Chapter 1:
Introduction to management
Learning outcomes
• Understand what an organisation is.
• Understand the definition and explanation of general
management.
• Differentiate between basic and additional management tasks.
• Explain the process of management.
• Differentiate between the levels and kinds of managers.
• Identify and understand the different roles of a manager.
• Evaluate the different skills that a manager must have to manage
effectively.
• Explain the different challenges that managers experience in the
organisational environment.
Introduction
• When one thinks about a manager, different things and images
come to mind.
• The question can be asked: Why does management matter?
• Well-managed organisations are more competitive – see also
Management in Action 1.1.
• Being a manager presents many challenges.
• In this chapter you will get to learn about:
- what management is;
- why it is important;
- what management tasks and skills are required by managers;
and
- some general perspectives on management.
What is an organisation?
• An organisation is defined as an arrangement of people in a
specific structure to accomplish some specific purpose.
• There are three common characteristics:
– Firstly, each organisation has a distinct purpose.
– Secondly, each organisation is composed of people.
– Thirdly, all organisations develop some deliberate
structure so that the members can do their work.
What is management?
• Management refers to getting things done through people.
• Management can be described as a process of coordinating work
activities through the functions of planning, organising,
activating (leading), and control so that these activities are
completed efficiently and effectively, and in line with the
organisational goals.
• The phrase “coordinating work activities” distinguishes a
managerial position from a non-managerial one.
What is management? (cont.)
• The concepts of efficiency and effectiveness are very important
in management.
• What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?
Table 1.1: Management functions
What is management? (cont.)
• Planning involves the process of defining goals, and
establishing strategies and plans for achieving those goals.
• Organising involves the process of determining what tasks are
to be done, how the tasks must be done, who must do them,
how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and
where decisions are to be made.
• Activating (leading) deals with the way to get employees active
to do their work. It involves leadership and how to influence
employees to be as productive as possible.
• Control involves monitoring the actual performance,
comparing the actual performance to what was planned, and
taking corrective action if necessary.
What is management? (cont.)
The management process is illustrated in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1: The management process
Who is a manager?
• A manager’s job is to make sure that the organisation achieves
its goals.
• A manager can be defined as a person who coordinates and
integrates all work activities of employees in an organisation
with the purpose of achieving the vision and goals of the
organisation.
• A good manager is also someone who surrounds him- or
herself with competent people in order to achieve these goals.
Who is a manager? (cont.)
• First-line managers are managers at the lowest level of the
organisation – responsible for the daily supervision of nonmanagerial employees who are involved with the production or
creation of the organisation’s products and services.
• Middle managers are the managers between the first-line level
and the top level of the organisation – they manage the work of
first-line managers.
• Top managers are the managers at the top level of the
organisation – responsible for making organisation-wide
decisions and establishing the goals and plans that affect the
entire organisation.
Who is a manager? (cont.)
Figure 1.2: Kinds and levels of management
Management roles
• Henry Mintzberg identified that managers perform ten different
roles or behaviours that he classified into three sets – see table
1.2.
• The interpersonal roles involve people and other duties that are
ceremonial and symbolic in nature. It includes being a figurehead,
leader, and liaison.
• The informational roles are related to the collecting and transfer
of information. The three informational roles include being a
monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson.
• The decisional roles deals with decision-making and choices and
include being an entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource
allocator, and negotiator.
Role
Interpersonal
Figurehead
Leader
Liaison
Informal
Monitor
Disseminator
Spokesperson
Decisional
Entrepreneur
Description
The manager is the symbolic head and performs routine duties of a legal
or social nature, such as signing legal documents and cutting the ribbon
when opening a new building.
Motivates and leads subordinates to become active.
Maintains good relationships with all internal and external stakeholders
by building good social and work relationships.
Collects a wide variety of internal and external information to develop a
thorough understanding of the organisation and its environment.
Transmits all relevant information (both formal and informal) received
from different stakeholders (external and internal) to all members of the
organisation.
Conveys information to outsiders about the organisation’s plans, policies,
actions, and results.
Constantly searches the organisation and its environment for
opportunities to develop the organisational strategy and identify new
programmes.
Disturbance handler Takes corrective action when the organisation faces unexpected
disruptions and crises.
Resource allocator Makes or approves all significant organisational decisions and
allocates organisational resources of all types.
Represents the organisation at major negotiations such as
Negotiator
negotiations with labour unions.
Management skills
• Managers need some basic skills.
• Every manager, regardless of his or her level, should have the
following general skills or abilities and they are indispensable
for sound and effective management.
See Figure 1.3
Figure 1.3: Managerial skills at different management levels
Management skills (cont.)
• Technical skills are the knowledge of and proficiency in a
specific field – and the ability to apply specialised knowledge
and competency in a specific area.
• Human or interpersonal skills refer to the ability to work well
with other people, individually and in a group – good people
skills enable a manager to get the best out of their workers –
they know how to motivate, communicate, and delegate.
• Conceptual skills refer to the ability to think, conceptualise and
analyse abstract and complex situations – most important at
the top-management levels, because they must be able to
understand how things in the whole organisation fit together.
Management skills (cont.)
• A number of management abilities can be added and
grouped under these basic skills.
• Some management abilities that will help managers to cope
with their work:
– Communication skills: relates to interpersonal skills.
– Ability to work in a team: relates to interpersonal skills.
– Good time management: conceptual and technical skills.
– Problem-solving abilities: understand the bigger picture –
relates to conceptual skills and can also be linked to
technical skills if the problem requires technical
knowledge.
– Conflict solving abilities: relates to interpersonal skills.
Challenges for managers
• In a dynamic environment, managers are confronted with the
following challenges:
– Building the organisation to experience a competitive
advantage.
– Maintaining ethical and social responsibility.
– Managing a diverse workforce.
– Managing in a global environment.
Challenges for managers (cont.)
• Build the organisation to experience a competitive advantage
by applying the following components:
– Cost savings
• Cost savings are directly linked to efficiency.
• Customers value, lower-priced products and services (as a
result of cost savings), which mean improved customer
satisfaction.
– Differentiating quality
• An organisation has to offer customers something
different.
– Innovation and responsiveness
• Organisations that are successful in responding to the
needs of their customers will experience competitive
advantage.
Challenges for managers (cont.)
• Maintaining ethical and socially responsible behaviour
– Pressure to perform can be healthy for an organisation.
– It can become negative if it gets overwhelming and if goals
must be achieved “at all costs” – for example, decreasing the
quality of products and services to save costs, while
maintaining high prices, is unethical.
– Challenge to managers globally is to maintain proper
standards in doing the right thing every time.
Challenges for managers (cont.)
• Managing a diverse workforce:
– An organisation’s workforce is not homogenous.
– An advantage of a diverse workforce is that different ideas,
skills, preferences, and experiences can increase creativity.
– Managers must be sensitive to, and value diversity.
– Challenges of managing a diverse workforce:
• building an organisational culture that supports diversity;
• putting the necessary structures, policies and systems in
place that support diversity;
• complying with the law regarding equity and BEEE (black
economic empowerment equity); and
• providing training for and retaining diverse employees.
Challenges for managers (cont.)
• Managing in a global environment
– Managing in the global environment not only means keeping
up with innovation, but also dealing with change.
– Information technology and the internet are changing the
business environment so quickly that managers should realise
that they must focus on speed.
– The challenge for managers is to learn new things daily to
keep up with the changing environment.
– Management must guide and instill an organisational culture
of learning.
Summary
• Overview of management.
• A definition of management, the levels, skills, and roles of
managers have been explained.
• A summary of the different management functions.
• The challenges of building an organisation to experience a
competitive advantage, how to maintain ethical and social
responsibility, the challenge of managing a diverse workforce,
and the challenge to manage in a global environment have been
discussed.
• Some of these issues will be discussed in more detail in later
chapters.