BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN MEDICAL

LABORATORY SCIENCE:
LABORATORY MANAGEMENT LECTURE
COURSE MODULE COURSE UNIT WEEK
1 2 2
Introduction to Management and Organizational System

 Read course and unit objectives

 Read study guide prior to online class
 Read required learning resources; refer to unit
terminologies for jargons
 Proactively participate in online discussions
 Participate in weekly discussion board (Canvas)
 Answer and submit course unit tasks

At the end of this unit, the students are expected to:

Cognitive:
1. Define correctly the different terms in laboratory management.
2. Explain completely the basic functions of management.
3. Differentiate clearly the four schools of management philosophies
4. Discuss extensively the appropriate strategies dealing with problems encountered in
laboratory operations.
5. Develop correctly the skills necessary for an effective laboratory manager
6. Apply correctly the MBO program in the local setting
Affective:
1. Inculcate importance of a reward system in organizations
2. Listen attentively during online discussions
3. Demonstrate tact and respect when challenging other people’s opinions and ideas
4. Accept comments and reactions of classmates on one’s opinions openly and graciously.

Psychomotor:
1. Participate actively during online discussions
2. Confidently express personal opinion and thoughts in discussion boards and online chats.

Daft, Richard L. Management 5th ed. Philippines: Thomson Learning, 2002

-10 points of the assessment task will be taken from this reading.

Garcia, Lynne S. Clinical Laboratory Management 2 nd ed. LSG and Associates, Santa Monica
California, 2014
-10 points of the assessment task will be taken from this reading.

Management
 is the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizational resources.

This definition holds two important ideas:

1. The four functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, and

2. The attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner. Let’s first take a look
at the four primary management functions. Later in the chapter, we’ll discuss organizational
effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the multitude of skills managers use to successfully
perform their jobs.

THE FOUR MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS

Planning- means identifying goals for future organizational performance and deciding on the tasks
and use of resources needed to attain them. In other words, managerial planning defines where
the organization wants to be in the future and how to get there.
Organizing- involves assigning tasks, grouping tasks into departments, delegating authority, and
allocating resources across the organization.

Leading- is the use of influence to motivate employees to achieve organizational goals. Leading
means creating a shared culture and values, communicating goals to employees throughout the
organization, and infusing employees with the desire to perform at a high level.

Controlling- means monitoring employees’ activities, determining whether the organization is on

target toward its goals, and making corrections as necessary.

ESSENTIAL MANAGEMENT THEORIES

1. System Theory- Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972)

is more a perspective than a fully formed practice. Systems Theory encourages you to
realize that your business is a system and is governed by the same laws and behaviors that affect
every other biological organization.

Introduces such concepts as:

Entropy — The tendency for a system to run down and die (a thing to be avoided in business)
Synergy — Working together, the parts can produce something greater than those same parts
could produce on their own
Subsystem — The whole (your business) is built on subsystems, which themselves are built on yet
more subsystems

2. Principles of Administrative Management- Miner and engineer Henri Fayol (1841-1925)

his principles of administrative management as a top-down approach to examining a
business. He put himself in his manager’s shoes and imagined what situations they might
encounter when dealing with their team.

From this, he concluded that his managers — and indeed management in general — had six
responsibilities when it came to managing employees:

 Organize
 Command
 Control
 Coordinate
 Plan
 Forecast

3. Bureaucratic Management- Max Weber (1864-1920)

took a more sociological approach when creating his bureaucratic management theory.
Weber’s ideas revolve around the importance of structuring your business in a hierarchical manner
with clear rules and roles.

According to Weber, the ideal business structure (or bureaucratic system) is based on:

 Clear division of labor

  Separation of the owner’s personal and organizational assets
 Hierarchical chain of command
 Accurate record keeping
 Hiring and promotion based on qualifications and performance, not personal relationships
 Consistent regulations

4. Scientific Management- Frederick Taylor (1856-1915)

promotes standardization, specialization, assignment based on ability, and extensive
training and supervision. Only through those practices can a business achieve efficiency and
productivity. This management theory attempts to find the optimal way to complete a given task,
often at the expense of the employees’ humanity.

5. Theories X and Y- Douglas McGregor (1906-1964)

 Theory X posits that employees are apathetic or dislike their work. Managers who adhere to
Theory X are often authoritarian and will micromanage everything because they don’t trust
their employees.
 Theory Y posits that employees are self-motivated, responsible, and want to take ownership
of their work. Managers who adhere to Theory Y include their employees in the decision-
making process and encourage creativity at all levels.

In practice, small businesses tend to operate on Theory Y while large businesses tend to operate
on Theory X.

6. Human Relations Theory- Elton Mayo (1880-1949)

in which he states that employees are more motivated by social factors — like personal
attention or being part of a group — than environmental factors, such as money and working
conditions.

7. Classical Management
Classical Management Theory is predicated on the idea that employees only have physical
needs. Because employees can satisfy these physical needs with money, Classical Management
Theory focuses solely on the economics of organizing workers.

Classical Management Theory advocates seven key principles:

 Profit maximization
 Labor specialization
 Centralized leadership
 Streamlined operations
 Emphasis on productivity
 Single-person or select-few decision making
 Priority to the bottom line
8. Contingency Management- Fred Fiedler 1950 and 1960
Fiedler based his theories on the idea that effective leadership was directly related to the
traits the leader displayed in any given situation. Fiedler’s theory suggests that there is no one
management approach that suits every situation and every organization.

Instead, three general variables determine business management and structure.

They are:

 The size of the organization

 The technology employed
 The leadership at all levels of the business

9. Modern Management
embraces the idea that people are complex. Their needs vary over time, and they possess
a range of talents and skills that the business can develop through on-the-job training and other
programs.

10. Quantitative Management

Is response to managerial efficiency, together experts from scientific disciplines to address
staffing, materials, logistics, and systems issues.

11. Organizations as Learning System

is a system that is built on a succession of subsystems. In order for the business to run
smoothly and efficiently, each subsystem must also work smoothly and efficiently within itself, but
also with the other subsystems around it.

In this theory, managers are responsible for coordinating the cooperation necessary to
ensure the larger “organism” continues to function successfully.

LABORATORY MANAGER

MANAGER’S ROLES AND ATTRIBUTES:

 coordinate resources in an effective and efficient manner to accomplish the
organization’s goals.
 Providing a product or service that customers value.
 To achieve high performance, which is the attainment of organizational goals by
using resources in an efficient and effective manner.

MANAGEMENT SKILLS

 CONCEPTUAL SKILLS
 is the cognitive ability to see the organization as a whole system and the
relationships among its parts.
 It involves the manager’s thinking, information processing, and planning abilities.
  It involves knowing where one’s department fits into the total organization and how
the organization fits into the industry, the community, and the broader business and
social environment.

HUMAN SKILLS
 Is the manager’s ability to work with and through other people and to work effectively as a
group member.
 Is demonstrated in the way a manager relates to other people, including the ability to
motivate, facilitate, coordinate, lead, communicate, and resolve conflicts.
 Allows subordinates to express themselves without fear of ridicule, encourages
participation, and shows appreciation for employees’ efforts.

TECHNICAL SKILLS
 is the understanding of and proficiency in the performance of specific tasks.
 Includes mastery of the methods, techniques, and equipment involved in specific functions
such as engineering, manufacturing, or finance.
 includes specialized knowledge, analytical ability, and the competent use of tools and
techniques to solve problems in that specific discipline.

TYPES OF MANAGEMENT

 TOP MANAGERS
- are at the top of the hierarchy and are responsible for the entire organization.
- responsible for setting organizational goals, defi ning strategies for achieving them,
monitoring and interpreting the external environment, and making decisions that
affect the entire organization.
-responsible for communicating a shared vision for the organization, shaping
corporate culture, and nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit that can help the company
innovate and keep pace with rapid change.

 MIDDLE MANAGERS
- middle levels of the organization and are responsible for business units and
major departments.
- They are responsible for implementing the overall strategies and policies defined
by top managers.
- Generally, are concerned with the near future rather than with long-range
planning.

 PROJECT MANAGERS
- responsible for a temporary work project that involves the participation of people
from various functions and levels of the organization, and perhaps from outside
the company as well.

 FIRST LINE MANAGERS

- directly responsible for the production of goods and services.
- They are responsible for groups of non-management employees.
 - Their primary concern is the application of rules and procedures to achieve
efficient production, provide technical assistance, and motivate subordinates.

 FUNCTIONAL MANAGERS
- responsible for departments that perform a single functional task and have
employees with similar training and skills.
EXAMPLE:
1. LINE MANAGERS- are responsible for the manufacturing and marketing
departments that make or sell the product or service.

2. STAFF MANAGERS- are in charge of departments such as finance and

human resources that support line departments.

 GENERAL MANAGERS
- are responsible for several departments that perform different functions.
- responsible for a self-contained division, and for all the functional departments
within it.

MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO PROGRAM)

 is a management tool whereby managers and employees work together to set and track
objectives for a specific time period.
 Objectives and plans cascade down the organization until every individual has specific
objectives for the period.

IMPLENTATION MBO PROGRAM

 establish long-range company goals in such areas as sales, competitive positioning, human
resource development.
 use these long-range plans to determine company-wide goals for the current year. Then the
company goals can be broken down further into goals for different departments, and
eventually into goals for individual employees.
 It requires each employee to produce five to ten specific, measurable goals. In addition to a
statement of the goal itself, each goal should be supported with a means of measurement
and a series of steps toward completion. These goals should be proposed to the
employee's manager in writing, discussed, and approved.
 provide for a regular review of employee progress toward meeting goals. This review can
take place either monthly or quarterly.

MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVE PROCESS

 Review Organization Objectives

 Set Employee Objectives
 Monitor
 Evaluate
 Reward
REVIEW ORGANIZATION OBJECTIVES

 the organization will set or revise its objectives for the next period. Most organizations will
use a 3-month (quarterly) planning period.

SET EMPLOYEE OBJECTIVES

 once the organization has set its objectives, each sub-division will set its objectives for the
period. Then subdivisions of those subdivisions will set their objectives. 

MONITOR
 It gives the employee and manager the opportunity to rectify a situation should progress
start to go off track. 

EVALUATE
 it is straightforward to check if each employee achieved their goals, or not.

REWARD
 Employees get rewarded for their achievements at the end of the period. This
is typically done using paid incentives (bonuses).

MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTVES (ADVANTAGES)

 Continually driving the organization to move towards its strategic goals.

 Everyone within the organization knows what they have to achieve during the period.
 It helps employees understand how their targets contribute to organizational targets.
 Employees who understand how what they do contributes to the organization can be more
motivated.
 The model secures the commitment of employees to attaining the organizational goals.
 As each employee understands how they uniquely contribute to the organization,
employees feel crucial to proceedings, leading to increased loyalty.
 Employees tend to have more commitment to goals that they themselves helped set.

MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTVES (DISADVANTAGES)

 Developing targets can be time-consuming, leaving both managers and employees with
less time to carry out their duties.
 If not implemented with care, it can lead to poor teamwork between employees. This
happens as each employee is only concerned with their targets, and not good teamwork.
 It can result in unnecessary office politics as employees fight to outshine each other.
 It underemphasizes context. For example, it does not take the extent of senior management
buy-in into consideration. It does not take into account the ability of lower-level teams to hit
the objectives set.
 Provide for a regular review of employee progress toward meeting goals. This review can
take place either monthly or quarterly.
Management- is the process of administering and controlling the affairs of the organization,
irrespective of its nature, type, structure and size. It is an act of creating and maintaining such
a business environment wherein the members of the organization can work together, and achieve
business objectives efficiently and effectively.

Materials:
 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814050356
 McPherson, Richard A. and Matthew R. Pincus, Henry’s Clinical
 Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods 21st ed.
(Chapter 1: General Concepts and Administrative Issues; Pages 2-6)
(NOTE: 10 POINTS OF THE QUIZ WILL BE BASED FROM THESE READING MATERIALS)

Study Questions
 Identify the different section(s), area(s) and discipline(s) in clinical laboratory.
 Enumerate the different activities in every sections of the clinical laboratory.
 Give the general policies in every sections of the laboratory.
 Categorize and give examples of the different types of management.
 QUIZ: 20 ITEMS

McPherson, Richard A. and Matthew R. Pincus, Henry’s Clinical

Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods 21st ed.

Philadelphia: Elsevier Inc., 2007

Daft, Richard L. Management 5th ed. Philippines: Thomson

Learning, 2002

Friedberg, Richard and Ronald Weiss. Laboratory Management, An

Issue of Clinics in Laboratory Medicine. Philadelphia: W.B.

Saunders, 2007.
Harmening, Denise M. Laboratory Management: Principles and
Processes 2nd ed. USA: F.A. Davis Co., 2006
Hibbert, Brynn. Quality Assurance in the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory. USA: Oxford University
Press, 2007.

Garcia, Lynne S. Clinical Laboratory Management 2 nd ed. LSG and Associates, Santa Monica
California, 2014