Understanding Management Principles

• Management is a set of activities like planning, decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling.
• It directs an organization's resources, including human, financial, physical, and informational.
• The aim is to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively.
• Management is a general term that applies to a variety of personal and administrative skills.
• It is also a way of overseeing leadership with co-ordination and co-operation.

Basic Purpose of Management

• Efficient management uses resources wisely in a cost-effective way.
• Effective management involves making the right decisions and successfully implementing them.

The Meaning of Management

• The word "management" is derived from the verb "to manage."
• "To manage" can mean to handle, control, organize, make and keep submissive, or carry out a purpose

Management Per Ricky W. Griffin

• Management is planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizational resources.
• Resources can be human, financial, physical, or informational.
• It aims to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively.

Management Per Stanley Vance

• Management involves decision-making.
• Management involves control over human actions.
• Management is meant for attaining predetermined goals.

Why Management is Important

• Organizations rely on group efforts to achieve goals.
• Management is necessary when two or more people are required to work together.
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects management positions will continue to grow by an average of 7% percent.
• Management helps to accomplish goals, become more efficient, make better decisions, and earn more profit.

Functions of Management

• Experts have classified functions of management in different ways.
• George & Jerry: The four fundamental functions are planning, organizing, actuating, and controlling.
• Henry Fayol: "To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, and to control."
• Luther Gullick: Has given the keyword 'POSDCORB', P stands for Planning, O for Organizing, S for Staffing, D for Directing, Co for Co-ordination, R for reporting & B for Budgeting.
• KOONTZ and O'DONNEL: The most widely accepted functions of management are Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling.
• Separating management functions are convenient for theoretical purposes, but they overlap and are inseparable in practice.
• Each management function blends into the others and affects their performance.

Management Process

• The processes are planning and decision making, organizing, leading and controlling.
• Planning and Decision Making: includes setting the organization's goals and deciding how best to achieve them.
• Organizing: Deciding how best to group activities and resources.
• Leading: This relates to motivating members of the organization to work in the best interests of the organization.
• Controlling: Monitoring and correcting ongoing activities to facilitate goal attainment.

The Manager

• Has the responsibility to carry out the management process.
• The manager plans, makes decisions, organizes, leads, and controls resources.
• Resources can be human, financial, physical, and information.
• Managers accomplish objectives by directing the efforts of others.

Kinds of Managers by Level

• Top Managers: A relatively small group of executives who manage the organization's overall goals, strategy, and operating policies.
• Middle Managers: Implement top management's policies and plans and supervise and coordinate lower-level managers' activities. They are the largest group of managers in organizations.
• First-Line Managers: Managers who supervise and coordinate the activities of operating employees.

Kinds of Managers by Area

• Marketing Managers: Works in areas related to getting consumers and clients to buy the organization's products or services.
• Financial Managers: Deals primarily with an organization's financial resources.
• Operations Managers: Concerned with creating and managing the systems that create organizations products and services.
• Human Resource Managers: Involved in human resource processes like planning, recruiting, selection, training, development, designing compensation and benefit systems, and formulating performance appraisal systems.
• Administrative Managers: Serve as generalists in functional areas and are not associated with any particular management specialty.
• Other kinds of managers are assigned as specialists in positions directly.

Functions of Managers

• Managers master five basic functions: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling.
• Planning: This step involves mapping out exactly how to achieve a particular goal.
• Organizing: A manager organizes her team, assigning work and granting authority according to the plan.
• Staffing: A manager may decide to beef up staffing by recruiting, selecting, training, and developing employees.
• Leading: A manager must also lead by motivating, communicating, guiding, and encouraging her team.
• Controlling: He needs to continuously check results against goals and take any corrective actions necessary to make sure that his area's plans remain on track.

Skill of a Manager

• Technical skills: The ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise.
• Human skills: The ability to work with, understand, and motivate people both individually and in groups.
• Conceptual Skills: The mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.

Fundamental Management Skills

• Technical: Skills necessary to accomplish or understand the specific kind of work being done in an organization.
• Interpersonal: The ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate both individuals and groups.
• Conceptual: The manager's ability to think in the abstract.
• Diagnostic: Ability to visualize the most appropriate response to a situation.
• Communication: Ability to convey ideas and information effectively with others and to receive them effectively from others.
• Decision-Making: The ability to recognize and define problems and select an appropriate course of action.
• Time-Management: The ability to prioritize work and accomplish it on time.

Management involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively. It includes decision-making and resource allocation. Efficient management focuses on cost-effective resource use, while effective management emphasizes making and implementing sound decisions.