NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Fig 1 . Nature of Management
  • Management is Goal-Oriented: The success of any management activity is retrieved by its achievement of the predetermined goals or objective. Management is a persistent activity and a tool which helps use of human & physical resources to fulfill the predetermined goals. For example, the goal of an enterprise is to maximize consumer satisfaction by producing quality goods at reasonable prices. This can be achieved by employing competent persons and making better use of scarce resources.
  • Management integrates Human, Physical and Financial Resources: In an organization, human beings work with non-human resources like machines, materials, financial assets, buildings etc. Management integrates human efforts to these resources. It brings harmony among the human, physical and financial resources.
  • Management is a Continuous activity: Management is an ongoing process which involves continuous handling of problems and issues. It is concerned with identifying the problem and taking appropriate steps to solve it. For attaining this target various policies have to be framed but this is not the end. Marketing and advertising is also done. For this policies have to be framed again. Hence, this is an ongoing process.
  • Management is Universal: Management is required in all types of organizations whether it is political, social, cultural or business because it helps and directs various efforts towards a definite purpose. Thus clubs, hospitals, political parties, colleges, hospitals, business firms all require management. Whenever more than one person is involved in working for a common goal, management is necessary. Whether it is a small business firm which may be engaged in trading or a large firm like Tata Iron & Steel, Infosys etc. management is required everywhere irrespective of size or type of activity.
  • Management is a Group Activity: Management is very much less concerned with individual’s efforts. It is more concerned with groups. It involves the use of group effort to achieve predetermined goals of management of ABC & Co. is good refers to a group of persons managing the enterprise.
  • Organized Activities: Management is a process of organized activities. Groups of people cannot be involved in the performance of activities without organized activities. Management comes into existence where a group of people are involved in achieving a common objective. The organized activities may take a variety of forms ranging from a tightly structured organization to a loosely-knit organization.
  • Existence of Objectives: The existence of objectives is a basic criterion of every human organization. The organizational objectives are the desired state of affairs which an organization attempts to realize. This realization of objectives is pursued through the coordinated efforts of the people constituting an organization.
  • Decision-making: Management process involves decision making at all levels. Decision-making describes the process by which a course of action is selected as the way to deal with a specific problem. If there is only one alternative, the question of decision making does not arise. The quality of alternatives which a manger selects determines the organization’s performance, and the future of an organization.
  • Relationship among resources: The essence of management is integration of various organizational resources. Resources include money, machine, materials, and people. Management is concerned with the proper utilization of human resources which, in turn, utilize other resources.  
  • Working with and through people: Management involves working with people and getting organizational objectives achieved through them. Working through people is interpreted in terms of assigning activities to subordinates.
  • Multidisciplinary: Management is multidisciplinary as it includes knowledge and information from various disciplines such as economics, statistics, mathematics, psychology, sociology, ecology, operations research, history, etc. Management incorporates the ideas and concepts taken from these disciplines and presents newer concepts which can be put into practice for managing the organizations.
  • Management is dynamic: Management has framed certain principles, which are flexible in nature and change with the changes in the environment in which an organization exits.
  • Relative, Not Absolute Principles: Management principles are relative, not absolute, and they should be applied according to the need of the organization. A particular management principle has different strengths in different conditions. Therefore, principles should be applied according to the prevailing conditions.
  • Management is Science as well as an Art: Management likes other practices- whether medicine, music composition, or even accountancy- is an art. It is know-how. Yet managers can work better by using the organized knowledge about management. It is this knowledge that constitutes science. Thus, managing as practice is an art; the organized knowledge underlying the practice may be referred to as science.
  • Management as Profession: Management has been considered as a profession by many while many have suggested that it has not achieved the status of a profession. Schein concluded that by some criteria management is indeed a profession, but by other criteria it is not. Today we can see many signs that management is working towards increased professionalism.

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