Introduction to Management

Management

• Management is the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively.
• It involves setting objectives, developing strategies, coordinating tasks, and making decisions to ensure an organization operates smoothly and achieves its intended outcomes.

Five Functions of Management by Henri Fayol

• Planning
• Organizing
• Leading
• Controlling
• Staffing

Henri Fayol

• He was a French management theorist.
• He developed one of the earliest comprehensive theories of management.
• He is considered a founding figure in management.

Engineering Management

• It combines technical knowledge with the ability to organize and coordinate worker power, materials, machinery, and money.

Engineer's Expectations and Skills

• Engineers perform various tasks based on their specialization and job level.
• Understanding job expectations is key for effectiveness and efficiency.
• Identifying lacking skills is crucial for engineers.
• Engineers often have weaknesses in people-based skills.
• Exposure to engineering management activities is necessary for engineers in managerial roles

Functions of Engineers Through History

• Prehistoric Contributions: Development of stone-bladed axes and creation of irrigation systems (6000 to 3000 B.C.).
• Historical Contributions: Construction of the pyramids in Egypt (3000 to 600 B.C.), Roman roadbuilding (600 B.C. to A.D. 400), and production of paper and gunpowder by the Chinese (100 A.D. to 1600 A.D.).
• Industrial Contributions: Development of the steam engine and spinning/weaving machinery (1601 A.D. to 1799).
• Modern Contributions: Manufacture of cars and household appliances.
• Engineers have developed countless tools, equipment, and projects, forming an indispensable part of the global professional community.

Expectations for Engineers

• Production of more food for the growing population is expected.
• Elimination of air and water pollution is crucial.
• Solid waste disposal and materials recycling are necessary functions.
• Reduction of noise in various forms is important.
• Meeting increasing energy and mobility demands is required.
• Preventing and solving crimes are part of the job.
• Meeting increasing communication facility demands is another expectation.

Functions of an Engineer

• Design and Development.
• Problem Solving.
• Innovation.
• Project Management.
• Quality Control.
• Communication.
• Sustainability.

Three Levels of Management

• Top-Level Management: Makes decisions affecting the entirety of the firm.
• Middle-Level Management: Responsible for carrying out the goals set by top management.
• Lower-Level Management: Responsible for the daily management of line workers (employees who produce the product or offer the service).

Managerial Levels in Detail

Strategic Managers:

• They are at the top of the hierarchy.
• They are ultimately responsible for the entire organization.
• Typical titles include "Chief Executive Officer" of CEO, “President", "Executive Vice President”, “Executive Director", "Senior Vice President", or "Vice President". Tactical Managers:
• They are located beneath the top levels.
• They are directly responsible for the work of managers at lower levels.
• Titles include "Manager", "Director of”, “Chief”, "Department Head”, and “Division Head". Operational Managers:
• They are at the lowest level of the hierarchy.
• They are directly responsible for the work of operating (non-managerial) employees.
• Often have titles that include the word "Supervisor”.

What Managers Do

• Managers are responsible for planning, organizing, and leading the organization.
• They control within an organization.
• They set goals and allocate resources.
• They create structures to achieve objectives.
• They motivate and guide employees.
• They monitor performance.
• They strategically decide to ensure efficient and effective operations.
• They adapt to changes and resolve issues as they arise.

Types of Managerial Skills

• Technical Skills: Ability to carry out a specific activity; requires knowledge of methods, processes, and procedures.
• Human Skills: Interpersonal skills related to working well with others, leading, motivating, and communicating to accomplish objectives.
• Conceptual Skills: The ability to think and conceptualize abstract situations, understanding corporate objectives and activities.
• Design Skills: The ability to find solutions to problems that benefit the organization.

Technical Skills Application

• Technical skills are essential for first-level managers.
• Employees at the operational level work with tools, so supervisors teach them how to perform assigned tasks using these tools.
• First-level managers often spend much of their time training subordinates and clarifying doubts in work-related problems.

Human Skills Components

• Involves the ability to lead, motivate, and communicate to accomplish objectives.
• Crucial for creating a comfortable environment for employees, where individuals are free to voice their opinions.
• Aids employees during interactions with supervisors, peers, and external parties like suppliers, customers, and the general public.

Conceptual Skills Application

• The skills involve understanding and coordinating the full range of corporate objectives and activities.
• Conceptual skills are most important at the top management level where managers need them to see the "big picture", understand how various parts of the organization relate to each other, and associate the organization with the external environment.

Excellent Managers

• Good communicators that acquire the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
• Flexible: multi-tasker, imaginative and innovative
• They have integrity and live it before leading others.
• Be focused to try to see the “big picture" within the forest of details
• Be committed to doing whatever it takes to attain organizational success.
• Being people-oriented which knows that people's feelings are important.
• Gratitude which gives credit where it is due.

Business Definitions

• Productivity: An index that measures output (goods and services) relative to the input (labor, materials, energy, and other resources).
• Effectiveness: The capability of producing an effect. (doing the "right" things)
• Efficiency: Measures how well a certain aspect is performing. (doing the things "right")

Evolution of Management Theory

• Beginning in the industrial revolution in the late 19th century, managers sought ways to better satisfy customer needs.
• Managers began to focus on increasing the efficiency of the worker-task mix.

Adam Smith

• An 18th-century economist.
• He observed firms manufacturing pins via craft-style or production.
• Job specialization enables higher efficiency and productivity via the division of labor.

Frederick Taylor

• Defined Scientific Management in the late 1800s to replace informal rule-of-thumb knowledge with systematic relationships between people and tasks for redesigning the work process for higher efficiency.
• Taylor sought to reduce the time a worker spent on each task by optimizing the way the task was done.

Taylor's Four Principles of Scientific Management

• Scientifically study each part of a task and develop the best method for performing it.
• Carefully select workers and train them to perform the task using the scientifically developed method.
• Cooperate fully with workers to ensure that they use the proper method.
• Divide work and responsibility, so that management plans work using scientific principles, and workers execute that work accordingly.

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth

• Refined Taylor's work and improved time and motion study methodologies.
• Time and motion studies break up each job action into components, search for better ways to perform the action, and reorganize each action to be more efficient while also studying worker-related fatigue issues resulting from the lighting, heating, and design of tools and machines.

Max Weber

• Developed the concept of bureaucracy as a formal system of organization and administration.
• Bureaucracy ensures efficiency and effectiveness.

Weber's Five Principles of Bureaucracy

• Authority is the power to hold people accountable for their actions.
• Positions are held based on performance, not social contacts.
• Position duties are clearly identified so people know what is expected.
• Lines of authority should be clearly identified, such that workers know who reports to whom.
• Rules, SOPs, and norms guide the firm's operations.

Fayol's 14 Principles of Management

• Division of Work.
• Authority.
• Discipline.
• Unity of Command.
• Unity of Direction.
• Subordination of Individual Interests to the General Interest.
• Remuneration.
• Centralization.
• Scalar Chain.
• Scalar Chain.
• Equity.
• Stability of Tenure of Personnel.
• Initiative.
• Esprit de Corps.

Nature of Managerial Work

• Multidisciplinary.
• Dynamic.
• Interpersonal.
• Decision-Oriented.
• Goal-Driven.