PAPER-I Management: Science, Theory and Practice Structure 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Defining Management: Its Nature and Purpose 1.3 Function of management 1.4 Management is essential to any entity or organization 1.5 Management at Different Organizational Levels 1.6 All Efficient Managers Perform Essential Functions 1.7 Managerial Skills and Organizational Hierarchy 1.8 The objectives of all managers 1.9 Productivity, Effectiveness, and Efficiency 2.0 Managing: Science or Art 2.1 The Facets of Science 2.2 The Scientific Approach 2.3 The Role of Management Theory 2.4 Management techniques 2.5 The Systems Approach to Operational Management 2.6 Inputs and Stakeholders 2.7 The Transformation Process Associated With Managers 2.8 The Communications Process in Management 2.9 Outputs 3.0 Revitalizing the System 3.1 Managerial Functions 3.2 Planning 1 3.3 Organizing 3.4 Recruitment or Staffing 3.5 Controlling 3.6 Leading 3.7 Summary 1.1 Introduction Managing is a crucial human activity. Objectives that people cannot not achieve single-handedly they endeavour to achieve the same through collaborative efforts using management techniques. As communities have become increasingly reliant on team efforts and several structured groups have burgeoned, the indispensability of managers have only increased. The aim of this compendium is to uphold the efficacy of all organizational employees, particularly managers and budding managers. 1.2 Defining Management: Its Nature and Purpose Management purports to create and sustain an environment where individuals working in close co-operation achieve meticulously chosen ends. This is the fundamental tenet of management that can be further elucidated: 1. Individuals functioning as managers are responsible for carrying out managerial tasks like staffing, systemizing, planning, regulating and leading. 2. Management is applicable to any type of business establishment or organization and relevant at all hierarchical levels in an enterprise. 3. All managers have more or less the same objective which is to generate a surplus. 4. Management is essentially concerned with enhancing the efficacy and effectiveness of production. 1.3 Functions of Management Most managers and researchers agree that a lucid structuring of information helps in management analysis. The concepts, theories, tenets, and strategies are formulated around the fundamental canons of management like planning, leading, recruitment, controlling, and organizing and define the framework for further review or analysis. 2 This structure has been in vogue for a long time now. Though there are numerous ways of structuring and processing managerial information, most authors have generally taken up the eponymous framework despite trying out other options. Though this article lays stress on the managerial responsibility of building an internal work environment for improving performance, the fact that managers also have to function in the environment that lies outside the organization should also be taken into consideration. Towards that end, managers can perform efficiently if they can identify and comprehend the different aspects related to the exterior environment that have an economic, social, political, and ethical bearing on their operations. 1.4 Management is essential to any entity or organization Managers are entrusted with the task of preparing strategies that’ll enable all employees to contribute in an optimum manner for accomplishing group objectives. Management thus becomes imperative in any type of establishment or organization big or small, be it a profitable, charitable or not-for-profit enterprise. The entity could be a hospital, corporate house, government department, college, school or any non-profit or commercial environment. Almost anybody operating at the supervisory or managerial level, for instance the bishop, the corporate CEO, the soccer coach, medical superintendent or the university lecturer has to effectively implement the managerial functions associated with his or her job profile. 1.5 Management at Different Organizational Levels Almost all managers are responsible for devising techniques that will facilitate all individuals to contribute optimally for the achievement of team goals. However, a specific situation may not be of the same nature at different hierarchical levels in an organization and it might also vary from establishment to establishment. Furthermore, all managers may not be empowered to the same extent to carry out the tasks according to his discretion and the nature of problems might vary as well. But the fundamental aim-to create an environment for accomplishing group objectives-remains unchanged. Though all managers are responsible for discharging managerial tasks, the time devoted towards every function and the approach might differ. Managers at the topmost hierarchical level devote more time towards organizing and planning whereas first line managers have to spend more time leading their subordinates and dealing with their problems. 3 1.6 All Efficient Managers Perform Essential Functions Though all managers are concerned with planning, recruitment, organizing, controlling and leading, the actual time devoted towards any function and the competence needed by managers belonging to the different organizational tiers, might vary. Managers, nevertheless have to accomplish their tasks by getting the same done by their subordinates. Although the concepts, theories, and principles of management have universal usefulness, their implementation is no doubt an art and carrying them out successfully is invariably dependant on the circumstances. Thus management is more of an art in practice and scientific in theory. This peculiarity is often referred to as the universality of management where managers are responsible for carrying out similar functions irrespective of their rank or stature in the organizational hierarchy or the nature of the establishment where they are employed. 1.7 Managerial Skills and Organizational Hierarchy Robert L. Katz typified three distinct types of skills for managers and supervisors. A fourth skill might be added to the existing set and that is the ‘competence or skill to devise solutions’. 1. Technical skill has to do with finesse in carrying out activities that requires knowledge of processes and procedures. In other words, it involves the use of certain tools and specific set of strategies. For instance, doctors, engineers, accountants, architects, and other professionals all have their specific specialization techniques for carrying out their prescribed tasks. 2. Human skill entails the capability to work with others as a team and also work towards creating atmosphere where everybody can work freely and express their viewpoints without any inhibitions. 3. Conceptual Skill imparts one with the sagaciousness to see things in advance and perceive things that are not ordinarily identifiable by others. 4. Design Skill means having the competence of not only identifying the problems or threats that an organization faces but also having the efficacy to find solutions for those problems. Merely recognizing problems does not make one a good manager. He should be able to come up with solutions that will ultimately prove beneficial for the organization. The comparative significance of these competencies will of course vary from one hierarchical level to another in any establishment. 4 1.8 The Objectives of all Managers Most executives are of the opinion that managers have a single point agenda-to enable an organization to earn a profit or a surplus. Judged from that standpoint, a manager then would not have any role in an establishment that does not operate with a profit motive, say a police department or a charitable trust. However, seen from a wider perspective, managers irrespective of whether they work in a commercial or noncommercial entity should be responsible for generating surplus (that may not always be monetary) using the minimal amount of resources (time, materials, human resources, and personal differences). 1.9 Productivity, Effectiveness, and Efficiency That managers should be creative or productive is another way of defining their ultimate end. Today all spheres of human activities feel the need for making strides in productivity. Defining productivity. Profitable organizations are able to build a surplus via productive functions. There is no unanimity on the actual meaning of productivity but it is usually defined as the proportion of output to input within a specific timeframe with due accordance to quality. Therefore, productivity could be enhanced by decreasing inputs keeping outputs the same; increasing outputs keeping inputs the same or by increasing the output and decreasing the inputs. Previously, only workers used to be involved with productivity enhancement schedules but gradually the upper echelons in an organization began to be targeted for such programs as well. Defining Effectiveness and Efficiency. Productivity has to do with effectiveness and efficiency both in personal and organizational performance. Effectiveness means accomplishing the desired ends. Efficiency means accomplishing those ends utilizing the minimal quantity of resources. 5 Check your progress 1 i) How do you describe function of management in some words? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ii) Define Management in brief. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 Managing: Science or Art The discipline of management is to a considerable extent an art like the fields of painting, sculpture, accountancy or medical science but is based on a foundation of science. Management therefore is the art of taking decisions based on management principles that have a scientific basis. In other words, the organized knowledge of management (which have a scientific orientation) when applied in real life becomes an art. Judged from this perspective, science and art complement each other. As strides or development are made in the various scientific disciplines, the efficiency with which managers can apply the managerial principles also increases. Architects without the benefits of science would be nothing more than masons. Practitioners of management hone their skills through trial and error and keep learning from experience. As they gain experience, the efficiency and efficacy with which they perform their tasks also increases accordingly. The errors managers commit while carrying out their tasks serve as lessons for their subordinates as they can avoid making the same mistakes when they perform those chores. 2.1 The Facets of Science Science stands on the bedrock of scientific information or knowledge. No matter whichever branch of science you look at-physics, chemistry, 6 metaphysics, nuclear physics or astronomy, all the concepts, theories, principals, tenets and hypotheses pertaining to any branch have a scientific basis. A hypothesis or theory in any discipline of science postulated by a scientist, researcher or scholar will not be universally accepted if the same does not fulfil specific parameters or yardsticks. Newton’s gravitational laws or Faraday’s laws of electrolysis are two prime instances. Therefore science is characterized by having crystal clear concepts, theories and postulates that have undergone thorough experimentation and also have been analysed on a threadbare basis before they were incorporated into the specific branch of science. 2.2 The Scientific Approach The scientific approach calls for having precise concepts that are formed by summarising or generalizing day to day observations. Scientific terms and expressions used should be exactly representative of the observations and facts being analysed. Determining and establishing observed facts after careful analysis is the essence of the scientific method. After the facts have been evaluated and scrutinized, scientists and researchers attempt to find out the correlation or interrelation between and amongst the analyzed facts. The observed facts that are structured into hypotheses or theories are then subjected to scrutiny for ascertaining their exactness. If these hypotheses successfully pass the tests, they become principles that are unanimously accepted by the entire scientific community. Theory can be defined as a methodical clustering or grouping of mutually dependent principles and concepts that shapes the structure for a momentous or conspicuous mass of information or knowledge. Data that is discrete and scattered and not organized in an appropriate manner cannot be regarded as information until and unless the scientist or scholar can satisfactorily exemplify that they regarded as principles. 2.3 The Role of Management Theory The fundamental role of theory as far as the segment of management is concerned, is to furnish ways of categorizing or organizing important and relevant management knowledge. While designing the framework or structure of an organization, managers come to rely on a set of interconnected principles that also have an extrapolative significance for them. Now there are various classifications or orders of principles in management including principles that lay emphasis on how to entrust 7 authority, principles that stress on parity in responsibility and powers, and so on. So, as far as the discipline of management is concerned, principles elucidate the correlation or interrelation between a set of two variables (sometimes there could be more variables) one of which is independent and the other dependent on it. Principles do not set any benchmarks or standards that one must follow but are mere generalization of observed facts and can also be prognostic in nature. To take an instance, one of Newton’s gravitational laws which states that ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ does not necessarily imply that if you hit someone, he’ll or she’ll surely hit back. The law only scientifically generalizes that if you hit or slap somebody or carry out any particular act towards an individual, he or she might probably act in a reciprocal manner. Hence it can be inferred that managers should not just blindly apply principles in their areas of operation. They should have the wisdom and the acumen to blend and optimize these principles in their job situations at workplaces. 2.4 Management Techniques Techniques are best defined as procedures or processes of carrying out a specific set of functions or activities to accomplish or attain desired goals or objectives. From that perspective, techniques are also termed as ‘strategies’, ‘methods’, ‘practices’ or ‘modus operandi’ that managers and all other specialists undertake to achieve their short-term and long-term goals. Techniques are indispensable to any field or area of specialization viz. engineering, medical sciences, accountancy, archaeology, anthropology, information technology and so on. Techniques are germane to the discipline of management as well though the number of techniques that are generally harnessed by managers can be counted on one’s hand. Techniques that are popularly put into practice by managers include but not limited to critical path method (CPM), cost accounting, budgeting, network planning, return on investment (ROI), total quality management (TQM) and so on. Techniques usually mirror theory and aid managers in fulfilling their responsibilities in an efficient manner. 2.5 The Systems Approach to Operational Management 8 Organizations and establishments in real life do not operate in a void, cutoff from the environment they belong to. In fact, a business or nonbusiness entity is inevitably and inextricably dependent on the external environment for its growth and development. Being a unit of the industry or society or the economy, an organization obtains inputs from the environment, processes them and dispenses the outputs to the same environment. This is the rudimentary or basic ‘Systems Approach’ that quite simply yet succinctly describes how an organization functions at the most elementary level within its environment. Nevertheless, this approach can be broadened or extended to accommodate an organized approach of operational management that embodies the manner in which inputs are processed exploiting the managerial functionalities of recruitment, leading, organizing, controlling and planning. Evidently, the Systems Approach amply defines the functioning of any commercial or industrial enterprise by describing the interfaces of the organization with the external environment. 2.6 Inputs and Stakeholders The inputs that an establishment obtains from the environment invariably includes land, human resources, capital, technical and managerial acumen or expertise, production procedures and processes. An establishment uses these inputs (inter-alia) in the most prudent and judicious manner possible to produce outputs that are delivered back to the same environment. The organization has to deal with different categories of stakeholders or claimants that have a stake in the processing of the inputs. So it follows that these groups of stakeholders can stake a claim on the outputs or on the proceeds that the outputs generate. The first group of stakeholders who can make the most legitimate claims are the employees or workers who make the highest level or amount of contribution by offering their labour. So, they can make a justifiable claim for a higher remuneration, better incentives, job security, bonuses, and superannuation benefits. Then again, clients are undoubtedly the most crucial group of stakeholders in the external environment who’ll always desire to have products and services that are of a standard quality and safe and also fairly priced at the same time. Then you’ve got the group of suppliers comprising wholesalers and retailers who want to make sure that the organizations outputs (finished goods and services) will be marketable and saleable. 9 Governments at all levels (either the federal, state or local level) derive their revenues from the various taxes, levies, and surcharges they levy on the organization. They’ll also want that the establishment carry out its day to day business activities by remaining within the precincts of the laws of the land. The investing public (read shareholders) that purchases different stock options offered by the company will expect the organization to pay high dividends on their investments. Again, the society or community in which the organization functions will expect the same to fulfil its ‘corporate social responsibility’. That in essence means that the establishment will contribute to the cause of the economically deprived and socially marginalized sections of the society. It could also imply that the enterprise will provide employment to the local youths and that its business or commercial activities do not pollute the environment. Apart from the above mentioned groups of claimants, there could be other categories of stakeholders as well like banks, insurance firms, labour unions, and so on. The demands or claims that all these diverse groups of stakeholders make on the enterprises are varied and unrelated as well. However, the organization will surely run out of steam in trying to satisfy the demands of all these claimant groups if specialists or experts do not come to its rescue. And who are these experts, by the way? Whenever we ask ourselves this question, we are instantly reminded of managers. A consummate manager should be able to incorporate the discrete claims of the different groupings in a justifiable and feasible manner. 2.7 The Transformation Process Associated With Managers All managers find themselves inextricably linked with the transformation process that essentially has to do with converting inputs into outputs. However, the level or extent of involvement (in the transformation procedure) might differ from one organization to another. The level of engagement generally depends upon the nature or type of organization. A manager working in a manufacturing unit will of course have a different scale and extent of involvement from his counterpart engaged in a financial institution. This is so because the modus operandi and character of the actual transformation process is not the same in all the enterprises or establishments. The process might even differ from department to department if you take a typically large organization into account. In other words, the departments of finance, marketing, personnel, operations, 10 logistics, IT, and administration in an organization may have different transformation processes. Therefore, an academic or a management expert might find it vexing to evaluate a transformation process that is applicable to all managers given the innumerable types of conversion procedures. Hence, the best approach for describing the transformation process is to assess the same in the light of the core managerial functions of organizing, staffing, controlling, leading, and planning. 2.8 The Communications Process in Management The tasks that a manager is entrusted with carrying out in an organization would be rendered ineffective if the enterprise lacked an effective communications system. Communication is critical at any stage of the managerial procedure. It is through effective communication that an enterprise connects to the external environment. The system of communication in any organization at the most elementary level is made up of three distinct components. The first constituent is the information deliverers or suppliers, the second component being the information receivers and the final cog being the links or methods that are used as conduits for transferring the info or data from the supplier to the recipient. Communication is the key to achieving the managerial goals or objectives. The core or fundamental functions of a manager (that have been enumerated several times in this article) cannot be accomplished in the absence of effective communication between and amongst all the hierarchical levels of an establishment. Communication is also necessary for managers to lead from the front in an efficient manner. It is via effective communication that managers are successful in creating a work environment or setting that will encourage all his subordinates to be at their productive best. The communication process also has a pivotal role to play in linking up the organisation with its external environment. This role or function of the communication process is perhaps the most critical as this function helps the organization to acclimatize with the external environment where most of the stakeholders are to be found. Though it is beyond the capacity of managers to change or influence the outer environment, he can always positively react to it for attaining his goals. For instance, it is through an efficient communication system that managers are able to recognize and fulfil the needs of the clients who are virtually the raison d’être of all organizations and establishments. The 11 communication system also helps an organization to make a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. 2.9 Outputs One of the core functions of all managers is planning. It is through this function that managers source the inputs from the external environment and thereafter make use of their other functions to transform the inputs into outputs. Though the outputs that are ultimately produced may differ from one organization to the other, they generally comprise a mix of tangibles and intangibles like products, services, profits, revenues, earnings, contentment or fulfilment, and goal incorporation of the different groups of stakeholders. As far as the intangible output of contentment is concerned, it essentially has two distinct aspects. First comes the aspect of consumer satisfactionconsumers of the organization should be content with its product(s) or service(s) so that they continue to keep using the same on a regular basis. The issue of employees’ satisfaction comes up next. For a member of the organization to keep on contributing in a productive manner, his or her basic materialistic requirements must be met satisfactorily. After the worldly needs have been adequately met, the necessity of fulfilling the psychological needs arise. The materialistic needs essentially pertain to job security, housing or shelter, salary to pay for food, clothing, and other vital or unavoidable needs. The psychological needs pertain to aspects of job satisfaction, recognition and incentives for tasks accomplished. One derives the highest level of contentment when one’s self-actualization needs are fulfilled that have best enunciated by Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’. Goal integration is another intangible output that managers have to confront with. It has been explained above there are diverse groups of claimants or stakeholders who have valid claims to make on an organization. Now these ‘claims’ or ‘demands’ are dissimilar and incongruent and it falls upon the manager to integrate and incorporate these. While trying to integrate these contrasting demands, managers have to deal with various disagreements and conflicts which they have to find ways to sort out. 12 Check your progress 2 i) What all you learn about management technique? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------iii) What you understand about output? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 Revitalizing the System The Systems Model of Operational Management is typified by a very significant attribute. According to this model, a few outputs are reprocessed back into inputs. For instance, the profits that an enterprise earns through the sale of its goods or services are channelled back into the system. For instance, the surplus revenues are used for purchasing capital goods including plant and machinery, raw materials, buildings or deposited as cash in the organization’s bank accounts. 3.1 Managerial Functions Managerial functions form the basis for putting in order management knowledge or information. The key functions of all managers are planning, organizing, conscription (recruitment), controlling, and leading. 3.2 Planning Planning primarily has to do with chalking out the missions and visions of an organization or enterprise and thrashing out an action plan for accomplishing the same. Therefore the function of planning entails decisions making by managers. To put it more precisely, planning require managers to scrupulously review the pros and cons of all possible action 13 plans or courses that are available to them and then select the one that would be most conducive for their respective organizations. Planning might involve taking decisions about the organizational objectives and goals as a whole or it might also entail making decision on a routine or usual task. An action plan can be said to become viable or feasible after the manager has taken a decision to engage human resources or inventory in the transformation process for converting the inputs into outputs. 3.3 Organizing Individuals form groups with the sole aim of achieving prescribed objectives. In a similar vein, employees in organizations forming closelyknit and cohesive groups have some organizational goals to attain. So, every individual in the group has a role to enact. Now this role can be unorganized, random, and chaotic or can be well-defined and organized. The employees or workers in all present day organizations and enterprises have their specific job roles or profiles cut out for them. The job profile of a typical employee in any enterprise has to be prearranged or organized in a way that gels with the group’s or organization’s objectives. It is through organizing that managers are able to assign roles or tasks to their subordinates that have a clear cut structure. Organizing also let managers explain the tasks assigned to individuals working under them so that they understand it fully and are able to carry it out in the prescribed manner. Therefore, organizing helps in creating an optimal working environment where all the members in an organization are able to contribute to the maximum However, managers must see to it that the roles for each member should be framed keeping in mind the member’s abilities and limitations and the motivational levels. 3.4 Recruitment or Staffing Recruitment or staffing has to do with employing individuals (human resources) for different job positions in the various hierarchical levels of an organization. Identifying and sourcing the worthy or job-ready candidates for the different job or positions in the organization is the main function of all human resource managers vis-a-vis staffing. The concept of staffing can be further elaborated to include the functions of identifying the different work positions in an organization, holding interviews to establish the worthiness of candidates, placements, transfers, promotions, career planning, working out compensations, and making arrangements for training. 14 3.5 Controlling Controlling pertains to reviewing, correcting or modifying the activities of staff working under the manager just to make sure that they’re working in conformity with the prescribed course of action or work plan. Controlling means carrying out performance appraisals in relation to the organizational objectives, helping the subordinate see and realise if he or she is veering off from the prescribed course. The manager also recommends corrective strategies to be taken so that the subordinate is back on track. Suggesting remedial course of action also ascertains that the organizational goals remain within sight and achievable. Control activities to be very specific imply quantifying one’s accomplishments. 3.6 Leading Leading as the function clearly indicates, is about leadership. Managers should be able to influence, motivate, encourage and lead their subordinates in such a way so as to able them to contribute positively towards group or organizational objectives. Managers are unanimous in their opinions that most of the problems they have to confront during the course of their work are people related. Managers have to deal with individual aspirations of their subordinates, their attitudes and their temperaments that group dynamics brings out. Managers should bear in mind that as leaders they should be willing to follow when required. People will be only prepared to follow those managers who can lead in a humane manner and also give them the opportunity to realise their career objectives and satisfy their personal needs. 15 Check your progress 3 i) What you learn about recruiting or staffing? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ii) What you understand about controlling from management perspective? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.7 Summary Management hence we see is the procedure of creating and sustaining an environment where people operating in groups are able to achieve prescribed group or organizational goals. In this respect, managers are primarily responsible for designing an appropriate action plan and then carrying it out perfectly so that the organizational goals are accomplished. 16