The Management Process

• An organization is a group of people working together in a structured and coordinated fashion to achieve a set of goals.
• Many definitions of management exist, but a resource-based definition is used here.
• Management involves planning and decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling.
• Management is directed at an organization's human, financial, physical, and information resources.
• Management aims to achieve organizational goals in an efficient and effective manner.
• Efficiency means using resources wisely and in a cost-effective way.
• Effectiveness means making the right decisions and successfully implementing them.
• A manager is someone whose primary responsibility is to carry out the management process.

The Management Process

• Management involves four basic activities: planning and decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling.
• Most managers engage in more than one activity at a time and often move back and forth between the activities in unpredictable ways.
• Planning means setting an organization's goals and deciding how best to achieve them.
• Decision making involves selecting a course of action from a set of alternatives.
• Organizing involves determining how activities and resources are to be grouped.
• Leading is the set of processes used to get members of the organization to work together to further the interests of the organization.
• Controlling is monitoring organizational progress toward goal attainment.

Levels and Areas of Management

• Levels of management is the differentiation of managers into three basic categories: top, middle, and first-line.
• Top managers are the small group of executives who manage the overall organization and create the organization's goals, overall strategy, and operating policies.
• Middle managers are primarily responsible for implementing the policies and plans of top managers and supervise and coordinate the activities of lower-level managers.
• First-line managers supervise and coordinate the activities of operating employees.
• Areas of management may include marketing, financial operations, human resource, administrative, and other areas.
• Marketing managers sell the product and work in new-product development, promotion, and distribution.
• Financial managers undertake accounting, cash management, and investments.
• Operations managers control production, inventory, quality, and plant layout.
• Human resource managers hire and develop employees.
• Administrative managers are generalists and familiar with all areas of management.
• Other kinds of managers include public relations and research and development.

Managerial Roles

• Interpersonal roles involve dealing with other people and include figurehead, leader, and liaison roles.
• Informational roles involve the processing of information and include monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson roles.:
• Decisional roles relate primarily to making decisions and include entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.

Managerial Skills

• Technical skills are necessary to accomplish or understand the specific kind of work being done in an organization.
• Interpersonal skills are the ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate both individuals and groups.
• Conceptual skills refer to the manager's ability to think in the abstract.
• Diagnostic skills refer to the manager's ability to visualize the most appropriate response to a situation.
• Communication skills include the abilities both to effectively convey ideas and effectively receive information from others.
• Decision-making skills refer to the ability to correctly recognize/define problems and opportunities and resolve or capitalize on them.
• Time-management skills involve the ability to prioritize work, to work efficiently, and to delegate appropriately.

The Nature of Managerial Work

• The Science of Management assumes that problems can be approached using rational, logical, objective, and systematic ways and requires the use of technical, diagnostic, and decision-making skills and techniques to solve problems.
• The Art of Management involves making decisions and solving problems using a blend of intuition, experience, instinct, and personal insights, and Using conceptual, communication, interpersonal, and time-management skills to accomplish the tasks associated with managerial activities.
• Most managers acquire their skills as a result of education and experience, and while a few CEOs today do not hold college degrees, most students preparing for management careers earn college degrees and may go on to enroll in MBA programs.

Profit Seeking

• Large businesses like industrial firms, commercial banks, insurance firms, retailers, transportation firms, utilities, communication firms, and service organizations.
• Small businesses and start-up businesses included.
• International management also included.

Not-For-Profit

• Governmental organizations at the local, state, and federal levels.
• Educational organizations, encompassing public and private schools, colleges, and universities.
• Healthcare facilities, including public hospitals and HMOs.
• Nontraditional settings, such as community, social, and spiritual groups.

The New Workplace

• Diversity is increasing in the workforce and has numerous dimensions but most common are age, gender, ethnicity, and physical abilities and disabilities.
• Work ethics are changing with Generation X, Y, and Millennials desiring flexibility and individuality instead of the "yuppies" of the '80s.

Managers in the New Workplace

• Must create an attractive environment for today's worker
• Must provide incentives to motivate a diverse workforce
• Be prepared to cope with continual change
• New technology remains a challenge
• Have a complex array of organizing possibilities