MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATION

Management Principles and Application

Management Principles and Application

Part I

Management

Management is the' process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims'. The nature of management is the process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling the organization using available resources to achieve organizational goals. (Benati, 2004)

Processes of Management

Management 'applies to all levels within an organization'. Managers can separate by their level of responsibility and their functions.

The junior manager usually is a supervisor or team leader. They work at the operational level and are expected to coordinate employees. (Gençay and Selçuk, 2004) Junior managers make sure the quality level of work is appropriate and may be expected to fill in when an employee is absent

Middle managers are usually sales, marketing and finance managers. Middle managers are responsible for junior managers and report to senior management. They spend longer on management functions compared with junior managers.

Senior managers are the executives in the highest level of the organization they responsible for the overall direction and coordination of the organization objectives.

Line Management and functional management

Functional management is found in large organizations where specialist managers or expertise is required. Functional managers are usually concerned with a few tasks. Examples of this would be a human resource manager who is only concerned with staffing activities. (Marcelo, 2002)

Managers responsible for the all the activities in the organization can be considered as line managers. They are involved in most of the organizational functions such as finance, production, human-relations and marketing. Line managers are usually found in smaller organisations such as factories and shops.

Management as a Process

Henri Fayol divided 'business operations into units, all of which depend on each other'. He focused on mainly on the operational areas, which he defined as five functions.

Planning

Planning lays the groundwork for all the other functions of management.

The basic planning concept answers four questions:

(1) What do we want to do?

(2) Where are we in relation to that goal?,

(3) Which factors will help or hinder us in reaching the goal?

(4) What alternatives are available to us to reach the goal and which one is the best?

Planning can be classified into three separate categories,

(1) Strategic planning - Is 'initiated and guided by top-level management, but all levels of management must participate for it to work'. The purpose is to plan long-range directions and commitments and to develop an organization in which the plans of the sub-units work together. (Lawrence, 2003)

(2) Tactical planning - Tactical planning focuses on the implementation of the strategic plans. These plans are concerned with lower levels of the organisation and focus on what each division must do. Tactics are the means needed to achieve a strategy. This planning focuses more on short-term activities required to implement the overall strategy.

(3) Operational planning - An operating plan is one that a manager uses to accomplish job responsibilities. It may be a single-use plan or an on-going plan. Single-use plans may include a program or budget. Examples of on-going plans include policies and ...