ALKAN College

Program: BA
Course: Introduction to
Management
Credit Hour: 4
Instructor: Abiot M.(MBA)
Welcome!
 CHAPTER ONE
MANAGEMENT AN OVERVIEW

1.1. Definition of Management and managers

 Management is the process of coordinating all resources
through the five major functions of planning, organizing,
staffing, directing/leading and controlling to achieve
organizational goals/desired objectives.
 Management is the art of getting things done through other
people by making the atmosphere conducive for others.
 It is the process of getting things done through others, and
their process puts emphasis on both the objectives to be
attained and the people who will be pursuing them.
 Managers: are the people who plan, organize, lead, and
control the activities of the organization so that its goals can
be achieved.
Management is the art of getting things done
through and with people in a formally organized
group.
According to F.W. Taylor, "Management is the art
of knowing what you want to do in the best and
cheapest way."
Management is the process of planning,
organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. The
uses of a farm’s resources to effectively and
economically attain its objectives.
Management is the process of working with and
thought others to effectively achieve the
organization in a changing environment.
 According to Henery Fayol, "To manage is to forecast
and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate, and
to control.”
 According to H. Koontz and his co-author, "Management
is the process of designing and maintaining an
environment in which individuals are working together
in-group to accomplish efficiently selected aims."
 According to Kinard, "Management is the process of
maximizing the potential of an organization's people and
coordinating their efforts to attain predetermined goals.”
 George R Terry who defines management as “a process
consisting of planning, organizing, actuating and
controlling performed to determine and accomplish the
objectives by the use of people and resources”.
 1.2 Nature of Management

The critical analysis of the above definitions, the following

characteristics of management involves.
 Management is a continuous process: The process of
management consists of planning, organizing, directing and
controlling the resources to ensure that resources are used to the
best advantages of the organization
 Management is an art as well as science: Management is an art in
the sense of processing managing skill by a person.
 Management is science because certain principles, laws are
developed which are applicable in place where group activities are
coordinated.
 Management aims at achieving predetermined objectives:
 All organizations have objectives that are laid down.
 Every managerial activity results in achievement of these
predetermined objectives.
 Cont…
 Management aims at achieving predetermined
objectives: All organizations have objectives that are laid
down.
 Every managerial activity results in achievement of these
predetermined objectives.
 Management is a factor of production: An enterprise
produce goods or services using resources like land,
labor, capital, machines etc.
 Management is decision-making: Decision-making is
selecting the best among alternative courses.
 Decision-making is an important function of a manager.
 Universal application: The principles and concepts of
management are applicable to every type of industry.
 Cont ….

 Management is needed at all levels: The functions of

management are common to all levels of organization.
 Management aims at maximum profit: The resources are
properly utilized to maximize profit.
 Maximizing the profit is the economic function of a
manager.
 Management as a career: Today management is
developed as a career focused on specialization.
 Marketing management, finance management, personal
management, industrial management, production
management, quality management is some of the
specializations in management.
 Specialists are appointed at various positions of the
organizational hierarchy. Hence management is career.
 Cont ….

Management is a profession: Management is a

profession because it possesses the qualities of a
profession.
 The knowledge is imported and transferred.
 The established principles of management are
applied in practice.
Management is a discipline: Discipline refers to
the field of study having well defined concepts
and principles.
 Classifying management as disciplines implies
that it is an accumulated body of knowledge that
can be learnt.
 1.3 NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

 Multidisciplinary: Management is multidisciplinary.

 It draws freely ideas and concepts from the disciplines like
economics, sociology, psychology, statistics, operations research
etc
 Dynamic nature of principles: A principle is truth which
establishes cause and effect relationships of a function.
 Relative not absolute principles: Management principles are
relative and not absolute.
 Management– science or art: There is controversy whether
management is science or art.
 Universality of management: Management is universal
phenomena.
 Though universal(worldwide) yet management principles are not
universally applicable but are to be modified according to the
needs of the situation.
 1.4 Functions of Management

 Regardless of the type of firm and the organizational level, all

managers perform certain basic functions.
 PLANNING is making decisions today about future actions.
 It involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to achieve
them; it requires decision making. That is, choosing future courses of
action from among alternatives.
 ORGANIZING: involves dividing work into convenient tasks or duties,
grouping of such duties in the form of positions, grouping of various
positions into departments and sections, assigning duties to individual
positions and delegating authority to each position so that the work is
carried out as planned.
 It focuses on allocating and arranging human and non-human resources so
that plans can be carried out successfully.
 is the process of identifying and grouping tasks to be performed, assigning
responsibilities and delegating authority and establishing relationships for
the purpose of enabling workers to work most effectively together in the
accomplishments of objectives.
 Cont….

 STAFFING: involves filling and keeping filled the positions in the organization
structure.
 It is concerned with locating prospective employees to fill the jobs created
by the organizing process.
 It is the managerial function of recruitment, selection, training,
development, promotion and compensation of personnel.
 DIRECTING/LEADING: is motivating, influencing, guiding, stimulating,
actuating or directing.
 It is aimed at getting the members of an organization move in the direction
that will achieve its objectives.
 It is influencing people so that they will contribute to organization and group
goals; it has to do predominantly with the human/interpersonal aspect of
management.
 CONTROLLING: is the measuring and correcting of activities of subordinates
to ensure that events conform to plans.
 It deals with establishing standards, measuring performances against
established standards and dealing with deviations from established
standards.
 Type of managers Based on Hierarchy

1. Top-Level Manager
 Top level management includes that of board of directs executive
committee, and chief executive, or president, or general manger,
etc. of an organization.
Function of top managements includes
 Establishing broad objectives
 Designing major strategies
 Outlining principle policies
 Providing leadership and direction
 Providing effective organizational structure that insures integration,
 Making overall control of the organization
 Dealing with external parties such as the government, community,
business etc,
 2. Middle –Level Manager
 These managers include heads of the different functional area
and their assistants: divisional heads, departmental mangers,
section heads, plants mangers, branch, managers etc.
 Manages in this level are specialists and their activities are
limited to a particular area of operation or to a section or
department.
 They balance the demand of top managers and the capacity
of lower level managers.
 The major functions of middle level managers are:
 Acting as intermediary between top and operating level management.
 Translating long- term plans of top level managers in to medium range
plans.
 Developing specific targets in their areas of responsibility.
 Develop specific schedules to guide actions of operating level
management.
 3. First line mangers (Lower-Level managers)

 These managers are responsible for the work of operation employees and
do not supervise other managers.
 First level management is often called "supervisory management". They
are mainly concerned with:
 Planning of day to day work.
 Assignment of jobs.
 Keeping a watch on workers’ performance.
 Sending reports and statements to superiors
 Maintaining close contacts with workers and evaluation of their work.

Figure 1: Levels of Managers

 Based on the Scope of Responsibility

 Managers are also classified based on the scope of the activities

they manage into functional and general managers.
1. General Managers
 General Managers are responsible for the overall operation of a
more complex unit, such as a company or a division.
 General Managers hold functional managements accountable for
their specialized area as and usually coordinate two or more
departments.
 In their jobs, general managers have to deal with major
uncertainties, great diversity, and a larger volume of information.
 General Managers, oversee a complex unit, such as a company, a
subsidiary, or an independent operating division.
 He/she is responsible for all the activities of that unit, such as its
production, marketing, sales, and finance
2. Functional Managers
Functional managers supervise with
specialized skills in a single area of operation,
such as accounting, personnel, finance,
marketing and production.
All these functions are necessary for the
success of the organization.
The people and activities headed by a
functional manager are engaged in a common
set of activities.
 1.6 Managerial Roles and Skills

Managerial Roles
 The term management role refers to specific categories of managerial
behavior.
1. Interpersonal Roles:
a. Figurehead – represents organization and its authority
b. Leader – has power to make things happen
c. Liaison – makes contacts with peers and other managers
2. Informational Roles:Gathers and processes information
d. Monitor – scan environment for relevant cues
e. Disseminator – passes selected information to those who need to know
f. Spokesperson – informs outsiders
3. Decisional Roles:
g. Entrepreneur – searches for new idea to implement, keeps mental track of their
progress
h. Disturbance handler – tries to keep conflicts in balance and arbitrates conflict
i. Resource allocator – decides who gets what (resources and power); personal basis
of decision-making
j. The Negotiator Role: representing the organization in all important/major
negotiations.
 There are three types of roles which a manager usually does in any
organization.
1. Interpersonal roles
 It refers activities that involve interacting with others who may be external
or internal to the organization and at a higher or lower level than the
manager.
 This includes:
A. Figurehead-describes the formal activities in which the manager acts as a
public official for the company.
 The manager represents the organization at the ceremonial and symbolic
functions.
 It is the most basic and the simplest of all managerial roles.
Example If
 The president who greats a touring dignitary, the mayor who presents a key
to the city to a local hero, the supervisor who attends the wedding of the
clerk, the sales manager who takes an important customer to lunch, all are
performing ceremonial duties important to the organization’s image and
success.
 They symbolize management’s concern for employees’ customers and the
community.
B. Leadership- involves responsibility for directing and co-
coordinating the activities of subordinates in order to accomplish
objectives.
 Some aspects of the leadership role have to do with staffing,
hiring & promoting.
 Other aspects involve motivating subordinates to meet the
organization’s needs.
 Still other aspects relate to creating a vision that company
employees can identify with.
C. Liaison role- The manager interacts with peers outside of the
organization such as clients, government officials, customers, and
suppliers.
 It also refers to dealing with managers in other departments,
staff specialists, and other departments’ employees.
 In the liaison role, the manger seeks support from people who
can affect the department’s and the organization’s success.
 This role is therefore, composed of a network of relationships.
2. Informational Roles
 Managers should first build networks of contracts for exchanging
information.
 Many contracts made while performing figureheads and liaison
roles five mangers access to a great deal of important information.
 informational roles are activities that focus on obtaining and
disseminating data important for the decisions the manger needs to
make.
 This role includes:
A. Monitor (Nerve center) - A manager seeks information to detect
problems of opportunities, build general knowledge about the
work situation, and make necessary changes.
 While much of this information comes from formal mechanisms
such as reports, news media, and public forecasts, more comes
from informal conversations with both organizational members and
those external to the organization, since managers gather
information, they must evaluate and decide whether to use this
information.
B. Disseminator- the manager sends information
from external sources to various parts of the work
group and information from internal sources to
others both internal and external to the
organization.
C. Spokesperson role – the management provides
information about the work group to those outside
the group.
 The manager will provide information to public,
which includes customer, suppliers, trade
organizations, government agencies, consumer
groups, and the press, Managers used information
make decisions about when and how t o commit
heir organization to new objectives and actions.
3. Decisional Roles

 These are activities that deal primary with the allocation

of resources in order to reach organizational objectives.
 Decisional roles are perhaps the most important of the
three categories of roles.
A. Entrepreneurial Roles: - the management acts as the
initiator and designer or changes within the work group
to improve organization position.
 These changes may be in employee skills, work redesign,
information reports, and goods or services provided.
 Managers play this role when they initiate new projects,
launce a survey, test a new marker or enter a new
business.
B. Disturbance handler: - deals with change forced on the manager
by other factors.
 The management acts because it is –necessity a disturbance
occurs and a solution must be found.
 There are three types of disturbances; conflicts among individual’s
international difficulties between one unit and another, and
conflicts over resource losses, breaking of contracts by customers,
strikes by labor and bankruptcy of major suppliers.
C. Resource allocator: - Which both protects and uses the unit’s
assets: money, time, material and equipment, human resources,
data reputation.
D. Negotiator: focuses on reaching an agreement with other outside
of the workgroup on work related issues or materials, such signing
labor union contracts and leasing agreements concerning machinery
and vehicles.
 This role includes agreements with other units within the
organization.
 Managerial Skills

 Managerial skills can be classified in to three

distinct categories; technical,
interpersonal/human relation, and conceptual
skills.
1. Conceptual Skills – Cognitive ability to see the
organization as a whole and the relationships
among its parts
2. Human Skills – ability to work with and through
other people and to work effectively as a group
member
3. Technical Skills – understanding of and
proficiency in the performance of specific tasks.
Technical Skills
Involve the ability to apply specific methods,
procedures, and techniques in a specialized field.
It is easy to visualize the technical skills of design
engineers, market researches, accountants,
musicians, and computer programmer.
If the manager lacks these skills, he will not be able
to make correct decisions or answer employee’s
questions about the job tasks.
This skill is highly important to first line managers.
Human Skill (Interpersonal Skill)
The ability to work with employee peers; to
motivate subordinate, to understand other and to
be understood by others.
This skill also includes effective oral and written
communication, ability to resolve compliers,
development of cooperation and motivating
employee.
The manager should be able to resent clearly his
viewpoints, extracting information from the others,
and arriving at mutually acceptable agreement.
This skill is equally important to managers at all
levels.
Conceptual Skill
 It involves the ability to view the organization as a whole and
recognize its relationships to the large environment.
 conceptual skill involves visualizing the different parts of an
organization as one big whole and or understands the wholes
interaction with its relevant environment.
 More specifically,
 How the organization’s various and functional depend on each
other and thus, how changes in one area can affect other areas.
 How each part contributes to the achievement of the overall
organizational goal?
 Managers with conceptual skill understand all activities, and
interests of the organization and how they interrelate.
 This skill is highly important to top-level managers.
 The relationship between managerial levels and managerial skills
are given in the diagram below.
Figure 2: Skills Needed at Different Management Levels
 Is Management Science, Art or both?
 There is great controversy whether management is science or art.
A) Management as science
 Science is a systematized body of knowledge. We call a discipline scientific
if its
 Methods of inquiry are systematic and empirical.
 Information can be ordered and analyzed; and
 Results are cumulative and communicable
B) Management as an Art
 Management is the art of getting things done through others in dynamic
situations.
 Management uses both scientific knowledge and art in managing an
organization.
Science Art
Advances by knowledge Advances by policies
Process Feels
Predicts and defines Guesses and describes
Measures and impresses Opines and Expresses
Management: A Profession

 According to McFarland, “Profession” possesses the following

characteristics:
– Existence of an organized knowledge.
– Formalized method of acquiring training and expertise.
– Existence of professional association.
– Existence of an ethical code to regulate the behavior.
– Charging of fees based on service with due regard to social interest.
Management and Administration
 The term administration and management are used synonymously.
 Some writers urge that running of a business requires skills, which is
known as management and functioning of government departments
and non-profit institutions requiring skill is known as administration.
 Various views expressed by thinkers of management led to the
emergence of three approaches:
 Administration is above management.
 Administration is a part of management.
 Management and administration are same.
 Basis of difference Administration Management

Level of organization Top Level Middle and Lower Level

Major focus Policies formulation & objective Policies execution for objectives
determination achievements

Nature of function Determinative Executive

Scope of functions Broad & Conceptual Narrow & Operational

Factors affecting decision Mostly external Mostly internal

Employer – Employee relation Entrepreneurs & Owners Employee

Qualities required Administrative Technical

Table: Differences between administration and management

 Universality of Management

 Universality of management is the applicability of the

principles of management in all types of organization and in
all the different countries of the world.
I. Argument against
A. The persons arguing against the concept of universality of
management say that management is culture bound.
 Culture means the attitudes, values, and beliefs of a society.
 The cultures of different societies are different and also the
organizational cultures of the various organizations are not similar.
 When there is this difference in cultures the principles or
techniques of management will not have the same result, hence,
management is not universal.
 For example, in a country with strong tradition, religion and
culture, introduction of modern management methods become
difficult.
B. Objectives of different organizations will be different and
these objectives dictate the kind of managerial practices
followed in these organizations.
Thus we cannot call management as universal.
Ex. The objectives of the Red Cross and Bahir Dar textile factory
are different and the techniques of management followed in
these organizations are also different.
C. Philosophy is the attitude towards certain activity or the way
one looks at life.
 Differences in the management philosophies have a profound
impact on the managerial practices of the organization.
 If the philosophy of the top management is to make as much
profit as possible, then the managerial practices of the
organization will be different from the organization whose
philosophy is service to the society.
II) Arguments for
 Researchers had conducted various studies carried out in
different organization and in different countries to formulate
these arguments, which support the concept of universality of
management.
A)Management as a process or the various elements of
management like planning, organizing staffing, directing and
controlling are common for all organizations, throughout the
world.
B) Management Fundamentals and Techniques /Practices may
differ from organization to organization and from country to
country but the fundamental concept of management is the
same throughout.
 Universality means that fundamentals are the same through
our the world, but the techniques to achieve/fulfill this
fundamental may be different
Thank you