manager consults with subordinates about job-related
issues.
c) Laissez Faire:
 Free-rein (complete freedom); Manager exists as a
contact person who provides information and guidance.
 Manager avoids power and responsibility by giving
assignments and support but staying out of the group’s
way (may be appropriate when the manager have little
knowledge of that certain field; e.g. business graduate
managing a team of engineers).

5. Controlling: The managerial function of checking to

determine whether employees are following plans and progress is
being made, and of taking action to reduce discrepancies. The
core idea of control is to modify behavior and performance when
deviations from plans are discovered. Controlling is concerned
with making certain that plans are correctly implemented.
The process of controlling has four steps:
1. Set standards for time, quality, quantity and so on.
2. Measure performance (results).

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 3. Compare performance to standards.
4. Make necessary modifications.

3. Levels of Management.

Three (3) distinct levels of management – Executive, Middle, and

First line – are usually portrayed as a Managerial Hierarchy. This
hierarchy depicts what is called a Chain of Command, or simply a
channel of communication, coordination, and control.
(a) Executive (What to do): Engaged in charting overall
mission, strategy, objectives of the business; e.g. President, CEO,
Partner, Vice-President, Director, Chancellor/ Vice-Chancellor.
(b) Middle Level (How to do): Receive the mission, Strategy,
objectives from top executive level and translate them into
specific action plans (for the first-line managers). They are a link
between the Executive level and the first-line level managers; e.g.
Plant Manager, Dean, Project Director, Regional Manager.
(c) First Line level (Just to do): Directly responsible for
coordinating the work of employees/ non-managers. They must
work with non-managers or employees and motivate them. They
are link between the Middle-level management and non-
managers; e.g. First-line supervisor, Product Manager,
Chairperson of Department.

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Operating employees: The non-managers in an organization who
perform specific tasks and usually manufacture a product or provide a
service for customers.

4. Managerial Roles.

Role: A set of expected behaviors. (E.g. Student, Teacher, Father,

Bother, etc. The person who has the role of a father, is expected to be
kind, understanding, helpful, and a good example to his child etc)
A manager has three (3) major roles to perform:
(I.) Interpersonal.
(II.) Informational.
(III.) Decisional.

5. Core Management Skills.

Management skill: The ability to use knowledge, behaviors, and

aptitudes to perform a task.

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According to Robert Katz, any manager who wants to become a
successful manager in managing his/her organization must possess the
following three (3) core management skills:
I. Technical Skills: Skills involved in making a product or
providing a service.
II. Human Relations Skills: The ability to relate and interact
with subordinates, peers, superiors and customers or clients.
III. Conceptual Skills: The ability to organize and integrate
information to better understand the organization as a whole.

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Studies of Management Skills: Various research results point to four (4) core management skills that
may help anyone to learn, practice, and become proficient in to be a successful manager.
Core Management Skills and Their Characteristics [Table 7.5: Page 244]
1. Decision-Making/ 2. 3. Interpersonal 4. Objective/ Goal-Setting
Problem Solving Communication
Identifies problems. Writes clearly and Shows empathy. Establishes meaningful,
concisely. challenging, and clear objectives.
Creates feasible alternatives. Speaks Uses power and Sets priorities.
effectively. influence fairly.
Selects an optimal Listens carefully. Projects a positive Evaluates success of objectives/
alternative. image to others. goals as standards to establish
reward program.
Makes decisions under risk Has computer Behaves ethically.
and/ or uncertainty. skills.
Evaluates alternatives used to Resolves conflict.
solve problems.