Concept of Management
Features
1. Organized activities
Management is a process of organized activities. Where a group of people are involved in working towards a common objective, management comes into existence. Therefore, where a single individual pursues his personal objectives, management has no operational meaning. However, when an attempt is made to channel the individual’s quest for personal objectives along the lines that contribute to the overall objectives of the group, management becomes the means by which the random action is controlled.
2. Working with and through people
A manager makes the people in an organization work. He himself doesn’t perform the actual work, but he is responsible for leading, motivating, directing and controlling the efforts of people to get the desired results. Hence, management is essentially a human activity in which a person (manager) manages people (employees).
3. Existence of objectives
An objective or set of objectives should exist towards which the organized group activities are directed. Without objectives, it becomes difficult to define the direction where organized group activities would lead to. The existence of objectives is a basic criterion of every human organization on because all organizations are deliberated and purposive creation and therefore, they should have some objectives.
4. Management is a process
A process consists of a series of interrelated activities or steps to be followed in a sequence, and it always restarts with the first step. Management as a process includes five steps or functions – planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. Thus, the management process starts with planning and ends with controlling.
5. Relationship among resources
Organized activities meant to achieve common goals are brought about to establish certain relationships among available resources. Resources include money, machine, materials and people. All these resources are made available to those who manage, they apply knowledge, experience, principles for getting the desired results. Thus, the essence of management is integration of various organizational resources.
6. Decision making
Management process involves decision making at various levels for getting things done by others. Decision making basically involves selecting the most appropriate alternative out of the several. If there is only one alternative, the question of decision making does not arise.