Introduction to Principles of Management

Introduction to Principles of Management

• Management is the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling people in an organization to efficiently use resources and meet organizational goals.
• Management involves coordinating and overseeing the work of others to ensure activities are completed efficiently and effectively.
• Managers create goals and objectives, plan schedules, develop strategies to increase performance and productivity, ensure compliance with company policies and regulations, guide and motivate employees, check resources, budgets, productivity levels and performance, resolve customer and operation conflicts, and train staff.

Objectives

• Define management and explain the managerial significance of effectiveness and efficiency.
• Distinguish between managerial functions and skills.
• Identify basic managerial functions.

Management Functions

• Planning: Setting goals, strategies, and developing plans to coordinate activities.
• Organizing: Determining what needs to be done, how it will be done, and who will do it.
• Leading: Motivating, leading, and any other actions involved in dealing with people.
• Controlling: Monitoring activities to ensure they are accomplished as planned.

Management Skills

• Technical skills: Job-specific knowledge and techniques needed to perform work tasks proficiently.
• Human skills: The ability to work effectively with others, both individually and in groups.
• Conceptual skills: The ability to think and conceptualize about abstract and complex situations.

Skills Needed at Different Managerial Levels

• Top managers: Focus on conceptual skills.
• Middle managers: Focus on both conceptual and human skills
• Lower-level managers: Focus on technical skills.

Efficiency and Effectiveness in Management

• Efficiency: "doing things right"
• Refers to getting the most output from the least amount of inputs.
• Effectiveness: "doing the right things"
• Is concerned with achieving organizational goals.
• Effectiveness versus Efficiency chart illustrates various combinations of efficiency and effectiveness.
• Management strives for low resource waste (high efficiency) and high goal attainment (high effectiveness).

Who are Managers and where do they work

• Managers coordinate and oversee the work of others to achieve organizational objectives.
• Managers are categorized as top management, middle management, and lower/first-line management and non-managerial employees.

Mintzberg's Managerial Roles

• Interpersonal roles
• Relationships between people within the organization
• Informational roles
• Generating, receiving, and sharing knowledge to achieve organizational goals
• Decisional roles
• Making decisions that impact the organization.

The Universality of Management

• Management is important in all types of organizations regardless of their size or purpose.
• All organizational areas and levels need effective management.