THE NATURE

THE NATURE OF
OF
MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Management  is a set of activities (including planning and decision

making, 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.

Efficient  means using resources wisely and without unnecessary waste .

Effective  means doing the right things successfully.
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Manager  is someone whose primary responsibility is to

carry out the management process. In particular. a
manager is someone who plans and makes decisions,
organizes, leads, and controls human, financial, physical,
and information resources.
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT
This process is illustrated on the following figure
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

The management process

Planning and decision making: determining courses of action
Planning means setting an organization's goals and deciding how best to
achieve them.
Decision making, a part of the planning process, involves selecting a course
of action from a set of alternatives.
Organizing: Coordinating activities and resources
Organizing is grouping activities and resources in a logical fashion.
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

The management process

Leading: Managing people
Leading is the set of processes used to get people to work together to
advance the interests of the organization.
Controlling: Monitoring and evaluating activities
Controlling is monitoring the progress of the organization as it works toward
its goals to ensure that it is effectively and efficiently achieving these goals.
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Kinds of managers

Differentiation by levels of management

Top managers (CEO, VP) control the organization by

Setting its goals
Overall Strategy
Operating Policy
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Differentiation by levels of management

• These managers make important decisions about which activities the
organization should be involved in, such as acquisitions, research and
development, and expanding capacity.
• Middle managers (plant manager, operations manager) are the largest group
of managers in most companies. They primarily take the goals and strategies
designed by top managers and put them into effect.
• First-line managers (foreman, supervisor) supervise and coordinate the
activities of operating employees. The majority of their work is direct
supervision of the work of their subordinates.
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Differentiation by areas of management

• Marketing managers help to find ways to get consumers and clients to buy the organization's
products and services.
• Financial managers deal with accounting, cash management, and investment functions.
• Operations managers are concerned with creating and managing the systems that create an
organization's products and services. IE's are often in these positions. They achieve their goals
through production control, inventory control, quality control, and plant site selection and layout.
• Human resource managers are responsible for hiring and developing employees.
• Administrative managers are generalists who have some basic familiarity with all functional
areas of management rather than specialized training in any one area.
• Other kinds of managers have specialized management position.
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Critical roles and skills

Managerial roles
Interpersonal roles
• A figurehead attends activities to represent the organization.
• A leader encourages employees to improve productivity and shows them how to do
it.
• A liaison coordinates the activities of two or more people, groups of people, or
organizations.
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Managerial roles
Informational roles
• A monitor actively seeks information that may be of value to the organization.
• A disseminator transmits information to others in the organization.
• A spokesperson transmits information about the organization to people outside the organization.
Decisional roles
• An entrepreneur develops new ideas and initiates changes in the organization.
• A disturbance handler handles problems that arise such as strikes, copyright infringements, and energy shortages.
• A resource allocator determines who should receive the available resources and who should have access to the
manager's time.
• A negotiator represents the organization in a negotiation setting such as collective bargaining for a union contract
or developing an agreement with a consultant.
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Managerial skills
Technical skills are the
skills necessary to
accomplish or
understand tasks
relevant to the
organization.
Interpersonal skills are
the ability to
communicate with,
understand, and motivate
individuals and groups.
THE NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Managerial skills
Conceptual skills are the
ability to think in abstract terms
and the mental capacity to
understand the "big picture" or
the overall workings of the
organization and its
environment.
Diagnostic and analytic
skills are the ability to
recognize the symptoms of a
problem and then determine
an action plan to fix it.