Management is a complex activity that has three main dimensions. These are:
(a) Management of work: All organisations exist for the performance of some work. In a factory, a product is manufactured, in a garment store a customer’s need is satisfied and in a hospital a patient is treated. Management translates this work in terms of goals to be achieved and assigns the means to achieve it. This is done in terms of problems to be solved, decisions to be made, plans to be established, budgets to be prepared, responsibilities to be assigned and authority to be delegated.
(b) Management of people: : Human resources or people are an organisation’s greatest asset. Despite all developments in technology “getting work done through people” is still a major task for the manager. Managing people has two dimensions (i) it implies dealing with employees as individuals with diverse needs and behavior; (ii) it also means dealing with individuals as a group of people. The task of management is to make people work towards achieving the organisation’s goals, by making their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.
(c) Management of operations: No matter what the organisation, it has some basic product or service to provide in order to survive. This requires a production process which entails the flow of input material and the technology for transforming this input into the desired output for consumption. This is interlinked with both the management of work and the management of people. |
