Management is referred to as the science of using people and resources to achieve goals. Sometimes managers are involved in supervision and, therefore, management can further be interpreted as making sure people do their duties as assigned to them. This means that managers are mandated to ensure that productivity is realized in an organization. An operational approach is an approach that is borrowed from Bridgman’s work; this approach attempts to bring together the knowledge of management that is related to functions of management. The operational approach brings together management concepts, principles and techniques in the management practice. According to Koontz and Weihrich, management involves designing and maintaining a working environment where individuals or people working in groups achieve their objectives efficiently. This means that management cannot be successful without a strategic plan, proper coordination of activities and direction, as well as a reasonable control of decision-making processes; therefore, managers should be Continue reading
Management Principles
Why Bureaucracy is No Longer Relevant in Today’s Business Environment
In the competitive business environment of the 21st century, managers must concentrate and focus all their efforts on ensuring their organizations retain a competitive advantage in the market. Failure to adhere to this basic principle means failure for the organization. As such, many conscientious and assiduous managers are dumping traditional approaches of running organizations in favor of more conventional approaches that guarantee the concentration of synergies and addition of value in all organizational endeavors. One traditional management approach that is fast fading into oblivion is bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is an organizational structure with inflexible hierarchy of officeholders, regulated by impersonal uniform rules, protocols, and procedures. In most occasions, all the personnel within the organization have well defined positions and titles. he rules and procedures specify the type of duties that each worker must perform, and organizational functions are structured into set offices, which are holistically organized into a vertical hierarchy that Continue reading
Staffing Function of Management
Staffing function of management consists of manpower planning, recruitment, selection, training, compensation, promotion & maintenance of managerial personnel. “The managerial function of staffing involves manning the organizational structure through proper & effective selection, appraisal & development of personnel to fill the roles designed into the structure”: – Koontz and O’Donnell Need and Importance of Staffing How can the enterprise objectives be achieved if competent persons are not appointed in the organisation? What would be the fate of an organisation that is indifferent to the training requirements of its personnel? How will the managers and operators feel if they are not duly compensated for their sacrifices for the organisation? Will the morals of the people not come down, if nobody in the organisation looks after their welfare? The answers to these questions reveal the need and importance of staffing. The need and importance of staffing function of management can be assessed Continue reading
The Role of Leadership in Shaping Organizational Culture
Leadership is realized in the process whereby one or more individuals succeeds in attempting to frame and define the reality of others. Many around the world who call themselves leaders are in fact only managers, to be a leader you must have a clear vision and a goal to achieve your desired outcome. Leaders help themselves and others to make the correct choices. They set direction, build an inspiring vision, and create something that’s never been created before. Leadership is about planning out where you need to go to succeed as a team or an organization; and it is strong, exhilarating, and motivating. Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management skills to guide their people to the right destination, in a smooth and efficient way without any bumps in the road. This article will discuss the three key types of leadership styles; transactional, transformational and conscious. Continue reading
The Cultural Web – Johnson and Scholes’s Model of Organizational Culture
Organizational culture can be simply identified as the own unique personality that the respective organization practices. The group of people who works for the organization shares a system of Assumptions, Beliefs, and Values which governs them both individually and with the organizational needs. The cultural web model developed by Johnson and Scholes in 1993 is an important one, in which six dimensions of the organization culture are defined. The corporate culture consists of six major components, as structure, power structure, symbols, stories, rituals and control systems. They provide clear guidelines for the employees, about how things are performed within the organizational context; providing influences for the better change management. Cultural elements can be organized in the company to achieve productivity is described accordingly. Structure – Mainly refers to the structure of the company, in terms of the management layers and supervisory control. Modern organizations is thereby advised in adjusting to more flat type organization, Continue reading
Team Development Life Cycle
When a number of individuals begin to work at interdependent jobs, they often pass through several stages as they learn to work together as a team. The stages of team development life cycle are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. This model of team development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who maintained that these phases are all necessary and inevitable and allow team growth. Though these are not followed rigidly, they do represent a broad pattern that may be observed and predicted in many settings across team’s time together. These stages are the result of a variety of questions and issues that team members face such as “who will be members of the team?” “Who will perform what functions?” “Who will contribute what?” “What rules will be followed?” “How can conflicts among members be resolved?” and so on. These typical stages of team development life cycle are Continue reading