GENERAL MANAGEMENT For Science, Art, Management and Other Post Graduate Courses

375 Pages·2007·1.62 MB·English

Teachers Manual

GENERAL MANAGEMENT

For

Science, Art, Management and Other

\
Post Graduate Courses

For Department of Technical Education
Govt. of Uttarakhand

ALTERNATE HYDRO ENERGY CENTRE
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYR, ROORKEE

August 2007
1

Chapter 1

GENERAL
MANAGEMENT
2

GENERAL
MANAGEMENT

SCOPE OF THE COURSE

After reading chapter 1, you should be able to:

(cid:131) Understand the fundamental characteristics of
organization
(cid:131) List the responsibility of each type of managers
(cid:131) Understand the evolution of management
(cid:131) Outline all approaches of management
(cid:131) Explain the processes of management
(cid:131) Explain the functions of management
3

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Organization
Organization defined generally as “Two or more people who work together in a
structured way to achieve a specific goal or set of goals”. For instance, colleges or
universities, hotels and your neighborhood grocery stores are all an organizations. These
are all organizations because they all share three common characteristics namely distinct
purpose, systematic structure and people.

Distinct Systematic

purpose structure

People

Ref: Robbins and Coulter (2004)
Fig 1.1: Characteristics of Organizations
Any organization has a purpose to start business. This is typically expressed in terms of
goal or set of goals. Organization is totally composed of people like workers to top
managers. Fig 1.1 shows the characteristics of organizations. If people involved in the
4

organization, assigning responsibility and authority to people arise naturally. Who will
lead the team? And who shall report to the top management? systematic structure in
organization answers these questions. It involves creating rules and regulations,
identifying some members as leader and giving them authority over other workers.
The organization refers to an entity that has a distinct purpose includes people or
members and has a systematic structure. Organizations are broadly classified into two
namely formal and informal.
A formal organization is a stable set of a description of the organization structure and the
rules like policies, regulations and procedures that make up an organization.
The army and large corporations are structured very formally for an instance.
The informal organization is a concept in management practice that denotes the network,
unrelated to the firm’s formal authority structure. It is the aggregate of personal and
social relationships that arise spontaneously as people associate with one another
environment.
The informal organization can make the formal organization more effective by providing
support to management, stability to the environment and useful communication channels.
To begin with a simple example, this kind of relationship may exist entirely within a
given institution as when a board or council elite group may have an informal, private
existence, as well as its public, official, institutionalized existence. When the councilors
of corporation , for example, meets informally at the mayor’s home or gathers for a
dinner at the hotel, this organization becomes an informal organization. The relationship
between formal and informal becomes easier to understand while introducing an
influential figure, not member of the institutional group, who come in to the lunch,
dinner, or gathering of friends and play a part in policy making, the interrelationship
begins to be more complex. Here we can say that informal groups representing
combinations of formal.
5

1.2 Goal
Goal is generally mentioned as the purpose that an organization strives to achieve.
Organizations often have more than one goal and goals are fundamental elements of
organizations.
Organizations must also acquire and allocate the resources necessary to achieve their
goals. All organizations depend on other organizations for their need. A cricket team
cannot play without the required equipment.

1.3 Management
James Stonner et.al (2003) defined the management as
“The process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling the work of organization
members and of using all available resources to reach stated organizational goals”.
All organizations have people who are responsible for helping them to achieve their
goals. These people are called managers. Managers are responsible for directing the
efforts made by all in the organization aimed at helping organizations achieving goals.
All managers in all organizations have the same basic responsibility without considering
type of organization. Manager who manages work, leads people and achieves results
through their efforts.

1.4 Management is subject to time and human relationships
Management is dealing with matters of time and human relationships. The several
elements of time in organizations are:
• Keeping in mind the past and present, management attempts to forecast the future.
• Management produces consequences and effects over time.
The importance of human relationships also involves
• Managers keep the relationships in which each one is influenced by other.
• Managers try to deal all the activities simultaneously related others.

1.5 Managerial performance
6

How successfully an organization achieves its objectives and satisfies social
responsibilities?. This is depends on its managers. If managers do their jobs well an
organization will certainly achieve its objectives or goals. This is based on the managerial
performance. It is a measure of how efficient and effective a manager is. This is
discussed in detail in the next section. And also how well managers determine and
achieve appropriate objectives.The managerial performance is often confused with
organizational performance which is a measure of how efficient and effective an
organization is and how well organization acheives its objectives.

1.6 Efficiency and Effectiveness
Efficciency, the ability to do things right- is an input-output concept. An efficient
manager is one who acheives outputs that measure up to the inputs like labor, materials
and time used to achieve them.Effecient manager who is able to minimize the cost of the
resources needed to achieve goals.
Effectiveness involves choosing right goals. A manager is called as inefficient manager
when he/she selects an inappropriate goal. For an instance, if a manager produce large
cars while small cars are in demand.

1.7 Types of managers
Typically, there are three levels of management in organizations:
• Top-level
• Middle-level
• First-level
The above three levels of managers form a hierarchy, in which they are ranked in order of
importance. In most organizations, the number of managers at each level is such that the
hierarchy resembles a pyramid, with many more first-level managers, fewer middle
managers, and the fewest managers at the top level.
Each of these management levels is described below in terms of their possible job titles
and their primary responsibilities and the paths taken to hold these positions.
7

Additionally, there are differences across the management levels as to what types of
management tasks each does and the roles that they take in their jobs.

Fig 1.2: Types of Managers
1.7.1 Top-Level Managers
Top-level managers are also called as senior management or executives. These
individuals are at the top one or two levels in an organization. The functions of the top
managers are setting goals for the organization rather directing the day-to-day activities
of the firm and direct the company to achieve them. Ultimately they are responsible for
the overall performance of the organization so their decisions affect the whole firm.
In most organizations they have a great deal of managerial experience and they have
promoted through the ranks of management within the company. An exception to this is a
top manager who is also an entrepreneur; such an individual may start a small company
and manage it until it grows enough to support several levels of management.
Some top managers may be hired from other top management positions in other
companies. Conversely, they may be promoted from within and groomed for top
management with management development activities, coaching, and mentoring.
Succession planning is very helpful to identify high potential managers for top level.
8

The well known titles of such positions are Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial
Officer, Chief Operational Officer, Chairperson of the Board, President and Vice
president.

1.7.2 Middle-Level Managers
Middle-level managers are responsible for carrying out the goals set by top management.
They do so by setting goals for their departments and other business units. Middle
managers can motivate and assist first-line managers to achieve business objectives. They
may also communicate upward, by offering suggestions and feedback to top managers.
Because middle managers are more involved in the day-to-day workings of a company,
they may provide valuable information to top managers to help improve the
organization's bottom line. They include all levels of management between the
supervisory level and the top level of the organization.
Jobs in middle management vary widely in terms of responsibility and salary. Depending
on the size of the company and the number of middle-level managers in the firm, middle
managers may supervise only a small group of employees such as an entire business
location. Middle managers may be employees who were promoted from first-level
manager positions within the organization, or they may have been hired from outside the
firm.
The well known titles of such positions are General Manager, Plant manager, Regional
manager, and Divisional manager.

1.7.3 First-Level Managers
First-level managers are also called first-line managers or supervisors. These managers
have job titles such as: Office manager, Shift supervisor, Department manager, Store
manager. First-line managers are responsible for the daily management of line workers -
the employees who actually produce the product or offer the service. There are first-line
managers in every work unit in the organization. Although first-level managers typically
do not set goals for the organization, they have a very strong influence on the company.
9

These are the managers that most employees interact with on a daily basis and if the
managers perform poorly employees may also perform poorly may lack motivation.
In the past, most first-line managers were employees who were promoted from line
positions (such as production or clerical jobs). Rarely did these employees have formal
education beyond the high school level. However, many first-line managers are now a
three year bachelor's degree graduate. In Fig 1.2, last two levels indicate these managers.
They are many in number in an organization but authority given to them is less.

THE EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT

The management functions planning, organizing, leading and controlling activities have
existed for thousands of years. The evidence of such organized endeavors are the
Egyptian pyramids and the Great wall of china. More than 1,00,000 people involved in
the construction of a pyramid for twenty years. Who directed each one what to do? Who
ensured there would be enough stoned at the site to keep all workers busy? Management
is the answer to such questions. Fig 1.3 shows the development of most management
theories.

1.8 THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF MANAGEMENT
Social forces are the norms and values that characterize a culture. Early social forces
allowed workers to be treated poorly; however, more recent social forces have provided