Introduction to Management

Taha Elhag – Turker Bayrak – Satesh Namasivayam

School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society
Heriot-Watt University
MEANING OF MANAGEMENT
Definitions of Management
• "Management is an art of knowing what is to be done
and seeing that it is done in the best possible manner."
(F.W. Taylor)
• "Management is to forecast and plan, to organize, to
command, to coordinate, and to control." (Henri Fayol)
• “Management is defined as the process by which a co-
operative group directs action towards common goals”
(Joseph Massie)
More Definitions
• "Management is the coordination of all resources
through the process of planning, organising, directing
and controlling in order to attain stated goals." (Henry
Sisk)
• "Management is a process of working with and through
others to achieve organizational objectives in a
changing environment, central to this purpose is the
effective and efficient use of limited resources." (Rovert
Kreitner)
Essential Features of Management
• Taking place within a structured organisational
setting with prescribed roles
• Directed towards the attainment of aim and
objectives
• Achieved through the efforts of other people;
and
• Using systems and procedures
Common Tasks of Management
• Planning
• Organising
• Commanding
• Coordinating
• Controlling

Some writers combine Commanding and Coordinating as Leading to

produce a POLC framework of management.
Planning
• Setting objectives and how to achieve them
– About the future.
– Different timeframe (long-term, medium-term,
short-term).
– Different levels (strategic, tactical,
operational).
– Uncertainties are inevitable.
– Plan needs to be reviewed.
Organising
• Organising resources to achieve business
goals
– Setting up organisation structure
– Deciding the flow of tasks
– Allocating human and capital resources
– Deciding line of command
Commanding
• Influencing people to work towards achieving
set objectives
– Directing staff
– Communicating with staff
– Negotiating with staff
– Motivating staff
Coordinating
• Unifying and harmonising all activities and effort
of the organisation to facilitate its working and
success.
Controlling
• Monitoring activities and taking corrective actions if
necessary
– Establishing performance standards or
benchmarks
– Determining methods of measuring performance
– Measuring actual performance
– Comparing performance to established
standards
– Taking corrective action when necessary and
regularly reviewing performance
Principles of Management
Henri Fayol established14 principles of management:
1. Division of work 8. The Degree of Centralization
2. Authority and responsibility 9. Scalar Chain
3. Discipline 10. Order
4. Unity of command 11. Equity
5. Unity of direction 12. Stability of Tenure of
6. Subordination of individual Personnel
interest 13. Initiative
7. Remuneration 14. Esprit de Corps
DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO
MANAGEMENT
 Adam Smith’s Contribution To The
Field Of Management
• Wrote the Wealth of Nations (1776)
– Advocated the economic advantages that
organizations and society would reap from
the division of labor:
• Increased productivity by increasing each
worker’s skill and ability.
• Time saved that is commonly lost in changing
tasks.
• The creation of labor-saving inventions and
machinery.
 The Industrial Revolution’s Influence On
Management Practices
• Industrial revolution
– Machine power began to substitute for human power
• Lead to mass production of economical goods
– Improved and less costly transportation systems
became available
• Created larger markets for goods.
– Larger organizations developed to serve larger
markets
• Created the need for formalized management practices.
Main Management Theories
Classical Approach to Management
• Including scientific management and bureaucracy
• Emphasis on purpose, formal structure, hierarchy of
management, technical requirements, and common
principles
• The belief is:
– There is a best machine for each job, so there is a best working
method by which people should undertake their jobs
– All job processes should be analysed into discrete tasks & via
this management find the ‘one best’ way to perform each task
Scientific Management (Taylorism or
Fordism)
• Emphasises organisational efficiency to increase
organizational success.
• Analyses each person’s work in a scientific way
• Scientific selection, training and development of the
workers
• Defines ways of co-operation between workers
• Clear division of work and responsibility
Criticism of Scientific Approach
• The main criticism of this approach is that each worker
only perform a single task, which can be very repetitive
and boring.
Bureaucracy – the Main Features
• Specialisation: every employee should perform a
single function
• Hierarchy of authority: Duties and responsibilities of
each job and its relationship to other jobs should be
clearly defined.
• System of rules: Operations and processes are
defined as rules.
• Impersonality: Little consideration for people who
perform the jobs.
Criticisms of Bureaucracy
• Over-emphasis on rules and procedures
• Initiatives may be stifled by inflexible rules
• Leads to typical inefficient bureaucratic
behaviour
• Impersonal relations
Criticisms of the classical approach
• Insufficient account taken of personality factors
• Creates organisational structures where people
can exercise only limited control over their work
environment
Human Relations Approach to
Management
• The behavioural approach to management is a
management approach that emphasises increasing
organizational success by focusing on human variables
within the organization.
Human Relations Approach
• Is based on the consideration of the social factors at
work and the behaviour of employees within an
organisation
• Particular importance is paid to the informal
organisation and the satisfaction of individuals’ needs
through groups at work
• Hawthorne experiments acted as a turning point in the
development of the Human Relations movement
Human Relations Approach – the
Criticisms
• The positivists assumptions were exposed, however, by modern
standards of social research the human relations approach at the
time was viewed to be methodologically questionable.
• In particular, it failed to take sufficient account of wider
environmental factors - context
• Insufficiently scientific!!!
• The Hawthorne experiments were, and still are, argued to lack
rigor
• For some, this approach was still overly pro-management and
output driven rather than a real emphasis on people and human
development – see humanists!
The Systems Approach
• Attempts to reconcile the classical (organisations without
people) and human relations approaches (people without
organisations)
• Balances the technical demands of a company alongside the
psychological and social needs of its employees
• Attention is focused on:
– the total work of the organisation
– the inter-relationships of structures & behaviour
– the range of variables within the organisation
• The organisation is viewed within its total environment and the
importance of multiple channels in interaction is emphasised
Systems Approach: Advantages and
Disadvantage
• Advantages
– Systematic analysis of problems and management solutions
– Revealing the complexity of management
– Encouraging integrated management solutions
• Disadvantages
– Over-conceptual
– Not specifying the nature of interactions between parts of a
system
– Difficult to apply to practical problems
The Contingency Approach
• Views the structure of an organisation and its
success as dependent on:
– the nature of tasks that are undertaken
– Organisation strategy
– Subordinates’ characteristics
– the nature of environmental influences
• There is no one best way to structure or
manage organisations - it is dependent on the
contingencies of the situation
Other Modern Approaches
• Management thinking is continuously evolving
• New business practices pose challenges to the
established management theories
• The emphasis for management today is to manage
continuous change against the background of a
dynamic environment
Learning Outcomes
• Students should understand the meaning and essential features of
management and its relevance to business practice
• Students should know the main tasks of management and their application
in a business management setting, such as managing construction
projects
• Students should have knowledge of the main management principles, as
suggested by Fayol;
• Student should gain knowledge of the different approaches to
management; and be able to compare the different approaches, including:
– Classical approach
– Human relations approach
– Systems approach
– Contingency approach