What is management ? An Outline of the History of
Management Thought
Falkné dr. Bánó Klára
BGF Külkereskedelmi Főiskolai Kar
Alkalmazott Kommunikáció Tanszék
Falkne.dr.BanoKlara@kkfk.bgf.hu
falk.cs@t-online.hu
What is management?
Management is both an art and a science. It is a
combination of both innate qualities, and education
and training. The nature of management is variable.
It relates to all activities of the organisation and is
done at all levels.
Management is an integrating activity which
permeates all other aspects of the organisation.
What are Organisations?
Which of the following would you call an
organisation?
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a chemical processing company
a baby sitting circle
the Kovács family
The Budapest Business School
a South-American tribe
St István hospital
a skinhead gang
Organisations
…’are social arrangements for the controlled
performance of collective goals.’ (Buchanan)
-Social arrangements: organisations are collections
of people who interact with each other because of
their common membership of a particular group.
-they need collective goals: organisations exist
where individuals acting alone cannot achieve goals
considered worth pursuing.
Organisations
-controlled performance: organisations are
concerned with performance in the pursuit of their
goals.
-leads to the division of labour
The preoccupation with performance and the need
for control distinguish organisations from other
forms of social arrangements.
An organization - summary
…is ‘a collection of interacting and
interdependent individuals who work toward
common goals and whose relationships are
determined according to a certain structure.’
(Duncan)
What is management?
Management is a generic term and subject to many
interpretations. Our concern is with management as
involving the exercise of formal authority over the
work of other people.
We regard it as being:
• within a structured organisational setting;
• directed towards aims and objectives;
• achieved through the efforts of other people;
• and using systems and procedures.
Management and Managers
Managing means leading, making things happen
through people: this is relevant to all levels of
management, not just the top management.
Managers are judged not just on their own
performance but on the results achieved by
subordinate staff.
The manager’s ten roles (H. Mintzberg)
The manager’s ten roles
Interpersonal:
Figurehead – symbolic head, needs to perform legal
or social routine duties – ceremony, status requests
Leader – responsible for the motivation and
activation of subordinates, staffing, training, all
managerial activities involving subordinates
Liaison – maintains network of outside contacts and
informers, external board work, other activities
involving outsiders
The manager’s ten roles
Informational:
Monitor - seeks and receives special info to develop full
understanding of org and environment, nerve centre of
internal and external info, handling all mail and contacts
(e.g. periodical news)
Disseminator - transmits info to members of the org,
interprets, integrates, forwarding mail into org, info flow
to, verbal contacts with subordinates
Spokesperson - transmits info to outsiders on org plans,
policies, actions (e.g. board meetings)
The manager’s ten roles
Decisional:
Enterpreneur – searches environment for opportunities,
initiates improvement projects to bring about change (e.g.
strategy and review sessions)
Disturbance Handler – responsible for corrective action
when org faces unexpected disturbances and crises
Resource Allocator – responsible for the allocation of all org
resources; scheduling, requests for authorisation,
approving, budgeting, programming subordinates work
Negotiator – representing the organisation at major
negotiations
Five elements of the managerial activity
(H. Fayol)
• Planning (from French prevoyance= to foresee,
including forecasting)-examining the future,
deciding what needs to be achieved and
developing a plan of action.
• Organising- providing the material and the
human resources and building the structure to
carry out the activities.
Five elements of the managerial activity
• Command- maintaining activity among
personnel, getting optimum return from
employees in the interest of the org.
• Coordination- unifying and harmonising
all activities.
• Control- verifying that everything is in
accordance with plans, instructions,
established principles and command.
Summary of the nature of managerial work
Five dimensions of the manager’s job (Torrington, Weightman)
The work of a manager - the environmental setting
Summary: Management
is a set of activities, including planning and
decision making, organizing, leading and
controlling, directed at an organization’s
human, financial, physical, and information
resources, with the aim of achieving
organizational goals in an efficient and
effective manner.
(R.Griffin)
Management as a Social Process
Brech identifies four main elements of management:
Planning- determining the broad lines for carrying out
operations, preparing methods by which they are
carried out and setting standards of performance.
Control- checking actual performance against
standards to ensure satisfactory progress.
Management as a Social Process
Co-ordination- balancing and maintaining the team
by ensuring a suitable division of work.
Motivation- or inspiring morale. Getting members
of the team to work effectively, to give loyalty to the
group and to the task.
This general inspiration is a process of supervision
or leadership.
Management thinking
Summary of Management theories